Ed Christian's World

The First Fruits of Nations…

Did you ever wonder why the Spirit came on the day it did, or why they spoke in tongues, or why all those people were baptized?

To understand it – you have to understand the law of the Bikoreem – the First Fruits. When you want to dedicate something “holy” – you offer up the very first fruits to the Lord before you harvest your land.

The first fruits represent and stand-in for all the other fruits that’ll be reaped in the future. Before the summer harvest, God gave Israel a Feast of First Fruits in which they would consecrate all the things they would reap at the harvest to come.

The feast was called – “Shavuot.” In Greek, it’s known as – “Pentecostes” – Pentecost. On that day the people would wave and sanctify the first fruits to the Lord. Every soul that came to salvation that day – every tongue that was uttered – would come to God from every nation.

So if you ever wonder whether God really accepts you – or whether you’re really declared “holy” – God has declared it 2,000 years ago, on the day of First Fruits – Shavuot – Pentecost. You are received. Live it by the Spirit of God.

Celebrate the Festival of Harvest with the firstfruits of the crops you sow in your field. Celebrate the Festival of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in your crops from the field. Exodus 23:16

Make today a day of dedication to the Lord. Offer up to Him the best first fruits – it’s you.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

Comfortable or Comforted…

Why aren’t you witnessing and sharing your faith? “Well,” you say, “I’m not comfortable witnessing and sharing my faith.” Is this Biblical?

Did the Lord ever say you should be comfortable? Or when he said, ‘Go out and make disciples of all nations…’ did He add in, and you should be comfortable?

The fact is, the greatest things that happen in your life will not be comfortable. Change and growth are not comfortable. But when you do it, you overcome, and your life becomes greater.

What happened before the disciples went out to the nations? He sent them His Spirit called The Comforter. He knew they would be uncomfortable. And so He provided His Spirit… so they would be comforted.

In the same way, the Lord has given you His Spirit, not to make you comfortable and not so you would avoid the uncomfortable, but that you would have the power to go out into all those uncomfortable situations and have victory.

Seek not to be comfortable. Seek your only comfort from the Comforter and you will witness, you will minister, you will share, you will fulfill your calling, and nothing shall be impossible for you.

But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. John 14:26

Step out of your comfort zone and spread the word, preach the Gospel of salvation.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

The Gift Of Barnabas…

If you read the Bible, you probably know the story of Ananias and Sapphira and how they gave a gift under false pretenses, lied about it and then dropped dead. But did you know about the gift of Barnabas?

It’s right before the account of Ananias and Sapphira. So why don’t most believers know about it? What Barnabas did was good and pure. And the fact that we dwell on Ananias and Sapphira and not Barnabas says more about us than about them.

It’s human nature to dwell on the bad and rotten things people did, rather than the good. But when they treat us with respect or kindness, we rarely go on and on. But the moment they mess up, we forget everything else.

You see, the gifts of Barnabas are all around you, but you miss it. Your loved ones, your friends, your home, the food on your table, your health, your heartbeat, and most of all, salvation and love of God.

Stop dwelling on the deeds of Ananias and Sapphira and start dwelling on the gifts of Barnabas. They don’t get as much press, but they’re all around you… just look.

Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas (which means “son of encouragement”), sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles’ feet. Acts 4:36-37

Go out of your way to bring an unexpected gift to a hurting person today: a kind word, a meal, whatever God’s leads.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

That You Might Know…

In the 1800s, a young English scholar journeyed to Asia Minor on a mission to prove the Bible wrong, specifically that what was recorded as history by Luke in the Book of Acts. Because his professors told him it was not true.

He began digging among the ancient ruins of Greece and Asia Minor. To his surprise, what he uncovered was this… the New Testament writings were accurate to the smallest of details.

The evidence was so convincing that the archaeologist became a Christian. His name? Sir William Ramsay, one of the greatest of biblical scholars. What do we learn? The Bible is true.

Archaeology has never disproved it, but has often and most amazingly backed up its words. The Bible is filled with promises and statements of faith. Test them out. Do what it says. Follow the commands. And you know what you’ll uncover?

You’ll uncover that God is real, His word is true, His promises are good, His power is strong, and His love is faithful. Go ahead, test His word, do what it says, and see if He will not open up to you the windows of Heaven.

Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Isaiah 55:6

Dig deeper into the word of God today. Believe that you will seek to find a hidden treasure that God has for you there.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

The Return of Jesus. – The Heavenly Return…

Shamayim is Hebrew for heaven. The disciples are standing on the Mt. of Olives . Jesus blesses them and then begins ascending into the heavens.

Jesus’s real Hebrew name Yeshua, means salvation. Yeshua came from heaven because salvation can only come from heaven. Yeshua ascended to heaven, because salvation must always return to heaven.

Jesus came to earth to bring God to man. Then He had to return to heaven to bring man to God. Salvation was only complete when Yeshua returned to heaven.

So it is with our lives. All good things come from God. However, the blessings of God are only complete when you give them back to heaven. We tend to covet our blessings.

If you want your blessing and your life to be complete, then you have to give it back to God. Whatever you own is not yours until you let it go. Only that which you give can you receive.

All good things come from heaven and all good things must return there. So give your blessings and your life back to heaven. Then your blessing will be full and overflowing, and your life complete.

Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.  1 Thessalonians 5:18

God has blessed you with so much – take inventory of your blessings and then take those blessings, the joy, the love, the power, and bless others.

So here we are today thinking about the end times, the tribulation, the second coming of Jesus. So let’s look at a little background.

The end of days, or latter days, first appears in Deuteronomy 4:30 – where it says this: “When you are in distress, and all these things have come upon you, in ‘the end of days,’ you will return to the Lord your God and listen to His voice.”

The end of days will be a time of distress and tribulation, but it will also be the time of return and redemption. It’s only in the end of days that the Jewish people as a whole will return to the Lord, and only in the end that redemption will come to the whole world.

In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed. Daniel 7:13-14

So when you look at all the problems, challenges, and evils of the last days, don’t forget that there’s another side: The end of days is also days of return, redemption, and victory. Live like it!

Let the wicked forsake their ways
and the unrighteous their thoughts.
Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon. Isaiah 55:7

Don’t allow the evils of these end times to discourage you. But allow them to help you turn or return to the presence of God.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

The Resurrection Of Zion…

In the late 1940s, Israel stood on the brink of being resurrected from the dead. On November 29, 1947, Eleazer Sukenik, an Israeli archaeologist had discovered the oldest writings of Hebrew in the world – the Dead Sea Scrolls.

On the other side of the globe, Sukenik’s son was reporting the vote of each country from the newly-formed United Nations on whether Israel would be reborn or not. Israel was declared a nation after 2000 years of dispersion.

At the same time, Sukenik was reading the ancient words of a Dead Sea Scroll prophecy based on Scripture, which lay hidden in the Israeli sands for 2000 years.

The words on what was called the Scroll of Thanksgiving said: “I was driven from my home like a bird from its nest. I was cast down, but raised up again…” Isn’t God awesome? At the very moment, He raised His ancient nation from the dead, letting his people know that it was by His hand that the miracle happened.

God keeps His promises, and is faithful, even when His people of Israel didn’t follow Him. How much more will He be faithful and keep His promises to you who follow Him?

The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it. 1 Thessalonians 5:24

Encourage yourself today with this fact: God has kept His promises to Israel for thousands of years – He will certainly be faithful and keep His promises to you.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

Prepare Ye The Way…

For the observant Jew, Friday is a special day. It’s called the Day of Preparation. It’s the day given to prepare for the Shabbat, the Sabbath. So observant Jews will often rush around to do their shopping, to finish up what they have to in order to prepare for, and enter the Day of Rest.

Now when you read the Gospels, you come across an interesting phrase. It’s written that Jesus died on the Day of Preparation. The day He completed what He had to do, and then said, ‘It is finished.’ God gave His people the Sabbath, the Day of Rest and Blessing, so His people might find peace, healing, and communion with God.

This teaches us something very important. You need to prepare for blessing. If you want to enter God’s presence, you have to take it seriously and even, yes, labor to enter it.

You may even have to tie up loose ends, forgive that person, bless that other person, put away that other thing that has to go from your life. God has in store for you a Day of Blessing. But you need first to take a Day of Preparation.

Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jewish leaders did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down. John 19:31

Today, make preparations for your ‘Day of Blessing’ by spending some great time in the presence of the Lord.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

Waiting For Life…

Entire rooms are built just for people to wait in. Every doctor subscribes to magazines to keep you busy. You sit in a room full of strangers, sitting in a place you don’t want to be, with people you don’t particularly want to be with, waiting to go a place you don’t particularly want to go.

Whoever came up with the doctrine of Purgatory had to have spent a lot of his life waiting in a doctor’s office. Many believers spend their lives the same way.

Heaven is the office, and earth is the waiting room. They’re just waiting for it to be over – in a place they don’t want to be, with people they don’t want to be with, waiting for a place they hope will be better. They spend their days on earth just trying to get through.

This life isn’t a waiting room. God promised us life abundantly now. We look forward to heaven, but the heavenly life starts now or not at all. Stop waiting for life and start living it, fully, victoriously, and heavenly. This life is the beginning of eternal life and not a cosmic waiting room.

For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ! Romans 5:17

Stop waiting to live – And start living. Live as if your heavenly life actually begins now.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love.always,

Ed

The Secret Of The Hidden Scrolls…

Growing up, I had a Jewish friend who taught that the idea of a Messiah dying for sins was totally not Jewish even to this day. However, the disclosing of an ancient parchment, text 4Q285, one of the Dead Sea Scrolls refuted all that.

It says of the Messiah: “They will kill the Prince of the People…” In other words, Messiah will be killed and everything we were taught was wrong. It is Jewish to believe in a Messiah who is killed.

The Dead Sea Scroll continues: “They will kill the Prince of the People with khalal.” Khalal is the same word found in Isaiah 53: “‘He was pierced through for our transgressions.'” The word for wounded or pierced through is khalal.

So the scroll which was hidden in the Judean desert for two thousand years and then kept hidden from the public another forty years revealed to have said that Jesus will be killed in the same manner as the Savior of Isaiah 53, through piercings.

If you know anybody like that, He’s the Messiah who gave up His life for you. There’s only one thing you can do…follow Him with all your heart.

But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. Isaiah 53:5

Meditate on the price paid for you by Jesus. Now pay any price, give up anything you need to give up, to bless Him.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

On Silence..

In the silence of the heart God speaks. If you face God in prayer and silence, God will speak to you. Then you will know that you are as one with Him. Empty yourself for it is only when you realize you are empty, that God can fill you with Himself. Souls of prayer are souls of great silence.

It is through prayer we talk to God, it is through prayer that He talks to us. Yet still so many say prayer is wasted time because they aren’t answered. But they are being answered, we just aren’t listening.

We were born with one mouth and two ears. This is because listening is more important than talking, not only in everyday life, but especially in prayer. It is so important that you were provided two ears just so you can hear what He is telling you.

Through the the years I have heard many complaints about prayer and I have talked many times on how prayer is answered. Many think that God must be ignoring them because they just aren’t getting the answers they want. I have learned that God gives me just what I need when I need it. It may be different from what I want, but it is exactly what I need.

I am reminded of my younger days when Grandfather would tell me: “Just because you don’t see His hand, don’t question His plan.” God has a plan for each and everyone of us, we just have to be patient and listen to what He whispers to our hearts.

In the bible every time Jesus prayed he went away from the crowd and prayed in seclusion. We are instructed in the bible to pray in a closet or some other place of privacy. The reason for doing this is so we can hear what His answer is. When He whispers in your ear or into your heart, it is best to be in a quiet place so you have no distractions from hearing His words.

As for myself, I am one who prays unceasingly. Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 1Thessalonians 5:16-18

For me this has been the most efficient way to talk with God. He is always there to guide my every move and I am always looking for ways to share the blessings He has given me. We are in continuous conversation with each other.

In every circumstance, good or bad, there is a gift waiting to be shared. Our life grows on how we accept and share these gifts. This brings me back to what I mentioned earlier – Just because you can’t see His hand, don’t question His plan!

Is there really anything so silent that you can’t hear it? Not really, even silence has a sound, if you listen closely.

The song by Simon and Garfunkel, “The Sound of Silence” is thought to be about the inability of people to communicate emotionally and spiritually with each other and God.

In reality I think it has a far deeper meaning than our inability to communicate with God or to recognise those whispers in our ears as His words. The truth is we turn off listening to others as well as with God. We have some preconceived notion that no one listens to us so why pay attention to others. That and the fact people today are so wrapped up in their social media program, the hardly notice the world going on around them.

Paul Simon originally wrote the song back in 1964 as an intro for his group early one morning around 3:00. He is known to go into the bathroom and turn out the lights so he could have complete Solitude. It is not sure if it started out as a prayer or not, but sure has the right beginnings.

“Hello darkness, my old friend
I’ve come to talk with you again
Because a vision softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted in my brain still remains within the sound of silence.”

I don’t know about you, but most of my prayer answers come in the form of dreams in the dark of night and I just can’t get them out of my mind until I act on them. God is relentless when it comes to that, at least to me. As much as I try pushing the thought aside He keeps pushing it right in front of me until I pay attention and act on it.

In my post Solitude, I talked about how we are to pray in Solitude so we can have unfettered access to God and not be disturbed by outside influences. His answers to our prayers often come in the form of whispers in our ears and hearts and also in the form of dreams or visions.

The root of the problem is we either don’t listen or just refuse to accept what He is telling us as an answer to our prayer. This is why it is so important to pray in Solitude without outside noises interfering. His words are soft and gentle whispers that you really need to hear and follow. God’s answers to our prayers come in the form of visions, whispers in our hearts and ears as well as some messages slapping us right in the face with reality.

Some say it is just a coincidence when that happens, but I don’t believe in coincidence, there is a reason for everything that happens in life. Ask yourself the next time something pops into your mind out of the blue just what God is trying to tell you. You just might be astonished at the answer. Face it , God talks to us, we best learn to listen.

Life, for me anyway, has been full of good and not so good times. It has been through these times that I have come to know God and learn that He is always there for me. I have learned to listen to what God tells me and I grew to never question where He leads me. Faith in His love has carried me through many hard times. I look forward to my morning quiet time with Him because He always has a blessing for me to share.

Listen to the silence in your world, the sound may just open your eyes.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed