No Room at the Inn

And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.- Luke 2:7 (KJV)

What we know about Joseph and Mary is that they went way out of their way to bring Jesus into this world.  Other couples may not have gone to such lengths.  Long distance travel would have been enough of a problem in and of itself.  Yet, these folks took everything in stride, even the pregnant woman after the long trip on a donkey.

I can imagine how some of would reach for our AAA card or hit up Expedia or Travelocity.  The earthly parents of Jesus accepted his birth in a manger.  Most of us would have a problem if it had been at a HoJo’s or IHOP.

Let’s  consider the trouble that they went through for this to occur as we celebrate.  Joseph could have said let’s turn back.  Mary could have said this just won’t do.  They never balked or flipped out.  Let’s celebrate His coming and how His coming came about.

Merry Christmas!

I need a new t-shirt design, but for the meantime check out what I have done on Zazzle in the past.

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Who can be Against Us

Paul wrote a letter to the believers in Rome.  We come to know it as an epistle where we can find words like justification, redemption, and others that explain our prior condition as slaves to sin and the gift of our salvation.We can find key phrases in the Book of Romans such as “all have sinned,” “filthy rags” and “how shall they hear without a preacher.”. Yet, by further exploring the Book of Romans, we can discover a key verse of inspiration.

“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can  be against us?” (8:31, NKJV)

How can anyone be against us with God on our side? How dare Satan attempt to dreceive and detour the saints of God when we have the backing and full fledged guarantee of the Almighty working on our behalf?

Believers need to believe that God has their best interest in mind and at heart, even in His hands.  No demonic or satanic force or tool can devise a scheme strong enough or wicked enough to defeat God’s purpose and plan for us.  He is on our side.

Satan desires to destroy us and devour us.  He seeks to separate us from the love of God through Jesus the Christ.  He does not want us to embrace the idea that he cannot defeat us due to God who “is for us.”

Never expect the worldly and carnal people around you to encourage so.  Let loose of any idea of “good people” doing good deeds foe the good of all without any inkling of God actively involved in their lives.  Know that you cannot put trust in man who can do no good thing. As long as you have God who is love is on your side, for just as He told the prophet Isaiah, you will fully understand that the help of man is useless.

God is on our side.  Nothing can separate us from the bond that we have with Him.  Jesus sealed the deal with His sacrifice of blood and we entered a new age covenant with God, receiving the indwelling of His Holy Spirit upon our acceptance.

He is on our side.  Who can be against us?

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Saved as Sinners

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God Romans 3:23

We all have sinned.

The Bible does not mince words when it comes to that. It speaks clearly on that fact, especially where Paul is concerned. We come to know that we never truly measure up to God’s standard.

Thank God for salvation.

Thank God that grace covers our sins. Praise be to God for the blood of Jesus that covers us so completely that we are not viewed by our sins but by His miraculous works.

Sin caused us to need the Savior, but it was not poweerful enough to keep us out of His family. He loves us as dear children, considering us both heirs and sons of God. He assures us that nothing and no one can pluck us from His hand.

We are still sinners, but God’s love for us ushered in salvation. Therefore, much akin to how Paul stated it to the Romans: we were saved as sinners.

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. – Romans 5:8

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God is Available

¹⁴ Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. 

¹⁵ For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. 

¹⁶ Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

-Hebrews 4:14-16 (NIV)

God is available to us.  We do not have to await a mediator in the form of a priest or anyone else.  Jesus serves as our “great high priest” who “did not sin.” He is our mediator, seated at the right hand of the throne of God and advocating for us before God.  

Then the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. 

– Mark 15:38 (NKJV)

He makes our access to God available to us.  The work of Jesus upon the cross brought about the torn veil that led to the Holy of Holies, the inner sanctuary of the temple where access to God was limited to those of the priestly order.  That was destroyed and torn in two by the sacrifice of Jesus.  We, as believers through His shed blood, now have access to God.

Take some time and spend it with God, meditating on the sacrifice of Jesus.

Read my article Finding Time to Spend with God Daily. 

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The Blood Still Has Power

Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, “This is the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words.” – Exodus 24:8 (NIV)

This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. – Matthew 26:28 (NIV)

When Moses had proclaimed every commandment of the law to all the people, he took the blood of calves, together with water, scarlet wool and branches of hyssop, and sprinkled the scroll and all the people.  He said, “This is the blood of the covenant, which God has commanded you to keep.” – Hebrews 9:19-20 (NIV)

Blood dripped down from the cross.  Droplets of shed blood hit the soil.  Many had bled there before.  Countless slain criminals had hung above the earth and died there, soaking the ground with blood.  However, something appeared different that day. 

The man hanging among the thieves was innocent.  He had been tried in a religious court that had refused to accept His message.  He had put up little defense against their accusations.  Even when they handed Him over to the Romans, He stood in silence as He faced His inevitable death sentence.  He said little as He endured the cruel beatings from the Roman soldiers.  He had offered no resistance when they forced Him to march with His cross through the streets.  Even as He hung upon the cross, the few words that He offered were mumbled as he neared death.

He had been called Rabbi.  John the Baptist had called Him the Lamb of God.  Some had said that He was the Christ (the Anointed One).  He was even called the Messiah by others.  Yet, some mistook Him for one of the prophets like Elijah or Jeremiah.

No matter what He was called.  He hung high above the ground and shed His blood for the salvation of the world.  Nothing would ever be the same once His blood was shed.  No one who called on His name and believed His message would not have the new covenant presented through His shed blood and slain body.

And that day was the preparation,
and the sabbath drew on.
– Luke 23:54 (KJV)

What Moses had offered in the wilderness was hardly anything close to what Jesus offered on Calvary’s cross.  Jesus bore all of our grief and sorrow for our sake.  Jesus offered a covenant that Moses could only imitate at that point.  Moses could only offer a ceremonial sprinkling of the blood for the covenant.  Jesus offered a prophetic and redemptive covenant that showed the power of God through His shed blood.  Souls are saved continually through what Jesus offered as a supreme sacrifice on that day.

Do not believe the naysayers.  Do not accept the lies and the misunderstandings.  The blood of Jesus still saves.  The blood of the Lord paid the price for our sins for our salvation.  He stood in and paid the penalty for our wrongdoing, for our transgressions and infirmities.

Let the covering of the blood continue to work on you.  Let the blood remind you of His sacrificial love.  Never forget that the blood of the slain Savior who suffered for sakes soak into your soul like it once soaked into the soil of Golgotha.  Let the image of that blood settle into your spirit and keep you close to Him in this new covenant.  Hold dear to Him as your Lord and savior, for His blood still has power.

For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of a heifer
sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies to the purifying of the flesh:
how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit
offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead
works to serve the living God?
– Hebrews 9:13 (NASB)

But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins,
he sat down at the right hand of God.
– Hebrews 10:12 (NIV)

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Who is Your Gomer?

And the LORD said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms…- Hosea 1:1

Then the Lord said to me, “Go and love your wife again, even though she commits adultery with another lover. This will illustrate that the Lord still loves Israel, even though the people have turned to other gods and love to worship them.”- Hosea 3:1 (NLT)

God utilized the prophet as an object lesson for others to see.  He put Hosea’s entire life on display for all others to view him.  He did so and Hosea’s life stands out from the lives of other Old Testament prophets in a special way.  Hosea was used by God to show God’s tattered relationship with Israel.

It wasn’t bad enough that Isaiah’s prophecy referred to Israel as a harlot.  It wasn’t enough for Ezekiel to eat the scroll or go to a valley and view dry bones.  Surely, it was not enough for Jeremiah to lament after being the weeping prophet who said he would no longer preach the message that the Lord had for him to share with others.  No, God used Hosea differently.  He used his children and his wife, Gomer, to display that God who is perfect and pure was in love with a woman who turned out to be a prostitute- Israel.

So who is your Gomer? Who is God calling on you to seek, to reach and help? Who is your Gomer?

Find out who God is calling on you to reach with His message.  See who God is calling on you to go out of your way and reclaim for Him.  Let God use you.

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The Message of the Messiah

“Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.” – 1 Corinthians 5:7 

The message of the Messiah comes from Old Testament prophecies.  The biblical books of Joel and Micah contain messianic prophecies.  Psalm 22 is a messianic psalm.  The prophecies of the Old Testament are fulfilled through the promised deliverer born in Bethlehem, the city of David.

Isaiah is probably the one prophet who offers insights into the coming of the Messiah that most Jews clung to during the days of Jesus Christ.  He wrote of the tribes of Israel turning from God as harlots of idolatry.  His chapter on the suffering Savior depicts the man of sorrows who was bruised for our iniquities.

Numerous books explain salvation for the unsaved to understand.  C.H. Spurgeon’s personal salvation story in My Conversion offers a great look at entering into Christ’s rest.   Max Lucado wrote He Chose Nails and 3:16.  Additionally, Andrrew Murray’s Absolute Surrender conveys the message well, too.

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>From Eden to Egypt Day 45

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But the LORD was with Joseph, and shewed him mercy, and gave him favour in the sight of the keeper of the prison.- Genesis 39:21 (KJV)

Down times can the very times where we need to know that the Lord is a “very present help.”  Illness, unemployment, family strife, divorce and a slew of other issues can plague us day by day.  At times, we can feel abandoned. 

That’s not what God wants us to feel.  He does not desire for us to be His forsaken children.  He redeemed us for the price of His only begotten Son.  Let us not live like those who are without hope as Paul shared with fellow believers through his epistles.  We are children of God as promised through His Son.

Joseph was in the pit, then in Potiphar’s house, and then in prison.  God never left him alone and forsaken.  He showed him mercy.  He even gave him favor in the sight of others.  God could have left it at mercy and that would have been a big deal, but He even gave the young man favor.

The next time that you feel down.  Look around and see what God has provided for you.  Think clearly about what God has taken you through, ups and downs, valleys and mountains.  Let your heart be content with all that God has already done for you.

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Perfect Sacrifice

18 For you know that you were redeemed from your empty way of life inherited from the fathers, not with perishable things like silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without defect or blemish.

– 1 Peter 1:18-19 (HCSB)

The Law of Moses calls for the best or the first to be sacrificed to God.  The covenant wasn’t asking for leftovers from those who identified themselves as the people of God.  No, the Law demanded that God receive the firstfruits.  Even in our redemption, He demonstrated that best was to be offered as a sacrifice, pure and undefiled.

Peter says that the Lamb of God was a “lamb without defect or blemish.” This sacrifice was perfect.  Peter also equated the blood to be “the precious blood of Christ.” He shares that the blood is the means for us being redeemed, reconciled unto the Father Himself by His own sacrifice of His Son.

I like the simple way Peter puts it here in 1 Peter, but the best description of the “perfect sacrifice” is between Isaiah 53 and Hebrews 10:1-18.  While Isaiah provides the prophecy that reveals the “man of sorrows” who suffered for the sinful and became sin for us, Hebrews chapter 10 gives us a clear picture of ritual sacrifice turned into redemption and reconciliation by the power of God.

But He was pierced because of our transgressions,
crushed because of our iniquities;
punishment for our peace was on Him,
and we are healed by His wounds.
Isaiah 53:5 (HCSB)

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Again and Again and Again

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. – 1 John 1:9 (NIV)

So watch yourselves. “If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him.

– Luke 17:3 (NIV)

“Forgiveness is unlocking the door to set someone free and realising you were the prisoner!”
— Max Lucado

I don’t forget what I have done.  All of the bad that I have stirred up still has its lingering effects.  I try to cover the scars and the tattoos with navy blue and banker’s grey power suits.  I hide the tears that I want to shed for my wrongs behind the dark lenses of wrap-around shades or under the low-riding brim of a fedora. 

As much as I try, the memories plague me. The bad times have their way with my psyche.

Then, always right before I get totally worn out and weighed down, He speaks softly to my spirit through His Holy Spirit.

I took care of that for you already.

I stand in awe, wondering how could that be.

Look at My hands. The pierced Me for your sake, for your salvation.

I fight with myself to come to some understanding why.  Why would the Savior do so for me?

My Father sent Me because He loves you.

Me? I have all of this baggage, though.

Come to Me and lighten your load.

I wonder what I am to do without all of this junk to carry around.

Make a difference in My name.

Make a difference with My Word.

Make a difference in My World.

Make a difference like Me for Me.

Make a difference Daily.

But I sin, Lord.

I forgive.

 No, I mean I really sin. 

I forgive.

I am a real big sinner.  I know I do not  please You.

I forgive.

What about from here on and I mess up?

I forgive.

And if it is more? Or, even worse?

I forgive.

Yes.

And again?

Yes.

And again and. . .

Yes.

How long will you keep that up?

Forever.

Eternity.

Day after day.

Until you make it to your new home with Me.

Amen.*

Amen.*

* Amen is translated as “so be it” or “it is so.” It offers a response of agreement or declared affirmation.

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