5-21-2016  THE MASTER BUILDER Part 3

Fourth, he erects walls, roof and flooring

            God sets the sun, moon and stars in place (Gen. 1:14-19)

And God said “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night and let them as signs for the seasons, the days and he years.  And let them be lights in the firmament of heaven to give light upon the earth.  And it was so.  And God made two great lights, the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night and He also made the stars.  God set them in the firmament of heaven to give light upon the earth.  And to rule over the day and over the night and to divide the light from the darkness and God saw that it was good.  And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

God establishes the structure for His creation and the purpose for each.  The sun and the moon define day and night.  They define the passing of time, one day into another, setting the stage for the passing of one season into another and finally the passing of a year.  By establishing the days, months, seasons and years God has set some parameters on His creation and how it should operate.  He established rules (‘laws of nature’ if you will), what happens when those rules are followed and what happens when they are not.  He has established what His creation should look like and now it’s time to do more than just framework.

A man starts building the framework for his house and putting up walls and a roof so his house can start taking ‘shape’, look like a house.  He selects the right size and strength of timbers to shape a solid floor, walls and roof setting up the framework and now that the dimensions (parameters) of his house are set, he’s ready for the next step – roofing and walls and etc..

Though my spiritual foundation has been laid, my ‘Christian’ walk needs to start taking shape, too.  My foundation has been laid, that is I know God created everything, Jesus died on the cross for my sins so I confessed and repented my sins and gave my heart to Him, and I know that I should keep the commandments.  But what does all that really mean?  I need to start getting some spiritual structure into my life.

Knowing what God has done for me and understanding what it truly means is not the same thing.   Even Satan knows what God has done for man and he has a better understanding of what it means than most people.  He is not deaf, he’s not blind nor is he stupid.  He hears what we say.  He sees what we do and he’s smart enough to figure out when what’s going on and when w’re getting closer to God.  If this were not true, he wouldn’t know what our relationship was with God and he would never be able to plan a counter attack to keep us from getting closer to the Lord.

So I build my framework by knowing God’s Word (the bible).  I have to read it, learn it and understand it.  In God’s Word I learn about God’s nature, what can I expect from Him, what He expects from me and about the relationship I should have with the living God who created the heavens and earth.  I have to not just learn what the bible says start applying what I have learned to show myself approved before the Lord!

I need to start talking ‘with’ the Lord.  Anyone can spout off about how he feels or what he wants from the lord and hope God is listening.  Unfortunately for too many, once they’ve ‘spouted off’, their prayer ends and they go on their way.  We can talk ‘to’ God and that’s actually believing He truly hears us but once we’ve said my peace we cap it with “amen’ and thank you Lord’ and go on our way.  Or we can talk ‘with’ our heavenly Father and that means we now have a two way street of communication with Him.  We still have our say, but then we zip the lip and listen to hear what God has to say.  If we have a question, God may send us into the bible to show us the answer.  He may answer us through people or the things around us.  Of course, we have to be sensitive to what’s going on around us.  Or he may speak directly with us.  1 Samuel chapter three, Samuel learns to hear the voice of God and yes we may have to learn how to hear God.  This is why we learn about God’s nature (from the bible) so we can distinguish what may be our own ‘ego’ talking versus God actually responding to us.  Personally, I have a basic structure for my AM prayers.  BUT Father interrupts that structure as He pleases – and He does.  I’ve been in the middle of something when, all of the sudden, Father will use that to spring into something He wants me to learn or understand.  It get pretty neat because after He has had His say, He brings me back to where I was.

My structure is set and my parameters for learning are set as I put into practice what Father has shown me.

God sets the parameters for His creation, how it should look and how it should function.

A man builds the framework for his house setting the parameters for what that house should look like.

We need to read the bible, pray, interact with other Christians and be sensitive to the world around us so we can recognize the parameters Father sets spiritually for us so we can live for and glorify Him.

Fifth,  Man starts bringing ‘life’ into his house – shingles for the roof, siding for the walls and drainage for the floors, all with purpose

God creates the animals, fish and birds and puts them in their respective places (Gen.    1:20-23)

And god said “Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that has life and the fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.”  And God created great whales and every living creature that moves, which the water brought forth abundantly after their kind and every winged fowl after its kind.  And God saw that it was good.   And God blessed them saying “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the water in the seas and fowls multiply in the earth.  And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

God starts bringing life into His creation, the birds, animals and the fish, large and small, each designed with a specific purpose.  God’s world is looking more and more like what He wants.  Now when the bible says whales the Hebrew word is tanniym which means whale or dragon or serpent indicating of great size (no extra charge).    

A man adds exterior walls to his house, a roof, floors, interior walls, plumbing and electrical systems so his house can start taking on ‘life’ and be fit to live in.  Of course, he will still need the ‘finishing’ touches – and that is day six.

Spiritually, Father starts solidifying our lives in the things we need to know to continue to grow.  We have a very basic foundation or understanding of our relationship with the Father but now He’s bringing us into a deeper understanding of what that relationship really means.  We know that the greatest commandment is to love Father with all our heart, mind, soul and spirit but what does that really involve?  Jesus tells us that ‘love’ is the basis of everything the prophets talked about, the ‘ten commandments’ and all the ‘explanatory’ commandments that evolved from them.  All of these is an explanation of what God’s love means and how we might implement that love into our lives.  And that takes time.

For me, it has taken more time than I care to admit but I cannot lie it has taken the better part of forty years for me to get to a point in my life so Father can start showing me some deeper things which I need to know.

I was ‘saved’ in a Southern Baptist Church and even though I was learning bible, all I really knew was that Jesus saved me.  I had been ‘saved’ about five years when Father introduced me to the Charismatic movement.  Everyone I met was hopped up on the blessings and promises of God, but something was lacking.  Many whom I encountered in this movement were willing to ‘cut corners’ to make God’s blessing come to pass.  It just didn’t seem right and I never heard them talking about our responsibilities or our obligations towards God and our fellow man.  Even though I had friends who were, I never got very involved with the Charismatic movement.  It just seemed ‘unbalanced’ to me.  Because of this, knowing that Kenneth Hagin was one of the main early proponents of the movement, I steered clear of any and all things that he put out – until 2015.  At that time, at the church I attend, we were doing a study on how to enhance our walk with the lord.  As it turned out a book of requirement was Hagin’s “Understanding the Anointing” and I’m glad to have read it.  I discovered that Hagin’s teaching was very balanced and the things he talked about in the book were things Father had been exposing me to over the past several years, even before I started attending my current church.  Hagin described things I had been learning and experiencing.  My opinion on brother Hagin changed dramatically.

After the Charismatic experience, Father took my family and me through several Pentecostal denominations and independent Pentecostal fellowships.  In between my S. Baptist experience and my current church Father also took me through several ‘mainstream’ churches, Independent Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, Episcopal and Catholic.  He was building my roof, floors and walls with an understanding of common denominators and differences between the various denominations. 

He also had taken me on a private study, not just on the Christian denominations but on basic common factors and differences between many of the world’s major religions and though I never attended any I read material from detractors and from that religion’s own sources so that I might have a balanced view of each of those religions. 

Talk show host and news analyst Bill O’Reilly has what he call the ‘no spin zone’.  That is, he tries to give both sides of a subject so the listener can make up his own mind about the subject.  This is kind of what Father was doing with me, giving me pros and cons so I might have a balanced concept in helping me understand why we were making the choices we were making.  And that included even not being in church for more than one season.   Not that I would recommend that, but I just didn’t seem to fit in anywhere at times but I learned a lot.

I am currently in what is considered an Apostolic/Prophetic church.  An independent church but our pastor is responsible to a number of ‘senior’ Christians who advise and counsel her (yes, I have a woman pastor).  As if the Holy can’ do the job, Father has provided these sources to assure she doesn’t get off track.   

Father continues to expose me to ‘new’ things and when He does, He takes me into the scriptures to show me the validation.  I’m lovin’ it!

God brings life to His creation with the birds, animals and fish and gives some fullness to that creation preparing it for the final touches.

A man finishes the basic construction of his house, roof, walls, floors, windows, doors and the like as he prepares to add the finishing touches to help it to look and maybe even function a little better.

Father brings a greater fullness into our lives through our experiences which help us to grow and gain a deeper understanding of our relationship with Him so He can add the ‘finishing’ touches into His temple (us) so we can carry His love to those around us and do it with reasonable knowledge and understanding.  And then, to share it in His love.

5/14/2016         The MASTER BUILDER  part 2

Second day  is preparing the land to build upon

            God created the firmament (Gen. 1:6-8)

And God said let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters and let it divide the waters from the waters.  And God made the firmament which divided the waters which were under the firmament from the water which were above the firmament.  And it was so.  And God called the firmament ‘heaven’ and the evening and the morning were the second day.

Once God found/created the place where He wanted to build He had to first create light and dark, day and night, He then had to prepare the “land” (creation) to accept His building. Now, in verse one we see that God had created ‘waters as well as light and dark.  This word used for ‘waters’ comes the Hebrew word ‘mayem’.  The meaning implies a single body of water, but not just water.  The word also relates to urine, semen, wastewater.  Even though this creates an image of byproducts it also contains things teeming with the building blocks of life.  Now mayem (pronounced mah yim) struck me as to how similar it is to ‘mayhem’, which is chaos or disorder.  So here is this pool of water full of ‘stuff’ which would be very disorganized just waiting for something to happen.  So God does just that.  He starts to bring order into this ‘pool’ by creating a separation, firmament.  The Hebrew word used here is ‘raqiya’ (raw kee ah) which basically means the sky, as we look up and see it.  So God separated the waters above and the waters below by placing a firmament in between, thus using earth’s atmosphere (if you will) to separate the waters above (outer space) from the water below (oceans).  So disorder is now becoming order and God is preparing the place to receive what He intends to build.

Once a man finds that plot of land upon which he desires to build, he, too has to put some order to what is technically chaos.  He would have to clear away any trees, bushes or shrubs from the area where he intends to build his house.  If he plans for a basement, he may have to clear rocks in order to dig an area for his foundation.  He may use bulldozers and backhoes to clear, level and dig the land until he has that clear and open area in which to build.

Now, for me, my land was chosen the day I accepted Jesus into my heart.   Thinking back I realize that Father has had His hand on my life, not only since that day of commitment but even for some time before.

But, clearing the land?  Father forgave me all my sins (up to that point) the day I accepted Jesus.  I say up to that point because I am still human.  Yes, with my confession of Jesus, God redeemed me from my ‘sin nature’ and whether I named sins or set them before Him in a package, He cleansed me from all my sins I had ever committed up to that moment.  However, I am still human and I find my spirit longing for the things of God but my flesh still lusting after the things of the world (Romans 7:14-25).  It is an ongoing war, so I’m still prone to go astray.  My continual redemption here is that as soon as recognize my sin, I acknowledge it, confess it and repent it, that is turn away from that sin and determine not to do it again and then set it behind me, I am one again clean.  King David is my example here.  Read 2nd Samuel chapters eleven and twelve to see how this story concerning David, Bathsheba and Uriah started, unfolded and then concluded.

Father has also shown me that this spiritual walk is like two new newlyweds.  A man and a woman are separate and different persons before the marriage.  Before they lived separate lives and then they brought these two, separate lives together as one.  And that includes all the baggage (from each of their lives).  They struggle to maintain their individuality but also to function as a single unit. This means clearing out the excess, unnecessary, baggage and replacing it with unity.  Spiritually and physically we become one flesh (Eph.5:31, 1 Corinth. 6:17)

Spiritually, even though I’m saved and my sins are forgiven, I still bring some excess baggage into my relationship with Jesus a lot of it which needs to be shed and left by the way side.  After salvation, my first order of business is to clear out as much excess baggage that I can discover (as the Holy Ghost reveals).  The Holy Spirit will show me what I can deal with at that time and the rest can be dealt with over time.  Fair to warn you, shedding all the excess baggage is a lifetime venture which begins with discovery then yielding over to God’s will and continues until the time He calls us home. 

I had always done things ‘my way’ so when my wife and I married, I first had to learn that it was now ‘our way’, what is best for both of us, the whole.  And, frankly, I’m not sure I yet had a good grasp on this when she went to be with the Lord thirty-four years later.  Nonetheless, as Father showed me, I would acknowledge, confess, repent and determine not to do whatever “it” was, again.  My baggage were those things that I carried into our marriage which were not necessary for the ‘whole’ to function well.  My ego, my selfish desires, my selfish wants.  I’ve had to learn that what I do is for the edification of the ‘whole’ body (my wife and I) and not just mine but all those around me. (1 Corinth. 4:12, Ephesians 4:11-13, Romans 15:2)

Clearing my spiritual lot is shedding all those things that are not of God.  Some Father showed me right up front and other things Father would have to reveal to me as I went along (and still is).  Shedding these things is actually admitting that I haven’t been doing ‘things’ in God’s will, and again, confessing, repenting and giving them to Him and I mean ‘giving’ them to Him.  Set them at the foot of the cross, leave them there and don’t look back.  Not looking back involves not even considering getting involved with ‘it’ ever again.  When the temptation arises, resist, the devil will flee (James 4:7)and once we’ve repented, do what God does, put behind His back (Isaiah 38:17) and replace it with something better – God’s Word.  (see the parable of the cleaned house, Luke 11:24-26 & Romans 12:1-2)

God puts some order into the area He intends to put His creation.  Man clears the land and prepares sit to build and me?  I (with the guidance of the Holy Ghost) start an elimination process of ridding my life of the things Father doesn’t want there.

Third day laying the foundation

            God lays the foundation (Gen. 1:9-13)

And God said let the waters under the heaven be gathered together and let dry land appear, and it was so.  And God called the dry land ‘earth’ and the gathering of the waters He called ‘seas’ and God saw that it was good.  And God said “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit each after its own kind and whose seed is in itself, upon the earth ”and it was so.  And the earth brought forth grass and herb yielding seed after its own kind, and the tree yielding fruit whose seed was after itself.  And God saw that it was good.  And the evening and the morning were the third day.

God had created light and darkness, He found is plot.  He then separated the ‘waters’ preparing His ‘lot’ and now it’s time to build a foundation for His house to stand upon.

The man looked for his ‘lot’, cleared the land and is now ready to build a foundation upon which to build his house.

I gave my heart to Jesus, finding my ‘lot’, shed excess baggage (as Father revealed) laying a foundation upon which to build the rest of my life.

Laying a foundation for a place for man to live, God gathered the waters upon the face of the earth together so dry land would appear.  He then put sustenance in the sea and put all sorts of plants upon the dry land (earth’) for man’s food.  He also set the grass, trees, mountains and everything else in place for man to enjoy.  The foundation was ready so He could finish building for His pride and joy – man.

A man lays the foundation for his house using brick, block and mortar with baseline framework from timbers to build a solid base upon which to build his home.  He wants his base, foundation, solid, strong and durable so it can stand against the winds of change.

God brought Moses to mind.  We basically know the story of Moses: Miriam watched until Pharaoh’s daughter pulled him from the water, he was raised as a prince of Egypt then he ducked out in the middle of the night because he had killed and Egyptian, 40 years in the making.  Then he went into the land of Midian and tended sheep for another forty years before he was ready to do God’s bidding.  As a prince of Egypt he learned languages, warfare and how to rule and as a shepherd he learned how to take care of what God has given him.  Moses’ foundation was actually eighty years in the making before he went out to perform God’s task (calling).

The man, again, brings in brick, block mortar and timber and whatever else he needs to build a solid foundation.  Once he’s laid out the dimensions of his hone, he then builds that foundation.

My spiritual foundation with the knowledge that I have given my life to Jesus but now I have to truly learn who Father is, who the Holy Ghost is, who I am (in Christ Jesus)  and I need to obtain a reasonable understanding of my relationship with God.  What does He expect of me?  What can I expect from Him?  I need to know, without wavering that He has ‘saved’ me and I know that He is the only true and living God who lives forever and ever.  Without wavering.  Beyond a shadow of any doubt.  Does this mean I live for Him as I should?  No.  like shedding excess baggage, full maturity is a lifelong process. 

In John chapter six, Jesus tells His disciples who He is, who the Father is, who the Holy Ghost is and the type of relationship we should have with the Father through Him because the Holy Ghost now dwells within us.  This is not just confessing Jesus, but understanding the relationship we should have.  And that’s not just living for Him, but walking with Him.  Once we understand the basis of our relationship, we can move to the next step which is continuing to build into the degree of that relationship, understanding what Father expects from us and how we can achieve a lifestyle pleasing to Him.

Jesus tells His disciples that the Father has sent Him and that He does nothing outside of the Father.  I’ve had to ask myself ‘do I do everything according to God’s will for me?’  The answer is no, but that is part of my growth which is included in the next phase of building our house. 

I said my foundation is built – somewhat.  I mean that I’m still learning how weak my foundation has been over the years.  From the day I let Jesus into my heart, I’ve had no doubt that I was heaven bound but my foundation IS the relationship, which has been building, with Father through Jesus Christ because the Holy Ghost dwells within me.  My foundation is strengthened by prayerfully reading the scriptures, that is asking Father to open my eyes and heart so I can learn what He wants me to learn from what I am reading.  It is also my prayer time with Him.  Early on I talked at God, as if He were some mysterious entity way out of reach and I hoped He heard me.  Then I learned to talk to God.  I started believing that He actually heard my prayers and would answer them.  Then I learned to talk with Father, that is I talk, then I listen to hear His response, but I quickly discovered I didn’t know if I heard Him or not.  Often He would take me into the scriptures for my answer and I was cool with that, but as I became more involved, not just in the Pentecostal movement, but the prophetic movement as well, Father took me to Samuel (1 Sam. 3:1-10) where Samuel had to learn the voice of God. 

Father has shown me that when He speaks to us two things are true.  What He says is always consistent with the scriptures (duh!) and He will confirm what He has told us either via scripture or events around us (yes we have to be aware of our surroundings) .

Back in Sept. 2014 Father gave me a prophecy which we called the “Watchman”.  In it He explained some of what He was getting ready to do and the blessing because of our obedience to His Word.  Being in prophetic circles I KNEW one or more of these prophetic people I encountered would give me confirmation of what Father was doing.  Didn’t happen.  I was pretty discouraged.  I was ready to quit.  But iIn Jan. 2015 Father sat me down and replayed the months between Sept. and Jan. showing me how He had confirmed the words of the ‘Watchman’ through all the events around me.  You can read about this in the blog entry ‘Lessons learned’.  I learned to know that it was Father speaking.  My foundation was laid a bit more solid than before.

Now, does this mean I’ve reached spiritual maturity?  Of course not.  There are still many things I need to learn so I can be an effective minister of God’s word and to fulfill the task He has set before me and that is no longer foundation but growth – which we experience until the day the Lord calls us home.

God gathered the waters, brought forth the land and put plants upon it.  A man lays brick and mortar and so forth so it will stand against nature.  I had to get rid of excess baggage when I married my wife, but we had a relationship -  which continued to build until Father took her home.  My foundation, spiritually, has been built on discovering, at a basic level, who God is, who I am and what sort of relationship He desires with me.

4/29/16 THE MASTER BUILDER

The bible tells us that God created the heavens and the earth and that by the end of the sixth day He was ready to sit back and enjoy.

By the grace of the Father, my prayer is that an understanding of how God created all that is can be compared to the building of a house in relationship to our personal lives and spiritual growth with the Father through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

So as not to pile a ton of information on everyone at one time this is the first of several installments.  Right now I’m not sure exactly how many but no more than six more.  If I can combine, I hope to do it in fewer so stick with me on this.  OK?

First, He had to decide where He was going to build

            God creates a place for His creation (Gen 1:1-5)

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.  The earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep.  And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.  God said “Let there be light.” And there was light.  God saw that the light was good and God divided the light from the darkness and God called the light day and the darkness night and the evening and the morning were the first day.

Understand that there was nothing (except God, Himself) when He started creating.  There were no molecules, no atoms, no grains of sand, no seeds – nothing.

Science talks about the ‘singularity’ which, as theorized, is the beginning of all creation.  They explain how this singularity just, all of the sudden, started expanding from a very minute particle to the expanse of the universes as we know them.  They tell us how the universe is continuing to expand but will eventually reach ‘its limit’ then start imploding (collapsing) presumably back to that very minute molecule that it originated as.  No matter what theories they come up with, though, they can’t explain where that singularity came from.

We are ‘finite’ beings, that is we have a beginning and an end so everything we understand and deal with has a beginning and an end.  So this singularity should have a beginning – somewhere, somehow.

 

One of the hardest things for man to comprehend is the ‘eternality’ of God.  God has no beginning and He shall never have an end.  He always was, still is and always shall be.  Even though we may understand the words, it is difficult for our finite minds to comprehend the infinite reality of eternity.  How long did God exist before He created the heavens and earth?  Forever.  How long will be live with Him after He calls us home.  Forever (and we, believers, shall be with Him). 

So Father created the heavens and the earth to have an object(s) for His affection.  His affection is love and He desired to impart that love to …. us.  Someone to shower that love upon.  As we read the bible over and over and again, God’s love becomes more evident to us and our understanding of His love towards us increases.  We understand that He loves us so much that He gave His only Begotten Son, Jesus to die for our sins and bring us back into His kingdom in heaven but coming to an understanding what the words say and what they really mean is our spiritual growth AND that, my brothers, sisters and friends is what the “Master Builder” is all about.

So God started with nothing and created substance, light and darkness because this is what He desired and this is what He envisioned in order to begin building His house.  He saw what He wanted and started doing it.  He created a tract of land (light and darkness) in which to build His house and He prepares for His next step.

When a man wants to build a home, he first has to find a piece of land upon which he desires to build.  He scours the real estate ads in the paper, he visits real estate agencies and he probably drives around looking for both an area to build as well as the right plot of land upon which to build.  Sometimes he may have to go look at different places to see if one may be the right plot.   But He looks for it and once He finds it, he buys it!  (we are assuming that he has the resources to do so).

When we build a spiritual house, first we must have the desire to want something that we realize that we do not have.  God gives us a desire to want ‘something’ greater than ourselves to care for us.  If you will, it’s inborn.  We can reject God, but we still look for something – different religions, meditation, whatever.  We ‘normally’ seek for something to give us hope beyond this life.  We look for a plot to build (or hope for).

As we look for that spiritual ‘haven’ God does help us out.  He reveals Himself to us in many ways, the world around us, nature, situations where He is guiding the end results, putting people around us to point us in the right direction.  We may try different religions, or which Christian denomination ‘fits’ us.  It’s always a good start where we find Jesus being preached in truth.  Our faith is like a house, we build one that meets our needs where we are now, then as those needs change or grow, so does our house.  Also in our spiritual growth, our needs will change and our house needs to change accordingly.  Now don’t mince words here.  It really isn’t us who build our house.  Father inspires us to build, the as we yield to Him, he guides our every move so instead of building a house on sand, which will collapse, we build on the rock, so it stands firm and strong.

           

I basically grew up in a Southern Baptist Church, but, as a lot of young people, I drifted away after High School.  I lived my life, working, lifting weights and hanging with my friends and then I was drafted (they drafted young men into the military back in the ‘60’s).   Though I didn’t realize it until later, even though I had drifted from being around God, God had not drifted from me.

 I was drafted in 1965 and I spent 1967 in Saigon (now Ho Chi Min City), Vietnam, I was with the US Army signal Corp/STRATCOM working with teletype/microwave equipment.  That is beaming out and receiving messages piggy-backed onto radio waves and to be sent from or back to a teletype machine to be printed out.  Our main base was located at Ton Son Nhut airbase, about five miles outside of Saigon but we had a substation in the Cholon district of Saigon which is where two other GI’s and myself were stationed working 12 hour swing shifts.  It was October or November 1967 and I was on shift with about three hours before my relief came in.  The phone rang and it was my CO.  “Buck!  We’re on ‘red alert’ (combat ready designation).  They’ve been dumping mortars on the base and they have progressed towards a civilian police station between you and us.  We’ll keep you informed.”  I said “Yes sir.”  Now our sight was located in the basement of the building which had 12” concrete walls, so I felt reasonably secure but I still looked over at the weapons rack which contained one M14 rifle and one clip holding 20 rounds (bullets) of ammunition.  I thought “OK”

My relief got bored so he came in early that day, about a half hour or so after the call.  I told him we were on red alert and He replied “Oookaaay”.  He looked at me then he looked at the weapons rack.  I couldn’t help myself but I quickly said “Don’t worry, unless there’s twenty-one of them.”  We both laughed.  By the time my shift was up we were notified that the red alert was lifted and we were told later that the Viet Cong kicked the stuffing out of that police compound about two miles outside of the city, nearly leveling it, then pulled out. 

I came home in Dec. 1967 and in February 1968, two to three months later, the enemy did come into Saigon which is known as the ‘Tet offensive” when they did a lot of damage, but the city held.  I was gone by then and I have never found out how our station fared that February, but God spared me in Oct./Nov. and I didn’t have to deal with Feb.  I had a double ‘spare’.

 I relate this story because even though I didn’t really know Jesus then, Father was watching over me.  Father speaks to us through life’s experiences.  All we have to do is look and listen.

 Now I didn’t try a lot of different religions or anything back then.  I just took things as they came and grumbled when it didn’t work out like I liked.

I found my plot when I met my wife (to be).  I met her in 1971 and we decided to marry a year later.  Who to perform the ceremony?  We went back to my old S. Baptist Church, which had a new pastor by that time, and whom my bride to be and I both decided was OK.  However!  Isn’t there always an ‘however’ or a ‘but’?  this pastor had the funny idea of not performing weddings unless the bride and groom knew Jesus – personally.  It was through that marriage counselling that Father convicted me in my heart that I never really ever knew Him.  Twice the pastor asked me if I knew Jesus and twice I responded ‘I grew up in this church’ or whatever came to mind at the time.  He asked me a third time and that’s when the Holy Ghost set it on my heart my only true and honest response was ‘no’ and received Jesus into my heart at that time.   And I know that from that day forward I had gained access to the kingdom of God, my spiritual plot.  My wife lied that day and said ‘yes’ to the question and the pastor told me after she had given her heart to Jesus a few years later, that he knew that she lied but God would bring her into the kingdom eventually through me.

So did I become an instant super Christian?  Not by a long shot.  Christian, yes but I’m still growing, getting closer to my Lord and Savior each day (PTL). But my plot, tract of land, was laid.  I had salvation.

I look back on my own spiritual growth over the years and every time I reflect on where I’ve come from to where I’m at currently, and even though I can see that Father has brought me a long way,  I also realize I still have soooo far to go. 

Every journey begins with the first step and if the journey takes 1000 steps, every time I feel I’ve gone ten or twenty steps, Father shows me that I’ve only been taking baby steps and I’m still just barely just out of the starting blocks.   But we have to take that first step and that’s finding the place to build our house so we can take the next step by allowing Him to build us.

God didn’t have a plot of land to look at so He created His own.  Before a man can build his ‘dream’ house, he first has to look for his plot.  And likewise, when we realize we need to start building our spiritual house, we have to look for and let Jesus in, so we have something to build upon.

4/15/2016

Since September 2014 Father has escalated my spiritual growth, that is this past year and a half and counting.  I believe He has taught me more in this time span than all my years before, or at least He has brought it together for me so my understanding and realization has increased immensely.  Don't get me wrong, even now when I read  passage in the scriptures Father continues to give me a deeper understanding.  Every time I think I'm getting a good handle on things, Father take me a little deeper.  I guess this is why He says to 'stay in the Word', reading it, rereading it and letting it permeate into our hearts.

He has confirmed what He has told me through ways I would never have guessed.  He has taught me to take confidence in what He tells me through that confirmation.  If you've read some of my history, I spoke of the doubts I started to have (Sept. '14 - Dec. '14) after having received the word on the 'Watchman' and how Father brought me to the point of understanding how He confirms things (at least with  me in Jan. '15).  And I must admit even through much of 2015 I wrestled with doubt off and on with "is this really You, Lord?'  But as with Samuel (1 Sam. 3:1-10), I too have learned to hear God voice most of the time.  Occasionally I'm still not sure, but then I run the 'glory check'.  With what I believe is saying to me, who gets the glory?  God?  Or me?

For myself, I do have one major check and that's what I used to call the 'zone'.  I've learned that what I call the 'zone' is truly an anointing from Father.  I've read Kenneth Hagin's books "Understanding the Anointing" and "The Ministry Gifts".  Father explained a lot of things I have been experiencing over the past several years to me through these books.

With the "Watchman" I explained that I was fine as I was writing everything down but when I went to get out of my chair, I couldn't.  I inched my way over to the steps from my computer and had to literally crawl up the steps.  I crawled into the kitchen upstairs an after a while, with great effort I was able to draw myself to my feet using the refrigerator.  It only took me about ten minutes to shuffle the twelve feet to the bathroom, another ten minutes (or so) to shuffle to my chair in the living room where I flopped (literally) and was unable to stand back up for about forty or forty-five minutes.  No joke.  My body felt like jello and wouldn't support me during that time.  Whenever Father 'gives' me something, I experience the similar scenario, but to varying degrees and I might add that over the past several months it's been happening even during my normal prayer time.

I've learned that when I'm in the 'zone', Father is dealing with me, usually something He wants me to write down and share, something He wants me to experience or learn or a prayer for someone that's more than 'Father meet their need'.

Between Hagin's books and Father coming back to reaffirm what He has taught me, I know that what I'v been experiencing is 'an' anointing from Him.  Not 'the' anointing but a'n' anointing.  Different anointings can come upon us at different times to accomplish different tasks.  Some anointings may come back regularly or as with Kenneth, may come upon us maybe only once or twice in a lifetime.  Depends on the need.

The really neat thing about hearing God is that the Holy Ghost speaks to us and too many people don't even realize it.  Have you ever started to do something, then you just had that nagging feeling or thought "maybe I shouldn't do this?".  Have you ever come to a crossroad and had that feeling to go 'this' way as opposed to 'that'?  Have you ever had a 'premonition about something happening (good or bad) or after something has happened or has started to unfold you feel like you've been there, done that before (deja vu)?   Has someone told you something, warned you or counselled you about something and it came to pass?  Have you ever read a scripture passage and you just knew 'that' was for you? Have you heard a voice in your head (or heart) and the only thing you were sure of is that it wasn't Your own?  God speaks to us in may ways but His goal, His desire is to interact with us one one one, mano e mano, face to 'face' (so to speak)(Romans 8:26-27, 1 Corinth. 2:10-13).

One of the greatest concepts that came out of the middle ages,that is the Protestant Reformation and humanism, is that God is personal.  He desires a relationship with each one of us, individually as well as collectively (the church) and the closer we walk with Him, the stronger that relationship.

Read the Gospel of John for in it John goes into great depth how we can improve our relationship with the Father through Jesus.  The Pauline letters, as well as the others, remind us of the love Jesus has for us and how we can improve on that relationship by returning that love - and how then do it, put it into practice.

I recently watched a movie called Joshua (2002) where a man comes into town and shakes it to its very foundations.  In one scene he comes before a bishop who asks him if he understands what the bible is.  Joshua hesitates for a moment and says 'Yes, it's a love letter from God to us."  But in order to get 'into' the love letter (truly realize it), we first have to get beyond the basics of 'do's and don'ts.  We don't keep the law to get close to God.  As we draw closer to God we realize that we automatically keep the law because it' how we can express our love back to Him.  Then we will start realizing how Father pours His love out to us.  The more bible we learn and put into our hearts, the more we learn about God's love and our relationship.

Jesus tells us that the first commandment is to love God ((Matt. 22:36-40) with all our heart, mind and soul and the second is like it which is to love our neighbor as ourselves.  why?  because on these two commandments hand all the law and the prophets.  The first ten commandments which God gave Moses tell us to love and basically how to do that.  the other 603 commandments God passed on to Israel through Moses gives more detail and protocol in how we can express that love.  Don't take my word or it.  Read 'em!  Everything the prophets of both the old and new testaments was God expressing His love towards His children in expressing blessing for following His will or correction to get us back on track.   So the bible, Genesis to Revelation shows us how God expresses his love towards us.

Then we return that love by allowing Jesus to abide in us and through us, helping us to express that love not just to those around us, but allowing it to flow back to Father, through Jesus Christ our Lord, because the Holy Ghost dwells in our hearts.  we should reflect the Father just as Jesus did in John chapter 14 - "...if you've seen Me, you've seen the Father ... I don't speak of Myself but the Father who dwells in Me does the work ... ".  and John 8:28 where Jesus says "... I do nothing of Myself, but I speak the things Father has taught Me."  God's desire is that we be one with Him.  Jesus tells us in John 15 that the Father is glorified when we bear much fruit, we are to continue in Jesus' love as He lived in Father's love and we do that by keeping God's commandment to abide in His love.  AND abiding in that love means reading and learning the scriptures then applying into our own lives and allowing the Holy Ghost to operate in us and through us.  He, the Holy Ghost, gives us power and to be witnesses (Acts 1:8) in this life.

I feel a little like Paul when he says 'no man has taught me' (Gal. 1:11-12) and I know that the Holy Ghost teaches us (John 14:26, 1 John 2:27) but I need to study to show myself approved  as Father shows me how to rightly divide His Word (2 Tim. 2:15).  And we don't forsake the fellowshipping together (Heb. 10:25).  Why?   Because we overcome by the blood of the lamb and our testimonies (Rev. 12:11).  Through our testimonies of what Father does in our lives we encourage each other to press on (Phil. 3:14), remember that God is always with us and to strive for the goal (Luke 13:24) which is eternal fellowship with Father, through Jesus Christ and we can do this because the Holy Ghost dwells within us giving us the power to do so (Acts 1:8).

Does this mean I shun teachers?  God forbid!  For, indeed, Father has exposed me to the things He wants me to Know through my interactions with people.  But what He has done is kept me from being polluted by man's prejudices.  I love the Bereans (Acts 17:10-12).  They heard and believed Paul's preaching but they went and checked it out in the scriptures for themselves and because of this, their faith became even more solid.

I don't just accept what I hear someone preach or say.  What they say should confirm what Father has already taught me or I need to be like the Bereans and go check it out in the scriptures.  I like to believe that if someone tries to feed me a bunch of 'hokey', my spirit, prompted by the Holy Ghost will alert me.  Kind of like the old TV show "Space Family Robinson' when the robot would come rolling out saying "Danger Will Robinson (the boy)!  Danger!"  I just need to make sure that I listen.

Are we growing in the Lord, spiritually?  In order to realize our own "Homecoming, a Spiritual re-awakening" we need to be growing towards the Father, through Jesus Christ, our Lord as the Holy Ghost prompts us.  This is the Father's will for every Christian, every believer as He draws us closer and closer into a very close relationship (fellowship) with Him.  Jesus lived for us and died (on the cross) for us.  It is our reasonable service to live for Him by ordering our lives according to His love.

Amen

4/2/2016

        Broken Alignment

        brought back into

              Heavenly Alignment 

                (notice the line segments

        then the solid line)

The past two weeks have celebrated Palm Sunday and Easter and I know that we've spent a lot of time 'boning up' on these events, but there are several events that define our Christian walk.

 and Easter Sunday (the resurrection of our Lord giving us access to eternal life).

First, Jesus had to be born under the law (into this world) in order to redeem us from the law (this world).  By walking as we walk for thirty years He established Himself as a just judge because He has walked 'a mile in our shoes'.

Second, the bible tells us that He grew up having favor with God and man, 'showing' us how to live our lives (Luke 2:52).

Then He spent three and a half years telling us how to attain eternal fellowship with the Father through Him.

On Palm Sunday, the triumphant entry into Jerusalem (the 'coronation' parade of 'the King of Kings'),

 'Good' Friday  our Lord was arrested, beaten and degraded AND then they hung Him of the cross,  the final sin sacrifice from our Lord showing His great love for us.  All sacrifices give their lives for their cause and Jesus did the same by taking our sins and our place upon the cross.

Now I realize that there are two more events yet to come (in Christian chronology),  

 The first five events define our access to heaven. The two events yet to come, the ascension and the descent of the Holy Ghost define the power Father gives us to live in this world.

In the ascension, Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father signifying He has all authority and power over all things.

In the descent of the Holy Ghost He shares that power with us so we can live and walk in His will and ways.

The first five events speak to what must be done to repair the broken alignment and and the final two define the power through which it might be accomplished.

Now Jesus doesn't physically walk with us anymore (as He did the with apostles), but through His apostles He has left us the information we need to come into alignment with His will.

However, the apostles of the Lamb shared with us (2000 years ago) what Jesus shared with them.  And yes we have the bible to help us along.  1 Corinth. chapter 9 tells us that we prophecy in part and we know in part and John 21:25 tells us that the earth could not contain the volumes if written about everything that Jesus did.

As we read the bible we read how Israel begins in knowledge of the truth, then after time starts to stray away from what God had told them.  Then, by God's grace, Father sends Israel a prophet to bring them back into alignment with his Word.

The Christian church (unfortunately) has been little different.  For a myriad of reasons (find a book on the New Testament church history to discover some of them) today's church has become broken, just like Israel and just like Israel, Father raises people up to nudge us back into the right direction.  The church has often grabbed hold of a revelation and built a whole concept on one idea.  If you don't think we get off track easily consider the 'story down the line'.

Did you ever do the party game where you have a line of people (the more the merrier).  At one end of the line the first person whispers into the next person's ear, just a few words.  That person tells it to the next, and that one to the next all the way to the end of the line.  Unless you have a most unusual line of people, when the last person is asked to recite what was said, it seldom if ever resembles the first words spoken at the beginning of the line.  Why?  Some people really don't listen and Lord knows what they might pass on. Others hear but add a little 'tidbit' of their own.  Yet others hear, but don't remember exactly what was said and so on.  Christianity's growth has experienced similar conditions.  We quickly lose track of what was originally said and get out of alignment.

Early in my Christian experience Father shared with me 'the movie projector'.  A film projector is running, showing a movie and people see something that really grabs them.  It is a truth, but these folks run off to the side and start building their faith around what they have seen, ignoring the rest of the movie, which still keeps running.  Later, during the movie, another group sees something that they really like (another truth) and go off somewhere else, focusing on this new revelation.  And the film keeps rolling.  And so on.  A truth is built upon over here, over there and the movie keeps rolling on.  Many churches have been built on partial truths.  the people who initiated the group didn't wait for the movie to end so they could get the whole picture so they might get a proper perspective on the whole movie, rather a particular scene, or truth.  Or even man's own interpretation of what he thinks was going on and not necessarily in balance with the whole picture (bible).

I mentioned that we understand and prophecy in part.  In my own experience, Father has shared things with me about people or events.  He has given me a 'trailer' (if you wish) which is not the whole picture, but a part of it.  Later on He has given me a little more detail, enhancing my understanding about whatever 'it' is.  I may receive several parts to the 'puzzle' before Father reveals the full understanding to me and even then, whatever 'it' is may not happen for a while.  It may not be its season, yet.  We see this 'season' issue with the prophets in the Old Testament.

When I say 'not its season I mean God may reveal something that will happen later as with Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar's dreams (Daniel chapters 2 & 4) where the statue revealed four kingdoms and later the tree revealed Nebuchadnezzar's 'madness' and return to sanity.

Father gives us prophets today, too who speak God's Word which reveal His intents for our future, individually and/or collectively (as a group) and either near or distant.  These people may speak parts of God's truth or they may give us a complete picture but we just don't know when it may occur.  What we do is check it out against the bible.  We know that when a prophet speaks and it comes to pass, the person is a true prophet (Jer. 28:9), but again, reminding you of Daniel, the prophecy may not be for yet.

I speak about 'in part' because the bible is not the total revelation of What God says to us (I refer you back to John 21).  But what the bible does do for us is it gives us all the information we need to know how to 'get saved', that is enter into the kingdom of God and know that's where we're headed, how to live for/in/through Jesus, and how we should treat the people around us.  It gives us enough information that we can discover God's nature.  We can't know 'what He thinks (no man can know the mind of God [1 Corinth. 2:16) but we can know 'how' He thinks (Eph. 1:17).  As we read the bible, we learn the nature of God therefore we can understand how He thinks PLUS we have the Holy Spirit leading us into all truth (John 16:13).  So our spirit agrees within us when something is in agreement with Father AND it will be consistent with the teaching of the scriptures.  So, even though we may hear something and we can't find it 'exactly' in the scriptures, if it is from God, it will be consistent with His nature and with scriptural teaching.  Of course, one has to know something about what the bible says.

I say this because many of God's truths have been pushed aside, partially because people haven't experienced it for themselves and partially because (of that) they have been taught by others certain things may not be for today.  Five 'duties' are cited in Ephesians 4 which are for perfecting of the saints, work of the ministry, edifying the body of Christ until we come into the unity of faith, knowledge of Jesus, to a perfect man and to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. (vs12&13).  This means that these jobs are to bring Christians to a full understanding of who we are in Jesus Christ, so the body (church) will be edified (built up), until we come to realize that Jesus is the very foundation of our faith and not church dogma and we live 'like' Jesus, operating in the same Spirit He operated in or permitting the Holy Ghost to operate in and through us as He did Jesus.  Jesus tells us that we will do everything He has done and more (John 14:12).  Think about that!  Why don't we?  Because we aren't back in true alignment with the Father.

So, because of these things and more, Christianity has become 'disjointed' over the centuries, losing many things God originally gave.  Rationalizing away why we don't experience some of those things the early church did.  Thus creating a 'disjointed' body which may or may not be cleanly connected to other parts of the body.  All of these body parts (we are the body of Christ) therefore have become unaligned and Father is preparing to bring all those body parts back into alignment.

Oooh!  That sounds like a mega church.  Isn't that consistent with the anti Christ?

I'm not talking about a mega church.  Christ's body is one body but many parts.  All the different parts with different functions.  this is true with the church compleat (whole body of Christ) and the individual church (each fellowship).  Many parts, one unit.  Each fellowship (local church) has many roles that need filled (you can think of some, I'm sure) and different people fill these roles.  They are all individuals with their own personalities all working together to help the fellowship function as a whole.  The body of Christ should be the same, a bunch of churches, denominations, all working together towards a common goal - bringing souls into the kingdom of God and making sure that they know that they all belong to Jesus and have eternal security. Many similar as well as different functions can occur in a given area so the body can grow, each subject to individual personalities (people), yet functioning for the common good.  Are we getting the picture?

So back to where we started.Jesus bided His time in heaven until His season was come to enter this world.  He had to fulfill prophecies because Father declared these things before they occurred so He was born of a virgin, under the law (so He could redeem us from under that law).  He grew up, just as you and I, for thirty years being exposed to the same things we are and the bible says He pleased God and man. Then He began a 3 1/2 year ministry preaching and teaching the kingdom of heaven so as to draw us back into original alignment with the Father.  He taught us how to live as a help for us coming back into that alignment.  He suffered the scourging and the cross so we wouldn't have to bear the results of our being out of alignment.  He rose from the grave victorious over sin and death bringing us back into alignment giving us the information that we need to maintain that alignment.  AND He's coming back for us to complete the re-alignment process -we come to full stature in Jesus Christ. - because we will then be living with Him.

AMEN!

3/26/2016

The Crucifixion and the Resurrection - The culmination of our relationship with our Lord Jesus.

There is no greater love than when a man lays down his life for h is friends (John 15:13)
Jesus tells us that we are His friends when we do as He commands us.  He no longer calls us servants because a servant doen't know what his lord does but He calls us friends because He has revealed to us all that the Father ha revealed to Him. (John 15:14-15)

We all have varying degrees of a relationship with the world around us.

Webster defines relationship as 'kin', of the same family or being related as in instance or situation.
It defines related as being in, as by blood, or having a close harmonic connection, that is we have something in common that brings us together.

Any relationship with the world in general it is essentially a 'non' relationship.  That is we know about the world by the media, what we see and hear on TV, newspapers, radio, the internet, etc. but we have no personal interaction.  We don't share things with the world, our lives, who we are.  Again our only knowledge of the world is through the media and the world has no knowledge of us unless we make the news media and they read or hear about us.

Now, I'm coming backwards with this for a reason so bear with me.

The next level of relationships would be the neighborhood.  Those who live in the same community as we do.  Not two miles away, not in another state and not (yet) those who live on our street but live within a few blocks or so from us.  School is a good example of this.  Until we start school, we generally only meet other people who live on our street or whom our parents may visit on occasion.  Our world starts expanding when we start going to school.  We meet kids from other streets or areas in our community and we get to know some of them.  We learn something about them.  We start building a relationship with some of them because we find things in common and share something about ourselves with them.

Outside the family, people on our own street are the next level of people we would normally meet.  I lived in a neighborhood where there were about twenty-four houses on the street, twelve homes on each side.  Each ws on a 1/4 acre lot so we were fairly close to each other but not right on top of each other as with row houses which are connected in groups.  Of the 24 families on our street I came to know thirteen or fourteen of those families, as a child.  The eight or so families I didn't know all lived in the bottom four houses on each side of the street,  The families which I knew all had some some common denominators.  The parents were generally within about ten year age of each other, with a couple of exceptions.  My sister is four years older than I and about eight of the families had children either my age or my sister's age group, just a tad older or a tad younger or a combination of all.  Five of my neighbor's children and I went school together (all born the same year) and three more families had a child one year younger or one year older.  We all played together, went to school together - grew up together.  We all got to know each other pretty well.  We saw each other day in and day out and saw the good sides as well as the bad, likes and dislikes, etc.  we all had a relationship with each other and we were friends.

Obviously, I had a relationship with my family.  My mom, my dad, my sister, the dog.  Dad left the house when I was eight or nine so I had a broken relationship there which started mending by the time I was in high school.  Do I need to say that I got to know my mom and sister pretty good?  Now, as I said, she was 4 1/2 years older than me so we didn't exactly 'hang out' together, but she and her boyfriend (my future brother-in-law) took me with them occasionally to do stuff.  Good or bad, families get to know each other very well.  What more needs to be said?

1 Samuel 18 tells us that David and Johnathan's souls were knit together meaning that they were closer than blood.  Veritably inseparable.  As we read more about their relationship, David and Johnathan were best friends all the way up to Johnathan's death.  And this is another level of friendship.

A best friend is one with whom we share our deepest secrets, our most intimate thoughts. our hopes, our dreams and our concerns and fears.  David and Johnathan's souls were knit together and so it is with us and our best friend or should/could be.

My wife is my ultimate best friend.  I shared more with her than anyone.  She knew me better than anyone, maybe even than I did.  God gave her a gift.  I speak in the past tense for she went home to be with our Lord several years ago.

I do have two other friends that I would venture to call 'best' friend.  Now understand that I'm a relatively 'closed' person.  I don't tell anyone anything that I don't mind the world knowing and I will say that years ago, I didn't want to world to know much of anything about me.  My best friends and I did a lot of things together, sometime in group and sometimes just two of us.  One of those friends died just about two years ago.  The other, after many years, we just reconnected about five years ago.  Both were high school chums but the one still living grew up with me, same street, school, etc.  There has been enough distance between (miles) that phone contact is OK but we've gotten together several time each year since reconnecting.  And we share, old times, new things.  We talk.

 Jesus calls us friends (John 15) and He demonstrated His level of friendship as we celebrate this weekend in what He has done for us - no greater love.  the question is to us - Jesus calls us 'friend' so what kind of friend are we?  I've mentioned five levels of friendship, each which exercises a relationship that is deeper the the other starting with the world and culminating with our best friend, who is probably closer than family.

When I was a senior in high school, a tenth grade girl took a shine to me.  She worked in the school office so she had access to school records so she could easily get what the school knew about me.   She 'researched' me.  Do we research Jesus to discover what He likes or dislikes?  Do we research Jesus to find out what type of relationship He wants with us?  What do we really know about Him?

We say "I go to church. I read the bible, hey, I even tithe!"  All that is well and good, but when do we talk with our Lord and Savior?  How do we talk with Him?  Or do we just talk at HIm.  Do we really communicate with Jesus?  Communication is a two way street.  I talk,then I listen to the one with whom I am speaking.  Do we listen to Jesus?  Do we know HOW to listen?

If we can give definitive answers to these questions we might be able to call ourselves 'friends' of Jesus.  But if all we can come back with is self centered, no clue type of answers, we have to seriously ask ourselves 'what kind of a relationship do I have with Jesus?

We celebrate His death and resurrection this weekend and He calls us 'friend'.  What kind of friend are we?

In Jesus' name
Amen

3/19/2016

Palm Sunday

The Triumphant entry of King Jesus (The Coronation Parade)

Not that which is, but representative of that which is to be

Palm Sunday we celebrate the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem the week before the crucifixion and the resurrection. Such a clamor arises when people hear that Jesus is 'coming to town' that everyone knows that something special is going on.

Perhaps Matthew gives us the best picture of the events of the day but Mark, Luke and John each include elements to include along with Matthew.

A conglomeration of Matthew 21:1-11, Mark 11:1-10, Luke 29:20-40 & John 12:12-16 follows:

From mount of Olives (@ 7 miles from Jerusalem)

Sent two disciples

Prophesied events concerning ass (donkey)

Disciples go to nearby city

         Bethany/Bethpage (@ 2 miles down the slopes of the mt. of Olives)

For tied up donkey (never sat upon by a man) plus her colt

Owners challenge "Why are you untying my donkey?"

Response "Lord has need of them"

Man send his donkey with the disciples

Return to mount of Olives

Jesus had prophesied these events to the two before He sent them and it all came to pass, where the donkey was, the encounter with the owner and the result.

Draped cloaks (garments) upon donkey

Set Jesus upon donkey – fulfilled prophecy ‘Fear not daughter of Zion, your King comes sitting upon an ass’s colt.’ (Zechariah 9:9)

Proceeded to town

People rejoiced,many knew Jesus' reputation

Other people heard Jesus was coming

Great multitude went out to greet Him

People laid clothes upon pathway

Also tree branches (palm leaves) laid upon pathway

Shouts of

     'Hosanna to the son of David'

     'Blessed is He (the King) who comes in the name of the Lord'

     'Blessed is the King of Israel who comes in the name of the Lord'

     'Peace in heaven and glory in the highest'

     'Hosanna in the highest'

Some Pharisees asked Jesus to rebuke His disciples (embarrassed by all the noise)

Jesus responded “If they don’t praise Me, the stones will.”

Others wondered – "Who is this?"

Multitude responded – "This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee"

Disciples weren't following the events at first but later remembered how the things written about Him were fulfilled.


CORONATION OF A KING

The bible itself gives us some examples of how excited people became with the coronation of a king.  There was a big celebration!

1 Samuel 11:15

And all the people went to Gilgal where they made Saul their king, before the Lord, and they sacrificed a peace offering before the lord and rejoiced greatly.

2 Samuel 5:3

So all the elders of Israel came to King David in Hebron and the made a pact before the Lord and David was made king of all Israel.

But consider 1 Sam. 3:3 There was a long war between the house of Saul and the house of David but David grew stronger while Saul grew weaker.

2 Kings 11:12-14

And they brought the king’s son (Joash) forth ad put a crown upon him, avowed that he was king, anointed him and they clapped their hands and said ‘God save the King.’ When Athaliah heard the noise of the guard and the people she came to the temple of the Lord. … as the manner was, the princes, trumpeters, and all the people of the land rejoiced and blew the trumpets …

Esther 2:17-18 (and this was for a queen)

… he (Ahaserus) set a crown upon her head and made her queen of Vashti. Then the king made a great feast for all his princes and servants, sent news to the provinces and gave gifts according to the state of the king.

There was great fanfare when David brought the Ark of the Covenant back into Bethlehem/Jerusalem

The passage is summarized  in the following:

2 Samuel 6:10-19 The Ark comes to the city of David

… so David brought the Ark of God from Obededom’s house to the city of David with gladness … sacrificed oxen and fatlings … David danced with all his might dressed in a linen ephod … David and all Israel brought the ark with shouting and the sound of the trumpet … put it in the tabernacle … and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord … blessed the people in the name of the Lord of hosts and gave people bread, meat and wine.

Let's take a look at some of the key elements of the day:

The donkey

     The donkey (according to http://www.bible-history.com/) is a symbol of peace. (Zech. 9:9)

     A symbol of well-being (Gen. 22:3) … Abraham saddled his ass … 

     As well as work animals, carrying burdens, plowing fields, moving grinding stones, etc.

The celebration

     As cited in the passages related to kings (and queen), the coronation (celebration of the crowning),      that is that person taking 'official' position was a big deal.  A huge celebration was always in order         and executed.

     Think of the activities surrounding the inauguration of our president, the inauguration, the ball             later and all the other festivities.

Significance of the Ark

     The Ark of the Covenant was representative of God's presence among the people of Israel:  I                contained:

          Tablets of the Law  (Exod. 20)  God's guidelines for us in our relationship with Him and our                     brothers and neighbors.   

          Aaron's rod (staff)  (Exod. 4, 7-12)  The tool through which God exercised his power as He                       delivered Israel from Egypt.  Aaron did something with his staff prior to each plague.  

          Some Manna (Exod. 16)  A symbol of how God provides for His children by giving us                               'the bread of life' when we are hungry.         

     The Ark contained all the necessities of life for the children of Israel as Jesus now provides for His             brothers and sisters (us, believers).

Get the picture:

The mount of Olives was about 7 miles from Jerusalem and apparently it had long slopes as Bethany is described as being about half way, or about 2 miles, down the mountain.

As they had no saddle for the donkey, the disciples put their garments upon the donkey before setting Jesus upon its back.  What covered the disciples backs now covered the donkey's back as a protection upon which Jesus could sit.

As Jesus entered the city, the people made quite a ‘to do’ about His coming, a lot of fanfare.

Rejoicing, shouting, and as we see probably embarrassing the Pharisees.

Pilate called Jesus ‘King of the Jews’(Mark 15:2)

On the cross, the Pharisees tried to change the inscription (John 19:21), but Pilate refused (smart man)

Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Salome tried to anoint Jesus (after the fact - He was already risen when they came to the grave) but remember the woman with the box of spikenard (Mark 14:3-9)? Jesus was already anointed for burial – but not for His Kingship. But I suspect that will happen when Jesus comes back for His church.

All of these things add up to a potential celebration of the coronation of King Jesus - prior to the fact. 

     Riding into town on the back of a donkey which implied not just humility (it wasn't a camel or an        elephant) but also of some stature (otherwise He would have had to walk into Jerusalem).

     He was not crowned ‘King’ on this weekend but remembering the events of the week that                   followed, the soldiers put a scarlet robe about Him and even though it was made of thorns, a crown     upon His head hailing Him (though mocking) King of the Jews (Matt. 27:28-29)

    The celebration of His entry into Jerusalem

This might very well have been the ‘coronation parade’ He hasn’t had time for – yet.

So just as the woman anointed His body for (the yet to happen) burial 'before the fact', maybe, just maybe, His entry into Jerusalem was His coronation parade - celebrating His (coming) Kingship.

For truly, even though Jesus didn't set up His earthly kingdom at that time, He did set up His spiritual kingdom through this, the evens of the following weekend and 53 days later (the ascension) where He lives in my heart and all of us who receive Him thereby becoming the King of my heart and (hopefully) yours
.  

In Jesus' name