February18 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Matthew:12:22-37 BIND THE STRONG MAN - This passage seems to be more about the Holy Spirit than any one else. kjv@Acts:10:38 declares that Jesus was anointed fully with the Holy Spirit. Here He is saying that one strong proof of His kingdom is that the Holy Spirit casts out demons, He literally binds Satan and steals away the spoils of his house. Satan would cause division in his own kingdom if he were to do this. Men by trying to explain this as something other are in fact blaspheming the character and work of the Holy Spirit; the more serious forms of knowingly blaspheming the Spirit will not be forgiven. The logical conclusion is that the tree is either good or bad, no in between, proven by it's fruit. Judgment is given as much upon words and accusations such as these as any of our works. The faith of our Lord is in His anointing. His anointing is the Holy Spirit. Our consideration and respect for the person character and works of the Holy Spirit is of utmost importance to our salvation. Be careful then how you try to explain these things that He worked in Jesus and now the followers of Jesus away.
March8 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Matthew:16:13-20 WHOM AM I - The base context throughout is who Jesus is, not Peter, not the Church, everything is His, God is unchanged about not being a respecter of persons. God has revealed who Jesus is first hand to the disciples for whom Peter is often spokesman, they in turn at this point are to tell no man. The label Messiah/Christ unfortunately has a much more corrupted political meaning outside the group than Jesus wishes to draw attention to at this time. They are the very first, there was no one other to tell/reveal it to them, in this respect they are truly blessed. The foundation He has built already in them through revelation knowledge and in person witness/testimony is the Rock that He will continue to build His Church upon. The Rock is who Jesus is. The keys for Peter are the same keys as to any gospel believer/evangelist, abiding in the righteousness and knowledge of God and Son and applying all diligence toward becoming fruitful. With faith in the person of Jesus Christ and obedience to the will of Jesus Christ both heaven and earth mirror each other in the ability to bind and loose for the Kingdom sake. The faith of our Lord in who He is and what the Father is doing through Him towards us. It is the same faith He calls His gathered believers to hold and identify with. It is not to establish an intermediary papal system; it is a direct assembly/submission to Himself and His immediate Lordship alongside other like minded servants. Nothing, not even death, not even a papal version of itself, will prevail against this type of Christ infused church.
March15 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Matthew:18:15-20 THERE I AM IN THE MIDST - Within the flock there are things that can separate and drive members away. We have seen enticement/offense and then despising those gone astray and the effort made to regain them. Now we see internal trespass between two and the response to that trespass. Before either give the other up for lost there is a progression expected to include more and more witnesses to establish/settle the case. Plenty of opportunity is given for the one or both to work matters out civilly. Binding here is in the sense of legal agreement. If the two shall come to a mutually agreeable arrangement, Heaven and the Father will stand behind that; as agreement within the flock is most desired from above. It should be fairly natural for the two parties to desire/achieve this if both parties are sincere about moving forward in the name of their Lord. The picture of the flock very much describes the faith of our Lord. It is His flock, He is it's shepherd. The inner workings and resulting culture within the flock are therefore most important as it has the ability to keep souls away and drive souls out; and as this reflects directly upon His leadership. If we are truly gathered as a flock in His name then agreement amongst us, binding agreement, should be every man's pursuit and petition. If the offender or offended cannot abide by this then certainly He/they should be loosed from the flock at least until they fully repent from the hardness of their hearts. The offended party should then not despise the efforts of Christ and Christ's body to win the lost soul back else they become an offender as well.
March24 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Matthew:21:1-11 HOSANNA - kjv@Psalms:118:26 is where 'blessed is he' comes from. Hosanna is better defined as both kjv@Psalms:118:25 'save us now I beseech thee' and kjv@Psalms:118:26 'blessed is he' combined. In turn we must recall kjv@Psalms:118:27 as well 'bind the sacrifice' 'unto the horns of the alter'. If Jesus is aware of the quote that the crowd is chanting (we must assume that He does) then He would know the context of how He is to bless/save them and why it is that He has come; He is the sacrifice. kjv@Zechariah:9:9 is where the 'thy King cometh' comes from which has it's meaning continued in kjv@Zechariah:9:10 'shall speak peace to the gentiles' and 'dominion...to the ends of the earth'. While this is the time for riding the ass and colt in, this is not the time for the ends of the earth. Why not? He is to be bound to the alter first. The palm branches I believe are from the Feast of the Tabernacles, a harvest time remembrance of the Lord leading the captives out of Egypt. The symbolism is to deliverance from sin. This day's events are rich with meaning, but, He is the only one that really knows really what that meaning truly is. The faith of or Lord stands alone. Even the closest to Him know little of what He sees even at jubilant times such as these.
November5 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@John:5:1-15 WILT THOU BE MADE WHOLE - There are several points of interests in this passage. One, there is a great multitude of sick and diseased gathered at the pool, but Jesus is said to have gone to just one and then conveyed Himself away. Was it because of the Sabbath? Because of the number of years this man had suffered? Because of the hold this apparent non-biblical mythology had on the others? Could there be more for Jesus to achieve in His short stay than just the healing of all the sick? It is known that often times Jesus healed as many in a day as came to Him; some but not many on Sabbath. It is also known that healing does not guarantee belief toward salvation, the ultimate goal. Perhaps the answer is in what Jesus later said to the man "sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee". Could it be that healing indiscriminately for the sake of merely healing has it's unintended consequences? The immediate relief of oppression that results in the increases of sin which brings even greater sickness and disease? Who are these people that would believe in a angelic healing of only the first person into the water? Where in the Bible is there an account of a angelic healing of humans? Does not this angel mock the "respecter of no man" God Jehovah? People that believe in this pool angel and not the Son of the living God among us are exactly the type of person that would sin all the more upon their release. Maybe Jesus is sending a stern message to these people in the form of the message they are sending everyone else by their mythology. Two, Jesus did not mention the man's sin to him before healing him, nor did He mention his faith or forgiveness. The man was healed strictly by the command of Jesus. Jesus then made it a point to go back to the man and warn him against any further sin. We can not say that this particular long term impotency was a result of an earlier sin. We only know that something worse could come if he sins from here out. Third, the healing of a man thirty-eight years ill is of absolutely no interests to the Pharisees, only the movement of his mat on Sabbath. You could imagine their horror if eight hundred cripples had risen and taken up their mats. Fourth, this account is likely out of sequence meaning that John inserted it here to support his point previous or to come. If the previous, it is meant to go along with the difference in believing having seen verses believing it will be seen. The faith of our Lord is in merciful mercy, deliverance from the sin that binds all of us leading toward eternal salvation. There is more to His plan then spending our days by a pool waiting for the troubling of water, more than seventy five second place paraplegics having to be rescued from out the water, more than many rising and going home to do whatever it is they have coveted doing from their beds all this time, more than rebuking one man who has just been given back his life carrying his bed roll to who knows where. The plan is for life and that life is in Jesus.
November14 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@John:7:25-44 DIVISION - You would think that it would be a bad spot, a low point, a time to regroup and refocus. After all the ministry has been parked in Galilee, Jesus had said He wasn't going to come but then He shows up, now it seems like nothing He says is being understood as it is meant to be. People are guessing and wishing and falsifying and propagandizing and... you would think that the crusade is loosing it's traction. If the goal was to win everyone over immediately and the sign of success was all sides getting closer together/everyone coming nearer to believing, you'd be right. Immediate is not the goal however, nor is it within Jesus' lifetime. The hard thing to figure is that division must happen, division in this case is good, division means that the hold of the opposition is breaking apart at the seams. Allies are beginning to wonder if their leadership knows something that it is not telling. Agitators are having to brush up on their prophecy to defend their point. Common people are having to consider things that they had not to consider even days before. Division once started can self perpetuate and gain momentum. There definitely is change happening, early signs of movement, crackling sounds of granite rock in the foundations above and beneath. Rumors spread, tempers rise, neighbors more strongly differ. Jesus by nature is not divisive man, but the truth is when the heart of man for so long has been petrified in the opposite. If He didn't stand for the truth only peace we could say that He ministry has gotten off track. If He didn't stand for the eternal kingdom we could say that He is losing His chances of one here. If the task was to make everyone to get along well it is not working. The faith of our Lord is that before there comes the real peace and unity there must come the real division. The hearts of man must be challenged, they must be broken free from frigid ice that binds them, they must be transported into the warmth of light, they must be breathed into with the Spirit like rivers of living water. For them to have been in this death hold for so long it will take division first to get them out. The ministry is right on point.
December7 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@John:14:5-14 HE THAT BELIEVE ON ME - This passage ties together two concepts of great similarity and importance, what we believe in Jesus and what we know Jesus to be. As you see the disciples are still yet struggling with the knowing Jesus in the Father and the Father in Jesus, more so than say Martha, Mary or the bind man. All of this time with Him yet the way, the truth and the life are still unknown to them; the ones His future ministry truly relies. Then comes the believing Jesus even to the point where they will be able to do works similar to Jesus. It seems odd that today we take this to mean just miracles, the disciples had already performed miracles and been quite successful at it without fully believing. Works do not have to equal miracles, in fact works could tie back to the previous passage of loving one another in ways that totally glorify the Father. Greater works than these could tie into the numbers of "loving one anothers" and their depth considering that the human heart was unable to do this ahead of Jesus' work upon it. Let me ask you this, is the greater proof of Father in Son and Son in Father that we can make the sun return six hours back to it's noon position or that millions of hearts that were once at complete and inescapable enmity with God irreversibly set in the clutches of sin and death have been made to believe on the name of Jesus to salvation and gratefully spread His word to the four corners of earth to the glory of God? If we first set our eyes and feet upon doing this the greatest of works then we would know in those times when for the sake of those others nothing remaining will do but the miraculous that certainly Jesus would do anything asked in His name to glorify the Father, that it would be done. We tend to read through this passage in a frame of mind similar to the disbelieving disciples. Where is HE? Show us to HIM? Prove it? Jesus is instead saying I've shown you all along, it is all here and now, it is taking place, you've seen Me so you've seen HIM, know and believe it, go therefore, do what I have commanded you. The faith of our Lord is quite literally for the full fledged believing and the knowing of man. How far the heart must go from where it was to where He needs it to be to start. Some it may take three years down the same road seeing the same things, being gifted the same spiritual gifts, before they come to the place of starting to pull these things together into one whole. Others it takes thirty years. For some four painful days. Either way that is the journey the heart must take from here to there to the start. Believing and knowing and then works (obedience's) greater than these, that is His faith in us.
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