Bread and Water

COMMONEST THINGS BLESSED

‘Ye shall serve the LORD your God,and he shall bless thy bread, and thy water.’-Exodus 23:25

WHAT a promise is this! To serve God is in itself a high delight. But what an added privilege to have the blessing of the Lord resting upon us in all things! Our commonest things become blessed when we ourselves are consecrated to the Lord. Our Lord Jesus took bread and blessed it; behold, we also eat of blessed bread. Jesus blessed water and made it wine: the water which we drink is far better to us than any of the wine with which men make merry; every drop has a benediction in it. The divine blessing is on the man of God in everything, and it shall abide with him at every time.

What if we have only bread and water! Yet it is blessed bread and water. Bread and water we shall have. That is implied, for it must be there for God to bless it. ‘Thy bread shall be given thee, and thy waters shall be sure.’ With God at our table, we not only ask a blessing, but we have one. It is not only at the altar but at the table that He blesses us. He serves those well who serve Him well. This table-blessing is not of debt, but of grace. Indeed, there is a treble grace; He grants us grace to serve Him, by His grace feeds us with bread, and then in His grace blesses it.

-C.H. Spurgeon ~ Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith, Daily Entry

Have a blessed day everyone!

Every Seventh Letter - TORAH

An interesting thing I found in a blog ... Just because the Bible was originally written in Hebrew/Greek, that does not mean God cannot do wonderful things in His Word in Any language.

FOR INSTANCE. take the book Genesis.. in the original Hebrew language.

Genesis 1:1

what is the 7th letter ?? it is a " T "
what is the 14th letter? it is a " O "
...and the 21st letter ? it is a " R "
....and the 28th letter ? it is a " A "
....and the 32nd letter ? it is a " H "

all I did was look at every 7th letter !

Now.. Exodus 1:1

what is the 7th letter ?? it is a " T "
what is the 14th letter? it is a " O "
...and the 21st letter ? it is a " R "
....and the 28th letter ? it is a " A "
....and the 32nd letter ? it is a " H "

Now .. Leviticus.

Every 7th letter ..

...........???? NOTHING !!!!!! "gibberish" (forgive me Lord ) !!

NUMBERS 1:1

what is the 7th letter ?? it is a " H "
what is the 14th letter? it is a " A "
...and the 21st letter ? it is a " R "
....and the 28th letter ? it is a " O "
....and the 32nd letter ? it is a " T "

DUET: 1:1

what is the 7th letter ?? it is a " H "
what is the 14th letter? it is a " A "
...and the 21st letter ? it is a " R "
....and the 28th letter ? it is a " O "
....and the 32nd letter ? it is a " T "


Look !!!! The first two books are pointing to Leviticus
The last two books of the torah are pointing to Leviticus also

LEVITICUS IS THE TORAH (the law) !!!!

Its amazing the off the wall "gems" one can find in the Bible!

Tim

Thank God I'm Everything I Never Wanted To Be

This morning I've been thinking about holiness and holy living. What kicked this off was this familiar verse is 1 Peter v. 16 "Ye shall be holy; for I am holy." Therefore our goal in life is not happiness, health or any of these things (these are the things added "unto you") but holiness. Unfortunately I have been less-than-holy so many times! Sheeeeesh!

From childhood I have associated holiness with this long string of do's and don'ts. But seeing holiness as rule keeping really causes some major problems and really limits what Biblical holiness is. OK, the "rules" more likely than not are Biblically based there is this big tendency to obey rules instead of God. And this concern for the letter of the law which cause us to lose its spirit. Then comes this attitude that we can be holy through our own efforts in spite of the fact Paul said that there can be no holiness apart from the Holy Spirit, and its grace that causes us to even want to be holy! Then there are those whose pious efforts at rule keeping, and are even good at it publicly at least. These are the ones who like to point fingers at others, gossip ect. I've been the one who has had the fingers pointed at me and on many occasions. Then it dawned on me "Thank God I'm everything I never wanted to be," you know what I mean? Its obvious I can never live up to it and am totally dependent on grace. I can never make it on following the rules. Rule keeping leads to self righteousness anyways which is the very opposite of true holiness! Its hard to be humble and "esteem our brothers (and sisters) above ourselves" when we are doing it on our own.

This may be a Tim tangent but I think it fits. From Exodus to Revelation we have this imagery of God "pitching His tent" among His people. A truly awesome thought when you think about it for any length of time. In Exodus 29:44-45 "...I will dwell among the Israelites." In John 1:14 "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us." And taken to its conclusion, John when describing the new heaven and new earth in Revelation 21:3 "...He shall dwell among them,..." Each time the word "dwell" means to "pitch a tent" in the original language. Now we are getting to what holiness is. God pitching His tent; first in the tabernacle, then in Christ and Christ in us, and then in our future life...

At its base holiness means wholeness. One cannot be whole without a relationship with their Creator. It is living in Gods presence .. He has pitched His tent among us. These are strange verses maybe to quote on this subject from Zechariah 14:20-21. This is a picture of the millennial reign of God. "On that day "Holy to the Lord" will be inscribed on the bells of the horses, and the cooking pots in the Lords house will be like the sacred bowls in front of the altar. Every pot in Jerusalem and Judea will be holy to the Lord Almighty, and all who come to sacrifice will take some of the pots and pans and cook in them." Say what?! Heres what I think its getting at; When God is at the center of your life, then every moment, every commonplace object of your existence is touched by His presence. Visibly true some future day, spiritually true now.

There is this talk of "victory" in the Christian life which I think is kinda skewed. It seems to mean how God will conquer sin for us and is self centered. Sin is not simply the wrong we do to others and/or ourselves. All sin is a root rebellion or offense to God Himself. Its all about Jesus, what we can do to please Him, not what He can do for us. Personal victories may come but is the result, not the object.

I'll conclude with Jesus' parable of the vine and its branches. (John 15:1-8) Holiness is walking with our creator completing us to be what we are supposed to be. In this passage Jesus explained that we do not PRODUCE fruit through our own efforts but BEAR fruit only by abiding in Him and letting Him work through us. Another thing that comes out of this passage is that what we are called to do or be is IMPOSSIBLE! "Apart from me you can do nothing." To grow in holiness is to grow closer to Jesus, knowing Him more clearly, practicing His presence in even the littlest of things, loving Him more, obeying Him more... Even when we seemingly screw up our lives repeatedly, He cleans up and we are back into holiness with our first step of obedience. We are (not will be but ARE) a Holy Nation 1 Peter 2:9...

Enough rambling in one post. Have a blessed day!

A Facebook Haggadah

How the Exodus looks on Facebook .....

"The Passover Seder, the oldest continuously observed religious ceremony in the world, tells the story of the Jews' Exodus from Egypt. Jewish tradition says that people of each generation must imagine that they personally had departed from Egypt, and the sages say that each generation must tell the story in its own terms.The sages probably did not intend this."

Click here: Moses is Departing Egypt: A Facebook Haggadah


Wow! I agree! "The Sages probably did not intend this!"lol Looking forward to the Twitter edition next year!

Now Thats A Vacation!!!

This is one of those things I found looking for something else ...

BUT ... Imagine taking a year off from your job! It sounds really cool to me! Then to extend it further ... imagine the entire country putting work on the shelf for twelve months.

An interesting thought, but one God told Israel to do in Exodus 23:10-11.

"And six years thou shalt sow thy land, and shalt gather in the fruits thereof:

But the seventh [year] thou shalt let it rest and lie still; that the poor of thy people may eat: and what they leave the beasts of the field shall eat. In like manner thou shalt deal with thy vineyard, [and] with thy oliveyard."

All work on the land was to be suspended on the seventh, sabbatical year, which in an agricultural society means the people were to rest from their ordinary work. Servants were set free, debts suspended ... Imagine what a person could do with a year of time on their hands. God promised to bless the harvest during the 6th year, enough to last until the harvest of the 8th year. However ... there was one condition to this gift ... that Israel faithfully follow the seventh year sabbatical regulations. And there is no indication they ever did though ...

But hey ... Now thats a vacation!

Tribute to Martin Luther King Jr.

One of the first things I came across online this morning was this comment, "So I ask you a question: Which holiday honors a philanderer, a drunk, a liar, plagiarist, and a cheater? Answer: Martin Luther King Jr. Day. ..."

My first thought was, "Oh my God ..." I still find it hard to believe that Christians can be so quick to diss other Christians ... even dead ones! Let’s face it! People are going to frequently fail and let us down because all mankind is under the influence of a fallen and sinful nature (Rom. 3:23). Although Christians are forgiven and have God’s presence in their lives, they still make mistakes and will sometimes fail. The Apostle Paul described his own conflict with the old nature: “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find” (Romans 7:18).

The fact is from where I see it, irregardless of his "sins" and perhaps some specifics of his faith, few men embodied the Christ like quality of selfless sacrifice and service, at least in the 20th century, as much as Dr. King. He remains an example for us all!

Three years ago, Barack Obama was a Senator, spoke at the groundbreaking ceremony for the Martin Luther King National Memorial in 2006. On that morning a couple of years ago he told the crowd:


"Unlike the others commemorated in this place, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was not a president of the United States - at no time in his life did he hold public office. He was not a hero of foreign wars. He never had much money, and while he lived he was reviled at least as much as he was celebrated.

By his own accounts, he was a man frequently racked with doubt, a man not without flaws, a man who, like Moses before him, more than once questioned why he had been chosen for so arduous a task - the task of leading a people to freedom, the task of healing the festering wounds of a nation’s original sin.

And yet lead a nation he did. Through words he gave voice to the voiceless. Through deeds he gave courage to the faint of heart. By dint of vision, and determination, and most of all faith in the redeeming power of love, he endured the humiliation of arrest, the loneliness of a prison cell, the constant threats to his life, until he finally inspired a nation to transform itself, and begin to live up to the meaning of its creed…

In the Book of Micah, Chapter 6, verse 8, the prophet says that God has already told us what is good. ”What doth the Lord require of thee, the verse tells us, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?“

The man we honor today did what God required. In the end, that is what I will tell my daughters…I will tell them that this man gave his life serving others. I will tell them that this man tried to love somebody. I will tell them that because he did these things, they live today with the freedom God intended, their citizenship unquestioned, their dreams unbounded.”


Amen! It is not like I agree with all that President Obama says, but on this one he is right on! He alluded to Moses in that speech, and in Martin Luther King's last speech over 40 years ago in Memphis, Tennessee, King also alluded to the journey of Moses and the Hebrew slaves who escaped from bondage in Egypt, only to wander for 40 years in the desert.

To recap the Exodus account, after four decades, God called to Moses and told him to stand on the mountaintop, to look over the land God would on the Israelites. Then the Lord said to him, “This is the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob when I said, ‘I will give it to your descendants.’ I have let you see it with your eyes, but you will not cross over into it.” [Deuteronomy 34:4]

King concluded his final speech with:

“Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land.” April 3, 1968

I find it sad that unlike other holidays, less than 40 percent of businesses shut down on the third Monday in January. MLK Day is still treated as one of the best times to buy a mattress, or go to a sale! Do we as a people really need a legally politically mandated moment of pause in order to raise something to the level of divine imperative? Are there not values that are worth our attention because they are values that are valued?

It’s hard to separate the life and legacy of Martin without examining his ties to the church. It’s not a religious holiday, but it's difficult to celebrate all he did without allowing his spirituality to shine through in some ways. I think that Martin Luther King Jr. Day should not be spent in reflection. I'm not sure Martin would rather not have that. Martin Luther King was not about taking the day off and reflecting. His life was about making changes. I don't he would like to think of it as a day off. I'm sure he would like to think of it as a day on!

Have a blessed day on!

Back to Dunkirk???

An article I stumbled across ...

Christians called to abandon public education

Posted: December 28, 20089:15 pm Eastern© 2009 WorldNetDaily

You've heard all about the disputes: "Silent Night" banned at the "holiday" program, artistic references to the Bible censored and faith-inclusive children's programs facing discrimination.
Now some people are fed up with public school treatment of Christianity and have launched a campaign calling for a rescue of kids from government education programs – a "Call to Dunkirk."
The name Dunkirk is famous for the hundreds of thousands of World War II allies saved in May 1940 when a flotilla of pleasure boats, fishing craft and others rescued the soldiers from the beaches near Dunkirk, France, where they were trapped by an advancing German army.
Full article here:
http://worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=84603

YouTube video here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRGZLSVph3A

Looking at the video I would have to say that was one of the most offensive propaganda videos I think I have seen in a long time!. Equating public school teacher to Hitler (with convenient Hitler film clips to boot!), Stalinist collective farms, calling public schools "soul killing government indoctrination centers," is a bit much, don't you think?

My thoughts? Well-run Christian schools and quality home-school programs are certainly a viable option for Christians. If one perceives that the public schools become a tool of social engineers to teach anti-Christian messages, then Christian parents may find that removing their children from public schools to be the only option. However I think the problem with the public schools is the lack of parental responsibility for the academic and behavioral advancement of their children. It is no wonder that so many Charter, and Home Schooled children do better than our public schools, they have greater parental involvement and ability to only educate those students they desire. The point of the Social Engineers is valid problem, but NOT the main problem. I would submit that neglecting parental responsibilities IS Anti-Christian.

The mechanism exists for school accountability through school board elections, PTA's, and state and federal grievance procedures. This again has been neglected by the all to often "Too busy to get involved" parent. the problem is that our schools are merely the symptom of a societal breakdown and not the cause. It does however become a vicious cycle, but I believe we should "fix" the society and then the educational system will follow. Their "successes" with certain charter schools only reinforces what the problem is. It is NOT a viable alternative without a quantum shift in our culture back to parental responsibility which schools and homes have NOT supported.

I believe that as Christians we should become more involved with our schools not less! Even using the World War 2 metaphor .... We came back to take the land, not just withdraw from it!

Any thoughts?

The Nice God

Just some thoughts ...

I cruise around a lot of Christian sites from time to time and this observation has struck me of late ... God in general seems to be pictured as, for lack of a better word at the moment, "nice." There seems to be a want for a God that provides but not one really who meddles in our lives. A God who protects but never demands, never judges, keeps His distance ... This nice God doesn't seem to say much but greeting card slogans. Sheesh! A God who is basically a wimp!

But the fact of the matter is God is not just nice. God is a consuming fire! Although He cares for the sparrow, the fragile, the hurt, He just isn't all that pampering. God's main business isn't getting us the best parking spaces at the mall or otherwise make us nice and comfy. His main business is making us holy which requires the niceness .... And sternness of our God.

Let me share this verse from Exodus 20:20, "Do not be afraid, God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning." Do not be afraid ... Only a God we fear, and yet not be afraid of can make our hearts burn with a passion. The God who truly is, who seeks after you and me is far more loving and comforting than the "nice" God depicted seemingly everywhere. He is also more fierce and fearsome than this "scorekeeper" God of those who threaten us with damnation with every misstep and misthought. His anger is not just irritability ... Its the distillation of His justice, His hatred of evil. This is what we want, even demand from a good God. A God who can kick tush and maybe even spank our own when necessary...

A nice, kindly old man type of god could never drive us to our knees in desperate prayer. He could never set us up on our feet in fierce determination ready to roll. A nice god could never inspire fervent worship, awe or sacrifice. The nice god is someone easy to dismiss unless we want or need something. How can we possibly explain a God that has His Son die a cruel, bloody death for us with a picture like that? God demands all ...

In Hebrews it says its a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Yet the thing more dangerous than that is to NOT fall into His hands! God may not be all sweetness and fluff ... But He is good!

Just wanted to throw this out there ...