God was working on me in an area of my life, and that led to writing the following Bible study. Praying it blesses you and I look forward to hearing your comments.  I still haven’t shown it to Pastor Don, but will give him a copy tomorrow night.

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Before I knew God, a part of me figured that God would not want me because of how sinful I was. I went through a period when I was counseling with Pastor Don that I called the sin of the week. I would come in with what I thought was an unforgivable sin that I was certain that God could not forgive. Pastor Don would open up the Bible and show me an example of a similar sin that God did forgive or He would take me to:

1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

It took me forever to realize that God loved me. It took a long time for what is called the Roman Road to sink in. In fact, even though we are saved, we still end up, in certain areas of our lives walking the Roman Road. What is the Roman Road? Let me share it. It begins at Romans 3:23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. It takes great courage to accept this premise. So often we come up with excuses for what we have done wrong. Even now as a Christian, I still find myself justifying the areas that I fall short of God’s perfection for me. I can have an unrighteous anger, or speak a word that is not edifying, and justify to myself that the person had it coming, they deserved that harsh judgment. I can make a promise to God and then forget it in an instant of temptation. I can let pride rule my life instead of putting myself at the feet of God. And one of the biggest sins of pride that God showed me the other day is the false belief that because, as a Christian, I messed up, that I HAVE TO RESTORE THINGS IN MY OWN POWER before I can come back into fellowship with God in that particular area of my life. How wrong is that? It says in Psalm 103:14 For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust. Jesus tells us in Matthew 10:30 Even the very hairs on our head are all numbered.   Psalm 139:14-16 I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written. The days fashioned for me. When as yet there were none of them. God knows us so well that He knows our days before we were even a spark in our parent’s eyes. He knows that our walks are not perfect. He knows we will mess up and make mistakes. This is not a BIG surprise to God. He loves us in spite of ourselves. Our God loves us, we can trust in this love, even when we mess up. Just because we become Christians does not mean that we will never make another mistake. While our Spirits are perfected, we still have our fleshly natures to deal with. We are in a process of becoming more like Him, but there is so much flesh in us, that we miss His guidance far too often. When we miss it, do we have to fix it alone? Do we have to make things right, then come back into fellowship with Him? No. He loved us while we were still sinners, and trust me, if your life is anything like mine, you will realize that we are far, far better people now that we have Christ in our lives, than we ever were before. So even though we mess up, we are not as messed up as we were before we asked Him into our lives the first time. And He delights in helping us to come back into fellowship with Him, He wants to help us. He is our Great Shepherd, and one thing that I had to remember is that Jesus told us that He was sending us out as sheep among wolves. Where is Jesus in that scenario? He is our shepherd guiding us through those wolves.

After Romans 3:23, the next step is Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

What greater demonstration of Love is that? It is very easy to love someone who is nice, perfect, and sweet, but while we were wallowing in the muck of our sins, He loved us. He loved us enough to die for us. He loved us enough to set up a plan for our salvation long before the world was created, long before Adam and Eve sinned, long before we were born and tempted. It is a gift of salvation that we have to accept from Him. We cannot bring ourselves into our own salvation. We cannot work our way to salvation. We can’t do enough good works to compensate for the bad things we have done. There is one and only one way for us to come into fellowship with God, to become part of Jesus’ flock, and that is by accepting this gift of love from God. We don’t like accepting gifts, we want to give one back, to work to earn the gift.

When I am out of God’s perfect will for my life, when I mess up, my first reaction is to try and fix it. But that kind of effort is like my trying to find a way to earn my salvation. It can’t be done, only God has the clarity of vision to help me fix the mess I got myself in. Sometimes I invest so much energy in patching up my error that I end up making the situation worse. Instead of a patched up mistake, what I need is renewing. To let God come in and do what He can do far better than me, help me to sort out the mess and get into alignment with Him.

We then take another step on the Roman Road, from Romans 5:8 to Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. So often Jesus tells us to die to ourselves, to take up His yoke, for His yoke is easy, His burden light. But instead we choose to keep doing what is messing us up, and all that disobedience leads to is death. Not just physical death, but death in our Spirit, death in areas of our lives that we haven’t turned over to God. Pastor Don was talking in a recent Bible study about how a person cannot expect another person to dig them out of a problem. Often that only serves to get a person deeper into the problem, for it is like giving them a shovel to dig a pit deeper. What is needed is an examination of ourselves in the light of God’s truth. Only when we truthfully decide to turn over the sin to God for His handling, and agree to submit to His authority in the situation can we begin to build a life that will not lead to death. Sometimes I get so frantic in trying to solve a problem, that what could be a minor problem turns into a major one because of my meddling. That being said, when we make Jesus our Lord, we need to make sure that we obey His commands. This is the only way that we can be liberated from the sin and the death that sin causes, death in our relationships, our lives, our dreams, our goals, our faith.

From Romans 6:23 we take another step to Romans 8:1-2 a step that I sometimes stumble on. There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.

I am an expert at beating myself up. When I make a mistake, I tend to keep remembering the mistake, going over and over it in my mind, thinking that I could have done this or that, endlessly rehearsing my mistake. It is true that a bit of reflection is good to remind us how we got into the mess in the first place so that we can learn from our mistake. But after you have asked for forgiveness from God and made amends as best you can in your life, if you continue to hold onto the mistake and use it as an excuse not to move forward, it is implying that Jesus’ death was not sufficient for your sins. I sometimes find myself remembering who I was, not who I am in Christ. I am not the person I was before I got saved. As God continues to burnish off the rough edges of my life, I am not the person I was a few days ago. God moves us from Glory to Glory. Jesus told us to look forward, not behind us as we plow through life. We are set free, but we reach out to put the bonds of oppression back onto our lives.

Let’s not let our messes cause us to be yoked to oppression and bound in life. Let’s continue to let Jesus cleanse us from our mistakes, and move us closer and closer in relationship to him. How do we get this relationship, or reconfirm it, by the most important step on our Roman Road. Romans 10:8-13 Let’s read it together.

Romans 10:8-13 But what does it say? “The word is near you in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For “whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.”

This is so comforting to me. When we call on the name of the LORD we shall be saved, and this is a promise open to everyone – for God said, “Whoever.” That means the saved and the unsaved, God will save us from ourselves. I am so grateful that God has come into my life, and continues to free me whenever I get immersed in the bondage of the messes that I make. I am glad that He sends His Spirit to me to help me in my walk. When He looks at me, He sees me through the eyes of love, not condemnation. There is no shame in my relationship with Him, because of His love.

But I want to talk a bit about maintaining our liberty. To be honest, some of us never would have looked up to God had we not hit rock bottom. Sometimes we don’t recognize the captivity of the enemy until our life circumstances cause us to notice him – satan can be very subtle. In retrospect I can now thank God for drawing my attention to him, even though some of the circumstances of my life were pure misery, without those circumstances I may have continued in my own headstrong fashion to run from God. It is so easy to get hooked by the lure of satan, and what looking at our past mistakes can do is let us recognize the hook before we take the bait. Usually the bait comes in the form of pride. Each of us has a tendency to forget what God has done for us. For awhile we are humbled by what God saved us from, then we begin to think in pride that we must have done something right for God to be so good to us, that leaves us open for a fall.

I think we can all agree that we need a savior, but it isn’t just saved from eternal separation from God only once, Christ comes and continues his saving work in us for the rest of our lives. Christ is faithful to chastise us when we need chastisement, but at the same time, He is compassionate in His comfort. When the Holy Spirit convicts us from sin, He does not condemn us. He leads us toward the truth.

When we are oppressed by our messes, we must never forget that God hears our cries, even when we caused the messes by our sin and rebelion. God’s consistent character is to woo the captive to freedom. When we are suffering because of captivity in our sins, cry out to Him. Know that God has sent a Deliverer (in the name of Jesus) for every captive. The Holy Spirit is our comforter and also our teacher, and if we learn to listen to Him we will learn how to make freedom in Christ a reality in our lives. Christ sets us free by the power of His Spirit, then He maintains our freedom as we learn to live from day to day in the power of his free Spirit. What we are learning to do as we walk our Roman Roads is to bring our hearts under the freeing authority of God’s Word. We will find true liberty to the degree that our hearts accept, rely and respond to the truth of God’s Word. Let’s not let our messes cause us to be yoked to oppression and bound in life.

The problem that I have though is that it is so easy to slip back into the old habitual ways of behaving and before I know it, the bonds are back. Once we have taken the Roman Road, we then have to continue to walk on the Freedom Trail. Beth Moore, in her study Breaking Free talks about various obstacles that make it tough to walk this Freedom Trail.

1.     Unbelief. Beth Moore says that we are held captive by anything that hinders the abundant and effective spirit filled life God plans for us. One of the biggest obstacles is unbelief. Jesus could do nothing without faith. When he went to his hometown, he could not do major miracles because the townspeople did not believe in Him. Trusting an invisible God is not easy and does not come naturally. A trust relationship only grows one way, when we step out in faith and make the choice to trust. Hebrews 11:1 says “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:6 continues But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. God is anxious to help us with our unbelief. Mark 9:21-24 The suffering father tells Jesus, Lord I believe, help my unbelief. We can pray to God to increase our belief in Him, and He will help us. We can believe in Christ, accept the truth that He is the Son of God, believe on Christ, receive eternal salvation, but fail to endure in belief and choose Him who is trustworthy day to day. Unbelief is crippling, it cripples our spiritual walk, and puts obstacles in our path. For us to have true freedom we need to believe God, believe that He is willing and able to keep us free.

2.     Pride. We already discussed pride. The cure for pride is to assume a God glorifying attitude. So often we, as believers want to share in God’s glory, and take pride for what He has done in our lives. God will not give his glory to another. That sounds rather selfish to the flesh but God has a very good reason for it. He knows that pride can pull us off track and God is more interested in our eternal lives. Pride is a destroyer of ministries, marriages, friendships, jobs, and character. Few things are more contrary to our human nature than desiring someone else’s frame above our own. Pride is a lure to captivity. Sometimes I have tried to condemn myself in a spate of “humility.” But pride can also disguise itself as humility. We can think we are too far gone to save, too wicked, too sinful. Then we are thinking that our sin is a problem that is bigger than God can handle. The Proverbs are very specific about pride. Proverbs 8:13; 11:2, 13:10, 16:18, and Obadiah 1:3. We need to view humility as a friend and humble ourselves before God. Bow down to His majesty, Daniel 4:37 tells us that those who walk in pride He is able to put down.

3.     Idolatry: Anything we put in the place where God belongs is an idol. Idols will bring captivity to us. It is unfortunate but some of the things that we have put in God’s place, as idols in our lives are not easily removed, they have been in place for years and years. Only the power of God can budge them. We remove idols by choosing to recognize their existence and admitting their inability to keep us satisfied. God is able to remove any idol. Idols are not just figures that we worship, but lifestyles, habits, behaviors that we think we can’t change, belief structures. Satan will constantly cast idols before us, with the lure that we will find joy or peace through them, not realizing the snare and the trap that they cause us. If what you are holding onto in your life isn’t of Christ, it is a cheater. It is something that appears to be your friend, but its ultimate purpose is to steal away your liberty.

4.     Prayerlessness. We want liberty in Christ to be a permanent reality, and the only way to do that is to be in communication with God. Our way to do that is through prayer. When we avoid prayer, we do not have the peace of God within us, and without that peace we start grasping at things that provide false peace. Satan would rather us do anything but pray – and satan is willing to provide many activities that keep us from prayer. One of the things that satan does in my life is keep me so busy doing things, good things, helpful things so that my time is so filled that I don’t take the time to spend with God in prayer. Without my prayer life I am powerless, and satan knows that. What blessings come through prayer. Ephesians 1:17-20 lists some of them. Most of the circumstances of our lives are not just physical, but are based on principalities and powers in the high places. How we deal with them is through prayer. Satan comes to make the free captive. That is why we must reach out to God so that we maintain our freedom.  We are more than conquerors through Jesus Christ, but on our own, in prayerlessness we will find ourselves captive.

5.     Legalism. We want God’s best in our lives. Isaiah 29:13 talks about rules taught by men. What is legalism? Regulations replace relationship. The Pharisees were constantly accusing Jesus of not honoring the Sabbath. They had taken what God meant for man’s rest and refreshment and turned it to an oppressive set of rules and regulations that turned the rest into real work. We still have a works mentality that makes us feel that we have to do something to attain God’s love, but remember that God loved us while we were still sinners. Legalism replaces mirrors with microscopes, and what we usually look at are other people’s imperfections. It is so easy to blow up other’s mistakes and errors into epic proportions and minimize our own sins and faults. In fact it is a way of pulling attention from our own faults and imperfections by focusing on what others are doing wrong. Legalism also replaces passion for God with performance. If we feel we need to jump through hoops to keep God’s love, wear skirts of a certain length, pray so many hours a day, or whatever, we have lost the main point of passion for God, love for God. Obedience without love is nothing but the Law. Legalism will put so many obstacles in a believer’s path, can cause a believer to fall away when they think that they can’t live up to high standards. They lose sight of the love and grace of God. Not only that but it can cause new believers to run, not walk to the nearest exit sure that they can’t do this Christian stuff, and that will not please God who wants his lambs taken care of, not oppressed.

God seeks relationship for us. Jesus died for our freedom. Let’s take steps to maintain our freedom. We don’t want to go back into bondage. Galatians 5:1

Our best method to know who we are is to know Who We are In Christ. Pastor Don has a list called: Who Am I In Christ. If you have never looked at it, it is something that will bless you tremendously.

 We spent a lot of time at Masada, and when it was close to 5 in the evening, we approached Jericho. Our tour guide, Nurit, was concerned that Jericho’s site would be closed. We prayed and offered the guard a bribe to keep the site open for us. Because of that, we were able to view Jericho by ourselves. God was good, for the guard was closing the gates as our bus drove up. Because Palestine “owns” Jericho we had to cross a border. I took a few pictures of the guard station, but had to hide the camera. Did not want it taken by the guard.

You can see the armed guard leaning on one of the red barricades.

Jericho is one of the oldest established cities in the world. It was a walled, fortified city, the city of Rahab, and was one of the first cities conquered by Joshua. It lies near a spring that Elisha did a miracle at, called the Ain Es-Sultan. Jericho is 740 feet below sea level, but far above the Dead Sea. It is an oasis town, lying between Jerusalem and Amman. Jericho was famous for a balm that it grew, and when Jesus came into the city, he was hosted by Zacchaaeus (Luke 19). Sycamore trees were surrounding the city and Zacchaaeus climbed up on one to view Jesus.

When Joshua and the Israelites saw Jericho they saw a well fortified city with huge walls for it’s defenses. Yet we know that God had a plan that helped the Israelites conquer Jericho.

As we drove through the streets to get to Jericho, we saw a lot of destroyed buildings. Made me wonder if some of them had been the result of shelling.

Some locals siting alongside the road. I noticed a huge drainage ditch, but the camera did not catch it, the ditch had a lot of garbage floating in it.

We were told to leave all our stuff on the bus due to the shortness of our time to visit. So we got off the bus at a run and consequently my notes are few, for my notebook was at the bus. Once we got through the gates we raced to the farthest part of the site, but these are not the famous walls of Jericho that came down. This is just part of the city. You can see a nearby city in the distance.

Looking closely, you can see bricks embedded in the dirt. Jericho is the most excavated city by archeologists, and everywhere you looked you saw excavations.

The sign (square of white) talked about an outer fortification of the city. Again in the foreground on the left you can see the stone walls.

We finally raced to the site of the walls that we sing about, “The walls came tumbling down.” In the pink shirt with black slacks is Joy Pollard, she is the one that taught the Friday Bible study that is blessing so many of you, “Because I AM Said So.”

Pastor Don had us look at the wall, and he pointed out that based on what we can observe of the walls that the song lyrics are wrong, for if the walls had come tumbling down they would be in a rubble heap. That a greater miracle happened, the earth opened and the ground swallowed the walls intact. Pastor Don told us that when the older civilizations built walls they usually sacrificed people to fortify the walls, for they were idol worshippers. And it is Pastor Don’s theory that God buried the walls because of the innocent blood shed for their construction. That was the only way to rightly take care of those who were sacrificed. When the walls went down, fear spread, and Joshua had the victory. But God did not want the Israelites to take any plunder from the city.

More walls.

We had all managed to get to one spot to hear from Nurit.

(see picture above this comment) This is the wall that is believed to be THE WALL OF JERICHO, that went into the earth.

There is a monastery nearby and these cable cars kept ferrying people to and from the monastery. At one point cables like this were used to supply food and water to some stranded Israeli troops.

Nurit (shielding eyes) Pastor Don (white hat) Pastor Ted (blue hat).

You can see the oasis nature of the surrounding town of Jericho.

I took a picture of the sign, showing how the references to the Christian nature of the site have been torn off.

I still cannot get over how close lush vegetation and stark rocks coexist.

Another view of the wall that went straight down into the earth. When you see it, you realize that what Pastor Don is saying appears to be the case.

Some houses on the outside walls – this would have been similar to one that Rahab lived in.

More walls and rocks.

You can see the carvings on this piece of marble. Wreaths, shells, and water symbols. Before going back to the bus, we made a detor to Elisha’s stream. A stream that still provides water, since the time of the miracle of Elisha. The school of prophets came to Elisha talking about the water being undrinkable. Elisha took salt and threw it into the water (something that doesn’t make logical sense). The water became sweet and has provided the locals abundant water since the time of Elisha.

Some of the locals watching the tourists.

A few of our group taking pictures. There are not many tourists that come to this spot, due to the upheaval and political unrest in the area. My friend Barbara agappa777 is in the black shirt, white pants.

Thought you might want to see this sign about who is funding Jericho’s water supply upgrade. The United Nations and other countries. I did not see signs of many countries supporting Israel, only supporting those who seek to take over Israel.

I don’t know who these men were, but they seemed to be dealing with the water trucks. I was surprised to see the TV in such an open air enclosure.

The truck says, Water for the future.

This was a pretty mosaic sort of frescoed (is that a word?) into the wall.

Then we got on the bus and headed back to our hotel. A Mosque.

A burka store for women.

The checkpoint approaching.

Not sure what that sign represents, but graffiti even came to Jericho.

Wish I could share more with you about Jericho, but at least there are pictures.

Have a blessed day,

Heather

Before we began the Bible study Joy said something so profound over our lunch that I had to write it down. She said, “It doesn’t take God as long to clean up our messes as it took to make them.” She mentioned that sometimes we spend 20 or more years doing our own thing, making our life a big mess, and then when we finally let God come in and help us, He cleans up our messes faster than it took for us to make them.

For this study, Joy chose to use the Amplified Bible, so I will use those scriptures. In this case they gave much more depth to the verses Joy used. Some studies can break easily into two parts, this one cannot, so I am choosing to share the complete study, but it is worth keeping it whole. This study blessed me because it covers a lot of things I am working through in my life right now, and gives such a loving picture of God.

Joy said that “Because I said so,” is not because I (myself) said so, but because of WHO says so. If I AM (God) says so, pay attention.

Hebrews 10:22 Let us all come forward and draw near with true (honest and sincere) hearts in unqualified assurance and absolute conviction engendered by faith (by that leaning of the entire human personality on God in absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom, and goodness), having our hearts sprinkled and purified from a guilty (evil) conscience and our bodies cleansed with pure water.

We can have absolute trust and confidence because of who I AM is. It has NOTHING to do with us. We can have trust in confidence in His (God’s) power and goodness. He is always powerful, wise, and good. God is not good just because we are good to Him. He IS good. He is not powerful because we give Him power. He IS powerful.

When we take a position that is not of God, God doesn’t change sides and get on our side because we made a decision. He doesn’t change his point of view because we have a different point of view. We can be on God’s side, or we can choose to go off and do our own thing. We can have a great idea, but if it is not of God, He does not have to change His ideas because of our planning.

Hebrews 11:3 By faith we understand that the worlds [during the successive ages] were framed (fashioned, put in order, and equipped for their intended purpose) by the word of God, so that what we see was not made out of things which are visible.

God frames and fashions the world by His Word. When I AM does it, He frames, fashions, puts in order, and equips. That is the order that God works, 1. frame, 2. fashion, 3. put in order, 4 equip.

God created EVERYTHING – and that means YOU!!! He equipped us. No matter how much we get sidetracked, he has equipped us for a purpose and it will come to pass in order, in His time. Joy said that she spent 20 years working her program, her way, rocking and rolling in Woodstock. At some point she got hit in the face with the fact that her plan was not a good plan. But God still equipped her before time was created, for his original purpose.

Before we find God we say, “Because I SAID so.”
After we find God we say, “Because I AM SAID so.”

When we look back on our lives we can see how God rescued us and kept us from going down. Sometimes, if we are very persistent in not obeying God, he might tell us to take the foot off the accelerator before we hit the wall. He knows we will hit the wall, but He helps us to slow down. If He can’t keep us from hurting ourselves, He will keep us from making, as the computers call it, a FATAL ERROR.

Joy had lymphoma, and had to have chemo. Her sister, a Christian, was praying for Joy’s health, asking God to heal her even if she was not a Christian. God healed her, unsaved as she was at the time, and finally got Joy’s attention. Joy said that she has known Pastor Don for 40 years. At one point before Pastor Don was a pastor, he taught Bible study in the basement of Living Word Chapel. He “accidentally” saw Joy in Kingston, and asked her to come and play piano for he needed “seasonal music.” Joy said that He didn’t say “Christmas” music. Later on Pastor Don told her that the Holy Spirit had directed him to Joy and told him to get her to come to to play the music. Joy said, Pastor Don didn’t come up to her and say, “Praise God, the Holy Spirit told me to come and find you because….” He just asked her to play seasonal music. Had Pastor Don come on too strong, she would have turned and run in the opposite direction.

When God forms and fashions something, it is done by the Word of God. Jesus is the Word of God, the Logos, in manifestation. The ability of God’s word to accomplish His purpose has NOTHING to do with our ability. His ability is what accomplishes things, we just go along with Him. Our Abba Father is always wise, powerful, compassionate. What He fashions, shapes, creates, and sequences. He does in order.

Sometimes we think things are not in order, that is not in the order we think they ought to be. But God puts things into the right order, at the right time and the right place. When we want God to hurry in a situation he says, “It isn’t soup yet.” If God grants some of our requests too soon, we mess things up. He waits until the right time, when we are really ready for Him to provide what we need.

1 Thessalonians 5:24 Faithful is He Who is calling you [to Himself] and utterly trustworthy, and He will also do it [fulfill His call by hallowing and keeping you]

God is faithful and He WILL do it. We sometimes think that God needs our suggestions, or that He should put out a suggestion box. It is funny that we think that the Creator of the Universe needs our input.

I AM said so. We can trust God, because of the character of God. He is trustworthy, He is goodness, and love. As we begin to know more about the character of God we can trust our relationship with Him, and trust that when I AM says so, it is because He has our best interests at heart. We don’t deal with God on the basis of authority or position, but because of our relationship. It is not because God is big and we are little, it is relationship. We need to know God intimately, and as we do, we will trust Him.

So often we misrepresent God’s character. Our relationship with God is often based on our experiences with our parents and other authority figures. They are the ones that we watch and then think that God will respond to us like they did to us. Joy said her father was very stern, and authoritarian. She once climbed out her bedroom window to go to a friend’s house to watch a movie and eat popcorn. After 30 minutes, she hurried back home and climbed through the window to her room for fear that her father would wake up and she would face severe consequences for sneaking out. As soon as she could, she put many states between her and her father by going to college. She said that her sense of God was colored by her father. At first she thought that God’s relationship with her was positional, not realizing that God really wanted a relationship.

Once we know that the I AM who is saying so is always good, always has our best interests in His mind and heart, and that He is always wise, we can trust Him. He sees what is best for us, far better than we can with our limited understanding.

At our church we end our services with a few verses of scriptures, and then say, “God is love, God is love, God is LOVE.” Why do we repeat this phrase more than once, to get it into our minds the true nature of God. God loves us in spite of us, in spite of our rebelion, in spite of our disobedience. God is faithful to us even when we are faithless to Him.

Joy said that we have to get out of our minds the picture of God in Heaven, sitting on the throne, looking at His watch, and tapping His foot in impatience. God is aware of where we are, He has things in control, and is not impatient with us. He is out ahead of us, knowing what it takes to get us to where we can intersect with His love. Just like a good father, God knows us. He knows who we are and what we need. Just as our parents know our children and care to discipline them, God will discipline us.

Joy then told us, “Discipline without relationship equals rebelion.”

She does music therapy with children at a local Headstart program and told us that some of her kids are going into kindergarten in the fall. She is sad about this because many of them are not ready for school. She deals with 150 kids a week, some have special needs, others are considered to be “typical” children. But sometimes the “typical” kids have more problems than the special needs kids because their parents are too permissive, and the kids don’t realize that grownups are in charge at school, because at home the kids rule the parents. This problem sometimes follows the kids all the way through school. She then mentioned that some children she knew never got the lesson about who is in charge until they got into the army where the leaders would relay the same information over and over until the soldiers got it.

Joy said that she was reading a Christian counseling magazine that talked about warmth and demand in relationships. There were four graphs depicted.

High warmth, High demand = authoritative
High warmth, Low demand = permissive, affection but no boundaries
Low warmth, Low demand = neglectful
Low warmth, High demand = authoritarian

You would think that the neglectful parent would produce children with the most problems, but that is not the case. The worst outcome for kids comes from High warmth, low demand, because the permissive parents do not give the children the tools do deal in a world where they have to obey others.

It was mentioned that someone used to think that, like the Harry Hausen movies, with the Greek gods and goddesses, where people were little figures on a chessboard being manipulated by the big deities. If I create this storm, what will that cause the little men to do? etc.

God is not like that, He has our best interests at heart.

Hebrews 1:1-2 In many separate revelations [each of which set forth a portion of the Truth] and in different ways God spoke of old to [our] forefathers in and by the prophets, [But] in the last of these days He has spoken to us in [the person of a] Son, Whom He appointed Heir and lawful Owner of all things, also by and through Whom He created the worlds and the reaches of space and the ages of time [He made, produced, built, operated, and arranged them in order].

Jesus created, spoke to us, put in order and intercedes for us. He is the heir and lawful owner of all that is.

Luke 19:30-31“Go to the village ahead of you, and as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ tell him, ‘The Lord needs it.’ “

This scene takes place right before Jesus goes into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. Joe Zeitz in another Bible study explained that the word “Lord” in this verse means owner. Jesus is the heir and lawful owner of all things. And so the disciple was to say, “The Lord needs it.” What is interesting is that this donkey was never ridden before, so it was not in need of a sabbath’s rest. It could be used by Jesus without breaking the sabbath laws.

We always want to reduce God to legalism. But Jesus is the heir and lawful owner of all that is, and by His Word created the world, and His sphere of influence reaches all ages of time, past, present and future. Joy shook her head and said, “That’s a lot. That’s a lot.”

Hebrews 1:3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.

He is the sole and only expression of Light, bringing it into time and place. Secular humanists do not submit to God’s authority, having a higher regard for themselves. Basing all on their intellect, self esteem and their own right to their own opinion. But all of that is just for the self, and relates to what Romans 1 says, worshipping the creation rather than the creator. Choosing to ignore what is so obvious through God’s creation.

Romans 1:20-25 For ever since the creation of the world His invisible nature and attributes, that is, His eternal power and divinity, have been made intelligible and clearly discernible in and through the things that have been made (His handiworks). So [men] are without excuse [altogether without any defense or justification], Because when they knew and recognized Him as God, they did not honor and glorify Him as God or give Him thanks. But instead they became futile and godless in their thinking [with vain imaginings, foolish reasoning, and stupid speculations] and their senseless minds were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools [professing to be smart, they made simpletons of themselves]. And by them the glory and majesty and excellence of the immortal God were exchanged for and represented by images, resembling mortal man and birds and beasts and reptiles. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their [own] hearts to sexual impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves [abandoning them to the degrading power of sin], Because they exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, Who is blessed forever! Amen (so be it).

God gave us free will. We have a choice, do we choose I AM said so or do we choose our own reason? Even in the church many choose their own reason over God.

Joy talked about a college course she had to take in the mid-70′s called “values clarification.” It was a class to teach teachers how to help children decide their own values. Teaching young kids to pick their own values rather than teaching the kids the values to follow. Our society is now experiencing the fruit of values clarification, just pick up a newspaper and see what is happening in our society. Kids being taught that what you think is true is true for you. That there is no absolute standard of truth. Because of this, we are self-serving, and this is debilitating. It distorts our understanding of who God is, and who we are in relation to Him.

There is a big difference between self esteem and self worth. Self esteem holds the self in high value. Self worth is knowing how precious we are to God. Joy pointed out that Psalm 139 tells us how special we are to God. It speaks of God searching us thoroughly. That there is nowhere we can go that God is not there. That Psalm 139:13-18 For You did form my inward parts; You did knit me together in my mother’s womb. I will confess and praise You for You are fearful and wonderful and for the awful wonder of my birth! Wonderful are Your works, and that my inner self knows right well. My frame was not hidden from You when I was being formed in secret [and] intricately and curiously wrought [as if embroidered with various colors] in the depths of the earth [a region of darkness and mystery]. Your eyes saw my unformed substance, and in Your book all the days [of my life] were written before ever they took shape, when as yet there was none of them. How precious and weighty also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I could count them, they would be more in number than the sand. When I awoke, [could I count to the end] I would still be with You.

We are precious to God.

1 Corinthians 14:14 For if I pray in an [unknown] tongue, my spirit [by the Holy Spirit within me] prays, but my mind is unproductive [it bears no fruit and helps nobody].

Our self-esteem leans heavily on our intellect, and the idea of our mind not being fruitful challenges our intellect. Joy began to realize that that was a foolish idea, because no matter how smart we are in our natural mind, God is far more intelligent than we are.

Instead of being locked into self-esteem, it was more important to realize who God is, and who He is to me, which is EVERYTHING.

James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect (free, large, full) gift is from above; it comes down from the Father of all [that gives] light, in [the shining of] Whom there can be no variation [rising or setting] or shadow cast by His turning [as in an eclipse].

You don’t have to wonder if God is going to change His mind about you, get sick of you, get disgusted about you. God is not fickle, He won’t change His mind about you. God is not moody. He won’t get mad at you, or not pay attention to you. Only God is the source of anything good that we have or are. We spend lots of time trying to live up to what God wants us to be, and we can’t. But God still loves us.

James 1:18 And it was of His own [free] will that He gave us birth [as sons] by [His] Word of Truth, so that we should be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures [a sample of what He created to be consecrated to Himself].

God created us to be a model, to be a sample of Himself, so that others can know Him. To demonstrate God’s mind, will, faithfulness, perfection, love to others. So that when others look at us they can say to themselves, “So that’s what God looks like.”

James 1:19-20 Understand [this], my beloved brethren. Let every man be quick to hear [a ready listener], slow to speak, slow to take offense and to get angry. For man’s anger does not promote the righteousness God [wishes and requires].

God is slow to get angry and take offense. We are to show the righteousness of God.

Joy then told us the story of the 10 cow wife. There were two islands near each other, and the men from one island would come to the other island to choose their bride. The bride price was paid in cows, one cow being for the least desirable bride, 10 cows for the most expensive bride. One father had a daughter who was not pretty, had a sharp tongue, wasn’t a good cook who at best would go for 2 cows. An islander came over and offered 10 cows for this daughter. The people thought he was crazy. Years later, he came back to visit the island and in the canoe was a beautiful, soft spoken woman. The men wondered what ever happened to the daughter that he had originally married. Turns out that the beautiful woman in the canoe was that daughter, and what changed her was the fact that the man considered her to be a 10 cow woman.

Joy then told us that in Jesus’s eyes, we are all 10 cow brides. That He loves us and sees what we are going to become. He doesn’t look at us as to how we are, but He sees us as beautiful and righteous In Christ.

Isaiah 64:6 For we have all become like one who is unclean [ceremonially, like a leper], and all our righteousness (our best deeds of rightness and justice) is like filthy rags or a polluted garment; we all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away [far from God's favor, hurrying us toward destruction.

So often in our dealings with God we are like little children telling our parent what we will and won't do, throwing our tantrums.

Romans 1:18 For God's [holy] wrath and indignation are revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who in their wickedness repress and hinder the truth and make it inoperative.

Gentiles will be held accountable. If God holds gentiles accountable, how much more is he going to hold us accountable. Who He (God) is is clearly revealed in His creation. God is real and He is who He says He is. We may choose to follow His way or our own way. Joy suggested reading Romans 1 to see the state that we have put ourselves by going our own way.

Romans 2:1-4 THEREFORE YOU have no excuse or defense or justification, O man, whoever you are who judges and condemns another. For in posing as judge and passing sentence on another, you condemn yourself, because you who judge are habitually practicing the very same things [that you censure and denounce]. [But] we know that the judgment (adverse verdict, sentence) of God falls justly and in accordance with truth upon those who practice such things. And do you think or imagine, O man, when you judge and condemn those who practice such things and yet do them yourself, that you will escape God’s judgment and elude His sentence and adverse verdict? Or are you [so blind as to] trifle with and presume upon and despise and underestimate the wealth of His kindness and forbearance and long-suffering patience? Are you unmindful or actually ignorant [of the fact] that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repent (to change your mind and inner man to accept God’s will)?

Will we change our mind and accept God’s will? Or Romans 2:5 But by your callous stubbornness and impenitence of heart you are storing up wrath and indignation for yourself on the day of wrath and indignation, when God’s righteous judgment (just doom) will be revealed. God will judge us righteously, and what is the criteria is whether or not we accept God’s will in our lives.

Romans 4:20 No unbelief or distrust made him waver (doubtingly question) concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong and was empowered by faith as he gave praise and glory to God.

This verse is about Abraham, known as the Father of Faith. What He did is that He trusted God. How do you empower your faith? Through giving God praise and glory.

We have deep flaw in our character. We tend to not trust God completely. We can trust God for salvation, sometimes for healing, but we don’t trust God for our happiness. We figure we can take care of that ourselves. And unfortunately, with our limited understanding the things we think will bring us happiness don’t.  We pick destructive behaviors thinking that they will bring happiness.

Just like kids who think that their parents are fools, we think that God is so repressive that He can’t help us to be happy, we have to find our own happiness. But God has our best interests at heart, and we need to trust that God will work out our happiness.

2 Peter 1:3-4 For His divine power has bestowed upon us all things that [are requisite and suited] to life and godliness, through the [full, personal] knowledge of Him Who called us by and to His own glory and excellence (virtue). By means of these He has bestowed on us His precious and exceedingly great promises, so that through them you may escape [by flight] from the moral decay (rottenness and corruption) that is in the world because of covetousness (lust and greed), and become sharers (partakers) of the divine nature.

God has precious and great promises for us, and helps us to escape beyond the reach of moral decay.

2 Peter 1:5-8 For this very reason, adding your diligence [to the divine promises], employ every effort in exercising your faith to develop virtue (excellence, resolution, Christian energy), and in [exercising] virtue [develop] knowledge (intelligence), And in [exercising] knowledge [develop] self-control, and in [exercising] self-control [develop] steadfastness (patience, endurance), and in [exercising] steadfastness [develop] godliness (piety), And in [exercising] godliness [develop] brotherly affection, and in [exercising] brotherly affection [develop] Christian love. For as these qualities are yours and increasingly abound in you, they will keep [you] from being idle or unfruitful unto the [full personal] knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One).

Joy pointed out that every one of these qualities take exercise, and each one leads to the next one. We have to exercise faith, and when we exercise faith we develop virtue. After we develop virtue, we exercise virtue and develop knowledge…and after knowledge, self control, after self control, steadfastness, after steadfastness, godliness, after godliness, brotherly affection, after brotherly affection, Christian love.

We do not immediately jump from faith to Christian love, it is a process. Once we are saved, we don’t immediately wake up and find ourselves giving Christian love. Exercise and practice builds up strength. While we may exhibit these qualities at times, we grow in our faith through a process, and God helps us to exercise these traits.

What is great about our church, Joy said, is that we are not all alike, we are a wonderful salad of different vegetables, some are spicy, some crunchy, some limp. That is how God likes us to be, not one  homogenous mix. He wants us bumping into each other and smoothing off the rough edges. If we can’t share Christian love with each other, how can we authentically bring Christian love out into the world? God wants us to develop into people who show forth His glory and divine nature.

Have a blessed day.

Heather

After our tour of Masada, we went to the Dead Sea, and floated in it. That was an incredible spot. But very slippery, and the salt was very acrid. We were warned not to get any in our eyes, or mouths. What was hard was that once you feet went up, getting back to shore was not a picnic. I have to be honest and say that of all the spots we visited, that was my least favorite. I am glad I did it once, but once is enough. Perhaps at spas where there is a sandy bottom my perception would be different. What is interesting about the Dead Sea is that it is getting smaller and smaller as time goes by. It is frightening to the locals and they are debating what to do about the diminishing sea. One idea is to bring water from the Red Sea and put it into the Dead Sea – the slogan being, “From Red to Dead.”  They are not acting quickly on this because they have learned from the past that ecology can be ruined if one acts to fast. (Heather’s note, perhaps prayer would be more effective in this.)

Right before we visited Israel, they had an unusual rain storm where it rained 12 inches in one day. The Mt. of Olives flooded, and there were pictures in the local newspapers that mirror the floods that we have received locally. What made this unusual is that it usually doesn’t rain in May. Nurit kept pointing out the damage caused by the flooding.

What also happened because of the rain is that there were sink holes formed around the Dead Sea, and lots of gullies formed by the flash floods.

Some people took huge clumps of salt from the rocks. The muslim women went into the Dead Sea fully clothed in burkas.

What was really interesting is that Pastor Don had the driver stop the bus alongside the road and pointed out caves in the mountainside. These were the caves where they found the Dead Sea Scrolls.

You can see the cave to the left, in the shorter mountain. It was one of the caves where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. Shepherd boys were crawling around the caves, and tossed a rock into the cave, hearing a tinkling sound of breaking pottery. They found a scroll and sold it in the market. Eventually a buyer asked where the scrolls were found, and a treasure was uncovered. What made the scrolls so important is that scholars compared the scrolls found in these caves with current Old Testament scriptures and found out that the texts were virtually the same, the only difference being an occasional punctuation mark. That kind of defeats the argument that the Bible can’t be trusted because translations change the text – if documents hidden thousands of years ago agree with the current scriptures, then translations have not changed the meaning of the text. There were 300 scrolls found. No one knows why the scrolls were put into a cave. Nurit said that they never threw away an old Torah, but buried the worn out copies, and it is possible that the scrolls were buried in a cave. John the Baptist and the Essenes lived in this area. It is also possible that the Essenes buried the scrolls to protect them from the enemy.

We also visited an oasis of En Gedi. Most of the springs around the Dead Sea have a high salt content, but En Gedi is one of two fresh water springs. Josephus praised En Gedi for palm trees and basalm. Ezekiel predicted that fishermen would line the shores of the Dead Sea by En Gedi (Ezekiel 47:10).

Around 1000 BC, when David fled from Saul (1 Samuel 23) he stayed in the strongholds at En Gedi. En Gedi means “the spring of the kid (goat). Ibex live near En Gedi. When we were walking toward the waterfall, we saw Ibex and other creatures. They kept walking, not afraid of the humans.

One time, when David was fleeing from King Saul, pursuers searched near En Gedi. Saul went into a cave around here to take care of his needs. David and his men were hiding in the recesses of the same cave. When Saul slept, David came and cut off part of the hem of Saul’s garment to let Saul know that David posed no threat to Saul’s life. 1 Samuel 24.

You can see a cave with a stone in the opening. Hermits have come to live in these caves since the time of Jesus.

We had to walk quite some way to get to the waterfall.

There were streams that people were swimming in.

And beautiful waterfalls. It is hard to believe that such an oasis can exist in the middle of the desert.

Part of the tradition of visiting En Gedi is to get into the water and stand under the waterfall.

You can see a Muslim woman in a burka enjoying the waterfall.

Here am I in my blue suit under the waterfall. Had to get that picture so that Jim could see that I really did this. What was exciting is that at one point when many of our group were in the water, a rainbow formed.

From certain spots on our descent from En Gedi you could see the Dead Sea. It was a good tactical position for conquest of Israel, and some of the various “ites” (Amorites, etc) came and conquered Israel from the base of En Gedi.

I am going to save Jericho for another posting because there is so much to share about that.

Hope you enjoy these pictures.

Have a blessed night!

Heather

I had to miss Bible study yesterday because we ended up in New York City for dentist appointments. My oldest son had all four wisdom teeth pulled. We also went back to the 79th Street Boat Basin to visit an old friend named Ed, who has a charter boat there. Jim and I lived in New York City on a boat in the Boat Basin for many years. It was a wonderful time, and a great community. My kids had never seen the boat basin before, so they had fun being on Ed’s sail boat. Infact, my Ed really liked Ed Bacon. We had a lot of fun recounting the good times of the people in the Boat Basin. Some of the stories are too funny for words, some were bittersweet memories.

Here are a couple of pictures.

Here is one of Ed and Ed talking on the boat, you can see from the smile that my Ed is enjoying himself.

Jim and Ed below deck.

My three kids, Katherine, Ed, and Christopher. I can’t believe Christopher is smiling after having his four wisdom teeth removed. And Ed Bacon is behind them..

And finally, as we were leaving, Jim got this picture of Ed, the kids, and me.

Thought you might enjoy these pictures. I am now working up another Israel post. I keep trying to download videos, but if they are over 3 minutes they bomb out, and I don’t know how to adjust them. I would love to have you hear Pastor Don teach. Writing cannot relay the love behind the teachings.

Have a blessed day.

Heather

Remember, in my “links” column you can click on Israel and be brought to links to all the postings of the Israel trip to date. I am only up to day five of the 10 days, so there will be more to come!

You saw the video in my last post of going up to Jerusalem. During the bus ride one of our members, Elaine Jones gave a short Bible Study. Pastor Don wanted those who desired to give a five to ten minute Bible study to step forward throughout the trip and share as the Spirit led us. It was good to hear the teachings that the people shared.

Elaine is the woman in the black and white dress with the beige hat. This picture is taken in the shepherd’s cave, but I will tell you more about the cave later.

Elaine was lead to Matthew 18:2-4 Then Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of them and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

Elaine told us that this is a call to childlike faith, not childish faith. He wants us to be childlike. Many of us missed the freedom of being like a child. We ended up being rigid, mature, old, staunch, instead of having a joyful experience with God. A child trusts God. A child does not ask why, or how, just trusts. He is our father, and we can go to Him. A child does not question how dad is going to pay the rent or take care of the bills, they just trust that this will happen. A child doesn’t need to understand how his father will take care of things, just trust that he will. We need to trust our Heavenly Father has things in His control. We don’t have to have Him tell us how He is going to do something.

Psalm 37:3 Trust in the LORD, and do good; dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness.

When we deal with our own understanding we are thrown into confusion, but the Word of God brings us back into order.

Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding.

Luke 18:16 But Jesus called them to Him and said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for such is the kingdom of God.

We are promised the kingdom life, and walking in God’s kingdom, we are His ambassadors. Do not forbid God’s children.

What are childish actions – throwing temper tantrums, judging ourselves and others, wanting everything the way we want it, when we want it. Bargaining with God and telling God I am going to do (Fill in the blank) and then you will bless me. He is Abba, and we are His children. Sometimes we cry out loud to Him, yell, scream, instead of listening to the Father. We are dealing with the natural, but also on a supernatural level. The rich young ruler in Luke 18:18 asked Jesus what he needed to do to inherit eternal life. Jesus told him to obey the commandments, and when the rich young ruler told Jesus he did that, Jesus then told him to sell all that he had and give it to the poor. The rich young ruler decided he couldn’t do that, he asked Jesus a question, but did not want the answer. When our father answers our questions, we need to trust and obey.

We need to have childlike faith, listen to the Father and obey Him. To know that all we have is His, and to know that He wants our freedom.

Elaine then sang the song “Silver and Gold” which blew me away because it also was mentioned in Haggai 2 -remember Haggai 2 she says smiling.

It was nighttime when we finally arrived in Jerusalem, traveling up to Jerusalem.

Here is a few pictures of nighttime overlooking Jerusalem. You need to know that all over the city we counted at least 17 minarets blaring a muslim call to prayer, the color was kind of like the the green of Poison Ivy’s blood in a Batman movie.

Above is Pastor Don looking over the city. I was crying, because finally my fondest dream came true, to see Jerusalem.

The above Picture from left to right is Cynthia (pastor Don’s wife), Jamin, Tiffany (Laban’s wife), Laban, and Pastor Don. Pastor Don’s other son, Ethan could not make the trip this time.

Julie. You can see the lights starting to come on and you can imagine the sound of the loudspeakers calling the muslims to prayer. The greenish lights are the minarets.

This was a group photo taken a few days later, in the same spot, but during daytime.

Much of the history of Masada is taken from Josephus. Masada was a refuge for King Herod in 40 B.C., when he fled from Jerusalem to Masada. When you drive towards Masada you do not see the fortress, for the mountain is so high. It was a perfect refuge. King Herod used this fortress to protect his wife from the threat of the Jewish people. The Roman garrison was stationed there, which entailed a need for a lot of storerooms, baths, cisterns for water, and places to sleep. During a revolt against the Romans, a band of zealots overtook Masada and fortified themselves there. You could see the city of Jerusalem from the top of the fortification and in 70 A.D. the zealots were holed up in Masada, mourning the burning and destruction of the temple. In order for the Romans to recapture Masada, they actually built a ramp to lead up to the top of the mountain. While the ramp was being built those who were in Masada watched, knowing the end was near. When the recapturing of Masada seemed inevitable the zealots under Eleazar gathered in the temple at Masada, and drew lots, preferring to die rather than fall into the hands of the Romans. Our tour guide, Nurit, told us that they found shards of pottery with Hebrew letters on them that the archeologists think were the lots. The ones who lost the lot drawing were the ones who had to kill all the others in the place, then kill themselves. When the Romans stormed Masada, they found very few left alive.All their possessions were burned, and the 10 people chosen by lot killed everyone else. Two women and five children survived the mass suicide by hiding in a cave. From that time on a Roman garrison was stationed in Masada.

Here are some pictures.

This is a view from the top, to get to Masada we had a choice walk on the stairs or take the cable car. You might be interested in knowing that several people in our group were healed by God of a fear of heights during the cable car ride.

You can see from the cliffs just how high the mountain was, and how hard it would have been to attack this fortress. That is why Herod knew that it was a safe place to keep his favored wife.

This is the mountain that Masada was on, as you can see, from our level, there is no way to know that anyone was up there, but if you look carefully you can see a cablecar going up. It is about level with the top of the mirror and 1/3 of the way from the left of the picture.

To get an idea of the scale, you can see our group walking on the walkway towards the entrance.

This is a view looking down from Masada. The squares at the base were where Roman fortifications were built to attempt the storming of Masada. It was from there that the dirt ramp was built that helped the soldiers storm Masada. The water in the background is the Dead Sea.

Here you can see the massive building that went on at Masada, just look at those walls.

Pastor Don pointing out some of the history of the area.

Another view, with the Dead Sea which is the blue in the background.

I am impressed with the steps carved out of rock. The expanse of space on top of this mountain was spectacular.

They did massive reconstruction at the site. The black line that snakes around the stone is the line that shows where the reconstruction occurred. Below is the original, above is reconstruction. Here are some of the frescoes in Herod’s palace.

More from the palace.

This is the set of stairs that we had to walk down to get to the palace, and then, sigh, walk back up.

The Romans cared about baths, and much of what they had was very similar to the modern steam baths that we have today.

Where the stone pillars are, a floor was built over that, and fire was underneath the floor to heat water and make steam. There were also hollow bricks where steam could come up into the baths.

This was an interesting formation, but I am not certain what it was. I think it might have been a cistern, but I am not certain. Any ideas?

Barracks and storerooms.

We then went to the synagogue, where the lots were found, and where many died at the hands of their fellow countrymen rather than be captured by the Romans.

This was the area of the synagogue.

Because the Romans took over and held onto Masada, a church was built on the grounds. The following two pictures show parts of the church, from a mosaic floor and interesting walls.

You can see the corner of the mosaic floor and the walls of the Byzantine church.

Cynthia and Maranatha tired after our long hike.

This was an interesting place of history, but I am so saddened by the history of this fortress, to think of so many lives lost.

Hoping your day is blessed.

Heather

Pastor Don summarized some of last Friday’s and Wednesday’s Bible study for those who were not there those days. You can read the notes here, here and here.  But I am including the short summary because it is a good review, and I find that I learn more when I go over the material more than once.

He talked about the Spirit of Offense, and how God said that there would be woe unto someone who caused offense. But it also matters how we receive offence, often our response is due to personal experiences. We need to know how to get relief from this.

So Pastor Don then said, “What does a Spirit of Offense cause? How does it enter into lives? What does it quench?

When offended, how do we do spiritual warfare against the Spirit of Offense?

Pastor Don reminded us that Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. is the most misunderstood and misquoted scripture in the Bible. It is not a verse that tells us that everything will work together for good – it won’t work together for good if we are not doing God’s will and purpose. Not ALL things work together for good. If Pastor Don gets run over by a bus, we can’t go out to him and say, “All things work together for good.” It isn’t good to be run over by a bus.

We all end up in situations of strife and offense. Romans 8:28 is not saying that everything that happens to you will work out for your good – that is not Biblical or scriptural. That kind of belief is what Kenneth Hagin would say is ignorance gone to seed.

We take a scripture out of its setting in order to pacify our own error and ignorance. When we do “stupid” it doesn’t always work out for the good. Contention and strife will not always work out for the good. High blood pressure and heart disease can be the results of contention and strife, and that is not for the good.

Not everyone LOVES GOD. While many know God, that doesn’t mean that we are in love with God. And the last part of the verse is “called according to His purpose.” Not everyone is doing God’s purpose for us. Pastor Don asked us how many of us are called to a mission in Manilla? No one raised their hands. Then Pastor Don said that if we went to Manilla on our own, and got sick, we might ask “Why? I am doing God’s work in Manilla.” But was it doing God’s Will? Sometimes we do things in our will for God, but it is not God’s will for us. He does not have to bless what we do that is outside of His will for us. We can’t use scriptures to defend our own stupidity or self-will. We can love God and end up in Manilla, but not be in God’s will.

Then Pastor Don reviewed Paul in Macedonia, pointing out that several times Paul wanted to go there, but the Holy Spirit did not permit it. Then when Paul was given permission to go there, he went IN GOD’S WILL, and Lydia came and gave him housing and food. Ultimately he went to jail, and God turned that to good because of Paul’s being in God’s will – and the jailer and his family were saved.

When the Evil one wants to disrupt the will of God, he has to bring us into a spirit of offense and contention to get the person off track. We want to say, “When stuff is going wrong, the devil is beating me up.” Unfortunately that is not always true, but if we say that and believe that it is like putting out a welcome mat for the devil to beat us up.

Mark 11:22-23 So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God. For assuredly, I say to you, whosoever says to this mountain, “Be removed and be cast into the sea” and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.

You WILL have what YOU say. If you are sick, poor, attacked, beat up by sins, open to strife and contention, it is most of the time because of what comes out of your mouth. It can start in the flesh, and then become demonic as satan adds his attack to what you say.

The spiritual secret for warfare is to build ourselves up so that we are not easily offended.

We then looked at the “Love” Chapter – 1 Corinthians 13, which talks about love and also about spiritual gifts, including tongues. Another chapter in the Bible that is misread by so many.

(Heather’s note, remember they did not have chapter and verses in the early manuscripts, so Chapter 13 flows from Chapter 12 which tells us to earnestly desire spiritual gifts.)

1 Corinthians 13:1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.

The 2nd half of the sentence in this verse does NOT NEGATE the first half. He does not regret speaking in tongues, just that tongues must be spoken in love. A lack of love short circuits power. Praying in tongues is a spiritual gift that edifies and activates power in us, but it is no asset of great power without love. But at the same time, without the power that comes from praying in our spiritual tongue, we won’t have the power to be very effective with our love.

Pastor Don said that you can have a great car, but without spark plugs the car will not go. You can also have spark plugs, but without a great car to put them in you will not go. What you need is to combine both of them.

He had us chuckling as he strummed his air guitar and sang, “All you need is love, all you need is love, love is all you need.” That is what many of the Body of Christ are saying, that we have no need of spiritual gifts, all we need is love. Noooo. He then went on air guitaring to the Beetle’s tune, “I have no funds, I am sick, I am ineffective, but all I need is love, all I need is love. My family is messed up, I am getting a divorce, but all I need is love. There are sick people who need healing but all they need is love…” Periodically throughout the Bible study he broke out into that song. (Heather’s note, I have that song stuck in my head now.) But it is true, we do need love, and give love, but having the power that comes from the Holy Spirit and praying in our private prayer language is also a necessary weapon. (Heather’s note, if you are given an entire set of weaponry, why not use all that is offered, why go out 1/2 armed? And if God has given us these tools and spiritual weapons, He must know something that we don’t, namely that we need them.)

If I have love and am walking in poverty, depression, sickness, and misery, we may have love, but we are fools if we don’t reach out to God for more.

1 Corinthians 13:2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.  You have a fabulous car (love), but don’t throw out the spark plugs – prophecy, understanding of mysteries, etc.

He said we could go through some of the intervening verses, but we got the picture that we need BOTH spiritual gifts AND love.

1 Corinthians 13:13 And now abide faith, hope, love, these three but the greatest of these is love.

Galatians 5:6 ….but faith working through love. We build up our faith through tongues, but faith works through love. In our world today, though, we need more than Christian Love, we need Christian gifts and Christian power to help us to reduce strife and the spirit of offense.

1 Corinthians 14:1 Pursue love, and desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy.

Paul continued (Heather’s note, Chapter 13 flows into Chapter 14). notice that there is not a period after the world “love” but a conjunction AND which implies doing both. We are to desire spiritual gifts including prophesy.

1 Corinthians 14:2 For he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God, for no one understands him; however in the spirit he speaks mysteries.

When we speak in tongues, who are we speaking to? To God. Some people have never spoken to God. Human words are filled with deception, false pride, human error. Tongues is a perfect prayer – for it is prayed spirit to Spirit.

James 4:3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.

When we are speaking in tongues, we are speaking mysteries to God, God looks at our heart and interprets it. The Holy Spirit will not pray amiss.

1 Corinthians 14:3 But he who prophesies speaks edification and exhortation and comfort to men.

There are two different kinds of prophesy, 1. to tell forth which is what Pastor Don did during Bible study – to tell forth the Word of God, and 2. to foretell, which is to tell something that will happen in the future.

Both will edify and build up. And speaking in tongues is a way to edify our Spirit. A weight lifter edifies his muscle by exercising. In tongues we exercise our Spirit.

1 Corinthians 14:4 He who speaks in tongues edifies himself, but he who prophesies edifies the church. Paul is not saying to NOT speak in tongues, because Paul knows that tongues edifies us, but he is talking about order in the church – if there are visitors or others who are not saved in the church if everyone is speaking in tongues it leads to confusion and chaos. God is not a God of confusion and chaos.

1 Corinthians 14:13-14 Therefore let him who speaks in a tongue pray that he may interpret. For if I pray in a tongue my spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful. Paul is telling us that we need to pray for interpretation of tongues. Praying in tongues is fruitful for our Spirit, but without interpretation, it does not help our understanding. Tongues builds up our spirit, strengthens our inner man. But Paul is not saying don’t speak in tongues.

Why do we speak in tongues? The Holy Spirit is now on earth in every believer, and now through the Spirit, in our spiritual language – tongues – every man can communicate with God. Since Jesus came, every man is a priest and king. Before Jesus, the Holy Spirit only spoke through priests, kings and prophets, now we all can hear from God and speak back to Him.

Jesus tore the veil in the temple so the power of the Holy Spirit came out and filled all of us – there is now no wall of separation. Jesus Christ is the only mediator. He intercedes for us. We do not have to go to a High Priest, we go straight to God. We don’t have to see a prophet or priest to understand God’s plan for our lives, He can show us directly through the Holy Spirit. What we need to do is to increase the power of our receiver and transmitter in the Spirit, and increase our ability to hear. The way God works is by asking us, “Do you have enough faith to do something that you don’t understand, that the Bible says will reward you with power?” (Do you have enough faith to speak tongues?)

One thing that seems to lead to a spirit of offense in the church, that divides congregations, causes contention and strife, and splits churches, is tongues.

The truth of the matter is that if you are making intercession against the kingdom of the devil, and you are not built up in the spirit, satan can counter attack until he wears you out. When the attacks keep coming and coming, without an infilling of the Spirit of God you can get worn out.

1 Corinthians 14:14 For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful. Super intellectual people have a hard time with spiritual gifts. Sometimes our brains get in our way, we are so smart that God has to give us something that seems stupid to do, so that we can turn our minds over to God’s will and purpose, without our limited logic getting in the way.

We need supernatural power to operate in the supernatural, or else we will not overcome the flesh. Tongues is within the believer’s control, it is not possession where the spirit takes over. In order to speak in tongues, the believer has to open their mouths and make a sound. The disciples in Acts 1 had to assemble in Jerusalem and wait on God. They came into one accord through prayer, but even that would not have caused tongues, they had to open their mouths and speak. Getting past the control of their minds.

There are many wonderful saints of God who do not speak in tongues. Speaking in tongues does not make a person better than someone who doesn’t speak in tongues, it just helps them to be better equipped. Some get the power of the Holy Spirit, speak  in tongues that one time, and then put the gift on the shelf and don’t use it. Some speak in tongues a little, but do not apply the power that they acquire from yielding to the Spirit to combat the spirit of offense or their situation.

Speaking in tongues does not guarantee holiness. Pastor Don has gone to churches where people speak in tongues during church services, but outside of the church they cuss you out. Speaking in tongues does not sanctify you, the blood of Jesus sanctifies you.Tongues only gives you edification.

Pastor Don gave another car example, he said that if you take a 458 horsepower engine an put it into a Volkswagen car, the bigger engine might run the car quicker, but it may also be too powerful for the car frame and wear down the parts. So as we edify ourselves, we also need to be building up our flesh, resisting the devil so he flees, etc.

We can speak in tongues out loud, sing in tongues out loud, pray in tongues out loud, we can also do it very quietly, under our breath. Pastor Don prayed in tongues singing to the tune of “All you need is love….”

1 Corinthians 14:27 If someone speaks in a tongue, let there be two or at the most three, each in turn, and let one interpret. This is a different kind of tongues from the private prayer language, this is tongues for prophesy in the Body of Christ. In church we can all pray in tongues quietly under our breath, but if we make an announcement in tongues, disrupt the service by tongues, or make a prophesy by tongues there is a right order to do so. If tongues is given, an interpretation must follow. If you do not have the interpretation, someone in the church should have the interpretation, or else the tongues are spoken out of order. This is to keep order in the church, so that chaos does not reign.Tongues, with interpretation is prophesy which is different from tongues mentioned in the first part of 1 Corinthians 14:4 He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but he who prophesies edifies the church. There is tongues to edify our own spirit, and then there is tongues for prophesy that edifies the church.

Pastor Don says that if you are speaking tongues in church to stop the service, you need to have an interpretation or someone else in the church has to have an interpretation for what you spoke in tongues, or you are out of order.

1 Corinthians 14:15 What is the conclusion then? I will pray with the spirit and I will also pray with the understanding. I will sing with the spirit, and I will also sing with the understanding. It would depend on the circumstances and the direction of the service.

1 Corinthians 14:17  For you indeed give thanks well, but the other is not edified. Tongues for one’s own edification does not edify another person, only with understanding will they be edified by the Spirit.

1 Corinthians 14:18-19 I thank my God that I speak with tongues more than you all; yet in the church I would rather speak five words with my understanding, that I may teach others also, than ten thousand words in a tongue. Paul spoke in tongues lots, but also made sure that when he needed to reach people that he did it with his understanding. His goal was not just personal edification, but reaching souls.

Paul doesn’t say one is better than the other, just that you have to consider the circumstances.

Pastor Don then said that sometimes not speaking in tongues is unyieldness, other times we are very self-conscious so do not want to appear foolish, some people speak out in church every week with tongues, but they are speaking in the flesh. Others might have a tongue once in a blue moon, but when they do, it is valid. But in a church situation, 2 – 3 speaking in tongues with interpretation is in order.

Pastor Don also pointed out that God wrote 66 books over a period of 6,000 years, that God does not waste words. If he is like that with the Bible, He also will not waste words with tongues and prophesy. Pastor Don says that usually the first few lines of a prophesy are the meat of the prophesy, then the person in their flesh tries to elaborate and embellish the prophesy, that God does not speak page after page after page.

If one person is praying in tongues given by the Spirit, what will usually follow is the interpretation.

Romans 8:26 Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

An example was given by one of our members about having to meet a person that usually gives them a problem, and they prayed in tongues, and asked God what they should say and how to say it. The meeting went well, far better than the usual meetings, because the Holy Spirit helped the member not to get offended.

Tongues give us a sense of God inside. It is harder to offend the Holy Spirit if you have God inside. What gives us a heightened sense of God is that our minds are not distracted by thoughts of the day. Sometimes when we are stressed or harried, we have a hard time shutting down our mind to settle it for prayer. At times we have to rest in the Spirit and the best way to do that is by praying in tongues.

Someone said that they saw research on people who were praying in the Spirit, and when brain monitors were put on the person’s head, areas that are usually not stimulated were stimulated when the person began to pray in their private prayer language. The flesh shuts down.

1 Corinthians 14:14 For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful.

1 Corinthians 14:31-32 For you can all prophesy one by one, that all may learn and all may be encouraged. And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets.

Pastor Don also told us that if someone says that they can’t stop speaking in tongues, that tongues takes over them, they are not doing so from God and it might be demonic possession. That the spirit of the prophet is subject to the prophet. That we can start and stop at will. God will not possess you against your will, you have to permit Him to use you.

1 Corinthians 14:39 Therefore, brethren, desire earnestly to prophesy, and do not forbid to speak with tongues.

We don’t want to forbid tongues. God would not give us a spiritual gift that wasn’t necessary. Spiritual gifts are to be used to edify the saints, for healings, anointings, etc. God wants the saint to be so built up, edified, that the spirit of offence which can short circuit the Body of Christ cannot touch the saint. So that there will be no anxiety, strife, or contention.

Offenses will come, and satan will make the most of it. If we do not take offense, it prevents satan from having a handhold in our lives.

We then looked at some scriptures regarding the spirit of offense.

Proverbs 3:30 Do not strive with a man without cause, if he has done you no harm.

Proverbs 17:14 The beginning of strife is like releasing water; therefore stop contention before a quarrel starts. The church needs to learn that it is OK to disagree, without spitting in the other’s face, it is ok to disagree, but not to fight.

Proverbs 20:3 It is honorable for a man to stop striving, since any fool can start a quarrel.

Someone asked about striving to reach souls, and that is a different kind of striving. But even with that, when it becomes apparent that a person is set on rejecting the Gospel, move on to a new fishing ground. We are not to cast pearls (and the Word of God is a precious pearl) before swine. We are to cast out our net and catch all within the net, but remember that not every fish we catch is edible.

2 Timothy 2:14 Remind them of these things, charging them before the Lord not to strive about words to no profit, to the ruin of the hearers. There are great arguments in the Body of Christ, some of these arguments are a waste of time. Some argue vehemently about when the end times occurs and the order of the events. It is more important to do what God tells us to do, and realize that He will tell us what we need to know when we need to know it. He deliberately did not tell us the times or the seasons, so we just keep doing His will now. We have to realize that a person is not bad because they disagree with you.

Sometimes a person can be quietly right, they don’t have to loudly pronounce their rightness in a situation. Sometimes the more boisterous arguments are done by people who believe that if they are louder they will be perceived as right.

2 Timothy 2:24-26 And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.

Some people just love to be in opposition, and that opens a person to be snared by the devil. Strife and contention put churches into opposition with each other.

My church is going to heaven – your’s to hell.
My church is sanctified, your’s is unholy.
My church is pure, your’s is corrupt.

These kinds of judgments do not build unity in Christ.

James 3:14-18 But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic. For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

Pastor Don said that at times, when a person is so contentious and persists in their behavior, just say OK and move on. Or say I don’t agree with you, but let’s keep peace. Or lets agree to disagree.  With unreasonable people, just leave the scene peaceably.

Genesis 13:8-9 So Abram said to Lot, “Please let there be no strife between you and me, and between my herdsmen and your herdsmen; for we are brethren. Is not the whole land before you? Please separate from me. If you take the left, then I will go to the right; or, if you go to the right, then I will go to the left.”

Abram realized that God would take care of him. He did not have to strive with Lot. He was willing to make peace at all costs, for families were involved. It wasn’t just you and me, but mine and yours.

This should be a message to the whole church. Some churches refuse to fellowship with people over theological differences. They refuse to get to the main point, Is Jesus Lord? A church that speaks in tongues should be able to put up with a church that doesn’t. Often though, other denominations that do not agree to signs and wonders and speaking in tongues do not want to have any dealings with a charismatic church.

Habakkuk 1:3-4 Why do You show me iniquity, and cause me to see trouble? For plundering and violence are before me; there is strife, and contention arises. Therefore the law is powerless, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; therefore perverse judgment proceeds.

As people of God, we have to be careful about focusing on other people’s faults, to be judging others. When we have a Spirit of offense, it comes out in a false righteous manner. It can easily turn the judgment to gossip, and sow more seeds of offense. Sometimes a person will hear an offense when no offense was intended.

Pastor Don gave an example. If he tells another member that Joe sure eats a lot. That kind of judgmental comment, not intentionally, ended up hurting Joe’s feelings. Then Joe may come to Pastor Don upset with him because of the situation that ensued and come up to Pastor Don and point out that he is short. Joe was offended by Pastor Don’s comment, and comes back with a comment geared to hurt Pastor Don’s feelings. We have to watch our tongues.

If we build ourselves up in the spirit, then we can’t get offended, and then those who are trying to offend us don’t have anything to contend with.

Pastor Don had more verses for us, but decided to save them for next Friday.

Stay tuned (she says smiling).

Have a blessed day.

Heather

There are times when bad things happen and we do not know how to pray

The passage talks about how God helps us with our sufferings, and we see in Romans 8:26 Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

The Holy Spirit intercedes for us when we do not know how to pray. We know from our own lives that at times we have prayed for things and received them only to find out that it was a disaster. At other times we have prayed for things and did not get them, and were relieved later because we realized it would not have been a good thing because God had a better plan. We need to preservere in prayer, and let the Spirit intercede for us.

When someone intercedes for us, we may not know that they are praying for us unless they tell us. Sometimes we know what the person desires and we pray for that, but often if a person’s name comes across our mind and we pray for them we are guessing what it is that they need. If we pray with our understanding and put words to it, we may not necessarily be praying the thing the person needs.

Pastor Don used Julie as an example. He said, what if he prays that Julie gets an extra $100 this week. Well, she may have all the money she needs and that $100 is not needed. What if he prayed that her husband doesn’t bring home any more bread because she has a refrigerator full of bread? Maybe she is ok with that. What if he prays for her and her husband’s relationship and their relationship is fine? All these things are good things to pray for a person, but what if the Holy Spirit knows that what Julie really needs is prayer for her big toe? Unless we are intervening in tongues, groanings, what we are praying is a guess. (Heather’s note, Pastor Don will talk much about Julie’s big toe during the evening. After the Bible study, Julie told us that she had burned her big toe that evening – no one knew – the Holy Spirit brought that example to Pastor Don so that she would receive prayer for her toe.)

The Spirit knows our weakness, even when we don’t know what to pray for. So the Spirit prays for us, praying what we really need. Verse 26 lets us know that something about our situation is going on in the Spirit realm, and the Holy Spirit will intercede for us.

Romans 8:27 Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

God the Father knows the mind of the Holy Spirit, and searches the mind of the Holy Spirit to know the hearts of the people. The Holy Spirit, because he makes intercession for the saints, is praying according to the WILL OF GOD. 

The Holy Spirit, if He cannot find someone to pray for Julie’s toe, will search for someone yielded in the Spirit who is praying and take their prayer and apply it to Julie’s toe. They may not know that that is why they woke up in the middle of the night with a heart to pray, so they pray in obedience to God, and it is the exact prayer that the Holy Spirit needs to apply to Julie’s toe. So a person, even if they don’t pray in tongues, if they wake up and are crying and praying, groaning in the Spirit, those prayers can be used to help Julie’s toe.

So God searches the mind of the Holy Ghost, and if he can get anyone to groan or utter (and it does not have to be tongues), not specific prayers, he can interpret that to the purpose He needs in order to fulfill God’s purpose.

Jesus told people, that if you know the Father, you know Me. The Word is established by two or more witnesses, so Jesus said that He and the Holy Spirit can testify on the truth of what He is saying.

We then Read Romans 8:26 again. Romans 8:26 Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weakness. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groaning which cannot be uttered.

God searches the hearts, and knows what the mind of the Spirit is, and the Holy Spirit makes intercession for the saints.

The Father knows what He wants to do.
The Holy Spirit knows what the Father wants to do.
The Holy Spirit needs it prayed by a son of Adam. God gets a person (son of Adam) to pray what the Father wants, then He can do what He wants to do.

We pray the Father’s will on the earth, and then the Father has permission to do His Will on earth.

When we use tongues, satan cannot interpret them, and that gives us an edge in the warfare of satan. For the will of the Father to be done on the earth, He needs someone to groan and use sounds that cannot be uttered, to speak in tongues, to pray His will into the earth. Shut up and say what the Spirit is saying.

The Holy Spirit will give a word to a saint, she gets an interpretation and then shares that with the rest of the saints.

The Holy Spirit searches the hearts of the people, and intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. Whenever the Will of God needs to be expressed, we can use prophetic gifts to express God’s will.

This whole passage in Romans 8 is a passage about prayer. The Holy Spirit intercedes for us because He knows what we need, and the Holy Spirit intercedes for the saints, so that we can express the will of God.

Then we look again at Romans 8:28 in this context And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

We know that the Holy Spirit is praying for the saints, so we know that all things will work together for good to those doing God’s will, His purpose on the earth and to those who love God. Why, because of the Holy Spirit’s intervention.

Romans 8:29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. We position ourselves under God, doing His purpose – he foreknew that purpose, and we conform to that. Jesus is the Firstborn among many saints, who – through Jesus – are also Sons and Daughters of God.

Romans 8:30-31 Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified. He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?

What things? We looked back at Romans 8:18 For I consider the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

When God’s glory is not revealed in something in our lives, that is because the devil sets a trap for us and we walk into it, walk into something that is not part of God’s will and purpose for our lives.

If we are created for a purpose, we can assume some good and glory will come from fulfilling that purpose. We cannot, if we are out of God’s plan, assume that everything bad that happens to us happens is a test of God. Some things that happen to us are from the flesh. Sometimes we create our own messes.

When the Holy Spirit intercedes for us it helps us to get in line with God’s purpose for us, all that is required is for us to get in agreement with the Holy Spirit.

When Paul and Silas were in that prison, Silas may have thought that, because they were in prison, that they were not supposed to be in Macedonia. Paul assures Silas that he prayed about it, and that God told him to go to Macedonia. So Paul says, since we are where we are supposed to be, lets sing praises to God, and watch and see what happens. Watch to see how God will glorify this uncomfortable position of being bound in jail. God will glorify this because Paul and Silas were in God’s perfect will. Maybe the jail situation doesn’t feel good, but they are still where God told them to be. And the fruit of that will be salvation and a church formed.

The Holy Spirit uses the praise of Paul and Silas, and gives a little intercessory prayer for them, and the fruit of that Holy Spirit intercession and their obedience was salvations.

Don’t volunteer yourself to believe that the bad things that happen to you are sent by God so that God can get glory. God doesn’t have to beat you up to get glory in a situation. We are dumb and stupid at times, we make mistakes and those mistakes can lead to bad things. We make bad choices, go out with the wrong person and decide to marry them. Not everything is a test from God, sometimes we just messed up 20 years ago when we did not listen to God about marrying a particular person. God never told us to marry that person, we overrode God’s command and married them, and now we are stuck with that person – God didn’t do that to us so he could test us, we made the wrong choice.

We cannot take a passage out of the Bible and only use 1/2 of it and say that it is gospel, we need to take the whole counsel of scripture. When Paul wrote this passage, he talked about suffering, hope, perseverance, and being assured. He talked about the Holy Spirit interceding for us, that the Holy Spirit will help us in our weaknesses, and that we do not always know what to pray for a situation for ourselves or others. When we pray in tongues, the Holy Spirit can use that prayer language to pray God’s Will in a situation. That God knows our heart, and the Holy Spirit will get things done according to God’s purpose.

Someone asked how this fit in with John 9 – the healing of the man who was blind from birth. So we went to that passage to look at it.

A bit of background. The Jews believed certain things, if you are sick, if you are in poverty it was the result of some sin in your life or in your family’s generations. When we are sick, the first place to look is at our diet, weight, resilience to pressure, for a medical condition. God is the God of truth and honesty, we can’t get healed until we are honest about stuff. Until we honestly look at what it is that I am doing that caused this? Colon cancer could come from bitterness that binds one up, back pain could be due to stress, etc. The truth is, not everyone who stands in a prayer line really wants to be healed, some like the attention that sickness gives them, some are so caught up in habits that they don’t want to let go, etc. The Jews believed that all sickness and deformity has a root of sin.

Jesus lived up to the expectations of what was prophesied about Him. For the prophesies pointed out that the Messiah was going to come with healing in His wings, and Jesus often, when He healed someone told them that their sins were forgiven, or go your way and don’t do that again, or go your way and be free of your infirmities. Jesus would heal a person, but often told the person to go and sin no more. If the person wanted to stay healed, they needed to make changes in their lives and not do those particular sins again.  Don’t go back to what got you into that position in the first place. Often our pride still keeps us in bondage though. Pastor Don gave the following example:

In India, Pastor Don prayed over many people, refusing to stop praying until the entire line was prayed for. What he noticed after all were prayed for was that many women came for prayer because of pains in their lower back and pain in their necks. This puzzled Pastor Don, so the following morning, he was on a rooftop praying, and he watched the women in the town. he noticed two things. The women all went to the town well with huge stainless steel containers – that could carry 20-40 pounds of water. They would fill up the containers, then two women would help the third woman put the heavy container of water on her head, she would walk to her home pour the water into a container and come back for more water. The women all did this early in the morning and made many trips – because water was turned off at 10:00 and they had to get the water to their houses. Then he noticed that the women had a little stick with a bit of broom on the end, to sweep up in front of their houses, so to sweep they had to stoop over to brush the ground. Pastor Don told the Indian pastors that these health problems could easily be solved if the women had a little wheelbarrow to carry the water and if they had longer handles on their brooms.

The pastors laughed and explained to Pastor Don that that would solve the womens’ problems but they would not do it. That even though, officially, the caste system was disbanded, the women would not want to sweep with a regular handled broom because that would imply that they were in a sweeper class which would be beneath their caste. And the same with the wheelbarrow because that would imply that they were in a puller’s caste. A puller was a widow or a working person, and if the woman used a cart she would be equated with a laborer.  In front of one of the churches a sewer broke, and nothing was done for weeks. Why because the digger’s caste had to come to dig down to the problem, and there was a pipe caste, and until they came the pipe couldn’t be fixed. The sewer just was open and rancid.

One of our members had us chuckling when she said, “Pride is a pain in the back.” For these women that was a literal truth.

Then we looked at John 9:1-2 Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, saying, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? The disciples understood the principle that whatever you don’t protect, the devil will attach himself to, and they assumed that this person had a sin or his family did.

John 9:3 Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him.”

There was no sin. The man was blind from birth. Some problems are just material problems, not sin related. DNA and genes did not come together. One member of our church was born without one of her knuckles, it was just a genetical thing, not a sin condition. Pastor Don pointed out that he was short and bald on the top of his head, not because of sin, but because of genes. Everything that goes wrong is not a generational curse, or the root of sin or demonic activity. Maybe everyone in a family is hyper and cultural drinking makes someone an alcoholic because they drink to reduce the hyper activity and they drink frequently with friends. It is not a generational curse until a person wants to be free of something and find themselves supernaturally locked into a negative behavior.

If you are part of a diabetic family and you make wrong food choices, hold emotions in, and let stuff eat at you, diabetes will come. Our culture is creating a lot of diabetics. In Ghana and Nigeria there is an increase in diabetes because many in those countries are now eating an American diet, and that increases the diabetic behavior, and the people are now seeing signs in their health.

We give the devil too much credit for our lack of self control and bad behavior. When we do things that are not Godly, the devil latches onto our fleshly behavior and makes it worse. We need to get beyond condemnation about what people are doing and realize that everyone is in the same boat, and we all want to get free.

John Chapter 9:3-5 Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him. I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

This passage does not say ANYWHERE in it that God made the person blind, it was a genetic issue, not a sin issue. But God is going to use this blindness to show the power of God revealed in this situation. Let’s not discuss what went wrong, but just that God revealed his good works through this man. God did not cause the man to be born blind to puff up Himself and His glory, but God loves us so much that He heals us. Jesus does the work of God. When he happened upon the blind man, he said that He was going to fix him. To bring light to this man’s dark situation, all he needed was healing. The light of God was revealed in this man.

So often we want to figure out the medical reason why of a situation, but God is greater than all our medical knowledge, and He can reverse any situation.  God just revealed Himself in the cure, but God was not the problem.

Jesus passed by and saw the blind man, and healed him.

Someone told Pastor Don that the NIV does not have the same emphasis on the healing, and Pastor Don said that there was a cultural bias in the NIV translation. If you look at the names of those on the board of translators, they were from denominations that deny signs and wonders.

Pastor Don said that in the 19 or more miracles that Jesus did there were not many examples of sickness from birth. No where is it said that God made us sick so that he could heal them.

Jesus walked by many people who did not ask for healings, 100,000′s were not healed. God did not make those who were sick and not touched by Jesus sick so God could get glory.

Is sickness the Will of God? NO!!!! It is not an issue of sin in the case of this blind man, it was just that Jesus had to do the work of God, and where Darkness was, Jesus brings the Light of God.

In circumstances that man created, by being human and fallible, God brought light and balance, joy, grace. Where there is war, God brings peace. Where there is sickness, God heals. Where there is disease, God brings health. Where there is racism, God brings a sense of community.

A question was brought up about psychic healers and new age healers. Pastor Don said that if you go to the devil to get healed it is a healing of symptoms, not a full healing. What satan takes off of a person by an instrument of satan, satan can put back onto a person. God has a plan that heals the sickness from the root of the sickness, not just the removal of symptoms.

Pastor Don closed the Bible study by telling us to begin to pursue what God has put in your heart, and when you are acting in God’s will, He will prosper you.

Hoping you have a blessed night,

Heather

Bible study was so interesting tonight. One of our members moved down to Florida, but still keeps in touch. He has a Bible Study group in his home, and one of the people in his study asked a question about a Bible verse, Romans 8:28. He contacted Pastor Don for help in rightly dividing that particular scripture. Pastor Don thought we would be blessed by the answer to this person’s question, so he taught this tonight. He asked God for confirmation that this was a right topic for us, and during our prayer time, I prayed for someone who experienced difficulty and I assumed that it was because satan was distressed that this person was doing good work for the kingdom. I was reading the situation wrong, making a non-biblical assumption, and that was the confirmation that Pastor Don needed to know that this was an important subject to teach. I am so glad when any assumptions that I make in error are corrected, because I never want to misrepresent God.

Pastor Don pointed out that God has said, “My people perish for lack of knowledge.” Life is tough. Natural causes can make life difficult, as can supernatural causes. The problem is to discern whether or not the cause of a difficult situation is natural or supernatural, but even knowing this, the outcome is the same. He gave a few examples. If you are promised a bicycle for a present, does it matter if the person paid cash or used a credit card? No, the important thing to you is that you get the bike. If you have a cold, does it matter if you caught it because someone sneezed on you or you didn’t wash your hands? No, what matters is that you get well from the cold. If you broke your ankle, does it matter if you fell down the stairs or if a heavy object fell on your ankle and broke it? No, your concern is the healing of the ankle. The ankle is still broken no matter what caused the broken ankle.

The warfare we are involved in has a spiritual source and a natural source. We need to focus on the solution to the situation. When we seek to discern the cause, it is a means of helping us prevent having the situation occur again. If we fell and broke our ankle tripping on the stairs because of a cat, then when we walk down the stairs in the future, we make sure there is no cat on the stairs.

Bad things happen to good people, and sometimes these bad things have a supernatural cause. Pastor Don said, what if you come home and your doors are opening and closing, your lights are going off and on, your TV is turning off and on, you may assume that it is an electrical problem, if it is, then you can solve it. If it is a spiritual demonic phenomena and you assume it is an electrical problem, then you may end up in worse circumstances. So discernment is important to determine the cause – spiritual or supernatural. But whatever the cause, there are still things you need to do to eliminate the problem.

If we have amassed a major debt it helps us to know how we got into debt in the first place. Was it flesh, was it greed, a spirit of gambling, or just getting out of control with spending, or just not thinking of consequences of using that credit card.

In a lot of difficult situations the things people in the Body of Christ do make no sense at all. Why, because we are human. The funny thing that all humans do when in difficulty is that we cop a plea and make excuses or we think someone else should do something, or didn’t do something and that is why we have the problem.

Pastor Don said that someone may come to him with a major debt of $30,000 and ask him to loan them $30,000 to pay the debt. Pastor Don said, “NOOOO!” That would be like giving the person in a pit a shovel – they would only dig themselves in deeper. That it would be more helpful to the person to figure out why they are in so much debt, and a plan to help them figure out how to get out of the debt.

There are two things to remember. 1. The devil made me do it and 2. My flesh went along with it. Until we accept #2, that our flesh went along with what the devil prompted us to do, the situation will keep on happening. We have to figure out why the situation is so enticing to us. How come we fell for the situation. The reality is that you will not get free from your sin until you accept the fact that you are acting in cooperation with satan.

Some people use a verse from scripture and turn it around and create a problem. This is the problem. Something bad happens to a person, they think it is happening to them because they are in service to the Lord. That sets them up for trouble and misrepresents God. What kind of God do we serve if serving Him leaves us open for all kinds of trouble? That is the assumption about God that I was making in how I was praying for these people who had trouble in their lives.

With this background, we can now begin to look at a passage in Mark that helps to amplify the problems in our lives if not used properly.

Mark 11:22-24 So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God. For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says, (bold is my emphasis) therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.

You must believe, believe you receive, and not doubt in your heart. You will have what you SAY. If you say, “I am serving God so satan is doing bad things in my life,” you will have what you say. It is like giving satan permission to act in your life. What you say is what you are going to get. If you believe that because I am serving the Lord, I will be attacked by the devil, that is what will happen. Anytime something is wrong in my life, you will then attribute that wrong thing to your being in service to the Lord.

If you say, I always have trouble with my wife, or when I serve God, the devil comes in and messes up my life, you are putting out a welcome mat for trouble. Jesus says we are blessed. Are we blessed when we are facing sickness, struggling with finances, or having any other problems in our lives? Nooooo.

If you learn to say what the truth is, even if you do not fully believe it in your heart, you will be blessed more often than if you are speaking your circumstances.

The Church in the United States caused a revolution in how the world perceives God, with a simple phrase, “God is Good.” and people answer “All the time.”  All the time, God is good. This little phrase went around the world. Pastor Don was in Russia, and a cab driver kept saying (I am spelling it phonetically) Slavo Bogu, and that translated was God is good. We are in the world, which has evil in it. When bad things happen, God is still good.

Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

We KNOW. What do we know. In order to rightly divide the truth of this scripture, we have to ask ourselves who is Paul talking to? The Church. What is Paul talking about? The will and purpose of God.  In what Context? It is here that the church messes up. So often they want to put a period (.) after the word “good.”  “And we know all things work together for good.” Is that true all the time, noooo. If Pastor Don goes outside and gets run over by a bus, can we go up to him and say, “all things work together for good?” Is it good being run over by a bus? No. Even in the universe all things are not working together for good, there is the process of entropy. The universe is slowing down, and when entropy occurs, there world becomes more and more chaotic. Look at our bodies, those of us who are older, cannot honestly say that our bodies are as in tune as they were when we were 20 years old, we have arthritis, our bones creak, our back hurts, we can’t stay up all night like we did when we were 20.

We want to revise events because we are afraid to be wrong. We have a theological question when something goes wrong, and we have to work out a complicated system to justify our symptoms. It is witchcraft to believe that an evil spell was cast on you by God, for an end purpose. That is trying to make something bad appear good. To say that God wants us to suffer so that He can be glorified is wrong thinking.

That being said, God can take something bad in our lives, (something caused by the world we live in, our stupid choices, or what satan puts on us) and God can turn it to a good purpose. But God’s desire would be for us to live in His will, and obey Him, and avoid the evil. But we are not smart, we often make stupid, ungodly choices, and have consequences. God can turn those consequences around, but God did not have it in His plan for us to have to face those consequences.

God is a farmer, He plants His seeds in us, and as a gardener, His goal is to help the plants grow. A good gardener would not plant weeds among the good seeds, or lay plastic on the field to repel water. Why would God plant hurtful things in our lives to grow with the good that He has planned for us. That is not what a good gardener would do.

If you have been smoking pot for 15 years, or smoking cigarettes and end up with emphysema, God did not do that. YOU chose to smoke.

All things are not good, but “…All things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”

Now some read a little further in Romans 8:28, putting the period after the Word, “God.” “All things work together for good to those who love God.” People who love God still do stupid things on a regular basis. Saul (before He became Paul) loved God and thought he was doing good to kill Christians. Had he not changed what he did when Jesus came to him and confronted him about his behavior, Saul would probably have died early. David loved God, but made a wrong choice often - taking the census, taking Bathsheba, and he made wrong choices that affected the lives of many people. Rehoboam, Solomon’s son, decided not to listen to his advisors and increased taxes on the people, sparking a revolt that split the Kingdom of Israel into two. They loved God, but not all the choices they made worked together for good.

You can’t say that everything that happens to you, happens because you love God. You will reap what you have sown in error unless God gives a crop failure.

To understand the whole verse you have to take all parts at once. Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

It helps if you read the verse backwards. If God has a particular purpose for you, and He has called you to THAT purpose, and you love God, then all things will work together for good in that situation.  If God has sent you on a mission that He has for you, and you are in accord with God’s purpose in your life, God will want you to complete the mission He has for you, and will help.

Pastor Don (I wish you could have been there to see his enactment and voices for Paul and Silas) talked about Paul and Silas. Initially Paul wanted to go to Macedonia, and God did not permit it. God had things to work out regarding Macedonia before Paul went there. When God gave permission to go there, Paul and Silas had no funds. God arranged for Lydia, a seller of purple to house Paul and Silas and they began to teach the gospel in Macedonia. Eventually it made people in that town mad and they arrested Paul and Silas and put them in prison. Because they were doing God’s will, Paul BELIEVED that God would turn that adverse situation to good. Pastor Don pretended that Silas was crying and upset, telling Paul, we made a mistake. Did you REALLY hear from God?  We should have not come here, we should have stayed at Lydia’s, etc. Paul, instead tells Silas let’s praise God. They start singing praises, feeble though they might have been, (Pastor Don said they couldn’t raise their hands because they were shackled) but they sang songs that the whole prison heard. God sent angels down to shake the prison, and all the prisoners were freed. None of the prisoners ran away, and the end result was that the jailer and his family were saved. God turned the bad situation to good and it bore fruit – but that happened because Paul and Silas were IN GOD’S WILL. God had a divine purpose for Paul and Silas and they were in accord with that and in the right timing.

That is VASTLY different from a pastor who may not be in God’s will, who may be doing their own thing, and bad things happen. If God is not in the situation, then God is not obligated to turn a bad thing into good. People in the Body of Christ are believing a lie if they think that this verse is a blanket covering for all things in their lives.  If a person says that when the devil comes after them it is because they are doing work for God’s kingdom, is it true? Is the person really doing what God wants them to do? Have they basically given satan permission to do evil in their lives because they think that satan’s evil happened because they think that they are doing God’s will (when in reality they are operating in their flesh)?

Had Paul gone to Macedonia before he got a revelation from God to go there, God would not have been obligated to show up. We need to be functioning in full obedience to God. Given the trouble that Job received in his life, how could he say, “I know my redeemer lives?” He knew that God had a higher purpose for what was happening, and chose to believe God, even though others tried to convince him otherwise.

Now, in order to REALLY see what Romans 8:28 is, we have to look at the whole section, not just one verse, for one verse taken out of context is not necessarily what God is saying. So lets look at the topic of this passage. Remember the scrolls did not have chapter and verses, they dealt with topics. The topic of this passage  is that we know that it is hope, faith, and eternal faith based on God’s will, God’s glory and the intercession of the Holy Spirit. And waiting with perseverance in the situations in our lives.  Romans 8:18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

The passage talks about how God helps us with our sufferings, and we see in verse 26 Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

I think I am going to stop here because the next part is a long explanation of prayer in the Spirit. This was one of those wonderful two hour Bible studies where we would have gladly stayed another hour. There was so much taught.

Have a blessed day, I will continue this tomorrow.

Heather

Jesus preached in many towns around Jerusalem. He would travel from place to place and preach in the synagogues and doing good. From studying a list of His travels we find that Jesus ended up spending a lot of time in Capernaum.

Here is an olive oil press that they found in the area of Capernaum.

Behind our tour guide Nurit (who is standing) is the side wall of the Synagogue at Capernaum.

Pastor Don read off a list of the various places that Jesus traveled, in ROUGHLY the order that He traveled. The names were given so quickly that I did not get them all down in my notebook, so I took this list from the back of my Bible. You will get the general idea that Capernaum was a frequent stopping place of Jesus during his travels. Capernaum was where Peter’s House was located.

Travels of Jesus in His early life
Bethlehem
Jerusalem – presented in the temple
Egypt – escape
Nazareth
Jerusalem – teach in Temple
Nazareth – time as carpenter

The years of ministry
Nazareth
Jordan- baptized
Wilderness of Judea – temptation
Bethabara – five disciples chosen
Cana – Water changed to wine
Capernaum
Jerusalem – Passover
Judean countryside
Jacob’s well at Sychar – woman of Samaria
Cana – Healing of official’s son
Nazareth – Mt. Precipice
Capernaum
Galilee tour
Capernaum
Jerusalem – Passover
Pool of Bethesda
Capernaum
Mount of Beatitudes
Capernaum
Through Galilee
Capernaum
Gerasenes – Demoniac healed
Capernaum -Jairus’s daughter raised
Nazareth
Galilean Sea
Capernaum
Desert near Bethsaida
Gennesaret -walks on sea
Capernaum
Phoenicia – Syrian Phoenician woman
Decapolis
Dalmanutha
Bethsaida
Caesarea Philippi
Mt. of Transfiguration
Capernaum
Samaria
Jerusalem
Bethany
Bethabara
Bethany
Ephriam
Perea
Jerusalem Passover
Garden of Gethsemane
Palace of high priest
Pilate
Herod
Pilate
Calvary

Pastor Don told us that no matter how busy we are in our ministry, we need to find a place where we can go to get rest and refreshment, even Jesus needed that. Capernaum was the place where Jesus could go to worship and to be taken care of. He probably stayed at Peter’s house.

We spent some time looking at the site of the synagogue at Capernaum. The remains of the synagogue that we see is built over the synagogue that Jesus worshipped at, but the synagogue site is the same.

The pillars straight ahead from where we were walking were where the scrolls of Torah would have been kept.

Nurit was explaining some aspects of the Synagogue to us.

Thought you might like a picture of me there, Pastor Don in Green shirt, Pastor Ted in blue shirt, looking at parts of the synagogue.

The scrolls were kept in the area where the person is sitting.

This shows you some of the excavations in Capernaum, and lets us see how close and small the houses were. One house stood out from the rest, with several additions and larger size. It is this house that a Catholic church was built over that is thought to be to be Peter’s. The rationale was that this particular house had more and more additions added onto it than any others in the area, and that was because more and more people would gather for ministry.

Here are some pictures of what they believe to be the house of Peter.

The Church had a glass floor that looked straight down on the footprint of the house of Peter.

This is viewing the walls from alongside the church.

 You can see that there were additions to the house.

The next stage of our journey brought us UP to Jerusalem. We never fully comprehended what was meant by that term until the bus ride there. I was able to put on Xanga a video of some of the scenery Jesus would have seen on the trip up to Jerusalem, and a song that Nurit taught us that speaks of going up to Jerusalem. After we sing a bit, you will begin to see some of the countryside. I really got great respect for all the walking that Jesus and the disciples did, the countryside was very rugged. Please note that the “related videos” are not my videos, I don’t know whose they are or what they contain, and I have no choice to eliminate them.

Hoping you have a blessed day!

Heather