Ed Christian's World

Remove The Wrapping…

The Bible tells us that we are to live in the power of the resurrection. What is the power of the resurrection?

When Jesus was placed in the tomb, he was buried with funeral wrappings and pounds of spices. On the day of the resurrection, the first thing Jesus did was remove all the funeral wrappings from his body.

So the power of the resurrection includes the power to take off your funeral wrappings. Funeral wrappings are what you carry over from your old life; things that bound you from the past, old habits, old baggage. In the resurrection, you have the power to remove those vestiges of the old life, the old you. Funeral wrappings are unclean things.

So now you have the power to remove any unclean, unholy thing that still remains in your life. Funeral wrappings are things which bind you. Thus, you have the power to break the bonds of anything, any bondage that still binds you or hinders you.

So start unwrapping those unholy things from your life. For in the new birth, there’s no room for funeral wrappings.

We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. Romans 6:4

What’s still in your life from the past, that God doesn’t want you to be bound by? Take off those funeral wrappings and walk in the power of resurrection.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

Flashlights And Mirrors…

If you take out a mirror and hold it up, it will reflect everyone and everything around it. In the darkness, it will reflect darkness. If it’s cloudy, the mirror will reflect the clouds. If it’s sunny, the mirror will reflect the sun.

Now replace that mirror with a flashlight. In a bright room, the flashlight might appear to be similar to the mirror as one would see light emanating from it. But in a place with no light, the flashlight would act very differently from the mirror.

Where the mirror would be completely dark, the flashlight would light up the darkness. The flashlight is independent of its circumstances. It doesn’t reflect – it shines. Most people, even believers, go through their lives reflecting their surroundings – their circumstances, their world, and the people around them.

If you live that way, you can never be any better than what surrounds you. Instead, be a light – love where there is no love, rejoice where there’s no rejoicing, and shine your light in the darkness. For God called you to be the light of the world – and not the mirror of the world.

For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light. Ephesians 5:8

Today, resolve to NOT live as a Mirror but a Light! Don’t reflect your circumstances – shine into them.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

The Alter Of Infinity…

The Tabernacle, the Temple of Jerusalem, and the path into the Holy Place all existed on an east-west plane. This is something very profound. For unlike north and south, east and west have no beginning or end. The east-west plane is infinite.

Located along this east-west plane was the Temple’s altar of sacrifice. Thus the altar of sacrifice existed on the plane of infinity. The altar was a foreshadow of the cross and the final sacrifice of Jesus.

What is it telling us? The death of Jesus is ultimately an infinite thing. For the infinite judgment of sin can only be overcome by the infinite goodness, and the infinite love of God – only His infinite life poured out in our place can bring us salvation.

The cross, the sacrifice, and the love of God – for you – are all infinite. So you can never exhaust them by your sins, or use them up. Nor can you ever know all there is to them, or have reason to stop receiving them. Nor can you ever thank God, praise God, or bless God enough in your life for the blessing you’ve been given.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

Let your heart be like a cup that receives the flowing of God’s love like a river – receive that flow and overflow with it.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

Building and wrecking…

Have you ever watched the demolition of a building or house? It doesn’t take a lot – maybe just a wrecking ball or some explosives – and it’s all done. It doesn’t take much skill. It doesn’t take much care. It doesn’t take much thought or time in comparison to the building of that house or building.

To build the building, it takes much care, skill, work, and time. It can take months or years to build a building – but only a few hours or less, to destroy it. What does that reveal? Every day you have the choice to build up or tear down.

If you gossip, if you complain, if you discourage, if you lash out and hurt others, you’re tearing down. And as with buildings, it doesn’t take much skill, or time, or care, to tear down something that took years to build up – whether a congregation, a marriage, or a life.

But it takes care, concern, work, and time to build up. So be one who builds up. For God has called you to build the kingdom and not to be part of the enemy’s wrecking crew.

Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing. 1 Thessalonians 5:11

Seek to build up those around you resist the enemy’s plan to tear them down.

Walk daily with God at the side!

Love always,

Ed

The Magi’s Secret…

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” Matthew 2: 1-2

Matthew 2 speaks of “wise men” from the east. But how could they know that the King of Israel would come at the time he did just by seeing “His star”?

The answer is in the Book of Daniel. Daniel was made Chief of the wise men, magi; placed over them as the wisest man in the court of Babylon, Persia, from which these magi came. Daniel was the godly Hebrew prophet given the prophetic mathematical countdown to Messiah; 70 x 7 = 490 years.

Undoubtedly the Magi studied Daniels writings. Some of them would one day seek the Lord and travel to Judea and Bethlehem and be known as the Wise Men who found the Messiah. If these Magi came from Persia — surrounded by occultism — could one day find the Light because they searched for Him, then don’t you give up on those in your life who seem so far from God.

Keep giving the Word, being an example, and showing them the love of the Lord. For if the Magi of Persia could end up in Bethlehem, so can your loved ones.

Be an example of the Lord’s love by sharing the living Word to those in darkness.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

A Child’s Thoughts…

“Dear God, I have a spelling test on Tuesday. I never get all the words right. Maybe you could help me this time…or is that cheating?” Of course, God helping a child pass a test wouldn’t be cheating.

But the truth here is that God’s blessings are so good, that it is almost like cheating on a test. It’s like having an unfair advantage. For when you know you’re weak in a certain area and you don’t hide it, but bring it to God, He will fill you with His strength.

It’s like having a connection other people don’t have. It’s like having the teacher tutor you with the answers that everyone else is looking for. The fact is, the blessing of knowing God is so good that we don’t deserve it.

It doesn’t seem fair – and it isn’t – because it’s His grace. You don’t have to understand it – just accept it. You’ve got an unfair advantage – and it’s so good, it should almost be illegal.

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace. Ephesians 1:7

Bring your weaknesses to Him and allow His strength to help you pass any test you face.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

The Chanukah Syndrome…

In the story of Chanukah, Antiochus Epiphanes was a shadow of the anti-Christ. He went into the Temple and defiled the Holy of Holies. As the anti-Christ will do, Antiochus opposed and exalted himself over everything that was of God and proclaimed himself to be god.

Epiphanes means God manifest. When man denies God, he proclaims himself as god. When any government denies God, it becomes god. Even believers can fall into the Epiphanes Syndrome.

When you see yourself as the center of everything, when your greatest concern is yourself, or when you seek praise instead of giving it to God, you’re falling into the Epiphanes Syndrome.

But if you cleanse your temple and empty yourself in true humility, then God will be able to manifest Himself in your life. Those who exalt themselves will come to nothing.

But those who humble themselves under the mighty hand of God, and empty themselves of themselves, their life will become a Holy of Holies, filled with the presence of God.

Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth. 1John 3:18

Ask the Lord to cleanse your heart of selfishness and to fill you with His presence.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

The Well…

The marriage of Isaac and Rebecca is, among other things, a beautiful picture of salvation, of the marriage of God, Jesus, and us, the Bride. The most crucial events of the story take place by a well.

What is it about the well? A well is the place that those who thirst go to drink. The well is a place of need. And it’s there that the Bride is found and the marriage begins. In other words, God, the Bridegroom, meets us in a place of need. And we, the Bride, likewise, find Him, in a place of need.

So thank God for wells, and for need – without it, you may never have found Him. And even now as a believer, you still find yourself in places of need. But see these things in a new way – they are wells that the Bridegroom uses to bring the Bride back or closer to Himself.

So don’t despise the places or times of need in your life. In reality, these are the wells, the wells of the marriage, where the Bride finds the Bridegroom and the Bridegroom, the Bride.

With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. Isaiah 12:3

Take all that you need, all you lack, all you desire and bring it to the Lord and let Him fill you up.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

The Secret Of Serving…

In the early days of the Salvation Army, the biologist and skeptic, Thomas Huxley, launched an all-out attack on the Salvation Army and its founder, William Booth. Booth’s son Bramwell, was greatly upset over it.

But William Booth told his son that he couldn’t waste his time fighting his critics, or else he would be distracted from the Lord’s call – and he would not let anything divert him from it.“Bramwell,” said Booth, “fifty years from now, it will matter very little indeed how these people treated us. It will matter a great deal how we dealt with the work of God.”

William Booth was powerfully used of God to affect a nation, and a world. Why? He didn’t allow himself to get distracted from the calling God gave him. There will always be people who criticize you or attack you. But no one can take you away from God’s calling, unless you let them.

You’re here for one purpose, to serve and glorify God. Don’t let yourself be distracted or turned to the right or to the left – and you too will live a powerful life for God.

As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Ephesians 4:1

Resolve not to be distracted by criticism that’s not of God – but set your eyes on the Lord and what you need to do for His purpose.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

The lure of sin…

Grandfather was always one who would challenge me. How do you catch a rat he asked me one morning? One particular way is to use a rat poison like d-Con. D-Con is roughly 99 percent rat food and 1 percent brodifacoum. This poison is used to thin a rat’s blood so rapidly that it begins to hemorrhage.

Of course you would never catch a rat if you sat out a finely decorated bowl of brodifacoum. It wouldn’t appeal to it. That is why the deadly poison is masked by that which appeals to rats; namely, food. Led by their stomachs these rats eat what will slowly lead to their undoing.

Not only is brodifacoum deadly, it is also patient, which is why it is the key ingredient in mouse poison. Because of the slowness of death mice aren’t able to associate it with their demise. I doubt rats have funerals, but if they did the obituary would not read death by that tasty bowl of food that Speedy just ate. They would blame another culprit for their demise.

Believe it or not we are like those rats. Killed by our own desires we look for other sources of our demise. James 1:13-18 helps us to see that God is not the one that entices us to sin; it is in fact our own natures that make sin so enticing. Thankfully, God graciously changes our natures so that we can withstand temptation.

In James 1:2 we see that trials are inevitable. In James 1:13 we see that in this age temptation is inevitable.

We are tempted to shift blame for our temptation:

Notice the pattern in Genesis 3 where the serpent tempts Eve to eat the forbidden fruit.

Proverbs 19:3 A person’s own folly leads to their ruin, yet their heart rages against the Lord.

In Matthew 7:1-5 Jesus teaches that we are more likely to look at specks in our brothers eyes than the log in our own.

God is never the source of our temptation.

God cannot be tempted.

God tempts no one to do evil.

This does not mean that He will not bring trials or even test us, but he does not entice anyone to do evil.

When we feel the pull towards sin and rebellion we are never allowed to shake our fist at God and say, “You made me this way”. Temptation does not come from the Lord. It has another source.

Just as with the rat we drink the poison of sin because we are enticed by our desires.

Temptation comes from within us.

“Desire” is any intense longing for that which God has forbidden (see Genesis 3:6).

Temptation is tailored to our “own desire.”

It is unique to each person.

One man might be mightily tempted by something that holds no enticement over another.

Temptation wears a mask.

“Drawn away” and “enticed” are fishing and hunting metaphors.

Temptation rarely comes in the form of its grandchild (death).

Temptation eventually brings forth death.

What begins as desire turns to sin.

Sin “fully grown” births death.

Sin is attractive to us because we are not yet fully redeemed. James is urging his readers to not give in to temptation because it inevitably leads to death. Thankfully God is at work to change our natures.

The source of our problem is our nature. Apart from Christ we aren’t wise enough to see the poison of sin. Truthfully, even if we did see the poison of sin we would still rebel. By nature we hate what we should love and love what we should hate. Yet God is in the business of changing our natures and restoring our desires.

Every good gift comes from a good God.

God is the creator of the good gift of creation.

God is the creator of the good gift of new creation.

God has given the gospel to rescue us from death.

He changes our desires.

He overturns our death sentence.

Apart from grace, we will have a foolish thirst for poison. Thankfully God has redeemed us from this insatiable hunger for our own destruction. We are still tempted, but through Christ sin is losing its luster. James 1:13-18 is a call to flee the lure of sin as well as a call to celebrate the new life we have in Christ.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed