OUR LORD WHO SUSTAINS

To those who trust in God and live depending upon Him as they go about doing the Lord's business, He pledges to sustain us and uphold us by providing all we need in terms of our daily bread,  protection and guidance.

The following verses illustrate this unique arrangement where the children of God are sustained by their God when they cast their cares upon Him.

Behold, God is my helper; The Lord is the sustainer of my soul.  

                                   - Psalm 54 verse 4

Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you.

                                    - Isaiah 46 verse 4

Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous be shaken.

                                     - Psalm 55 verse 22

These verses of personal sustainance by the Lord are especially robust when understood against this passage in the book of Hebrews;

The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.

                                    -  Hebrews 1 verse 3

Here, the Lord Jesus,  whose kingdom we serve, is the effulgent glory of Almighty God and is His exact representation and He, by His mighty word, sustains all things.

The Lord Jesus our saviour upholds all things in existence by His word and so we who trust Him can rest in the knowledge that he can thus certainly sustain us. 

Bless His holy name.

Amen.

OUR LORD WHO TEACHES US

All this I have spoken while still with you.  But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.  -  John 14 verse 25 - 26.

This remarkable verse reveals a dynamic that gives us an advantage as believers as we live in the midst of the enemies of God.

Jesus revealed that the Holy Spirit would be sent to us in His name and He, the Holy Spirit, would do two things:

 a)  He would teach us all things which means He would bring to us information and understanding of things we did not have prior knowledge of.

b) He would remind us of (or bring to mind) things we had already been taught but would normally have trouble recalling.

With this access to knowledge, the Lord enables us to function in His Kingdom as able ministers who are equipped with spiritual knowledge and understanding. We can then operate with discernment and effectiveness in the Kingdom of God.

Bless the Lord our God who teaches us.

Amen.

OUR LORD WHO SEES US

In the book of Genesis chapter 16, the story of Abram, Sarai and Hagar is told.

Sarai, Abram's wife, had offered Hagar, her maid, to Abram to be a surrogate mother so that he could have a son because she herself could not bear children.

When Hagar conceived, she felt elevated in the household and showed contempt for Sarai. 

Sarai, already on an emotional knife-edge because of the delicate arrangement she brokered, was angered towards Hagar and treated her harshly. 

Hagar, in the face of Sarai's wrath, fled the homestead and was now stranded in the wilderness unable to go forward into the inhospitable wasteland  and unwilling to turn back. 

While there,  she encountered the Angel of the Lord ( who is the pre-incarnate Jesus ) and  verse 7 to 8 records the discussion between them.

And the angel of the LORD found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way to Shur. And he said, Hagar, Sarai's maid, whence camest thou? and whither wilt thou go? And she said, I flee from the face of my mistress Sarai. And the angel of the LORD said unto her, Return to thy mistress, and submit thyself under her hands.

Hagar was deeply moved by the visitation of the Lord and she gave God a name that encapsulates one of the most profound  responses to God's presence ever captured. She named God , "El Roi" which means, the God who sees me. 

Genesis 16 verse 13 goes thus: 

She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “I have now seen the One who sees me.”

Hagar, having despaired under harsh conditions to the point that she tried to escape but having no where to escape to, had reached an existential impasse and in her desperation,  felt like a disposable nobody.

It was here, at a jump off point into the abyss, that the Lord met with her and comforted her and counseled her. 

She was suddenly aware of a God who knew her past, her present condition and her future. A God who made her relevant and valuable. The abrupt realization that she was in the sights of the eternal God brought her to the place of exclaiming, "You are the God who sees me".

Bless the Lord.

Amen.

OUR LORD WHO IS ETERNAL

But You, O Lord, abide forever, And Your name to all generations.

                          - Psalm 102 verse 12.

Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth Does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable.   

                             - Isaiah 40 verse 28. 

Before the mountains were born Or You gave birth to the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God. 

                                  - Psalm 90 verse 2

And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation.                

                                     - Hebrews 5 verse 9

These are but a few of the many scriptural references to the externality of God.  The Lord is from everlasting to everlasting and has no beginning and no end.

Our God did not create Himself because He has always existed. 

Other world views that try to evade the existence of an eternal creator, always present an absurdly paradoxical origin story where a non-existing entity creates itself out of nothing.

There is no way to avoid this infinite recursion problem without a sentient, personal and eternal God who is unambiguously represented this way  by our Lord and God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Bless our Lord who is the Alpha and the Omega.

Amen.

Scripture Source: https://bible.knowing-jesus.com/topics/God,-The-Eternal

OUR LORD WHO LOVES US

The Lord our God treasures each one of His people. He nurtures us and teaches us. He routes our lives through trials and tests so that we can gain inner strength of the Spirit and gain confidence as citizens of His Kingdom.

The Lord has designed for each one of us a tailored plan to sanctify and refine us so that we inexorable drop the ways of the flesh and pick up the ways of the  Spirit and become perfected in the life and example of Jesus our Lord.

In 1 John 3 verse 1, the love that God has for us is described as "great" and that it is "lavished" on us  where lavished  means applied generously and extravegantly. The passage goes like this:

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!

And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

God's love for us translates into His extensive knowledge of us as well as His graceful provision for us including the costly provision of salvation through the death of our Lord Jesus on a cross.

Bless the Lord forever.

Amen.

OUR LORD RAISED HIMSELF FROM DEATH

To raise a dead person back to life is a difficult thing . In fact, it is considered a full-strength miracle to be able to raise someone from the dead.

When a person is dead, in order to come back to life, they would be at the mercy of a living person who has some faculties available to restore that person's life. A dead person is by definition incapable of doing anything let alone raising Himself from the Grave.

However, in the book of John chapter 10 verse 18 in the case of our Lord Jesus, He declared that He had the capability of raising Himself from death. 

No one takes it [His Life] from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again.

Here, Jesus is emphasizing that His death was in His control and His ressurection was also in His control.

This is a clear illustration of Jesus' singular status and authority. Rather than be incapacitated by death, He was of a kind who could be present and fully able to bring Himself back to life.

Three days after His death on the cross to pay for our sins, Jesus raised Himself from death and showed the world that He was truly able to do what He said.

That is how awesome and wondrous Jesus is.

Bless His name always.

Amen.

OUR LORD WHO HEARS US

Psalm 116 verse 1 - 2 says this about God hearing our prayers:

I love the Lord, because He hears My voice and my supplications.

Because He has inclined His ear to me, Therefore I shall call upon Him as long as I live.

In some translations, the Lord is pictured as stooping to hear our prayers but either way, God is actively listening for our prayers.

John the apostle wrote in 1 John 5 verse 14 - 15, 

This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.

This scriptural reference  further reinforces for us the certainty that the Lord hears our prayers and responds to us.

Bless the Lord who hears us.

Amen.

OUR LORD IS MINDFULL OF OUR STATE

In the book of Luke chapter 1 verse 46, the magnificent prayer of Mary, the mother of Jesus, is recorded.

 And Mary said: “My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great thing for me—holy is his name.

Mary testified that her spirit rejoiced in the Lord because He had been mindful of her humble state. What is being highlighted here is that God is very aware of our frame. He know the attitudes of our hearts. He knows our strength in handling things of the spirit. He knows our weakness, our limitations and our fears. 

Knowing all our parameters, the Lord calibrates to the appropriate pressure and tension that we are exposed to.

Mary herself was about to be plunged into a very dangerous time where she potentially could have been accused of impropriety but the Lord was mindful of her state and measured that she had the fortitude to withstand the pressure of the destiny that she had been chosen to undertake; being the  mother of Jesus.

In the same way God knows what roles in His kingdom we are able to handle, He also knows how much temptation we can bear and his deep knowledge of our strengths and weaknesses  is how the Lord measures the pressure that is allowed to be placed on us. As it says in 1 Corinthians verse 13:

No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.

Praise the Lord who knows us so well and who makes "all things work together for good  to them that  love God, to them who are called according to His purposes." - Romans 8 verse 28.

Bless the Lord our God.

Amen.

OUR LORD WHO WILL RETURN IN GLORY

Our Lord and Messiah appears in two ways in the ancient books of the prophets.

In some depictions of Him, He is seen as a servant who suffers indignities, grief  and pain and of no distinction in His appearance or status.

In other depictions, He is shown as an apex monarch whose great power and authority over His kingdom are overwhelming and whose righteousness and justice ultimately prevail on the earth.

The two Messiahs have puzzled people for thousands of years but when Jesus suddenly appeared in history, the mysterious  dichotomy of two Messiahs was clarified for once and for all.

Jesus came as a servant who was acquainted with suffering and who came to intense grief and pain that ultimately culminated in His ignominious death on a cross.

He was the suffering Messiah but Jesus Himself, as He was going through the trial for His life, announced that the glorious Messiah was in fact Himself. As the suffering servant was nearing the end of His life, He heralded His return as the resplendent and majestic King of heaven and earth. 

In Mark Chapter 14 verse 61 and 62, the scriptures say this:

Again the high priest was questioning Him, and saying to Him, “Are You the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?” And Jesus said, “I am; and you shall see THE SON OF MAN SITTING AT THE RIGHT HAND OF POWER, and COMING WITH THE CLOUDS OF HEAVEN.” 

This statement was a major  catalyst that propelled the political powers of the time to have Jesus killed and were successful in getting the suffering servant crucified.

As it says in 1 Corrinthians 7 and 8, but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory; 8the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory; 

What was unknown to them was that Jesus, in His humble and vulnerable condition was also the mighty King of all things and that He would rise up from the death they sentenced Him to, set up His kingdom on earth and then would return in a blistering display of might where the whole earth would tremble at His appearing.

This is the story of the suffering servant and the mighty King of kings being the same person and who shall return to judge the living and the dead.

Bless His name forever.

Amen.

OUR LORD WHO ASSURES US

In the book of Hebrews Chapter 11 verse 19 - 23, it says:

 Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.

Here, the scriptures are telling us that we can have full assurance of our right standing with God because of the sacrifice of Jesus which washes us and through the sprinkling of His blood, we are cleansed of our evil conscienses and our bodies are washed by pure water.

Further to that, the Lord who provided these instruments of sanctification is also faithful and will complete the good work of  that He has began in us.  - Philippians 1 verse 6. (Paraphrased)

The core of assurance comes from truly  knowing the most excellent Jesus Christ and understanding the wonders of His being and who contains all the hidden perfection and  wisdom of God.

Colossians chapter 2 verse 2 describes it like this:

that their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love, and attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ Himself, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

Let us rest in the assurance of the Lord's salvation and be able to say,  "Surely I have composed and quieted my soul; Like a weaned child rests against his mother, My soul is like a weaned child within me." -Psalm 132 verse 2.

Bless the Lord.

Amen.

OUR LORD IS A CONSUMING FIRE

Oh fire, Holy Ghost fire burn

Everyday Burn

Holy Ghost fire burn

Oh fire, Holy Ghost fire burn

Everywhere burn

Holy Ghost fire burn

(Theophilus / Arome)

OUR LORD WHO GUARDS US

As well as hiding us so that we are beyond the reach of the enemy, the Lord also assigns guards to protect  us. 

Sometimes, he assigns people to protect us. An example of this is described in the lovely book of  Ruth in  chapter 2 verse 5 - 8.

Boaz asked the overseer of his harvesters, “Who does that young woman belong to?”

The overseer replied, “She is the Moabite who came back from Moab with Naomi. She said, ‘Please let me glean and gather among the sheaves behind the harvesters.’ She came into the field and has remained here from morning till now, except for a short rest in the shelter.”

So Boaz said to Ruth, “My daughter, listen to me. Don’t go and glean in another field and don’t go away from here. Stay here with the women who work for me. Watch the field where the men are harvesting, and follow along after the women. I have told the men not to lay a hand on you. And whenever you are thirsty, go and get a drink from the water jars the men have filled.”

This story tells of how Ruth, a faithful and loyal woman who trusted  God, found protection in the care of the Lord's servant. The land owner, called Boaz, charged his employees to respect her and thus she was able to safely work in the fields.

In other cases, the Lord gives His Angels charge over us. In Psalm 34 verse 6 - 7, it describes how the Lord's Angels encircle where we live so that enemies can't get at us. It says this:

This poor man cried out, and the Lord heard him, And saved him out of all his troubles.

The angel of the Lord encamps all around those who fear Him, And delivers them.

Our Lord protects us by putting his holy angels as protectors and guardians over our lives.

Bless the name of the Lord. 

Amen.

OUR LORD WHO HIDES US

In the realm of the spirit, those who follow Jesus are  targets of hostile forces of darkness that attempt to carry out the prime directive of stealing, killing and destroying on any of God's people they can reach.

One of the strategies that our Lord uses to shield His people from spiritual attack is to hide them.

As it says in the famous passage of Psalm 91 verse 3 - 6:

Surely he will rescue you from the fowler’s trap, from the destructive plague.

With his feathers he will cover you, and under his wings you will find refuge.

His truth will be your shield and armor. You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the plague that prowls in the darkness, nor the pestilence that destroys at noon.

Here, the Lord keeps us out of reach of the enemy by enshrouding us with His wings such that no enemy can cross the barrier that God's pinions provide.

Another way the Lord protects His people as they move around is to camouflage them in such a way that they cannot be detected by the sensors of the enemy. Job 28 verse 7 -  8 cryptically describes a route that is prescribed by wisdom that is not detectable by aerial surveillance nor from those that patrol the landscape.

There is a path which no fowl knoweth, and which the vulture's eye hath not seen: The lion's whelps have not trodden it, nor the fierce lion passed by it.

On these paths, God's people can traverse the realm of the spirit and operate there and when the enemy cannot reach us and when the enemy cannot detect us, we are truly shielded by God and no harm can be visited upon us in the spirit.

Bless the name of the Lord.

Amen.

OUR LORD WHO QUICKENS US

The Lord, in His great wisdom, provided a mechanism by which He could stir up His people to spiritual action even though they exist in a body of flesh that , by default, resists all things of the spirit.

So will not we go back from thee: quicken us, and we will call upon thy name.

Turn us again, O LORD God of hosts, cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved. - Psalm 80 verse 18 - 19.

The same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead is the one who quickens us out of our deathly pallor and spurns us into the spirit so we can participate in the life of Kingdom of God.

But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. - Roman 8 verse 11.

When the Spirit of God prompts us to rise to worship and to pray, He, in His bounty, also supplies us with the liveliness to function in the spirit and bring glory to God.

Bless the wonderful name of Jesus.

Amen.

OUR LORD'S SPECIAL MIRACLE OF SIGHT

He came to Bethsaida; and they brought a blind man to Him, and begged Him to touch him. So He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the town. And when He had spit on his eyes and put His hands on him, He asked him if he saw anything.

And he looked up and said, “I see men like trees, walking.”

Then He put His hands on his eyes again and made him look up. And he was restored and saw everyone clearly.  - Mark 8 verse 22 - 25.

This breath-taking account of Jesus giving a man his vision is a window into the mechanisms of healing that Jesus had access to. 

In this particular case, the man was profoundly blind to the degree that his eyes could not function and on top of that, his brain could not interpret images.

When the blind man was brought to Him, the people were asking Jesus to touch Him. Normally, a  touch from Jesus was probably enough to heal most ailments (for example, the woman with the issue of blood merely touched Jesus' coat and was healed), but Jesus knew there was a complexity involved in this case that needed special conditions to correct the man's blindness.

There were five distinct steps that Jesus undertook to complete this miracle:

The first thing Jesus did was take the man by the hand and lead him out of town. As well as to make the miracle a discreet event, this was to take him out of the confusing and unnatural setting of the city and into a simpler backdrop of the countryside that would facilitate the reconstruction of the man's mental mapping between visual objects and their attendant meanings.

The second step was that Jesus spit into the man's eyes. This is an unusual action but not entirely unique.  It is recorded that Jesus used spit to heal blindness in another miracle told  in John 9 verse 6 where Jesus made mud with spit and clay and placed the mixture on a man's eyes. 

In this case however, Jesus spat directly into the man's eyes. The spit itself may be seen as a component of healing in several ways. In the same way a mother may use her spit to clean her child's face before receiving company, the spit may have been used as a cleaner to prepare a suitably clear surface for the miracle to take place.  Alternatively,  the spit may have provided some molecular scaffolding on which the healing miracle could occur. Perhaps the spit served both these functions.

The third step was that Jesus laid his hands on the man. This step is a commonly seen action taken to actualize miracles. In many cases, Jesus and His apostles laid their hands on sick or disabled people and they were healed. This step was probable the way that miraculous power was conferred to the man to initialize his healing.

The fourth step is that Jesus asked the man if he could see anything. This question is very revealing.  This man's case of blindness was complex enough that it was necessary to perform the restorative  miracle in stages. The question was a diagnostic tool to verify what stage of healing the  man had reached. The man looked up and replied, "I see men like trees walking".

This response is extraordinary.  The man, in responding to Jesus' question, described his visual experience as one where he could see men but he saw them like trees walking. 

Remember that Jesus had led this man discreetly into the countryside and so what was all around him were trees and a few people who had brought him to Jesus. In his visual cortex, the man was now perceiving trees and men when he looked up but his brain was blending the perception of trees and men  and interpreting these blended items as a man/ tree hybrid  and he thus exclaimed, "I see men like trees walking."

Upon receiving this response, Jesus carried out step five where He laid His hands on the man's eyes again and when Jesus got him to look up, the man's vision was restored.

The progression of events in this narrative  gives us insight into the workings of a miracle where the stages are slowed down enough for us to see how distinct stages of healing are completed before successive stages are undertaken.

Whereas other miracles done by Jesus are recorded as single events, it is reasonable to understand that most healings would necessarily be procedural in nature but the healing miracles are conducted swiftly and seamlessly and written about as single events.

Here,  a special case of a staged healing  was allowed for the sake of letting us gain insight into the powers that Jesus and His followers wielded as they went about healing the sick.

Bless the name of the Lord.

Amen.

OUR LORD WHO CARES FOR US

Our Lord Jesus deeply treasures those who believe in Him.  These are the ones who gain salvation by trusting in Jesus' ability to save us through His death on a cross in our place.

He cares for those who have counted on Him to wrest them out of darkness and lift them into His kingdom of light.

In 1 Peter 5 verse 6 - 7, God's care for us is framed like this:

Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you. 

God's care for us is such that we are to cast our anxieties upon Him for we must have confidence in His attentive concern for us and we must know that nothing escapes His notice.

Whatever fear or worry we carry, we are charged to off-load it into His care and we can live wholly for His Kingdom unencumbered by the matters in our lives that He takes care of on our behalf.

Praise the name of the Lord.

Amen.

OUR LORD WHO BOUGHT US AT A PRICE

In 1 Corinthians chapter 6 verse 19 - 20, it says:

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? 

For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body. 

This exortation to holiness references the high price that was paid to bring us out of darkness into light.

As it says in Psalm 49 verse 7 - 8 regarding the costliness of salvation: 

Even those who trust in their wealth And boast in the abundance of their riches? No man can by any means redeem his brother Or give to God a ransom for him—For the redemption of his soul is costly, And he should cease trying forever— 

This verse tells us that saving a single soul is extremely costly such that no man, even though rich, could redeem his brother and  even with an eternity of trying, one man could never save the soul of another person.

We have only one path of salvation, the path provided by the Lord Jesus Christ.  The eternal and perfect God was the only person who could afford the price to redeem us from darkness and this price was His death on a cross which He willingly took on to save us.

Bless the Lord our God.

Amen.

OUR LORD KNEW US BEFORE WE WERE

The Lord our God knew us before we were born and before we even existed. As it says in Psalm 139 verse 15-16:

My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.

The scriptures also say that our God chose us before the foundation of the world.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him.  Ephesians 1 verse 3 - 4.

The Lord our God also predestined us for His purpose meaning that He not only knew us, He not only chose us but He also had a plan for us. 

In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, - Ephesians 1 verse 11.

Praise and honour be to our Lord who knows the end from the beginning.

Amen.

OUR LORD WHO INDWELLS US

The most astonishing part of the mechanics of salvation is that it involves the indwelling of the Most High God in us.

The Lord our God purposed to save people from our sins and He paid for our sins by dying on a cross in our place.

Our God then ascended to heaven where He was crowned as King of kings and Lord of lords.

He then sent His Holy Spirit to live in our newly reborn spirits that are made alive when we cross from death to life by the salvation that we gain through belief in Jesus and His power to save us.

Our spirits are entwined and  mingled with the Spirit of God inside of us and the life of God animates us as we subject ourselves to Him.

The Salvation of God gives us the unimaginable privilege of having the Holy Spirit of God being with us forever. As it says in John14 verse 15 - 17:

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him.

You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. - John 14 verse 15 -17.

This is the same Spirit of God who hovered over the surface of the waters at the very start of creation. 

That passage goes like this:

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 

The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. - Genesis 1 verse 1 - 2.

The mind-warping actions that the Spirit of God was accomplishing to bring creation into being at that time are beyond human comprehension, but He, in all that power and might, is also the one who gently and patiently guides us in the path of rightness with God. He also brings us utterance of unknown tongues and with grace and tenderness, bring healing to demonstrate the authority and excellence of Jesus.

Bless the God of our salvation for His plan of redemption that vastly exceeds our ability to imagine.

Amen.

OUR LORD THE RIGHTFUL KING OF ALL

Our Lord Jesus, though born into the life of a man and subject to all the frailties and weaknesses of men, did not at any one single time commit a sin. His entire life proved Him to be perfect. Before the courts of men and before the courts of the spirit, no fault was found in Him.

That means that every one of Jesus'  thoughts and words and deeds were acceptable in the sight of  God and were perfect before the law of men and of God.

Having conducted His perfect life in the sight of a cloud of witnesses, Jesus demonstrated why He was the rightful ruler of Zion and why the great  throne of heaven was given to Him by right and by merit.

Praise the great King of heaven and earth.

Amen.

OUR LORD WHO DISCIPLINES US

In the book of Hebrews chapter 12 verse 9 - 11, the scriptures contrast the good discipline we got from our earthly fathers that we benefitted from with the perfect discipline with which the Lord our God  corrects us for our good.

The passage goes like this:

Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? 

For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness.

All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. -Hebrews 12 verse 9 -11.

Our earthly fathers, being limited, corrected us as best they knew how to our gain but God, knowing all things,  disciplines us with precision and we benefit eternally from it.

Let us cheerfully and humbly accept the discipline of our Lord and God for even though we may find it hard to withstand, we are the beneficiaries of His work in us and we are brought into righteousness and peace.

Amen.

OUR LORD'S GOVERNMENT

One of the most famous scriptures in the bible is in Isaiah chapter 9 verse 6 and 7.

Here is how it goes:

For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given;

And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Of the increase of His government and peace There will be no end, Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, To order it and establish it with judgment and justice From that time forward, even forever.

This astonishing passage reveals amazing secrets about God, His nature  and His purposes.

Firstly, it declares a central tenet of the salvation provided for by God which is the fact that it would be hinged on the arrival of a child, a son. This reference in the Book of Isaiah pointed to the Christmas story that was to occur about six or seven hundred years after Isaiah wrote that passage.

The next declaration is that the government would be on His shoulders. Here, it is easy to misunderstand what is being proposed and in fact, many people thought that it meant that when this child arrived, he would take political control over the nations of the world.

An important hint of what the actual meaning of this verse is can be found in Psalms 110 verse 2 and 3 that says this:

The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion: rule thou in the midst of thine enemies.

Whereas it was believed that the One who was sent would take political control over the world, this scripture reveals a different structure of goverment in God's plan.

This type of goverment would be one where the citizens of His Kingdom would be personally ruled by God Himself while they were embedded in the midst of the kingdoms of this world that are hostile to God and His people.

Those who willingly accepted the Lord's  government over their lives would know Him as, Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace because of how he would relate to them as His voluntary subjects.

Isaiah prophecied that the kingdom of God would be one of peace and justice and would be an eternal kingdom of whose increase there would be no end.

Bless the name of the Lord forever.

Amen.

OUR LORD WHO IS SPIRIT

In the book of John chapter 4 verse 24, our God is described in this way:

God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

What does this mean? What does it mean to be Spirit?

We humans are structured to be physical beings,  souls and spirits.

Our physical selves are our bodies and it is these bodies that provide the framework on which life in this coporeal realm can be readily inhabited.

Our souls are not physical but are instead like software that is uploaded into the facilities provided for in our physical bodies.

Our souls are vast and complex structures of labyrinths, chambers and processing engines that interface with the physical world via our bodies and also share sensory information and physical experience  with our spirits.

Our souls are beings unto themselves but our spirits are the highest expression of ourselves. If we were to live our lives with fully expressed spirits, we would be incredibly varied and fascinating entities brimming with the attributes of God.

If we lived our lives with our souls doing most or all of the expression, we would be closer to animals in our demeanor and manners. 

Whereas our spirits yearn for a moral and ascendant existence, our souls, though very able to  run the affairs of our lives, are base and inclined to an existence of  grasping selfishness.

To some degree, our souls can be taught to improve our behaviour but if left to their own devices, our souls will create gradually degenerating societies that would eventually be indistinguishable from the lives of wild hyenas on the Savanah.

Our spirit lives began in this way. When we accepted  the Lordship of Jesus Christ and believed on His death on a cross to save us, God revived our dead spirits so that we could be born again and begin expressing the life of the spirit.

This means that as we grow in our spiritual capacities, we must increasingly suppress the life of our souls. Our souls, in cooperation with our bodies, will fight our spirits' attempts to control our lives but over time, we must engage in activities that increase the strength of our spirits so that they are not pushed around by our souls. 

To gain strength in the spirit, we must:

a) Pray in the spirit often

b) Practice being led by the Spirit of God.

c) Dwell often in a place of worship of God

d) Study the bible.

The part of us that we are strengthening is the part of us that is born of God. That part of us is  spirit in the same way that God is Spirit.

Doing these exercises will nourish our spirits and with healthy spirits, we can compel our bodies and souls to worship God in Spirit and in truth and we can squelch the works and influences of the flesh that are contrary to the will of God.

Praise God.

Amen.

OUR LORD'S KINGDOM AND CHILDREN

In the book of Mark chapter 10 verse 13 - 16, Jesus was teaching when He found out that the disciples were hindering people from bringing little children to him for blessings. This is how the passage describes the events;

People were bringing little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. 

Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” And he took the children in his arms, placed his hands on them and blessed them.

The words of Jesus potently laid out the generally unknown fact that entering the kingdom of God is predicated on receiving it as  little children. 

Whereas we understand the Kingdom of God to be gained by seniority and maturity, Jesus asserts the opposite where ascension to the kingdom of God is gained by returning to innocence and trust.

May we become like little children before our God and thrive in His kingdom.

Amen.

O LORD, LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION 

In Mathew chapter 6 verse 13, Jesus concludes the lesson in prayer for His disciples with these words;

‘And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil.  - Mathew 6 verse 13.

Many people have asked whether this means that God tempts His people and if we need to pray for God not to tempt us.

However, a more careful reading of that verse would account for the word 'lead' which implies instead that God will guide (lead) our steps  to places and situations where we could be tempted rather than He himself tempting us.

The Lord could let a situation arise where  for example, we were in a position of authority and  were offered a bribe. The temptation to take the bribe is not from God but the situation was permitted by Him so that we can demonstrate mastery over the particular form of temptation. 

If we fare well in this temptation, we are  candidates in God's Kingdom to be trusted with finances and weightier matters. 

When we are asking God not to lead us into temptation, we are at the same time saying, 'not our will but the will of God be done."

This is roughly parallel to the narrative where Jesus is praying in the garden of Gethsemane and He  asked His Father if there was a way to avoid the cup of the cross but not His will but rather the will of the Father be done.

If the Lord brings us to points of temptation in our lives, he always provides a way out of it as indicated in 1 Corinthians 10 verse 13.

No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. 

And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear.

 But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.

Our Lord, lead us not into temptation but not our will but yours.

Our God, deliver us from evil.

Amen.

OUR LORD WHO FORGIVES OUR DEBTS

The Lord's prayer lesson continues to the profound maxim in Mathew chapter 6 verse 12.

"And forgive us our tresspasses, As we forgive those who trespasses against us."

This indelible phrase is a reminder to forgive other people who have sinned against us in order to have our own sins forgiven.

This principle of the Kingdom of God is a mechanism by which we subjects of the Kingdom are kept perpetually free of the incumberances of aggrievance  by requiring that each person be obligated to cancel the trespasses of other people in order that our own trespasses may be cancelled.

This way, the ledger amoung believers carries no balances and no score-settling will be part of any equation of an eternal existence.

Forgive us Lord as we forgive others.

Amen.

OUR LORD GIVES US OUR DAILY BREAD

Give us this day our daily bread. - Mathew 6 verse 11.

Jesus continued teaching His disciples how to pray in Mathew 6 verse 11 where He showed them how to ask for provisions from the Father.

Markedly, they are guided to pray for the provisions of that day and not for the days ahead. As well, they are shown to pray for the whole of their daily bread and not for a supplementary ration  to augment the supplies they had gained on their own.

This verse parallels the verses in Luke Chapter 9 verse 2 - 4 when Jesus was teaching His disciples how to take the news of the Kingdom of God to all the surrounding country.

'and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. He told them: “Take nothing for the journey—no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra shirt. Whatever house you enter, stay there until you leave that town." 

Here, our Lord reinforces the idea that His follower's must trust in the provision of God and let each day take care of itself.

In an interesting side note, in Luke 10 verse 7, the Lord also instructs His disciples to eat what ever is put before them. 

“Whatever city you enter and they receive you, eat what is set before you; and heal those in it who are sick, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ - Luke 7 verse 8 - 9.

If a host provides a meal, the disciples are instructed to eat whatever is put before them. This is likely an extension of the proviso that God will provide our daily bread and whatever form that provision comes as, we should gratefully accept it.

May we learn the lesson taught by our Lord so that we give no thought to tomorrow but rather trust that the Lord knows what we have need of and He gladly provides for us.

Amen.

OUR LORD WHOSE KINGDOM IS AT HAND

In the book of Mathew 6 verse 10, Jesus continues in teaching His disciples to pray.

‘Your kingdom come.  Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven. - Mathew 6 verse 10.

At this point, Jesus teaches the principle of God's Kingdom as being on earth and that it is subject to the will of God here as it is in heaven.

This Kingdom is an amazing Kingdom. It is a Kingdom that is ruled in the midst of God's enemies. The subjects of this kingdom are voluntary and they exist scattered throughout the kingdom of darkness. 

The Lord governs His people as subjects of His Kingdom by His wonderful Holy Spirit who is embedded in the hearts of all those who have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ and the efficacy of the sacrifice of His life on the cross for our salvation.

The Kingdom of God is at hand. Believe and be saved.

Amen.

OUR LORD WHOSE NAME IS HALLOWED

“Pray, then, in this way:  ‘Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.

‘Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.  - Mathew 6 verse 9 - 10.

Our great God of heaven is mighty and holy. His name is held in the highest esteem and observance.

His identity, signified by His name that was revealed to the ancient forefathers of Israel, points to the greatest possible being above whom there is none and never will be.

Our Lord's name encodes the deep mysteries from unfathomable time past and into the unsearchable depths of eternity.  

Our Lord's name carries  the full authority and might of His awesome stature and against Him, none can stand and none can thwart His will.

Our God's name is indeed hallowed.

Praise His holy  name.

Amen.

 OUR LORD WHO ART IN HEAVEN

The Lord our God makes his dwelling place in heaven and rules His great Kingdom from there.

In Psalm 102 verses 1 - 2 it says: 

The LORD says to my Lord: “Sit at My right hand Until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.”

The LORD will stretch forth Your strong scepter from Zion, saying, “Rule in the midst of Your enemies.”

In other words, Jesus, in His ascension to heaven, was seated at the right hand of God the Father.  From the headquarters of the kingdom of God  called Zion, Jesus administrates the affairs of His Kingdom and it from there that allocations and  commands and decrees of the Kingdom are issued.

In Psalm 115 verses 2 - 4, God's place is also defined.

Why do the nations say, “Where is their God?” Our God is in heaven he does whatever pleases him.  

Bless the name of the Lord.

Amen.