Hope, Thanksgiving & Receiving.

Hi Blessed Folks!

It has been a while... About 6 months since i posted anything. Been busy with work, been putting the faith march on the sidelines lately... Prompted to reactivate this blog cos i know it's been a blessing to many already. : )

What else then do we have on this earth? It seems, day to day, the world we live in is growing bleaker, darker and reeling into chaos. How do we as believers reign in this life on earth?

One word...

HOPE.

As a Christian believer, the primary driving force in our faith IS Hope.

In the Greek text of the New Testament "Hope" in the original language is "Elpis".

And Elpis is defined by Strong's concordance as:
1) From ἔλπω elpō which is a primary word (to anticipate, usually with pleasure); expectation (abstract or concrete) or confidence: - faith, hope.

And defined in Thayer's Greek Definition as:
2) expectation of good, hope

We can concur and put both definitions together in the spirit of the Good News as:
Hope = Elpis = A confident expectation of good!

What more can we ask for then? Knowing that we are the beloved one of God and now we can confidently hope for good things to happen in our lives!

Next best thing to do?

Give thanks for what we have in our hands and confidently expect good things to happen, confidently expect the miracles to happen, confidently expect supernatural abundance!

*Best results shown here:
Mark 6:36-44
36 Send them away, that they may go into the country round about, and into the villages, and buy themselves bread: for they have nothing to eat.
37 He answered and said unto them, Give ye them to eat. And they say unto him, Shall we go and buy two hundred pennyworth of bread, and give them to eat?
38 He saith unto them, How many loaves have ye? go and see. And when they knew, they say, Five, and two fishes.
39 And he commanded them to make all sit down by companies upon the green grass.
40 And they sat down in ranks, by hundreds, and by fifties.
41 And when he had taken the five loaves and the two fishes, he looked up to heaven, and blessed, and brake the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before them; and the two fishes divided he among them all.
42 And they did all eat, and were filled.
43 And they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments, and of the fishes.
44 And they that did eat of the loaves were about five thousand men.

The above illustration showed the magnitude of the miracle and abundance, with the very little Jesus had in His hands.

But where's the key then?

Here it is!...
John 6:11
And Jesus took the loaves; and when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to them that were set down; and likewise of the fishes as much as they would.

Go to the One in Heaven and give thanks with what you have now in your hands and He will give what you do not have in your hands! : )

What's the last bit then?

Enjoy the fish and bread given! Receive it! Eat it! What's the point of a miracle or blessing coming your way and you don't receive it and enjoy it?

Start telling Him that you've received your blessing already!

Mark 11:24
Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

I hope you have been blessed!

I pray to all that read this, to have a Shalom 2010! A year of Abundance, Favor & Rest!

Shalom & God bless you all,
Emmanuel : )

Why & How do we Love?

Something really simple but profound...

1John 4:19-21
21 We love Him because He first loved us.
20 If anyone says, I love God, and hates his brother, he is a liar. For if he does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?
21 And we have this commandment from Him, that he who loves God should love his brother also.

Is the love we receive from God conditional on our good works/deeds/prayers?
NO. He FIRST loved us. Even before we've done anything for Him, He first loved us. Can we then mete out the same measure of love, as we have been given by God by His abundance of Grace, to our fellow man? Be it friend or foe.

I hope we can all dwell & chew/meditate on this thought for the rest of the week. : )

Shalom Shalom,
Emmanuel

I am Blessed!

Hi All!

I've been asked several times at work today, the usual, "How's your day?" or "How are you doing?" kind of question.

What would the usual response be usually? "Oh ok." or "Not too bad." or something to that effect. But today i decided to catch myself before i said these things and quickly shouted out, "I'm good! Great! Hallelujah!"

I've decided that whatever that the day has in store for me, nothing can beat how God has given His very best to me. His beloved One, Jesus Christ! How terribly bad can my day be when God has given me His best already?

Christ consciousness. The consciousness of how much God loves me. That's what brings me through the whole day. And with that, i can really count my blessings. From the simple breakfast that i have at home, till the time i reach home and greeted by my wonderful family.

I hope we all can meditate and dwell on this consciousness that it doesn't really matter what happens to us, we have all already been blessed in advance!

Shalom & be Blessed,
Emmanuel

"Missing the Bull's Eye... Originally." A reply to Brother Hamzah's comment on 31st May 2009.

Shalom Bro Hamzah,

Welcome to my blog. I hope it has blessed you in some way. I'm glad this blog has reached out further and further into cyberspace.

Let's get started... : )

To answer your question about the doctrine of "original sin", we must first understand who this doctrine is for and by whom. The doctrine of "original sin" is NOT biblical and it is part of the Augustinian theology created by Augustine of Hippo or widely known in the Catholic church as St. Augustine. You can find a pretty concise study on this matter here: http://www.bcbsr.com/topics/augh_os.html

Now, let's use the bible to intepret bible.
Deuteronomy 24:16 says,
"Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor children put to death for their fathers; each is to die for his own sin."

Now, God is a just God, He will not go back on His words. Therefore this verse immediately nullify's Augustine's theology.

Another verse for reference would be, Ezekiel 18:20
"The soul who sins is the one who will die. The son will not share the guilt of the father, nor will the father share the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous man will be credited to him, and the wickedness of the wicked will be charged against him."

The primary argument for the doctrine of "original sin" comes from Romans 5:12-19. A nice article to read would be found here: http://www.tektonics.org/lp/origsin.html
Probably the last 3 paragraphs sums it up.

Paul was simply saying that by one man's(Adam) "missing the mark" - [the definition in Thayer's for "Hamartia" - which is the original Greek word for sin], caused death to reign in the lives of mankind. The word "Hamartia" is a noun and amoral in nature. Meaning there is no connotations of emotions or moral values attached to it till the person does something, for example, cursing.
Adam missed the mark when he believed Satan about eating the fruit and becoming like God. Adam was deceived. Adam was already like God! Because he was made in the image of God! That's the devil's ploy in our lives. To make us unsure and uncertain of our position with God and in God. The devil made Adam self conscious. Therefore being conscious of his position of missing the mark. When we are conscious of our shortcomings we are actually sin-concious, therefore being sin concious brings about death.
Interestingly, through biblical accounts, we can see that before the flood and the Law giving, we can see that Adam's descendants up to Noah lived really long lives! Adam himself lived till 930 years! Why? Though death was the effect of missing the mark but Adam has not seen death around him. The consciousness of death was not a reality for Adam for a really long time. Even missing the mark will not cause death to come immediately if you're not conscious of it(death)!

But what i'm trying to drive at is this, Adam's missing the mark has brought about death in humanity because the federal head of humanity has chosen out of free will to be out of God's glory and protection. Adam being representative of mankind gave up the authority of man's divine position on earth and handed it over to satan. Therefore his progenitors will be born in a world that has already fallen out of God's glory. Thereby being born into the realm of death and not of eternal life.
And as Paul mentioned in Romans 5:13-14 "13(For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law. 14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression,..."

Sin is in the world. But missing the mark is only taken into account for (the word used is IMPUTED) after the law giving (Mosaic Covenant). And as Paul mentions, nevertheless, irregardless of missing the mark NOT being taken into account for, death still reigned. And death here is both physical and spiritual. Therefore physical death would seem now, to be a natural cause of being born into this world. Not so much whether we missed the mark or not but because of the decision of our federal head Adam to live outside the glory of God, therefore we, the progenitors of Adam are born outside the glory of God too. But the imputing of judgement for missing the mark only came later after the Mosaic covenant was given.

But praise be to God, He saw all this coming. He prepared a solution and key for us to enjoy everlasting life and be back in His fellowship. And that is through the shed blood of His Son, Jesus Christ. As mentioned here in Romans 5:18 "Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life."

We are all now justified unto life! So Bro, enjoy this life! You are now no longer condemned but made righteous before God not by your works but by the finished work of One Perfect Man!

Amen!

And to answer about my statement saying that i'm already forgiven even before i was born. I was making a chronological reference to Jesus' crucifixion 2000+ years ago versus me being born in 1977. I was born in the year 1977, therefore simply put, 1977 years after Jesus' crucifixion. His finished work then 1977 years ago has wiped out ALL sin for everyone on this earth forever! Past, meaning the prophets of old who saw YHVH as their redeemer and Savior, present, meaning the disciples that walked the earth with Jesus during His ministry and those that saw His Truth & Saving Grace, and future, meaning me born 1977 years future to the event of the crucifixion. Therefore, technically, my sins have been forgiven already, way before I was born! : )

I hope this helps... Thanks for reading Bro...

God bless you richly Brother Hamzah. : )

Shalom,
Emmanuel

Put the Amazing back into Grace!

Hi Beloveds!

Wow... It has been a while. Been busy. A calculated shift in work again. But Praise the Lord that His hand is always there to guide me and lead to green pastures & still waters.

I probably would like to provoke all our brothers & sisters in Christ out there to start thinking about Paul. Yes, the super apostle, Paul formerly known as "Sha-ul" in Hebrew.

Amongst all the apostles, Paul would probably be the one who was persecuted the most. Why so? Read his letters. Paul preached the Grace of God till it seeped from the pores of his skin. Grace has been an absolutely touchy subject amongst believers. But I believe Paul was on the right track somewhere since 3/4 of the New Testament was written by him. Detractors might say that the Christianity that we practice is called Pauline Christianity. I beg to differ. Paul saw Jesus for who He really was. Paul had a wonderful & powerful revelation of who the person of Jesus Christ is. And that GRACE is all wrapped up in Jesus! John 1:17 says this:

"For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ."

See the difference in the words used with regards to the law and about Jesus. The 10 commandments was written on stone and given to Moses by God. The law was written on a dead surface of rock. But Truth & Grace came through someone ALIVE! Who is this someone? Jesus Himself!

All that we look for is wrapped up in the person of Jesus Christ. And all the we deserve as punishment for our sin has already been fully judged and punished on the body of Jesus on the cross. In fact, what He did was an overpayment! Yet we who deserve nothing, receives everything! (Ephesians 1:3-14)

So brothers and sisters, let us love one another. Let us love our brethren who are still out there on their spiritual journey. Let us be there to comfort them , to be a friend, a brother, a sister, even, a father or a mother. Just as Jesus displayed His love and Grace even in the final moments of His earthly life, He sees His mother grieving, He still has a heart to love and to fill that gap for her... John 19:26-27:

²⁶ When Jesus therefore saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing by, He said to His mother, “Woman, behold your son!” ²⁷ Then He said to the disciple, “Behold your mother!” And from that hour that disciple took her to his own home.

Let us have a revelation of God's love in our lives. He wishes to stand and be in that gap for you. In whatever area that it is right now. His super abounding Grace will eat up and overwhelm that dark spot in your lives right now! He is truly Amazing! He is our Father. I call Him Abba. Daddy. And Daddy gave me Jesus to remind me that in Him and with Him in me, I AM living a victorious life! Amen.

God bless & Shalom to one & all,
Emmanuel

The One Love.

Hi Dearly Beloveds,

As we look to this world that seems bleak, full of hate, anguish and violence. There can only be One solution. It is not to have a one world economy, it is not to have a one world legal system that determines our every way of life, it is to look to the One that has given His all for the world.

Why do we look to ourselves for the solution? Look to the One that says, "It is finished!"

HE has completed the work. Rid the world of Sin, but it is upon us to share this Good News. Share the NEWS that we no longer carry the burden of Sin in our Spirit but has been borne on the One that's without Sin.

How about a news flash tomorrow at prime time, "The Sins of this world, eradicated by rebel rabbi sent by GOD Himself." Wouldn't that be awesome?

Splashed across the front page of all major newspapers:

"Liberty, Liberty! Sin washed away by the Tsunami of Grace!"

written by Chris T.,

"The Man, the Rebel, the Light, the Shepherd, the SON. How you want to call Him, what you want to call Him, can't change the fact that He has done it! Done what? SIN eradicated. Removed. Expunged. Nuked. No more in you and me. He the One, said, "I did not come to judge and condemn the world, but I've come to save it." Mad man, many said. Blasphemy some said. Demon possessed even!

But the fruits of His ministry, however, did just show otherwise.

HIS mission was always in love, charity and liberation. He healed the sick, delivered people from demons, opened the ears of the deaf so they could hear, opened the eyes of the blind so they could see, restore death unto life just like raising Lazarus because his family grieved him so, fed 5,000 people with 5 loaves & 2 fish and much much more.

With such Love though, the people still wanted Him dead. "Death by crucifixion!" Shouted the Holy ones. "Release the murderer!"

A Man who Loved the poor, the sick, the dejected, the outcast, sent to the most brutal punishment ever, while a murderer walks free. This is the justice of the world. The guilty for the innocent. The blemished for the spotless One.

But this Rebel, did not utter a single word of contempt. He opened not His mouth, dumb as a lamb to the slaughter.

In His suffering, He can only think of one thing. You. How joyous is He in His heart knowing that what He will accomplish will forever set you free. Oh how He longs to be with you. But He knows, this mission, this journey, this passion for you, is an utterly, excrutiatingly, painful one. He holds His strength, whatever that He can muster to stay alive during the beating, the whipping, the scourging, the heavy crucifix which He can barely carry, limping because of His severed sciatic nerve. He must be mad. Oh so mad. Crazy, out of His mind. Why go through all that for a lot of people cursing at Him, spitting as His face, shouting obscenities at Him. WHY?

Love. He says, "As the Father has loved Me, so I have loved you; continue in My love."

Must be some kind of crazy love. A love so precious that the Father sacrificed His most precious One. For you.

Even to the very end, as He was pinned to the crucifix, naked, bloody, battered beyond recognition that there was no beauty in Him whatsoever, He had a heart for them. For those who abused Him. For those who gambled for His clothes. He interceded for them, saying, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."

Scorched under the sun from 9am till noon, then darkness fell. A strange eclipse swept the entire earth at that time. For 3 whole hours. The world was in absolute, desolate darkness. As if it was truly the end. But at 3pm, He shouted, "It is finished!" The end. His mission was over. And He gave His last breath. The horns blared across from the Holy sanctuary. The perfect sacrifice has been slain.

No news came. Not one of His closest disciples turned up to claim His body. On Joseph. From Arithmathea. He had a beautiful garden, fit for the One to be laid in. And there the body of the Rebel was laid to rest.

1 day passed, 2 days passed, the disciples were all scattered. Losing hope. 3rd day came.

It wasn't the men who witnessed Him being alive again. It was the woman. The woman restored by He Himself. Speaking to a gardener, estranged, crying, that the body of the One she thought was lost, without realising it is HE!

Yes, as He conquered death, He crushed the evil one's head with His heel! Death is underfoot. Sin no longer has a stranglehold on His beloved people.

Righteousness, Victory, Blessings & Honour. ALL through the eternal removal of Sin, forgiven for eternity via the perfect work that the One has done on His mission to the hill known as, "The place of the Skull." Truly the skull is underfoot, the Cross of Salvation crushed it!

To the One be ALL Glory & Honour.

His name is Jesus."

Wouldn't that be an awesome article to read in tommorow's papers?

Hallelujah! Praise you Lord. You are indeed magnificient, glorious and worthy of all honour & praise.

God bless all of you! : )

Shalom Shalom,

Emmanuel

Jesus our Good Shepherd.

Hi dearly beloveds,

I realized that though this blog is about Jesus as our Shepherd, i've not had any post on Jesus as our Shepherd! Haha... Well ok, here it is.

I was thinking to myself, we've always known Jesus as our Good Shepherd. But what does Shepherd actually mean in its original Hebrew word?

Whipped out the E-Sword software and found out that "Shepherd" in Hebrew is "Ra'ah".


Oh yes, some background info. For every alphabet in the Hebrew language, there is a deeper meaning, a pictograph, just like the Chinese characters in the Chinese language. So the above pictographs of the individual alphabets of the word "Ra'ah", Resh-Ayin-Heh (read from right to left), has been illustrated above as Head-Eye-Grace (read from right to left).

To me, I see the intepretation as: "The Head(God/Jesus) sees you in Grace!" Hallelujah!

It's so wonderful to see how God has placed special importance in certain words for us to discover these gems. All these speak about His love for us and how much of His Grace He has extended to us via the finished work of Jesus Christ. His Grace is Eternal! We will never run out of it. But it is a daily drawing from Him. Manna is good for today only. We cannot store up yesterday's manna because it's not for today. (Exodus 16:20)

Oh yes, back to Jesus as our Good Shepherd...

Next was to look for the meaning of the word "Good" in the Greek New Testament. I find the Greek language is very expressive and has a certain depth that the English language cannot put across. So, the word "Good" in Greek is actually, "Kalos".


According to Thayer’s Definition "Kalos" means:

beautiful, handsome, excellent, eminent, choice, surpassing, precious.

So I see Jesus as ALL of "Kalos"! HE is beautiful, handsome, excellent, eminent, the Man of choice, surpassing all others and oh so precious to me.

Why then is Jesus so good? Let's look to the Gospels.

Luke 15:4-7
4 What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after that which is lost until he finds it?
5 And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.
6 And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost.
7 I say to you that likewise joy shall be in Heaven over one sinner who repents, more than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.

In verse 4, Jesus was actually asking a rhetorical question which points to Himself. I doubt that any normal shepherd would bother and risk leaving the 99 just to look for that 1 lost sheep; which probably by a certain time would have been dead in the wilderness devoured by some wild beast.

All Jesus was saying was, "I AM that good. I will look for you even though you are that 1 lost sheep amongst the many in my fold."

The first reaction that Jesus has when He's found you is to carry you on His magnificient shoulders, after all that lost walking you did for many days or years, He wants you to REST! He'll do the walking for you. While lifting you up on His shoulders, He's rejoicing! He's super duper HAPPY, elated, ecstatically overjoyed! How awesome is that? Then in verse 6, the moment He reaches home/Heaven, He calls for a party man! To celebrate your homecoming!

Heaven is overjoyed to have one lost sheep return home as compared to 99 self-righteous persons who don't need His saving Grace.

He who is our Good Shepherd ends up as the Perfect Sacrificial Lamb on the Cross of Calvary.

The Perfect One. Sinless, Blameless, put through the punishment for us all. His shed blood has redeemed us ALL for eternity.

Ephesians 1:7
In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of HIS grace;

You see the word redemption in Greek is "apolutrōsis".
Which by Thayer's definition is:
1) a releasing effected by payment of ransom
1a) redemption, deliverance
1b) liberation procured by the payment of a ransom

The Blood of Jesus has bought us ALL out of Sin! We no longer have Sin in us! Our Spirit no longer carries the burden of Sin, though the flesh may still be affected and influenced by the carnal nature of this earthly realm that we live in.

Through His shed blood, we have the forgiveness of sins, ACCORDING to the riches of HIS grace. Not yours, not mine. And God's Grace is everlasting and eternal! Our Salvation from Sin and all things carnal of this world has been bought at a price. A Heavenly price that cost God His dearest. His only begotten One.

Hebrews 5:9
And being perfected, He became the Author of eternal salvation to all those who obey/listen/hear Him,

You see, we can't lose our salvation. He IS our ETERNAL salvation! Forever! Hallelujah!

The reason I highlighted HEAR Him is that God speaks to us in the quietness of our hearts, in the solace of our loneliness; He is that voice of comfort, love, endearment and peace. He also speaks to us through our beloved friends and loved ones. Are we hearing Him in those moments? Sometimes we do, sometimes we don't. But praise be to God, He is ALWAYS there for you and I!

He is always there saying, "Son, I love you. No matter what, I love you. I gave my very own best for you. I'm always here even though sometimes you don't want me. I'm here, right here for you. I love you son."

Hallelujah. Praise the wonderful name of Jesus! He truly is my Good Shepherd. How about you? Do you see and embrace Jesus as your Good Shepherd?

He loves you. He wants to carry you on His shoulders. He knows you're burdened. He wants you to rest. Let Him do the walking while He sings for joy while carrying you.

God Bless all of you richly, abundantly, full of Grace, full of Favour, full of His Love.

Shalom to one & all,
Emmanuel