Today Reminder (Venomous beast) – 13 February 2018

A reminder for today

And when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks, and laid them on the fire, there came a viper out of the heat, and fastened on his hand. (Acts 28:3)

When it comes to snakes I must admit I have never liked them much and I am pretty sure that I will never like a snake. Why? Well I guess basically because they are dangerous, and I do not know a great deal about them to the extent that I would not be able to tell you whether they are poisonous or not. One snake I do know is lucifer and he is very poisonous. We all know that it was the snake that tricked Eve in eating the forbidden fruit and since then there has been many incidents in the Bible where snakes come in. Firstly we know that God cursed the snake in Genesis 3: And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

This is why the devil is so against woman. You see it in the way woman are treated in a world where satan rules. The muslim faith is a very good example of the way woman are abused by satan, but this is a blog for another time. Today I want to focus on the next verse in Luke 10: And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.

When we look at the events that unfolded when Paul was bitten by the viper and how nothing happened to him. We see this verse of Luke coming to life. This is so important that we understand that the enemy has no power over us. Yes, he can deceive us and lie to us, but we have the choice to except his lies or see them for what they really are. When Jesus died for our sins we were set free from the burden of sin. In this moment the last little grip the enemy had was broken forever. When we accept Jesus as our saviour we indirectly clear our past and step into a new life where we tread on serpents. Now this does not only mean that snakes will not kill us, it means that we can defeat the real snake (lucifer) and his power over people. When Paul placed the snake into the fire to get it off he symbolically showed what will happen to satan when judgement is done. He will be thrown into the pit of fire. So, two important things unfolded here: One – satan has no power over us because we are born again Christians and secondly the future of satan is going to be a hot one.

Now walk into your challenges with no fear and know that the venomous beast can do you no harm. You are a child of God and eternal life is your future. The enemy may be a hungry lion ready to devour us, but the Lion that lives in us is far greater than he can ever be. Behold, Jesus will give us the power of the enemy and nothing shall by any means hurt us.

Lord, thank you for this amazing promise and thank you for breaking sin and setting us free. Let your name be glorified and let your will be done. In Jesus name. 

Have an awesome day dear friend of Jesus. 

Cheers

Today Reminder (Water into wine) – 12 February 2018

A reminder for today

And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, they have no wine. (John 2:3)

The first miracle recorded in John by Jesus was where He turned water into wine. This amazing miracle had many sceptics full of ideas of why Jesus did it. So today we will try and bury some of those misbeliefs and focus a little on the why and how Jesus did it. I looked at what Sherrie Mills Johnson teaches around the subject. 

Weddings like this took more than a week in those days so it is important that we place ourselves in the middle of the time and look at the customs of that time. The story in John 2:1-11 is familiar to readers of the New Testament. Mary, the mother of Jesus, tells him the wedding feast is out of wine. Jesus asks servants to fill some pots with water, and then miraculously the water is transformed into wine. But there is more going on here than first meets the eye. The people that were observing (Jesus') miracles were trained in symbolism.

The word translated as "miracle" in John gives clues to the symbolic purpose of the story. The original Greek word used to describe Jesus' miracles is semeion. Semeion means "sign or indication." This demonstrates that the important thing about miracles is their symbolic teachings. There are messages in these miracles.

Some messages can also become obscured if we don't understand the culture. In John's story of this miracle, after Mary tells her son there is no wine, Jesus responds: "Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come" (John 2:4).

In today’s world it would be very rude to talk to your mother like that. But in the culture of the time, what Jesus is saying there is 'Woman' meaning 'Of all the women in the world, you are THE woman to me. In the culture Jesus is coming from, this is an incredible show of reverence.

What he is saying there is, 'It's not time for my mission to begin yet. My Father in Heaven is not instructing me what to do yet, but you are my mother, and so whatever you want I'll do. So, in that one verse, we have an amazing amount of love and reverence and honour that the Saviour is showing for his mother.

Likewise, Mary shows deep reverence for her son when she turns to the servants and says, "Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it" (John 2:5). "She knows something. She's seen him do these kinds of things before.

The next verse is about water pots and is naturally overlooked. It is an incredible verse full of meaning: "And there were set there six water pots of stone, after the manner of the purifying of the Jews, containing two or three firkins apiece" (John 2:6).

They've been there for some time, long enough to run out of wine. There must have been plenty of empty wine pots and jugs available. But Jesus didn't ask the servants to fill the smaller empty vessels, instead, he told them to use the water pots.

These water pots were used for the "purifying of the Jews." They were used for ceremonial washing whenever someone came into a home. They could not be made of clay, which was considered ritually impure. Instead, these stone water pots were chiselled out of boulders. They were big and heavy (two to three firkins is 18 to 27 gallons) and were consecrated for holy purposes.

These (water pots) are symbolic of you and me. Remember throughout the scriptures we are taught that we are the vessels of the Lord.

Because the stone water pots were too heavy to bring to a water source, it would take many trips to fill them.

All through the scriptures the Lord tells us that he is the fountain of living waters. All through the scriptures, the servants of the Lord are prophets, they're teachers, they're parents, they're anyone who teaches us. The spiritual teachers in our lives bring us living waters from the source Jesus Christ and fill us up to the brim. This detail of "to the brim" is also important. It means nothing more can be added. Nothing more can be done. But then the miracle. But then the sign.

You must do as much as you can do, be as full as you can go and then Jesus Christ changes you into something better. He makes water into wine. And he makes you and me … into Celestial beings. He changes us.

Lord, thank you for giving us a glimpse of how amazing you are how a something like turning water into wine has a deeper impact on us and how you fill us with your glory. Lord, you are my God and you are my all. In Jesus name.

Have an awesome day dear friend of Jesus. 

Cheers

Today Reminder (Enoch) – 9 February 2018

A reminder for today

And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him. (Genesis 5:24)

Enoch is one of those people in the Bible that has seen many attacks from people. The book of Enoch was not included in the Bible and this also created many queries plus some would say that the Bible contradicts itself regarding the end of Enoch. Sceptics will look in every nook and cranny of Scripture trying to find a “contradiction.” And in order to do this, logic and simple grammatical comprehension must be thrown out the window. So, what do they have that is so called contradictions. Let’s look at the verses.

And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him. (Genesis 5:24)

By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God. (Hebrews 11:5)

So, we see that Enoch did not die, or did he?

These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. (Hebrews 11:13)

On the surface it would appear we have two contradicting statements only a few sentences apart. But there are a couple of ways of looking at this supposed conundrum.

First, there is a simple theological explanation. In Hebrews 11 there appears to be a division of main ideas presented in verses 1–5 and verses 6–13. Notice that verse 13 states, “These all died in faith, not having received the promises.” What promises? When we look back on verses 7–11 we see that each person who is mentioned received and believed a promise, so verse 13 only refers to Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Sarah—not Enoch or Abel. Hebrews does not mention any promises concerning Enoch and Abel in verses 4–5. And the author specifically mentions Abel was dead and Enoch was not.

Second, there is a simple grammatical explanation. Enoch is the exception to the rule. The rule is that everyone listed did not escape death. And then Enoch is the exception since it was stated, “He did not see death.”

No one would ever claim there is a contradiction here because grammatically there isn’t one. But since so many oppose God and His Word, they will look for contradictions—even if they must twist logic and rules of grammar to find them.

It boils down to how we read the Bible. We can never take a single verse on its own. We must always read the whole chapter and bring it into context. It is almost like hearing half of the story and coming to a conclusion. In the end the enemy will do anything to cause people to fall away from God. A simple thing like this can be used on an unprepared person and could cause unnecessary confusion. That is why we should always go back to our Bible and get the whole picture before we listen to the lies of the enemy. The Bible does not have mistakes and do not let the cunning deceitful devil get his way. We worship an almighty God and He does not make mistakes. That is why the Bible has no mistakes regardless of what the enemy is trying to do.

Enoch is a great example of a man that lived a life close to God and it so pleased God that He took Enoch before death. Is this not what the enemy does with all the followers of God. He creates lies and deceive other by feeding them more lies. In the end he will face judgement and he will get what is coming to him, but until then we must stand firm on our faith, read our Bibles and trust God. Love with all your heart all those around you and love the Lord your God.

Lord, thank you that you will always open your Word for us so that we can be a light when the darkness comes, because the darkness can never defeat the light. In Jesus name. 

Have an awesome day dear friend of Jesus. 

Cheers