What is Love?

Hi dearly beloveds,

How loved are you by God? Does God's love for me require me to be in His servitude? Is His love for me contingent on my good deeds? Will He ever curse me should I be disobedient to Him?

I'm sure these are some very valid questions to some of us out there.

The answer we seek is the Cross of Calvary. Please watch the short music video first before reading on.

"I See Love" by Third Day, soundtrack of The Passion.

I truly see Love on that rugged cross.

Can God love you so much that He gave His very best to be punished in your place? Yes because He is God. And HE can because He is a God of love.
We can use a phrase from the world to describe this: Love is not love till you give it away.

Can you and I do the same to our own child? To our own beloved flesh and blood? To punish your beloved one for someone else's sin?

This love is so amazing and incomprehensible that Paul called it a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks.

1Corinthians 1:
22 For the Jews ask for a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom;
23 but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block, and to the Greeks foolishness.

We declare to the world that Jesus Christ was crucified and rose again on the 3rd day conquering death, satan and hell, rising victoriously for us!

All that God has done for us was summed up on the cross, ALL His love for us was summed up on the cross, ALL His forgiveness, ALL His mercy, ALL His judgment was summed up on the cross. I used the word was because now we're living in the IS of God. He IS our Refuge, He IS our Shelter, He IS our Hiding place, He IS our Healing, He IS our Provider, He IS our Prosperity, He IS our Righteousness, He IS our Holiness. We're now IN Christ. Whatever GOD IS so are we!!! Amen! Hallelujah!

Now, that is love isn't it? UNCONDITIONAL, IRREVOCABLE, ETERNAL.

ALL that GOD IS, IS us now, the believer in Christ Jesus. He paid His own price of Judgment on His beloved Jesus.

Blessed ones, now Rejoice!

Psalms 13:
5 But I have trusted in Your mercy; my heart shall rejoice in Your salvation(original Hebrew: Yeshua/Jesus).

Blessed is he who sees, blessed is he who hears.

Thank you Father that you hear me always! Father I rejoice in Your Yeshua!

Shalom Shalom,
Emmanuel

I am the First and the Last, I am He.

Hi dearly beloveds,

I've been praying over what would the next entry be for this blog. God said, "Look for me in between the lines."

So i did.

Pastor has been sharing a lot about Aleph-Tav down through the years. And i went back to the bible looking for the word "ET" or written in the Hebrew would be Aleph-Tav:
את

There's about 185 occurences of "ET" in the OT. Most of us know that Aleph-Tav represents Jesus because Jesus said in Revelation,

1:8 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.

And the original Hebrew equivalent is "I am Aleph-Tav."

So I searched on my e-sword for "first and last". The Lord led me to Isaiah 41:4 which makes both the mention of He is the first and the last and He is HE. And by the way this is the first mention in the bible about GOD being the first and the last and in the OT.

Isa 41:4 Who hath wrought and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I the LORD, the first, and with the last; I am he.

The first mention about GOD being the beginning and the end in the NT is in Revelation which is the verse above.

Interesting to note that Isaiah has 66 chapters and this represents the entire bible. So with this foreknowledge i looked up Mark which is the 41st book of the bible. Read up Mark Chapter 4 since the verse in Isaiah is 41:4, i took the 4 as a chapter.

Something absolutely cool and wonderful was shown to me by the Lord!

The ending part of Mark 4 was about the disciples and Jesus crossing the Sea of Galilee enroute to the Gadarenes before Jesus delivered the demoniac. So, anyway Jesus was sound asleep when the waves started beating the boat. The disciples of course got worried and asked the Lord, "Master, carest thou not that we perish?" (Mark 4:38)

Next moment Jesus got up, rebuked the wind and spoke to the sea, "SHALOM! Be still!"(Mark 4:39) The winds ceased and there was a mega calm.

Jesus then asked His disciples. "Why are ye so fearful? How is it that ye have no faith?" (v.40)

The best part was this, even though the disciples encountered God's working miracle power over the elements, they still could question who was Jesus!

Mark 4:41 And they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?

So where's their answer? Look to Isaiah 41:4 again, right at the end.

"... I the LORD, the first, and with the last; I am he."

Isn't it such a Hallelujah moment?! As the disciples questioned the Lord in the future, the answer has been given in the past by prophet Isaiah.

Also interesting to note is the uncanny mirror image of the chapter and verse numbers 41:4 & 4:41 respectively for Isaiah and Mark.

This is not all. Let's confirm whether Isaiah was really talking about Jesus. We now have to look at the original Hebrew:

ד מִי-פָעַל וְעָשָׂה, קֹרֵא הַדֹּרוֹת מֵרֹאשׁ: אֲנִי יְהוָה רִאשׁוֹן, וְאֶת-אַחֲרֹנִים אֲנִי-הוּא.
4 mî-fā‘al wə‘āśâ qōrē’ hadōrwōṯ mērō’š ’ănî yəhwâ ri’šwōn wə’eṯ-’aḥărōnîm ’ănî-hû’ (the original Hebrew will be read from right to left)

4 Who hath wrought and done it? He that called the generations from the beginning. I the LORD, the first, and with the last; I am he.

The highlighted in red Aleph-Tav there has the Strong's numbers of H853. And it has been losely translated into the English language as "and with" highlighted in bold above.

But even in the original Hebrew "ET"-
את is still not translatable into any fixed word.

But we know by the Word, that in Revelation 1:8, Jesus revealed Himself as the Alpha and Omega/Aleph-Tav.

So, we can read Isaiah 41:4 as "...I the LORD, the first (Aleph), (את) (Jesus/Yeshua) the last, I am he."

Hallelujah! It's all there!

You are the Beginning and the End. The author and finisher my faith.

Hebrews 12:2

Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Thank you Jesus! Thank you Lord that now even without me being in that boat with your disciples, I KNOW who You ARE!

I hope those of you that have read this will be greatly blessed by this entry.

You are greatly blessed, highly favoured and deeply loved!

Shalom,

Emmanuel.