[T]hou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength

Mark 12:30 KJV (portion)

The fool says in his heart there is no God (Psalm 14:1).  It takes faith to please God, for one must first believe that God is!  (Hebrews 11:6).  This is the first, and greatest commandment.  The second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

Consider for a moment, the Gospel of John.  Jesus says in John 16:27 that the Father loves us because we love His son and believe that He came from God.  In John 14:15, Jesus says that if we love Him, we will obey Him.  And, throughout the final chapters before the crucifixion, Jesus’ repeated command to the believers was this:

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.

John 13:34

While the summation of the Old Covenant, all of the Law and the Prophets hung upon these two commands, it should be considered that the goal of the New Covenant is the same, that is also hangs upon these two.

Read more…

And after the sixty and two weeks, cut off is Messiah, and the city and the holy place are not his, the Leader who hath come doth destroy the people; and its end is with a flood, and till the end is war, determined are desolations.

Daniel 9:27 YLT

We are cut off from this world, and we have nothing in it (Galatians 6:14).  In baptism, Jesus was cut off from this world.  While He lived among those of the flesh, and He was perfectly sinless before and after, from the outpouring of the Spirit upon Him, He no longer interacted with the world in the same way.

We too, through baptism into Christ, are baptized into His life and His resurrection, and are cut off from this world and everything in it.  It is a spiritual circumcision in Christ, of the heart, and not of the flesh, but leaves us, not orphans alone in a world with nothing else, but with the greatest treasure, even greater than the whole universe and all of the heavens combined, the great Holy Spirit, God Himself, dwelling in us bodily.
Read more…

But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. Get behind me, Satan! he said. You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.

Mark 8:33

In Colossians 3:1-2, in the light of the finished works, having both died and been raised with Christ, Paul exhorts his disciples to set their hearts on things above, where Christ is seated, and to set their minds on things above, and not on Earthly things.

Remembering of course that is only the man that is born again, living by the Spirit, that can do this (John 3:3-5, John 3:12), we must be gracious to those who are yet weak in the faith, while exhorting each other with correct language and not overly simplifying it to the point where it has no meaning, for faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God (Romans 10:17).

Read more…

 Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted.

Galatians 6:1

What a far distance from this Scriptures so many people live today!  Not that this isn’t done, but that there are so few that can do it, or seem to, at the very least!  It happens for sure, but we could be further along.

Consider this.  If someone who is caught in a trespass, the one who is spiritual should restore the other in gentleness.  That is, the person who is not caught in sin should restore the person who is.  While it is obvious that a person here is caught in a trespass, let us not miss the obvious that there is someone in this picture who isn’t!

Read more…

He said to them, Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.

Mark 16:15-18

In my lifetime, I have been to many prophetic conferences.  I have been equipped, taught, and otherwise prepared and shaped through them.  As the late Jill Austin put it, she felt that conference were becoming the new Seminary for much of the Body of Christ.

Looking over the vast array of conferences, there are only a certain segment of them that interest me today.  The ones with a prophetic bent, the ones open to the manifestations of the Spirit, gifts, healing, prayer, and the like are what I generally go for, without another specific leading.  Certainly, my selection has been biased, I believe for the better, but God is the ultimate judge.

Yet, in the course of my attending many such meetings, it has come to my attention that there is a greater plan, the overall calling, or charter, if you will of many of these conferences.

Read more…

[W]e know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies. If anyone supposes that he knows anything, he has not yet known as he ought to know; but if anyone loves God, he is known by Him.

1 Corinthians 8:1-3 (portion)

Love builds up.  It edifies.  It substantiates.  Love is the substance of the Gospel.  The man without love is without God, for God is love.

The Kingdom of God requires diligence, patience, long-suffering, peace, and trust, because these are what love are.  Perhaps one of the greatest equalizers in the universe is the power of love.  Both kings and those who the world regards as “nobody”s can have it, and it can make either of their hearts warm, and soft, and alive.  Both can possess everything that matters in this life, and never lack, because love is enough.

Read more…

I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

John 10:10 (portion)

The beginning portion of this verse says that the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.  Jesus said that He came not only that we might have life, but have it to the full!  The moment we begin to think that in some way, that this fullness of life has anything to do with this life, let us remember the apostle John’s words.

Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

1 John 2:15

Read more…

But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.

1 Corinthians 2:15

The world has not seen, within the space of several generations anyway, a host of spiritual men.  There were of course plenty through history, and there have been great pockets of notable names even in the darkest hours (Revelation 3:4).

Today, the world has had it plenty of people afraid to judge, afraid to speak, and afraid to have any bold opinions, but this is not how it was at the beginning.

Read more…

God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.

Genesis 1:31

Man was born on a sixth day.  It was the very first sixth day, and we tell time by it as the second to last of our week, Friday.  After God created man, his day was done.  There was evening, and morning–the sixth day.  The first thing man got to do was to sleep.

Second, after this, God had has his full ‘work week’, the full six-days.  God chose to take a break, to call it the Sabbath, the seventh day.  He blessed and hallowed this day, calling it holy, as a day set apart for no work, for rest for man.  This was the seventh, the end of our week, Saturday.  The very second thing that man, newly created, got to do, was to take a day off.

Read more…

God blessed them and said to them, Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.

Genesis 1:28

This is the first command of the Bible.  God told man to fill the Earth, and rule over it.  Man was created to be a servant, to serve the will of God under His authority, and to have sovereignty over all the Earth.

In the fall, this image got corrupted.  Man’s image became broken, corrupted, and he could only rule with what was in his heart.  What originally was designed to be a ruler ship out of a pure and upright heart has turned, over the centuries has time and again demonstrated man’s corruption.

Read more…