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Tag Archives: salvation

Have You Received Your Gift?

Posted on September 7, 2019 by Laura Posted in Building the Kingdom of God, Firstfruits .

Salvation is a costly gift! It cost Jesus everything to die on the Cross. Yet He did it so that you and I could be reunited into the royal family of the King of Kings. Jesus, the one Who had no sin, took our sin upon Him and paid the price for it. How many of us consider giving gifts to those outside our circle of family and friends? But the Bible says, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Jesus knew there was no guarantee that we would even receive the gift He offered. What love this Man has offered us!

https://s-i.huffpost.com/gen/1515411/images/o-WRAPPED-GIFT-facebook.jpg

If we do choose to receive the gift, we are forgiven and set free from sin’s bondage, but that doesn’t mean our lives become a cakewalk. There is a journey to make the most of our salvation. We can’t take salvation for granted and live according to our own thoughts and desires. True salvation gives us a heart to live for God. He gave His life for us so that we could gain right-standing before the Father. If we do not honor His sacrifice, we will still go to heaven, but on earth we will suffer the consequences of our unrighteous behaviors. This does not mean God loves us less. God’s love for each of us is so great that He will allow us to suffer hardship so that we can recognize when we are making bad decisions that lead to harmful consequences. His desire is always to draw us back to Himself.

In this month of Elul, we are invited to go deeper in our relationship with Him, to turn away from things that keep us separated from His love. Let us consider the difference between regret, remorse and true repentance in order to correctly evaluate our response to God.

• Regret takes place in the mind. We think, “Why did I do that?”

• Remorse involves the mind and the heart. We feel bad, maybe experiencing pain and sadness. The consequences bother us emotionally, but we don’t change our thoughts or actions. We will do the same thing again. When Judas saw that his betrayal of Jesus led to His capture, he felt remorse and went out and hanged himself. He could have gone and asked forgiveness from Jesus. This would have allowed him to live.

• Repentance involves mind, heart and will. We feel bad enough to change. The consequences of our actions are painful enough that we decide to change. We ask God for help to change and we turn away from our sin and determine to go a new way. Peter is an example of repentance. Though he denied Jesus three times, he sought forgiveness and reconciliation with Jesus. Then he was able to go on and complete his destiny as a shepherd of God’s people.

God not only gave us the gift of salvation, but He gives us the grace to desire salvation and true repentance. We can ask God to give us a hunger for true repentance, we can ask for the spirit of the Fear of the Lord so that we will honor Him and walk in reverence. He is here to be all we need in every situation. If you feeling lacking and weak in any area, ASK Him for more grace. He doesn’t expect us to figure it out on our own.

Seek His beauty today, be overwhelmed by Him and let Him heal your broken places. He has already paid the price for it, of course, He will do it!

Shalom!

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Tags: elul, repentance, salvation .

Pressing on to Pentecost – Reflections at Elim

Posted on May 24, 2019 by Laura Posted in Building the Kingdom of God, Wilderness Journey .

Exodus 16:1 tells us that the Hebrews had camped at Elim for almost a month before they set out for the wilderness of Sin.  Let’s take a moment to consider what might have been going on during that time. 

Prior to leaving Egypt, the Hebrews were living day-to-day in a hostile environment.  They endured the traumatizing cruelty of their taskmasters verbally and physically.   Material and spiritual poverty held them captive.  Remember that after Moses’ first visit to Pharaoh, Pharaoh mocked Moses’ request to let the people go to sacrifice to the Lord by taking away their straw with which to make bricks, yet their quota remained the same.  The people were angry with Moses and Aaron, Moses was confused, but God reassured him that He had made a covenant with the Hebrews and He was going to keep it.  When Moses tried to comfort the people with this promise from God, verse 6:9 tells us “they did not listen to Moses on account of their despondency and cruel bondage.”  Their suffering had made them blind and deaf to God. 

Next on the agenda were the plagues that God brought on Egypt.  The first three plagues were experienced by the Egyptians and the Hebrews.  Imagine their horror at having all the water turned to blood, the frogs filling their homes and the insects overwhelming them.  Can you hear them crying out, “Why, God? Why are things going from bad to worse?” 

Is any of this sounding vaguely familiar?  Maybe we haven’t had taskmasters standing over us with physical whips, but consider the expectations that might be on you at your job, when you feel like you haven’t been given the time or resources to complete what’s expected of you; or the debt collectors that hound you on the phone, the foreclosure or repairs on the house and car, the doctor bills from unexpected illnesses….and the list goes on and on.  Then you hear that God is going to deliver you out of this bondage and you start dreaming of what that freedom will look like only to find that things get worse.  Your heart may grow bitter before you even realize it and the next time God tries to comfort you, you can’t hear Him speaking.  Your ears are plugged….la-la-la-la-la

The succession of plagues continued over the next couple months. The Hebrews were spared of the consequences, but certainly not spared of the oppression in their environment.  The Bible tells us that many of the Egyptian’s eyes were opened to the futility of their gods and came to believe in the God of the Hebrews during this time.  They moved to Goshen to live among them.   Imagine the upheaval in their communities as all this was going on.  It must have been hard to concentrate. They had Egyptian friends that were suffering.  Who knows what their working conditions were like during the plagues?  Undoubtedly, though, this was not a peaceful time and only added to their stress.  Just prior to leaving, they celebrated the Passover.  At this point, God had their attention, but did He have their hearts?  Were they obeying His instructions out of fear or from a place of worshipful trust?  What must it have been like to hear the cries from all the Egyptians on that night when all the firstborns were slain?  They were happy to finally leave Egypt, but then they discovered that Pharaoh’s army was chasing them.  If that wasn’t bad enough, they found themselves trapped when they got to the Red Sea.  Every time something bad happened, they had to have someone to blame.  Moses and Aaron took the brunt of the blame, but their real problem was with God.  

I don’t know about you, but I can certainly relate to this scenario.  There have been numerous times I felt trapped with nowhere to turn.  I wanted to blame someone, I wanted to yell at someone, but if I took the time to get ahold of myself, I knew that the only One I could go to was God and He was the One I with whom I was angry.  I don’t like being angry with God, because I know I can never win!  So I tell Him what I think and then, I have to repent.  Times when I haven’t poured out my heart to Him and repented are times when I felt my heart growing hard.  Days might go by and I knew something was not right inside me.  That’s how bitterness takes root, and I believe that’s what happened to many of the Hebrews.

As God began to lead them through the wilderness, He wanted to replace every fracture of trauma with His Shalom.  Shalom is one of those code words.  The Bible translates it “Peace” in English, but it means so much more than that.  Shalom is a wholeness word, it is a picture of wholeness being restored to every place of trauma and barrenness inside of us.  It implies wholeness physically, spiritually, emotionally, relationally, financially and materially.  Each stop provided a challenge to their mindset, but it was actually an opportunity for healing a wound in their soul.  He was addressing a lie they believed and wanting to replace it with a truth about Himself and His loving nature.  Whether they would receive the truth and be healed was up to them.  We know that God says, “it is His kindness that leads us to repentance,” or in other words, His kindness causes us to believe something different than we used to so we could be healed. 

It is no wonder, then, that the first stop addressed their bitter hearts and God’s ability to heal them, to lead them to salvation.  Their hard hearts did not stop Him from leading them to Elim, a beautiful oasis of restoration and a picture of the eternal Kingdom.  This was His kindness meant to cause them to change their mind about Him.  He let them rest in this place for almost a month giving them a long time to meditate on His goodness.  If they would allow themselves the chance to rest, eat their daily bread, drink freely and sleep in the shade, they would begin to feel His life-giving power restored in them. 

Since we are walking this same journey toward our promise, we must ask ourselves if we can recognize our oasis.   Are we so busy worrying about what’s going to happen next or how we’re going to manage when we get to the promise, that we refuse to receive the gift of rest right now.  We may be tempted to think that our own strength and stamina enabled us to persevere to this point, but truly it has been God’s great grace.  While we wait to move on, we can choose impatience and anxiety, or shalom and rest.  Personally, I’m tired of waiting but I know that if I choose anxiousness and busyness, I will miss out on a great gift from my Father.  If I don’t rest now, I will not be at my best when I get to my promise.  I will look back and realize that I could have trusted and rested.  I don’t want regret in my life, do you? 

Look around and see God’s grace surrounding you.  It might be uncomfortable, but it might be your oasis.  Trust and rest, believe Him and His promises.  Be renewed so you’re ready for the next leg of the journey. 

Shalom! 

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Tags: bitterness, Elim, plagues, salvation, shalom, trauma, wholeness .

Pressing On To Pentecost – Am I An Oak of Righteousness?

Posted on May 24, 2019 by Laura Posted in Building the Kingdom of God, Wilderness Journey .

									
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Tags: Elim, healing, Pentecost, Rest, salvation .

Draining the Swamp?

Posted on May 6, 2019 by Laura Posted in Building the Kingdom of God, History .
Pharaoh’s Army Engulfed by the Red Sea (1900) painted by Frederick Arthur Bridgman

“The enemy said, ‘I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil;
My desire shall be gratified against them;
I will draw out my sword, my hand will destroy them.’

“You blew with Your wind, the sea covered them;
They sank like lead in the mighty waters.

“Who is like You among the gods, O Lord?
Who is like You, majestic in holiness,
Awesome in praises, working wonders?

 “You stretched out Your right hand,
The earth swallowed them. Exodus 15: 9-12

These verses come from the song that Moses and the people of Israel sang after they watched Pharaoh’s army swallowed up by the sea.  We know this story so well that I think we gloss over it like a fairy tale, but this really happened, and God arranged it all!  Our mighty God is not a tame lion.  He is a God of Love, He is Love, but that doesn’t mean that every man can do what is right in his own eyes.  Our God is also a God of Justice.  He gives grace and mercy to all, but woe to those who are bent on opposing Him.  Everyone is invited to receive the saving grace He gave through His Son, but to those that refuse the invitation, there is a terrible consequence. 

Consider the verse above, “You stretched out Your right hand and the earth swallowed them.”  Hundreds of soldiers and Pharaoh himself were swallowed up by the sea as the Israelites watched their rescue occur.  How terrifying this must have been.  Yes, they were safe, but how can the human mind comprehend such miraculous power? 

Fast forward to today.  This scenario is being replayed before our eyes, but can we see it?  Have we allowed our religious boxes to blind us from the reality of the enemy’s tactics and the deliverance our God has sent?  Are we fighting against our rescuer? 

The enemy is still saying the same thing.  His plot is domination and destruction of us individually, our families, our institutions, our nations and ultimately the entire world.  He must present himself as the rescuer…the government that will save us. 

But Jesus already defeated him on the Cross.  There is no beating Him, He is the victor and we are victorious because of Him.  He is the King of His Kingdom and He controls the ultimate Government.  There is a clear clash of kingdoms going on in our midst.  The enemy knows he is loser, but he will not accept that.

There is no difference between the earth swallowing the enemy and draining the swamp.  God is draining the reptilian swamp creatures that have plotted to destroy us all.  Only He could orchestrate such an enormous battle on a worldwide scale.  Men are just not that smart!  God has raised His mighty arm(y), He is blowing His Holy Wind across the planet and soon His majestic Holiness will be seen in plain sight!   Justice will be served and people will be drowned in the sea.  What is about to be exposed is not for the faint-hearted.  People can rejoice when justice is served, but the ultimate response is and must remain, The Awe of the Lord, reverence of His Holiness, a humbling before Him! 

Let us ask Him for eyes to see and hearts to understand His ways.  It is critical for us to align with His timing and His seasons.  We must know His heart in order to remain in His peace.  Come to Him, He will receive those whose hearts are willing to surrender before him.  We do not understand, nor can we comprehend, the depth of evil that is lurking all around us.  Likewise, we do not understand the depth of His Love that was given at the Cross to save us.  It’s time to re-think salvation and receive it! 


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Tags: justice, Kingdom, salvation .

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