Monday, November 25, 2019

Sounds of silence

The summer flew by as quickly as a snowbird jet on it's way to the CNE air show. The months of summer had moments of heat and sweat, dead grass and well, just the daily things of life which come and go. The politics, election issues and an election were on the minds of some of us. Every season has it changes from one to the next. That being said, I witnessed the last red leaf fall from the enormous Maple tree in my front yard. Larry the leaf gently fluttered like a butterfly landing to join all his friends on the ground. The pool is closed and the ice sits on top of the cover like it is waiting for a hockey game. The season of fall turned into early winter as the snow fell way too soon. We say goodbye to yesterday yet with hope and faith, we pray for the tomorrows to come.

The world seems to be in upheaval as so many changes occur on a daily basis. I can't keep up with the technology. I imagine my mother must have felt this way years ago when the dial-up internet began. Too many apps to download, don't know how don't want to know-how. It all exhausts me to try.   Flipping to the next page of my calendar to the next month, the thoughts of this over-thinker exploded again. Snap, crackle, pop, Rice Krispies. Christmas is only a month away.

The clock never stops ticking unless there is a power outage. It would be nice if we never lost that time. Truth is the sun sets and hopefully rises again. We live our lives in the same way we breathe. Like we have billions more breaths to take. Instead of being thankful that our feet get to touch the floor one more time, or realize we get to hear one more love song on the radio, pour one more cup of coffee for our loved one, we act like robots doing the same routine. It becomes so obvious to me that many of us are simply stuck in a cyber system of technology and in the digression of the human race are becoming very robotic. Sit and watch a movie on television if you don't have Netflix and watch the same commercials over and over again ten-twenty times. If that is not being transformed into brainwashed, time-wasting robots, I don't know what is.

I ask myself, why do we do this? Are we so bored or lazy or are we simply seeking to fill some empty void with garbage? Whether we spend hours on facebook looking for some gratification, some kind of human connect or texting to people rather than phoning them, it all really just shows a changing human race controlled by cyber technology which gives false gratification. I am not a phone person. Go figure, I would rather write. So it is definitely easier to text message and fall into that trap. Can't say I get together with friends very often. Possibly that draws me and maybe you to twitter, facebook - like water draws a horse to the trough.

When I think about the last year, I can't help but notice the great disconnect between people. We see it as we scroll through the Facebook news feeds. People crying out for some kind of love, recognition, one more like one more love heart, one more smiley face. Months can go by and we never talk to those who are closest to us. The more time that passes, the wider the disconnect. Where does this lead? When does this get better? Or Does it get better? The longer we slide down that slippery slope, the steeper the decline. Then we find ourselves sitting on the roadside, sitting in the dumpster of denial. Lost in the garbage, thrown out like yesterday's leftovers. Sounds a little negative, I know.  When we examine these truths we will discover that disconnect. Haven't we all done it?  Sat in the same room with someone and both people looking at their iPhones while they scroll. People are sitting in the same room but they are not present. The sad realization of the message being conveyed is that your newsfeed is more important than the person beside you. This might be a good time to take an inventory of life. Your life. Your family's life. How can we climb out of that dumpster of denial long enough to clean the stench off of our own clothing and smell the rose sitting beside us? Time to appreciate the sunsets and the sunrises in our lives and share it with each other.

Friday, March 8, 2019

Passover


As we are coming up to the season of Spring and with Spring many people celebrate Easter, which is really a pagan word to distort or take away from the original celebration of Passover which took place in the early ages, reported in the book of Exodus (Old Testament Scripture) which gives the account of the Passover. You can read this below.


Exodus 12

The Passover

12 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, “This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you. Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers' houses, a lamb for a household. And if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons; according to what each can eat you shall make your count for the lamb. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats, and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight.[a]

“Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted on the fire; with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it. Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted, its head with its legs and its inner parts. 10 And you shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. 11 In this manner you shall eat it: with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord's Passover. 12 For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord. 13 The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.

14 “This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations, as a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast. 15 Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven out of your houses, for if anyone eats what is leavened, from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. 16 On the first day you shall hold a holy assembly, and on the seventh day a holy assembly. No work shall be done on those days. But what everyone needs to eat, that alone may be prepared by you. 17 And you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this very day I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day, throughout your generations, as a statute forever. 18 In the first month, from the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread until the twenty-first day of the month at evening. 19 For seven days no leaven is to be found in your houses. If anyone eats what is leavened, that person will be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a sojourner or a native of the land. 20 You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your dwelling places you shall eat unleavened bread.”

21 Then Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go and select lambs for yourselves according to your clans, and kill the Passover lamb. 22 Take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and touch the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. None of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning. 23 For the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians, and when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you. 24 You shall observe this rite as a statute for you and for your sons forever. 25 And when you come to the land that the Lord will give you, as he has promised, you shall keep this service. 26 And when your children say to you, ‘What do you mean by this service?’ 27 you shall say, ‘It is the sacrifice of the Lord's Passover, for he passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians but spared our houses.’” And the people bowed their heads and worshiped.

28 Then the people of Israel went and did so; as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.”

                 Now we live in a modern era. If I had to guess, I would say a small percent of the world population still remember the original intent of the Passover. Some Jewish people still celebrate the original Old Testament observance of this statute. (Observe this day, throughout your generations, as a statute forever). They would do this if they did not read the New Testament. Evangelical Christians study the Old Testament and New Testament Scriptures, and in doing so, have followed the lineage of Christ from beginning of the Bible to the end of the Book of Revelation.  We see the importance of continuing to observe this significant time in history as it relates with the Biblical New Testament teachings of Jesus Christ.             

As Christians we have been liberated from fulfilling all the laws written within the Torah, first five books of the Bible. This is only because the promised Saviour, King, Messiah has come in the flesh and fulfilled the requirement of those laws. The Perfect Lamb of God. That being Jesus Christ. He came as the example of the perfect lamb being the only one who could die to take away the sins of the world. His prophesied death and resurrection completed and fulfilled all the laws which man could not keep. I must also say, that Jesus left us with two laws to fulfill 

“Matthew 22 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

In essence all the old laws are wrapped up in these two commands. If you can keep these two commands, then you are fulfilling all the others. We know that we are just as incapable of always fulfilling these laws to the full extent as much as the Israelites could not keep all the OT laws. That is why Christ Jesus (lamb) died for our transgressions.

                
For some it is a nice story. To some it is meaningless. In this world we live in, some would say, “What does this matter now?” I am saddened to look around me and see many of my loved ones who live oblivious to what the Bible (God’s Word) says. There just does not seem to be much interest to know these truths. How often can we sit down and talk about the Bible without arguing? Because I study His word on a regular basis over the last thirty years, since giving my life to Christ. (Not that my life was my own. It always belonged to Him who created me). At one point in my life the message clicked and I realized that I am a sinner and was dead in my sins. Yes, I always believed in God. But never had a relationship with God the Son “Jesus”. One day sitting in a church service and hearing the sermon from the Bible, I realized I was not truly saved. The message never went from my head to my heart. That day it did. I asked forgiveness of my sins and became born again in my spirit.


Yesterday, I was walking out back behind our home. A vast couple of hundred acres of nothing but quiet, serenity and beauty for me to behold. Blue skies, ponds, white fluffy clouds, trees. As always, when I go to that place away from all the distractions, the noise, I can take a breath of fresh air. His air. A time of just God and me. That is relationship. I can’t help but praise HIM. And then just be silent before HIM. I wonder how many of us today can actually do this? Don’t most people fill their days with all kinds of things to do? I confess, many days I am too busy (being under satan’s yoke). How many of us never give God a thought, never ever learn that this life is temporal and it is really just a short time and then what? We live for today and not for eternity. Because I know what the Word of God says, I have learned that God is love, God is also a God of wrath and He will one day judge each one of us as he judged the Egyptians. The Egyptians had kept the Israelites in bondage, working them as slaves for hundreds of years. God said, “Let my people go”. The Egyptians were full of pride and they worshipped their own gods and rejected the one true God. The blood the Israelites had to put on the door posts was so important. The obedience they showed was of great importance. If they did not put the blood over the door posts, their first born sons would have died too. Was that God’s fault? No! It would have been their own fault. They did obey God and their sons were saved, but the Egyptians first born sons died. Very sad indeed. Can you imagine?

               
 I say this to show that God is God and He does not change. God in His great love never gave up on the people (all of us to whom He gave that same free will to choose). God’s love for us came at a great price. (Not money). God coming in the flesh as a human/God to once again use the Passover week, as the exact time of Christ’s death on the cross. His shed blood (Lamb of God). It was a brutal death in every way imaginable. Yet, we have closed our eyes and our hearts and minds to the Greatest Gift that God has given to us. HIS SON, the forgiveness of sins and the opportunity to choose Him and receive eternal life rather than death.  This coming Easter, maybe we can all think just a little more about God/Jesus dying on the cross. Think about the thorns on HIS head and the blood and sweat dripping into his eyes. Think about the four inch spikes through His hands and feet. Oh, you got a sliver. Wow! That must have hurt. Next time drive a spike through your hand. Then hang on a cross naked in front of the mocking crowd. Think for a minute, would you do that for your worst enemy? Would you do that for someone spitting on you or punching you in the face and laughing at you? Would you do that for someone who puts sour wine to your lips when you are so dehydrated you couldn’t spit because of the lack of blood which drained from your body? I think not. I think most of us have a hard time forgiving a loved one because they offended us on facebook. Jesus was not like us. He is God and loves us and wants none to perish or go to eternal destruction. No, God loved us so much He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him would not perish but have everlasting life. We today, have a choice. We can choose to follow that ONE Jesus who endured the Cross and in His dying breath said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

                
My friends and family, it is not always easy to follow Jesus. It is easy to say, I believe and it is easy to post some scripture or a song and maybe once in a while when we really feel like or when we need God’s help, say a little prayer. The more I study the Word of God, the more I realize the need to sacrifice more things in my life to follow Jesus. But they don’t compare to what God sacrificed. I don’t sacrifice out of fear of the Lord, although the Word says that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom.” I sacrifice little really. What I do for God is out of Love and admiration. If anyone deserves my admiration and love, it is Jesus Christ. What a great time to remember what Jesus did for each one of us. Many of you may not go to church for Good Friday Service or Resurrection Sunday. I know, it is hard to give up a couple hours of your weekend when you work all week.  I realize that going to church does not make you a Christian any more than driving a Honda into a garage makes it a Porsche. When we don’t go, we miss out on capturing the magnitude of what Christ did and what was accomplished by His death on the cross. We miss out on experiencing the depth of His love and also the fellowship of other believers. Most of all we miss out on worshipping and giving thanks to the One who deserves all Honour Glory and Praise. Our Saviour Jesus the Messiah. (Christ)

Luke 22:1 English Standard Version (ESV)

The Plot to Kill Jesus

“22 Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread drew near, which is called the Passover.”

As you read through the New Testament of the Bible you will learn the full account from Passover through to the death of Jesus and His resurrection, teachings of Jesus, and disciples.