THE ALWAYS PRESENT GOD - : PSALM 139: VERSES 7-12

HIS OMNIPRESENCE

God is the only Being in the Universe Who can be everywhere at one time. Why? Because He is first – God and secondly – because the Universe is His own artwork. It is His own masterpiece if you will. No created being has any claim to such a Truth. The devil and his angels are all created and while they are they are the “prince and the powers of the air”, in this current age, they are basically on a short leash. They can be yanked at any time and stopped from a Pearl Harbor-type spiritual attack by a Godly man or woman, of strong Faith in Jesus Christ.

Scripture tell us that “the eyes of the Lord runneth to and fro, across the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf (of those) whose heart is loyal to Him” (2 Chronicles 16:9). He scans the Earth! He sees all. He can visually focus in on all. He can also zoom into the “secret” goings-on that people thing they are doing behind closed doors, or ungodly secret societies with funny  hats and strange symbols.  Nothing is hidden from these Holy Eyes, Who sees all and knows all.

These everpresent (Omnipresent) Eyes are described even more fully in Zechariah 4:10 which gives a more complete picture of piercing, powerful Eyes of God. It is also perfectly exhibits how God the Father, God the Son, the Holy Spirit and the Eyes of All via the Seven Eyes mentioned in this particular verse, all work together perfectly. There is no daylight between them. There is no disagreement between any of them.

These are is the everpresent Eyesight which King David describes in Verses 7-12 of Psalm 139...here:
7  Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence?
8  If I ascend to heaven, You are there;
If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there.
9  If I take the wings of the dawn,
If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea,
10 Even there Your hand will lead me,
And Your right hand will lay hold of me.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will overwhelm me,
And the light around me will be night,”
12 Even the darkness is not dark to You,
And the night is as bright as the day.
Darkness and light are alike to You.

Verse 7: Here is a man who knows neither he nor anyone else can run from God.  Many of the godless will commit sin and evil completely unaware that they are in the complete line of sight of Providence.  Many will turn from Christ and run to the strange chanting and mystic pagan religions of the world, thinking they have escaped His  “Jesus”.  Many will delude themselves they can conduct their daily and/or personal lives like the rest of this slimy culture does, and “sure God may see but He knows I’m alright”…..This is heresy and rebellion. The bible says rebellion is divination, which will never be rewarded with eternal life. No one can run from the Eyes and Presence of the Living God!

Verse 8: David also states the obvious here as, under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, which was given only to a few men in the Old Testament.  God is of course, present in His Heavenly Kingdom. However, if people so choose, He is also in charge of the gates of hell. Make no bones about it - people DO choose Hell - when they reject the Son of God, Who is the ONLY Way to Heaven (John 14:6).  The Creator absolutely created everything, including the abyss for Lucifer, the former worship leader in Heaven and all who ever followed him. Anyone who does NOT follow Christ is an ultimate follower of the fallen angels, led by Lucifer. God can be present there as well. Two New Testament passages confirm this fact. Jesus spoke of the rich man in hell and he was in plain view of the poor beggar, Lazarus who was in paradise. Jesus called “paradise”  Abraham’s bosom. He knew about this incident because He could see it from His vantage point in Heaven. He is ever present. The second instance is mentioned by Peter, and something the Lord wanted recorded. Here it is without comment: “18 For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; 19 in which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison, 20 who once were disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the water." (1 Peter 3:18-20).

Verses 9-10: These two verses are meant by both God and David who wrote them down to show the power and presence of God. The human writer tells us that even if he were to transport himself somehow, to say, an island in the middle of the Meditterean or New Zealand - God goes before him...or you...or I. If we are supposed to be there - wherever there is - God shows His Omniscience by setting up divine appointments or provision. However, the converse is true. If you are NOT supposed to go there, but got it in your head that God TOLD you to go there...or you felt like going anyway, you will not succeed. Most likely, if you and I are faithful to the Lord, He will extricate us from difficult places where we are not in alignment with His plan. Sometimes we have a hard lesson to learn from it. In this case, we remain where we are until the time of testing is over. Then the Lord frees us from the burden we put on ourselves. This is what "remotest part of the sea....Your right Hand will lay hold of me". God will not abandon His faithful children. He WILL allow us to learn hard lessons from our mistakes, so we do not keep making them over and over again!

Verses 11-12: If our hearts and minds are right with God, atmospheric conditions will never affect us. It may affect the things we have to do, in the natural, For instance, we cannot mow the lawn at midnight or go on a surf board in January in Lake Michigan. If you heart and soul are right with God, you and I will not fear the terror of the darkness because we know that our God is always watching us, and watching out for us. The state of light on earth means nothing to the God Who is Light, and to Whom scripture applies as so bright that in the Kingdom no other light is needed. While wicked and cruel men use the cover of darkness to do all kinds of deeds, nothing is hidden from Abba Father and all will be revealed on that incredible and incredibly scary Day of the Lord.

Our ever-present, omnipresent, always there, always everywhere God and Creator should be worshiped and thanked mightily, because if His Eyes were not upon us, think of the world of hurt we would be in today. Amen. 

THIRTY ONE DAYS OF PRAYER AND THE WORD:JANUARY 1-31, 2015 THEME: "ABIDE"

DAY EIGHT:

VERSE:
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come....2 Corinthians 5:17 
PRAYER:
Most Holy and Gracious God, You are a good of new things. In the beginning You created something out of nothing and You made all things new. Most Holy Father in Heaven, You molded man out of the dust, breathed life into Him and gave Adamah his own work to do and food to eat in the Garden.  Since the corruption and the Fall of Genesis 3, You gave Your prophets and Your Word for 3500 years, very specifically of when Maschiach would be born, live, minister and cut off and Jesus paid it all on the instrument of death almost 2000 years ago.

Because of that historic act, ordained in the Heavens and flawlessly executed by the Only One Who is flawless as both man and the Son of God, we can now be new creations, remade even while we are standing in perishing mortal flesh and be made new by simply seeking His Forgiveness and repenting of our sins, crying out to Him to save us because we understand His sacrifice and the amazing thing is He sees our heart longing for transformation and accepts us so that we can be regenerated by the Holy Spirit and made new, born again and saved as a new adopted child of God!

Father, we know You have absolutely no grandchildren but call all women and men to repentance to become adopted daughters and sons, that we may not be thrown into outer darkness with unforgiven sin, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. But because You are such a God and Creator of Love, as the Scriptures testifies from cover to cover, as You are such the Supreme mechanical engineer of all time, as You are such the most amazing Architect ever, You take our foul Adamic nature, corrupted as it is and use the same process You used to make Adamah in the Garden, at the dawn of time! You take the spiritual dust and clay we are, You morphe us into the image of Christ at the point of Salvation where we immediately turn from a confirmed resident of Hell, breathe Your Spirit into us, exactly as You did in the beginning and flip our spirit man around in an instant into a whole new creature! This salvific process will never be appreciated and understood by even those who come to Faith until we see His nailed-pierced Hands in Glory, heavenly Father, but oh what an amazing RE-CREATION You have made!

Now, the old man is gone, the old man is dead and the new man lives. You have no just taken our sins and removed them, to forget them from Your Sight, but going one step amazingly better, You destroyed the work of Satan in our lives, and renew everything to such an extent, if we just stay in, abide in, walk in Your Ways and live daily in Your Presence as you want us to, You will reveal more and more new things which we could never imagine in our puny little minds! So, Father and Maker of All Things, thank You for that. Thank You for returning us to the old paradigm of Creation at the Point of Salvation, which sets us on the road to return to the Glory of the Garden one day in Paradise, when You have restored all, defeated all evil and brought back Your Intended and Your Anointed to rule forever more, and it is in His Name - YaHWeH - Commander in Chief all all Heaven - Jesus I pray, amen. 

THREE UNLIKELY MEN

#1 -  the THIEF

You've heard the familiar saying that things sometimes come in "threes". You know, if someone dies, two more in that circle are supposed to. While I am not a gambling man, I know in horse racing there is a term called the Trifecta. This is a bet on which three horses would come in first, second or third. In soccer or Hockey, he who scores three goals has a hattrick. In baseball, the triple play is the highest hit outside of a home run.

Although the Bible never said there were three Wise Men who came to visit Christ, legend created it. There is however the Great Trinity of God - Father, Son and Holy Spirit. They are as real as the breath you take! Apart from the Trinity, three men's stories have had an amazing impact on how we look at what just happened last Sunday and how we are to move forward, through the rest of the year.

The three men, of whom I speak are: The Thief on the Cross; the Roman Centurion and Joseph of Arimethea (and to a lesser extent - Nicodemus).

Today, I don't wish to bore you with all the theological implications of what this thief did, but it would benefit us to use his completely incredible conversion, at the literal point of death, as witnessing tool of evangelism the rest of this year, and our lives.

Here is the account from the Holy Scriptures: "One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!” But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” (Luke 23:39-43 ESV)

LOST THIEF:

This dude was not just dying physically, he was about to be thrust into the eternal hell waiting for all unbelievers from the beginning of Creation until the end of time. Like most of the dying world today, this thief blasphemes; curses and belittles the Holiness of God and all His Righteousness. This thief, at the beginning of our passage above, is reflective of those who will be alive during the 1000 year reign of Christ in Jerusalem, which is coming closer each day.

After Armaggedon and the fact that Jesus has already returned to Earth to wipe out the nations and all the leaders you see today. There will still be mortal/physical people alive on the earth alongside those saints who return from heaven, i.e. - the Church, and they will produce literal physical children. Like us, they will not be born already saved. Some will see the light and some won't! One requirement from Jesus is EVERY nation is supposed to go to Jerusalem to celebrate the re-instituted Feast of the Tabernacles. 

Still, many will refuse to obey Christ and will pay for it. Here is the proof " Then everyone who survives of all the nations that have come against Jerusalem shall go up year after year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Booths. And if any of the families of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, there will be no rain on them. (Zechariah 14:16-17 ESV)

This condemned thief on the Cross is in open rebellion against Messiah, just as those of whom it is prophesied here from Zechariah. This man, now almost 2000 years in hell, represents the majority of mankind of all nations alive today with their pagan cults, religions and false "christian" doctrine. There is NO hope for them, unless they become like the:

REDEEMED THIEF:

The other thief on the Cross was completely different! He obviously knew Who Jesus was, having seen and heard Him or about Him. Everyone there to be executed already knew just Who the famous One to be executed was! They had yelled Hosanna on Palm Sunday and Crucify Him five days later! But notice the process of Repentance, Seeking Forgiveness, Accepting Christ as Lord and Christ taking Him straight into the Garden of God with Him a few hours later!

"Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise."

Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? - This repentant thief recognized he had violated God's Law and broken the First Commandment by not having the proper respect, reverence and literal fear of the Living God!

For we are receiving the due reward of our deeds - He knows the punishment of his many vile sins is death....and in his soul, he knows this includes eternal separation from God! This man is obviously well grounded in the Word of God, he had just chosen the alternate route  - like most of us were, BEFORE Christ converted us from pagans to Christians!

This man has done nothing wrong - This thief KNOWS Jesus did not do what He was accused of and in fact, being that that area, he had known, seen and heard about the many miracles and deed of the Chosen One! The Spirit of God was already in the Process of Converting and preparing the heart of this convicted man, revealing to him that this Man in the Middle Cross was indeed the True Sinless Son of God! Jesus Himself said that no one will call Him Savior or the Son of God unless God Himself reveals Christ to that person! This condemns about 50% of Americans who call themselves "Christians" as if it were just a title like a "New Yorker" or a "Oregon Ducks" fan! This is serious stuff, because Eternity is in the balance.  If someone you know, does not know that Jesus is the Sinless Son of God Who can, will and then DID take away their sins, they are as lost as the blaspheming thief above.

Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom - So this thief recognized his sins; confessed it by openly declaring it and now he is asking for Salvation!!!! THIS IS THE PROCESS OF REDEMPTION! HAVE YOU DONE THIS? IF YOU HAVE NOT, THERE IS NO PEACE WITH GOD and He will judge you into eternal separation from Him! This man was now just saved because only the Spirit of God would and could testify that Jesus was going back to the Father and the Kingdom of Heaven. This also confirms he had heard Jesus preaching about the Kingdom of Heaven in Matthew 6! The world has heard the Gospel preached over and over and about this same Kingdom, yet does not accept!

“Truly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise." - This is Jesus' reply! Here is the King of Kings, the Creator of the World, the Lord God Himself, riding into Paradise at 3pm on Good Friday/Passover, with a common thief at His Side! WOW!!! WOW!!! First - the Thief...today - YOU AND I!

Have you done this? What did it cost the thief? NOTHING?!!!! NOTHING!!!!!
It will cost you nothing as well, if you are wish to head for Paradise with Jesus! But you do have to go through the same process. It is NOT your birthright! It is something you have to ask for! Ask and you shall receive! Seek and you shall find! Knock on the Doors of Heaven and cry out like this thief "LET ME IN, LET ME IN"!!! Then, if you are truly sorry for the way you live and then commit to living in the Will of God for your life, then you and I and everyone else, will one day be in Paradise, praising Him forever.
Amen.

(image by google)

SATURDAY GUEST WRITER: LYNN MOSHER

THE HAMMER THAT DRIPPED BLOOD....

Standing over the blistering heat of the fire, as sweat trails down his dirty face, the smith fans the blazing flames with his bellows. As he finishes the hammer he is working on, he gives it a thorough check, making sure it will meet the critical eye of the centurion. As a smith for the Roman army, all his work goes into the hands of the soldiers.

LYNN MOSHER (WEBSITE HERE)

After the centurion picks up the ready tools from the smith and approves them, he sets out to deliver them to his soldiers. On his way, he gives the hammer to one of the best soldiers under his command. The soldier’s use of the hammer this day? Crucifixion duty. 


The soldier has endured the burden of this duty before. He hates this gruesome task. 


Under the strain of this assignment, he ambles his way to skull hill, better known as Golgotha, where he joins the centurion and the other three soldiers already there. Standing there chatting with them, he hears that three prisoners are coming to be crucified. One of the prisoners is his charge. 


He waits.


Standing there, he realizes that what he is about to do is the antithesis of the weather: it is one of those breathtaking, spring days that warms and rejuvenates the soul. Rivulets of white stream across the azure sky. A gentle breeze distills the fragrance of the flowering blossoms into the air.


Yet, impending gloom hangs in the air. 


A large, jeering crowd, intermingled with a great many mourners, moves toward the hill on the Via Dolorosa. Three men bent under the weight of their own crossbeam trudge their way up the hill. A short distance behind them is another man, whipped beyond recognition, stumbling with agonized effort every step of the way. So disfigured and injured that another man carries his crossbeam for him.


This bloodied mess of a man now stands before the soldier. He wonders: Who is this man? What could he possibly have done to deserve this horrible beating? Surely, he wasn’t a soldier for he wears no hobnailed boots; he’s merely an ordinary sandaled man. 


Sweat beads up on the soldier’s forehead. His heart races. His tongue sticks to the roof of his mouth.


The other soldiers, now finished crucifying their two prisoners, help tie the soldier’s prisoner to the crossbeam while the soldier readies his nail-spikes and his hammer. He bends down, steadies the nail in one hand and draws back his hammer in the other hand. 


But before he can bring it down on the nail, he glances over at the prisoner. Peering at him, through the streaks of blood covering his face from the thorny crown twisted onto his head, are eyes of piercing kindness he has never seen before. 


The centurion yells the soldier’s name, startling him. “Get on with it!” 


The soldier turns his head away to focus on the nail. He forces himself to do the job he was ordered to do. His stomach churns and he feels like retching. 


Completing the nailing of this man to the crossbeam, he looks down to see that he is splattered with blood and his hammer drips with the red life of the man.


The other soldiers fasten the man to the upright beam and the crucifixion is finished. The soldier looks up as he hears the man say, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.”


The soldier realizes now who this man is. Jesus. This is Jesus, the one everyone is talking about. Forgive? How can He forgive me for this horrid act?


He spins around as he hears the religious teachers and priests mocking this man on the cross. “He saved others, but he can’t even save himself! The King of Israel, is he? If he comes down from the cross right now, we will believe him! Let God rescue him now if he wants him, if he is the Son of God.”


One of the other criminals hanging next to this man Jesus says, “If You are the Christ, then save Yourself and us.”


But the other criminal rebukes him, “Don’t you even fear God as you’re dying? We surely deserve to die for what we’ve done, but this man? He hasn’t done anything wrong.” Turning to Jesus, he says, “Remember me when you enter your Kingdom.”


“Today, you will be with Me in Paradise.” Bowing His head, Jesus says, “It is finished! Father, I commit My Spirit to You.” And He breathes out His last breath.


“Surely, this was a righteous man,” says the centurion, shaking his head, and then solemnly orders the soldier to stand guard. 


Stand guard? I just want to get out of here. What have I done? So distraught that he cannot bear to look up at the naked body of this man on the cross, he lowers his eyes to the ground. He notices the bloody hammer still in his hand. He throws it down and backs away in horror. 


Shame overwhelms him. He falls to his knees in regret. 


Another soldier picks up the hammer and tries to give it to him. “Here’s your hammer” is met only with silence and a stare. He won’t touch it.


The next morning, the centurion finds the soldier dead.


~The hammer that dripped blood? Had my name engraved on it. 


“Living, He loved me; dying, He saved me;
Buried, He carried my sins far away;
Rising, He justified freely forever;
One day He’s coming – O glorious day!”


PRAYER: Thank You, Lord, for without Your suffering and death on the cross, I would have no resurrection joy! In my joy, I agonized over this post. I know you understand why. AMEN 

Lynn

THINK ON THESE THINGS - THURSDAY

JESUS KNOCKS DOWN THE GATES OF DEATH FOR HIS SAINTS

WORD FOR TODAY: SEPARATION!

Faith is well….taking things on “Faith”. There used to be a time when the U.S. Dollar represented the “full faith and credit” of these United States of America. We all know what happened to the latter – the credit of the United States is lower than a crawling reptile’s stomach! The full faith part still exists. In fact, some people seem to have more faith in the concept of this great country, than they have faith in the God Who created us!

Our next verse in the Hebrews 11 Series is 13 "These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth….Hebrews 11:13 ESV

Every Old Testament saint died without seeing the Great Hope and Glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Adam knew the Creator Jesus, Who walked in the “cool of the Garden” and talked with Adam daily. But he lost that fellowship after sinning with Eve and the serpent in Genesis 3. Still, the Lord provided for and blessed his family. What about the others?

The following well known saints died without seeing the Promise of Christ, yet they believed: Enoch; Noah; Joshua; Samuel, King David; Jeremiah; Daniel; Hosea and Abraham. These are the well known faithful ones, but there were many, many whom God calls His Remnant throughout the almost 4000 years before Christ, who never sold out to the world, sin and Satan!

They are like you and I!!

They are the ones who went about their lives; raised their families and had a Fear of Yahweh, the Holy One of Israel. We hardly ever see the awe and respect and fear for Holy God we read and know about from Tradition or of long ago Biblical Worship services. 

But while the modern church does not conduct according to the high standards of Old Testament believers, in our own lives and families, we do not have to participate. 

So for today - the word is SEPARATION. Yes, separate yourself from the Culture and the Filth, even if we have to live and work next door to or IN it! 

Let us be strangers and exiles like those whom we read about in Hebrews 11:13!

Amen!