ONLY ONE SACRIFICE

ONLY ONE SACRIFICE

Jesus Christ was the only one good enough to become a sacrifice. His sacrifice was to live for us, as a human being, to show us how to live for God. Jesus was the son of God Almighty. Every other human being has flaws, so not one other human could be the perfect sacrifice.

We know that there is always a price to pay for a relationship. Anyone married knows their relationship requires personal sacrifices. To have a perfect relationship with God also requires sacrifices. We consider that the sacrifices we make for spouses, children, parents or friends, may be inconvenient, but we consider the end, and in light of the end purpose, the sacrifice is not that bad.

To be a close friend of God requires sacrifices as well, but they should be considered as essential as sacrifices we make for any dear relationship we have with any human being.

However, historically men have believed that gods are more perfectly designed than any human and consequently would require a much bigger and more significant sacrifice to remain in the god’s favor. Thus, the practice of human sacrifice.

In most pagan religions, past and present, human sacrifice is the preferred offering. We see it throughout the Bible, and we see it in other older cultures around the world, such as the Incan, Mayan, and Aztec cultures. Those are just three that I know something about, but I’m sure you may know of others. Human sacrifice is still practiced around the world today. In the USA, babies are sacrificed to provide blood and adrenochrome in the ritualistic rites of several different Luciferian groups. This is not the way of our God, the true God of the Bible.

God required only one sacrifice, and He could afford to sacrifice His only begotten son, Jesus, because He knew he would get him back, whole, complete, and forever. The only legal sacrifice of all time was the son of God Himself. He sacrificed Jesus by having him come to earth as a man. Then He let the devil think he killed him. The devil thought that in taking God’s sacrifice, he would also be taking God’s power and authority. But no! God brought Jesus back to life, because only He could do that. The devil thought way too little of the magnitude and sovereignty of the true God.

No other sacrificial death would be so good that it would make for a complete reconciliation, a complete oneness between a man or woman, or child with our creator, God.

The fallacy of pagan religions’ idea of sacrificing to get a better standing with their creator, or more favor with their god, is that it never works. It’s always a guessing game, a risk, a total gamble, and most of the time the practitioners are going to lose.

There are many examples of pagan sacrificial practices throughout the Bible. One that I saw recently is in 2 Kings 3. The Moabites couldn’t seem to win a battle, though they tried just about everything they had and as a final step, human sacrifice.

“But when they came to the camp of Israel, the Israelites rose up and smote the Moabites, so that they fled before them. And they went forward, slaying the Moabites as they went.

“They beat down the cities [walls], and on every good piece of land every man cast a stone, covering it [with stones]. And they stopped all the springs of water and felled all the good trees, until only the stones [of the walls of Moab’s capital city] of Kir-hareseth were left standing, and the slingers surrounded and took it.

“And when the king of Moab saw that the battle was against him, he took with him 700 swordsmen to break through to the king of Edom, but they could not.

“Then the king of Moab took his eldest son, who was to reign in his place, and offered him [publicly] as a burnt offering [to Chemosh] on the [city] wall [horrifying everyone]. And there was great wrath against Israel, and Israel’s allies [Judah and Edom] withdrew from King Jehoram and returned to their own land” (2 Kings 3:24-27).

We need to stop the sacrifices. Jesus was the only true sacrifice ever for all mankind. No other human sacrifice is lawful or necessary to get favor from our maker. God gave us His son as the perfect sacrifice for everything we desperately need and desire.

We can understand this. We make sacrifices in our relationships with others so that the relationship will get even better and last even longer. It’s worth it. But some sacrifices are harder than others. Don’t you think that it was hard for God to sacrifice Jesus? Of course it was, but He did it to bind a relationship with us, and yes, forever. It was worth it to Him. And, He already knew that He would get Jesus back. Death could not take Jesus, and it cannot take any other person who believes in him. Believe in him today.

Let’s believe in the sacrifice God made for us. Let’s run to the only God who requires nothing of us but to believe in His son Jesus and accept him as supreme in our lives. Romans 10:9-10. One sacrifice. One Jesus Christ. One family. No other sacrifice will do.

Love, Carolyn

PS: And teach this to your children. Give them a chance to learn about the true God and His only begotten son Jesus. Let them learn to believe in the Bible, to know what the ten commandments are, to know what Jesus taught, and to have a chance to be filled with God’s precious gift of the holy spirit to guide them when they are away from you. It will be important to them, and to others they will share with along the way.

"THE LIGHT OF THE BODY IS THE EYE"

“THE LIGHT OF THE BODY IS THE EYE”

Why do people act the way they do? Matthew 6:22-24 gives us answers to that question. But for most people, this section of scripture remains a mystery, until one can understand the meaning of the original words that were used. A Concordance helps with that. Let's take a look at the passage and then I'll break it down for you. “The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!”

Verse 24: “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”

First let’s look at the word “light” in verse 22. In the original language, it is a portable candle or oil lamp, one that can be lit, or it can go out. The next word I looked at was “eye.” Here it used metaphorically, of ethical qualities.

The candle guiding us is our ethical qualities – our moral standards. Our moral or ethical standards guide our whole body. The “body” is the whole man—body and soul. What we do with our body and soul is maneuvered by our moral standards. So, if we carry a lamp that is full of good Biblical morals and ethics, it will guide us in a good direction. But if that candle burns out, or the wick is pinched, the good standards slip away and are replaced by other standards that are not Biblical.

In the second part of verse 22, what does it mean, “if thine eye be single “? The word single means simple, clear, in which there is nothing complicated or confused; without folds (not double-minded). Jesus was saying that if our eyes (ethical qualities) are clear and not jumbled, our “whole body will be full of light.”

People think they can take some standards from the Bible, some from Buddhism, some from Hinduism, or Islam, or New Age, or situational ethics, but if those standards don’t jive with what the God of the Bible says, there’s going to be double standards, ethical difficulties, and a confused, jumbled mess. Granted, a person needs to understand what the Bible actually says, and not just blindly believe what’s “always” been taught. Asking questions is perfectly okay with our God, and there are plenty of verses documenting that.

Verse 23 goes on to say: “But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness.” The word “eye” is again ethical qualities. The word “evil” is “the Evil one,” so this is saying that if a person’s ethics are inspired and motived or manipulated by the evil one, Satan, then the intent is “wicked, actively bad, actively causing sorrow or pain.” They are actively “bringing toil, hardships, annoyances, and trouble.”

If moral codes are so deranged, the whole self is going to be full of darkness. “Full of darkness” is translated from one word that means covered in darkness, like a tent. Things are opaque; vision is blinded. Actions are shady and shadowy. There is “ignorance respecting divine things and human duties.” People whose moral standards begin to deteriorate, become prey to the Evil one’s ethics, or lack thereof. They become “persons in whom darkness becomes visible and holds sway.”

And the last part of verse 23 says: “If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!” The word “light” in this part of the verse means the light of God. If that gets compromised, the darkness gets “great,” which means great in number, magnitude, and degree.

God has the antidote to going to the dark side. It’s in the next verse, Matthew 6:24: “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”

The word “hate” doesn’t mean what we think it does. In this verse, it’s a relative preference. It means a person prefers one over another. He or she cares about serving the interests of one rather than the other, for whatever reason. A straightforward analysis would be if a person has two jobs, two bosses, and both want the person to work on the same Saturday. The worker can’t do both, so he or she analyses the pros and cons, and picks one.

When Jesus says: “He will hold to the one, and despise the other,” it means he’ll “hold fast to, cleave to” one, and not really think much of the other. To “despise” means to” think less of, disdain, to look down on.”

We can’t be disciples (disciplined ones) of the Lord and get all the benefits of God if we play in the devil’s sandbox. And the consequences just aren’t worth it. Darkness perpetuated out from a person will eventually come back around to destroy that person.

Let’s fall to the feet of our merciful God and learn what it means to truly surrender all to Him. Mark 8:25 says: “Then again Jesus laid His hands on his eyes; and the man stared intently and [his sight] was [completely] restored, and he began to see everything clearly.”

With so much confusion entering our cultures, lots of people really aren’t totally sure of what God’s moral standards really are, so we need to get back to studying our Bibles so we aren’t walking around in partial darkness, but that we can once again see clearly.

Love, Carolyn

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PLANTING GOOD THINGS

PLANTING GOOD THINGS

It’s Springtime in Las Vegas, and I have all kinds of beautiful flowers blooming. While I was up at mom’s for her memorial, I took a few cuttings from her blue hydrangea, and yesterday I planted them. It got me thinking about how God planted a garden for Adam and Eve. Planting is our inheritance. We can’t help ourselves; we are always going to plant, whether it’s words, goods, or gardens--planting is an integral part of who we are. Even in hard times, we can plant good things. The other day a fellow worker mentioned he couldn’t find bread in the stores he went to. I shopped after work, and I found lots of bread, so I got it and brought it to him the next day. It doesn’t sound like a big deal, and it wasn’t for me, but he was sure happy. We always have something to give.

In 2 Kings 4, we see a great example of giving in the midst of a mess. There was a widowed woman with two sons to take care of, and she was out of money. The people she owed were now coming to make good on her debt by taking her two sons into slavery as compensation. She reached out to Elisha for help. 2 Kings 4:2 has some wonderful insight for us: “And Elisha said unto her, ‘What shall I do for thee? Tell me, what has thou in the house?’”

Right there is the answer to so many of our dilemmas. “What do you have in your house?” The Lord will always put within reach, what we need most. The woman answered Elisha: “Thine handmaid hath not any thing in the house, save a pot of oil” (2 Kings 4:2b). Elisha told the woman to go out and borrow empty vessels from her neighbors. I’m just guessing, but if the neighbors had empty containers lying about, they might have been low on oil to fill them. In those days, oil was a necessity, used for cooking, for light, and many other uses as well. The woman had the oil, filled their bottles, and sold it at a reasonable price, saving herself and her sons from slavery, and helping her neighbors at the same time.

The first thing that the woman gave was her trust. They didn’t have home Bibles back then, but they did have men like Elisha, that knew God well and could provide people with God’s living word at any time and in any circumstance. She planted trust in what Elisha said. She had the oil in her house. Elisha got her to see what she already had, and then he gave her the wisdom on what to do with it.

We can go to the Lord Jesus directly and know He’ll give us the same good help that Elisha gave this woman. What have you got in your house? An understanding heart, a listening ear, a few loaves of bread, a vehicle for transportation, extra money, a job opportunity. Everyone has something to give.

In times of trauma, we all have something we can give, and let’s not forget to be good receivers as well.

Let’s acknowledge what God has given us and plant something good every day.

Love, Carolyn

Love of flowers and all things green and growing

Is with many men and women a passion so strong

That it often seems to be sort of primal instinct,

Coming down through generation after generation,

From the first man who was put into a garden

“To dress it and to keep it.”

                                                            --Helena Rutherford Ely

                                               

WHO DO YOU SAY HE IS?

WHO DO YOU SAY HE IS?

This is a brilliant article on the Biblical backstory of a Pandemic and worth reading to the end for sure! It’s written by Lloyd Philips and he posted it on FB on the 11^th of February.

Keys over Pandemic-

There's a place in northern Israel where the Canaanites worshiped the god Baal (Judges 3:3). King Jeroboam of the northern kingdom of Israel set up an altar to Baal nearby. In time this whole region was known for pagan worship and Baal worship. Years later when the Greeks conquered the region they renamed the city Panias after the Greek god Pan. Pan, like Baal before it, was considered the fertility god, and likewise had worship that was associated with bloody sacrifice and all sorts of sexual deviancy.

Pan also was said to be able to strike terror into the hearts of people and groups of people causing uncontrollable fear and irrational behavior. It is from this attribute that we get our word panic. We also get our word pandemonium, and finally the word pandemic also comes from Pan.

There was a great cave with a deep cavern at the spot where the worship of Pan took place and where the temple was later built for worshiping Pan. Worshipers believed that the spirits would travel from the underworld, called Hades, through this cavern in the earth. They would throw their sacrifices down into the cavern where they believed Pan and other gods would receive their bloodied offerings. It was a demonic portal.

After the death of Herod the Great the Romans divided his kingdom between his three sons and Philip was placed over the region which included this area. Philip renamed the city Caesarea Philippi honoring Caesar and himself.

This is the spot where Jesus came with His disciples when He asked the question, "who do men say that I am?" They told Him what people were saying, and then He asked, "who do you say that I am?" Peter responded, "you are the Christ" or the Messiah. Jesus said to him, “flesh and blood hasn't revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven, and upon this rock, the revelation that Jesus is the Messiah, I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.”

Matthew 16:13 When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?”

14 So they said, “Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”

15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”

16 Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

17 Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.

18 And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.

19 And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

I think that Jesus chose this spot strategically to reveal His true identity to His disciples and declare while at the actual gate of Hades that no gate of hell can prevail against Jesus building anything that He has come to build.

Who do you say that He is? Who is Jesus in your life and has He been allowed to build what He wishes in you?

We find ourselves in situations where people panic, where there is pandemonium over buying and travel and gatherings, where there is a call of a pandemic. But Jesus is still Lord, those who have a revelation of who He is, including the protector, including the healer, including the Prince who is peace, have been given keys to His Kingdom and will not walk in fear, but will have the confidence to walk in faith.

Scripture says that we should not be anxious for anything but in everything with prayer in specific request should make our requests known unto God. Those who have confidence in the Lord Jesus, who is the Messiah, have no reason to fear.

Philippians 4:4 Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!

5 Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand.

6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God;

7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Those who have faith have no reason (or excuse) to worry. Consideration, yes, wisdom also, but not worry. Trust and worry are antithetical to one another. Fear is a form of faith, a negative faith, and it brings similar results, but in the negative form. Fear and worry can be more contagious than a virus, but we can quarantine our soul through faith. Any crisis is an opportunity to show your strong faith. Don't let Pan bring panic to your door, but rather let faith be your spiritual key to letting Jesus be your door to peace, power, and blessings.

Who do you say that He is?”

Love, Carolyn

WE'RE SMARTER THAN WE THINK

WE’RE SMARTER THAN WE THINK

Many years ago, I read Between Two Worlds: Escape from Tyranny: Growing Up in the Shadow of Saddam

by Zainab Salbi, the daughter of Saddam Hussein’s personal pilot. She described the terror he inflicted on those around him:

“Fear of Saddam took over every Iraqi heart and mind. He was everywhere and anywhere, and any stray negative thought about him made us watch our backs. As a child, I grew up watching hours and hours of TV coverage of him surprising families in the middle of the afternoon by entering their kitchens and opening their refrigerators. I guess this was a dictator’s version of a reality show; the entire country could peer into people’s cupboards and see what they were having for lunch. I didn’t understand why he revealed the intimate lives of people on national TV until the night my family and I had dinner with Saddam.

“It wasn’t one dinner but years of lunches and dinners, because my father was his private pilot. At times, my parents would be in their bed falling asleep when suddenly they had to wake up and entertain Saddam in the middle of the night, making sure that they looked bright and excited.

“He was charismatic and engaging, but he also spread fear. In the midst of one family lunch he asked everyone what they thought of Napoleon. At face value, you would think that’s just a lunch conversation among friends. And that is indeed how one friend answered, saying: “Napoleon is a man who rolled down from the hill of power as fast he rose up to it.” Saddam answered: “Are you referring to Napoleon or are you referring to Napoleon [referring to himself]?” If there is such thing as air leaving the room, then that was that moment. His switch from friendliness to anger was common, and we all knew he killed friends and relatives; no one would be spared.”

Salib’s book is fascinating, but more insightful to me was when I experienced being in the presence of someone who exhibited similar characteristics to Hussein! This person knew very private things about the people who worked under him, and he used the knowledge of those things to intimidate and control. I believe it was evil spirits that told him these things, because they were intimate things that no one spoke about, and certainly not to him.

Ecclesiastes 1:9 tells us: “The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.” At first, this looks like it may be a contradiction to other verses in the Bible, like Isaiah 43:19, where God says: “Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.”

There are no contradictions in the Bible, just verses and concepts and phrases we may not yet understand. This is one of those.

“Under the sun” is a phrase that is peculiar to Ecclesiastes and is used 29 times. It is equivalent to “upon the earth,” and it refers to all that is connected with earthly things as such, and with man apart from God.” (E.W. Bullinger Companion Bible KJV).

Separated from God, there is and never will be anything new. God is the only creator. The devil can’t create anything. So when we learn to recognize a demon or a demonic mechanism, it will always operate in the same way as the Bible describes it – there are variations, but the basics are ever the same. Demons exhibit the very same characteristics in leaders of countries as they do in leaders of three or four people or even less. The same kind of evil people and evil ways we read about in the Old Testament exist today. When we examine and recognize the evil we read about in the Bible, we will understand and recognize the evils we see today. Anything the devil pulls into this world now has been done before.

The devil is not a creator. If we’ve seen him operate in a certain evil way one time, we recognize when we see it again—nothing new.  That’s why God reminds us in 2 Corinthians 2:11: “Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.”

We’re smart! We actually know more than we think we know. We’re smarter spiritually than we give ourselves credit for!

When you think about who we are and the possibilities we have creatively, it’s amazing. God has not stopped creating! What God was in the beginning, He is now. Yes, He uses the same elements that He originally created, but there’s nothing in the Bible that says He can’t create more.

Just a few examples from the New Testament: Ephesians 2:10 says: “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” Did you know that the word “Christ” means “the anointed one”? That same anointing is in us. Think about that! It’s a spiritual anointing, different from anything else.

In Psalm 51:10, David asks God to “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.” He can do that. In Isaiah 57:18, God says: “I have seen his ways, and will heal him: I will lead him also, and restore comforts unto him and to his mourners. I create the fruit of the lips; Peace, peace to him that is far off, and to him that is near, saith the Lord; and I will heal him.” You see, God is still creating, and even so far as to be creating what we dare to say. So, let’s dare to say what God says: He is healing me, and I have peace!

With the devil, there is no new thing under the sun. It’s all old and rotten. Use the Bible to get smart. You’re already way smarter than you know. Believe what you see.

On the other side, we have a creative God! If He can create a new heart in us, He can do anything we need Him to do for us. God can create anything we need.

Love, Carolyn

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

My mom passed away a couple of weeks ago. In 1 Corinthians 15:55, God tells Christians to consider the question: “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” The answer is that for Christians who take their last breath on earth, death no longer has a sting, and the grave has no victory either. We pass from one life to another, a life that is wonderful and everlasting in heaven. But when a pivotal person passes away, those of us who are left are sometimes forced to answer a different question: “Where do we go from here?” Everything is different now and it's kind of scary and empty feeling.

My mom’s passing was the end of an era: No dad and mom anymore, no more Christmases like before, no more laughing at silly cards, no more talking about the deer and birds we saw out her big picture window. Certain traditions stop suddenly, and I ask myself: “What now?”  I realize many of you have experienced what I’m feeling now, and you’ve gotten through it. People have lost husbands, wives, children, siblings, parents, best friends. People have lost their countries altogether. I never knew until now, how many things can change as a result of certain losses. I definitely feel like I have gained more empathy for those who have experienced great loss.

Some losses are less painful, and then there are those that hit deeper, and the changes are not gentle, but radical. I am feeling like I’m stuck in a bit of an empty space. What am I going to do? This feels kind of lonely and weird. But I have choices. I can either stay in a quandary and just let life happen, or I can change this “empty” to “opportunity.” I choose opportunity. It’s kind of like a re-birth. I can discover new things and make new traditions, but never without the guidance of my God, would I ever even attempt such things. I have to let God guide me to the next thing, that at this moment, well, I have no idea what that might be.

This new frame of mind makes me think of Abraham when God told him to take off to a place he didn’t know. 

Genesis 12:1-2 says: “Now the Lord had said unto Abram, ‘Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing.’”

At the time, God didn’t even tell Abraham where He planned for him to go. It was less about the physical destination, and way more about the spiritual relationship, daily destined to pay attention to the Lord’s leading. Abraham’s physical destination didn’t matter nearly as much as his destiny to daily dwell in the presence of God. That is our ultimate destination and destiny as well.  

Hebrews 11:8 reiterates: “By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.”

Psalm 91:1-2 gives me inspiration: “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.”

My mom loved God; she loved the Bible; she loved adventure; and she loved new things. Her passing not only opened a new life for her in heaven, but it opened new things in life for me here on earth. I will have more compassion for those who have lost pivotal people in their lives; I will stick closer to God and be more like Abraham and live more by faith. I will do my best to honor my mom and dad in death, and I will determine to make new traditions and enjoy every place the Lord will take me.

Where do we go from here? I don’t know, but I do know I have the best guide.

Love, Carolyn