The Very Words of God

In New Testament times in the Greek area of the world there was a temple in a place called Delphi. This was considered the centre of worship for Apollo, son of Zeus (http://www.greecetaxi.gr/index/delphi_oracle.html).There was an inner temple that had an oracle who lived inside. People would come from far and wide to hear what the oracle would say so they would know how to go about their lives. It was usually an old woman who would sit on a suspended tripod all day above a pit that had vapors rising up from it. Essentially she was high on vapors that contained something similar to the chemicals in glue. The priest would come to her and ask her the questions that the people had asked and she would answer. He would put it to poetry and go and announce it to the waiting people. They could wait for days and even weeks for the answers to their life questions.

Ray Van der Laan says this:

"What on earth has happened to us? Do you understand that the oracles of God, not the utterings of a woman high on something, the oracles of the creator of Heaven and Earth, have been given to you! You have them! All of them! The very words of God, you carry them around in your pack! No sheep liver. No washing. They are all yours!"

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7noqtXPrXE There is more to this teaching. It is very well done and on sight in Turkey.)

the very Words of God!

Hebrews 4:12

For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

John 1:1-18
The Word Became Flesh

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.
The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. 10He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John bore witness about him, and cried out, "This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.'") And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known."

and at the end of time talking about Jesus...

Revelation 19:13 (New International Version)
"He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God."

God thought of me WAAAAAAAAAAAAY back then...what will He say about me when it's all said and done?

There are 2 passages of scripture that I have been pondering lately…Ephesians 2:10 “For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do “ The last part is what I’ve been thinking about. What is it that God created me to do? What is it that He laid out for me before that foundations of the world? He thought about me that much…that makes me smile. The other passage is Hebrews 12:1 "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” I’ve never really paid attention to that last little part about the race being marked out for us. It goes along with that other verse. I find it very interesting. It’s the issue of What is the great work that God has called me to do in my life?

As I read through the Bible it took Moses 80 years of training before he did the great work God called of him, Abraham 25 years, David 15ish years, Nehemiah was cup bearer to the king for decades before he re-built the walls of Jerusalem. There's comfort in reading about people, GREAT people at that, who've gone before me and needed time. I don’t think the answer will come all at once (and I’m not comparing myself to those people...but it seems to me there is something for all of us) but if God has layed something out for me I for sure don’t want to miss it…so while I’m in training I’m going to pay attention. I have my eye on the Judgement Seat.

On a rabbit trail just for fun ;)...2 Corinthians 5:10 says this "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad." and Romans 14:10 says " You, then, why do you judge your brother? Or why do you look down on your brother? For we will all stand before God's judgment seat." there are more passages...1 Corinthians 3:10-15 says, " By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. 11For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, 13his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man's work. 14If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. 15If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames. "This is talking about people who have accepted Jesus as their Saviour. Only Christians have the Judgement Seat. On this side of heaven we thankfully with the "mercy seat" and once we die we face the judgement seat where the catalogue of our lives will be unrolled before heaven and all unconfessed sin that we did not ask for forgiveness for on this side at the mercy seat will be judged...NOT WHAT we did but our motives for doing them (1 Corinthians 4:1-5, Matthew 6, Hebrews 4:12-14, and others talk about this:)). I want to hear "well done...". I don't want to just make it into heaven by the skin of my teeth and be on the edge. I want so much more. My position in heaven (yes there ARE indeed positions we won't be sitting on clouds strumming harps) and reward for ALL of ETERNITY (yeah that's beyond a REALLY long time) is determined by this "blink of an eye" life here on earth. I WILL FINISH MY RACE STRONG!

Have fun thinking and racing :)

My attention

This morning I was reading my Bible. Before I started I prayed 2 things...God please show me your motives in what I am about to read and God please show me my motives while I am reading. It was fascinating to me to then read my Bible. It was like I was there. I could feel the emotions of the story. I could almost taste the dust of the caravan. I was reading about Jacob in the book of Genesis. I have been reading through Genesis since the beginning of the year. Just reading slowly and soaking it in. Really listening this time instead of just reading the words. Letting God tell me His story. I have learned so much. Here's one story:



Genesis 32:22-32 talks about when Jacob literally wrestled with God. This is a somewhat humorous story to me. I mean really...ok so this is what is say...well the context is this...Jacob is returning home after 20 odd years of being away. He ran away (from present day Israel to present day SE Turkey near the border of Syria) in the first place because he had, through deception, stolen his twin brother's blessing (Genesis 27 recounts that story). His brother got mad...well furious...he said something along the lines of "my dad is going to die soon and once that happens I will then kill my brother" (by the way his dad lived another 40 years so Jacob would have been fine but he had no way of knowing that). So really Jacob, who was more of a lover not a fighter, was not really safe. So his mom told him to go to her brother's "until your brother's fury subsides". So needless to say Jacob and Esau didn't last see each other on the best of terms. And now Jacob is coming home and he is afraid of meeting his brother. Esau was a mighty and fierce warrior. He finds out that Esau is coming to meet him (and his family...Jacob a very VERY wealthy man by now but that is another story) with 400 men. So Jacob sends a peace offering of A LOT of animals to Esau from his herds and then "in great fear and distress" he divides his people and herds into 2 groups" so that if one group was attacked the other could escape. He had no idea what frame of mind his brother was in. Then he took his family to the other side of the river and then came back...and now he was alone. Now I imagine that "alone time" for Jacob was a thing that NEVER happened. He had 2 wives...yep 2! AND 2 concubines...AND 12 sons and at least one daughter. Plus servants. I rarely get alone time and I have 1 husband and only 2 children...and no servants. So this was a rare thing indeed. It says "So Jacob was left alone..." and then it says "...and a man wrestled with his till daybreak." I wonder how that went down. Did this stranger just walk up to Jacob and start wrestling or did they have words or...or what? How in the world did they start wrestling. The answer is left to our imagination. OK so for a lot of the night Jacob and this guy wrestled. Strange. Well perhaps not so strange really...I've learned something about the male gender :)...they cannot sit still and talk they have to be "doing something" while they talk. So perhaps God's purpose was to get Jacob's attention to get him focused back on what was important...not his brother but God...and maybe he did that by wrestling him. Maybe God was directing Jacob's steps. He saw that Jacob was full of fear and "distressed" over meeting his brother and God didn't want him to worry. I imagine that Jacob was extremely tired after organizing all those people, plus the mental anxiety, plus wrestling all night. He likely met Esau pretty calmly because he had no nervous energy left to have fear and to fret. That's not in the Bible it's just my own thought. Place yourself in Jacob's shoes...

Then it says this "When the man saw that he could not overpower him (Jacob), he touched the socket of Jacob's hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. Then the man said ,'Let me got for it is daybreak.'" Couple things...this is the second time that Jacob's unnatural strength is mentioned. The first time is when he arrived at his Uncle Laban's after running from his brother. He came to a well and there were all these shepherds and their flocks of sheep just waiting around the well. Jacob (being familiar with all this sheep stuff) asked why they were there (because it was the wrong time of day to water sheep) and then he told them to water the sheep and go back to the pasture. They said they couldn't because all the flocks weren't there yet (and therefore all the shepherds) so they had to wait for them to get there in order to be able to roll back the stone...in other words it took A LOT of guys to move this stone because it was SO HEAVY. Well just then Rachel (Jacob's beautiful cousin arrived with her flock of sheep...well Jacob went and single handed rolled back the stone (Gen. 29:1-10) OK well this time this guy (we at this point aren't clear on who he was) could not get the better of Jacob in this physical match of strength. Jacob was strong...we already know that...but he likely had so much pent up anxiety over meeting his brother as well...plus he was stubborn. Do you know what Jacob said when this stranger asked to be let go of..."I will not let you go unless you bless me." So the guy asked his name and Jacob told him and then the guy changed his name. He said this " Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome." and Jacob said "Please tell me your name" and the guy said, "Why do you ask my name?" Then he blessed him there" I wonder what he said in that blessing? Oh to be a fly on a rock there. Genesis 32:30 "So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, "It is because I saw God face to face , and yet my life was spared." He understood the gravity of the situation. The rest of the chapter says this "The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip. therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendons attached to the socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob's hip was touched near the tendon." He likely limped the rest of his life. And it probably reminded him of that night.



I just found it interesting that the 2 times God talked to Jacob...that are recorded...he was ALONE! I find that if I take time to be still and quiet and just BE that is when God grabs my attention and talks to me...He likely talks a lot more but I can't hear him through all the noise and business. God is not obnoxious. He won't get louder and louder so we can hear Him. He waits for us to be quite and still.