9th week 1st day: my testimony

This morning’s readings are taken in accordance with an old One Year NIV Bible translated to another language which I presently read and write. Last night I wanted to click like to an old acquaintance’s Christian blog and visited his blog. When I saw him publishing a video of a church which teaches false doctrine like that prophesied by the Lord Jesus in the end days and also warned by the Holy Spirit through the Apostle John in the Revelation, I just had to leave that website and lamented for my distant ‘friend’.  This morning I woke and asked the Lord what to do in such a confusing age. I can of course ignore others ‘worldly culture’ and pursue my God in my quiet little house with a park. I have enough to live my humble life without concerning myself with others.

But I cannot. Over the last ten years I have built this watchman English Christian blog and another similar English language blog which have been frequented by over three hundred thousands viewers from over two hundred nations. I know the number is insignificant when compared with the possible life transformation when a reader encounters the Lord Himself in his or her own quiet time. My blog is very much focused on one theme: God the Holy Spirit (and the words He sends daily).  I believe that when a person seeks the Lord and perchance comes upon this blog and encounters the Holy Spirit he or she will be touched and life on earth will not be the same after that. When the Holy Spirit touched me many years ago I was transformed. I gave up my life. I no longer wanted a part of the materially ‘rich’ lifestyle which I could easily afford. To any other similarly unspiritual Christian that life was the abundant life blessed by God. But after I encountered the Holy Spirit I knew it was not a Kingdom of God’s life. There is a significant difference. I did all the religious stuff and was a genuine good-hearted (generously giving and charitable to the poor and disadvantaged) and faithful Christian, serving in all sorts of teaching ministries. After I encountered the Holy Spirit and revelation from the Lord who is Spirit after that, I submitted my life to the reality of God in the Spirit. I know now nothing on earth in the physical can change the spiritual reality God has set. His HOLY STANDARD. HIS PATTERN as revealed to Moses. The same PATTERN OF THE TEMPLE -WHO IS THE BODY OF THE BELIEVER, THE HOLY NATION OF GOD’S PEOPLE -as revealed to every believer by His words through the Holy Spirit. I am convinced that whatever excuses, rationalization we man try to give to explain away a situation or condition or issue (politically-correct names we use nowadays to describe a sin condemned in the Bible), we shall fail. Today we may look successful and popular and amass a great mass of ‘followers’. When we meet the Lord we shall know our true fate. How to argue with a holy God? He has already spoken all that He wants to say to man in the Bible. How can anyone presume he may interpret the Bible to his own personal advantage? I marvel at the foolishness of human mind.

Jesus has aptly described this mentality of man which has not changed for thousands of years. (Mark 8:11-13)

People come to Jesus to want something from Him to prove He has the authority to give the abundant life He said He will give:

11 When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had arrived, they came and started to argue with him. Testing him, they demanded that he show them a miraculous sign from heaven to prove his authority.

But Jesus said He will not give them. 

12 When he heard this, he sighed deeply in his spirit and said, “Why do these people keep demanding a miraculous sign? I tell you the truth, I will not give this generation any such sign.”

So what did Jesus do? He left them. 

13 So he got back into the boat and left them, and he crossed to the other side of the lake.

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This is my own personal testimony.

Psalm 32:1-5; Leviticus 19:1-37; 20:1-21; Mark 8:11-38; Proverbs 10:17.

A hymn for today: demand from the cross

I cannot sing this hymn without shedding tears and choking with the tears in my heart. No love is greater than the love that one gives in laying down his love for a friend. Jesus has given his life for His friends. He has called His believers His friends

When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of Glory died
My richest gain I count but loss
And pour contempt on all my pride

Forbid it Lord that I should boast
Save in the death of Christ my God
All the vain things that charm me most
I sacrifice them to His blood

See from His head His hands His feet
Sorrow and love flow mingled down
Did e’er such love and sorrow meet
Or thorns compose so rich a crown

Were the whole realm of nature mine
That were an offering far too small
Love so amazing so divine
Demands my soul
Demands my soul
Love demands my soul
My life my all

taking Holy Communion and receiving the words on parenting

Taking the Holy communion is a faith in action. When I partake the body and blood of Jesus I receive from Him what I have otherwise overlooked and taken for granted in my busyness an preoccupation with other matters and things. It is a spiritual time. A time of spiritual focus. I like this verse from Paul in 1 Corinthians 6:17 which declares this truth: A person can be joined to Jesus in the spirit. “But the person who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.”

Jesus has taught that His disciple can and must remain in Him as a branch remains in the vine. “Remain in Me and I will remain in you…But if you remain in Me and My words remain in you, you may ask anything you want, and it will be granted! ” (John 15:1-8)

How can this be accomplished? I believe it is through the Holy Communion as an act of faith and by this faith we receive as we read His words with the Holy Communion. Jesus Himself has said this, “Anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in Me and I in him.” (John 6:56)

I always read the Bible as I partake the Holy Communion. The Lord sends His words and teaches me with His Spirit as I join to Him in my spirit through the Holy Communion.

Today I received His words on parenting as I opened the Bible after I prepared the bread and the cup. I always read the Bible before I partake the Holy Communion. the passage from Luke 9 described the transfiguration of Jesus on the mountain and the healing of a demon-possessed boy after Jesus and His three disciples came down from the mountain the next day.

Here is how the demon-possessed boy was described:

“An evil spirit keeps seizing him, making him scream, It throws him into convulsions so that he foams at the mouth. It batters him and hardly ever leaves him alone.” (Luke 9:39)

When the Bible opened to this passage and description of a young boy, I recalled one event I witnessed in the toy department of a supermarket yesterday. A very young boy suddenly screamed and gained super-human strength, kicked and beat his dad and threw a violent tantrum. he also battered himself. He kept screaming, “I want that! I want that! Give me! Buy! I want that! I want!!! You deaf? Hear me!!!” His mouth foamed and his eyes turned violent like he was another person inside, not an innocent little boy but an evil spiritual presence. He threw himself on the ground and started twisting his body like that of a viper. A cunning and evil beast looked out of his eyes. The dad was totally embarrassed and did not know what to do and where to turn. Everyone else pretended not to hear or see this commotion. The mother was presumably in the grocery section and did not take part in this scene.

Jesus commented on the cause of this failure in parenting: “You faithless and corrupt people!” (Luke 9:4) Faithless goes with corruption.By taking their children away from Jesus the parents have chosen to expose them to a faithless and corrupt world, possessed and dominated by the evil spirits.

Jesus has also given His solution: “Bring your son here.” By bringing their children to Jesus they have safely cut off such unholy ties with the evil spirits and put themselves under the holy, safe and unpolluted protection of Jesus in the Kingdom of God.

What is required to bring the children back to God’s protection? The parents are required two things. LET US LOOK AT TODAY’S DICTIONARY:

a corrupt society: immoral, depraved, degenerate, reprobate, vice-ridden, perverted, debauched, dissolute, dissipated, bad, wicked, evil, base, sinful, ungodly, unholy, irreligious, profane, impious, impure; informal warped. ANTONYMS moral.

a faithless society: unbelieving, nonbelieving, irreligious, disbelieving, agnostic, atheistic; pagan, heathen.

God wants FAITH and MORAL virtues in the parents. 

Why do children open themselves to demon-possession? Because of the above prevalent culture and value of the societies. When the hearts of the children turn to such values they turn away from their parents. The coming of Jesus turns the hearts of the children back to their parents and vice versa.

In the last verse of the last chapter in the last book of the Old Testament, prophet Malachi spoke this prophecy about Jesus:

“His preaching will turn the hearts of fathers to their children, and the hearts of children to their fathers. Otherwise I will come and strike the land with a curse.” (Malachi 4:6)

taking Holy Communion (4)

This morning while taking Holy Communion I opened my Bible and the Lord spoke through Exodus 24, 25 and 26.

The key word is the “pattern” (standard that denotes setting apart for holiness) of God.

All Scriptures are quoted from the Holy Bible New Living Translation (NLT) unless otherwise noted.

Exodus 25: ⁴⁰ “Be sure that you make everything according to the pattern I have shown you here on the mountain.

Exodus 26: ³⁰ “Set up this Tabernacle according to the pattern you were shown on the mountain.

When did God give this pattern? After He has established the Covenant in blood with His people:

Exodus 24:8 

⁸ Then Moses took the blood from the basins and splattered it over the people, declaring, “Look, this blood confirms the covenant the Lord has made with you in giving you these instructions.”

Where did God give this holy  pattern? To whom He has given the pattern? It is notable that God did not choose to give to just anyone His pattern. He narrowed down His choice from the whole congregation to a group of elites (appointed religious leaders and tribal hereditary leaders) who were called to climb the mountain to commemorate the Covenant and were allowed to eat the ceremonial meal, to two (Moses and his successor Joshua), and and finally chose only one man -Moses.

Exodus 24:1 

24 Then the Lord instructed Moses: “Come up here to me, and bring along Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and seventy of Israel’s elders. All of you must worship from a distance. 

⁹ Then Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel climbed up the mountain. 11 …these nobles…In fact, they ate a covenant meal, eating and drinking in His presence!

¹² Then the Lord said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain. Stay there, and I will give you the tablets of stone on which I have inscribed the instructions and commands so you can teach the people.” ¹³ So Moses and his assistant Joshua set out, and Moses climbed up the mountain of God.

¹⁵ Then Moses climbed up the mountain, and the cloud covered it. ¹⁶ And the glory of the Lord settled down on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days. On the seventh day the Lord called to Moses from inside the cloud. ¹⁷ To the Israelites at the foot of the mountain, the glory of the Lord appeared at the summit like a consuming fire. ¹⁸ Then Moses disappeared into the cloud as he climbed higher up the mountain. He remained on the mountain forty days and forty nights.

Why Moses? Moses was a man of faith. He saw the future (Jesus the Messiah King and Priest)

Hebrews 11:27

It was by faith that Moses left the land of Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger. He kept right on going because he kept his eyes on the one who is invisible.

Hebrews 3:2 For he was faithful to God, who appointed him, just as Moses served faithfully when he was entrusted with God’s entire house.

Hebrews 3:5 Moses was certainly faithful in God’s house as a servant. His work was an illustration of the truths God would reveal later.

Hebrews 8:5

They serve in a system of worship that is only a copy, a shadow of the real one in heaven. For when Moses was getting ready to build the Tabernacle, God gave him this warning: “Be sure that you make everything according to the pattern I have shown you here on the mountain.”

taking Holy Communion (3)

This morning I learned something new while taking the Holy Communion. My Bible opened to Matthew 26:26-28. Jesus instituted the Holy Communion with His disciples.

As they were eating, Jesus took some bread and blessed it. Then He broke it in pieces and gave it to the disciples, saying, “Take this and eat it, for this is My body.” And He took a cup of wine and gave thanks to God for it. He gave it to them and said, “Each of you drink from it, for this is My blood, which confirms the covenant between God and His people. It is poured out as a sacrifice to forgive the sins of many.”

I knelt there and marveled at the teaching from Jesus Himself. Why did He open this page of the Bible? Because I was taking the Holy Communion. So I am back to basic. The bread which is His body. The cup which is His blood. He led me to pray through a flow of Bible verses as the verses came to me in my spirit. He has restored my memory of verses.

The power of the body and the blood of Jesus came to me through His words. The true meaning of the Holy Communion: the body and the blood of Jesus came to life. His words are life and spirit (John 6:63). The true meaning of the New Covenant in His blood. The forgiveness of sins and redemption for His people. The holiness made possible for all who believe. The holy words God put in our hearts and write on our minds. Awesome. I cannot comprehend how this can be possible. But all these have come true in the heavenly realm and I can appropriate without the need to fathom the mystery (unlike what Nicodemus uttered, ‘how can this be possible?’). By faith I have believed and received every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 1:3)

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Spiritual Application Note: It is supernaturally well to walk by the Spirit and not by flesh. I could not find my Giant Print Edition Holy Bible (New Living Translation) for two weeks after I returned. Two days ago I was led in my spirit to command it (by the authority in the name of Jesus ) to show itself. Then I climbed the stairs to a wooden cupboard, opened it (like I have done several times before), and looked inside. I had pulled out many Bibles before but it was not there. This time after I commanded it to show itself I did exactly what I did before. But this time when my hand reached inside I pulled out this lost Bible! Hallelujah!

On another note, after I shared in my previous blog post how dusty my house had become, yesterday afternoon the volunteer cleaners came! They did the remaining cleaning and completed the task by six in the evening. They repaired the lights and put in bright white lights too. They did not want to charge me a fee. In the end I only paid for the cost of the materials. I also decided to give a love gift to their children who are still studying in college. This morning I walked down the stairs with confidence in the bright lights and knelt on a clean floor at a clean coffee table. I really marvel at the greatness of the holy God who likes details and standards. He took the steps to provide what He likes. I like too. I am a happy Christian.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Here are some of the all powerful, comforting and uplifting verses which came to me from Hebrews: (All scriptures are quoted from the New Living Translation Holy Bible unless otherwise noted)

Hebrews 10

10 ⁵ That is why, when Christ^[a] came into the world, he said to God,⁷ Then I said, ‘Look, I have come to do your will, O God—
    as is written about me in the Scriptures.’”

⁹ Then he said, “Look, I have come to do your will.” He cancels the first covenant in order to put the second into effect. ¹⁰ For God’s will was for us to be made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all time.

¹² But our High Priest offered himself to God as a single sacrifice for sins, good for all time. Then he sat down in the place of honor at God’s right hand.¹³ There he waits until his enemies are humbled and made a footstool under his feet. ¹⁴ For by that one offering he forever made perfect those who are being made holy.

¹⁵ And the Holy Spirit also testifies that this is so. For he says,

¹⁶ “This is the new covenant I will make
    with my people on that day,^[c] says the Lord:
I will put my laws in their hearts,
    and I will write them on their minds.”^[d]

¹⁷ Then he says,

“I will never again remember
    their sins and lawless deeds.”^[e]

¹⁸ And when sins have been forgiven, there is no need to offer any more sacrifices.

¹⁹ And so, dear brothers and sisters,^[f] we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus. ²⁰ By his death,^[g] Jesus opened a new and life-giving way through the curtain into the Most Holy Place.

²¹ And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God’s house, ²² let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water.

²³ Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise. ²⁴ Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. ²⁵ And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.

³² Think back on those early days when you first learned about Christ.^[j] Remember how you remained faithful even though it meant terrible suffering.

³⁵ So do not throw away this confident trust in the Lord. Remember the great reward it brings you! ³⁶ Patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God’s will. Then you will receive all that he has promised.

Hebrews 12

12:22 No, you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to countless thousands of angels in a joyful gathering. ²³ You have come to the assembly of God’s firstborn children, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God himself, who is the judge over all things. You have come to the spirits of the righteous ones in heaven who have now been made perfect. ²⁴ You have come to Jesus, the one who mediates the new covenant between God and people, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks of forgiveness instead of crying out for vengeance like the blood of Abel.”