Who is the ultimate pioneer?

God got everything started. Everything came from Him. His word made it all happen. He is also the one who keeps everything going. Without Him it all come to a standstill. So, He starts it all and keeps it all moving.

His son Jesus came as a pioneer. He led the way through His suffering on to the glory He experienced it first. God started it all. God keeps it moving and now His new agreement with us is to complete it all as well. Jesus leads us as the new pioneer of supernatural courage and faith.

God is the one who saves us from the endless cycle of missing God’s goal for our life and those of us who are saved have an origin that we share in common. It is all about Jesus. And Jesus doesn’t hesitate to treat us all as family and friends. We are all together with the one starts, keeps things going and is now completing His good work. How amazing it is. How stunning He is.

What should we name Him wasn’t his biggest problem

Joseph had a lot to deal with. What to name the Son of God wasn’t one of them. God’s angel made that clear to him. His name is Jesus, “God Saves”.

His bigger problem was what to do about his fiance who was pregnant but claimed the Holy Spirit got her pregnant. He trusted Mary but only up to a point. He was going to call the whole thing off. The angel solved that for him as well.

So … the Son of God is named Jesus. And, most importantly, He saves us.

While he was trying to figure a way out, he had a dream. God’s angel spoke in the dream: “Joseph, son of David, don’t hesitate to get married. Mary’s pregnancy is Spirit-conceived. God’s Holy Spirit has made her pregnant. She will bring a son to birth, and when she does, you, Joseph, will name him Jesus—’God saves’—because he will save his people from missing God’s goal (sin) for their lives.” Matthew 1:20-23

“But my purpose is not to get your vote. I’m speaking to you this way so that you will be saved.” ~~Jesus

Jesus has a focus. He isn’t trying to be popular. He wants us to be saved from a life of not meeting God’s goal for our life. That is his focus. He is direct to challenge us come to God.  He shows us with supernatural miracles what God wants to do.

Do we hear what He is saying? Will we be saved?

“But my purpose is not to get your vote, and not to appeal to mere human testimony. I’m speaking to you this way so that you will be saved.” ~~Jesus (John 5:34-38 The Message)

Related articles

• The Son of God (samuelatgilgal.wordpress.com)
• By what light do we see? (just-joey.com)
• Underestimated (jillcobb.wordpress.com)

Who messed up here?

Who missed God’s goal? Somebody did and it will help me if i can blame them. That can be the assumption. I am wounded. I am hurt. I suffer. I want to blame someone. Surely someone messed up. Who, we ask?

But Jesus doesn’t allow this. God has something He wants to do. He brought healing and salvation into our fallen world. He loves us. He is good. He doesn’t do evil.

When Jesus and the disciples were on the road one day, they came upon a man who had been blind since birth. “Rabbi, who missed God’s goal, this man or his parents?” they asked him. “Neither this man nor his parents messed up,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.” And with that, Jesus spat on the ground, made some mud to place on the man’s eyes, and healed him. John 9

Related articles

• sunday 10/22/12 – “I was blind, but now I see…” (sciojournal.wordpress.com)

Are you an expert but clueless?

We have so many experts today. Think of any subject and you can find thousands of them. The internet brings us to them any time we want to know “the answer” to any question. There are some things they are clueless about however.

God has a plan. He has had it from the beginning and it will never go away. His plan is Jesus.

God offers a full report on the gifts of life and salvation that he is giving us. We don’t have to rely on the world’s guesses, opinions or internet searches. We didn’t learn this by reading books or going to school. We learned it from God, who taught us person-to-person through Jesus, and we’re passing it on to you in the same firsthand, personal way.

“The experts of our day haven’t a clue about what this eternal plan is.” ~~ Apostle Paul (1 Corinthians 2:8 The Message)

Related articles

• Paul’s Ministry Methods and Philpsophy (mgriffinrobert.com)
• Where Do We Go from Here? (revmkg.wordpress.com)
• My Friends, I Bring You Wonderful News! (mylordisjesus.wordpress.com)
• Is my goal popularity? (mww1954.wordpress.com)

Who will intercede for us with God?

Our mission is to obey Jesus. This leads to our rescue which delivers us out of destruction and into His safety (known as salvation).

Jesus accomplished this by reaching the end-stage, i.e. working through the entire process to reach the final phase of what God had in mind for him. It is referred to as perfection or maturity. It is well-illustrated with the old pirate’s telescope, unfolding (extending out) one stage at a time to function at full-strength (capacity effectiveness). When this happened God announced that Jesus could intercede for us. He is our perfect and mature priest.

Now this is good news. He went through everything he needed to so that he could demonstrate perfectly that he is God’s son.

“Then, having arrived at the full stature of his maturity and having been announced by God as high priest in the order of Melchizedek, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who believingly obey him.” (Hebrews 5:10 The Message) 

Are you seeing the parade of God’s salvation?

Are you seeing the parade of God’s salvation (σωτηρία)? Seriously. Can you see it? Can you see Jesus out front? It is a parade for those that God rescues which delivers us out of destruction and into His safety. Now that is a very different kind of parade.

Jesus, our Master and the Messiah, leads this parade. He is out in front. And we are following Him. We all have our place and our role to play. There are crowds looking on. They are on the sideline. We invite them to join in with us.

Nothing is impossible with Him AND He is in a great mood. He leads the way for all of us.

Seriously.

So be it.

Related articles

• What does ‘salvation’ mean to you? (johnmeunier.wordpress.com)
• Why more church members don’t ‘share the Gospel’ (markkelly.wordpress.com)
• Just Say No? (stophereiwannagetoff.wordpress.com)
• The Church in Eternity Past (5ptsalt.com)

Who did God put in charge of salvation?

Who did God put in charge of salvation? Man? No. There is no way we have what it takes for that. Angels? No. Not even they could make it happen. Who then? What was His solution?

Jesus came to earth in all humility. He left His place of honor with our Father and came to us, like us. He was a little lower than the angels for a while. But then through His death and resurrection, He completed salvation for us. How amazing is that? He experienced death for us. He experienced death in our place. We are now raised to a whole new life and mission with Him.

May we appreciate all that He has done for us!

Related articles

• Rising into the heavenlies – Smith Wigglesworth (alookintomymind.wordpress.com)
• What does ‘salvation’ mean to you? (johnmeunier.wordpress.com)
• Can You Lose Your Salvation? (pttyann2.wordpress.com)
• If our faith stops at the cross (devotionsandblessings.wordpress.com)

“Listen now, all of you— take this to heart.” ~~Jesus

English: Sacred heart of Jesus Español: Sagrado corazon de Jesus (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Jesus challenges us to understand that it is not what we eat that is the problem. The problem is our heart. The problem is what we think, do and say. That is the real pollution in our life. Jesus is clear that it’s what comes out of a person that pollutes: obscenities, lusts, thefts, murders, adulteries, greed, depravity, deceptive dealings, carousing, mean looks, slander, arrogance, foolishness—all these are vomit from the heart in GOD’s world (Kingdom).

We need to know this about our self so that we can take advantage of Jesus redeeming us from the price we have to pay for what is in our heart. Jesus gives a new heart. Now that is good news.

“Listen now, all of you— take this to heart. It’s not what you swallow that pollutes your life; it’s what you vomit—that’s the real pollution.” ~~Jesus (Mark 7:15 The Message)

Related articles

• “The water I give will be an artesian spring within, gushing fountains of endless life.” ~~Jesus (mww1954.wordpress.com)
• Do I have a burning passion for Jesus? (mww1954.wordpress.com)
• Just Imagine Jesus Died For Me (dedicated2jesus.com)
• God Loves You! It’s As Simple As That (mylordisjesus.wordpress.com)

Don’t put your life in the hands of experts who know nothing of life.

Don’t put your life in the hands of experts who know nothing of life. What do they know of God’s amazing salvation life? Absolutely nothing. They spew forth stunning stuff focused on this very short life of ours and don’t focus on what Jesus says matters.

A billion years from now, will what they say matter? A good question to ask.

“Our work is not to save souls, but to disciple them.” ~Oswald Chambers

“Our Lord never requires the same conditions for discipleship that he requires for salvation.” ~~Oswald Chambers

Can we out-god God?

No, we can’t. God is God. Peter laid in on the line with the early Christians who wanted to maintain the old agreement about the religious rules and regulations. He wasn’t having any of it. He knew something that is the main thing.

We can’t out-god God! We can try to reach God by being good but it won’t work. It is only out of His generosity that we move beyond missing the mark and operate in the realm where we fulfill His every desire. Keeping the rules won’t get is into His world. He has a new plan that has nothing to do with that. God is God. And God is great. Nothing is impossible with Him.

“So why are you now trying to out-god God, loading these new believers down with rules that crushed our ancestors and crushed us, too? Don’t we believe that we are saved because the Master Jesus amazingly and out of sheer generosity moved to save us just as he did those from beyond our nation? So what are we arguing about?” Acts 15:10-11

Sent to help out

I have to say that it hasn’t always been obvious to me that angels are here to help me. Lately it has been more obvious.  God knows what He is doing. Not everything is as it seems in this world. God’s hand is behind some activity that we cannot even fathom.

May it be more obvious to me all the time!!

Isn’t it obvious that all angels are sent to help out with those lined up to receive salvation? Hebrews 1

“The Message that points to Messiah on the Cross seems like sheer silliness to those hellbent on destruction.” ~~Apostle Paul

The way God works seems silly to those who don’t know Him. For many, “Why” is the big barrier to a true relationship with God. “Why did this happen?” “Why would God work that way?”

Of course, this is the way children think as well. “I don’t get it” they say. “Why can’t I do X?” they ask. “I don’t understand why you want let me” they protest after we have explained it 10 times. Our decisons seem silly to them.

That what God is doing makes sense to me is a sign that I am on the way to salvation. I am on the road. I must stay focused on what He is doing and not get diverted by what He isn’t. If I stay focused on His wisdom, I will be more than happy.

The Message that points to Messiah on the Cross seems like sheer silliness to those hellbent on destruction, but for those on the way of salvation it makes perfect sense. This is the way God works, and most powerfully as it turns out. It’s written, I’ll turn conventional wisdom on its head, I’ll expose so-called experts as crackpots. So where can you find someone truly wise, truly educated, truly intelligent in this day and age? Hasn’t God exposed it all as pretentious nonsense? Since the world in all its fancy wisdom never had a clue when it came to knowing God, God in his wisdom took delight in using what the world considered dumb—proclaiming the Message, of all things!—to bring those who trust him into the way of salvation. 1 Corinthians 1:18-21

Maturity!!

There is a suffering that is for a great reason. It is a suffering for Jesus and it leads to healing and salvation. Now that doesn’t make sense to the world we live in but it is true. Our culture believes that success is the “lack of hard times”. Jesus led the way. His suffering led to our salvation and healing and so it is true for us too.

We all share in the good and tough times in Jesus. None of us are immune and why should we be? Jesus did it for us and we must share in it together. That is a sign of our maturity that we know that nothing can seperate us from God’s love. No matter what happens. When we exhibit this attitude, it shows we are going to make it. Without the willingness to endure the tough times, we would never know.

May I be unflinching in growing in Jesus.

When we suffer for Jesus, it works out for your healing and salvation. If we are treated well, given a helping hand and encouraging word, that also works to your benefit, spurring you on, face forward, unflinching. Your hard times are also our hard times. When we see that you’re just as willing to endure the hard times as to enjoy the good times, we know you’re going to make it, no doubt about it. 2 Corinthians 1:6-7

 

No more detours

 Under the old plan, the road could get very bumpy. All curves and careful driving was the order of the day. John came with a new message to get things ready for Jesus. No longer would there be any detours. The way would be straight and easy. It would never again be a problem to see God’s salvation parade.

The main message is that we would be forgiven for missing God’s goal for our lives. That message had never been delivered before. God would no longer judge us. He would forgive us. And Jesus would deliver it to us.

In the fifteenth year of the rule of Caesar Tiberius—it was while Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea; Herod, ruler of Galilee; his brother Philip, ruler of Iturea and Trachonitis; Lysanias, ruler of Abilene; during the Chief-Priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas—John, Zachariah’s son, out in the desert at the time, received a message from God. He went all through the country around the Jordan River preaching a baptism of life-change leading to forgiveness of missing God’s goal, as described in the words of Isaiah the prophet: Thunder in the desert! “Prepare God’s arrival! Make the road smooth and straight! Every ditch will be filled in, Every bump smoothed out, The detours straightened out, All the ruts paved over. Everyone will be there to see The parade of God’s salvation.” Luke 3:1 -6