Category: Daily Bread

¹⁸ Hear then the parable of the sower: ¹⁹ When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path. ²⁰ As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, ²¹ yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away. ²² As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. ²³ As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty. ~ Matthew 13:18-23^ESV

Have you ever tried getting a fish tank ready for some fish? You gotta make sure you wash out the tank, cycle the water, add live plants for oxygen, and set up a filter, pump, thermometer, and heater to keep the water at the right temperature. Then, once the tank is ready, you gotta make sure you pay attention to the kind of fish you buy, or they’ll attack, injure, kill, and eat each other. There’s a lot to getting a fish tank. Much more than people think. And there is a lot to Christianity as well, much more than people think.

Just like it’s not: get a tank, fill it with water and fish, and you’re done; Christianity is not: believe and then say a prayer, and you’re done. Once you believe and say a prayer, now it’s time to get to work. It’s time to work on you. What’s in my life that needs to change? What’s in my life that needs to be rid of? Is my temperature too cold? Am I on fire for God? Are those people in my life bringing me up or bringing me down? Am I stagnant or am I growing? Am I being the Salt of the Earth? Am I being the Light of the World? Am I witnessing? Do those around me know I’m a Christian?

There is so much more to Christianity than belief and a single prayer. And just as the fish will die in a tank that isn’t properly set up, so will a Christian spiritually die if they don’t properly set up their lives for Christ. We have to pray, fast, worship, read our Bibles, study our Bibles, grow in Christ, be transformed by the renewal of our mind, change our environment, and purify our surroundings. We don’t listen to the same music we once did; we don’t watch the same shows we once watched; we don’t remain in the same sin we were once in. We grow. We move forward. We purify ourselves and our surroundings through prayer, fasting, worship, the Scriptures, and change.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Get The Tank Ready.

¹² Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, ¹³ for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

Philippians 2:12-13^ESV

¹ Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. ² And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. ³ And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. ⁴ He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” ~ Revelation 21:1-4

There’s currently a video of a Jewish man explaining that Judaism is different from other religions because it’s not about getting into Heaven, but about bringing God down to Earth. I see this circulating on Christian profiles as a way to further hate the Jewish people. The comment section is filled with self-proclaimed Christians spewing hatred towards the Jews. Bringing up the crucifixion, half-quoting Paul, calling them Satan, the Synagogue of Satan, all while not realizing that that is the goal of the Christian as well.

Not one time in Scripture, either Old Testament or New Testament, has the goal of the Hebrew or Christian been to get into Heaven. Not at any point in time. This is a relatively new belief. A belief based on Church Tradition, not Scripture. Our eternal home has never been Heaven. No. Our eternal home has always been Earth. The Earth, however, has been corrupted by sin, so what does God do? Make Heaven our new eternal home? No. No, He doesn’t. He creates a New Earth for us to dwell. And what does God do? He comes down to the New Earth and dwells with us. He even goes as far as to say that His dwelling is with mankind.

Just because someone says something that you don’t understand doesn’t make it evil. It doesn’t make them evil. Sometimes, you’re blinded by your own hatred and/or ignorance of the Truth. Therefore, seek the Truth in Scripture. Widen your knowledge and understanding of God’s Truth. Don’t allow Church Tradition to control your beliefs. Instead, let your beliefs be founded upon and rooted in Scripture and Scripture alone.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Bring God Down.

⁷ And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. ⁸ And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.

Genesis 17:7-8

⁴⁴ I will consecrate the tent of meeting and the altar. Aaron also and his sons I will consecrate to serve me as priests. ⁴⁵ I will dwell among the people of Israel and will be their God. ⁴⁶ And they shall know that I am the Lord their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt that I might dwell among them. I am the Lord their God.

Exodus 29:44-46

²⁰ When the sticks on which you write are in your hand before their eyes, ²¹ then say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will take the people of Israel from the nations among which they have gone, and will gather them from all around, and bring them to their own land. ²² And I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel. And one king shall be king over them all, and they shall be no longer two nations, and no longer divided into two kingdoms. ²³ They shall not defile themselves anymore with their idols and their detestable things, or with any of their transgressions. But I will save them from all the backslidings in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God. ²⁴ My servant David shall be king over them, and they shall all have one shepherd. They shall walk in my rules and be careful to obey my statutes. ²⁵ They shall dwell in the land that I gave to my servant Jacob, where your fathers lived. They and their children and their children’s children shall dwell there forever, and David my servant shall be their prince forever. ²⁶ I will make a covenant of peace with them. It shall be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will set them in their land and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in their midst forevermore. ²⁷ My dwelling place shall be with them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Ezekiel 37:20-27

¹ And the word of the Lord of hosts came, saying, ² “Thus says the Lord of hosts: I am jealous for Zion with great jealousy, and I am jealous for her with great wrath. ³ Thus says the Lord: I have returned to Zion and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, and Jerusalem shall be called the faithful city, and the mountain of the Lord of hosts, the holy mountain. ⁴ Thus says the Lord of hosts: Old men and old women shall again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each with staff in hand because of great age. ⁵ And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in its streets. ⁶ Thus says the Lord of hosts: If it is marvelous in the sight of the remnant of this people in those days, should it also be marvelous in my sight, declares the Lord of hosts? ⁷ Thus says the Lord of hosts: Behold, I will save my people from the east country and from the west country, ⁸ and I will bring them to dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God, in faithfulness and in righteousness.”

Zechariah 8:1-8

¹⁶ What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. ¹⁷ Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, ¹⁸ and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.”

2 Corinthians 6:16-18

²⁰ When the sticks on which you write are in your hand before their eyes, ²¹ then say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will take the people of Israel from the nations among which they have gone, and will gather them from all around, and bring them to their own land. ²² And I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel. And one king shall be king over them all, and they shall be no longer two nations, and no longer divided into two kingdoms. ²³ They shall not defile themselves anymore with their idols and their detestable things, or with any of their transgressions. But I will save them from all the backslidings in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God. ²⁴ My servant David shall be king over them, and they shall all have one shepherd. They shall walk in my rules and be careful to obey my statutes. ²⁵ They shall dwell in the land that I gave to my servant Jacob, where your fathers lived. They and their children and their children’s children shall dwell there forever, and David my servant shall be their prince forever. ²⁶ I will make a covenant of peace with them. It shall be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will set them in their land and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in their midst forevermore. ²⁷ My dwelling place shall be with them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. ²⁸ Then the nations will know that I am the LORD who sanctifies Israel, when my sanctuary is in their midst forevermore. ~ Ezekiel 37:20-28

The LORD commanded Ezekiel to combine three sticks into one stick: Judah, Israel, and Joseph. He was to do this before all the people so that they would know that one day they would no longer be separate nations and kingdoms, but one people. And the LORD would be their God and dwell with them.

Ezekiel was prophesying to Judah. The only people to have claimed the seed of Jesse as their king during the split of the nation in the reign of Rehoboam, whereas the rest of Israel declared they had no portion in David. No inheritance in the son of Jesse (1 Kings 12:16). The two nations were then split into Israel (The Northern Kingdom) and Judah (The Southern Kingdom). One was ruled by the son of Jesse, the other by another lineage. One was brought back into the Promised Land in the first year of King Cyrus, King of Persia; the other is still dispersed to this day.

Now, think about what God prophesied through Ezekiel: Judah, Israel, and Joseph would one day be reunited as one. No more division. No more separation. But one nation. One people. One God. One King. David (The Messiah, the Son of Jesse, Jesus The Christ). This prophecy wasn’t for that generation of men and women hearing him speak with their own ears and seeing him combine them with their own eyes. Now, the prophecy was and is for a generation to come. For the last generation of the Church. I believe it is for the Church today. I believe it is for us.

³ And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God.”

Revelation 21:3

There is so much to look forward to. So many good promises of God that we have yet to see. One day, all will be fulfilled, and this life will be like a blink compared to eternity. Therefore, don’t let this world discourage you. Be encouraged in the promises of God. Look forward to your eternal home and keep your eyes on Him.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Be Joined Together.

7 After this Jesus went about in Galilee. He would not go about in Judea, because the Jews were seeking to kill Him. ² Now the Jews’ Feast of Booths was at hand. ³ So His brothers said to Him, “Leave here and go to Judea, that your disciples also may see the works you are doing. ⁴ For no one works in secret if He seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.” ⁵ For not even His brothers believed in Him. ⁶ Jesus said to them, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always here. ⁷ The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil. ⁸ You go up to the feast. I am not going up to this feast, for my time has not yet fully come.” ⁹ After saying this, He remained in Galilee. ¹⁰ But after His brothers had gone up to the feast, then He also went up, not publicly but in private. ¹¹ The Jews were looking for him at the feast, and saying, “Where is He?” ¹² And there was much muttering about Him among the people. While some said, “He is a good man,” others said, “No, He is leading the people astray.” ¹³ Yet for fear of the Jews no one spoke openly of Him. ~ John 7:1-13^ESV

Jesus’ brothers thought Jesus should go up to the Feast of Booths and make Himself known to His disciples and the World by performing His miracles in public. Jesus responded that His time had not yet come. I believe Jesus’ brothers were telling Him that if He really is the Messiah, now is the time to fulfill Zechariah’s and Ezekiel’s prophecies. The prophecies that the Messiah, David (David’s Son), would reign as the Eternal God. The Feast of Booths foreshadowed this event, so they’re saying now is the perfect time to fulfill these prophecies, but they didn’t understand that it wasn’t yet time for this to be fulfilled.

See, Jesus still had to fulfill the Suffering Servant prophecy first. To His brothers, it didn’t make sense. If you’re the Messiah, go fulfill the feasts. Go take your rightful place as King of Israel. Go do those things. They didn’t realize that if Jesus had gone down to the Feast of Booths and fulfilled prophecies of Ezekiel, Zechariah, and Isaiah, we’d all be for all of eternity. We’d never be reconciled to our God. The Suffering Servant, the Passover Lamb- this prophecy had to be fulfilled first in order to give us Salvation. He had to first take away the Sin of the World. To His brothers, they didn’t see it, just like us today.

We don’t always understand why God doesn’t always show up the way we want Him to, but His timing is always good. Always perfect. So, don’t rush God. Don’t try to force God into your timing. Instead, be in tune with Him. Follow His lead, for it is His plan that is perfect and not our own.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Stick With His Timing.

³³ And your children shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years and shall suffer for your faithlessness, until the last of your dead bodies lies in the wilderness. ³⁴ According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, a year for each day, you shall bear your iniquity forty years, and you shall know my displeasure. ~ Numbers 14:33-34

The Feast of Booths is about the Threshing Floor of God. It’s the separation of the righteous and the unrighteous. How can we be sure? The Feast of Booths is to commemorate or remember the 40 years in the wilderness. These 40 years in the wilderness were to let the unrighteous die before entering the Promised Land. Now, think about this. God could’ve, hypothetically, killed off all adults twenty years and older instead of this 40-year-long journey. The earth could’ve swallowed them, the Angel of the LORD could’ve struck them down, the fiery serpents could’ve bitten them, fire could’ve come out from the Ark of the Covenant and consumed them, but it didn’t. They died off over 40 years. Now, that definitely could be so that the children and nursing infants would not be orphans, which I definitely think has something to do with it, but I also think it’s because God continuously gives chance after chance after chance.

Think about this: Ahab provoked the LORD to wrath on multiple occasions, and for the longest time was the wickedest king of Israel, but God showed Ahab great mercy and forgiveness. Why? Because Ahab humbled himself before the LORD. Manasseh provoked the LORD even more than Ahab. More than any other king, he was even taken out of the land by a hook in his nose because of it; yet, when he humbled himself before the LORD, the LORD still showed him mercy and forgiveness, even going as far as to restore him to his throne. Who is to say that the LORD didn’t give them 40 years to repent? 40 years to humble themselves and finally get it right?

I believe this is not only true, but that it foreshadows His plan for the Millennial Reign of Christ. Isaiah prophesies that during those days they won’t just see a hundred years old, but that that will a mere child, and if one doesn’t see it, he is accursed (Isaiah 65:20). Why make this a point to do, if none will live a righteous life? If none will repent? I believe that Jesus’ Millennial isn’t just the fulfillment of our promised day of rest, but a chance for many to be saved. For many to see His Promised Land to the Saints: The New Earth. His Eternal Home with mankind.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Understand The Past To Understand The Future.