Jonah

There were two men who decided to purchase and build a homestead without taking out any loans or going into debt.  Both men saved a meager amount and bought a spit of land.  One man bought a large piece of land, spending almost all he had with barely enough left to buy a small tent to live in while he began building his home.  The other man bought a modest spit of land and used the remainder of his money to buy a yurt to live in while building his homestead. A few years passed, and both men worked diligently towards saving for materials and building their homes with spare time.  The man who bought a tent, in time, gave up, tired and unable to continue living in a tent he got a loan to finish building his homestead.  The man with the Yurt was able to persevere in his work and diligently worked, saved, and built his homestead without borrowing.

We all know about the prophet Jonah.  In apologetics, Jonah is sort of the “Don’t ya think believing a whale swallowed a man is where we should draw the line?” book in God’s Holy Word.  The fact of the matter is, whether or not the historical account of Jonah is useful for story telling, it is also 100% true.  Jonah got swallowed by a great fish.  Jonah preached in Ninevah.  The people in Ninevah got healed.  Jonah got angry.

The idea of Jonah being swallowed by a great fish tends to overshadow a very important, many very important messages and life lessons that aid us in evangelizing, in relationships with strange nations, and a relationship with The Savior.  One lesson is that God can work in spite of what’s going on in the heart of the worker.  That’s right, in spite, of the worker’s heart.  You see, Jonah’s job was to manumit the people of Ninevah from under the authority of sin. Jonah’s boss, The Savior, wanted to disenthrall Ninevah; But, He sent Jonah.  Jonah hated Nineveh.  Jonah hated the people of Nineveh.  Yet, in spite of all this God forced Jonah to go to that city, prophecy, and have a hand in saving the people of Nineveh.

When the people of the city repented, Jonah went out to the edge of the city where God provided a broom tree for him to rest under.  Jonah was elated about that broom tree. It was because of the shade that the broom tree provided.  Jonah would have rested under the shadow of that tree but God then sent a worm to destroy the tree as a real scorcher was on the horizon.  The hot sun beat on Jonah that day and he was tired, angry, obdurate. Jonah went to bed that night knowing the following day he would be protected in the shadow of that tree.  I wonder if his belly was full with much food?

The book ends with the young prophet being asked a question.

God had caused a vehement east wind to blow on Jonah while the sun beat on him and Jonah grew faint and wished to die! “It is better for me to die than to live.”  said Jonah

“Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?” YHVH asked Jonah.

“It is right for me to be angry, even to death!”

“You have had pity on the plant for which you have not labored, nor made it grow, which came up in a night and perished in a night.  And should I not pity Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than 120,000 persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left, and also much livestock?

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Jesus Signs His Death Sentence

Tags

COurse of nature, Ha Mashiak, power of the tongue, Saved By The Blood, yeshua

Speech is an extremely powerful thing.  We can trust that when God tells us that our speech directs our life’s path that He is telling us out of love.  Take some of the words from James’ letter in the third chapter:

• <The tongue …  sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on the fire of hell.>
• <Behold also the ships, which though are so great, and driven by fierce winds, yet they turn about with a very small rudder… Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasts great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!>
  

The Lord also uses the tongues power to drive us toward Him, for when we trust Him with the bridling of our tongues we find that we will love our life and Him that much more. <For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile>

By the seventh chapter in John’s gospel, the Jews were good and angry with Jesus.  They wanted to kill Him!  Did you know that the authorities came to arrest Jesus before the Garden of Gethsemane and failed?  He did not flee.  He did not fight.  He simply had a conversation with the arresting officers, sent by the religious authorities and they walked away.  When they came to arrest Him, Jesus said to the them, <“I will be with you a little while longer, then I go to Him Who Sent Me.  You will seek Me, but will not find Me; and where I am going you can’t come.”>

This is what we are focusing on <“and where I am going you cannot come.”>  Jesus lived His life in such a way that caused Jesus to see and hear what The Father was doing at all times.  He had been very patient and loving with the High Priests and rulers of the temple.  Reading the gospels you may see He was constantly trying to bring the High Priests to repent and come to understand the truth.  Most of them did not accept this offer and therefore were given over to a reprobate mind, just like any person would be.  None of us can escape that axiom.  If the religious rulers were allowed to see and understand their own actions (being where Jesus is) they would have recognized enough to worship Jesus.

Their crucifying Jesus shows that their focus was pigeon holed.  They were so focused on the political work that needed to be done to kill Him that they did not see anything else.  They were slaves to their hearts desires.  Because of their constant denial of God’s outstretched hand, He gave them over to evil desires.  He used their evil desires against them.  Their crucifying Jesus gives the whole world a foothold to believe on The Lamb Who Was Slain Before The Foundation Of The World through which any who believes has the power to overcome any evil.  We are saved by His blood and His blood alone.  He had to really go out of His way to get crucified.  It would not have taken much to get Pilate to let Him go, yet as the Jews spoke their final crushing blow that sent Him to the cross, they also spoke the words that save those who love Him:  “Let His blood be on us and on our children.”

II Time Out

Hey all.  I appreciate all the support I have received over the years from my readers.  Gleaning The Scriptures is put together thanks to just one guy, Thomas J. Griffin.  My apologies for any typ0s, mispellings, or punctuation mistakes  The fall is a very busy time of year for me.  The nature of my business causes things to spike during the fall and then fall backinto normality around the middle to end of November.

Please forgive me for putting a “Time Out” on the blog.  It should be back to two articles a month in a few weeks, and hopefully at least 1 video sermon per week.  Until then thanks for watching and reading and above all things be obedient to Our Father, Creator and Keeper of All Things.  He asks us to do things that are fun, good for us.

This Is A Beautiful Example of How Faith Can Lead Us

When the Israelites wanted a king, God chose Saul. A people called the Philistines were constantly oppressing Israel. One day Israel and the Philista gathered to wage war. But Israel had no weapons yet. Only the king and his son had swords. His son’s name was Jonathan. I find Jonathan to be a wonderful example […]

via Jonathan: A Man of Faith. — Who is God?

Jesus The Savior. John The Baptist.

All of the prophets from Moses to Zachariah had a message that involved bits and pieces, fragments of information on The Human Form of God and the life He would live, the things He would do, the way He would be.  John The Baptist, in his ministry said that The One that all the scriptures were talking about is on the way.  These men (Yeshua and John) were family, and were intimately connected, working together to ensure God’s will happened.

Jesus’ ministry and John’s ministry are very closely related.  How beautiful it is that God orchestrated the life of John to fit Jesus’ agenda.

John was very confident in his ministry.  He boldly and authoritatively spoke to the masses with courage: telling people that (a) Jesus is coming so (b) now is the time to repent.  John spoke to the Sadducees and High Priests in a way that could have gotten him in a lot of trouble;  Yet, his honest words towards them were from a place of love, helping them also to recognize their need for A Savior.  If they were not acting in such a way that should have resulted in scolding, he wouldn’t have scolded them.

In contrast, John took his place as having no authority when Yeshua arrived.  John The Baptizer, who was just boldly scolding the most powerful Jews around, was now completely humble and submissive.

So many people had the faith to sacrifice their lives to save us.   They all served Him in that way and He is an incredible gift that every person should live for.

Can We Judge The Heart?

Tags

action, beleive, Crucifixion, early ministry of jesus, Faith, Fear, fruit, God, Gospel, gospels, Heart, Intention, jesus, Judge, Judgement, Pharisees, root, seed, signs, The Lord, tree

We can never know if a person’s actions are coming from a righteous place.  We all know that the pharisees were evil.  We know this now, but did they know it back then?  Jesus spent a great deal of time explaining to people that they should not be like the pharisees, and that the pharisees were evil.  I do not think He would have spent so much time teaching this if people already were fully aware of the pharisee’s “dead dry bones”

This applies to today as well.  Many of the church leaders today are being fooled into thinking that they are holy.  How can this be?  How can such tender and loving people be fooled into thinking that they are holy?  Because nobody can judge the heart.  Satan has adjusted the way he does things over the last few thousand years.

The Word tells us that {The heart is deceitful above all things, who can know it?}

Look at this:

• The three wise men were seeking Jesus
• Jesus’ parents were seeking Jesus when He taught in the temple as a boy
• Thousands of people left their daily grind and followed Jesus when He was in ministry
• The believing ill were healed after seeking Jesus
• The disciples left their jobs, families and their whole lives to follow Yeshua
• Today there are a few people who truly seek Jesus and are finding God, the keys to life, and an abundance of it.
• The pharisees were seeking Jesus with all they had
• Timothy, James, and Paul used the majority of their resources to follow Jesus.

Just like on sesame street all of these things have something in common, but one of these things just does not belong here.  Every above example is serving the purpose of finding Jesus.  Some of the folks in these examples might have more self serving reasons than others, but the one that truly does not belong is the pharisees, you got it!  They not only are the most self serving, but their intention was to kill Jesus.  You know how that goes, they saw the power of God, were threatened by it and needed to wrestle it into submission, call it out, destroy it, make it their own so that they could serve the people! Right!?  Ha ha, no no no, their intention was to serve themselves at every turn, even when they appeared to be serving others.  You see, the pharisees were so far gone, that they must have at some level been aware of their evil intentions.

The problem in our generation is that Satan has tricked most of our preachers in such a way that they are not aware that what they are doing is actually hindering god’s vine (the various denominations) from being grafted to the True Vine (not a church, but God Himself).  Most of us are being deceived into acting in self serving ways through seemingly innocent acts of service.  The Pharisees, though, they were not deceived.  They knew they were bad people.  Especially after Jesus explained it to them.  Nicodemus recognized this and came to Him.  If Nicodemus was acting genuinely (not as a spy) then He is to be treated with utmost respect.  He risked EVERYTHING to do what was right.

This is the main point of this message: the tree was the same for each group of people.  If you caught any of them in the street and asked them what they were doing they would have said the same thing “I am looking for Jesus.”  The root and the fruit are both very different for the Pharisees.  The root for most of the other groups are a need for help.  The fruit for most others is/was thankfulness and gratitude.  Not for those bad boys the Pharisees.  Their root was a need to stay in power.  The fruit, once finding Jesus was mind games and nasty tricks.  Did anybody else, except for those in control play mind games and do nasty tricks to Jesus?

Let’s Get Real For A Moment

Why do you do what you do?   Why do you want what you want?  Your wants and intentions (your heart) controls what you do.  Where do you get these wants and desires?  Even if your wants and intentions are serving your church, ask yourself “How many times have I ran people out of the church based on what I judged to be good or bad?”  I want to ask you a serious and difficult question, please.  Could Satan be using you to keep your church from moving closer to the kingdom of God?  Tough question I know.  Do not avoid it.  Instead, face it head on in prayer and you will be pleasantly surprised with what happens next.

If God has sent a servant to your church, and you were part of the pack that ran that servant out, you will be held responsible for that.  The shame you are trying to avoid right now will become unbearable.  It will cause you to hide and to run away from Your Father, just as it is now.  {The heart is deceitful above all things, who can know it?}

There is Some One who can know the heart.  He can know your heart.  He can adjust it and make it nearer to His own.  He is much more likely to do this if you ask Him to.  Yeshua (Jesus) is capable of shaping your intentions and wants and needs to meet goals that will leave you with a great inheritance in heaven.  Make it a daily practice to give Jesus your heart.

Then when you must stand before The King of Kings to answer for your daily habits and the ripples you left behind based on your habits, you will be able to come before Him with fear and trembling, but boldly.  You will stand before Him knowing for certain that your actions did not come from you, but that they came from Him.  You will stand before Him because you will have proven to be a part of Him instead of a wolf in sheep’s clothing.  Faith without works is dead.  If your works are not His works, even if performed within the setting of a church, you are dead brothers and sisters.  Shalom and go with Him.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Exodus: In An Angel’s Bosom

Tags

Bible, egyptian, Exodus, Exodus Ch 2, Holy Spirit, jesus, Jesus Christ, Levite, light, Moses, Nile

In the last three months she had developed a clairaudiance.  Dodging, bobbing and weaving so to speak, in an effort to keep her son from the guards; From the soldiers; from the wise men; and the sorcerers.  It had served her well.  Now, though, came the time for her to put the babe in the hands of The Lord in a tough way.

Yeshua had motivated her to do some peculiar things, especially as of recent.  Never misleading her, she had learned to trust Him.  This though was not an easy step.  Some weren’t.  It seemed to be murder.  Nevertheless, the voice of God would not abate.  It was clear that she must place her son in the river.

The rain was warm on the Levite woman’s brow.  There was an easy mist forming in pockets as she was lead to the river’s edge.  Her motivation was that of any mother’s.  The idea of allowing the Egyptians to take her newborn son’s life was not an option.  Was she the only one striving to keep hers?

She walked briskly, holding the babe under her garments.  Drawing closer and closer to the Nile, she was nearing the place where people might see her.  The Levite woman’s clothes were damp, yet they still hung over her with ease.  The Levite woman looked for a good place where she could place the child.  Hearing footsteps, slow and meticulously placed in the wet sand and mud: squish, drain, pop, another pop and a long squish, “Oh no” she thought. She needed a place to hide and a distraction so her movements weren’t heard.  She tossed a small cobble into the air.  It arced up and over the path and into the sage brush on the other side.  She made a jump for a small hill next to her, not nearly enough for shelter but she landed and rolled flat with the baby in her arms at the same time that the cobble brushed through the foliage and plopped into the mud.  She hugged the ground and her energy was kept low.  The baby didn’t make a sound, the Egyptian passed, spooked and without a glance in her direction.

The desert was a land full of superstitions.  Over the generations these superstitions had woven themselves into the very nature of the Egyptian.  This, she had found was right in front of her all the time.  Once she could see it was so plain.  It worked to her advantage remarkably.

She was not even on alert at moments like this anymore.  Her energy was very balanced.  If she had been caught the Egyptians would have dealt with her in a most licentious way.  God had her heart and mind.  It was not easy to walk so close to Him.  She was derided by the leaders, both religious and non.  She was in constant warfare with herself. Against the wiles of her carnal mind:  it telling her how childish this God stuff was;  Yet, He prevailed when she was with Him in mind, and even when she wasn’t.

The basket she had made the day before was still there, waiting for to take it’s place in history.  What was His name?  She placed him in the basket.  She took a moment and just sat.  This was another step in her personal journey with The Creator.  There was a chorus happening all around her.  The falling drops on the water, in the vegetation, on the land, and over her son’s golden brown skin.

The river tugged him in as she shed her motherly tears.

A small, condensed ray raced toward the earth from the sky.  The water caught in it was, for a moment, a swirl of of beautiful bright colors.

“What have I done” The Levite woman wailed.  Her guts and better judgement immediately lashed out at her for being such a fool.  She prayed that she be given the strength to understand and abide in God’s will.   But alas it is written <For, I think, God has exhibited us apostles last of all, as men condemned to death; because we have become a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men.  We are fools for Christ’s sake.>

And goes the journey of the faithful.  She then remembered the situation at hand and that her options were slim to none.  She remembered the construction of trust that had developed between Her husband, YHVH, and herself.  She chose to allow her mind to be put at ease and she continued to morn the loss of her son.

Who is your God? Church or God?

Today I had a really great conversation with a Muslim.  He was about my age, and we had a lot in common.  We both agreed to disagree on many topics, but to tell you the truth I learned from that boy, and he admitted, whether he wanted to or not, to have learned from me too.

He, on his own accord, without me doing any mental work at all, consistently brought up points that I was prepared for and was knowledgeable about.  Some of them I had literally studied just hours before.  The confidence this brought was key.

I believe because of some things God showed the muslim boy today through me that it will be easier, more sensible even for him to join the good guys.  One of the points brought up in this conversation is this:  What happened at the crucifixion seemingly causes us Christians to feel as if we are not responsible for our actions.

It is easy to fall into a Muslim’s trap when they bring up anything.  They have studied themselves approved in a much greater way than the average Christian.  They tend to spin a yarn that makes us look like irresponsible children and our doctrine like an unrealistic fairy tale.  Once this point is made by a Muslim (and they will make that point, trust me) it is important to recognize that any Christian who has given their life to a church, a denomination or to any representation of Christ will be obliterated by the Muslim in that argument and rightly so.  Why? Because those Christians have not yet experienced how God actually handles sin.  To those Christians, the gospel more or less is a fairy tale.  Forgive me for putting it that plainly.  I have been on both sides of this and I understand how you feel.

The Bible very subtly warns us of the difference between copy catting others who have given their lives to Christ and actually giving up one’s life for Him.  In Genesis we learn of Abraham walking with God.  When he is in the maelstrom that was Egypt during a famine, he withholds information from his enemies in order to both save himself, his wife, and his obedience to God.  He tells everybody that Sarah is his sister and moves forward trusting God will do the rest.  God does, and in magnificent fashion.  Abraham does it again when in the land of king Abimelech and the outcome is exactly the same.

Fast forwarding a few chapters we find Abraham’s son, Isaac in the same situation, with the same king even.  Isaac’s wife is on the line because she also is beautiful like his mother, Sarah.  Isaac probably thought quickly this worked for my dad and he tells the king “She is my sister.”

Uh oh.  Isaac’s copy catting does not quite work, spiritually, as Abraham’s did.  Withholding information and speaking something that is untrue are not the same thing.  A copy catter might do well verse for verse defending their beliefs against another’s beliefs.  Here is the problem with that though:  If we have not truly given our lives to Yeshua, we will leave that conversation worried about some of the points the Muslim had.  That will show through, subtly in our body language, the Muslim will pick up on it, and the Muslim will walk away with more faith in their religion because they noticed that they got to another Christian.

Please forgive me if that point was sort of rough.  Rectifying it is between you and God.  If you have had a lengthy and good relationship with Him (not your church, but Him) you understand what it feels like to no longer deal with guilt or shame. If you are not yet on that boat you can easily search your heart to avoid the worse of two outcomes for an unavoidable event: meeting Him.  Is church your God, or is Jesus your God?

That was point A.  Point B is more of a sword for your arsenal than an abrasive questioning of where you stand with God.  Please forgive me.  Muslims have taken our patriarch Abraham and twisted it to seem like He is their Father instead of ours.   The father of their faith even.  They are fighting for what Ishmael never had so many years ago.  There are a lot of similarities in the Muslim and Christian faiths.  There is a reason for this.  Abraham is the father of many children.  Isaac is the child that God instructed Abraham (even against Abraham’s will at points: Genesis 21:8-14) to favor.  Ishmael is Abraham’s firstborn son.  Ishmael is the root of the nation of Islam (Genesis 21:13 & Genesis 25:12-18).  The Torah tells us that the sons and daughters of the slave women were not treated the same as Isaac.  The servant women’s children were given gifts  but were driven out of their home with Abraham while Abraham was alive.  On the other hand, Isaac was given the inheritance (what Islam is fighting for). (all of this information can be found in Genesis Chapters 12- 26)

Christianity comes from this line: Abraham to Isaac to Jacob (called Israel).  Keep in mind that most of the sons and daughters of this tribe are disobedient children of God, but children from Abraham’s inheritance none-the-less.  On the other hand, Islam comes from Ishmael.  Why not Abraham to Ishmael?  Because there is a division between Abraham and Ishmael.  The difference in the parting Ishmael took from Abraham and the parting Isaac took from Abraham is this: Ishmael was:

• Driven away
• Given gifts
• No inheritance.

There is a nation that comes from Ishmael (Genesis 21:13): Islam.  The nation of Israel and the sons and daughters of God comes from Abraham: Genesis 12:7 combined with Genesis 15:1-6 and is contextually accurate.

 

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****Correction (2/28/017)***** Today I read Genesis 35, where God speaks to Israel describing to him that a nation will come from him as well.  The only difference then, between the sons of Ishmael and the sons of Israel are that God intended to bless Israel with the inheritance, whereas God intended to make a nation out of both of them giving only gifts but no inheritance to Ishmael. *********

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Muslims are still fighting to take over the inheritance that is not theirs.  They have the option to come to faith in Yeshua, bringing them (in a roundabout way) into the inheritance that they are fighting for.

I do not think you will adequately defend the faith after reading this article.  Adequately defending the faith would be more well done through prayer and reading the scripture from this angle, knowing that Muslims like to say “Islam comes from the faith of Abraham”  or is “The Abrahamic faith.”  They berate Christians by telling them a bunch of stuff (mostly true stuff) the Christians haven’t heard before, intending on converting them.  By the time that a converted Christian finds out that the basis of their conversion was sprinkled with a lie or two, they are deeply entwined socially with Muslims and have seen how much less hypocrisy is in that church than their own and sometimes end up staying on a path that leads to destruction. Do not let them fool you!

Shoeless Leadership

In China it is a sign of respect to take one’s shoes off upon entering a household. All around the world, I am sure there are folks who must produce charismatic phlegm in order to endure a friend tromping through their home with shoes on.

Why though? Why is this the case?

Here are two instances in The Bible where God commands a man to take off their sandals in His presence.

Exodus 3:5: Moses

<Then He said, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.”>

Joshua 5:15: Joshua

<And The Captain of the LORD’S host said unto Joshua, “Loose thy shoe from off thy foot; for the place whereon thou standest is holy.” And Joshua did so.>

I am absolutely positive that the reason God requires such intense respect is not simply for formality. It is not because Our God turns up His nose snobbishly saying “I, sir, am so much better than you, that you must bow down and worship Me.”

No, no, no, that is not God.  You see, man seeks to be worshiped for his own benefit. Usually. Why? Because Satan has twisted the reasons for worship from selfless to selfish.  

We all know the human body is covered in absorbent material called the skin. I want you to take a guess at what the most absorbent part of the skin is. That is right, it is the sole of one’s foot.

Maybe, this is why God so lovingly commands a man standing before Him – on holy ground – to please, for your sake, soak it in. The rest of your skin has glands that produce sebum. Sebum is an oil that protects the skin from absorbing things too quickly. Not only are there no sebaceous glands on your feet’s souls, but there are no hair follicles either. Within 20 minutes of a material being placed on your foot’s bottom, traces of that material (if absorbent) can be found throughout the entire body. The bloodstream soaks it up almost immediately. In the case of our forefathers in faith, it is holy ground that is being soaked into the bloodstream and dispersing throughout all the organs, including the brain and the heart.

 

 

 

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I doubt this guy is Christian; However, it is unclean birds that brought Elijah meat. Simon begins lying when he talks about evolution but the idea expressed in his video is still mostly right.  God is using Simon to teach people to fall better into the track of what leadership is truly about.  Why are things like respect and bare feet important information to good leaders?  If to you it seems unrelated, pray about it and God may very well take you on a journey that will turn you into a better employee, boss, or friend than you already are.

 

 

By Inspiration of God

You know a friend of mine pointed out to me the other day that its a good idea to reel through Bible stories like they are a movie, or a play.  I like to do that from the perspective of individuals within the story so that I can glean out every bit of spiritually useful morsels as possible.

My buddy pointed out that we can look at the story from God’s perspective.  This made me realize that most of the stories read from a fully omniscient point of view.  There is no way that the authors could have known all that was known in the books without God, Our Father and Majestic Creator.  All scripture is given by inspiration of God.  It really is.

A great example of this is in regards to King David and His escapades.  I’m sure He didn’t write the books about his (or His considering he was His) life; However, we can determine that while David was fleeing from enemies there were many times when God created a circumstance that kept David from harm.  David had no way of knowing, at the time, that his protection came from God.  David simply did as he knew was right in spite of what the earth was trying to get him to do.  His reward is great and His name is honored throughout history by the power of Our Lord and Savior’s Father, Our God: The Lord of Hosts.