The Word Knew – Who Knew?

I am eager to share with you this late morning what I believe. 

Are you familiar with this passage of Scripture? Matthew 7: 21-23.

It’s important. It’s strong. 

21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’  source 

This Scripture tapped on my thoughts last night and settled in with what I am about to share with you.

Here YESHUA tells that in the times to come people are going to recite to Him reasons they should be allowed into Heaven. However, they will be denied entry. 
Why will they be denied? 
Hear His Words: 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ 

I never KNEW you, He said and will say. 

How could GOD, who knows ALL not know them? 

This KNEW is not the knew you and I use in our everyday English; it’s not the knew we use when we say oh yeah I knew them. 

It’s the knew of the Hebrews.  Here are two links. I invite you to compare.
yâdaʻ    ginṓskō

The knew JESUS used here is from the knew in Genesis 4:1.

This KNEW means intimacy. It means covenant. It means these people even though they had done some good works, their good works produced NO intimacy with JESUS. Blood CovenantThere was no BLOOD COVENANT applied to them
HE did not KNOW them.
He never KNEW them.
They never came to Him in surrender.
They never came seeking His Righteousness — they figured they had their own righteousness.
They figured WRONG. 
And the road to hell they began on? They stayed on.
They remained the Workers of Lawlessness. They never came to Him for rebirth.
Again I say, there was no intimacy. No communion. No Family Gatherings.

But this is not the case for us; for we who are KNOWN by Him. 
We are in covenant with Him (we know Him, He knows us) and because of the blood covenant, we will enter in. Heaven is our eternal home. BloodCovenant

Do you know people whose lives give no evidence that they have a blood covenant with JESUS? 
I do too. Keep praying. Keep proclaiming. Keep praying they will yet be KNOWN by Him. 

Until next time — Shalom, Kathie

Mirror, Mirror

This is not a time-intensive post; not much editing. 

James 1: 22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. 24 For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.  source 

This is so important! HUGE!
If we come to the Word and we read but we refuse to OBEY what we read we have profited nothing! It has given us no RIGHT Standing with GOD and we are not changed.

When we stand in front of a mirror it reflects our appearance. We see our own reflection. We see our face, and our hair, we see what shall be presented to others when we turn from the mirror. The mirror lets us see what needs changing. Is there a smudge on our face, is our hair in place, are our clothes modest, do our shoes match? All these material things.

The Bible has a similar function but for the inside.
What do we see?
Do we see GOD?
Do we see ourselves?
Do we see the filth within?
Do we see our sin?
Do we see The Savior?
What shall we do?
Shall we read and walk away the same?
Will we not allow The Word to remove the smudge on our faces?
Will we not allow the Word to bring our shoes (walk) to match The Bible?
Will we not allow the Bible to determine the clothes we wear? Will we wear the Full Armor of GOD? The-Armor-of-God-2
Will we read The Word and make no adjustments?
Then we have read in vain. We have looked in The Mirror and have decided to go out into the world reflecting our own fallen image instead of JESUS.
How foolish and evil can we be?

James 1: 25 But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.  source 

Shalom, Kathie armor-of-god-cdd53f0d-6b0f-4ca0-9f21-ea844a06ea1-resize-750