Tag Archives: JESUS

Fresh Again

Surely I knew this. Surely I have seen it before. But today it is fresh again.

16 You did not choose me, I chose you; and I have commissioned you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last; so that whatever you ask from the Father in my name he may give you.
17 This is what I command you: keep loving each other!
via John 15 KJV;CJB – I am the true vine, and my Father is – Bible Gateway.

It’s a popular doctrine in Christendom: when two of us agree and ask (pray)  in JESUS’ name then we get what we prayed for.  Right? I mean we like that doctrine and we readily accept it but are we right to believe it as I just stated?  Based on today’s fresh again, I think not necessarily. I think there is a condition to the ask what you will in HIS name and we will receive. And I think if we do not meet that condition we can agree all we want, but we do not have a guarantee that we will receive.

So what is the condition?
I’m glad you asked. Read again the Text.
What has He commissioned us to do?
Bear Fruit. Fruit that lasts.
What kind of fruit lasts?
The kind that receives an eternal reward. (I Corinthians 3:14-16)

Am I bearing such fruit? Perhaps reading verse 17 will clarify.
What does it say?
Do I love people? (John 13:34-36).
If I am not loving people, especially my brothers and sisters with me in the Christian Faith, then I can be sure that I am not bearing fruit that lasts. I can be sure if I am not loving others I am not demonstrating Galatians 5:21-23.

Yikes! All this could be depressing; a real downer! Because I can tell you right now I DO NOT LOVE PEOPLE PERFECTLY ALL THE TIME! I do not always bear good fruit that will last! There are some days, I am a REAL STINKER by anyone’s standards, especially mine!

But today I have hope! Today I am encouraged! Why? Because He has again shown me this Scripture. He has again reminded me what He requires of me. This means He is NOT done with me and today I have the opportunity to do well in His name!! That is good news! Today I am assured there is hope for me that I can bear good fruit that will last and I can be trained by the HOLY SPIRIT to love as He has commissioned and the day will come when I can be assured that when I ask in His name I will receive!

Please, please take this little nugget with you today: If the HOLY SPIRIT of GOD is still speaking to you, if a little light has come on in your heart today as you have read His Word, that is a SURE PROMISE that HE is NOT finished with you. Today you can lift your will to HIM and start again!!

Blessing Friends on this 6th day of 2014.

Kathie

Just a Little Trivia That’s Not so Trivial

11 Upon entering the house, they saw the child with his mother Miryam; and they prostrated themselves and worshipped him. Then they opened their bags and presented him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

via Matthew 2 KJV;CJB – Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of – Bible Gateway.

This as you know is speaking of the Magi. They had traveled far and for many many months, perhaps nearly two years to reach the house described here. They first prostrated themselves and worshiped the GOD Toddler and then offered their gifts. Their gifts were costly and prophetic. Gold, frankincense and myrrh. I have said in 21st Century terms that the Father was paying His Child Support with these gifts and I actually believe that.  Gold to finance the trip to Egypt and back, I think, and perhaps longer until YESHUA was old enough to work in the carpenter shop. However, a little research has told me the frankincense and myrrh may have been even more valuable than the gold. Click HERE and read about these two medicinal, healing resins. And as you may know myrrh is a burial ‘spice’.

Here’s an excerpt: The Roman historian and botanist Pliny the Elder, who recommended frankincense as an antidote to hemlock poisoning, wrote in the first century A.D. that the pricey dried sap had made the southern Arabians the richest people on earth.

Poisoning.

For sure, for sure JESUS is the cure for what has poisoned us. He is surely the antidote for all that ails us.  He surely died to give us life and He is a treasure light years more precious than the purest gold.

As the title of today’s post says: a little trivia that is by no means trivial. I hope you have enjoyed the information and I hope we will all become more and more in AWE of our GOD as we learn more and more that HE is the Master of the Details.  I find much comfort and security in this fact.

ABBA, ADONAI, HOLY SPIRIT, You are Awesome. Thank You, thank You for being You and drawing us to Yourself in YESHUA’s Holy Name.

Kathie

Father, Forgive Them . . .

I’ve been watching movies today while I iron shirts and blouses. As I sat up the board and poured water into my iron, I caught the last few minutes of a Christmas movie – I don’t recall the name. It was a familiar theme: a court room, a youngster on the witness stand, a kindly judge, a heartless lawyer and a benevolent lawyer proving to the courtroom and to us the viewing audience that Santa Claus is the heart of Christmas. He is the hero of the season; he is someone for children to believe in; someone to remind us and inspire us all to remember that Christmas is about love, forgiveness and family.  And I thought how clever! Wonder whose idea it was to take a fictitious character give him supernatural powers to know what gift every boy and girl on planet earth wants, to know which child has been good and which child has not but then what does it matter because all children get gifts from Santa on Christmas; but that’s not all Santa delivers these gifts to every house in the world in one night with the help of 8 reindeer who can fly! Wow! How fantastic is that?!

How much better would it have been just to have told the truth to the children? That the REAL GOD sent His only Son into the world as a human baby who grew from infant to man. He really and truly has supernatural powers. He healed the sick, caused the lame to walk, gave sight to the blind, even raised the dead; did the right thing even when humans did the wrong thing to Him. He laughed, He cried, He learned to walk and talk, read and write, played with friends, loved His Mother, His foster-father, His brothers and sisters, and that barely even begins to tell how He  demonstrated to the world that He loves us, that He desires for us to be His family, that He Himself came to enable us to love, forgive others, do good for one another and be a family.  And then added to all that He died our substitutionary eternal death and after three days arose from the dead, never to die again and made the way for us to live eternally and today He is STILL healing and still bringing the dead to life – that beats Santa Claus hands down, if you ask me!

But GOD just wasn’t good enough, was He? He just was not quite Christmas-y enough was He? He just didn’t give us the warm fuzzies, did He? He just wasn’t reason enough for the children to dash off to bed with so much excitement they could hardly sleep waiting to see what wonderful gifts they would be getting in the morning, was He?

Can you imagine the bewilderment of the angels who gave the GOOD NEWS to the Shepherds as they hear us tell our little white lies to the children? Can you imagine their faces as they watch the madness of the Season: Black Friday shoppers storming the door of a Wal-Mart leaving one man dead this year as they trampled him under the door; businesses vying  for every Christmas buying dollar yet refusing to acknowledge that JESUS even came? What else? What other ‘Christmas’ goings on are you privy to that have nothing to do with JESUS? How do the angels feel about that? How does JESUS feel about that?  Perhaps He is saying, ‘Father forgive them for they know not what they do.’

This I know: I am forever grateful that He has said, ‘Father, forgive her.’ I too have had some Christmas celebrations that gave little remembrance and not much resemblance to JESUS.  I pray to learn better.

Holy Christmas my friends,

Kathie

For Thought

Good Monday Morning!

JT and I hope you have had a remarkable Thanksgiving and are ready now to move into a Christ honoring celebrating His Birth Season. I saw something on Facebook moments ago that I liked.

Jesus cameNo other child coming from a womb was/is like JESUS but let us remember they all are precious.

What does it mean to you that JESUS, fully GOD, fully human, arrived here as a baby; don’t mean to offend but truth is He came through a birth canal as did you and I? What’s that tell you?

Kathie

14 The Word became a human being and lived with us, and we saw his Sh’khinah, the Sh’khinah of the Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth.

via John 1 KJV;CJB – In the beginning was the Word, and the – Bible Gateway