Success...

New Years Day, 2014.
At this time of the year we are often asked if we have any resolutions for the new year and often people give a list of things they are determined to do in the coming year. As I listened to a number of these conversations today it made me consider the subject of 'success'.

Success for the world is something that has always alluded me but what does the Bible say about it?
Today, I would like us all to consider a young man, loved by his father and robed in a special coat, envied by his brothers, taken and thrown in a pit, taken out and sold and found in Genesis 39 standing in an Egyptian market place, stripped, humiliated and alone.
There is much I could say of Joseph but, today, as another year begins and as we all in our separate lives and situations consider what is before us I want to encourage you with this...

'And Joseph was brought down to Egypt; and Potiphar, an officer of Pharoah, the captain and chief executioner of the [royal] guard, an Egyptian, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had brought him down there. But the Lord was with Joseph, and he [though a slave] was a successful and prosperous man...' Genesis 39: 1 - 2

Joseph, a slave, stripped, lost, alone, empty, forsaken, poor...he was a SUCCESSFUL and PROSPEROUS man? How could this be?
The answer is obvious...THE LORD WAS WITH HIM.

Friends, today, if you have received Jesus Christ, the revelation of God, the Lord is with you. Sadly, however, it is possible to live our lives and not receive Him. We can even be 'Christians' having believed but never receiving.
Today receive this truth. The Lord is with you not because of your value, or the value of your works and striving but because of His value, because of His finished work. Consider today the image of the New Covenant meal, what we often call 'Lord's Communion' or 'Holy Communion', or the 'Lord's Supper.' Consider that feast that we consign to almost an afterthought in our churches today and see His striped and beaten body for our healing (Isaiah 53: 5) and His poured out blood for our righteousness  (2 Corinthians 5: 21) and receive His words...

'The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor, He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free the oppressed, to proclaim the favourable year of the Lord.' Luke 4: 18 - 19

Dear friend, 'Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing' for the truth is for you TODAY He is your favour, He is your provision, He, alone, is your Success.

Receive Him alone today and this year and success is yours.

For me, and my house, we declare this...

We, give thanks to the Lord for He is Good. Hallelujah! His Love, Mercy and Grace endure forever and ever, for me, for my family and for WTL. Amen, amen, amen, amen, amen. 

A great day at Sychar's well...

It has been a long time since I wrote a post on this blog. One of the things I am happily finding is that the Lord continues to reveal Himself to me almost to the point that lately I don't have time to write it down. One of the things I always find a challenge is that I have so much to share with no venue to share it other than this blog but lately I have so much that I just don't know where to start, so I haven't started.
Those who have been to this blog before will know I promised to share simple thoughts on the Tabernacle and I haven't completed that but the Lord still chats with me about the wondrous truths of Jesus Christ shadowed in the Old Testament and I will definitely return to this soon.
You know I think it important to receive the truth that the Bible, the Word of God, is really totally and completely about the Word of God, The Word made flesh, Jesus Christ, and throughout every page we can behold His glory, full of grace and truth. As you read the Bible don't write off the Old Testament as here Jesus is seen shadowed in types but the truths held here are just so beautiful. Seek Him out in every verse. When you read ask the Holy Spirit to reveal Him for He is everywhere in everything because He is the everything of God, God revealed and expressed; the heir and creator of all things, the radiance of God's glory, the exact representation of God's nature, the upholder of all things (Hebrews 1: 2, 3).

Anyway enough on that.
This morning I was reading a book and it sent me to a section of the Bible, John 4. This is the story of the Samaritan woman and her interaction with the Living Water, Jesus Christ. Now there is a lot that could be said about this I'm sure but I was impacted by two simple thoughts and I trust they might impact you today.
The first is the statement Jesus made in verse 10. 'Jesus said to her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water."'
If you KNEW the GIFT OF GOD! Who or what is the gift of God? Easy answer. Jesus Christ He is the gift of God.
Now many a gospel message has been preached on this verse encouraging people to 'know' Jesus and this is right but there is so much more here. I am pretty sure that most people who have taken the time to read this are probably already believers in Jesus so I want you to receive the truth of this statement for you, now, today.
My prayer is that you might KNOW HIM in all that He is for you right now, today.
Let me ask you something.
What do you need? Or dare I say it, what do you want?
Recently I visited a little church. I was so blessed by the preaching because the preacher didn't preach the favour of God that is appropriated by me by my striving via this strategy or that strategy as is the case in so many places (sadly). Rather she declared that the Bible, the book of promises is in fact a book of provision.
On my phone I have a list of scripture that the Lord has blessed me with through other people as they have been inspired by the Holy Spirit and I had entitled the file 'Promises'. After this morning I changed the title of this file to 'Provisions'. What do I mean by this?
Beloved, whatever you need or want Jesus is the PROVISION not just the promise. A promise suggests that something is yet to come, it is promised but it is yet to arrive and we, the receiver, can have no way of knowing when the promise will be realised. This is a wholly unsatisfactory situation for me and is not the nature of God. Why? Because my precious friends Jesus Christ is the provision of God and all that He promised was realised in Jesus 2000 years ago. He promised restoration, freedom, hope, glory, blessing, favour, provision, healing,...I could go on and on and on...whatever you need today or want was realised in the GIFT OF GOD...the question is DO YOU KNOW IT?
Let me direct you to another well know scripture, sadly misrepresented on many church pulpits today. In 1 Corinthians 11 the writer, Paul, talks of the truth of the Lord's Supper, the New Covenant meal instituted by Jesus Himself the night of His betrayal. In verse 27 he talks of eating and drinking unworthily and goes on in verse 29 to speak of not judging the body of the Lord rightly and then says in verse 30 that this is the reason many are weak and sickly among you, weak and sickly because we don't correctly discern His body.
Now this passage has been used  by many to heap condemnation upon the people of God, to drive blood bought righteous people, righteous by the blood of Jesus, into a place of self examination seeking whether or not they are unworthy. Oh please, beloved, how many times do we have to crucify the Lord? If you only KNEW the truth of Him then you could embrace your freedom from every stronghold of the enemy of God and truly be free. The Bible is clear that Jesus, my Jesus was wounded for my transgressions, He was bruised for my iniquities, He was chastised for my peace and He bore the stripes for my healing. BY HIS STRIPES I AM HEALED! Is this just physical healing? No. Is this just salvation? No. Beloved, rightly discern His body and so eat rejoicing in the absolute TRUTH that His body bore the stripes for your healing, total and complete, everything! He is EVERYTHING. He is every provision you will ever need for whatever it is that you need or want. HE IS OUR PROVISION, already ours, not just a promise but THE provision. Oh, hallelujah!
Why do you think the Lord's Supper is consigned in our churches to an afterthought, partaken maybe once a month and then often as an interruption to our sermon? Because we don't correctly discern the Lord's body and so many are weak and sickly among us and many live under constant condemnation, bound and bent, oh yes Christians but not walking in true freedom but bound by our own doing when freely available to us is liberty in the already done, the finished work of our Lord, Jesus Christ. So as Jesus said if you 'knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water."' My prayer today is that you will KNOW HIM.

The second thing that impacted me from the Samaritan woman story was this. When Jesus arrived at the Sychar's well He was tired and hungry. The disciples went off to the town to get some supplies and while they were away Jesus met the woman. You know this was a divine appointment revealed in the wonderful precision of the Bible in that He 'had to pass through Samaria' (John 4: 4). He didn't 'have' to at all, in fact most Jews would avoid Samaria like the plague but Jesus had to go that way, why? He had a woman to meet! But that's another post.
When the disciples returned Jesus was refreshed and sustained to such an extent that the disciples seemed to think that He had rung for a takeaway and the Domino's scooter had beaten them to it! But the fact is that Jesus was sustained by His administration of His love to the woman who deserved nothing but received 'living water', the eternal nourishment and refreshment of the Grace (the unmerited favour) of God, Jesus Christ.
Now the staggering point of this truth is this. Many a preacher today would go on to give you a nice burden by telling you that your nourishment and sustenance is only in 'doing' the will of the Father but this isn't the point at all. The point is this, rejoice with me in this, that when we draw from Jesus He is sustained all the more, He is an endless, complete and wonderful source of eternal sustenance and the more you draw the more there is to receive, more refreshment, more restoration, more freedom, more favour. So much but we do not receive it because we don't know Him. I think of Mary at the feet of Jesus, sitting there being fed. The more she fed the more she received.

So, beloved my prayer is today that you will KNOW Him and that knowing Him you will receive Him as your endless provision. He gave His life at the cross to restore all that our first father gave away and nothing is left out. The Bible is clear when it declares for you today that 'He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?' This isn't just about us getting what we want this is everything about KNOWING the truth of Jesus and the wonder of the Grace of God.
With your face unveiled receiving the truth of the provided One we are 'transformed from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.' This is 2 Corinthians 3: 18 which is often quoted but I want you to see the previous verse. It says that 'where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.' LIBERTY! Liberty from what? Liberty from everything that is not of God, liberty from everything not glorious, beloved know Him in truth. He is EVERYTHING for every situation in your life and I do not believe anything is excluded.
Rejoice in this, receive Him and praise Him for He alone is worthy.

Blessings to you today. Have a great day.

God made a covenant...

God made a covenant with Abraham based on the ‘I will’ of God. The full story of this is found in Genesis 17 and surrounding chapters. Abraham received this in faith and it is recorded in scripture that ‘Abraham believed God and it was credited, reckoned to him as righteousness’, Romans 4: 3, Galatians 3: 6, James 2: 23. Abraham’s righteousness was based in the promise of God which he received in faith.

God made a covenant with Moses on behalf of the people that was based in the ‘you will’ and the ‘you won’t’ of the Law, the ‘yes’ and the ‘no’ of the Law, see it clearly it Exodus 20, even written on stone! It is holy and absolutely right but it was unattainable for human kind and it’s only purpose was to reveal sin because before the Law sin was in the world but it was not imputed, not revealed, not exposed, Romans 5: 13, and so it is because of the revealed Law that we declare ‘all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God’, Romans 3: 23

God always would restore the covenant of Abraham, the covenant of faith, the covenant of the ‘I will’ of God and not the ‘you will’ (the yes) and ‘you won’t’ (the no) of man because man, sadly, couldn’t do it. Listen to these words, ‘so that, as sin reigned in death, (the law brought death because the holiness of God revealed in the Law demanded death), even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.’ Glorious words! Jesus came because we were unable to save ourselves and we are still unable, even if we have accepted Him…do not be alarmed. I will explain what I mean by that statement right now.

God restored the covenant of faith in the ‘I will’, the YES of God, the person of the Lord, Jesus Christ. Our salvation, our reconciliation, our eternal life is in HIM, not in us. Yes we receive it by faith, that is, we position ourselves to receive Him and we are saved but once saved we don’t then move to a place of receiving the working out of our salvation by works (our yes and no), it is still by faith, still in Him.

Do you get it?

It is ALL IN HIM, not you, HIM and we just receive it by faith. Faith is our position, not our work. Work entails movement, activity, action on your part but faith is sitting at His feet (like Mary), ‘seated …with Him in the heavenly places…so that in the ages (from now for all eternity) to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in… (In what? In who? In our works? In our ‘yes’ and ‘no’? In what we do?)...NO, eternally NO!... but in Christ Jesus’ and in Him alone, no-one else, nothing else, only HIM, Ephesians2: 6, 7.

Now, listen to these words, Romans 4: 16, ‘For this reason it is by faith , that it might be in accordance with grace, in order that the promise may be to all descendants, not only to those who are of the Law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all.’ Another version says it like this, ‘Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all seed, not only those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all…’

Listen very carefully…this passage has just been saying that if the promise made to Abraham was based in keeping the Law and not through the righteousness which comes by faith (faith that comes by receiving THE righteous One, Jesus Christ) and if the Law produces heirs then faith is made of no effect, useless, a waste of time and the consequence is the promises of God are also made of no effect, useless, a waste of time, Romans 4: 13, 14.

Verse 15 then declares that the Law brings wrath, (the wrath of holy God against the sin of one who turned his back on God and consequently we, by descent, have all turned our back on God), and that our violation was revealed by Law. Law, keeping Law, no matter how hard we try, is impossible and so the only way available to us to be reconciled with our God is through faith.

Now we don’t now run off and try real hard to be faithful for that is not what we are talking about. Rather now we position ourselves to receive grace, ‘therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace’… What is grace? It is Jesus Christ, the ‘exact representation of the nature of God’, Hebrews 1: 3. He alone reveals the unmerited favour of God, the nature of God, and He alone is the basis of our acceptance. You see what the verse goes on to say…’…that it might be according to grace, SO THAT THE PROMISE MIGHT BE SURE TO ALL SEED…’ Not just those of the Law, the people of Israel but to you and me, those who are children of Abraham, this means those who like Abraham received the promise of God by faith, those who position themselves, like Abraham, to believe God and it is on this basis, and this basis alone, that God declares we are ‘the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, 2 Corinthians 5: 21, and that our sins are remembered no more, Hebrews 8: 12, 10:17. This is the foundation clause of the New Covenant, which is the fulfilment of the Covenant of Faith made with Abraham. It is fulfilled in Jesus Christ because He came without sin and fulfilled the absolute requirements of the Law on our behalf, doing what we couldn’t do, so we only need receive Him. Our need to ‘do’ is gone. swallowed up in His ‘done’, when He declared “IT IS FINISHED” at the cross. At that moment the veil separating us from the Holiest of Holies was torn in two and the way was made. He is THE WAY, He is THE TRUTH, and He is THE LIFE!

Can you see it?

Therefore the ONLY way the promise could be sure, the only way the promise is sure is by GRACE, by Jesus Christ. There is no other way.

God has given me a mission and that mission is to preach His Grace to the whole world! Please don’t think I am big-noting myself for I am not, I take the ‘call’ of God over my life very seriously indeed. My prayer is that you will receive His grace, yes in salvation but then in life. Too many times in our churches do we preach salvation by grace and then life by works, an alloy of Law and Grace, lukewarmness!

I will finish today with this, listen to these words…’For the Son of God, Christ Jesus (just in case we had forgotten), who was preached among you by us…was not yes and no, but is yes in Him, 2 Corinthians 1: 19.

Oh, hallelujah! The ‘yes’ and ‘no’ of the Law is removed from us and replaced with the ‘yes’ of Jesus Christ!

So, yes to what?

It goes on…’For as many as may be the promises of God, in Him they are yes; wherefore by Him is our Amen to the glory of God through us’, 2 Corinthians 1: 20.

Woohoo! The promises of God are ‘YES’ in Him! Not only that our AMEN is by Him, and not only that it is by Him God is glorified in us.

What is it saying?

The requirements of our input in all these things are removed and are perfectly established in HIM. WE receive ALL the many promises of God in Him, HE is our AMEN, and God is glorified in us in HIM.  EVERYTHING in HIM, Jesus Christ.

What has God promised you?

They are established in Him. Jesus said that even heaven and earth will pass away, but His words will never pass away’, Matthew 24: 35.

God has promised many things to me and to WTL and God’s team for WTL. He has revealed through His word and through His revelation to many people the magnitude of the call He has placed on my life. Are they established in my faithfulness? NO, a million times no!

They are established in His faithfulness and His true declaration that what He has said will never pass away and this is truth because they are established in Him and He is their Amen and He will bring glory to God in me. That’s all!

So who does all this?

Read on…’Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and anointed us is God, who sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge’, 2 Corinthians 1: 21, 22.

God was well pleased with the finished work of His Son. Jesus went into the Holiest of Holies, the very presence of God, with His own blood and it was accepted. He was invited to sit down at the right hand (the hand of blessing and favour) and we are presently positioned there to receive His grace, His favour. We are Benjamin, the sons of His right hand, favoured and blessed in Jesus Christ.

We are established in Christ by God Himself. We are anointed by God Himself. We are sealed by God Himself and the pledge is the giving of the indwelling Holy Spirit of God. We are sealed by the magnitude of the truth that Christ lives in us!

‘Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places… (this does not mean our blessings are only spiritual…we are blessed with all the blessing of the hand of God as He pours out His favour and love over His Son in the heavenly place, and us in Him, as we are seated with Him in the heavenlies…positioned to receive not striving to receive!)…in Christ Jesus, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him… (We are holy and blameless in Him, in the righteousness of Christ; we are the righteousness of God in Christ, 2 Corinthians 5: 21). In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.’

In the Beloved we are accepted as heirs, as sons and daughters.

Receive Him by grace and then live by grace.

Reject the lie that Life is by works…Life is by every word which proceeds from the mouth of God, rest in His promises.

 He is EVERYTHING.

Burden lifted...

I love my Bible and there is nothing I love nothing better than to sit with it in the morning and gather something from it for each day.

This morning I want to share something with you and I have entitled this post 'Burden lifted...' because what I want to impart to you is the most burden-lifting truth you will ever hear.
You know that Jesus said in Matthew 11: 30 that His 'yoke is easy' and His 'burden is light' so I think that Jesus was in the business of burden-lifting and He continues to be our burden lifter, after all He is the same yesterday, today and forever.
Also what I am about to share is 'burden-lifting' for Christians and for soon-to-be-Christians alike.

Now it is a sad truth that many people who desire to be reconciled with God look for the 'way' in many different places. Usually this involves us seeking what we must 'do' to achieve that reconciliation.
And then combined with this there is an enemy of God who will do anything to divert us from finding the burden-free way which is Jesus Christ and he does this by constantly bringing the Law of God before us to (a) convince us that keeping the law is the way to God, and (b) continually point out to us how we fail, which inevitably do, or by (c) even providing some counterfeit to the truth of the gospel to draw us away completely.
Then for Christians one of the great challenges that burdens us is finding how we do what is required of us to remain 'right' with God and again the same enemy gladly comes and continues to try and convince us that being 'right' with God means keeping the Law, and then when we fail he gleefully points this out to us knowing that we will quickly be discouraged and give up.
Those are the sad but true facts.
You know even our preachers lead us down a path of pursuing the 'doing' for God as the means for righteousness and growth.

So...This is your burden-lifting moment.
Are you wondering what is required of you to do the works of God? Are you wondering what you need to do to do what we are so often told God requires of us? Are you struggling with misguided direction to do this or do that to be 'right' with God?

Once upon a time Jesus, when He was here, took five barley loaves and two small fishes and He blessed it and He fed 5000 men plus numerous women and children and there were twelve baskets of leftovers, all from five loaves and two small fish!
The people were mightily impressed and followed Him wanting more.
He said to them that they were following because they had been fed and had been filled. Then He said to them, "Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man shall give you, for on Him the Father, even God, has set His seal."

The first thing I want you to see is that the sealed centrepiece of God is our Lord, Jesus Christ.
He is the key to EVERYTHING.
He is EVERYTHING.
It clearly says elsewhere that He is the fullness of God and we are complete in Him (Colossians 1: 19, 2: 9,10).

Then the people ask a question..."What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?"
Woo...isn't that the very same question that we all ask and that a myriad of writers and preachers down through time have given breath and ink to answer, and sadly very often have totally missed the point.

So here is your moment of release because we have the answer from the very mouth of God Himself, The Word of God manifest in flesh. We don't need all the strategy, ideas, law, five-point plans, seven-point plans, three-point plans, etc. etc. because The Word took the time to answer our question and then record it in His Word to us and here it is...

'Jesus answered and said to them,

 "THIS IS THE WORK OF GOD, THAT YOU BELIEVE IN HIM WHOM HE HAS SENT." '

Out of that place we are right with God because He is our Righteousness; out of that place we receive our healing because by His stripes we are healed; out of that place we receive our breakthrough because He is our provider and provision; out of that place we receive our ministry and purpose because He is our guide and strength...we could go on and on but we must say this because out of this place you can receive salvation, the certainty of sin forgiven and the absolute surety of being right with God.
This is the greatest miracle, the greatest breakthrough, the greatest provision and it happens not by us trying to 'save' ourselves but by simply believing that Jesus Christ did all that was required to save us from eternal damnation and to give us eternal life.
Let me finally ask you this simple question...if the greatest miracle comes by just believing, why should lesser miracles of healing and financial breakthrough, or guidance in life and purpose be any different?
Fix your eyes on Him, He is the author and the finisher of faith.
He is everything.
Seek His exaltation and everything else just falls into place.

Rest...

The way it works for me is this, God gives me something from His word and it sits with me sometimes for months.
Ephesians 2: 4 - 7 has been one of those scriptures. Read it for yourself.
This part of the Bible has sat with me and I have chewed over and over it...a bit like a cow chewing the cud (if you have no idea what I am talking about, sad, I guess you needed to grow up on a farm...)

I have spoken about this scripture before in this blog so if you have nothing else to do you can look back through past posts and you will see that I have been impacted by this passage.

This morning as I was sitting with the Lord the Lord showed me something that is awesome and I want to share it with you. Please keep reading.

The first time 'grace' is mentioned in the Bible is in Genesis 6: 8.
Oh we 'see' grace much earlier than that, like when the Lord provided coverings of animal skins for Adam and Eve, but here is the first time the actual word is mentioned.

'But Noah found favour in the eyes of the Lord.' (NASB)

'But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord' (KJV)

Now there is nothing particularly remarkable in this statement on the surface but dig a little deeper and the wonder of our God comes rising to us.

Firstly this was written way before the cross and God was a God of Grace even then...what does this say to us? When you read the Old Testament seek the Grace...not the law...seek Jesus, He is Grace and He is everywhere.
Secondly, we could ask why did Noah find favour in the eyes of the Lord? Maybe because he kept the Law? But there was no Law to keep! This was hundreds of years before the Law was given to reveal the need of man. So how did he find favour in the eyes of the Lord? How did He find the Grace?

You know the answer is found in the meaning of Noah's name.

Noah means 'rest'.

So rest found grace, grace found rest.

Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord because He 'rested' in the Lord. You remember Abraham, it is recorded of him 'that he believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness.' Abraham rested in the promise of God.
It was the same for Noah.
Come on think about it...God came to Noah and called him by telling him to build a big boat because it was going to rain. Better scholars than I will ever be tell us that up to that point there had not been any rain at all on the earth and Noah was expected to build a big boat in anticipation of a big rain which would bring a big flood to destroy the inhabitants of the earth.

(As an aside...that action on the part of God doesn't sound much like grace does it? Let me just point this out to you, the Bible says that 'all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth' (Genesis 6: 12). There is an enemy who has a mission to steal, kill and destroy...that has always been his mission, from the beginning. In the carrying out of his mission he had his demons corrupt mankind by mating with them and so all flesh in Noah's time were giants, full of violence, not humans at all, a cross between demons and mankind...only Noah and his family stood pure and so God stepped in to preserve man and wiped out the work of the enemy by the flood...wow! What Grace! See the grace of our God on our behalf? What love! What grace! What favour!
If you want a New Testament example of our God acting in grace and favour to preserve His people then look to the story of Ananias and Sapphira...you remember in Acts 5? Read it for yourself. Now often people say that God dealt very harshly with these two, especially since they were Christians and part of the early church. Do not be deceived, Ananias and Sapphira weren't believers, they were agents of an enemy with a mission to steal, kill and destroy the early, fledgling church, the Bride of Christ and God dealt with this attack of the enemy. See it again? What Grace! What love! What favour! Church would not be except for the favour of God in dealing with the enemy as he tried to destroy the blossoming Bride of Christ.)

So back to where we were...
Noah, whose name means rest, rested in the promise of God and in that rest he found grace. It was not about what he did, it was about what God did, would do, about resting in the promise of God.
We are so blessed because we sit on the other side of the cross, the pinnacle of all history (His-Story), and in the day described as the Day of Grace, the Day of the Lord's Favour...

Why, oh why, then do we insist of making our own way.
Why, oh why, do we seek the approval of God by our work, by our law-keeping, by our pious strategies to be 'like Christ'?
Rest? How can we describe rest?
Rest equals me saying "I can't, but You, Lord, You can."
I can't deal with this issue in my life, but You can.
I can't deal with this sickness, but You can.
I can't deal with this financial crisis, but You can.
I can't deal with my lack of work, but You can.
I can't deal with this marriage crisis, but You can.
I can't deal with my wayward and rebellious child, but You can.
I can't be 'Christ-like' and grow in You, but You can grow in me...if I will just rest in You.
I could go on and on...

I can't deal with the need of my ministry, my call, the vision You have given me, BUT YOU CAN!

Oh, hallelujah!

So...I don't know about you but for me I say this...
I can't do it Lord but You can and I will rest there. I trust your promise that when You give a vision You will not fail to give the pro-vision.
I will sit. 
I will rest in the promises that You have made to me and WTL; I will sit and receive Your word which says to me that I am 'seated with You in heavenly places so that You might show me the surpassing riches of Your grace in kindness toward me in Christ Jesus', Ephesians 2: 6 - 7.
Woohoo!

I choose to sit there!

The tabernacle continued...

Last time we considered the Altar of Burnt Offering, the Bronze Altar, which is the first item of furniture as we enter the court of the Tent of Meeting of the tabernacle. We are now within an area 50 cubits by 100 cubits surrounded on all sides by curtains skillfully made. The entrance faces the east.
Within this area apart from the Altar of Burnt Offering the only other item of furniture is a basin.

Remember, we have been accepted on the basis of the shed blood of the sacrifice. We are covered by the blood and as New Covenant believers our covering is the blood of our perfect burnt offering, Jesus Christ. The acceptable offering for the Israelite was a male without defect; the sacrifice is slaughtered before the Lord, its blood is sprinkled against the altar on all sides and all is burnt on the altar. What a picture to us of the all encompassing, complete and perfect sacrifice of our Lord on our behalf. Can we ever really doubt that we are accepted in Him? There is so much we could say concerning the perfection and completeness of His sacrifice for us.
In Him we are accepted and we can rejoice in the mighty fact that on the basis of His sacrifice we are priests, 'To Him who loves us, and released us from our sins by His blood, and He has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father; to Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.' Revelation 1: 5 - 6.
The role of the priest was to minister to God on behalf of themselves and the people, it was a role that was determined by birth. So it is for the New Covenant believer, we are welcome to come on behalf of ourselves and the people to the God of heaven, a role determined by our new birth in Jesus Christ, our perfect sacrifice.
You know for the Israelite, as we have already said, the failing of the sacrifice of bulls and goats is that they could never take away sin (Hebrews 10: 4) and so the offerer was required to come time and time again, offering for sin time and time again (please read Hebrews 10: 4 - 18) but not so for us. The blood of our sacrifice is perfect and complete...the priest in the day of law, under the covenant of Law stood daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which could never take away sin 'but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God,...' Hebrews 10: 11 - 12. Please also receive the final verse of Hebrews 10 which is so wonderful and says that where there is forgiveness of our sins and lawless deeds there is 'no longer any offering for sin.' Hallelujah!

So the New Covenant believer has passed by the Altar of Burnt Offering and is perfectly accepted covered by the blood of the perfect sacrifice, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the once-for-all perfect sacrifice. On this basis we are priests accepted by cleansing and by birthright and so can proceed to the basin.

The basin was made of bronze and sat on a bronze stand. It was for washing and had water placed in it. It was situated between the altar of burnt offering and the Tent of Meeting, the next 'structure' we see before us in the tabernacle. The priests, Aaron and his sons, were to wash their hands and their feet whenever they entered the Tent of Meeting, to meet with God. This washing was imperative 'so they will not die.' (Exodus 30: 17 - 21)

So what is this referring to for us today? What is the encouragement of this type, this shadow of our Lord Jesus Christ? Ephesians 5: 26, speaking of Christ and His bride, the church, says, '...that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,...' What word? The Word of God as a prescription to holiness and blamelessness, NO...God does require daily washing with the word as a prescription to holiness although this is desirable that we go each day to His word...so what word? The word of His Love, the word of His Grace, just as the husband is encouraged to love his wife the word that we are to wash with is the precious word of His Love and Grace so vividly demonstrated in that He 'gave Himself up for her', Ephesians 5: 25. It is in His love demonstrated that He presents 'to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she should be holy and blameless', Ephesians 5: 27.

You see if our diligence in washing with the water of the word daily then our blamelessness and holiness rests on our 'work' of washing. But we are free from sanctification through our works for we are under grace not under law.
So as we enter His presence, as we meet with our God we come daily, minute by minute, every moment washed with Him, washed with the word of His Love and Grace, washed with Jesus as He is the perfect expression of the love and grace of God, He perfectly presents the heart of God to us. Covered so we are confident that 'we will not die', in fact, this is the only way to Life, there is no other way. Jesus is the Way and He is the Life and we rejoice in life everlasting and abundant and never failing because He is faithful, 'for He who promised is faithful', Hebrews 10: 23.

So the second item of our acceptance shadowed in the tabernacle of old is the basin, the washing place, where forever we are washed in His Love and Grace, washed in Jesus. Oh yes, I would definitely encourage you to go to His Word constantly, receive His Word at all times, take a scripture daily and chew on it, meditate on it throughout your day, not because this is prescriptive for your acceptance in the presence of God but because the Word reveals Jesus Christ, the Word is Jesus Christ, He is our Word and in Him we find the word of the love and grace of God in which we can declare we are the righteousness of God in Christ (2 Corinthians 5: 21) and accepted in Him.

Be encouraged...wash today in His word to you that in Him, in Love, in Grace you are accepted, a gift, not of works, bathe in it, receive it every moment for it is yours every moment. Hallelujah!

The tabernacle...

Everything 'written in earlier times was written for our instruction so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope' (Romans 15: 4). Why? That God, who gives perseverance and encouragement may grant us to be of one mind according to Christ Jesus to the glory of God our Father. So those things written before were written to point us to Jesus that we may receive Him and praise our God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ ( Romans 15: 5 - 6).
Lately I have been thinking of the tabernacle. Maybe you have not read much about it. The details of the tabernacle are presented in the latter part of the book of Exodus and into Leviticus; you can look for yourself. The tabernacle was determined by God as the place where the people of Israel could meet with Him. The design of the tabernacle and its layout, and the sacrifices established are all shadows of Jesus. Whenever you open your Bible you are looking for Jesus. Jesus is the centrepiece of God and whether it is the Old Testament or the New the centre is no different, you are looking for Jesus revealing the grace of God. You know God is never changing, He is grace, He has always been grace and He always will be grace. When we read we are not looking for the strategy how we can do better, how we can please God more, or for the strategy to be 'like' Jesus; we look for Him and it is my hope and prayer that more and more we can seek Him, receive Him, meditate on Him, preach Him for it is as we 'see' Him we are transformed more and more to His likeness. It is not in our strategy but in our seeing Him that we are more like Him. Yes it is a progression which will have its ultimate fulfillment when we will be like Him when we see Him as He is (1 John 3: 2) but as we have the desire to be Christ-like it is in our seeing Him that we are transformed.

So the tabernacle. As we enter through the outer door of the tabernacle we arrive in the court of the 'tent of meeting' and the first item we see is the Altar of Burnt Offering. This is significant. The burnt offering sacrifice, the shadow of Jesus, Jesus THE WAY to God. To meet with God we must enter through The Way, our Lord Jesus Christ (John 14: 6).
There is significance in the construction of all the items of the tabernacle but I do not want to consider that here but you can read of the altar of burnt offering in Exodus 38. We are looking for Jesus.
So we come to Leviticus 1 and we find the prescription of the law of the burnt offering. Leviticus 1: 5 says this, 'He shall slay the young bull before the Lord; and Aaron's sons the priests shall offer up the blood and sprinkle the blood around the altar that is at the doorway of the tent of meeting.' So I am sure you can see the significance. When we meet with God the first place we come is the altar of burnt offering. The altar speaks of the claims of God on the righteousness of man. To approach God man must be righteous, nothing impure or defiled can approach God. So it is for this reason that an offering must be killed and its blood sprinkled all around the altar and its body burnt completely on the altar before the person is counted worthy to enter the presence of God.
As the Israelite stood under the cover of the sprinkled blood they could enter the meeting place and meet with God. Without the sprinkled blood they could not meet God and even when they sinned they were covered by the blood until the next time they came to meet God and brought again the sacrifice so they were again covered by the blood of the burnt offering.
Now this is a shadow of Jesus. Can you see Him? But there is a difference. The Israelite came many times under the law and always was required to come with the unblemished sacrifice. This is what they must do to find favour and meet with God.

Now I want you to rejoice with me because today if you have received Jesus as your sacrifice then the fulfillment of the shadow seen in the burnt offering is perfected for you because you sit today on the other side of the cross, you sit under the terms of the New Covenant and the burnt offering for you is perfected in Jesus Christ. If you read the book of Hebrews you will find that it is the book of BETTER, the revelation of Better with a capital 'B', Jesus Christ.
The blood of the burnt offering in Leviticus 1 speaks of the blood of Jesus. However, His blood is so much better than the blood of bulls and of goats...why?..because the blood of bulls and goats was effective only until the next time the Israelite wanted to meet with God but the blood of Jesus is EFFECTIVE FOREVER!
If you take your Bible and read Hebrews 9: 11 - 14 you will see the better offering of Jesus that in all points is better and you can rejoice that today you sit under the shed blood of Jesus as you meet with God.
Hebrews 10: 4 says that 'it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins' and yet I can sit here today and seek to encourage us all with words of truth...please receive this today.

• You can rest in Him because every single claim of God on man and the righteousness of man (there is none righteous) is COMPLETELY SATISFIED in Jesus Christ.
• God is COMPLETELY SATISFIED because of the perfect sacrifice of Jesus as our burnt offering...even if you fall into sin you can turn to the blood of Jesus.
• There is more...your sins are not just covered but by His blood they are WASHED AWAY COMPLETELY...'To Him who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood.' Revelation 1: 5
• More than that God REMEMBERS OUR SINS NO MORE! Two times in Hebrews God declares this truth within the scope of two chapters...do you think maybe He wanted us to get it? 'And their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.' Hebrews 8: 12; 10: 17
• Maybe this is enough but there is more...Jesus is our perfect offering and by virtue of His perfection WE ARE PERFECTED. 'For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.' Hebrews 10: 14
• Rejoice! Jesus not only sanctifies you, makes you HOLY, but He also PERFECTS you, and not only that He PERFECTS YOU FOREVER.
• So today you can enter and meet with God boldly because God sees you the way He sees His Son...PERFECT FOREVER! Hallelujah!

Now this is the first item we see when we enter the tabernacle, next time we think of the next. 

Important point we must receive is that when we enter in through Jesus we enter forever. Under the New Covenant no more do we come with sacrifice after sacrifice...because Jesus is our perfect sacrifice we enter in the the presence of God once and receive His shed blood once never to go out again. We no longer come and crucify Him again and again, His sacrifice is sufficient for us to enter in through Him and be perfectly received forever. We are forever in Him, and He in us.