Sunday’s Blessing – 06/01/2025 – The Sunday Between Ascension and Pentecost

Sunday’s Blessing – 06/01/2025 – The Sunday Between Ascension and Pentecost

There is not a lot of information in scripture about the time between when Jesus ascended to heaven to be seated at the right hand of the Father and when Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to fill believers, giving them boldness to testify of the love of God brought through the death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seating of Christ. We know the disciples and others went to the upper room when Jesus had what is now referred to as The Last Supper.

And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” 

Acts 1:4-8 (ESV)

For years, I tried to live the Christian life without knowledge or the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer. It was not part of the teaching in the churches of my youth. I now understand more fully the work of the Holy Spirit, and that Jesus sending the Holy Spirit was part of our redemption.

So here we are, in the ten days between the Ascension (Jesus going up) and Pentecost (the Holy Spirit coming down). The last two acts of Jesus which completed our salvation were Him being seated on the Father’s right hand (where we are positionally with Christ after we are saved) and Jesus sending the Holy Spirit to inhabit the Believer once the Spirit baptizes us into Christ (salvation). God provided everything for us through Christ so we could be restored into fellowship with Him, our Creator.

Now for today’s blessing:

May you learn to live from the position of being seated with Christ

So you may be able to trust the Father for every aspect of your life

So you may know the true nature and character of the Father

And live a life full enough to bless other along the way

May you live yielded to the Spirit’s presence inside you

So you may be led by the Spirit in every way

So you may be empowered to be a witness of the hope that is in you

And always have something to give to others who need hope

Sunday’s Blessing – 05/25/2025 – Week of Ascension

Sunday’s Blessing – 05/25/2025 – Week of Ascension

As we consider selah/sabbath/rest, one of the last acts Jesus did on earth was to ascend to Heaven to be seated at the right hand of the Father. This would be His posture until He returns for His Bride, the Church. Spiritually, we are also seated with Him at God’s right hand. It is here that we also rule and reign with Christ, though we are still here on earth.

We remain here after our conversion to be ambassadors for the Kingdom of God on the earth. We are to be ministers of reconciliation, bringing mankind back to their rightful place of fellowship with the Creator.

Being seated on God’s right hand is the ultimate in rest. God rested after creation. Jesus rested in the tomb after completing His mission to fulfil righteousness by keeping The Law blamelessly. Now He is resting at the Father’s right hand, interceding for us continually.

The final act (that we are aware of in scripture) before His return is to send the Holy Spirit to fill people who are born again, recreating them to be sons and daughters of the Most High God. We will celebrate this day a little later which is called Pentecost.

Now for this week’s blessing:

May you know the reality of your position in Christ, which is to be seated with the Father

From which you can experience a life of joy and peace, living in the favor of God

Enjoying fellowship with the Creator as friend to friend

Until we actually get to see Him face to face

May you learn to rest in in this relationship, no longer struggling to qualify

But instead, learning to abide, since you are already qualified through Jesus

No longer working or straining, but instead enjoying the fellowship

Forever with Him, the Keeper of our heart

Sunday’s Blessing – 05/18/2025

Sunday’s Blessing – 05/18/2025

For the past few weeks I’ve been talking about sabbath. There is “The Sabbath”, as mentioned in the Ten Commandments, and then there is just sabbath. They mean the same thing; one is just more formal than the other. The root meaning of sabbath is “suspension.” God “suspended” His creation on the seventh day in Genesis. This was the original sabbath. Later in The Law, The Sabbath was implemented as part of the requirements for being in covenant with the Father.

Jesus came and fulfilled all the law and the prophets had spoken, but did not do away with sabbath. Instead, He became our sabbath. He became our rest. He caused us for the first time to be able to live a “suspended” life; a state of being able to respond to the Holy Spirit. When music reaches a suspended chord, our ears almost demand a resolution. When watching a show, the build suspense to keep you pulled into the story, then bring the resolution by solving the conflict which created the suspense.

In this same way, God has introduced “suspension” in us so we will remain aware of His presence and keep us moving toward the purpose for which we were created. Never lose a sense of awe for the Father, or a sense of being drawn by the Holy Spirit, or a sense of wonder in seeking Christ.

Now for today’s blessing:

May you never consider the Christian life mundane

But instead maintain a yearning for resolve in each day

Remaining suspended, aware, awaiting the direction of the Spirit

And faithful to place you feet as the Light of God directs you

May you spend sabbath moments considering all God has been

To only grow in your understanding of what He is

And propel you forward into all He wants to be in you

So you may be the ambassador for the Kingdom in your world

Sunday's Blessing – 05/11/2025 – Mother's Day – The Christian Sabbath

Sunday's Blessing – 05/11/2025 – Mother's Day – The Christian Sabbath

If you remember from Exodus when God called Moses to lead God’s people out of Egyptian bondage, Moses asked, “Who should I say has sent me?” God responded with, “Tell them I AM sent you.” When Jesus used this same declaration in these seven occurrences in John, the people hearing Him speak knew exactly what He was saying. He was describing the character and nature of God. Bread is an essential part of human diet. Light is required for our very lives. We must enter the Kingdom of God through The Door, who is Jesus. He is The Way, The Truth, and The Life. Jesus is a Good Shepherd. He is also The Resurrection and The Life.

I omitted one in that list. This attribute which Jesus declared of Himself is what led to me pursuing this study in the first place. “I AM The Vine.” Look at this one in detail.

I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. John 15:1-7 (ESV)

The branch cannot bear fruit by itself. The only way is to be attached to The Vine. If you are in Christ, you are a branch connected to The Vine. The branch has no responsibility for anything except to bear fruit. The Vine supplies everything needed for the branch to be productive. If the Vine is healthy the branches are healthy. Branches do not have to find water. They simply drink from the Vine. Jesus said, “Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.” The branch doesn’t have to worry about our eternal destiny, because Jesus has already declared it over us, “It is finished!” Jesus was teaching us about sabbath rest. We do not labor to enter into this rest. The Holy Spirit places us into this rest when He baptized us into Christ.

This Sabbath Rest we find in the New Covenant of God, one based on faith in Jesus Christ, was sealed by the Holy Spirit who dwells in us (sent by Jesus as He promised when He ascended) to empower us to simply produce fruit. Jesus modeled this rest for us using Himself as an example.

One day he got into a boat with his disciples, and he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side of the lake.” So they set out, and as they sailed he fell asleep. And a windstorm came down on the lake, and they were filling with water and were in danger. And they went and woke him, saying, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” And he awoke and rebuked the wind and the raging waves, and they ceased, and there was a calm. He said to them, “Where is your faith?” And they were afraid, and they marveled, saying to one another, “Who then is this, that he commands even winds and water, and they obey him?” Luke 8:22-25 (ESV)

Even in death, Jesus was able to be at peace. He could “rest” in a tomb for three days, knowing He would be raised up to live again.

They went on from there and passed through Galilee. And he did not want anyone to know, for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three days he will rise.” But they did not understand the saying, and were afraid to ask him. Mark 9:30-32 (ESV)

This is the very place which God wants those who have believed in His Son, Jesus, the Christ, the Messiah, our Savior, to live every day of their life. Living from a place of “it is finished”, in the sabbath rest provided in the sacrifice of Jesus. Paul said it like this:

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Colossians 3:1-4 (ESV) 

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. Romans 8:1-5 (ESV)

Peter described it this way, in comparing our salvation with Noah. Noah entered a place of “rest” in the ark for 40 days and nights, relying on the promise that God would deliver him and his family.

For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him. 1 Peter 3:18-22 (ESV)

Baptism, as Peter describes here, is not the immersion in water, but it is the baptism of the Holy Spirit into Christ, which is what saves us. Noah was “baptized” by the ark which God instructed him to build. In this same way, our identification with Christ is completed by the Holy Spirit baptizing us into Christ, placing us with Jesus at the right hand of the Father.

I firmly believe the reason God was so adamant about the Sabbath when He gave Moses the Law on the mountain, then had Moses remind the people on multiple occasions, then commissioned a Sabbath festival to be observed every week, was so we would learn to live in total peace when we were in right relationship with Him. Eden was the picture of how God intended us to live. Sabbath was the restoration of that fellowship, and Jesus became the embodiment of this rest. In Him we have all we need.

Now for this week's blessing:

May the Lord grant you complete understanding of the Rest available in Christ

Not a period of natural sleep, but a spiritual "pause" from any feelings of requirements

So you may relate to your Father with complete transparency, with joy and acceptance

Knowing that you are loved without limits by the God without limits

May you return from these moments of "suspension" refreshed and encouraged

So you can "be" to the praise of His glory, not "do" the works of obligation

For others to see and hear the voice of the Spirit in your words and your countenance

As you walk out the reflection of your Lord while being "finished" until the day of His return

May you keep your mind and heart fixed on your position in Christ

Seated next to the Father, firmly in the grasp of His love and kept by His power

Where nothing can remove you from this place ... NOTHING!

And live at rest in Him

Sunday’s Blessing – 05/04/2025 – The Sabbath

Sunday’s Blessing – 05/04/2025 – The Sabbath

I’ve begun a study looking into the sabbath. It has been very enlightening, and I feel I’ve just scratched the surface. Consider the first mention of the actual sabbath. It came as part of the giving of the Law of Moses, represented by the ten commandments listed in Exodus. You are probably familiar with them, but let’s take a fresh look:

And God spoke all these words, saying,

I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

1. You shall have no other gods before me.

2. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, 6but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

3. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.

4. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

5. Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

6. You shall not murder.

7. You shall not commit adultery.

8. You shall not steal.

9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

10. You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s. Exodus 20:1-17 (ESV) 

Look at them again. Do you notice anything about #4? It’s the longest one given. God spends more time describing the Sabbath than He does about murder!! Does that not seem odd to you? Yet, if you asked 100 people I would venture to say that 99 of them would think murder was much worse than not keeping the Sabbath. But that’s not the end of the story. Later in the book of Exodus, God approaches Moses with this exhortation:

And the Lord said to Moses, “You are to speak to the people of Israel and say, ‘Above all you shall keep my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the Lord, sanctify you. You shall keep the Sabbath, because it is holy for you. Everyone who profanes it shall be put to death. Whoever does any work on it, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall be put to death. Therefore the people of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath throughout their generations, as a covenant forever. It is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.’” Exodus 31:12-17 (ESV)

Did you see that? “Above all you shall keep my Sabbaths.”

Then, after spending 40 years in the wilderness, and after an entire generation had died, Moses gave the Law to Israel again. The word Deuteronomy means, “Second Law.” Here in the last book of the Pentateuch, Moses has this to say:

Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant, or your ox or your donkey or any of your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day. Deuteronomy 5:12-15 (ESV)

He spends even more time describing the 4th Law. He says all of this about the Sabbath, then continues with, “Do not steal. Do not commit adultery. Do not murder. …” Clearly, God has a message for His people about the Sabbath. I hope you read this blog for the next few weeks as we explore why the sabbath is so important.

Now for this week’s blessing:

May the Lord of the Sabbath grant you peace and rest

So you may find strength for tomorrow

In order to be a testimony of God’s grace and mercy 

By your ability to rest in your trust of the Father

May you learn from the Lord to work when it’s time and rest when it’s time

So you may complete the necessary things in your life

And find the courage to rest, even in the midst of turmoil or chaos

Until you are confident that God’s rest is the best place to live

May you receive a sabbath mindset which will become your path in pursuit of God

Because God is a God of process, set in motion by Himself

When He created the world and everything in it in six days, then He rested

Showing you how to establish things in the beginning and not fear the outcome 

And Rest

Sunday’s Blessing – 04/27/2025 – The Rest of God

Sunday’s Blessing – 04/27/2025 – The Rest of God

During this past Easter season I became familiar with a song by Andrew Peterson called, “God Rested.” In this song, the composer drew a parallel between God in the Creation, described in Genesis 1-2, and the Crucifixion of Christ. After creation, God said:

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation. Genesis 2:1-3 (ESV) 

When God finished His work of creation, He rested! His last creation was The Sabbath. God had set things in motion for eternity. Even though everything had not yet taken place, God had finished creation … and rested!

When Jesus was on the cross, He said:

After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.” A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. John 19:28-30 (ESV)

“Knowing that all was now finished …” Jesus gave up His life. Even though everything had not yet become manifest, He placed everything in motion which would be completed after His death. Jesus went to the tomb … and rested! After He died, Jesus was taken down off the cross, His body prepared for burial, was placed in the tomb of a stranger, then was resurrected from the dead. Jesus then ascended to heaven where He sat down at the right hand of the Father. He then sent the Holy Spirit (as He had promised) to fill the Believers and to empower them to carry out the work of the ministry of reconciling all people back to full fellowship with the Father. Through salvation, mankind can now “rest” with Christ, seated with Him at the right hand of the Father. (Ephesians 1-2)

Now for today’s blessing:

May you come to experience the rest of God

As you become identified with Christ in His death, burial, resurrection, and ascension

Now take your rest as you are seated with Him in heavenly places

Far above all rule, authority, power, and dominion in this world and the one to come

May you find in living from this place of rest abundant peace

A peace beyond anything you can imagine ever being possible

A peace which keeps our hearts and mind as we focus on our fellowship with the Father

Full of grace and mercy because of all Jesus finished in His life, death, and eternal rule with God

Crucifixion (not Convenience) - an excerpt from The Call to Worship - The Life of Every Believer by Dudley M. Harris

The Call to Worship

Crucifixion – to destroy the power of the flesh – sacrifice

Convenience – something conducive to comfort – selfish

Chapter 3 – Crucifixion (not Convenience)

I believe we have things backwards in the American church. We make becoming a Christian convenient, but then crucify those in the Church for wrong behavior. “Getting saved” has been reduced to a handshake and a card rather than being identified with Christ in His crucifixion, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seating at the right hand of Father, then the infilling of the Holy Spirit whom Jesus sent to help us. While it is true that we do not have to die physically to atone for our sins (we would not be an acceptable sacrifice anyway) we are called to be “crucified with Christ.”

Galatians 2:20 (ESV) 

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 

Salvation is more than a prayer. It is an exchange; my life for that of Jesus. It is a surrender of my will. We take on His Call. There is pain and suffering in our soul as we go to war with the person we have been up to the point of our encounter with the Holy Spirit.

Being “born again” is instantaneous. Our spirit is recreated by the Holy Spirit. We become a new creation, what the Greek word κτίσις  describes as “a species of being that has never existed before.”

2 Corinthians 5:17 (ESV) 

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation (κτίσις). The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 

Everything from that point forward is “the saving of our soul”, the process of being conformed to the image of Christ. The writer of Hebrews (whom I believe to be Paul) put it like this.

Hebrews 10:36-39 (ESV) 

For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. For, “Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay; but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.” 

But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls. 

The saving of one’s soul is not convenient. It requires a complete change of priorities, plans, and pursuits; or at the very least, a change in motives for all of these. Becoming a Christian does not mean a change of occupation, spouse, or geography. What does change is the requirement that we now represent Christ in all of these. In our work we no longer cheat our employer, employees, or our clients. In our marriage we now love our spouse with the love of God, unselfishly giving them our affection. We sacrifice our will for that of the Holy Spirit, who now leads us by His still, small voice.

Lest you draw the wrong conclusion, please know that there is nothing we can do to earn salvation. You cannot be good enough. You cannot purchase this salvation. You cannot rely on the family name. The only way into this New Covenant relationship with your Creator is by the provision made through Christ.

There is only one way to receive the New Life that is available in Christ. You must be born again.

John 3:3-6 (ESV) 

Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” 

Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

The moment we are willing to admit that we cannot save ourselves is the beginning of salvation. When we ask God to save us we must be willing to identify with Christ is every way: His death (we must die to self), His burial (old things pass away), His resurrection (new things come), His ascension (we begin the process of renewing our mind to His ways which are higher than ours), His seating at the right hand of Father (we take on the authority we have in the Kingdom of God), and His sending the Holy Spirit (we receive the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit).

It’s not convenient to become a Christian. As I mentioned at the beginning of this chapter, the American church seems to have reversed the process. Instead of judging the new Christian we should pray for them, disciple them, encourage them, celebrate life with them, and worship our Savior and our Lord with them. We seem ready to extend grace to the lost, but require law-keeping of the Christian. How we must frustrate our Lord. Grace is for the lost, but it is even more so for the Believer. Let’s find a way to do better than this. If we are truly crucified with Christ then we need to respond to others, inside and outside the Church, with the love of God. Let’s answer The Call to worship and be crucified with Him.