"And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness."
"In our image" corresponds to the body soul and spirit of man, made on the standard of the Word was God. This three fold division we see repeated in the manner man hears sees and his walk. As with man and in his inner man God has set the two worlds framed by the word of God. The Father has decreed for the Son the day which represent the unseen world and the world made to appear. We have two examples to illustrate it.
God calls out Abraham and blesses him so he is after the likeness of his Son. In Ge 13. 3-4 we read the travel itinerary of Abraham making a look circle as it were. Beginning and at the end he makes an altar at Bethel "Unto the place of the altar, which he had make there at the first: and there Abram called on the name of the Lord."
In 13:15 we read his promises were in Jesus Christ. "For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever." Forever is the tag for the Son.
Thereafter he moves on to Mamre. "Then Abram removed his tent, and came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre, which is in Hebron, and built there an altar unto the Lord." In these two places Bethel and Mamre God refers to his seed as in v.16 "And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered." In Ch.15 we read of his seed having another quality. "And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be.:(Ge.15:5). Here we have Abraham the man moving towards south and back. In v.6 faith is established as the basis for the difference in quality of his seed. "And he believed in the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness."
"In straight line of vision" is a phrase to fix faith with works. Jesus made the blind look up; so did Peter and John heal the lame beggar.
"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!"
The vision of St John does not contradict the threefold divisions because the Father Son relationship and the everlasting covenant isfrom everlasting to everlasting and it glorifies Jesus Christ who is the express image and brightness of His glory. The Spirit moving upon the face of waters creates a body, which is signified with the woman in labor. The 12 stars in her crown are the heavenly places as distinct from the seven stars in the hand of Christ, Significance of numbers we shall consider in another post.
The three fold divisions we see in the sun, the moon and the stars."And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also." (Ge.1:16) And it is to give light on the earth which refers to the darkness. The two great lights serve as the turnpike moment for the day of regeneration. The church the holy city of god is defined as the light of the Lamb serving the left out church.
After the man child is caught up to the throne "And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days."(Re.12:6). The number is not about days as we known the term but Jesus Christ, the Alpha and Omega aspect. God has prepared for Israel and the Gentiles hinges on the selfsame covenant.
Up and down in short refers to God the Father of lights the crown of 12 stars are set in heavenly places, the angels and below man called to be holy and without blame, "According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love." (Ep.1:4-5), In the calling of Abraham we have the same up and down, God sending him to Egypt and back to Mamre (Ge.13). Jacob makes a similar circle.
The altar was a practice for the entire old testament. A place where a sacrifice was made to God for the sins of the people. Incense where also burned there. The altar now is the place where we send the incense of our heart to the Father. Where we lay down those things before God and surrender them to him, as Abraham did with Isaac. We do this anywhere we have a true connection with God in prayer. The altar is a position of the heart more than a physical thing. The altar is a symbol but it is also a place for new converts to learn the position for their heart. An altar should be available for people to lay their burdens down until they learn to lay them before the Lord in secret and even after that, an altar is a place of worshiping in truth. We declare that God is the only one who can help us when we are at the altar. The very act of kneeling before the throne of grace is an act of surrender. Many people leave the altar no different than when they came in but God begins breaking up that soil and getting it ready to receive. So I believe with all of my heart that the altar should never be removed from the church.
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Romans 12:1
Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
1 Peter 2:5
For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word. Isaiah 66:2
And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.
You will have many that will tell you the saved will go to heaven and the lost will go to hell. Some will say, like myself, we sleep in death until resurrection and no one goes to heaven, our eternity will be on the new earth. Question, when are we absent from this body? If you have not studied the Bible for the answer that would be what you should do without any preconceived ideas. In the Bible with the guidance of the Holy Spirit you will be shown the truth.
If they are a believer, yes To be absent from the body is to be present with the LORD. An unbeliever will lift his eyes in hell, like the rich man in the parable JESUS spoke of in Luke... God Bless .
I would like to submit a comment to find out the Brethrens different views on Altar call? Biblical or no? Heretical or harmless?? All answers greatly appreciated... Amanda...
Yes, the similarities are noteworthy indeed! I do wonder (with the woman) if the crowd knew she was considered unclean as she was making her way through to Jesus. She would have been required to call out "unclean, unclean" before going around anyone. I know it's of no importance, just curious. I do appreciate you sharing those similarities.
"One Lord, one faith, one baptism,/ One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all."
God is a Spirit,"who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honour and might forever."(1 Tim.6:16). His breath makes man a living soul. By his breath he adorned the heavens. " By his spirit he hath garnished the heavens; his hand hath formed the crooked serpent."( Job 26:13)
God gives St John a vision which is a spiritual event and the key is held by the word of God. Let us consider the Woman clothed with the Sun. "A woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars:" (Re.12:1) In the v.4 we also see a red dragon."And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads."
This a direct illustration of Ge.1:2 "And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." The Sun denotes God while the moon under the woman's feet reveals grace which the body, the church can avail of. These stars are witnesses, whom we see in the hand of Christ in the inaugural vision. "The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches."(Re.1:20)
The woman is in labor. "And the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born" The man child is what the earth represents.Christ the Man and the child part of man child covers all 'the little ones',- the saints waiting to be redeemed from the earth" Now we can understand why the earth was without form and void.
And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not." ( John 1:4) Now regarding the darkness it refers to the seat of the crooked serpent that is impervious to the Spirit's working. They quench the spirit so speak.
Dear Sister , do yourself a favour and go and see your Dad . As young children , we have no idea what is going on in our parents lives that make them behave the way they do . That's not to make excuses for him . Parents are human too and often they have no idea what to do for the best . Go with an open heart and try to understand where your Dad us coming from . Forgiveness is not something we do to benefit the person we are forgiving , when we forgive someone we are doing ourselves a big favour , spiritually it is good for you . Take Jesus for an example in this situation . How much did he forgive when he was here in a human body ? He forgave much more than we will ever have to face . Forgiveness is one of the most important cornerstones of Christianity , if you can't do it , you will struggle spiritually .
When we consider the second part of God's command "after our likeness " we shall see what grass, herb and tree stands for.
What is grass? It is a metaphor for transient nature glory of the world as distinct from the earth. The earth abides forever because the seen world framed by the word of God represents the Son. "The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever."(Is.40:8)'Forever' is a term that the Spirit uses to refer Jesus Christ. (He.13:8). The world is what sinful man has created which shall be purged by fire.
The herb is associated with healing and fortifying man by proper use. "Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savour: so doth a little folly him that is in reputation for wisdom and honour."(Ec.10:1) Man's failure to keep the word of God scrupulously, causes shame. The fruit bearig tree similarly turns out to be brambles for the same reason. "Yea, they shall not be planted; yea, they shall not be sown: yea, their stock shall not take root in the earth: and he shall also blow upon them, and they shall wither, and the whirlwind shall take them away as stubble."(Is.40:24)
After our likeness explains the passages of the Bible where it is to be determined by Jesus Christ as the sign. "Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant."(Ex.31:15) Jesus is the Lord of sabbath. "For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day."(Matt.12:8) It is what the day of regeneration represents. Jesus Christ has brought his holy saints to God's rest. It is the crux of the blessings enshrined in the everlasting coovenant.
"Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee."
The Word of God is the seed in itself which has come from God to man. So the Bible is the God document and what God has sown in our hearts we need accept as our solemn responsibility.
God is a Spirit. It is sown in heart which is a spiritual space. God formed all hearts alike but not all produce the same yield.
God is a Spirit from everlasting to everlasting. The Spirit in organising the Document deals with His righteousness so the Book is a Manual of instruction 2 Ti.3:16. The only way to be fruitful we have faith to which there is no alternative.
God blessed man "Be fruitful"
Ge.1:11-12 There are grass, herbs and trees. The Spirit has supplied us sets of three with which the Spirit tells us God is one. (De.6:4) But in his personality there are three facets so the Word is sound as well as a sign. Besides it has a body which explains the examples cited here above. "But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body.
"(1 Co.15:38)
God is a Spirit and when God sent his only begotten Son to the world ,the begotten is in the sense that God was the Word. Jesus Christ could claim therefore, "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work" So the Word and Man as a sign gives us the Father-Son relationship.( John 1:1; 5:17)
The everlasting covenant is based on this relationship. Thus when they say "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness:"(Ge.1:25) "In our image" refers to the tripartite nature of man. Body spirit and soul are therefore non-negotiable. The seed in itself is the word so there is a spiritual significance when God commands man,"Be ye holy for I am holy" The word of God is a witness in the spiritual space we call as heart.
God gives the seed as it pleased him. The Word become flesh has a body which is a glorious body. So the Spirit refers to Christ coming in his glory, with his holy angels.(Matt.35:31)
Brother Jesse (and Jaz), I believe Jesus' Words in Luke 7:47 are directly related to His Words to Simon in Luke 7:40-43. In this passage, Jesus asks Simon which of those two debtors would love the kind forgiving creditor more: the one who owed five hundred pence or the one who owed fifty?
I sense that Jesus was showing Simon, via this short parable, that this woman of the night came here with a great weight upon her heart: a weight of much sin maybe over a long period of time & hearing of Jesus, she came to the only One Who could forgive her. Thus she expressed her sorrow & unceasing repentance by this act of utter humility of not only washing the feet of Jesus with her tears & anointment but stooping even further to kiss His feet. So, I see a clear but stern message to Simon that this woman, whom he sorely despised, was showing more love because of her need of much forgiveness, than Simon who gave Jesus little respect & having no inclination to self-examination, apart from inviting Him to his house for a meal, as a kind gesture.
I agree that I do see a message here of a self-righteous Pharisee who believes he has no need of self-introspection bringing on repentance & renewal, when compared to this woman who wept over her sins before the Holy Son of God; yet I see, that Jesus' emphasis here is on the full expression of love & gratitude when one is forgiven for their many sins, whereas those who might 'love little' can include those such as the religiously inclined who offer regular set prayers for forgiveness or even those not giving much regard to the gravity of their sins before God, these would not demonstrate the same tearful emotion that the woman laden with sins displayed. So, I perceive that Jesus is showing us here is the value of true repentance for sins & resulting gratitude, rather than what comes from a heart not so mightily affected by the wretchedness of sin. Forgiveness is the end result, but our response in love may be quite different.
And so we see Faith in its greatest display here: that full 'persuasion' meant that nothing else mattered when the desperate need for help & restoration drove one person to the only One Who can deliver & heal. And of course, with Nicodemus, John 19:39,40 reveals that he, along with Joseph of Arimathaea, tended with all care to the lifeless Body of Jesus, having believed the Words of Jesus given to Him at the first & now fully persuaded even identifying with Jesus in His Death.
It appears that Nicodemus was now a new man, grieving over Jesus & separated from the rest of his company of murderous colleagues who no doubt were overcome with joy at Jesus' Death & the end of their problems. I also wonder if that woman's faith held up strongly after her healing & realization that all Jesus had done to her & for others, none other could do "except God be with Him". Blessings.
Thanks brother Jesse for that very informative & enlightening explanation on the different parts of those garments. As I considered Luke 8:43-48 & the condition of the woman (both her emotional & physical states), my mind went also to John 3:1,2 concerning Nicodemus. Of course, these are two very separate events, but the similarities seem noteworthy.
Both the woman & Nicodemus had very clear pressing needs. The one for healing of her persistent, long-drawn-out bleeding condition & the other, of his desperate need to reconcile what his fellow Pharisees believed about Jesus & what was niggling in his own mind of the real truth about Jesus ("for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him").
They both came in secret/under cover to Jesus. The woman in faith coming under cover, completely oblivious to the multitude pressing upon Jesus ( Luke 8:45), risking being recognized, dragged out & beaten for her 'crime'; as was Nicodemus, in secret from the prying eyes of his peers & probable expulsion - using the cover of darkness, desperate to learn the secret about this Man whom so many hated & would feel justified in killing.
If either of these two came up openly to Jesus, in public view, they might well have not had their needs met, for reasons given above. But their great need for healing, one for a sick body & the other for a troubled mind & spirit, were greater than the probable results that would have come against them. Onto Page 2.
Sorry, but I don't have an answer for the female Rabbi question. I am not aware of any female Rabbi's in the Old Testament. I don't believe females are allowed to serve as Rabbi's in Orthodox Judaism, but please don't quote me on that.
What I meant by there was no physical touch, and I should have clarified that, so thank you so much for catching that as what I said does seem misleading. But what I meant is that Jesus did not lay His hands on her or touch her in order for her to be healed. She touched Him, and virtue went out from Him. There was no physical touch on Jesus' part other than her touching Him.
I see why you wantin to tell about that now ha,wow thats excellent research/schooling,,especially when the instructions,blueprint for it all down to the number of the threads came in the bible..
like instruction of the ark of the covenent and temples curtains etc.those were special craftsman/women back then you can sense the spiritual help they were getin,first time read it thought im gonna make me one, thats what did for living
i/we do passover since mid 80's. but its standard time one also been doing Lunar passover..you would halfto to know the story on that one to understand it,ha...
the 613 letters of the Ten Commandments is excellent gemstone,thankyou
Was there female Rabbi;s at some point n if so what were they called.probably not,but just checkin. im still being schooled by a teacher,thats my guided source but yes also ive noticed about the word Sun,..and alot of others words with just one differant letter,,ha But,very good info there,alot of Gems...
but dont understand one thing,you said she touched the Kanaph ,the border,then last thing you said,there was no physical touch,. jst asking in good honest jest,and for taking time to share this awesome info,nice gift.
Thanks for sharing your testimony. I enjoyed reading that. I wanted to let you know that I have not forgotten about you. I have been going through Matthew's gospel and once I finish with Matthew, I will begin sharing the differences I see between what the Greek text is saying verses our English Bibles.
I also wanted to ask if you have a spell-checker that might be changing your words. In one post you mentioned a "Masochistic Text" where it should be Masoretic Text. And in your testimony, you mentioned special prayers you read from a "cataclysm." I think the proper word be Catechism. Although, the word "cataclysm" would fit as a better descriptive word for that church!
I completely missed your whole point and I do apologize for that. I think I understand your message better now. I re-read your original post and your question asking about Luke 7:47 where Jesus talks about those to whom little is forgiven, and asking if He means those who haven't sinned very much, or those who THINK that they haven't sinned very much?" Unless someone else has an answer to that, the only answer I am able to give is that in that section of scripture, Jesus is showing a contrast between the love of a sinful woman and a self-righteous Pharisee. What you are saying does make sense. The Pharisees had their own righteousness (Self-righteousness). Sorry I didn't have a better answer!
Back then even Jesus was called a rabbi, and He had a prayer shawl. The word teacher is DIDASKALOS. HRABI in Hebrew means teacher. Around the 18th or 19th century the whole meaning of rabbi changed to what we know today. Today, it's somebody who's on staff and part of the leadership in the administration. Back then the rabbis were teachers and that is all they did.
It's interesting that when rabbis would travel (Jesus being a rabbi), He wore a TALLIT. And this woman said if I can just come up and touch the KANAPH of His garment (the promise of Malachi 4:2). Jewish people went around touching the hems and the tassels of Jewish rabbis because they believed in their teachings that if the Jewish rabbi truly was anointed of God, that you could touch his KANAPH and be healed. It didn't always happen. That is just part of their tradition.
But it was based on God's promise here, that healing in His KANAPH (translated wings) is part of the robe for the rabbis. The reason she comes up behind Jesus is because she is unclean. She is not even supposed to be there in the crowd. But she knows, because she knows who Jesus is and she has heard about Him, so she comes up from behind Him and touches the KANAPH, the border. And immediately she was healed.
Jesus in Verse 45 says, "Who touched me?" After everybody denied it, Peter and they that were with him said, Master, the multitude is thronging and pressing upon you, what do you mean, who touched me? Everybody's touching you! Jesus turns and instructs them and says, "Somebody has touched me: for I perceive that virtue has gone out of me." This was a special ministry that came out from Jesus to this woman. It wasn't a physical touch.
I hope this was not too long and I do hope that you might find some use with what I have shared here. God Bless!!!
Those little tassels, those little threads, there are exactly 613 of them. And they are all made on 12 tassels. And they have to be counted and they have to be exact, 613 threads representing the 613 letters in the 10 Commandments. And those tassels are called the TSITSITS on the KANAPH.
Now the Jews themselves, why did they go around touching people's robes? Well, in Malachi 4:2, it says, "But unto you that fear My name shall The Sun of Righteousness (and please notice how Sun is spelled). This is one of the passages of scriptures that's used in creation studies in the book of Genesis to show that the way that the Lord created the universe is to represent His relationship with His people. Jesus, the Messiah is called the Sun (SUN) of Righteousness. "But unto you that fear My name shall The Sun of Righteousness arise, with healing in His KANAPH. It says wings, but it is the word KANAPH. And you shall go forth and grow up as calves in the stall.
And so, the TALLIT, or some people call it the TALETH, is the prayer shawl. That's the whole shawl that the Jewish men wear. And the KANAPH is the border, and the TSITSIT are the tassels.
Now the whole robe, in Numbers 15:37-41, this was the Lord's instructions on the making of this robe, its color, everything about it. And so, putting all those scriptures together, just in their brief summary form, is that whenever a rabbi, and by the way the rabbis back then were different than the rabbis today.
Rabbis back then in Jesus' day were teachers. They were not on staff. They were not part of the leadership of the synagogue. They were teachers. And that is all they did was teach. In fact, some of them traveled from village to village and charged people money for them to teach their children the Torah (the Law).
I do agree with you about the parallels in the bible. You make an interesting statement about His power going out exclusively to her. With such a huge crowd pressing against Jesus, so many people had to have been touching Him, but His virtue only goes out to her.
Sorry it took me a bit to get back with you. I needed to find my notes from a study I did several years ago on Luke 8:43-48 which I have outlined as "The Provision for The Hemophiliac." I wanted to share more about what this woman actually touched on Jesus' garment.
In Verse 43, we have this woman who had a constant hemorrhaging problem and she had it for 12 straight years. Since she had this kind of condition, she would have to wear a red robe, and she would have to call out "unclean, unclean" as she came near people. She was unclean to touch or to be around the public. It's interesting that "Dr. Luke" gives us a little information. She spent everything she had on physicians and none of them could heal her! So, she comes up from behind Jesus and her issue of blood stopped flowing.
Here's what I find fascinating about this garment:
Leviticus 15:25 tells us that if a woman has an issue of blood many days out of the time of her separation, if it runs beyond the time of her separation, all the days of the issue of her uncleanness shall be as the days of her separation, she shall be unclean. She was unclean for 12 years.
The KANAPH is the bottom border of the garment, the robe that the Jewish men wore. The TALLIT is the name of the prayer shawl. The KANAPH is the border on the garment at the bottom. Then there are these little tassels that hang down from the KANAPH and they are called TSITTSIT's (pronounced seat-seats). If you ever get the chance to attend a real live Jewish Passover meal, you will notice the little tassels that hang down off of the border, or the KANAPH of his prayer garment. And it's interesting because those cannot just be made by anybody.
This is not to say that God is not complete as a Being. He is totally complete, lacking nothing that is divine in His nature. But to speak of the simplicity of God is to speak of His complete unity in His essence. He is not made of parts, components, such as our bodies have or things He has created. He is only Spirit in His essential nature and His Being is all of His attributes eternally operating in a unified wholeness and all attributes are always expressed. It has been said that He IS His attributes. Are moral, intellectual, and emotional attributes change, His does not. So He cannot not be any one of His attributes all of the time.
Another way to think of this is that God is all that He has. He cannot increase or diminish any attribute of Himself because that would be a change in Himself. As humans, we speak of His attributes, but He really does not have separate attributes within Himself. He is all that He is because He is one divine essence.
You can read in Scripture many was that God says that He IS: a consuming fire, love, Spirit, light. One of the most telling things God says of Himself is how He named Himself to Moses: I AM WHO I AM. Ex. 3:14; a name that speaks to His simplicity, eternity, and self-existence. "ehyah asher ehyeh".
The God's simplicity of His Being helps us to grasp that He is a Being all to Himself. There is no other like Him. He alone is God, He is the beginning and the end of all things. All that we can say about who He is and all that He has revealed about Himself is Who He Is Always in totally and unity. There is no greater or lesser aspect of God. He is All in All.
Sublime describes God's overall exceeding, excelling, matchless, greatness in all of His attributes.
It is an all-encompassing kind of attribute that speaks to His transcendence, holiness, and awe-inspiring nature. It is attributed to the magnitude of these attributes as well as that of His majesty, splendor, beauty, power, wisdom, profundity, etc.
Saying God is sublime is saying in all of His Being, He is extraordinary in all of his excellencies, infiniteness, limitless, supremeness in that His whole essence far exceeds anything He has created. He is the paramount of Beings, the Apex from which all things have their source and life. He in incomparable in his glory and exaltation. There is none higher nor who even can come near to His greatness. His transcendent nature is spoken of being "far" as in "Am I not a God who is near (imminent) and I am a God who is far away? (transcendent). Jer. 23:23
Therefore, sublime is an adjective that sort of "sums up" all the perfections of God as a whole package, so to speak.
Many of the posts I've made about who God is do overlap, as we will see in the next post.
Does our soul live on after we die? Do the souls of the dead roam around on the earth and some are in heaven and some are in hell? This is my understanding, the thought or belief in ghosts or spirits of people, some going to heaven and some going to hell comes from the teaching that the soul is immortal, and the soul never dies. It started when the serpent told Eve you shall not surely die, many ancient nations had different forms of religious beliefs on the immortality of the soul, and what we see today was adopted from Greek philosophy.
Are there evil spirits, devils, and demons on this earth? Yes, and these are what people are encountering, my understanding of the Bible they are not the souls of people. God told Israel and it applies to us today, not to deal with mediums or spiritualism those who work divination. We see Saul doing it in 1 Samuel 28 and he died because he did it, 1 Chronicles 10:13.
We sleep in death when we die Psalm 13:3Matthew 27:52John 11:11-141 Corinthians 15:20. We only put on immortality when we are resurrected, Job 14:13-14Daniel 12:21 John 5:28-29 Corinthians 15:51-54. I hope this helps but you and your husband study it for your understanding, not mine.
Hello Dear Brother , I don't disagree with one word that you have replied to me and thank you for them .
In my message , I wasn't really talking about her , I was talking about those people who were forgiven little and therefore loved little in return and those who think that they are whole and righteous . Their response to Christ is different to that of someone who is able to recognise their own sinfulness . A bit like the men who gather around the woman taken in adultery . The older ones put their stones down and move away from her before the younger ones do , their consciences have had longer to mature and they are seemingly wiser to their own faults .
I think we need to be the same as those older men no matter how old or young we are , we need to grow a conscience and try to put it next to the amount of pure love that has , and is being ,shown to us by God every day . If we put our own consciences in one side of the scales and the pure love of God in the other side....imagine how low those scales would go on one side but not the other !
Hi Jaz,yes,im not in no way saying that any gift from God has to be asked for, i totally understand his Blessing are on the face of the earth over Evrything,including plants animals and All.....100%, He's a Awesome mysterious God
have learned thru personal experience when it comes to things out of extra ordinanary,when a person is in some kind of trouble knowing or not,that person needs to ask for help on there own accord,and not to expect help with out asking. again im not claiming that God wont help anyone knowing or not,with out asking. thats just a General Rule. that ive experinced to be true
but as mentioned primarily, when it comes to forgiveness or obtaining the Gift of Heaven those were the two main focal points
the Gift of Heaven is a Enormous Gift and if someone cant bring themselves to at least ask for or pursue it then good luck to em
but Appreciate your response had a feeling that was going to be taken like that by someone,,, ha
I would like to share my understanding on Luke 7:47. Verses 48-50 can be read also with Verse 47.
This is another instance where God's Spirit worked in a situation to show what faith looks like. Her love did not produce her salvation. She was not saved by works.
What Jesus is saying is that her love proved that she was saved, that she was forgiven. Love is a fruit, a response to Christ, not a work in order to gain salvation. It is a byproduct.
John says in first John Chapter 4, "We love Him because He first loved us." Our relationship with the Lord is a response. Even thanksgiving does not originate with us. We are told to give God thanks for everything.
The word thanksgiving means respond to grace. That is what it means, EUCHARISTHEO CHARIS.
The more I am exposed to God's grace, the more I have a response of thanks. Gratitude! God's pouring out in my life, what I need and I don't deserve, and I thank Him for it. That is what it means. Her love was proof of her faith.
Look at the apostle Paul who was Saul of Tarsus. God saved him and Paul says "I'm not worthy to be an apostle because I persecuted church of God." And he told Timothy in 1 Timothy 1:15, he says "I am the chiefest of sinners!" And that's my message, that if I'm the chiefest of sinners, and God can save me, He can save anybody. What a message to have. But Paul was no celebrity!
How would we like to have the most notorious criminal in the world visit our church? And they come and say "I got a testimony!" It would be like, "Yeah, we don't mind as long as we have two people follow you around!" Just stay away from the offering box!
But you know, the people who are the most sinful, when they get saved, watch out because they're gone. They will leave us in the dust. For the person who is forgiven most will love the most. It gives that much more importance to pray for the people that we know who are not saved.
"And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness."
"In our image" corresponds to the body soul and spirit of man, made on the standard of the Word was God. This three fold division we see repeated in the manner man hears sees and his walk. As with man and in his inner man God has set the two worlds framed by the word of God. The Father has decreed for the Son the day which represent the unseen world and the world made to appear. We have two examples to illustrate it.
God calls out Abraham and blesses him so he is after the likeness of his Son. In Ge 13. 3-4 we read the travel itinerary of Abraham making a look circle as it were. Beginning and at the end he makes an altar at Bethel "Unto the place of the altar, which he had make there at the first: and there Abram called on the name of the Lord."
In 13:15 we read his promises were in Jesus Christ. "For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever." Forever is the tag for the Son.
Thereafter he moves on to Mamre. "Then Abram removed his tent, and came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre, which is in Hebron, and built there an altar unto the Lord." In these two places Bethel and Mamre God refers to his seed as in v.16 "And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered." In Ch.15 we read of his seed having another quality. "And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be.:(Ge.15:5). Here we have Abraham the man moving towards south and back. In v.6 faith is established as the basis for the difference in quality of his seed. "And he believed in the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness."
"In straight line of vision" is a phrase to fix faith with works. Jesus made the blind look up; so did Peter and John heal the lame beggar.
"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!"
The vision of St John does not contradict the threefold divisions because the Father Son relationship and the everlasting covenant isfrom everlasting to everlasting and it glorifies Jesus Christ who is the express image and brightness of His glory. The Spirit moving upon the face of waters creates a body, which is signified with the woman in labor. The 12 stars in her crown are the heavenly places as distinct from the seven stars in the hand of Christ, Significance of numbers we shall consider in another post.
The three fold divisions we see in the sun, the moon and the stars."And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also." (Ge.1:16) And it is to give light on the earth which refers to the darkness. The two great lights serve as the turnpike moment for the day of regeneration. The church the holy city of god is defined as the light of the Lamb serving the left out church.
After the man child is caught up to the throne "And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days."(Re.12:6). The number is not about days as we known the term but Jesus Christ, the Alpha and Omega aspect. God has prepared for Israel and the Gentiles hinges on the selfsame covenant.
Up and down in short refers to God the Father of lights the crown of 12 stars are set in heavenly places, the angels and below man called to be holy and without blame, "According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love." (Ep.1:4-5), In the calling of Abraham we have the same up and down, God sending him to Egypt and back to Mamre (Ge.13). Jacob makes a similar circle.
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Romans 12:1
Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
1 Peter 2:5
For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word. Isaiah 66:2
And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.
Revelations 8:3
also, see Isaiah 66:2-4
You will have many that will tell you the saved will go to heaven and the lost will go to hell. Some will say, like myself, we sleep in death until resurrection and no one goes to heaven, our eternity will be on the new earth. Question, when are we absent from this body? If you have not studied the Bible for the answer that would be what you should do without any preconceived ideas. In the Bible with the guidance of the Holy Spirit you will be shown the truth.
God bless,
RLW
Yes, the similarities are noteworthy indeed! I do wonder (with the woman) if the crowd knew she was considered unclean as she was making her way through to Jesus. She would have been required to call out "unclean, unclean" before going around anyone. I know it's of no importance, just curious. I do appreciate you sharing those similarities.
God Bless!!!
"One Lord, one faith, one baptism,/ One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all."
God is a Spirit,"who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honour and might forever."(1 Tim.6:16). His breath makes man a living soul. By his breath he adorned the heavens. " By his spirit he hath garnished the heavens; his hand hath formed the crooked serpent."( Job 26:13)
God gives St John a vision which is a spiritual event and the key is held by the word of God. Let us consider the Woman clothed with the Sun. "A woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars:" (Re.12:1) In the v.4 we also see a red dragon."And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads."
This a direct illustration of Ge.1:2 "And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." The Sun denotes God while the moon under the woman's feet reveals grace which the body, the church can avail of. These stars are witnesses, whom we see in the hand of Christ in the inaugural vision. "The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches."(Re.1:20)
The woman is in labor. "And the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born" The man child is what the earth represents.Christ the Man and the child part of man child covers all 'the little ones',- the saints waiting to be redeemed from the earth" Now we can understand why the earth was without form and void.
And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not." ( John 1:4) Now regarding the darkness it refers to the seat of the crooked serpent that is impervious to the Spirit's working. They quench the spirit so speak.
When we consider the second part of God's command "after our likeness " we shall see what grass, herb and tree stands for.
What is grass? It is a metaphor for transient nature glory of the world as distinct from the earth. The earth abides forever because the seen world framed by the word of God represents the Son. "The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever."(Is.40:8)'Forever' is a term that the Spirit uses to refer Jesus Christ. (He.13:8). The world is what sinful man has created which shall be purged by fire.
The herb is associated with healing and fortifying man by proper use. "Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savour: so doth a little folly him that is in reputation for wisdom and honour."(Ec.10:1) Man's failure to keep the word of God scrupulously, causes shame. The fruit bearig tree similarly turns out to be brambles for the same reason. "Yea, they shall not be planted; yea, they shall not be sown: yea, their stock shall not take root in the earth: and he shall also blow upon them, and they shall wither, and the whirlwind shall take them away as stubble."(Is.40:24)
After our likeness explains the passages of the Bible where it is to be determined by Jesus Christ as the sign. "Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant."(Ex.31:15) Jesus is the Lord of sabbath. "For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day."(Matt.12:8) It is what the day of regeneration represents. Jesus Christ has brought his holy saints to God's rest. It is the crux of the blessings enshrined in the everlasting coovenant.
"Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee."
The Word of God is the seed in itself which has come from God to man. So the Bible is the God document and what God has sown in our hearts we need accept as our solemn responsibility.
God is a Spirit. It is sown in heart which is a spiritual space. God formed all hearts alike but not all produce the same yield.
God is a Spirit from everlasting to everlasting. The Spirit in organising the Document deals with His righteousness so the Book is a Manual of instruction 2 Ti.3:16. The only way to be fruitful we have faith to which there is no alternative.
God blessed man "Be fruitful"
Ge.1:11-12 There are grass, herbs and trees. The Spirit has supplied us sets of three with which the Spirit tells us God is one. (De.6:4) But in his personality there are three facets so the Word is sound as well as a sign. Besides it has a body which explains the examples cited here above. "But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body.
"(1 Co.15:38)
God is a Spirit and when God sent his only begotten Son to the world ,the begotten is in the sense that God was the Word. Jesus Christ could claim therefore, "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work" So the Word and Man as a sign gives us the Father-Son relationship.( John 1:1; 5:17)
The everlasting covenant is based on this relationship. Thus when they say "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness:"(Ge.1:25) "In our image" refers to the tripartite nature of man. Body spirit and soul are therefore non-negotiable. The seed in itself is the word so there is a spiritual significance when God commands man,"Be ye holy for I am holy" The word of God is a witness in the spiritual space we call as heart.
God gives the seed as it pleased him. The Word become flesh has a body which is a glorious body. So the Spirit refers to Christ coming in his glory, with his holy angels.(Matt.35:31)
I sense that Jesus was showing Simon, via this short parable, that this woman of the night came here with a great weight upon her heart: a weight of much sin maybe over a long period of time & hearing of Jesus, she came to the only One Who could forgive her. Thus she expressed her sorrow & unceasing repentance by this act of utter humility of not only washing the feet of Jesus with her tears & anointment but stooping even further to kiss His feet. So, I see a clear but stern message to Simon that this woman, whom he sorely despised, was showing more love because of her need of much forgiveness, than Simon who gave Jesus little respect & having no inclination to self-examination, apart from inviting Him to his house for a meal, as a kind gesture.
I agree that I do see a message here of a self-righteous Pharisee who believes he has no need of self-introspection bringing on repentance & renewal, when compared to this woman who wept over her sins before the Holy Son of God; yet I see, that Jesus' emphasis here is on the full expression of love & gratitude when one is forgiven for their many sins, whereas those who might 'love little' can include those such as the religiously inclined who offer regular set prayers for forgiveness or even those not giving much regard to the gravity of their sins before God, these would not demonstrate the same tearful emotion that the woman laden with sins displayed. So, I perceive that Jesus is showing us here is the value of true repentance for sins & resulting gratitude, rather than what comes from a heart not so mightily affected by the wretchedness of sin. Forgiveness is the end result, but our response in love may be quite different.
And so we see Faith in its greatest display here: that full 'persuasion' meant that nothing else mattered when the desperate need for help & restoration drove one person to the only One Who can deliver & heal. And of course, with Nicodemus, John 19:39,40 reveals that he, along with Joseph of Arimathaea, tended with all care to the lifeless Body of Jesus, having believed the Words of Jesus given to Him at the first & now fully persuaded even identifying with Jesus in His Death.
It appears that Nicodemus was now a new man, grieving over Jesus & separated from the rest of his company of murderous colleagues who no doubt were overcome with joy at Jesus' Death & the end of their problems. I also wonder if that woman's faith held up strongly after her healing & realization that all Jesus had done to her & for others, none other could do "except God be with Him". Blessings.
Thanks brother Jesse for that very informative & enlightening explanation on the different parts of those garments. As I considered Luke 8:43-48 & the condition of the woman (both her emotional & physical states), my mind went also to John 3:1,2 concerning Nicodemus. Of course, these are two very separate events, but the similarities seem noteworthy.
Both the woman & Nicodemus had very clear pressing needs. The one for healing of her persistent, long-drawn-out bleeding condition & the other, of his desperate need to reconcile what his fellow Pharisees believed about Jesus & what was niggling in his own mind of the real truth about Jesus ("for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him").
They both came in secret/under cover to Jesus. The woman in faith coming under cover, completely oblivious to the multitude pressing upon Jesus ( Luke 8:45), risking being recognized, dragged out & beaten for her 'crime'; as was Nicodemus, in secret from the prying eyes of his peers & probable expulsion - using the cover of darkness, desperate to learn the secret about this Man whom so many hated & would feel justified in killing.
If either of these two came up openly to Jesus, in public view, they might well have not had their needs met, for reasons given above. But their great need for healing, one for a sick body & the other for a troubled mind & spirit, were greater than the probable results that would have come against them. Onto Page 2.
Sorry, but I don't have an answer for the female Rabbi question. I am not aware of any female Rabbi's in the Old Testament. I don't believe females are allowed to serve as Rabbi's in Orthodox Judaism, but please don't quote me on that.
What I meant by there was no physical touch, and I should have clarified that, so thank you so much for catching that as what I said does seem misleading. But what I meant is that Jesus did not lay His hands on her or touch her in order for her to be healed. She touched Him, and virtue went out from Him. There was no physical touch on Jesus' part other than her touching Him.
Blessings!
like instruction of the ark of the covenent and temples curtains etc.those were special craftsman/women back then you can sense the spiritual help they were getin,first time read it thought im gonna make me one, thats what did for living
i/we do passover since mid 80's. but its standard time one also been doing Lunar passover..you would halfto to know the story on that one to understand it,ha...
the 613 letters of the Ten Commandments is excellent gemstone,thankyou
Was there female Rabbi;s at some point n if so what were they called.probably not,but just checkin. im still being schooled by a teacher,thats my guided source but yes also ive noticed about the word Sun,..and alot of others words with just one differant letter,,ha But,very good info there,alot of Gems...
but dont understand one thing,you said she touched the Kanaph ,the border,then last thing you said,there was no physical touch,. jst asking in good honest jest,and for taking time to share this awesome info,nice gift.
cant Thankya enough
God bless ya too
Thanks for sharing your testimony. I enjoyed reading that. I wanted to let you know that I have not forgotten about you. I have been going through Matthew's gospel and once I finish with Matthew, I will begin sharing the differences I see between what the Greek text is saying verses our English Bibles.
I also wanted to ask if you have a spell-checker that might be changing your words. In one post you mentioned a "Masochistic Text" where it should be Masoretic Text. And in your testimony, you mentioned special prayers you read from a "cataclysm." I think the proper word be Catechism. Although, the word "cataclysm" would fit as a better descriptive word for that church!
Blessings in the Lord!
I completely missed your whole point and I do apologize for that. I think I understand your message better now. I re-read your original post and your question asking about Luke 7:47 where Jesus talks about those to whom little is forgiven, and asking if He means those who haven't sinned very much, or those who THINK that they haven't sinned very much?" Unless someone else has an answer to that, the only answer I am able to give is that in that section of scripture, Jesus is showing a contrast between the love of a sinful woman and a self-righteous Pharisee. What you are saying does make sense. The Pharisees had their own righteousness (Self-righteousness). Sorry I didn't have a better answer!
God Bless!!!
Back then even Jesus was called a rabbi, and He had a prayer shawl. The word teacher is DIDASKALOS. HRABI in Hebrew means teacher. Around the 18th or 19th century the whole meaning of rabbi changed to what we know today. Today, it's somebody who's on staff and part of the leadership in the administration. Back then the rabbis were teachers and that is all they did.
It's interesting that when rabbis would travel (Jesus being a rabbi), He wore a TALLIT. And this woman said if I can just come up and touch the KANAPH of His garment (the promise of Malachi 4:2). Jewish people went around touching the hems and the tassels of Jewish rabbis because they believed in their teachings that if the Jewish rabbi truly was anointed of God, that you could touch his KANAPH and be healed. It didn't always happen. That is just part of their tradition.
But it was based on God's promise here, that healing in His KANAPH (translated wings) is part of the robe for the rabbis. The reason she comes up behind Jesus is because she is unclean. She is not even supposed to be there in the crowd. But she knows, because she knows who Jesus is and she has heard about Him, so she comes up from behind Him and touches the KANAPH, the border. And immediately she was healed.
Jesus in Verse 45 says, "Who touched me?" After everybody denied it, Peter and they that were with him said, Master, the multitude is thronging and pressing upon you, what do you mean, who touched me? Everybody's touching you! Jesus turns and instructs them and says, "Somebody has touched me: for I perceive that virtue has gone out of me." This was a special ministry that came out from Jesus to this woman. It wasn't a physical touch.
I hope this was not too long and I do hope that you might find some use with what I have shared here. God Bless!!!
Those little tassels, those little threads, there are exactly 613 of them. And they are all made on 12 tassels. And they have to be counted and they have to be exact, 613 threads representing the 613 letters in the 10 Commandments. And those tassels are called the TSITSITS on the KANAPH.
Now the Jews themselves, why did they go around touching people's robes? Well, in Malachi 4:2, it says, "But unto you that fear My name shall The Sun of Righteousness (and please notice how Sun is spelled). This is one of the passages of scriptures that's used in creation studies in the book of Genesis to show that the way that the Lord created the universe is to represent His relationship with His people. Jesus, the Messiah is called the Sun (SUN) of Righteousness. "But unto you that fear My name shall The Sun of Righteousness arise, with healing in His KANAPH. It says wings, but it is the word KANAPH. And you shall go forth and grow up as calves in the stall.
And so, the TALLIT, or some people call it the TALETH, is the prayer shawl. That's the whole shawl that the Jewish men wear. And the KANAPH is the border, and the TSITSIT are the tassels.
Now the whole robe, in Numbers 15:37-41, this was the Lord's instructions on the making of this robe, its color, everything about it. And so, putting all those scriptures together, just in their brief summary form, is that whenever a rabbi, and by the way the rabbis back then were different than the rabbis today.
Rabbis back then in Jesus' day were teachers. They were not on staff. They were not part of the leadership of the synagogue. They were teachers. And that is all they did was teach. In fact, some of them traveled from village to village and charged people money for them to teach their children the Torah (the Law).
(Part 1):
I do agree with you about the parallels in the bible. You make an interesting statement about His power going out exclusively to her. With such a huge crowd pressing against Jesus, so many people had to have been touching Him, but His virtue only goes out to her.
Sorry it took me a bit to get back with you. I needed to find my notes from a study I did several years ago on Luke 8:43-48 which I have outlined as "The Provision for The Hemophiliac." I wanted to share more about what this woman actually touched on Jesus' garment.
In Verse 43, we have this woman who had a constant hemorrhaging problem and she had it for 12 straight years. Since she had this kind of condition, she would have to wear a red robe, and she would have to call out "unclean, unclean" as she came near people. She was unclean to touch or to be around the public. It's interesting that "Dr. Luke" gives us a little information. She spent everything she had on physicians and none of them could heal her! So, she comes up from behind Jesus and her issue of blood stopped flowing.
Here's what I find fascinating about this garment:
Leviticus 15:25 tells us that if a woman has an issue of blood many days out of the time of her separation, if it runs beyond the time of her separation, all the days of the issue of her uncleanness shall be as the days of her separation, she shall be unclean. She was unclean for 12 years.
The KANAPH is the bottom border of the garment, the robe that the Jewish men wore. The TALLIT is the name of the prayer shawl. The KANAPH is the border on the garment at the bottom. Then there are these little tassels that hang down from the KANAPH and they are called TSITTSIT's (pronounced seat-seats). If you ever get the chance to attend a real live Jewish Passover meal, you will notice the little tassels that hang down off of the border, or the KANAPH of his prayer garment. And it's interesting because those cannot just be made by anybody.
This is not to say that God is not complete as a Being. He is totally complete, lacking nothing that is divine in His nature. But to speak of the simplicity of God is to speak of His complete unity in His essence. He is not made of parts, components, such as our bodies have or things He has created. He is only Spirit in His essential nature and His Being is all of His attributes eternally operating in a unified wholeness and all attributes are always expressed. It has been said that He IS His attributes. Are moral, intellectual, and emotional attributes change, His does not. So He cannot not be any one of His attributes all of the time.
Another way to think of this is that God is all that He has. He cannot increase or diminish any attribute of Himself because that would be a change in Himself. As humans, we speak of His attributes, but He really does not have separate attributes within Himself. He is all that He is because He is one divine essence.
You can read in Scripture many was that God says that He IS: a consuming fire, love, Spirit, light. One of the most telling things God says of Himself is how He named Himself to Moses: I AM WHO I AM. Ex. 3:14; a name that speaks to His simplicity, eternity, and self-existence. "ehyah asher ehyeh".
The God's simplicity of His Being helps us to grasp that He is a Being all to Himself. There is no other like Him. He alone is God, He is the beginning and the end of all things. All that we can say about who He is and all that He has revealed about Himself is Who He Is Always in totally and unity. There is no greater or lesser aspect of God. He is All in All.
Sublime describes God's overall exceeding, excelling, matchless, greatness in all of His attributes.
It is an all-encompassing kind of attribute that speaks to His transcendence, holiness, and awe-inspiring nature. It is attributed to the magnitude of these attributes as well as that of His majesty, splendor, beauty, power, wisdom, profundity, etc.
Saying God is sublime is saying in all of His Being, He is extraordinary in all of his excellencies, infiniteness, limitless, supremeness in that His whole essence far exceeds anything He has created. He is the paramount of Beings, the Apex from which all things have their source and life. He in incomparable in his glory and exaltation. There is none higher nor who even can come near to His greatness. His transcendent nature is spoken of being "far" as in "Am I not a God who is near (imminent) and I am a God who is far away? (transcendent). Jer. 23:23
Therefore, sublime is an adjective that sort of "sums up" all the perfections of God as a whole package, so to speak.
Many of the posts I've made about who God is do overlap, as we will see in the next post.
Does our soul live on after we die? Do the souls of the dead roam around on the earth and some are in heaven and some are in hell? This is my understanding, the thought or belief in ghosts or spirits of people, some going to heaven and some going to hell comes from the teaching that the soul is immortal, and the soul never dies. It started when the serpent told Eve you shall not surely die, many ancient nations had different forms of religious beliefs on the immortality of the soul, and what we see today was adopted from Greek philosophy.
Are there evil spirits, devils, and demons on this earth? Yes, and these are what people are encountering, my understanding of the Bible they are not the souls of people. God told Israel and it applies to us today, not to deal with mediums or spiritualism those who work divination. We see Saul doing it in 1 Samuel 28 and he died because he did it, 1 Chronicles 10:13.
We sleep in death when we die Psalm 13:3 Matthew 27:52 John 11:11-14 1 Corinthians 15:20. We only put on immortality when we are resurrected, Job 14:13-14 Daniel 12:2 1 John 5:28-29 Corinthians 15:51-54. I hope this helps but you and your husband study it for your understanding, not mine.
God bless,
RLW
In my message , I wasn't really talking about her , I was talking about those people who were forgiven little and therefore loved little in return and those who think that they are whole and righteous . Their response to Christ is different to that of someone who is able to recognise their own sinfulness . A bit like the men who gather around the woman taken in adultery . The older ones put their stones down and move away from her before the younger ones do , their consciences have had longer to mature and they are seemingly wiser to their own faults .
I think we need to be the same as those older men no matter how old or young we are , we need to grow a conscience and try to put it next to the amount of pure love that has , and is being ,shown to us by God every day . If we put our own consciences in one side of the scales and the pure love of God in the other side....imagine how low those scales would go on one side but not the other !
Hope you have a good day today .
have learned thru personal experience when it comes to things out of extra ordinanary,when a person is in some kind of trouble knowing or not,that person needs to ask for help on there own accord,and not to expect help with out asking. again im not claiming that God wont help anyone knowing or not,with out asking. thats just a General Rule. that ive experinced to be true
but as mentioned primarily, when it comes to forgiveness or obtaining the Gift of Heaven those were the two main focal points
the Gift of Heaven is a Enormous Gift and if someone cant bring themselves to at least ask for or pursue it then good luck to em
but Appreciate your response had a feeling that was going to be taken like that by someone,,, ha
have a good one
I would like to share my understanding on Luke 7:47. Verses 48-50 can be read also with Verse 47.
This is another instance where God's Spirit worked in a situation to show what faith looks like. Her love did not produce her salvation. She was not saved by works.
What Jesus is saying is that her love proved that she was saved, that she was forgiven. Love is a fruit, a response to Christ, not a work in order to gain salvation. It is a byproduct.
John says in first John Chapter 4, "We love Him because He first loved us." Our relationship with the Lord is a response. Even thanksgiving does not originate with us. We are told to give God thanks for everything.
The word thanksgiving means respond to grace. That is what it means, EUCHARISTHEO CHARIS.
The more I am exposed to God's grace, the more I have a response of thanks. Gratitude! God's pouring out in my life, what I need and I don't deserve, and I thank Him for it. That is what it means. Her love was proof of her faith.
Look at the apostle Paul who was Saul of Tarsus. God saved him and Paul says "I'm not worthy to be an apostle because I persecuted church of God." And he told Timothy in 1 Timothy 1:15, he says "I am the chiefest of sinners!" And that's my message, that if I'm the chiefest of sinners, and God can save me, He can save anybody. What a message to have. But Paul was no celebrity!
How would we like to have the most notorious criminal in the world visit our church? And they come and say "I got a testimony!" It would be like, "Yeah, we don't mind as long as we have two people follow you around!" Just stay away from the offering box!
But you know, the people who are the most sinful, when they get saved, watch out because they're gone. They will leave us in the dust. For the person who is forgiven most will love the most. It gives that much more importance to pray for the people that we know who are not saved.
God bless!!!