Destiny with amplifications

by David B Severy on Sunday, October 21, 2012 at 7:41am ·

Just as God sent Israel into Canaan led by Joshua, so he sends the church into the world today! The difference? The battle strategy is now made Love; the Tactic now prayer and the Weapons now spiritual and mighty through God.

He sent Israel into Canaan at the first, so now He sends them in again this last time. He sent them in with Joshua, a few in number, a stiffnecked and unrighteous nation, yet a people belonging to Him.  So he sends them today, not yet born again (made righteous), still small stubborn and yet a people belonging to the patriarchs to whom He promised the land forever!

Some people believe the great cloud of witnesses (martyrs) of Hebrews 12 to be the church in heaven looking out over the church on earth. It makes a lot of sense to me! I can imagine my grandmother and my aunt there, rooting for me as I run and fight here in the world. I think anyone who has saved relatives who have died would agree. So can we see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the Jewish patriarchs and matriarchs, Samuel, Esther, as even Ruth and Rahab, there in the galleries of heaven rooting for their kin here in the world today? And can we see Jesus, Son of God and the brother of the Jews rooting and praying for them? I think it is impossible to see the Jews today as abandoned at all. Blinded in part is as much as the scriptures declare them to be. And so I believe that it is essential, and perhaps even a test of gentile loyalty to choose to love, to bless and to minister to the chosen people. Isn’t what God has done after Jesus came and went simply to level the playing field? It may be even more than that, for He seems to have given the gentiles an advantage for almost 2000 years!

And for that advantage gentile pride says the Jews are no and forever excluded from the continuance of their Jewish family, and the promises God made to their fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are voided. A very careful reading of Romans 9-11 is necessary. In these Chapters Israel refers to Jewish Israel.

Romans 11 (ESV)

11 So I’m asking you: They haven’t stumbled so that they’ve fallen permanently, have they? Absolutely not! But salvation has come to the Gentiles by their failure, in order to make Israel jealous. 12 But if their failure brings riches to the world, and their defeat brings riches to the Gentiles, how much more will come from the completion of their number! 13 I’m speaking to you Gentiles. Considering that I’m an apostle to the Gentiles, I publicize my own ministry 14 in the hope that somehow I might make my own people jealous and save some of them. 15 If their rejection has brought about a close relationship between God and the world, how can their acceptance mean anything less than life from the dead?

But how can we say He has excluded Jewish people? The eleven and Matthias were Jews. All those in the upper room were Jews!  We know of no gentile to be saved at Pentecost, and Jesus sent Peter first and then Paul to minister reconciliation to gentiles. For much of the 1st and 2nd centuries the church was Jewish. Culturally and religiously! Yet the history of what happened to the thriving Jewish church is largely untaught today.

Regardless of the past, TODAY we have an opportunity given by God to observe, the be taught by Messianic Jewish teachers and to minister to the Jewish people. As small as they are (no more than 17,000,000 in the earth) and smaller yet the Messianic Jewish community (250,000 some say worldwide and perhaps 15-20 thousand in Israel) as few as they are for this man it is impossible for me to see how God is not in the midst of all that pertains to Israel, saved and unsaved.

To say that even one Jew can be saved by trusting Jesus is to say that any and all of them can be saved by Him. To say even one Jew is excluded and replaced by the gentiles is to exclude them all. It is not for us to determine who is saved and who is not saved between Jew and gentiles. It is our calling to love them, even and especially for their unique role in History, and to declare to them the soul saving Gospel of Adonai Yeshua Hamashiach; The Lord Jesus Christ. I think by the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus we can do no less for them or anyone at all.

The Jew today and Israel the Land today are to me a key ingredient to our understanding of world events, and of God;s Eternal Plan and Kingdom. God has wrought the Jews, chosen them, chosen them now a second time and if my reading of prophesy is correct they are the first and the last! The were chosen by God at the first and became refuse in the eyes of the gentiles, even the gentile “church!” They were the first made last! To the point 6,000,000 (1/3) of them being slaughtered in the holocaust! And they and we who love them say “never again.” And now these last ones will be made first again in the Plan of God! They will rise into prominence from last place to first! All Israel will be saved! And sensible gentiles will love God’s doing this and love them and cheer them on!

The purposes of God in Joshua's day are essentially unchanged. He is judging the world and getting ready to purge from His Kingdom people all those who will not receive the only and ironically “final solution,” Jesus the Lamb for sinners slain from the foundation of the world!

The Land of Israel is the foreshadow of the New Jerusalem and the New heavens and earth. The Promise to Abraham is a foreshadow of the promise made to promise made to we who have received the righteousness of Christ in faith, who are now redeemed, justified, and being sanctified in this Spiritual and material Kingdom, and prepared for everlasting service (ministry) in the Everlasting Spiritual and Glorified Material Kingdom of God coming! 

In complete, full, mature, (pleroma perfect) faith we are now in the Heavenly Spiritual Canaan doing battle in the Spirit against the unseen angelic hosts of Satan!!! We have more than conquered them and satan through Jesus who loves us!

Because Jesus made a forever covenant with Abraham, this earth’s Land of Israel will be theirs forever as long as time lasts. It should have been theirs at every moment without their ever having been exiled, but they were unfaithful. God knew this and in His Plan from before Creation provided for redemption, salvation and sanctification covenantally, dispensational and eternally in Jesus our Savior! Step out from the trees and behold the forest!

We study it out like engineers, like scientists, even political scientists, and “theologically,” but God planned it all and executes it all from outside of time. Yet He did come into to time to lay that prophetically much heralded, final and so Personal “New” foundation of salvation (Jesus means salvation). To us it seems like it came in the middle of everything, in the middle of this huge and very imperfect mess, but God, who is living forever in timeless glory and flawless perfection, had planned it before He spoke those wonderful words “Let there be...”

I believe with all my heart that we must honor, esteem and highly value all the History of God (FOUND IN THE BIBLE), all the people of faith, and that includes the Jews, who though they so often strayed from the Way set before them have never been abandoned by their God. Faith is given in measure to every man and all have sinned, and certainly no less to any Jew, who all have sinned. The question remains for Jews, will they properly receive that faith not only from God, but from His Son by His Name? Will they  say “blessed is he who comes in the Name of the Lord” knowing the Name of the Lord IS Yeshua? God has not changed and they are still called and the gifts of God’s promises to them hinge only on a turning to their Messiah.

Romans 11 (KJV) 29 For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.

30 For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:

31 Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.

32 For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.

God would elect ALL mankind, and by Jesus blood covenant ALL could run for that office. And there is an office for ALL who believe in God’s Kingdom it is the office of SAINT!

Be NOMinated in the NOM of Jesus. Run the race and fight the good fight of and in the faith (the confidence and in the fellowship) in Jesus. Be faithful and you will be elected!

Having been nominated (called) I will run and being elected I will serve!

For me, a gentile, once excluded by God’s decree from Israel in the flesh, and from Israel of the promise, from Israel of God(!) I can only bow to our God who will save in Christ those whom He did now bring back again for the last time, IN the last time: the JEWS.  God invested 2000 years in the people of Abraham and Isaac and I believe every generation of Isaac had it’s faithful ones. Even when Moses, Joshua and Caleb were the only ones of them all! God has graciously grafted us into the tree He cultivated in the soil of the law. (Not into the law itself)  Yet even today the law has a “medicinal” effect on we who study it as it reveals through a glass darkly the character and holiness of God. Those Jews who follow the law today still receive in part the blessings which come from notstealing, not committing adultery, and from honoring mother and father, and all the rest. They have invested something too, all the way from Abraham  the man of faith to todays Jews still blinded in part until the fullness of the gentiles is accomplished! To God we owe a debt we cannot pay. To the Jews we owe a debt of love, for God sent them into the land of Canaan and into the world as neighbors to us gentiles, even if they are now enemies of the Gospel for our sake, to our advantage, that we be saved into the cultivated tree, the vine which IS Jesus. 

John 15

1 I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.

2 Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.

3 Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.

4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.

5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. Jesus spoke these words to eleven Jewish men. He is the vine, they are the branches and we are grafted into this vine that the Father has been husbanding since Abraham. 

John 4 21 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.

22 Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.

Most gentiles, even churched gentiles today do not know much at all about whom they worship! If it is true that Jews refused Jesus, how much is it so that gentiles refuse YHWH? If the Jews, to whom God revealed Himself to through miracle in Egypt, the wilderness, by Elijah and Elisha and finally Jesus AND His followers, If the Jews refused that, will gentiles refusing that know God any better? 

It seems to me that many gentile Christians today embrace the Gospel that justifies them but exclude the Gospel that humbles them. But there is only ONE Gospel. 

Romans 13

8 Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.

9 For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

10 Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

Jesus shed abroad Divine, power filled Love from His Heart to all humankind, are we not to do the same? WE ARE NOW SAVED! In His Holy Spirit, God’s Divine Love lives in us to be shed abroad through us to all men, to our families, to the church of Christ, to our neighbors and to our enemies! Since we are saved by the precious forever powerful blood of Jesus, we need not fear the consequences of sharing the love of God in Jesus to any man.

God hears prayer, and God answers prayer. This is TRUE. We are foolish indeed not to pray. Paul prayed:

“Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.” AMEN!

Paul prayed: Let all God’s children say AMEN!

“Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.” AMEN!

Paul prayed: Let all God’s children say AMEN!

“And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment; That ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ. Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.” AMEN!

Paul prayed: Let all God’s children say AMEN!

“For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness; Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.” AMEN!

Paul prayed: Let all God’s children say AMEN!

My prayer is that men KNOW God, that they KNOW Him as their Father, as His Son their Savior and as God’s Holy Breath, that Holy Spirit who is also God and the Person of God’s Power in the earth today! AMEN! I’m not Paul, but I believe the same God Paul believed, and I declare His name: Yeshua, Iesous, Jesus ! In Hebrew, Greek or English the Son of the Living God, our High Priest in heaven, our Savior from sin, death, hell and the second death... Jesus is Lord, He is the Lord of all.

Jeremiah 9

23 Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches:

24 But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord.

1 Peter 4:17 For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? 18 And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? 19 Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator.

Romans 10:16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report?

Acts 16:31 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.

Acts 4:12 Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

2 Thessalonians 1

Paul, and Silvanus, and Timotheus, unto the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet, because that your faith groweth exceedingly, and the charity of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth; So that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure: Which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer: Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you; And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power; When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day.

Wherefore also we pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power: That the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and ye in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Philippians 1

Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. 

I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, Always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy, For your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now; Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:  Even as it is meet for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart; inasmuch as both in my bonds, and in the defence and confirmation of the gospel, ye all are partakers of my grace.

For God is my record, how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ.

And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment; That ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ.

Homeward Bound

by David B Severy on Friday, October 26, 2012 at 9:53am ·

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If our heart was a land, a nation, it would be named Canaan. It would have tribes of pagan idolaters living in it. It would be celebrating false Gods and indulging in orgies of imaginations, lofty opinions and thoughts all raised against the knowledge of God. My heart is still a place where the battle is raging. I want to obey God but the pagan influences in my heart don’t pay any attention to me. I live as Paul who lived and died daily, as he described in Romans Chapter 7.

Many people all over the world do not want war. Yet we live in a time where 100,000,000 Islamic fundamentalists want war. Why? Why is mankind either fleeing or attacking? Why do they provoke and thrust good men into the bloody defense of their own loved ones?

Christian, you must know that the devil IS A REAL ANGELIC PERSON and he has a large angelic following who are all together committed to war against your soul. Yes Jesus has won the victory for us! We are more than conquerors through Him who loves us! But in His wisdom God has called us into His church where we as one people preach the sermon of God to all the angelic realms and to all the peoples of the world. As the creation is the sure evidence of God the  Creator, the church is sure Evidence of God the Redeemer and Reconciler and of the One who tramples down satan and his followers!

The battle from heaven’s HQ was once against flesh and blood as Joshua led the army of God’s people into Canaan. But after Pentecost the battle tactics changed. The goal, the Master’s Plan didn’t change, but since the sending of the apostles the weapons, the armor, and the tactics have changed.

If we are to fight in God’s TODAY Army we will have to go through spiritual boot camp, and into spiritual training. The church trains to preach the Gospel and impart salvation by the Word of God in Christ. Our real enemy is the devil. All of us have to train and fight in the roles of our calling.

Revelation 12:11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.

We must accept and BELIEVE, and TRUST that God is SALVATION and He is LOVE and that He has brought us into life here to be saved and loved in the midst of what seems an impossible complex environment. 

In my “world” I have “peace.” I am rarely persecuted for my faith. The economic woes of my nation have not caused me great discomfort. It could and may get worse! But that will not change the truth or my destiny. In my mind and heart there is a spiritual battle taking place. My flesh wants to revive every day and have it’s own way.  Satan does persecute me, seeking to influence me to rebel against God. The world resists my being a son of God. But Jesus give REAL peace.

 John 14:27  Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

 John 16:33 These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

This body I live in is not permanent, nor is the earth. Everything is going to change one day. Those of us who have trusted God in Christ will pass from the battle field to the Kingdom of the Prince of Peace, the New Jerusalem and the New Heavens and Earth! 

It leads me to think we need to become like children all the more. We must simply trust God. We need simply to learn how God loves and love each other, neighbors and enemies like He does. All our trophies will be left here when we pass from this life to everlasting life. So shouldn’t our motives become enormously other directed? Our Everlasting future is secured in The Messiah’s finished work! We can’t lose our souls to the devil since we believe! He will not break His promises to us, and He will finish the work He began in us when we first believed.

The impossible complexities of this world will seem only as mild challenges to us living in our calling if we will simply be zealous, repent, turn to God every day and seek what God seeks: the lost and the dying souls of this age. If we seek this, God will be our strength of spirit, mind and body. He will be our courage. For He is our victory in faith.

He will supply all we need for life and godliness. If we think we do not have all we need, we need only to ask. 1John 5:14-15 Yet in this life: 1 Timothy 6:8 And having food and raiment let us be therewith content.

Our hearts must be transformed from pagan Canaan to the Heavenly City whose builder and maker is God. The richness of that place is the Glory of It’s King. Wouldn’t we all rather have Jesus than silver of gold? 

MADE FOR MAN! Why?

by David B Severy on Monday, November 12, 2012 at 12:39pm ·

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made for man... Why?

There is a tremendous amount of discussion and tremendous controversy over the sabbath today. But the context of the sabbath cannot be ignored. 

Ephesians 3

7 Whereof [Paul the apostle] was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power.

8 Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ;

9 And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:

10 To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God,

11 According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord:

12 In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him.

This whole thing, this "God thing" was planned out from before the foundations of the world! The call of Abram and the children of Israel are a HUGE part of what God did and is doing! But Jesus is the doer, and in my eyes He is everything!

God set apart the seventh day for himself in Genesis. Later he set it apart for the Children of Israel. It IS the seventh day of the week and more! 

EVERYTHING God gave Israel and EVERYTHING He did with and for them made them distinct from the nations. BUT >>> Everything He did had a purpose FOR THEM greater than simple separation from the nations. They were chosen to carry out the plan of God! AND THEY WERE CHOSEN BY GOD TO KNOW HIM! to KNOW Him !!!!!!!! Better than you know your neighbor and even better than you know your spouse, God wants you to KNOW Him! HIM ! Father, Son and Holy Spirit, THEM !!! Glory Hallelu Yah!

 Exodus 31

12 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 13 “Speak also to the children of Israel, saying: ‘Surely My Sabbaths you shall keep, for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, 

that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you. 

14 You shall keep the Sabbath, therefore, for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death...

It is the phrase "...  that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you." which sheds light on the why of sabbath observance. On the sabbath, God call us APART from our self serving labors and INTO fellowship with Him.

Young's Literal Translation says:

Ex. 31:13 `And thou, speak unto the sons of Israel, saying, Only, My sabbaths ye do keep, for it [is] a sign between Me and you, to your generations, to know that I, Jehovah, am sanctifying you;

"to know that I Jehovah am sanctifying you."

It might even be said: "to know me, I am Jehovah, and I am sanctifying you."

Jeremiah 9:23-24

23 Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches:

24 But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord.

In Ezekiel, God says in various contexts (to us) that what He does is done so that you, they and Israel “shall know that I am the LORD.” But not just a few times, God uses that EXACT phrase 51 ~fifty one times (KJV).  

Jesus is EVERYTHING to me. The sabbath was given as a part of the plan by which we would come to be saved by Yahweh and KNOW the Son of the Living God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel and have intimate fellowship with Him! Amen!

I refuse to be overly concerned with what is false. Give me TRUTH. Jesus said: 

John 8

31 Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;

32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

33 They answered him, We be Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?

34 Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.

35 And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever.

36 If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.

Also:

Mark 2:26-28

27 And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath:

28 Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath. 

My conclusion is that it will never be enough to preach the sabbath, but it will be more than enough to preach the Messiah in and of the sabbath! It will not ever be enough to observe the sabbath, but it will be more than enough to observe and LISTEN to the Lord of the  Sabbath and to LOVE Him on the seventh (sabbath) day and on EVERY DAY!

5

a rock so big...

by David B Severy on Saturday, December 1, 2012 at 9:25am ·

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The question has been asked “Could God make a rock so big that He Himself could not lift it?” I have thought about that and my answer is that He would not make one that big. What He can do is quite a lot, and if He could make one that big, it would have to be to serve some purpose of His. He may have actually made such a rock, but I wonder: if He has, what purpose of His would it serve for Him to tell us of such a rock?

Now there is a very large and very heavy rock that God wants to move, and that rock is the unbelievers heart. And in every case (or am I wrong) God cannot move that rock until He has the permission of the unbeliever!  God, contrary to hyperCalvinist doctrine, has given men the choice to believe and TRUST Him, or to run from His love. So it is perhaps shocking, but man can in effect in his atheism, be the rock of whatever magnitude that God cannot, and will not be able to lift! God will not coerce faith in any man or woman.

Coerced faith is not faith at all, it is slavery. It is the devil who coerces people by the  deceit of sin and makes them slaves to evil and to unbelief! Is God unfair to stand back and let people live as deceived and enslaved to satan? I think He might be, except for the fact that everyone is given evidence of God, adequate and persuasive evidence of His divine and good personality, that evidence being seen in what He created.

Romans 1

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

17 For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.

18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;

19 Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.

20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,

23 And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.

24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:

25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.

POINT OF VIEW

POINT OF VIEW

by David B Severy on Tuesday, December 4, 2012 at 4:48pm ·

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Do we think or feel that our pastors and teachers are looking down on us? Or do we look down on them? Only God is allowed to look down, because He is above! This is really true.

John 3:31 He that cometh from above is above all: he that is of the earth is earthly, and speaketh of the earth: he that cometh from heaven is above all.

Yet almost 2000 years ago, Jesus looked horizontally into the eyes of His lost sheep

I have been moved deeply by the Truth of God who IS a Person, particularly in Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. Neither are now seen by the 

mortal eye, yet they are God Persons able to look at us with their eyes. I believe that is why God calls to us to seek His face. 

But aren't They always looking at us? Perhaps not, for our sins are not pleasant to look upon. I read about God who has hidden Himself from Israel. Has He had to look away because of their sins? What about my sins? Will God turn His face, avert His eyes, will He hide Himself from me?

Will He call out to me as He did to Adam, "Where are you?" Have I hidden myself from Him, and covered my self with leaves? As a christian am I still hiding my heart from Him? 

I'm finding it takes constant effort to live in His Light, the Light of His Countenance. But I'm finding the reward for doing so lifechanging and AWESOME.

John 6:29 Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.

Hebrews 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

Romans 8:14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:

Hebrews 12

King James Version (KJV)

1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

3 For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.

4 Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.

5 And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:

6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

7 If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?

8 But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.

9 Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?

10 For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.

11 Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.

12 Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees;

13 And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed.

14 Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:

15 Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;

16 Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.

17 For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.

18 For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest,

19 And the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice they that heard intreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more:

20 (For they could not endure that which was commanded, And if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart:

21 And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake:)

22 But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,

23 To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,

24 And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.

25 See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven:

26 Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.

27 And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.

28 Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:

29 For our God is a consuming fire.

God, Our Author and Parent...and Poet?

God, Our Author and Parent...and Poet?

Paul the apostle of Jesus the Christ writes to Rome Chapter 11

13 For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office:

14 If by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh, and might save some of them.

15 For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?

16 For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches.

17 And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert grafted in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree;

18 Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee.

19 Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in.

20 Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear:

21 For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee.

22 Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.

23 And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be grafted in: for God is able to graft them in again.

24 For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?

25 For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.

26 And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:

27 For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.

28 As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the father's sakes.

29 For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.

30 For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:

31 Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.

32 For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.

33 O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!

34 For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor?

35 Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?

36 For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.

My friend and Pastor John Monk had a dream he told me about:

In the dream, he was standing in a line. At the front of the line was a guillotine. I was standing behind him. He told me I was very afraid, and upset. He calmed me down somewhat and then it was his turn. he was beheaded. And instantly he was in heaven and his wife Terri was walking toward him. As she greeted him, she reached down and picked some flowers and held them out to him. He asked her “Are you sure it’s ok to pick the flowers?” So she tossed the flowers to the ground whereupon they were rerooted and grew as before! 

The Lord God speaks poetically to us. I write poetry, but don’t know much about the art of it. It is said there are at least 200 literary devices in the Holy Bible, and I could name two or three. I hope we have all heard of one major device, the parable. My skills are not very developed yet. But this has not stopped God from giving me understanding of His Word. I pray you also have understanding also.

In Romans 11 we have poetry. Poetry doesn’t have to rhyme, or have verses. There is what is called prose poetry without rhyming or stanzas. And unless I have misinterpreted things, God writes poetry which is prophetic, testimonial, memorial and instructive. From John 15 and out of the Old Testament we see Jesus as the Vine, the branch, the root of Jesse, from Nazareth. Nazareth is a Name which comes from a word meaning branch.

John 15

1 I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.

2 Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.

3 Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.

4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.

5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.

6 If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.

7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.

Obviously we are not saved by a vine. From Romans 11 we see that we are called branches and obviously we are not tree or vine branches. In the most real, literal, material, elemental sense we are not made of wood, do not have leaves or grow fruit out of our bodies. Yet God calls us branches and I think we should submit to being called branches: He would not have called us branches unless there was a good and Holy purpose for doing so, can we all say “I trust You Jesus, I am a branch, and you are the Vine.” He also says we are to bear the fruit of the Spirit which is not literally apples and oranges. But there is a literal reality and Truth in God’s Word, and a literal Truth in His Ways and in His Will and purposes. Poetic and literary devices do not detract from that, they amplify it even if they do hide it from the eyes of some.

We are taught by Jesus that we must be born again! The first person He spoke that to, Nicodemus asked Him: “How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?” Jesus answered him more, and Nicodemus asked then: “How can these things be?” To which Jesus answered in part: “If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?” Jesus was sent to save, and to save not for the world or for it’s kingdoms, but to save for the Kingdom of God and heaven which is now still unseen.

John 3

26 And they came unto John, and said unto him, Rabbi, he that was with thee beyond Jordan, to whom thou barest witness, behold, the same baptizeth, and all men come to him.

27 John answered and said, A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven.

28 Ye yourselves bear me witness, that I said, I am not the Christ, but that I am sent before him.

Can we say “I trust You Jesus, I must be born again?” Essentially to deny this is nearly to deny God above and Jesus incarnate. Being born again is a blessing the world cannot understand, a blessing the devil hates and a blessing the flesh resists and even denies. But being born again, is a true, real, necessary, essential and undeniable requirement for membership in the Messiah, and citizenship in God’s heavenly Kingdom. Being born again is unpopular and mocked. Do some say they are born again and are not really that at all? And certainly some who are born again still sin. Nevertheless “I trust You and Thank You Jesus, for I am born again, and it is You who birthed me.”

Not by my might, not by my power, but by Thy Spirit the mountain of my unbelief and Your just condemnation has been removed!

I think the poetry of it is this: When we believe, God becomes pregnant with us, He is with child, with children! We are being born again by God. Talk about twins, quints or octuplets! God is bearing children by the millions today! And God wants to bear ALL, not being willing that any perish.  My poetic interpolations are not able to be so accurate as the reality that underlies the Truth of God or as accurate as the Bible. But the heart of God is that of a father, a Father such has never been seen on earth! 

John 3:7 Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.

John 1

12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:

13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

Colossians 1:12-14

12 Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:

13 Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:

14 In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:

He has “delivered us from the power of darkness...” perhaps we might say the He has delivered us from the belly of the beast, from the womb of satan! We don’t yet see all the blessedness that being translated into His Kingdom guarantees, but consider:

Hebrews 11:5

By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.

Enoch had a glorious born again experience! Elijah had one too with a chariot for a crib! Many of us believe God for the rapture that Jesus will come back and bear us up from the earth like He was taken up from the earth into the clouds after rising from the dead!

The the way God has chosen for us to become His own can be seens as the spiritual conceiving, pregnancy, and delivery of a spiritual child of God  When we TRUST the Lord Jesus and rely on Him we have safe birth into everlasting Life! We rely on Him daily and are delivered from the depths of sin. And our final deliverance at the death of our body, which God calls a jar of clay, a tent, and a Temple of the Holy Spirit.

This IS exciting GOOD NEWS !!! God speaks to us in human language, so we can understand Him, yet He speaks to us spiritually in parables and poetry. And it is the MESSAGE which He wants us to hear. Poetry and parables are wonderful means and method by which He frequently speaks! OK, we are gonna shift gears a bit.

When Terri Monk picked the flowers and then dropped them, they rooted right into heavens soil and lived. When God picked you and me out of the kingdom of darkness, He “tossed” us up into heaven into the wounds of Jesus and we lived! 

Huh? “Bear with me, or if you will, be born with me!” (not by me.)

Romans 11: 24 For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree:

As I understand grafting, and opening is cut into a tree or vine. Then a branch is cut off from its source, cut out of its place, and inserted into the opening cut into the tree (vine). It is detached from its present environment taken away from that environment, introduced to a new environment which becomes its new home. 

2 Corinthians 5:17

17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

When a branch is grafted into tree, the sap of that tree begins to flow into that branch. If it didn’t the branch would wither and die. The gardener would then remove the wither branch and die! The church in Sardis comes to mind here. And John Ch.15!

Can we see something of the magnificence of what God has done yet? How all that He has done and will yet do was as one great and TRUE prophetic poem that He wrote before the words “Let there be light” passed His lips? That He has communicated to us His will, His Life giving Life Changing will to us in an elegant Holy Love poem? It is a  love letter called the Holy Bible.

Oh that I would have dropped all that I was doing in 1980 and followed hard after the Lord and the Spirit. If I had dropped my expectations of myself and other people, and my disappointments in myself and others,- what might have happened sooner... Yet now it the accepted time, now is the day of salvation, this IS the day that the Lord has made, I WILL BE GLAD AND REJOICE IN IT!  God is able to used failed expectations and disappointments for good. Paul Billheimer wrote a book, “Don’t Waste Your Sorrows.” Which I haven’t even read yet! But in conjunction with Romans 8:28 the title’s suggestion expands wonderfully. I don’t have to be disappointed now, for God is able, so very able to lead me with Him to Heaven where my Gardener, who is my Father, lives!

More poetry from the Spirit of God: Adam was placed into, GRAFTED into Eden, the Garden of God. Satan came and by deceit and evil craft had Adam “cut off” (like the branch) from Eden. Satan has tried for centuries to graft all men and women into his evil tree. And I have in this moment the thought now “blooming:” that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was the only place in the Garden satan could have been found, because only there was the knowledge of evil! Yes? No? God forbade them the fruit of that tree, for it was only there that evil could have been tasted. Yes? When God drew Adam and Adam drew Eve’s attention to this forbidden tree, He already knew their future. His plan was that after 4000 years, and all the the prophetic poetry of life given to us in the Old Testament, in the fullness of time, when the time was RIPE (get it? ripe!) He would then send the branch, The Messiah also very much the Vine, the Tree itself, Himself, the Tree of Life. And then and NOW those who in trust, in faith, receive Him, did and does the Gardener, our Father take and graft in to the tree, the Vine, Jesus!

This is not the entire story. It IS a very real and Holy Poem God has written. The word poem cannot capture all the truth of the Bible, which is the most exact written revelation of the Mind of Christ we will ever have this side of heaven. What the books in heaven are I know only a little. But there is also the truth that the Bible is a written record of the law suit Yahweh Elohim vs. lucifer. In that suit God in Christ stood as plaintiff for the faithful: for Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, for the land of Israel, and for the souls of us ALL. Satan knows something of the result prophesied, the true end coming,  when all Israel receives the Messiah Yeshua in living God ordained faith. In that regard much of christendom has failed and still does fail to understand the place of the partially blinded Jewish family from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Romans is essentially a book written to gentiles to explain the whole controversy and the place, the role the purpose will and plan of God in His choosing of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The blessing that has been missed by our ignorance and our being deceived is inestimable.

Notwithstanding in any way:

“This is the word of Adonai to Z’rubavel: ‘Not by force, and not by power, but by my Spirit,’ says Adonai-Tzva’ot. 7 ‘What are you, you big mountain? Before Z’rubavel you will become a plain; and he will put the capstone in place, as everyone shouts, “It’s beautiful! Beautiful!”‘ Zechariah 4:6-7 Complete Jewish Bible

God doesn’t doll up the truth in poetry just to satisfy our need for entertainment. I believe He does do it to keep our interest, to stimulate us to learn the truth and depths of His most wonderful, BEAUTIFUL and Holy Words which belong to Him and which He gives to us also! It is strange to this human soul that this beauty of parable and poetry also seems to repel unbelievers! Yet God is not unwise in anything He does or how He has chosen to speak to us!

My prayer is that those who should be saved would hear the Word of God, for faith comes by hearing and hearing comes by hearing the Word of God, plain or poetic! The Word of God I think really heals our ears in the way they really must be healed, so that they can hear God in faith, knowing it is really God who is speaking... I am now remembering the poetry of Keith Green whose song said: “Like waking up from the longest dream...” Oh but it is GOOD to be awake! TY Lord God, TY Father, Jesus and Holy Spirit! 

Dave Severy Dec. 7th, 2012