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Gone Fishin'

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Gone Fishin'

Tag Archives: Christ Jesus

Yokefellows

26 Monday Jun 2017

Posted by Rev. Nadine Drayton-Keen in Devotional

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

acceptance, assistance, associate, both genders, brothers, burden, caring, carry, Christ Jesus, co-laborers, companions, easy, equal, Father God, fellow workers, giving, Kingdom of God, Light, Lord, loving, minister to others, ministry of helps, partners, reflective of, Savior, service-oriented ministry, share, sisters, volunteer, yoke, yokefellows

 

VERSE:

Yes, I ask you also, true companion, help these women, who have labored side by side with me in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.

 

Philippians 4:3

 

 

COUPLET:

Christ’s co-laborers: sisters and brothers;
Fellow workers meeting needs of others.

 

 

PRAYER:

Holy Spirit, remind us that all men and women believers in Christ are “fellow workers.” Also remind us that Christ’s co-laborers should assist one another, especially in the ministry of helps (a loving, giving, caring, service-oriented ministry). In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.

 

 

~ a page from my manuscript, “Daily Manna: Bible Verse, Couplet & Prayer for Each Day of the Year”

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The True Holy Week

22 Tuesday Mar 2016

Posted by Rev. Nadine Drayton-Keen in Devotional

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Christ Jesus, day of First Fruits, days of Unleavened Bread, Easter-Sunday, Emperor Constantine, God-established Feasts, Good Friday, High Holy Days, High Sabbaths, Holy Days, Holy Week, man-made holidays, Palm Sunday, Passover day, Pesach, regular weekly Sabbath, Resurrection Sunday, Roman Catholic Church Bishops, sacred days, Sacrificial Lamb, uncomfortable truth

The Real Holy Week

 

It is scary how so many professed Christians think God’s Holy Week is from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday—with a Good Friday thrown in there. That week is not holy to God, because He never establishes any week that consists of a Good Friday and an Easter Sunday.

The week that begins with God’s beloved Son entering Jerusalem—riding on a donkey—is indeed a holy week, even though the palm branches do NOT symbolize victory, or peace, or love. Ironically, those palm branches symbolize Jewish nationalism—a desire for political freedom. The only problem with desiring this political freedom at that time is that Christ does not come as the Jewish people’s long-awaited King who is to deliver them from the Romans. Christ comes as the Lamb who takes away the sins of the entire world—the sins of Hebrews and Gentiles.

Now the biblical truth is that it is Palm Sunday to First Fruits that creates the holy week. This week is holy because of the Feasts of Passover, Unleavened Bread, and First Fruits or Resurrection Day. These holidays or feast days and the holy convocations or Holy Days are God’s appointed feasts and Holy Days He says have to be observed forever.

God’s appointed feast days are the reasons why, for the Jewish people, there are no such days as a Good Friday and Easter Sunday. In fact, neither Good Friday nor Easter Sunday is found in the Scriptures. Emperor Constantine and his bishops are the creators of Palm Sunday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday holidays. Erasing the Jewish feast days and customs off the Church calendar is the main reason for these man-made holidays.

God’s true Holy Week goes like this: The Lord enters Jerusalem on the day that we call Palm Sunday, dies as the sacrificial Lamb on Passover, and is in the grave the first three days and three nights of the Unleavened Bread Feast. He arises on Feast of First Fruits, which is the first day of the week, after the regular weekly Sabbath. Shalom.

“In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight, is the Lord’s Passover. And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the Lord; for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall not do any ordinary work. But you shall present a food offering to the Lord for seven days. On the seventh day is a holy convocation; you shall not do any ordinary work.” ~ Lev. 23:5-8

Keep it real…Live it out…Watch it work!

 

~ a devotion from my book – Keeping It Real: Daily Renewing the Mind

 

NOTE: The holiday of Pesach, or Passover, falls on the Hebrew calendar dates of Nissan 15-22. Passover 2016 actually begins at sunset on Nissan 14. Gentiles’ coinciding secular dates for Passover Week (Holy Week) 2016 are as follows:

April 22-30

Passover Week or Holy Week actually has three sacred Feasts in it: Passover day (when Christ was crucified), days of Unleavened Bread (the first day is when Christ was buried), and the day of First Fruits (or Resurrection Sunday, when Christ arose).

[All I can do is share the truth with people who say they are believers in Christ. The rest is up to them—that is—whether or not they want to believe the truth and act accordingly. Selah!]

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God’s Greatest Gift To Mankind

19 Wednesday Dec 2012

Posted by Rev. Nadine Drayton-Keen in Devotional

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

beaten beyond recognition, blackened, bloodstained wrappings, brown paper bags, Christ Jesus, God's Greatest Gift, greasy, grubbily wrapped package, placed in a manger, profitable, sloppily wrapped package, valuable, wrapped in common rags

giftofjesus_niv

For whoever wants to save his own life will destroy it, but whoever destroys his life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News will save it. Indeed, what will it benefit a person if he gains the whole world but forfeits his life? What could a person give in exchange for his life? ~ Mark 8:35-37, CJB


Let’s suppose your spouse purchased for you a pricey Chinese silk jacket with ornate embroidering and gold-inlaid dragons on it. Let’s also suppose you knew nothing about your spouse’s silly prank of wrapping, with a blackened, greasy, brown paper bag, the box in which he or she placed your gift. Additionally, let us suppose that he or she trusted that you would accept the mailed gift as wrapped, because you knew that he or she loves to trick you. 

Now let us imagine how disappointed and maybe even shocked your spouse would be if he or she phoned you, inquiring about the parcel’s arrival, and heard: “A sloppily wrapped package came, but I didn’t open it. Someone undoubtedly was trying to play a joke, so I wrote on the package—PLEASE RETURN TO SENDER—and handed it back to the mail carrier.”  Next, after you learn that the mailed grubbily wrapped package came from your spouse, imagine how disappointed and maybe even shocked you might feel about rejecting your spouse’s precious gift of the pricey Chinese silk jacket, just because you didn’t realize it was another one of your spouse’s pranks.

If we will, let us take the above-proposed scenario and apply it to every good and perfect gift that comes from Almighty God, most gifts of which too many of us often refuse and/or often return to the Sender unopened/unaccepted/untried, just because we don’t like how certain gifts are wrapped. Is it impossible for most of us to understand clearly how a loving and giving Father God might feel every time His love-influenced present of a Savior who, because He was wrapped in common rags instead of satin sheets, and placed in a manger instead of a palace, is returned to Him unopened/unaccepted/untried, just because we as the receivers don’t like the way redemption is wrapped? Is it even impossible for most humans to think about how Christ Jesus daily faces the fact that so many people in this world not only think His blood-drenched, pierced, and crucified body—His atoning sacrifice—not only is an unappealing gift but also nothing but an amusing tale?

If we really took the time and put forth the effort, it would not be impossible for most of us to imagine how Father God and Christ Jesus feel when the Lord’s costly, soul-saving purchase usually ends up being exchanged for worldly wealth and its trappings. After all, most of us know that it is the secular world that teaches people about why they neither should wrap their cherished possessions in blackened, greasy, brown paper bags, nor should they cover them with beaten beyond recognition, bloodstained wrappings. For sure, worldly riches’ very “attractive” wrappings are the reasons too many people are deceived about wealth’s value and become more covetous (greedy) as they pursue money and possessions, all while believing that anything that is free, shabbily wrapped, and/or badly beaten neither can be profitable nor valuable.

On the other hand, it is Christ Jesus who maintains that every person’s soul is more valuable than the whole world’s wealth, and that every person will lose EVERYTHING he or she gains if he or she refuses to focus on the soul and its needs. For this reason, He expects each person to receive and cherish with loving faith the ONLY gift that saves souls: The placed in a manger Savior who was wrapped in common rags. This Savior was and still is the world’s most precious gift, which God the Father wrapped in the plainest of wrappings. Furthermore, it is this placed in a manger Savior who grew up to become the beaten beyond recognition, whipped, pierced, and crucified Jesus the Christ—the Greatest Gift God freely gave to mankind!  AMEN.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

 

~ from Faith and Wisdom: A Rhema Word in a Dry and Thirsty Land (2006); edited


The cartoon used in this blog posting is from Joyful ‘toons.

 

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Gideon Is a Type of Christ

21 Friday Sep 2012

Posted by Rev. Nadine Drayton-Keen in Bible Prophecy

≈ 18 Comments

Tags

astral triad, Christ Jesus, Gideon, golden calf, idolatrous worship, Islam's crescent moon star, Mesopotamian civilizations, Midianites, moon-god Sin, Pre-Islamic Arabia, type

Gideon Defeats Midianites from The Story of the Bible… by Charles Foster, 1884; Illustrators: F.B. Schell, et al

Then Zevach and Tzalmuna said, ‘You, do it. You, kill us. Let a grown man do what takes a grown man’s strength.’ So Gid‘on got up and killed Zevach and Tzalmuna; then he took the ornamental crescents from around their camels’ necks. ~ Judges 8:21, CJB

 

The Old Testament’s events that are recorded in the Book of Judges, specifically in chapters 6 through 8, clearly are divinely designed to be a forewarning about the end-times conflict that Israel will have with her Arab enemies, as well as a forewarning about the One who will be Israel’s end-times Deliverer/Savior. In fact, Psalm 83 is a second biblical source in which can be found proof that Gideon’s Midianite onslaught is a type of end-times Arab invasion, and proof that Gideon is a type of Christ.

Numerous biblical prophecy scholars agree that the Arab attack mentioned in Psalm 83 is a final war that will take place during the end-times Tribulation Period. So then, when the psalmist states in Psalm 83:4 that the purpose of this final Arab invasion is so that these enemies of God and Israel can wipe Israel off of all maps so that Israel’s name will be forgotten, it stands to reason that the psalmist then would utter the following curse:

Do to them as you did to Midyan, to Sisra and Yavin at Vadi Kishon — they were destroyed at ‘Ein-Dor and became manure for the ground. Make their leaders like ‘Orev and Ze’ev, all their princes like Zevach and Tzalmuna, who said, ‘Let’s take possession of God’s meadows for ourselves.’ ~ Psalm 83:10-13, CJB

Now, since Gideon is the one who destroyed the Arab enemies mentioned in the above Psalm 83:10-13 curse, then it should be clear that Gideon’s Arab onslaught also is a foreshadowing of the same events that will take place during the Tribulation Period, as well as a prediction about this biblical Truth: Gideon is a type of Christ Jesus. For sure, what Gideon did to his Arab enemies, especially Zevach and Tzalmuna (or Zebah and Zalmunna), Christ Jesus will do to His Arab enemies! Gideon not only killed these Midianite leaders but also removed the crescent (moon-shaped) chains that were around the necks of these Arab leaders’ camels. Similarly, the Lord Christ Jesus not only will destroy every Arab who, in the end-times, comes against Israel and her people, but also He will remove from this Earth every crescent moon with a star symbol that now is visible throughout the Arab world—indeed, this symbol is visible throughout the entire Muslim or Islamic world.

There are so many other hints in Judges’ chapters 6 through 8 that Gideon’s Israel is also a picture of end-times Israel. This truth is made evident beginning with the opening verses. The Word of God says:

But the people of Isra’el did what was evil from Adonai’s perspective, so Adonai handed them over to Midyan for seven years. Midyan exercised its power harshly against Isra’el, and because of Midyan the people of Isra’el hid themselves in mountains, in caves and in other safe places. ~ Judges 6:1-2, CJB

The 7 years in the above verse represent the duration of Israel’s punishment at the hands of the Midianites. Prophetically, these 7 years also signify the length of Daniel’s 70th Week (cf. Daniel 9:25-27). Daniel’s 70th Week is the time when God will pour out His wrath on this Earth during the Tribulation Period, flooding this world with His intense global judgment mostly during the last 3½ years, which is the time of Jacob’s Trouble. Jacob’s Trouble is the time when God especially punishes Israel, the land and the Jewish people, for the Jewish people’s rejection of the Savior God sent to them, and for their deliberate disobedience and unbelievable unfaithfulness shown to God and His commandments.    

Now the initial reason for why the Midianites, Amalekites, “…and others from the east…” (Judges 6:3) attack Israel in Gideon’s day and time seems to be so that they could ravage the land and steal the cattle, oxen, donkeys, and sheep, for the purpose of leaving the people of Israel absolutely NOTHING to live on (see Judges 6:4). Apparently the Ezekiel 38 invaders have the same motive, because the prophet Ezekiel questions if the raiding end-times Arabs have “…come to seize spoil…to loot; to carry off silver, gold, livestock and other wealth; to take much plunder” (Ezekiel 38:13, CJB).

In contrast, the Psalm 83 writer emphasizes that couched in the Midianite Arabs’ religious zeal language is the real reason for why the Midianite Arabs attacked Israel in Gideon’s day, and therefore the reason why the Arab 10-nation alliance will attack Israel in the end-times. The psalmist writes that the Midianites’ leaders like Oreb, Zeeb, Zebah, and Zalmunna eventually declared that they really wanted to “…take possession of God’s meadows for [them]selves” ~ Psalm 83:12-13, CJB (bracketed word is this blogger’s emphasis).

So for six years, while the marauding Arabs are depleting Israel’s livestock and diminishing the land’s grain, Gideon’s Israelites are hiding in caves. After crying out to the Lord for relief, in the seventh year God finally pro­vides a deliverer/savior: Gideon. Similarly, at a time when it takes “…[t]wo pounds of wheat for a day’s wages! Six pounds of barley for the same price” (Revelation 6:6, CJB), the Tribulation’s inhabitants, Jewish people included, also will be hiding in the caves, because they will be terrified by the Tribulation’s cosmic distresses. Sadly, even then, they still will believe God to be a vengeful being. This is the reason why they will be crying out to the rocks and mountains to hide them from the imminent “wrath of God” instead of crying out to God. John the Revelator agrees, because he writes:

Then the earth’s kings, the rulers, the generals, the rich and the mighty — indeed, everyone, slave and free — hid himself in caves and among the rocks in the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, ‘Fall on us, and hide us from the face of the One sitting on the throne and from the fury of the Lamb! For the Great Day of their fury has come, and who can stand?’ ~ Revelation 6:15-17, CJB

Even though these petrified people are hiding in caves and crying out to the rocks and mountains to save them from the “wrath of God,” Father God still will send them a Deliverer/Savior, who will be Jesus Christ. However, the Lord will not appear until the end of the 7-year Tribulation Period.

Next, what needs to be considered is the size of Gideon’s army and the peace this mighty man of God achieves with his soldiers’ help. After reducing his army to 300 warriors, the Israelites’ deliverer/savior, Gideon, defeats the Midianites, in the same Plain of Esdraelon and Valley of Jezreel where the Battle of Armageddon will be fought. Peace is restored in Israel, but this peace only lasts for the rest of Gideon’s life, which is about forty years. After Gideon dies, the Israelites once again turn away from God to worshipping idols, and once again peace is broken. This time the Israelites’ peace is broken by three years of betrayal and mayhem caused by Gideon’s son Abimelech, the traitor Israelite who has himself proclaimed king.

In comparison, the Lord initially chooses only 12 Jewish men to follow Him, and by the start of the Tribulation Period only 144,000 of the possible left-behind masses will be His spiritual warriors on this Earth. At the end of the Tribulation Period, when the Lord, Christ Jesus returns to Earth and solely defeats all of His Arab enemies who have come against Israel and her Jewish people, there will be 1,000 years of peace. At the end of the Lord’s 1,000-year reign, there is one last attempt to wage war against Christ Jesus. Satan, the ultimate traitor, is released from out of the Bottomless Pit so that he can deceive many of the millennial kingdom’s individuals to join his global military. However, before any fighting begins, Father God rains down fire from Heaven, and Satan’s soldiers are consumed (cf. Revelation 20:7-10).

It is important to note here that in Gideon’s day the Midianites (Arabs) were wealthy people. This truth is revealed in the list of plunder taken by Moses when he fought the Midianites some two centuries before Gideon’s war (cf. Numbers 31), and revealed in the list of plunder taken in Gideon’s war against the Midianites, Amalekites, “…and others from the east…” (Judges 6:3; Judges 8). Together, the goods Moses and Gideon took  forcibly were gold, silver, brass (bronze), iron, tin, lead, tablets; purple garments; jewels of gold, like chains, bracelets, rings, earrings, pendants, neck bands, crescent (moon-shaped) chains that were about the camels’ necks; sheep, cattle, and donkeys, and so forth (cf. Numbers 31:11-12, 22, 32-34;  Judges 8:24-27).

More important than the kinds of spoils Gideon took forcibly is the fact that the English word “ornaments,” as mentioned in the King James Version of Judges 8:21, is translated from the Hebrew word saharon, which means crescent moon. Thus, the crescent (moon-shaped) chains Gideon removes from around the camels’ necks are comparable to the latter-day crescent and star symbols of today’s Arabs, Muslims, and their Islamic religion. This truth is the reason why this crescent moon and star symbol is seen almost everywhere there are Arabs and Muslims. Therefore, as already mentioned, Gideon’s removal of the crescent (moon-shaped) chains clearly foreshadows Christ Jesus’ removal of every crescent moon with a star symbol that now is visible throughout the Arab, Muslim and Islamic world, because this Islamic symbol conveys the idea that Allah, a moon god, and Lucifer, the devil, are one in the same!

The above last statement is true, because both the Midianites’ crescent (moon-shaped) chains around their camels’ necks and the 21st century’s Islamic crescent moon with a star symbol on armored combat vehicles, minarets, turrets, and flags no doubt represent the idolatry copied from ancient Mesopotamian civilizations, of which their people not only worshipped a pantheon of pagan gods but also one common god—the moon-god Sin. What is important to note here is that as ancient Mesopotamian  astral religion grew, the worship of stars also increased, especially since every god was given its own star. More important, after the astral triad, which consisted of the supreme gods Sin (The Moon), Ishtar (Venus), and Shamash (The Sun) developed, worship of the moon, the stars, and the sun eventually spread across the entire ancient world.

Consequently, nation states like Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Phoenicia, Canaan, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia all assimilated some of the same Mesopotamian idolatrous worship features. More important it was Ur, the city from which Abraham came, that was the center for worship of the earlier mentioned moon-god Sin, who was reverenced in the form of a golden calf with crescent-moon shaped horns, and a long flowing lapis lazuli beard.

Thus, once the worship of the moon-god Sin spread across the entire ancient world, in every one of the aforementioned Middle Eastern nation states the moon-god Sin usually was represented by the crescent moon. This truth is why, when Israel fell into idolatry, it typically was because the Israelites or Hebrews or Jewish people were worshipping a feature of the moon-god Sin, like, for example, the golden calf venerated near Mount Sinai.

Even though the moon-god Sin has been around since Pre-Islamic Arabia; indeed, since the earliest post-flood world, it is conceivable that the Divine Truth in apostle Paul’s statement “…what one earns from sin is death…” (Romans 6:23, CJB) will be demonstrated best by those individuals who will be worshipping the moon-god Sin during the Tribulation Period. The fact that this idolatrous worship of the moon-god Sin still permeates the Middle East, and the truth that this last fact is verified today by countless Islamic images of the crescent moon and star, undoubtedly point to the future masses of people who will continue to reject Christ Jesus as their Lord and Savior all the way up until the second He returns!

Perhaps since the symbol of the crescent moon has been used by the Arab religions as far back as the time of Abraham, this 21st century Arab, Muslim, and Islamic religion’s universal image, which is a remnant of ancient moon-god Sin worship, will be the main reason why, when Christ Jesus returns to destroy the enemies of God and Israel, those individuals who worship this image will be found guilty of committing the unpardonable sin for which their crime is punishable by death. That’s why it should be clear that the Tribulation’s Jewish people who survive up to the moment of the end-times Arab/Muslim/Islamic holocaust (Armageddon) but still refuse to learn the lesson of total commitment to their Messiah will be destroyed at pretty much the same time as the extant remnant of their Arab/Muslim/Islamic enemies. This Divine Truth is what Gideon’s life and his Midianite (Arab) victory teaches, because Gideon is indeed a type of Christ Jesus and Gideon’s divinely orchestrated triumph is a type of Battle of Armageddon.

In a nutshell, like Gideon, Christ Jesus also led a humble, hidden life during His early years. Also like Gideon, the Lord overcame his numerous enemies with a few soldiers. Gideon defeated his Midianite Arabs and other enemies with just 300 warriors, and Christ Jesus defeated the first century’s secular world with just 12 disciples turned apostles.

Finally, just like Gideon won his war against the Midianites, Amalekites, “…and others from the east…” (Judges 6:3) with broken pitchers (clay jars), trumpets, and torches, Christ Jesus’ disciples turned apostles’ only weapons were their individual body (clay jar, pitcher) broken so that the life and Light of Christ Jesus could shine through; their preaching (trumpet) of the Gospel; and the Holy Spirit (torch) within in them who caused them to produce good works, and who caused others to see the life and Light of Christ Jesus in them.

These are today’s disciples turned apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds-teachers’ weapons, too. So let a word to the wise be sufficient!

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Keeping of the Sabbath Rest

09 Monday Jul 2012

Posted by Rev. Nadine Drayton-Keen in Spiritual

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

4th Commandment, cease from all efforts, Christ Jesus, finished work, Lamb of God, Original, rest in the Lord, Sabbath rest, shadow or type

The Sabbath Rest (1894) by Samuel Hirszenberg

Remember the day, Shabbat, to set it apart for God. You have six days to labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Shabbat for Adonai your God. On it, you are not to do any kind of work — not you, your son or your daughter, not your male or female slave, not your livestock, and not the foreigner staying with you inside the gates to your property. For in six days, Adonai made heaven and earth, the sea and everything in them; but on the seventh day he rested. This is why Adonai blessed the day, Shabbat, and separated it for himself. ~ Exodus 20:8-11, CJB

 

There are many believers who condemn other believers for not worshipping God on the Sabbath, which to them is Saturday and never Sunday. Now while these Sabbath keepers are correct in saying that God established the Sabbath as a day of rest and a day of worship, they are wrong in pronouncing judgment against other believers who do not rest and worship on the Sabbath (Saturday), and they are wrong for accusing the same believers of sinning against God, just because they are not following God’s Old Testament pattern of work and rest. For sure, the Divine Truth is that, even though the Old Testament’s Mosaic Law Sabbath is a weekly mandated day of rest and worship, which usually is observed on a Saturday, in the new covenant ANY day of the week that a person receives the Lord and enters into the rest He offers is a Sabbath rest!

Put differently, Christ Jesus is every believer’s Sabbath rest. Remember, He says: “Come to me, all of you who are struggling and burdened, and I will give you rest” ~ Matthew 11:28, CJB. In this verse, the “rest” that the Lord gives is the same “rest” Father God takes after He completed the work of Creation. Father God rests not because He was tired but because He was finished—His work was done. Thus, His rest was a spiritual rest (an eternal rest), because on the day His rest begins there was no mention of an evening and morning.

Then too, because Christ Jesus’ work on this Earth has ended, He also is resting, eternally. He is resting because He has fulfilled (completed) ALL of the demands of the Law (satisfied all of the Law’s requirements), which called for perfect obedience and unwavering faithfulness. Now, if the Lord has fulfilled the Law, then that means He also has fulfilled the commandment about keeping the Sabbath holy. Therefore, since Father God made the Sabbath for mankind, and not the other way around (cf. Mark 2:27), which means Father God intended for the Sabbath to benefit human beings and not enslave them, this is the reason why the Sabbath rest is not about keeping a special day (Saturday or Sunday), but rather the keeping of the Sabbath rest is about ending/ceasing all of mankind’s righteous, holy, and good-life efforts, and finding in their place Christ Jesus’ spiritual/eternal rest that consists of a peaceful conscience, a relieved mind, and/or a calm soul. 

The Lord’s perfect fulfillment of the Law (via His life, death, burial, and resurrection) means that in Christ Jesus believers are now able to keep ALL of the Law faithfully and obediently. More important, since Christ Jesus is believers’ Sabbath rest, they now can cease from their own efforts (stop following their righteousness by works system of worship) and instead depend on and trust in the righteous work of Someone else (depend on Christ Jesus’ finished work). 

The writer of Hebrews concurs, saying:

So there remains a Shabbat-keeping for God’s people. For the one who has entered God’s rest has also rested from his own works, as God did from his. ~ Hebrews 4:9-10, CJB

In other words, because the Lord is believers’ Sabbath rest, then entering into the rest of the Lord is the only kind of Sabbath “works” Father God expects believers in Christ Jesus to do so that they will be sure to keep the Sabbath holy. For these reasons, apostle Paul says:

So don’t let anyone pass judgment on you in connection with eating and drinking, or in regard to a Jewish festival or Rosh-Hodesh or Shabbat. These are a shadow of things that are coming, but the body is of the Messiah. ~ Colossians 2:16-17, CJB 


The bottom line is that under the Law, the Old Testament’s Sabbath rest was only a shadow of the Original who was to replace it, and this Original is Christ Jesus (cf. Hebrews 10:1). As a shadow of the Sabbath rest that is in Christ Jesus, the Old Testament’s Sabbath rest, which the Mosaic Law established as a weekly mandated Sabbath day, was a Sabbath rest that, no matter how faithfully and religiously it was kept, never could have brought mankind back into right standing with Father God. For this reason, the real (the Original) Sabbath rest of God only can be understood and experienced by those Christ Jesus believers who not only have had their sins forgiven but also have been redeemed by the Lamb of God’s shed blood and atoning sacrifice.   

Shalom

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Strong Encouragement

23 Wednesday May 2012

Posted by Rev. Nadine Drayton-Keen in Heavenly Insights

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afflictions, anchored, Christ Jesus, comfort, dangers and perils, hope, persecutions, Rock, shipwrecked, strong encouragement, sure foundation, temptations

This was so that, by two unchangeable things [His promise and His oath] in which it is impossible for God ever to prove false or deceive us, we who have fled [to Him] for refuge might have mighty indwelling strength and strong encouragement to grasp and hold fast the hope appointed for us and set before [us]. ~ Hebrews 6:18, AMP

 

Not only are we to have hope, and comfort from that hope, but also we are to make use of our hope and comfort.  Like ships are to a tempestuous sea, subject to the dangers of being tossed and driven, or even shipwrecked, our bodies, souls, and spirits are subject to the dangers and perils of temptations, persecutions, and afflictions. Just as the ships that are tossed and driven by the storms of nature need to be anchored in something that is steady and sure, our bodies, souls, and spirits must be anchored in a sure foundation, a steadfast hope, that will prevent us from becoming shipwrecked. For believers, that sure foundation is Christ Jesus—believers’ hope; their strong encouragement, which is set before them.

In several respects, Christ Jesus not only is the object of our hope but also He is the Rock upon which we can anchor our hope. In Christ Jesus, we have the assurance that our hope in our High Priest, who has made it possible for us to go beyond the veil and enter into the presence of God, will never fail us. Because of Christ Jesus’ sacrifice and His intercession, God has made it possible for our hope to be fastened solidly, steadfastly, and irrevocably to our Savior and Lord.

Moreover, Christ Jesus’ death and resurrection also provide us with the most earnest and perfect examples of a first-fruit hope, a hope that maintains that just as Christ Jesus was resurrected from the dead we too will follow in a like manner after Him. And, our Lord also assures us that we have a sure hope in the fact that He will accomplish the WHOLE work and design of God, which is to watch over our heavenly interests and concerns (our prayers), to watch over our safety and well-being in this world, and to watch over our positions in heavenly places.

 

Holy Spirit, please teach us how to express our love for God’s peace, joy, and happiness that He gives us, because we know that we safely can hope for, trust in, and depend on Him to keep His promises. Help us to see, Holy Spirit, that our hope of glory, our fear of the Lord, and the comforts of the Holy Spirit are our “strong consolations” (KJV) that strengthen and encourage us, even in the midst of our strongest trials and tribulations, as long as we remain anchored in (if we lay hold upon) the Gospel and the Person of Jesus the Christ.  In Jesus’ name we pray.  Amen.

Taken from Heavenly Insights

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Rev. Nadine Drayton-Keen

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