Ed Christian's World

The Joshua People…

The high priest of Israel could never wear a kingly crown, nor could the king ever wear the high priestly robe. The kingship and the priesthood were two separate houses, two blood lines, two tribes – and they could never be joined.

Yet, in the book of Zechariah, God calls the prophet to place the crown on the high priest’s head and prophesy of a man called “the Branch” who will be both king and priest.

Who is that man? Messiah. Jesus, Yeshua, who was both king, of the royal line of Israel, and priest of the New Covenant. The name of the high priest upon whom the crown was placed was “Joshua” – in Hebrew, “Yeshua” – in English, “Jesus.”

Even that points to the identity of Messiah the Branch – Jesus. So no one was allowed to be both king and priest – but Jesus. What does it tell us?

Jesus is always more than you think He is, better than you believe He is, more wonderful than is even lawful. So get to know Him even more, because when it comes to Him, there’s no end to just how much more there is to know.

Listen, High Priest Joshua, you and your associates seated before you, who are men symbolic of things to come: I am going to bring my servant, the Branch. Zechariah 3:8

Seek to know the Lord today as both King of your life, the one you must submit to, and worship – and High Priest, the one who knows, who feels, who sympathizes for you, and helps you in all that you do.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

The Great Holy Day Redemption…

The Hebrew year begins in the spring with the Holy Days of Passover, First Fruits, and Shavuot (Pentecost). After that, the Hebrews would reap the summer harvest.

In the fall, the trumpets of the Feast of Trumpets would sound, signaling the end of the harvest. They would gather again in Jerusalem to celebrate the closing of the year.

The mystery is that God set up this entire age like a Hebrew year. The age opened with Passover in the spring when Jesus died; First Fruits when He rose, and Shavuot at the beginning of summer.

The great summer harvest came when the gospel and the Jewish people went to the ends of the earth. Now, after 2,000 years, we stand at the ending of the harvest, when the trumpets of autumn sound.

The sign is the age must close with the regathering of the Jewish people to Jerusalem to meet the Lord. It’s happening before our eyes. Stay awake and alert, for you live in a most extraordinary day – the end times – the eve of the Day of the Trumpets.

So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be awake and sober. 1 Thessalonians 5:6

Don’t be left out in taking a part in the Great Harvest. Go out today and witness to a non-believing person.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

The Mixed Up New Year…

Rosh Ha Shannah means head of the year – the New Year. It’s the Jewish New Year. There’s only one problem – The Feast of Trumpets takes place in the 7th month of the Jewish year! God mixed it all up.

In Exodus 12, He made the old 7th month – the new New Year and the old New Year, the new 7th month. God wants us to learn the secret of celebrating at the wrong time.

When you’re persecuted, He wants you to leap for joy. When you’re weak, He wants you to celebrate His riches. When you’re alone, He wants you to celebrate His fellowship.

When you’re in bondage, in trouble, or rejected – celebrate His freedom, His peace, and His love. In the face of death, celebrate His life and His new beginning.

Sing to the Lord a new song;
 sing to the Lord, all the earth. Psalm 96:1

Learn the secret of Rosh Ha Shannah, the mixed up New Year! Don’t wait for the right time or the blessings to celebrate – celebrate and it will become the right time and you will have the blessings. Celebrate today because it’s exactly the wrong time. That’s the time to celebrate. Happy New Year!

Plan today to celebrate no matter what – especially in the midst of your problems, hard times, bad situations. And Happy New Year!

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

Doors and Windows…

The Book of Acts records the ministry of the apostle Paul in Corinth. While Paul was in Corinth, he attempted to spread the Gospel in the synagogue there. His message was rejected.

But it turned out that there was a man named Titus Justus who lived right next door to the synagogue. Titus opened up his house to Paul and the Gospel.

From that came the Church of Corinth, one of the most important churches in world history. And it all started right next door to the place where the Gospel was rejected.

God always makes a way for His will to be accomplished. He always makes a way for His purposes, His glory, and the victory of His people. So, too, for you.

The Bible never promises an obstacle-free walk or a problem-free life. You will have problems and obstacles and closed doors. But don’t let them stop you.

For when God closes a door, he opens a window. When God closes a synagogue door, he opens the Church of Corinth next door. Keep going, and you may find that the victory you thought was gone, was right there under your nose… next door.

Make the effort to reach out to your next door neighbor and share your faith; i.e., It’s the least thing you can do to “love your neighbor.”

Reference: Acts 18

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

The Jewish Who Wrote Christmas Songs…

It’s a strange phenomenon – Some of the best loved Christmas music in the world was written by Jewish people! White Christmas, Silver Bells, The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting), Hark the Herald Angels, O Holy Night… and more… were all written by Jewish people!

It seems so strange… and yet what could be more natural than the birth of the Jewish Messiah observed by the Jewish people. Christmas is a Jewish phenomenon.

That there even exist songs of Christmas is a testimony to the birth of a Jewish rabbi. On this count alone, Jesus, Yeshua, must be the long prophesied Jewish Messiah.

For it was foretold in the Hebrew Scriptures that in the Jewish Messiah the Gentiles would take refuge (Isaiah 11). And there’s only one Jewish man in all of Jewish history who has fulfilled it.

Every Christmas, that fact is confirmed. So when you see those manger scenes and hear those Christmas songs, remember to pray for the Josephs and Marys, His family, the Jewish people, who brought you the blessings of Jesus and have yet to discover that the Light of the Gentiles just happens to also be, the Glory of Israel!

In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”

Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be.  But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God.  You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus.  He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David,  and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”

“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”

 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.  Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month.  For no word from God will ever fail.”

“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her. Luke1:26-38

Write down the names of one or two Jewish people that you know personally or know of, and pray today that they may come to know their Messiah.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

The Western Wall and McDonalds…

The story is told of an Israeli on visit to a friend in America. His friend takes him to McDonalds where they go through the drive through, give their order and then to the window to pick up their burgers and fries.

The Israeli is amazed, awestruck. He has tears in his eyes. “Why are you so amazed and getting so emotional?” his friend asks him. “Because,” says the Israeli, “in America you talk to a wall and out comes a hamburger, a shake, and fries. In Israel, we’ve been talking to a wall for 2000 years and not once have we ever gotten a hamburger!”

Talking to walls… it’s a Jewish tradition. The Jewish people have lifted up prayers at the Western Wall from ancient times. God’s people are to talk to walls… and mountains… and obstacles… and barriers.

The Lord has given you the power to say to the mountain, “Be removed.” And if you can talk to mountains, then how much more to that problem and hindrance in your life.

Go ahead, do it, by the authority of Jesus. You may not get a hamburger, but you will get a victory!

Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done. Matthew 21:21

Is there a wall in your life that shouldn’t be there, a mountain, an obstacle? Talk to that wall today – in the name of Messiah, tell it to get out of the way.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

The Effect of Jupiter on Jerusalem…

The story of Hanukah centers on the Temple of Jerusalem. The Temple was the holy dwelling place of God. But in the days of Antiochus Epiphanes, an idol was set up in the holy place.

From that moment on, the Temple ceased to be the Temple of God. It was no longer a holy place or sanctuary. No longer was it the dwelling place of God’s presence.

It became, for all intents and purposes, empty. Only when the Maccabees reclaimed the Temple, and removed the idol, could the Temple be restored to God’s purposes and presence.

The Bible says: “you are the Temple of the Living God.” But if you let idols into your life, the glory of God will be withdrawn, and your walk and heart will be left empty. That’s what idols do to the presence and glory of God.

Have you lost that fullness, that glory? Is your heart empty? Search for the idol. The good news is, when you remove the idols and open your heart to the Lord, your life and heart will be filled again and overflowing with the glory of the Living God.

What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.” 2 Corinthians 6:16

Clean out your temple and get rid of that which is not to the glory of God.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

The Called Out Life…

If you’re born again, the Bible says, you’re part of the church of God. But what does that mean? Does it mean you’re a Presbyterian, a Methodist, a Baptist, a Pentecostal, or a Nazarene?

The word “church” is really just a translation of the New Testament Greek word “Ek-klay-sia.” It’s a translation of still yet another word, the Hebrew, “Kehilah.” It means the assembly of the Called Out Ones.

If you’re born again, then you’re part of it. You were specially and personally called, and called from Heaven. It means you’re not just a member of some organization, but you’ve been called out of an old life, called out of sin, called out of gloom, called out of anger, called out of selfishness, called out of lust, addiction, carnality, and fear.

It means you have no business with those things nor do those things have any part in your life anymore. It means there’s a high and mighty, wonderful and majestic, holy and beautiful calling on your life.

So live in the joy of being part of God’s Kehilah, the Lord’s Ekklesia. Because you’re not just a church member – you’re a Called Out One!

 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God— Romans 1:1

Think back and ponder where you would be today if God had not called you out – Give thanks to God for calling you out. And what can you do today to give Him thanks?

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

Hymns Of Zeus…

When the apostle Paul spoke on Mars Hill in Athens, he did an amazing thing. In sharing the Gospel, he quoted from pagan Greek writers. He even quoted from a hymn they used, and yet used it to speak of God.

How could this be? How could he use something so pagan for such a holy purpose? God is not so much looking at the outward thing you’re dealing with, but the heart, the purpose, the reason, and the goal of all you do.

Paul determined to use all things, “by all means,” to spread the Gospel, to be a Gentile to the Gentiles, in order that people would come to salvation.

In the same way, you need to have the same heart, to be so zealous for salvation, to use all things in your life for the glory, the purposes, and the heart of God for the salvation of the lost.

Use every situation, every circumstance, everything you have and know for the glory of God. For if Paul could use a hymn to Zeus to accomplish God’s purposes and glory, then there is nothing in your life that cannot be used likewise.

Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship and this is what I am going to proclaim to you. Acts 17:22-23

Today, seek to use every situation you have for God’s purposes and glory.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed