Good grief! Does God really grieve us?

Hi dearly beloveds,

Below is a comment I gave on a friend's blog with regards to Lamentations 3:32,

"But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies."

and other stuff relating to it.

Enjoy and be blessed!

---------------------------

Hi there,

You've quoted some really good verses to help someone who is in grief. I did notice you quoted Lamentations.
It is ok to quote verses such as these but we need to know the context of the verses.

Especially Lamentations 3:32:
"Though He brings grief, He also shows compassion according to the greatness of his unfailing love."

This verse can be very misleading for many believers. It seems from the onset that God Himself will bring you grief, then all of a sudden He will show His compassion and love. This verse is not in line with New Testament truth because the context of the entire book of Lamentations is not directed to the New Testament believer.

The grief that the author(tradtionally thought to be Prophet Jeremiah) of this book was talking about was the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians led by King Nebuchadnezzar. (verse ref. Jeremiah 39:1-18)

Jeremiah saw that the idolatry of the people of Israel will cause the nation to fall. This was the main theme of the Book of Jeremiah from Chapter 1 all the way to Chapter 39 when Jerusalem is finally conquered by the King of Babylon.

Because the people of Israel have forsaken their God/YHVH and turned to idolatry, God could not afford His protection for them (therefore in the original Hebrew it is in a permissive tense-allowing something to happen but not coming from the person himself. In this case, God has no grief to give His people because there's no grief in Heaven, so the grief was allowed to come on the people of Israel through an external source, the Babylonians).

We can rephrase Lamentations 3:32 if read in the original Hebrew as:
"Because of that situation(Israel's idolatry), affliction and grief happened(when God could not place His protection because He is righteous). Though that happened, His compassionate love still comes in abundance because of His goodness and faithfulness.

With this in light, we can see that the Babylonians took quite a while before they conquered Jerusalem because the Lord is slow to anger. (Psalms 103:8 The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and rich in mercy.)

We must also understand that this is still in the Old Covenant where God has to mete out His judgment by allowing calamity to fall on the unjust. God is a just God, He has to judge even His own people, if not, He is an unfair God. But God is ALSO a SAVING God.
Jeremiah 50 talks about God destroying Babylon because Babylon has oppressed His people and He will also forget their sins against Him!

Jeremiah 50:18-20;
18 So the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says this: Behold, I will punish the king of Babylon and his land, as I have punished the king of Assyria.
19 And I will again bring Israel to his home, and he shall feed on Carmel and Bashan, and his soul shall be satisfied on Mount Ephraim and Gilead.
20 In those days, and at that time, says the LORD, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and it shall not be found; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found; for I will pardon those whom I leave as a remnant.

But we're now in the NEW covenant where our Peace is paid in the holy blood of God, Jesus Christ Himself. There WILL no longer be any grief coming from God to the New covenant believer now.

Why? Just as you have quoted, John 14:27,

Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

So, in order for us to appreciate ALL His treasures in His Word, be it in the Old Testament or New Testament, we have to put on a very special contact lens.
I call this lens the JESUS LENS. Everything that we read in the bible have to be filtered and seen through the Jesus lens, and the Jesus lens represents the finished work of Christ Jesus on the cross, His Victory over sin, death and of course, satan.

Because God paid the eternal and most precious price by giving Jesus up to be punished in our place, we will NEVER be punished by God ever again. Not even a single dot.

Also, the LORD does not abandon us at all. Never for a single moment, even though in our circumstances we "feel" like He did.

How we feel does not affect the Truth. A good illustration i gave to a friend was this:
When i switch on the light of my room, the room will light up, so will i. But for that moment, I can have a range of emotions. Maybe I was feeling sad because i quarrelled with my wife, or I’m still angry at that stupid driver just now, or I'm depressed from a lousy day at work etc.
But the truth of the matter is that no matter how I’m "feeling" the Light IS still shining on me! That's how it is concerning God's love for you.

So we can be rest assured when Paul quoted in the book of:
Hebrews 13:5
...For He Himself has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you."

It is a definite Yes & Amen! Paul was actually quoting what God told Moses in Deuteronomy 31:6 before the Israelites entered Canaan to fight for their land.
Deuteronomy 31:6
Be strong and of a good courage. Do not fear nor be afraid of them. For the LORD your God is He who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you.

God also spoke to Joshua who took over Moses' leadership after his death just prior to entering Canaan, Joshua 1:5;

No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you.

Be of good cheer! Moses and Joshua were in the Old covenant yet they still received this eternal promise from God. What more us? Born in again in the royal blood of Jesus, Son of the most High!

Hallelujah! Praise the LORD. : )

I hope this comment has blessed you in some way.

You are the righteousness of God in Christ! : )

Shalom shalom.

Your Brother in Christ,
Emmanuel

As we celebrate Jesus (Xmas) Day...

Hi all!

Christmas is a time of cheer, good tidings and festivities but more importantly it is a day that we remember that God loved us so, so much He gave Jesus to the world.

John 3:16

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
John 3:17

For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

Important thing here is also to know that God is not a condemning God, neither should His people be. We are all saved in His name. With that we receive His Truth & Grace.

John 1:17

For the Law came through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

It is in a season where the world says it is better to give than to receive, but in God's economy, it is better to receive first than give. Receive His love, His abundant blessings into our lives, receive His healing, receive His prosperity and of course most importantly before all this, we receive His salvation for the forgiveness of our sins and iniquities.

In the light of this, then, when we give, we will have a revelation of the Father's loving giving heart. We give to be a blessing to others, we give so that our friends, family and even our enemies will see the Light of God's love and the saving grace of Yeshua/Jesus.

Speaking of Light, today is actually the 5th day of Hanukkah, a Jewish festival also called, Festival of Lights or in the New Testament it is mentioned as the Feast of Dedication.

John 10:22

And the Feast of Dedication took place at Jerusalem, and it was winter.

Many Christians have been studying the Jewish Calendar and Feasts and know that Jesus/Yeshua wasn't really born on 25th Dec. Most likely He was conceived during this time of Hanukkah. The Light of the world being conceived during the Festival of Lights. Yeshua was most likely born on the 15th of Tishri, which is the first day of the Feast of Tabernacles.

John 1:14

And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

The original Greek word for dwelt here is σκηνόω "skenoo", which explained by Thayer's Definition as:

1) to fix one’s tabernacle, have one’s tabernacle, abide (or live) in a tabernacle (or tent), tabernacle
2) to dwell

The verse before speaks of Jesus not being born of blood or flesh nor the will of man but of God. I'm sure this verse is a direct reference to Yeshua being born on Tabernacles.

You can read a bit more on the dates and chronology here http://www.messianic.com/articles/dates.htm

There are many other articles on the Birthday of Yeshua but i find this article explains it the clearest. Though the author has some strong comments about the Roman Catholic Church and even the Christian Church (Ekklesia) in general, we can learn from the author's research here. The author is a Messianic Jew, meaning a Jew who has received the revelation of Yeshua as his personal Savior.

There will be many of our friends or other people out there who might challenge the Christian to say that we're celebrating a pagan festival, to celebrate the pagan god of Sol-Invictus, we can safely say NO. Though Yeshua's original B'day is during Tabernacles/approx. Sept, it does not stop the Christian believer in celebrating Jesus/Yeshua anytime of the year! So what if Dec 25th is a pagan festival day? We remember Jesus! You know how your friends and family can always give you a belated birthday wish right? Why can't we do that for our Savior? In fact we can celebrate Him anytime we want! Because we have a GOD that can turn ANY circumstances around for the good!

Romans 8:28

And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

And ALL believers in Christ Jesus are called according to His purpose. Amen!

Be greatly blessed in this season. I pray that you receive YHVH's abundant Grace & Favour for your coming year of 2009! He has already given it ALL! Receive. Amen.

Shalom to one & all,

Emmanuel

God loves you... & only you.

Hi dearly beloveds,

Most of us losely use the term "God loves you", but can you truly say "God loves me" and me personally?

God loves you beyond condition. There's NO conditions to receiving His love. As you love your mother, your father, your child, God loves you more than that!

I recently gave a friend of mine an illustration, that if she and her child was taken hostage, and the kidnapper was pointing a gun and about to shoot her child, what would she do? What would i do? What would YOU do? Instinctively we would give up our own lives to save our darling child. That is what YHVH did. The God of the Universe did just that for you and I. He gave up His own life as Jesus/Yeshua for you and me. The beauty here is this, God the Father came as Jesus and Jesus is also Son of God. Jesus is Father & Son together. Jesus said this in John 14:9-11

9 Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?
10 Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.
11 Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works' sake.

God in one instant showed His double portion love for you. He gave Himself as Father God to be in a fleshly man to take your sins, my sins and be punished on His body and at the same time giving His Son Jesus Christ in the flesh to take His wrath, the wrath of God on the Cross of Calvary. Why? For what? He gave His Son so that we, His creation, flesh made from the dust of the earth can become His children! Paul says this in Galatians 3:26-29

26 For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.
27 For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.
29 And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.

Above and beyond becoming God's children, we automatically, in the spirit man become Abraham's seed and become Abraham's heirs according to what God has promised Abraham for his descendants! Hallelujah! YHVH the God of the universe, now is your Father, Abba, Daddy. You are so dear to Him. So am I. So is the rest of the world who can believe that God is a saving God. God is a God of salvation. He WILL save you from wherever you are. That's His promise paid in blood, the final sin atonement, blood sacrifice on the altar. Paid through Yeshua/Salvation. How can it not be more obvious than that? God named His only begotten One, Salvation - Yeshua. YHVH IS Salvation.

The problems that you are having? It has already been Saved! By Him! Don't feel loved? Look to Him, the Sacrificial Lamb. Spotless, blameless. To take all that is burdening you, condemning you, the guilt that's been eating you from inside, ALL that has been paid for! You are now the redeemed of the LORD!

Psalms 107:

2 Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy;

He has redeemed you from the defeat in your life to a place of Victory!

So what kind of Victory do we have, do YOU have? 1 Corinthians 15:

54 So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.
55 O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?

56 The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.
57 But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Death in ALL areas of your life has now been swallowed up by Victory. Our Spirit is now Eternal. We no longer die in the spirit, we also have victory over our flesh, sickness and disease dies in the name of Jesus!

Now we know that death's sting is sin, and the venom of sin is the law! So be free from the laws of do's and don'ts, be free from atoning your sins by yourself, be free from religiosity, receive the Bread of Life. In Him we receive Life and Life more abundantly.

Jesus Bread of Life

John 6:
33 For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world.
34 Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread.
35 And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.

Life more abundantly
John 10:10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

Receive your overpayment of love today. He wants YOU to call His own. You are loved as His child, the God of this universe. He numbers the very hairs on your head. Mine too. Jesus said this,

Luke 12:7 But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows.

God values you. You are not His servant, you are His child. We serve Him out of the abundance of His love, not serve Him to get blessed by Him.

So my friend out there, receive His abundance of Love, Grace & Mercy.

Shalom,

Emmanuel

While You Were Sleeping... A Christmas Praise.

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.

The Good, The Bad & The Dung...

Hi dearly beloveds,

Recently i was struggling with my new career. Well not recently, it's been months already. I left a profession that i was good at for the past 7 years. Did well, earned decent money, but somehow or rather deep down inside i knew it was something i couldn't do long term. Made a switch to another career path that was drastically different. I did really well for the first 9 months or so, then i had a huge performance slump. And man, was this a really long slump. Started in Feb this year and finally recovering from it now, which is already October.

All this while i was thinking of quitting and going back to what i was really good at. And all this while, ALL the people around me that really loved me told me to stay, hang on and not quit 'cos i have a bright and promising future in this career. But deep down inside i didn't really believe it. Still trying to struggle through and psyching myself up to do better, to look for that lost fighting spirit that i always had. That gung-ho spirit, that leadership training that i had during my national service, that mental focus that i acquired through martial arts training, basically all the positive life experiences that i've accumulated all these years. But somehow or rather all these didn't help.

THEN, the answer to my problems came when my boss asked me out for lunch and blessed me with a fantastic treat at his club. Well, the answer isn't the food of course but the conversation that transpired. I was sharing with him that the reason i felt lousy about myself was that i couldn't find that same fighting spirit, gung-ho-ness, mental focus and whatever else that i had to excel in my previous occupation and translate that to the new career that i had. And this really bugged me and made me feel lousy, worthless and just feel like giving up.

He asked one question that rocked my faculties and initially i didn't really understand what he was saying. He said, "Is that a bad thing?" Meaning me losing all my positive abilities that i had that brought me success previously. Initially i was like, yeah! of course that's a bad thing! It affects everything in my life! Then he reminded of Paul. Paul was a Pharisee. The best of them. Trained in all the ways of the Law. Trained to be the elite. Pushed to the limit where he became a persecutor/murderer of Christians. But we all know what happened to Saul right? Saul became Paul. The persecutor to the preacher!

Paul after being born again in Christ became a radically new person! He was not the same person anymore. He was transformed inwardly and outwardly. And this is what Paul said about all his previous training and know how...

Phillipians 3:

4... If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so:

5 circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee;

6 concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.

7 But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ.

8 Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as dung, that I may gain Christ

This inward revelation that Paul had about being born again gave me new meaning to 2 Corinthians 5:17

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

What it means for me now being born again in Christ is that ALL of me that WAS me, GOOD or BAD has passed away. God is setting me up for bigger blessings, better things, a newer toolbox of skills. It is only when we have lost all our strength that His strength is perfected in us. All our self will, self effort, self-motivation and know-how are like dung. All our previous good experiences, good knowledge, intensive training are also like dung. Because eating from the Tree of the knowledge of Good & Evil brings death, but Life flows when when we eat from the Tree of Life! Behold Jesus and what He has done. Behold Him who have made ALL thing new!

I'm so blessed to have a boss that not only can help me build a career but also lead me spiritually to higher grounds.

I hope this little sharing here can bless you for your time of need.

God bless, be in His Shalom,

Emmanuel.