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April16 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Matthew:26:47-56 THUS IT MUST BE - kjv@Acts:1:16 David prophesied about the betrayal by a friend/equal/guide kjv@Psalms:41:9 kjv@Psalms:55:12-15 and the crucification kjv@Psalms:22:1-31. All this kjv@Acts:2:23 by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God as Isaiah and others reported kjv@Isaiah:53:1-12. The faith of our Lord is in the Father and the pathway Divinely reported to Him through the prophets. Jesus places a very heavy emphasis on the prophets as should we. In modern times prophecy is uncommon and near silent dry hard ground. We lack to see it's former miraculous operation and necessity in revealing divine depth. Jesus' course was laid out before Him and well written for continuous direction and confirmation. He was out to fulfill it's every word. We should now know that we have the more sure word because of the more sure word of prophecy. We should know the tremendous arm/power of the Lord revealed in the fulfillment of the prophets report kjv@Isaiah:53:1. Modern spiritualism teaches that all things are within ones power, legions of angels can be called by us as well; yet we are taught power and prudence are two separate things. What is all important is obeying God's will, much of it revealed by the prophets, if true for our savior than surely for us.

April24 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Matthew:27:57-61 DISCIPLES - There are twelve men (now eleven) that we use the specific title Disciple for. There are many others even in high places, even secretive that we use the more general term disciple for as well. Three are mentioned early on at the tomb burying Jesus (A forth Nicodemus reported by John). The two men in particular are members of the Sanhedrin and are thereby given consent for burial and possession of the body by Pilate. Joseph is elsewhere described as a counselor, the word having direct ties to this governing body. Pilate may have seen these men as "non consenting" to the crucification but, surely not as pupils of the convicts' teachings. Had the major disciples attempted such they would have either been detained to squelch any possible uprising or they would have brought intense criticism as to the validity of the burial should something happen to the body under his watch. In these two men Pilate would find a comfortable political solution to the awkward/crucial issue of what to do with the body. These disciples are very important to birth and history of the church, as much as any other even though they were somewhat hidden away. There is very little that we have to go on to know how much of this Jesus had prepared for or how much that he had left to come about organically or by the Spirit. My guess would be all of the above. The more obvious evidence is that He had the faith to leave it to capable hands after His departure. The faith of our Lord is in the ability of His Father and His Holy Spirit. It is in peoples and places we may not have considered friendly to our cause. It is in the emotional but thoughtful obedience and effort of some loving women fearless that would attend to Him. It is in peoples two thousand years still having access to their testimonies that will come to believe. It is in a stone being rolling away, human eyes peeking in to see an Angel sitting at the foot of uninhabited burial linens and a folded napkin. It is in four women running back to the house to tell the others in the dawn's early light. Our Lord's faith is most supreme!

April27 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Matthew:28:11-15 COMMONLY REPORTED - It may illustrative of what the truth is up against all of the time. The people most important outside the actual story know only what is reported. Two parties may be in cahoots together and put a third party to blame. It is reasonably cheap when you are in a position of power to disregard the facts and bend the will of the people. Who is going to know? Some one from within these two groups might confess at some point (could have in this case) but, as long as the majority holds to the deception suspicion can be redirected. How much of this has happened in the past? Who is to say; how deep into this do you really want to go? How much of this is happening now? How much of what we know to be true is rather a cover up or deception? It would drive one crazy with the manifold possibilities and puzzling conspiracies and produce nothing but isolation and seething contempt in general (the opposite of love). One would likely still be left no closer to the actual truth for having pursued this course minus Christ as well. This is the chaos surrounding truth and who is the author of chaos? Man wanted to be like gods knowing good and evil? Well here it is to know one of the vicious clinging tentacles of evil's reach, the ease at which truth/facts/evidences can be spun and commonly misreported. The faith of our Lord is fully aware of this and yet does not get side tracked by attempting to combat these tendencies directly; they are what they are. Instead, it must be felt that by sticking to the presentation of the full gospel light that these hidden things of darkness eventually will be exposed. And who is the author of such singular faith?

May24 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Mark:6:30-44 GIVE YE THEM TO EAT - It is not just that Jesus took what the Disciples were able to come up with and make it to feed five thousand plus, it was when and why He did it. The Disciples had just returned from their first paired solo excursions and reported everything that had happened. Imagine the testimonies of these men! But, they were tired and needed rest. Yet five thousand other men (not counting women and children) had followed them out to the rest sight. Imagine the disappointment of these men. Did they get their rest? Little energy and barely enough food to feed themselves, what they did have Jesus was able to make more than enough for everybody. Yes. At the point where they thought they had the power to do anything settling quickly to the point of fatigue and human impossiblility, Jesus shows them who the Master still is. His strength is in divine compassion; compassion for these men, compassion for these shepherd-less crowds, compassion for fallen mankind. Divine compassion continually invigorates and supplies. The faith of our Lord is that these many men will experience this divine love from Him and come to accept the terms of it. It is not their love nor power, it is His, it is His Father's, it is the Spirit's. It is there to taste of, to sustain us, to replenish us, to be filled of, to rest assured of/in. We gather together and offer up what little we have collectively, He makes it miraculously all sufficient. Is there rest for the weary disciple and shepherd-less? Yes, in His compassion! GIVE YE THEM TO EAT.

June6 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Mark:9:42-50 LITTLE ONES THAT BELIEVE IN ME - Jesus, not to be distracted, continues with child in arm "And" or furthermore. We were talking service over perceived rank, we continue one step further with anyone with rank that scandalizes/entraps to trip or stumble/entices to sin or apostasy anyone lesser, in this case a vulnerable believer. The occasion would be for a priest, a teacher, a professor, a counselor, an officer or one impersonating one, a parent grandparent or immediate relative or family friend, anyone with the implied suggestion of authority over the youth/pupil/patient/client/parishioner up to and including king or president. The daily news is filled with cases where authority has been occasion for wicked sin and perversion. How much more goes un-reported? The classrooms are filled with persuasive coercion and acidic secular proselytization. The courts and prisons are filled with horrific domestic abuses. Worst of all the Church itself for some has come to symbolize molestation and pedophilia of the most egregious offense of authority. Where is the service to God? Jesus makes absolutely clear what His judgment will be of these people; He repeats it five times worms and hell fire. For those who argue for God's unconditional compassion it needs to be understood where compassion has to surely end in order to be compassion at all. If you think about all it's possible forms, the tentacles reach everywhere. It indeed would be better that before offending the offender would cut or pluck the body part off, but, they won't. That the disease has affected the Church which Jesus set out not to be authoritative in this sense shows how far these tentacles can reach. In face of this we that remain are to have salt ourselves and peace one with another. The faith of our Lord knows the necessity of certain levels of authority but, teaches without distraction against it's selfish propagations and abuses. It is clearly a fault and tendency of all human nature, however the Church must particularly be on the guard for such offenses and mark out each and every offender without tolerance nor delay.

June24 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Mark:13:32-37 TAKE HEED, WATCH AND PRAY - Sleeping seems to be the natural gravity spiritually; if nothing else you will be doing this. Something must be done to counter and reverse this momentum/tendency. The Son of man has left and given authority to His servants, this does not appear be enough. He has given His work to every man and that doesn't appear to be enough. He has commanded the porter to watch and that doesn't seem to do the trick. If the Lord had not tarried so long there would have been less chance at sleeping so long but, there would not have been the chance to be awakened as long either. So if the answer is for each man/all men to watch and to pray, what is it that each man/all men should be praying? What is it that he/they should be watching for? His coming. Consciousness. Alertness. Awakening. Being lead away from the temptation to sleep. Having the strength to persevere through it. To know the riches of His inheritance is, what is the hope of His glory. Think of all the times Paul and Peter shared what they were praying for us and how much of it had to do with the Lord's coming and what that could mean to us today. Few around you today are awakened, many are in need of constant re-awakening, if you are going to be like them you are going to be asleep just the same. You are likely to suffer plenty abuse from those who you try to awaken. That doesn't mean that you settle back to sleep. It is important that the Father approached the time frame of the end secretly. It says a lot about the trust and faithful obedience of our Lord and the faith of our biblical forefathers. The faith of our Lord knows the heart of man and how best to move it, knows that there will be only a certain amount of time before the end (great beginning), knows to trust the Father in the exact timing. It all works out in glorious fashion!

August26 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Luke:11:14-28 WITH THE FINGER OF GOD - A lot is being said here by both sides. It is not a casual "I wonder how He does that" statement, it is a definitive and hardened accusation. Likewise, Jesus is responding in no uncertain terms that if this is the finger of God (and using even simple logic there is a great possibility), you have just blasphemed the work (the finger) of the Holy Spirit and the kingdom which stands before you. It is one thing to have doubts. It is one thing to be skeptical. It is another thing to throw down against God's Son and the Holy Spirit. Then extra insight is given to the disciples as to the inner workings of demons, that it requires one stronger than the strongest demons to cast them out and to keep them out; otherwise they return later in much larger numbers. Recall the times as with Mary Magdeline multiple (7) demons (even Legions) were cast out at once by Jesus. He is saying that not only is He strong enough to cast out any number of demons, He is more than strong enough to keep the increasing numbers out should the person allow Him to. This further information and self declaration is even more convincing to me than the "house divided falls" logic. Demons apparently have no rest in or out. They can bide their remaining time nervously tormenting a human like parasites, that is the closest the can come to striking back, but they know full well of the torment just ahead for them. The faith of our Lord can be stated in this passage as "he that is with Me and he that is against, he that gathers with Me and he that scattereth"; Two types of people as He observes it, no middle road. The others took a big step today declaring for public consumption the work of the Kingdom as the "lord of the flies/dung" doing. They are now against Him and seeking to scatter His supporters. They are perhaps more dangerous than the demons themselves. Even among His supporters, if all you get from this discourse is a polite or feminist appreciation for the womb that bore Jesus, you have missed a huge spiritual point.

October11 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Luke:22:39-46 THAT YE ENTER NOT - There was not any hiding or deception. Jesus went to where He always went. Where He knew He would be found. From other accounts we know that He left Himself little defense dividing His disciples eight and three, telling the three to pray. What was the temptation that they were supposed to pray over? Was it the temptation to try and defend Him? Was it the temptation to try and follow Him to His trials? Was it the temptation to try and disguise themselves amongst the crowd where they would be caught in the position of having to deny Him for their own safety? Is this what would open the door to Satan sifting Peter? There are many temptations on the road ahead for these men. Without knowing what one was likely to face how would one go about praying over their temptations? Like the Lord's model prayer one would fill their minds and hearts with the righteousness of God and His kingdom, submit oneself to His will, surrender ones earthly cares asking for His provision and deliverance, offer repentance and seek forgiveness, acknowledge the essential attributes of God, pray this again as the corporate "us". Not everyone did this. Apparently the wrestling over who was the greatest had worn them all out. Jesus is going through something that we cannot explain. We like to focus on His petition, but what we should be focusing on physical agony that He is under even after being supported by an angel. What strength did the angel give? Probably confirmation of the Father's answer to the petition, that this was indeed the Father's will. This extreme pressing of Jesus to the point of blood coming through the pores you will note is happening before Jesus is placed into anyone else's custody. The disciples may be vaguely aware of this sudden change, they are sleeping for sorrow. The temptation may be to hide in sorrowful sleep from what is happening, that it is by the Father's hand, that it is happening before anything other, to be overcome with the developing situation and resort to one's own carnal resources to hold it off. The faith of our Lord steps outside of it's agony for the moment to check on the others and finds them unconscious. He exhorts them once again to pray for themselves.

October18 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Luke:23:50-56 BEGGED THE BODY - There is some guess work here to be done as to the faith of Jesus in the execution of this burial matter. One, all the arrangements could have been left in the hands of the Holy Spirit. Joseph and Nicodemus did as they were led of the Holy Spirit. Two, we had mentioned previously with securing the donkey on Palm Sunday and or the upper room at passover that Jesus easily could have made arrangements himself for these matters apart from the disciples. Knowing these two men He could have asked them to do this. Three, the men could have done this of their own volition seeing that other arrangements (or the lack of) were unsatisfactory. In this case the Holy Spirit would have supported their ambition. Four, it may have been the combination of any or all of these things that the Holy Spirit used to perform the necessary task. To one extent it wouldn't have mattered who or where that they buried him, thirty feet of cement, and He still would have come out. It could have been the vaults at Fort Knox with an entire division of Marines guarding it, it was still going to happen. What would be important is for more than just a few followers to have witnessed it in order to testify of it and I am sure that the Spirit would have made sure of that. It may even be better for the critics to know that there wasn't any set up to this alleged magic trick, that it happened quite organically. In this regard we may not fully know the faith of our Lord as to the means, I do not know of any prophecy prescribing how this played out, we can however know His faith in the outcome and results.

October28 @ @ rRandyP comments: FaithOfJesus *John:1:2-11 MINE HOUR IS NOT YET - There seems to me to be a bit of a compromise made by Jesus here to His mother Mary. He proceeds with her request, but only a very limited number of the servers and of course the six disciples know what has occurred. Somewhere between the time that the servant drew the tasters glass and the taster tasting it, the water became a good wine. There are six hand washing water pots, there are six disciples, the six are by Jesus' request topped off to the brim. A measure was measured off, transported out into the feast and by the time tasted by the wedding foreman made into excellent vintage. How much wine is not mentioned. As it was toward the end of the feast there would be no need for twenty some gallons. Jesus will use the symbolism of a wedding plenty to describe His kingdom and it's guests. The true noble guests will refuse to come, yet here we see out from the vessels of their dirty purification water a miraculous transformation occurring somewhere between Christ's blessing and the foreman's sampling into a most excellent wine. The disciples had not seen a miracle up till now, yet they had followed. Mary must have had some inkling that Jesus could perform something perhaps feeling that the seven other guests of her party had taxed the supply to begin with. It was not Jesus' time publicly for miracles. He used the moment however as an occasion to draw a big spiritual picture for His disciples. It is a picture of their own coming transformation. The faith of our Lord knows (or patiently waits for the sign) of it's time and place and mission. He is in a gathering and initial establishing stage at present. He is working with the ceremonial refuse of the run away reprobate religious preparing a marvelous work.

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.

November23 @ @ rRandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@John:10:1-21 BUT THE SHEEP DID NOT HEAR THEM - There are many revealing things spoken in this passage that might have gone unseen. First, for there to be a door to enter there has to be a wall or partition preventing entry elsewhere. What is this partition that would make there to be only one way in? God's will? His judgment? It says that there are those that would climb up it other ways, avoid the door, put themselves above His judgment, but it does not say that these others are making it. There are those entering in and that He is leading out called by name that know His voice. They will not follow a strangers voice and will not hear them. There is another fold that He mentions, however the two folds are make one; the same door, the same calling, the same recognition of voice. Note also that there is a porter at the door to open it. Even if one came to the gate the porter (Holy Ghost) would have to let one in. It is interesting that the old prophets (Isaiah Ezekiel etc) referred to the religious leadership of their day as shepherds. These prophetic references would mean something to the Pharisees. Jesus referred to His time as being shepherd-less. Something has happened between then and then removing the former corrupt shepherds. If these men now are the hirelings there is another to whom they are hired and to whom they are being scared off deserting their posts; "He" would be the one who comes to steal/kill destroy. "He (The Thief)" in context is likely to come in the form of the chief priests and/or the political structures who are not deserting yet, that desire Jesus dead. Note that there are the true sheep, the ones for whom the Shepherd gave His life and took it back again that know His voice and follow. The partition is of little consequence to them as it is, they freely follow where He leads. The faith of our Lord is knowledgeable of a very complex web of story lines strung together moving against Him with increasing energy. He remains certain however of what this means and what it will mean to His sheep fold. Are we aware and certain?