Numbers 6:22-27 – “Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 23 “Speak to Aaron and to his sons, saying, ‘Thus you shall bless the sons of Israel. You shall say to them:

24 The LORD  bless you, and keep you; 25 The LORD  make His face shine on you, And be gracious to you; 26 The LORD  lift up His countenance on you, And give you peace.’  27 “So they shall invoke My name on the sons of Israel, and I then will bless them.”  NASU

I love dealing with, studying, teaching and preaching Blood Covenant.  It gets my motor running at top speed for it describes the heart of God and His purpose for mankind and is deeply misunderstood or under-appreciated by much of the Christian world.  The more I study it the more I know I have only scratched the surface and the gold mine is deep and filled with incredible treasures God wants us to enjoy, experience and include in our lives.

In the lives of the Hebrews, the Blessing of the Covenant was prayed or spoken over them every day and multiple times each day.  The High Priest would raise his hands and invoke this blessing on the children of Israel at the morning and evening sacrifices.  It was not some religious incantation but they fully believed, and so do I, that those words were a conveyance of power to their lives.  The words being spoken from God conveyed power!  This was a release from the Spirit of God to enable them to become successful.  It moved from the inside where true prosperity begins to the exterior and material things.

To be blessed meant to be prosperous.  It is speaking of ‘prosperity of the spirit’ and moves from the heart to the actions to the involvements to the material.  It meant to enjoy ‘physical’ and ‘spiritual’ health. It mean to have a long life.  It meant that those so blessed had an aurora about them that the world could never quite understand and often misunderstood.  It is what produces a certain strangeness in Christianity and causes the enemies of our soul to flee.  That is the Blessing!

THE LORD BLESS YOU AND KEEP YOU – – [v.24]

That is the beginning that you are kept by the Lord.  We are walking in the midst of an alien world and in that darkness light lives inside us.  Jesus assured us that the world would hate us because of His presence in us.  You live constantly in the keeping power of God!

In the castles of Europe you go through ‘the keep’.  It is the first gate of the castle and you accessed the castle proper through it.  If an enemy tried to access the castle they were filtered through this area and if you looked up you would notice that guards were on the balconies and from there they defended the castle.  Getting through the Keep would be a formidable task.  Picture that when you hear “the Lord keep you.”  He is on guard and keeping us!  Remember in Zechariah 2:8 where we read, “…he who touches you touches the apple of My eye.”  Imagine that!  Everything stops until this assault is dealt with.  You can stub your toe, bruise your arm, cut yourself and keep on working but get something in your eye and you shut down until you deal with that.  That’s God and if something touches us it is like getting something in His eye and He will deal with it!  You are KEPT!   The only problem is too often we do not really believe that truth!

Psalm 23 and 27 are based on the concept of The Keep and Keeping!  David wrote them in traumatic times in his life.  He was being chased by a demonized king who wanted his head.  There were times when it appeared he would succeed but God continued to KEEP him.

I dare not stop here so let’s hit the pause button and pick up in the next post about this powerful and wonderful truth from God’s word.  May you walk blessed kept by the Power and Grace of God!  Blessings!

Ephesians 6:5-8 – “Slaves, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in the sincerity of your heart, as to Christ; 6 not by way of eye service, as men-pleasers, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart. 7 With good will render service, as to the Lord, and not to men, 8 knowing that whatever good thing each one does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether slave or free.”  NASU

I want to talk about BEING RELEASED and I have a growing appreciation for this passage as a profound revelation from God.  I must put this in context for it is most assuredly not a ‘standalone’ passage.  This passage is placed within a set of passages that deal with the tense and difficult aspect of living the Christian life.  It begins with ‘husbands’ and ‘wives’, one of the most significant areas where your Christian life is tested.  Then, it deals with ‘children’ and next ‘slaves.’  All can be special areas of tension.  However, it begins much earlier in Ephesians 5:18 where we are advised,“…do not get drunk with wine… but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to yourselves in Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs…”  It is a directive to be ‘filled’ with the Spirit of God and allow the heart to be overflowing with praise to God and this text is how being ‘filled’ with the Spirit works out in daily life.  It works out in relationships, therefore what we are really talking about is what it really means to be filled with the Spirit.

That being said, there is an even greater context to consider.  In Ephesians 6:10 it deals with ‘spiritual warfare’ which is the finale of the Book of Ephesians.  Thus the passage regarding ‘slaves’ is really the end of what Paul has to say in Ephesians regarding ‘spiritual warfare.’  Everything in the book comes to a conclusion here and that alone makes it incredibly important.  I am convinced that if you understand the message here you will NEVER again be a victim of circumstances or people.  Interested yet?

THE CHARACTERS:

We know from the historical record that ‘slaves’ made up most of the Roman Empire in that time.  To the Romans one ceased to be ‘human’ once they were pressed into slavery and it was virtually permanent.  Slaves, to them, were not humans or animals they were machines!  Interestingly many of the slaves continued doing what they had done before as a vocation or job but it no longer had any meaning they were in bondage even if it was only in their heads.  They developed a sense that they DID NOT MATTER.  The only value a slave had left was their Performance.  It was all about what he did and how he did it.  Their significance came from pleasing their supervisor and have them smile.

They learned to become ‘men pleasers’ craving the smile, praise or simplest recognition and it became the oxygen that the lived by.  They became addicted to the praise of men.  Simply it was: Performance + What Someone Thinks = Worth.  The person in the predicament learns to try to read the minds, faces, actions, body language of those they are seeking to please.  We have all met ‘enslaved people’ and may have been one ourselves in this sense.  If a person is in the condition then if someone expresses or demonstrates any rejection it becomes incredibly traumatic and they fall apart.

Others become entrapped in ‘eye service’ or they only work when the boss or overseer is watching.  They seek to do minimum work for maximum return.  They serve the ‘eyes of men’ and come to view themselves as ‘victims’.  It is tragic that here in the ‘Land of the Free’ we have a large population of ‘Enslaved’.  Remember I am talking about being ‘Filled with the Spirit.’

             The RELEASE comes in knowing you are UNCONDITIONALLY LOVED and become secure in the Love of God realizing your importance and worth is not based on what you do but because of who He is.  Then you are able to relate to others from that position and are FREE!  Some become addicted to work or something trying to fill the hole inside that can only be filled by God.  Paul did not tell them to ‘rebel’ but to ‘obey’ for that was their way to FREEDOM.

People change jobs, houses, cars, and spouses trying to solve this issue but nothing changes by changing things.  Freedom comes when we change!  Obedience is a choice. Victims do not choose but Free Men/Women do.  Victims comply but Free Men/Women choose.  You have to make a choice!   Remember God chose to love you and in Christ you are NOW seated in heavenly places in Christ.  At that point we can ‘perform’ not to be accepted but because we are accepted in the beloved.  You ‘perform’ not to be loved for you cannot be loved more than you are in God.  You do not ‘perform’ for praise because you could not be more important than you are in God.

If you see this you will be RELEASED from bondage and LIVE FREE in Christ!  The spiritual application of this is not physical bondage to another but learning to be RELEASED in GOD!  God bless you as you go through your day!

Psalm 19:14 – “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my strength and my Redeemer.”  NKJV

This prayer of David is another reason I can accept God’s declaration that David was a man after His own heart.  Too many times we focus on David’s flaws and failures wondering how it could be possible that God would so speak of Israel’s great king.  But if we allow the Holy Spirit to open the prayers of David we will being to understand what God was declaring.  We must always remember that God does not look on the exterior but the interior (heart).  (1 Samuel 16:7)

This prayer in Psalms 19 is one of many that reflects the ‘heart’ of David.  Imagine a man whose greatest concern was that his ‘words’ and ‘thoughts’ be acceptable and pleasing to God.  He is a man rising in power having ascended to the highest position of authority in the land and yet his ‘heart’ cries out to PLEASE GOD!  In my studies of the life of David and other characters in the Bible I find that one of the central parts of the equation for greatness was having a ‘tender heart’ before God.  They were strong men and some men of war but their heart’s desire was to PLEASE GOD.

God is always looking for hearts that are open, receptive and have a willingness to obey His purposes.  He chose Abram who became Abraham and one of the central characteristics of Abraham’s life was his ‘heart’.  We are told in Genesis and Romans that Abraham ‘believed’ God and it was accounted to Him for righteousness.  Likewise we are instructed that ‘without faith’ it is IMPOSSIBLE to please God.  These men, such as David, were men who trusted, received and exhibited a willingness to obey the Word and Spirit of God.

David repeatedly revealed his humanness and in many churches of today would have been disqualified as a result of his failings as would most of the other Biblical Patriarchs.  Yet, God chose to use these men to establish a nation and a lineage from which the Christ would come.  He continually confounds the wise, the religiously self-righteous and questioners using things and people we would not have chosen and their hearts crying out to Him brought about glorious results for the Kingdom of God.

If you only review the exterior or actions of another you will likely miss what God is doing or working in their lives and through them.  You will reject the messenger and thereby miss the message.  No wonder Jesus said to those who brought the adulterous woman before Him, “Let him that is without sin cast the first stone.”  No wonder we are told, “Get the log out of your own eye before you try to remove a splinter or speck from the eyes of another.”  I have experienced the Holy Spirit opening my eyes to a spiritual truth through people and in places I would not have anticipated that happening.  He has taught me to not look at the packaging but the product.  It is not the marketing but the message that is important.

My heart cries out that the ‘words’ of my mouth and the ‘thoughts’ in my heart be acceptable and pleasing to My Lord.  I ask and continue to ask, Lord set a guard over my mouth.  “Lord, keep watch over the door of my lips guarding my heart from evil.”  That is a daily prayer and the desire of my heart.  I want to be a man after God’s own heart.  I want to be a vessel usable for His purposes.

May God be with you as you go through this day!

Colossians 3:1-5 – “If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. 2 Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. 3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.  5 Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.”  NKJV

Very interesting passage!  I would like for you to consider several words in this passage.  They are words that link sentences and believe me I am not attempting to give a treatise on English grammar.  If you can accept it, God speaks to us in normal language so that we understand.  He uses grammar that obeys the laws of grammar, thus it becomes important for us to notice the grammar as we study scripture.

Two words stand out in this passage.  In verse 3 the word FOR and in verse 5 the word THEREFORE.  These two words are incredibly important because they ‘link us back’ to the previous.  I find it amazing how sometimes the smallest things hold a vital key to understanding.  Listen carefully to what is being said.  Paul writes, “IF then you were raised with Christ…”  Think with me to what is being said.  IF that is the case!  That is not the IF of a question but the IF of ‘since.’  Simply, SINCE you have been raised with Christ!  If that is the case THEN what are you to do?   In verse 2 you find the answer:  “Set your mind on things above.”

THEREFORE, if it is the case that you have been ‘born again’ or ‘raised with Christ’.  IF that is the case, THEN you have to do something.  You have to ‘set’ your mind on Christ. In verse three we find FOR.  This is not a new idea this is an explanation.  Do you know why you have to set your mind on things above?  FOR or BECAUSE you have died and now your life is hidden with Christ in God!

Are you following me?  When Christ, who is our life comes we have to change our thinking, because we have a different life.  We are no longer the person we once were and no longer in the place, position or condition we once were, FOR WE HAVE DIED!  We left Egypt, passed through the Red Sea and DIED.  We said ‘farewell’ to the world. We ‘announced’ our burial.  We have been buried and IT IS OVER!  We are now ALIVE unto God in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Christ is now our life!  That is why you have to ‘set’ your mind on things above, AND the fact that you have set your mind on things above; THEREFORE! 

In light of the fact that you have died, risen and Christ is your life you MUST adjust your thinking.  It is at that point we must CONSIDER the members of our earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, greed, etc.  You now THINK about yourself and everything else in a different way for your mind is ‘set’ on things above not on things of earth.  WHY?  Because you are a new person in Christ dead to sin and alive to God! 

Honestly, if you are not ‘born again’ all the self-help books you could read would do little to truly change your life.  They tell you that you can change your life by changing your thinking but leave out something vital.  We do not begin in our ‘thoughts’ we begin in our ‘spirits.’  When a person’s spirit is dead all the positive thinking in the world will only result in them being positively dead and none of that thinking will make them whole.  We are UNITED with Christ and in that we are united to LOVE, GENTLENESS, JOY, and PEACE.  We cease traveling the religious road looking for virtues we have been united with VIRTUE HIMSELF.  Christ in us is the Hope of Glory.  The life we now live in the flesh we live in and through Him.

            God bless you as you go through your day!

Psalm 19:14 – “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my strength and my Redeemer.”  NKJV

This prayer of David is another reason I can accept God’s declaration that David was a man after His own heart.  Too many times we focus on David’s flaws and failures and wonder how it could be possible that God would so speak of Israel’s great king.  But if we allow the Holy Spirit to open the prayers of David we will being to understand that which God was speaking.  We must always remember that God does not look on the exterior but the interior (heart).  (1 Samuel 16:7)

This prayer in Psalms 19 is one of many that reflect the ‘heart’ of David.  Imagine a man whose greatest concern was that his ‘words’ and ‘thoughts’ be acceptable and pleasing to God.  He is a man rising in power or ascended to the highest position of power in the land and yet his ‘heart’ cries out to PLEASE GOD.  In my studies of the life of David and other characters in the Bible I find that one of the central parts of the equation for greatness was having a ‘tender heart’ before God.  They were strong men and some were men of war but when it came to their heart’s desire it was to PLEASE GOD.

God is always looking for hearts that are open, receptive and have a willingness to obey His purposes.  He chose Abram who became Abraham and one of the central characteristics of Abraham’s life was his ‘heart’.  We are told in Genesis and Romans that Abraham ‘believed’ God and it was accounted to Him for righteousness.  Likewise we are instructed that ‘without faith’ it is IMPOSSIBLE to please God.  These men, such as David, were men who trusted, received and exhibited a willingness to obey the Word and Spirit of God.

David repeatedly revealed his humanness and in many churches of today would have been disqualified as a result of his failings as would most of the other Biblical Patriarchs.  Yet, God chose to use these men to establish a nation that would preserve the lineage from which the Christ would come.  He continually confounds the wise, the religiously self-righteous and questioners using things and people we would not have chosen and their hearts crying out to Him brought about glorious results for the Kingdom of God.

If you only review the exterior or actions of another you will likely miss what God is doing are working in their lives and through them.  You will reject the messenger and thereby miss the message.  No wonder Jesus said to those who brought the adulterous woman before Him, “Let him that is without sin cast the first stone.”  No wonder we are told, “Get the log out of your own eye before you try to remove a splinter or speck from the eyes of another.”  I have experienced the Holy Spirit opening my eyes to a spiritual truth through people and in places I would not have anticipated that happening.  He has taught me to not look at the packaging but the product.  It is not the marketing but the message that is important.

My heart cries out that the ‘words’ of my mouth and the ‘thoughts’ in my heart be acceptable and pleasing to My Lord.  I ask and continue to ask, Lord set a guard over my mouth.  “Lord, keep watch over the door of my lips guarding my heart from evil.”  That is a daily prayer and the desire of my heart.  I want to be a man after God’s own heart.  I want to be a vessel usable for His purposes.

May God be with you as you go through this day!

Colossians 3:1-5 – “If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. 2 Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. 3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.  5 Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.”  NKJV

Very interesting passage!  I would like for you to consider several words in this passage.  They are words that link sentences and believe me I am not attempting to give a treatise on English grammar.  If you can accept it, God speaks to us in normal language so that we understand.  He uses grammar that obeys the laws of grammar, thus it becomes important for us to notice the grammar as we study scripture.

Two words stand out in this passage.  In verse 3 the word FOR and in verse 5 the word THEREFORE.  These two words are incredibly important because they ‘link us back’ to the previous.  I find it amazing how sometimes the smallest things hold a vital key to understanding.  Listen carefully to what is being said.  Paul writes, “IF then you were raised with Christ…”  Think with me to what is being said.  IF that is the case!  That is not the IF of a question but the IF of ‘since.’  Simply, SINCE you have been raised with Christ!  If that is the case THEN what are you to do?   In verse 2 you find the answer:  “Set your mind on things above.”

THEREFORE, if it is the case that you have been ‘born again’ or ‘raised with Christ’.  IF that is the case, THEN you have to do something.  You have to ‘set’ your mind on Christ. In verse three we find FOR.  This is not a new idea this is an explanation.  Do you know why you have to set your mind on things above?  FOR or BECAUSE you have died and now your life is hidden with Christ in God!

Are you following me?  When Christ, who is our life comes we have to change our thinking, because we have a different life.  We are no longer the person we once were and no longer in the place, position or condition we once were, FOR WE HAVE DIED!  We left Egypt, passed through the Red Sea and DIED.  We said ‘farewell’ to the world. We ‘announced’ our burial.  We have been buried and IT IS OVER!  We are now ALIVE unto God in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Christ is now our life!  That is why you have to ‘set’ your mind on things above, AND the fact that you have set your mind on things above; THEREFORE! 

In light of the fact that you have died, risen and Christ is your life you MUST adjust your thinking.  It is at that point we must CONSIDER the members of our earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, greed, etc.  You now THINK about yourself and everything else in a different way for your mind is ‘set’ on things above not on things of earth.  WHY?  Because you are a new person in Christ dead to sin and alive to God! 

Honestly, if you are not ‘born again’ all the self-help books you can read will do little to truly change your life.  They tell you that you can change your life by changing your thinking but leave out something vital.  We do not begin in our ‘thoughts’ we begin in our ‘spirits.’  When a person’s spirit is dead all the positive thinking in the world will only result in them being positively dead and none of that thinking will make them whole.  We are UNITED with Christ and in that we are united to LOVE, GENTLENESS, JOY, and PEACE.  We cease traveling the religious road looking for virtues we have been united with VIRTUE HIMSELF.  Christ in us is the Hope of Glory.  The life we now live in the flesh we live in and through Him.

            God bless you as you go through your day!

Genesis 1:1 – “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”  NASU

I believe in God and therefore creation!  The odds of random chance are so astronomical that I would have to have almost incomprehensible faith in chance to believe in evolution.  There is a new movie called “A Matter of Faith” which, according to the director, was attempting to alert parents to what their children are taught in secular schools.  Education, on the whole, today is not neutral on our origin and often teaches evolution with no opposing view. Sadly, many and maybe most universities are nothing more than churches of atheism teaching a materialistic view of our origin.  That view is diametrically opposed to the view presented in the Bible that God is Creator.  If Genesis is wrong it would be a simple task to extrapolate that the remainder of Scripture is completely unreliable and unbelievable as well.  If Jesus is not the Creator of John 1 then He does not have the power to save and we are without hope of salvation and eternal life.

I won’t saddle the old horse of ‘missing links’ but simply refer to the Bible declaration in Genesis 1 that God made the animals ‘after their kind’.  I understand that the word ‘kind’ is not limited to our modern term ‘species’.  There are obviously many varieties of fish, cattle, plants and even people.  For example we might have a new ‘species of pepper’ but they are still the same kind.  There may be changes within the species but the pepper does not become an apple or potato.  We may have changes in the dog ‘kind’ but they did not become lions, tigers, or cows.  They are still dogs.  Likewise there are limitations within the variations of plants and animals.  Dogs cannot mate with cats, pigs, or monkeys and reproduce.  Even further take the mule it cannot reproduce.  It is the offspring of a horse and a donkey and is a different species that is not perpetuated.  If it were all simply evolution then why would that limitation exist?

While I can acknowledge that some people act like animals I cannot believe they evolved from animals for the Bible declares that we were created in the ‘image’ and ‘likeness’ of God.  Man is the only creature so described in the Bible and I believe the biblical record and the scientific evidence that supports it.  When Adam was searching for a mate none of the animals qualified so God create Eve another human being for him.  If we look at the incredibly intricate network of nerves in the human nervous system, the miles of veins, vessels and arteries in the cardiovascular system it is impossible for me to believe that just happened in an evolutionary process.  A single celled amoeba becoming a living breathing thinking human is beyond my ability to believe.  I said once that in some ways it would take more faith (albeit negative) to believe in evolution than creation.

I believe the account of Genesis 1, the miraculous incarnation of Jesus, the miracles and the promises of God’s word.  In short, I believe God!  I have experienced God!  I trust God!  I told a young man on the streets of Dallas years ago while street witnessing with Teen Challenge, “If I am wrong and you are right I have lost nothing living a moral upright life.  I still had a great life.  However, if (and I am) right and you are wrong, you lost everything.”  An elderly man who seemed to appear our of nowhere and spoke with incredible authority in his voice said to the young man I was speaking, “You’d better listen to him.”  A silence fell over the people gathered and a sense of God’s presence was there.  I have no regrets for living my life believing in God and His word.  I know my redeemer lives!

            God bless you as you go through your day!