HeidiW

Psalm 51 says "a contrite and broken heart you shall not despise." Also, the Lord Jesus said "Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted" ...I've been broken hearted about many things. My daddy passing away made me SO SAD; my oldest son's troubles in his life have given me grief; a friend walking away without explanation left me mourning. These are all losses that broke my heart. But I've never had a deeper, more thorough mourning than when I realized how incredibly weak, worthless, useless, stubborn, hard hearted, willful, and rebellious I am DEEP in my spirit. Seeing myself as I truly am totally and completely sent me into deep mourning over my own sinfulness. But realizing this truth about myself (for "you delight in truth in the inward being" says Psalm 51) was the first step in REALLY repenting and REALLY changing a part of me that has been kept far from God's hand all my life. I believe God calls us to repentance in order to show us Truth, and as He says "The truth shall set you free." Of course, the truth about who Jesus is, is liberating. But for me, the truth about who *I* am really and truly set me free. It's heart breaking and so painful to see the truth in the inward being...but once you see it, there's no reason to hide it anymore. You no longer need to use up so much energy, keeping the truth from yourself. Can Christ reign in an unrepentant heart? No. God will not accept a heart that is not broken. When we break our hearts upon our own sinfulness, we can then take them to Him, and He will receive THAT sacrifice. He doesn't want any of our words, actions, thoughts...no matter how sweet, good, kind, etc. He doesn't want our works of mercy, giving, serving others UNLESS we bring our broken hearts. Any part of us that remains under our own will, He will not accept. and repentance isn't just for one day. it is a daily activity, every morning reviewing ourselves. Keeping ourselves "Fessed up" and releasing any sin as soon as it appears; being mindful that we will wander; staying near our "sword" and reading every day to nourish our spirits; seeking God and pursuing Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength...EVERY DAY. It isn't "well, I got saved in 1987, and now I get to live my life and go to Heaven when I die" Nope. It's an every day thing, repenting, coming close to Him, submitting our wills to His will, taking up our cross daily and following Him. and letting the Spirit show us what still must be forsaken, what must be confessed? of what must I repent today? Listening, and obeying THAT voice that says "Repent of _______" When we repent of anything, THEN Jesus can reign in THAT area. And tomorrow, it may be a different area, eh? but always, every day, returning to Him. He will receive us EVERY time.

Guitar Jim (Love that handle!) perhaps the gift of tongues is not to be yours. Remember, the Spirit gives to each according to His will. Some speak in tongues, while some do not. Maybe your gifts are in other areas. And I hear you, in that I have seen younger Christians who are so much more advanced than myself, in the Lord. I know in my case, it is reluctance and hesitation, hard heartedness, laziness...these all are blockages within me that stop God from moving deeper. The one thing that has helped me the most has been to make time every day to just SIT in the Lord's presence. I usually start with Bible reading, then meditation upon a passage that strikes me, or "pops out" at me. It means sitting still, not praying nor worship EXCEPT if the Lord leads me there. It means sitting still and LISTENING, and allowing myself to just be with God. I have learned more about who He is in the past three years or so, doing this, than in 27 years of knowing Him filling my head with knowledge about Him. It all has to do with His love. Sitting still with Him teaches me about His love for me, and THAT is changing me AT LONG LAST. I pray you will find Him and be embraced by His Father Love. Amen.

Keith H, I love this picture! If we remain underwater, we will DIE. If we remain under the Holy Spirit, we WILL die...to ourselves. VERY cool.

Matthew 3:11--- I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. John and Jesus both baptize, but John's baptism is with water. It is a cleansing, and a symbol of repentance. The Lord Jesus' baptism is with fire, with the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is internal, whereas water is applied externally. Water symbolizes the action of the Spirit on our spirits. That is, we cleanse externally, showing a picture of the cleansing and the renewing of a right spirit within us, that is taking place internally when the Lord "washes" us. I do long to be overwhelmed by the Holy Spirit. My flesh balks at it, to be sure, but taking the prayer from Psalm 51 as a daily confessional statement "create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me" God will hear that prayer, and the fleshly parts of me that cringe away from this fiery baptism, grow weaker (most days ha!) preventing it is my own laziness. I know that, for me, prayer...deep intercession, laboring in prayer, spending prolonged quality time with God...is the key to being completely saturated in the Spirit. Yet I find other things to do with my time. Encouraging it is the flip side of that coin: spending time, making my time with God a priority. Being like Jesus who "rose early, while it was still dark, and went to a lonely place to pray" ...Jesus walked this earth saturated with the Spirit, so that He could speak to the storm and it would calm, so He could speak to a legion of evil spirits, and they would depart, so He could touch a fevered woman, and she would be healthy again. But Jesus never had a SINGLE MOMENT of selfishness, let alone ungodly desires or gossiping or coveting. What would it be like to live like HIM? Every day for Jesus was a day of giving to people, giving of Himself and obeying everything He saw the Father doing without hesitation. Huh. hesitation is a big one for me, too. I ask God to guide me, and when He does, I say "Wha...? You want me to do WHAT?" or "Well, that's just my own mind talking to me. I don't have to do THAT" If we give ourselves wholly to His will, He will guide us the way He wants us to go. But if we stop our ears, and harden our hearts to His voice...He will withdraw. But Jesus gave without hesitation, without complaining or grumbling, never claiming even a moment of time for His own, because it all belonged to God and He lived just that way: totally given over to doing the will of the Father. Me? I want some "time to myself"...I want facebook instead of THE Book LOL I want a nap, a diversion, an entertainment...more than God? It seems so, judging by my daily schedule. What will encourage this "overwhelming by the Holy Spirit"? I know I must be willing to give my time to God. Right now, He is calling me to "pray three times a day" (Like Daniel in Babylon) in the Morning, at Noontime, and in the Evening. He showed it to me clearly yesterday, and I did well for Morning and Noontime, then got distracted and did not pray in the Evening. Today I will do better. Isn't it good that we are a work in progress! Amen. And each day is a new day. We can start fresh. Amen.

I think the offense would have been because the Jews were God's chosen people, with His law and His promises. I think St Paul said something about "There's is the law and the prophets" as in "God has been speaking to this earth through the Jewish people, and that is not nothing." The Jews figured, they have God's word, why should they be cleansed from ANYTHING. who welcomed the baptism? The gospels say that many people were going to hear John preach, and being baptized by him. He had crowds there attending to his words, when the Lord Jesus came by and John said "Behold, the Lamb of God" ... I'm thinking, people who recognized their own need for repentance welcomed the baptism. Jesus was baptized in order to "fulfill all righteousness" not because He needed to repent, but because He needed to show the way. who resisted it...the pharisees and sadducees. The scribes. Those most deeply involved with the Law and its interpretation and dissemination. Why did they resist baptism? They didn't think they needed to repent BECAUSE they had God's Word, right? They didn't consider themselves sinful.

John the Baptist and Jesus both preached "Repent and believe" I think repentance is a gift from God, first of all. He opens our heart to our NEED for repentance, so that we may turn and believe. Repenting of sins brings us into the kingdom, readies us to walk with Jesus. I like what people have said about the daily need to turn our lives over to God, and the daily need to examine ourselves and repent if needed. Repenting of sins is also a strong weapon in spiritual battle, putting a stop to the enemy's accusations. It is a cleansing. The Lord does something when we repent. we turn from our sins, and He erases them. It is more than just feeling "sorry" for doing wrong; Judas was "sorry" when he saw the consequences of his actions. Our repenting brings about a genuine cleansing that renews our hearts and makes a right spirit within us (Ps 51) When we repent, we become really and truly NEW. We can't enter the Kingdom unless we ARE new. (John 3:16) Are Christians today unrepentant? I think there is no way of really knowing this. However, the church in the US (and probably in all of Western Culture) seems to be pretty much ready to march forward without thinking much about sin. In other parts of the world, Christians are fiery and full of the Spirit and have power and strength. I believe the Holy Spirit is falling with anointing on the southern hemisphere right now: Africa and South America have strong Christian populations, and even in Asia where there is persecution, the church is growing. So, what percentage? Hmmm, maybe the percentage who are entangled in the thorns and weeds of worldly concerns (that would be North America, Europe) ???

the Lamb is worshiped because He is GOD. The Bible states clearly that we are to have only one God and worship Him alone, yet the Lord Jesus receives adoration and worship from the angels, the elders, and every living creature on earth and in the sea. When John fell at the feet of the angel, after he had seen all this, the angel said "don't do that. I am a servant, like you" So, angels are not to be worshiped. And of course, in the new testament, in Acts, Paul and Silas were treated as gods, when the people of (Ephesus?) brought a bull to sacrifice to them, after a miracle. Paul and Silas put a halt to that, as well. Only God is worshiped! and here the Lord Jesus is, receiving what is rightfully only God's. Therefore, the Lamb, the Savior, the Lord Jesus IS God. He said He was, and He is now receiving worship. Yeah. Jesus is God the Son. NOTE: I noticed, reading these praise songs that are recorded here, that in every case, they were "said" Rev 5:9 and they sang a new song SAYING Rev 5:12 (angels) "SAYING with a loud voice..." Rev 5:13 (every creature on earth and sea) "SAYING 'To Him who sits on the throne..." I'm not sure what it means, but I also know that when the angels appeared to the Shepherds at the birth of the Lord Jesus, the scriptures record "a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and SAYING..." (Luke 2:13) so, why do the angels and those worshiping the Lord SAY their praises and adorations?

Q3. (Revelation 5:5) What has the Lamb done to "triumph" and so become worthy to take the scroll and open its seals? The Lamb of God was slain, and is now alive. His blood has redeemed people from every tribe, tongue and nation, to serve God. He makes us a kingdom and a priesthood to God. He is worthy to take the scroll because of His sacrificial death and the shedding of His blood for our ransom.

The Lamb is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God Standing after being slain is His being resurrected from the dead There are seven horns. Seven is a number of perfection, completeness, and horns are authority and power. Christ has perfect power and authority. Seven eyes=He sees everything. He is able to see perfectly, completely. The number seven carries the idea of completeness the Lamb is perfect. He was dead and is now alive. He has complete authority and sees completely.

Ancient prophecy about the Messiah was given to teach the people where He would come from. That is, in Genesis, it was promised to Adam and Eve that One would come "born of woman" who would save the world and crush the serpent's head. Later in Genesis, God promised one man that his descendants would outnumber the stars, thus choosing a people from which Messiah would come. Now people knew that the Promised Savior would come from a woman, who was part of Abraham's descendants. Then Jacob, one of Abraham's children, prophesied through a blessing, that his son Judah would father a great Leader, who would have ultimate authority over all the world. And, within the tribe of Judah, God found a man who had a heart of deep love for Him: David. He promised David that the Messiah would be one of his descendants. So, in the Revelation passage, we are reminded that the Lord Messiah was to be a King of Judah, and that the kingly line would be from David's family. It is establishing the right of the Lamb to open the book: because He is of David's line, and within the tribe of Judah, of the people of Abraham, and born of a woman, but no man's seed.

Communion is about the Body of Christ: the broken body which is seen in the bread, the shed blood which is why we drink the wine...and the Body of Christ, the church, our unity with one another under His headship. Unforgiveness is disunity. It opens a rift in the Body, a damaged Body. Participating in unity is what the Lord desires. He commands us to examine ourselves: are we one with God, or is there sin creating a barrier between me and my Father? ...and are we one with our community? Is there something that needs forgiving, that someone has done to me, or that i've done to someone? We must remove the barriers and participate in full love, of God and of each other. The warning in 1 Cor 11 is not some idle threat. God will deal with sin in the congregation. Examine yourselves, and do not partake unworthily. But go to the Feast knowing that the Father loves us and sets a table before us. He invites us to the feast. He desires our presence at His Table.

The sorrow is that He suffered THAT MUCH because of my sin. It was my sin (our sin) that crucified Him. The joy is that He loved SO MUCH that He would do this, opening the door so we could enter His Kingdom and be with Him here on earth and in eternity. Whenever I consider the Lord's sacrifice, it strikes me how powerful LOVE is. He did it because of love, and love kept Him on the cross: His love for us, but even more, His love for the Father, which meant that He trusted the Father, so He could lay down His life. He trusted the Father's love, He loved the Father and obeyed EVERYTHING that the Father asked of Him. Amen.

The greatest similarity between the Passover feast and the Eucharist is that wine and bread are eaten. It is a "family" meal, that is, people in one community share the meal together. The Passover and the Eucharist are both commemorative meals. That is, the passover meal is a memorial to God releasing the Israelites from bondage in Egypt. Communion is a memorial to the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus, who died so that we might be released from bondage to sin. The differences are that in the Passover, there is a looking forward, to when Messiah comes. They leave a chair for Elijah, because they expect Elijah to precede the Messiah's arrival. In the Eucharist, there is a looking BACK, to the historical fact of Christ's crucifixion, as well as a looking FORWARD, to the Marriage Feast of the Lamb. The Passover meal has more elements: the bitter herbs, salt water, fruit, roasted egg...many foods symbolic of many things in their history and in the promises of God to the Jews. The communion table is simpler, containing just bread and wine.

The lamb was killed and prepared for a feast. Its blood was smeared on the doorposts, and anyone who wanted to survive the destruction of the firstborn in Egypt, must be inside a house with blood on the lintels. God was going to kill all the firstborn in Egypt, but if He saw the blood, He would not touch those who were firstborn, if they were inside the house. Jesus protects us from death by His blood. Blood is the primary point of comparison: the lamb's blood in the Passover protected them from death; the Lamb of God's blood, shed for us, protects us from eternal death.