God with us

Today I would like to share something I read from Bill Gothard B.A., M.A., Ph.D.Institute in Basic Life Principles Oak Brook, Illinois. Bill is founder and president of the Institute in Basic Life Principles, a nonprofit corporation dedicated to serving youth and families through God-ordained leaders.

After 15 years of working with inner-city gangs, church youth groups, high school clubs, youth camps, and families in crisis, Bill wrote his master’s thesis on a youth program that eventually led to seven Biblical, non-optional principles of life which, when followed, will result in harmonious relationships in all areas of life.

These principles are based on the commands of Christ and have now been taught for more than 40 years in seminars around the world. Millions of people have found lasting help from this 32-hour seminar. Today, third-generation families continue to report life-changing transformations from the truths they learned at Basic Seminars.

As a result of applying the principles taught in these seminars to practical needs, the Institute has been able to serve public schools, juvenile court systems, prisons, and business and community leaders. It has become an international organization with training centers in the United States and other countries.

The work of the Institute involves a home-education program, a law school, an accelerated learning program, and over 60 other ministries, including juvenile rehabilitation programs, two orphanages, and the Air Land Emergency Resource Team (ALERT).

Bill Gothard received his B.A. (1957) and M.A. (1961) degrees from Wheaton College and, a Ph.D. (2004) degree from Louisiana Baptist University.

Bill has a daily e-mail program he calls Daily Sucess and this is an excerpt from today's e-mail:

As the Body of Christ, we are a corporate temple of God. Paul states, “Ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (II Corinthians 6:16). Furthermore, every believer is also an individual temple. To the individual, Paul writes, “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” (I Corinthians 3:16).

As a living temple of God, a believer’s life is to be characterized by prayer. The same type of worship that was conducted in the Temple can now be carried out in the temples of our bodies.
In the days of the Temple on Mount Zion, the worshipers were to enter His gates with thanksgiving and enter His courts with praise. (See Psalm 100:4.) Today we are to speak to ourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in our hearts to the Lord. (See Ephesians 5:19.)

Before entering the holy place, the people offered their sacrifices and washed their hands at the laver by the door. We are to offer the sacrifices of praise and cleanse our hands and purify our hearts as we draw near to God. (See Hebrews 13:15 and James 4:8.)

Inside the holy place were three items: the candlesticks, which represented the light of God’s Word; the showbread, which represented the living Word of God; and the continual incense, which represented the day-and-night prayers of believers.

The most holy place contained the Ark of the Covenant. Only the high priest was allowed to enter this part of the Temple. Now, as believers, we can come boldly to God’s throne of grace because of the blood sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. (See Hebrews 4:16.)

Every believer has the glorious liberty to worship: “Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God … in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord …” (Ephesians 2:19–21). Let’s purpose to be a dynamic house of prayer for God!

Wow! Imagine, we are the temple of the Holy Spirit! God dwells in us corporately and individually. Individually in measure and corporately without measure. Together, we are the body of Christ. The manifestation of God on the earth. We are the salt. We are the light. Because He lives so do we.

My desire today is to apply faith to the Word of God as it relates to this teaching! That I may apprehend that for which I was apprehended of God!

You can get Dr. Gothard's "Daily Success" teaching for yourself by going to: http://iblp.org/iblp/discipleship/dailysuccess/

Grace and Peace,

Ed

http://www.urcs.blogspot.com/

Sabbath

The Sabbath, a day of rest unto the Lord. Many religions and denominations of those religions celebrate the Sabbath on either a Saturday or a Sunday. I have even heard people debate over which is correct. Is the day the issue or what then is the issue?

Gen 2:3
So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation. See, it doesn't say Saturday or Sunday in fact at this point the days have not even been named. Now look at this next scripture.

2 Pet 3:8
But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. And, Gal.4:10 says, You observe days and months and seasons and years! Paul is discussing how we need to get at the root of our spirituality not the form or rituals.

For example, we celebrate ones birth on their birthday. Really we should be giving the gifts and accolades to that person's parents who nurtured them from birth. We celebrate the 4th of July here in America as it commemorates our Independence from England, but isn't our freedom worth more than a day of recognition or celebration? Christians celebrate Christmas and Easter at times of the year that are actually not accurate with the birth or resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

So then what is God teaching us when He says in Exodus 20:8-11, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

God was foreshadowing a day that would come that would be the fulfillment of the Sabbath. The day we live in. The seventh day. If we account time as beginning with Adam and the historical account of the Bible we are in the seventh year, 7,000 years since the fall of Adam. 5,000 before Christ and 2,000 years since His coming. A day of rest. Check this out!

Hebrews 4:1 Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. 2 For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened. 3 For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said,
 “ As I swore in my wrath,
‘ They shall not enter my rest,’ ”
although his works were finished from the foundation of the world. 4 For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way:  “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.” 5 And again in this passage he said,
“ They shall not enter my rest.”
6 Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, 7 again he appoints a certain day, “Today,” saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted,
 “ Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts.”
8 For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. 9 So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, 10 for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.
11 Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.

The heart of this commandment is that we must honor the Sabbath with a daily understanding of the rest that Christ purchased for us. Look at Matt:11:28-30

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Jesus Is Lord of the Sabbath! Let's Worship Him on Saturday, Sunday and everyday! Let's enter into the rest that He has provided. Just as the Father provided the Heavens and the Earth complete and without error so has the Father provided a place for us in Christ that is secure, complete and perfect. Let us rest in the finished work of Christ and celebrate together corporately on Saturday or Sunday as we declare... HOW GREAT IS OUR GOD!

Grace and Peace,

Ed

http://www.urcwc.org/

Groaning

Rom 8:22
For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.
Rom 8:23
And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
Rom 8:26
Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.
2 Cor 5:2
For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling,

What a title! Not too enticing! But you see, there is a good groaning! A groaning unto God much like the groaning of any people that have ever been enslaved. The whole creation is under the curse of sin and it's inhibition of God's divine purpose in the moment. I'm wanting more. I want God's fullness and manifestation in my life so bad! At 52 and after walking with God for 30 of those years, I realize more than ever my need to manifest His Presence in my life. I know I have Him and He has me but I am feeling what Paul wrote in the above scriptures. When a woman is in childbirth she groans until she brings forth the full manifestation of what was already inside her.

Grace and Peace,
Ed
http://www.urcwc.org
http://www.urcs.blogspot.com