This blog, with hope, will open conversations that invite healing from Bible abuses, from harmful social trends and traditions, and from other issues that hurt salvation and worship in Jesus. At this blog, Christians—and friends—can express interest in working to restore the courage and freedom we need to share biblical faith, so we can better be part of healing missions to others. (Don't want blue and purple color themes: No thanks to hackers.)
Keep your life free from the love of money, and be content with what you have, for He has said,
“I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
Hebrews 13:5
In what ways did Jesus become a slave to us? Our Savior is King of all kings, and that will be more than clear one day (probably a very long time from now). But, for now, I think He has given us His example of humility.
Scripture says He became as a bondservant, a slave. How?
Just a few ways include
Giving His life on the cross. People who were crucified, in ancient times, were considered cursed. But God, pouring His Spirit into human form, humbly became as one cursed (2 Corinthians 5:21), giving His life on His appointed cross.
Suffering as any man suffers.
Serving a small court of disciples.
Relying on others (on His parents during childhood, on carpentry work as a young man, and on devoted followers during His years of ministry); relying on others for everything — though He is King of all kings.
Being an example of humble humanity, confessing to His captors, "I thirst."
Answering Heaven's will that even eunuchs receive salvation and purpose in Him, possibly presenting Himself as an "imperfect" man (even though He never sinned).
But the married man is concerned about the affairs of this world, how he can please his wife, and his interests are divided. ...
1 Corinthians 7:33-34
I think that, when this world sees that men have taken almost sole responsibility for a woman, this world tries to craft that woman into mankind's image. But nothing could be more wrong than that. Man is man, and woman is woman. There are no two ways about that. Just remember: Jesus is "head" of the church, but the true church always will remain the precious, spiritually untouched, blameless, uncorrupted, "bride" of Heaven. No matter how much responsibility men take for the church or for a woman, the Christhead and the woman are as Heaven meant each to be: distinctively different parts of creation, but part of the same spiritual body.
With that in mind, we should remember how Jesus says the violent always have taken the Kingdom of Heaven by force. I think He has women at heart when He says that — women and children. Remember, Herod killed many children in an attempt to keep Jesus from being Jesus.
Where women are concerned, I think that's important to remember. Because, for the longest time, in China, baby girls were not valued. Even at the embryonic stage, this world has made countless attempts to change a child's gender from female to male.
But faith says, to me, that Heaven (not chance) is sovereign, and that gender is set at the moment of conception. What God does to knit His sovereign will around errors introduced through genetic tinkering after conception is sometimes miraculous, especially when a lot of loving faith goes into correcting errors that cripple some children, or errors that challenge our faith.
But wherever men have leeway to tinker with genetics, there's always going to be some confusion. Men are probably always going to want to overide what the love of Jesus has done, including promoting the idea that men who shepherd women ARE women.
What is a eunuch?
Women who are led or cared for by men of faith are not men. We are women who are cared for by others than just ourselves.
And that brings me to a question that more people ought to look into: the question, "What is a eunuch?"
We don't use the term eunuch in modern English, but people who lived when the Bible was being put on paper very well knew what a eunuch is.
One dictionary, today, says a eunuch is "a man who has been castrated, especially (in the past) one employed to guard the women's living areas at an oriental court."
When the Bible was being written down, castrated men, and men who were born underdeveloped, were often employed — and often enslaved (separated from society) — as workers who took care of women in royal courts.
This takes courage and hope to say, but it may even be possible that our Savior, Jesus, was born as such, not meant to fully develop reproductively.
Why do I hope and find courage to say that?
I think and say that because of a prophecy: Isaiah 56:2-5.
Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that layeth hold on it; that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil.
Neither let the son of the stranger, that hath joined himself to the Lord, speak, saying, "The Lord hath utterly separated me from his people." Neither let the eunuch say, "Behold, I am a dry tree."
For thus saith the Lord unto the eunuchs that keep my Sabbaths, and choose the things that please me, and take hold of my covenant:
Even unto them will I give in mine house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters:
I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off.
By faith, I never will be able to speak the jargon that led to features on Oprah and The Doctors about "men" who have given birth to children. ... Those are not men, but are women who have been genetically altered.
And I will not use the word "transgender" about us women who had something inappropriate removed at birth. When a baby girl has a genetic error that causes extra skin that is not meant to yield the seed for a child, she is not transgender; she is a girl (able to carry babies after a while in life) in need of a corrective procedure other than butchery!
Our ability to bear children is in place from the moment we are conceived; and, when I say "bare," I mean the ability to carry a child in the womb.
Men who are actual men are not able to develop a womb, nor to menstruate, at any point in life. And that any woman has been crafted to have a little extra tissue that can be manipulated through electrified charges to the nervous system is completely beside the point.
After all, the Bible says an antichrist "makes" (creates) a lie.
That's the way I feel when women are surgically butchered and called "transgender men." ... Mind you, I know that science can alter DNA even at the bone level, but man imposing his will on creation doesn't speak to God's sovereign will.
Politically correct jargon calls some people "transgender men," though they are women. It doesn't matter if men shepherd a woman; that doesn't make her a man. And a preponderance of male body tissues don't make women male.
Praise Heaven for that truth.
And praise Heaven that God foresaw the genetic error that some true males would experience, and that He assured those of ancient times that they would be redeemed in Jesus! (Isaiah 56:5)
Heaven did not leave us clueless when He gave us the Bible, people.
Eunuchs of the Bible were not women.
Eunuchs were men who were castrated, or who were impotent because of a birth defect.
Eunuchs were not women with excess skin, nor people who didn't have a gender.
They were men, including some men who didn't fully develop. And, guess what?
Our Savior said that some of them were devoted to life in Him, being celibate.
So, some people take "be fruitful and multiply" much too far. God's purpose is NOT for everyone in this world to marry and raise large families.
God likened Israel herself to a barren woman who would bear many spiritual children. (That's encouragement for women like me, not, per se, for eunuchs/men.)
That said, I hope the commentary on this link won't be edited or changed:
Some argue that Jesus, in body, was strong enough to carry at least a crossbar of the cross while already deeply wounded, that He had physical strength enough for Roman soldiers to have confidence that He could carry the cross; and that He had physical strength enough to pull Peter out of the sea (likely very near the rocky shoreline).
Some argue that Jesus is "king of the world!" Some say His strength and sovereignty as a man is why even Muslim brothers and sisters begin to hearken to Him.
Some argue that God pattered Himself, bodily, after Adam, who failed morally but who was appointed to be a father (Romans 5:14), and that, therefore, our Savior had seed that just wasn't meant to physically bear — proving His sovereignty over the seed. ...
But the Holy Spirit whispers a simpler, more quiet, and more heartbreaking truth to me:
There's no pride in Christ. And our heavenly Father is Father purely in the spiritual.
"For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ ... ." (2 Corinthians 10:3-5)
"Peter replied, 'Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.'" (Luke 18:27)
"This is what the LORD says to Zerubbabel: 'It is not by force nor by strength, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies.'" (Zechariah 4:6, NLT)
"But Jesus said, 'What is impossible with man is possible with God.'" (Luke 18:27)
"And a little child shall lead them." (Isaiah 11:6)
What a blessing to have found info online about a residential school that helps raise up a child into adulthood. The school's residential community is called Yemin Orde Village. It's hope for Israel, and, hopefully, the whole world!
***
What did Jesus really look like in the flesh? What frame of body did God choose to commune with as an only Son appointed to die for us? Well, the only thing we know for sure is that He manifested Himself as a Hebrew man who wasn't very appealing to look at.
Contrary to our concept of a Savior who is European and king of the world, our true King of kings wasn't likely to be voted most popular in school! Scripture says God put Himself in a unattractive frame.
Any artists' idea about how He appeared to us is only an idea.
A few of the stepstones we find along the way in Jesus, are not easy for some to stand on
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
John 14:6
More than one of the posts I made this Easter season has to do with making rough places in the Bible more plain, making a clearer path through sometimes difficult-to-understand Bible passages. By putting hard-to-understand stones from the Bible word in order, passages are clearer to me, with often misused verses becoming step stones to understanding the whole. I've focused on Bible promises in order to make plain the step-stones or pathways that I've found. But with Easter turning so terribly wrong this year, not only in Sri Lanka but also here at home, it's probably fitting that I've found a few step-stones that are not joyful. Yes, the New Testament does include difficult steps we find along the way in life that are really like encountering bitter promises. One bitter promise is that this world's sinful ways will NOT yield a harvest of souls for Heaven. This is one group of step-stones-to-understanding that I've found: 1 Timothy 4:1-6:21, James 3:13-15, 1:19-27, 2 Timothy 4:1-8, Matthew 8:12, 24:12, 9:13. Another bitter promise is that the law of God's Old Testament covenant will never go away. Jesus promises us that His covenant (God's 10 commands) will cry out all the more loudly when more and more souls that love salvation in Him are taken away: Luke 19:37-40, John 1:1-5. The Bible also promises that liberty, in Jesus, is the ability to preach, teach, and earn freely, not a licence to sin: Matthew 10:7-10, 2 Corinthians 11:7, 1 Peter 2:15-16. And, sadly, Jesus promises that a day is coming when "no one can work" any longer for Heaven (John 9:4). What a sad and woeful promise that is. Easter joy is so much a better choice than sin!
Sometimes life calls for putting the broken pieces together and then moving ahead.
No weapon formed against thee prospereth, And every tongue rising against thee, In judgment thou condemnest.
This is the inheritance of the servants of Jehovah, And their righteousness from me, an affirmation of Jehovah! Isaiah 54:17, Young's Literal Translation
This Easter season, I've searched parts of the New Testament, uncovering paths that lead to Bible promises. But there's a simple Old Testament promise that doesn't need uncovering. It's a promise that's well-known and plain as day: "No weapon formed against you will prosper. And every tongue [that will not repent], in the Judgment you will condemn. This is the inheritance of the servants of the Lord. Their righteousness, from Heaven, affirms their place in Me." What I have uncovered, today, is the fact that people, as individuals, too often are becoming weapons. And some ministries are giving such souls false comfort, telling them Jesus "justifies" the ungodly. But "justify," in the New Testament, means "to make right." So, faith in Jesus makes right the ungodly. ... Remember, when Jesus's ministry was first revealed to Israel, John the Baptist's message was that everyone needed to "Repent!" Then, Jesus said the same, more softly. Then the disciples said the same, in more detail. Repent. No weapon (other than Jesus's word) will prosper. Contrary to versions of scripture that say no weapon will succeed, indeed, many weapons outside of Christ are succeeding. But, ultimately, none can prosper. In the eternal sense, every weapon outside of Christ will be condemned, unless the soul repents!
Many times, the Bible asks us to seek paths that lead to life in Jesus, even "old paths," one scripture says. Those paths are God's word itself. The path, or group of scriptures that I found above, leads out of the Old Testament and into life in Jesus, who teaches us how to walk in life (that is, what to do and what to avoid doing!). When Jesus sat down and had meals together with people who had sinned, He knew they would repent. He didn't hang around if He knew they wouldn't repent. His ministry, in walking in earth, was to those who were simply lost (Matthew 10:6) — not to those who always will be determined to do evil (Psalm 125:5); to backslide (Psalm 129:3-4, Matthew 11:20-24); to steal, waste, and destroy even ground that's profitable in faith or righteousness (Isaiah 57:20, 59:7, 48:17). The Bible tells us that His ministry, today, remains a promise to those whose offspring will choose to live in His righteousness: to repent and become "repairers of the breach," to repair (sustain) the bridge (the cross of Christ) that carries our faith out of the darkness of the force and iniquity of Old Testament times and into the light of Heaven in earth — a bridge of faith that carries even the lost who was a prostitute into life that bears eternal faith; a bridge that brings the wayward believer back to faith in Christ, back to true life, and back to the promise of Heaven.
This blog is often being hacked by someone who doesn't understand how the blog's creator means the headlines and other design elements to be. But, with faith and by grace, it will be what I've meant it to be, one day.
This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
Matthew 26:28
Some lessons are best learned going to church and Sunday school, listening, asking questions among anointed people in the church, and searching scriptures with prayer. Sometimes, it helps to just ask the Lord, "Help me with this," when reading the Bible.
But understanding the blood of Jesus is something that just happens in the heart of a believer, regardless of any discussion. Understanding the blood that was shed at Calvary, happens in the heart of a believer who honestly seeks the Bible with his or her whole heart.
And, when we have that understanding, we have to be offended that anyone would do blood rituals (as in witchcraft) to say anything about a faith whose way is pure.
We know the Lord has given us a better way.
Because God put Himself in place of blood sacrifices done in the darkness of the Old Testament, it's not okay to tinker with blood. And it's not okay to violate any human being. There's no cure or deliverance in violence or any other evil.
Jesus's prescription for the remission of sins isn't evil. We remember the sacrifice of His own body, and the sprinkling of His own blood, through a communion that utilizes the juice of crushed grapes and plain, flat bread, instead of anything of an animal or of a person's flesh.
Jesus's own suffering and death is the only sacrifice acceptable to Heaven for remission of sins.
It takes faith in order to know that.
It also takes faith to understand how Roman soldiers and the thief on the cross were baptized in a unique way on the day Jesus was crucified. No one since that time can be baptized in this way: As Jesus said (and I'm paraphrasing), at the time of His crucifixion: "From today onward, you will see me at the right hand of Power."
In the temple, Jesus gave of Heaven's power, and those who went on to teach in the temple that day of the crucifixion, were as if still with Jesus, seated around His word.
But what about the thief on the cross physically next to Jesus?
I believe the thief's faith was so sincere, that that former thief became the first of the church that day. I believe he received an outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
That is to say that someone who was physically at Jesus's right hand, became the church's "Power" — became of the Spirit.
Like in the case of the woman who believed on Jesus and received His healing power when she touched the hem of His garment (in an event that caused Jesus to feel as if power had gone out of Him), the former thief confessed faith in Jesus and received Holy Spirit power.
And, just as astonishingly, the thief also was likely baptized that day through the Savior's own blood spatter. (Jesus had been water baptized in the thief's place, and physically imparted that baptism to the former thief, through a sprinkling of the Savior's own blood!)
For background, look at Exodus 29:20.
Then think about how Jesus "finished" God's work on the cross at Calvary, baptizing a few new believers with a sprinkling of HIS blood (something only Jesus could do).Just like in Exodus 29:30, a few who were predestined to become believers at the foot of the cross, each were touched with a drop of the Savior's atoning blood, maybe on an earlobe, a thumb, a hand.And maybe Mary, Jesus's own mother, was baptized that way, that day, at the foot of the cross.
Through Jesus, God made Himself a life-giving substitute for the darkness of the past. He had patiently waited while men made sacrifices in the darkness of Old Testament times; but He was telling men all along (even in the Old Testament), that He needed mercy and not sacrifice.
When He gave Himself at Calvary, that opened eyes of those who had known not how unheavenly (how wicked) old sacrifices had been. Israel had even sacrificed some of its children.
Today, just keeping the thought of Jesus's atoning sacrifice in heart is cleansing to us as Christians. As the prophet Isaiah foretold: "So He will sprinkle many nations, and kings will shut their mouths because of Him. For what what they were not told, they will see, and what they have not heard, they will understand."
Unlike animal sacrifices of old, Jesus was not consumed by His suffering and death at Jerusalem and Calvary. He did not bodily perish.But He rested three days in a cold borrowed cave, and was revived.
Jesus's revival broke the tradition of consuming sacrifice. It broke every curse. And He freed us to live normally and blessed: not only blessed with the bread of His word, but with the freedom to discern what's good for food and abundant food.
In the Lord, there's no need for ungodly sacrifice.And scriptures in the New Testament say that just believing on the spilled blood of our salvation, cleanses our consciences of the old evil (Hebrews 9:14).
Eastertime is no time to be consumed or overcome by dark thoughts about the grave
He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.
Matthew 28:6
Eastertime is a time of joy. Jesus sacrificed Himself for the good of those who love and trust in Him, breaking the bonds of hell, and making the way clear to Heaven. Eastertime is not a time to be thinking gory thoughts about vile death. Jesus's spilled blood, way back on the cross at Calvary, is a cherished memory in the heart of every Christian; because therein is spiritual healing. It's in the Holy Spirit to cleave to that reminder of faith, but not to anyone's obsession with fleshly death and dreaded graves. Really, no time in our lives as Christians is supposed to be overcome by hopeless and fearful thoughts of the grave and the macabre. And no one should be on a quest to misuse scriptures to that end. ... Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. (Genesis 3:19) Oh what joy that is. "Precious in the eyes of the Lord is the death" of His church that has aged well and become like spiritually good wine (His saints). So, what does scripture mean in saying "some sleep" and that, in the last days, those who "sleep" will awaken? Doesn't scripture say "absent from the body, present with the Lord"? Prayerfully, I've searched for answers to questions like that myself. And I personally have concluded that we just have to trust the Lord and know that when a Christian soul completely passes away, that spirit is fully present with the body of Christ in Heaven. And, trusting Jesus, I conclude, by faith, that some must sleep (being unaware) for a while in Heaven, while the Bible clearly tells us that others are aware, and that some cry out in prayer in Heaven. I just trust the Lord that some sleep (maybe because of something that's happening in earth), and that others wake and pray. And there's peace in just trusting that way.
I also feel there's a little more to the event of spiritual "sleep" than just that. For example, when a loved one passes away unprepared for Heaven, but that loved one did know Jesus at some point in life but got lost, didn't that loved one begin to live unaware or asleep? And can't the same be said for some of Hebrew heritage who stopped anticipating the Messiah's return?
Maybe, if a soul passes away spiritually unaware, that soul goes on to sleep in Heaven, kind of like awaiting re-birth in a spiritual womb. That's just one thought I've wondered about.
But this I know for sure:
Easter is joy. Easter is resurrection. Easter is all good.
We hunt "Easter" eggs in order to make Easter fun for children, but maybe Easter-egg hunts aren't the absolute best expression of Easter joy. (It's kind of pagan, you know?) But oh what joy there has been for every one of us who has learned some Easter songs.
Step by step on my journey to Easter: Clearing the path where the Holy Spirit's meaning seemed hidden
A voice is crying in a wilderness: "Prepare ye the way of Jehovah. Make straight, in a desert, a highway for our God."
Every valley is raised up, and every mountain and hill become low, and the crooked place hath become a plain, and the entangled places a valley. And revealed hath been the honor of Jehovah; and seen [it] have all flesh together, for the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken. Isaiah 40:3-5, Young's Literal Translation, edited
During the past few weeks, as I've been able, I've shared a few of the scriptures that seemed, to me, like rough places in the New Testament: rough places that God intended us to make plain, to smooth out so that we can take a next step and a next. The smoothing out, or the breaking down of each scripture or group of scriptures, reveals a spiritual promise for us as Christians.
For example, in Romans 3:21-26:
The language or translation of some of the Apostle Paul's preaching isn't always clear. But helping make the rough places plain, it's good to seek clarity in several passages that came through Paul.
In Romans 3:21-26, Heaven blesses Paul to say that, because we have seen Jesus live the law perfectly through love, we (who all have sinned) are able to be so uplifted in the Spirit that we become justified — or made right— not wanting any past sin. Having freely received release from or remission of sins through believing Jesus sacrificed Himself for those sins, we haven't needed an intervention under the law in order to be delivered from hell, but are blessed to have His grace.
So, the Holy Spirit promises we have have "remission of sins that are past" (Holman Christian Standard Bible) just through believing on Jesus.
Amen.
I'll post more scriptural "steps" I've found, in the comment fields below.
