Ed Christian's World

The Key That Opens The Gates Of God…

We find in the Book of Psalm: “Enter His gates with thanksgiving … and His courts with praise.” Most believers take this as a command. In other words, if you are going to enter His courts, enter with thanksgiving.

The truth of these words goes deeper than that. It’s not only a commandment but a secret, “a key.” You see, to enter the gates, you need the key of the Lord. And the key to unlock the gates in order to enter is the key of thanksgiving.

You could read the Scripture this way: “The only way you will ever truly enter the gates of the Lord is with thanksgiving.” It doesn’t matter what’s blocking you; if you give thanks to God, you can enter.

So when you give thanks, it’s impossible to be gloomy, or to worry, or to dwell in condemnation. When you give thanks, you enter His joy and His peace.

When you give thanks, it’s hard not to worship. You want to enter the gates of the Lord, start right now. You have the key. Enter his gates with thanksgiving.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. Psalm 100:4

Before presenting your list of wants and desires, take a few minutes to first give thanks to God for all that He has done in your life.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

Work of The Holy Spirit – Miracles Of The Handkerchief…

In Acts 19, the Lord chose to bring healing to the sick through the handkerchief of the apostle Paul. The Greek word for handkerchief is “soudarion.” It literally means “a sweat cloth.”

We often think of miracles as works that God does entirely apart from man. But there’s a whole realm of miracles which God does through the works, the labor, and the sweat of man – miracles through sweat cloths.

But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.  John 14:26-27

For the Holy Spirit works not only through inspiration but also through perspiration. Some of God’s greatest miracles come through the hard work of man. The walls of Jericho came down by a miracle – but that miracle required God’s people to march.

Jesus healed a man of blindness but required him to go down to the Pool of Siloam to wash. If God can use a handkerchief to bring healing, then God certainly can use all your hard work, labors, toil, sweat, and tears for His kingdom to work miracles.

So don’t grow tired of doing good, for God will work miracles in your good works for Him, just as he did through the sweat cloth of the apostle Paul.

Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. John 14:12

Make it your aim to live for God and do all things for God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength – with all your might and all His Spirit.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

The Greatest Battle David Fought…

David was a warrior…a great one, for the Lord. During his life, he fought many battles. His greatest battle happened after having fallen into sin with Bathsheba.

Here his battle began… the battle to acknowledge his sin, to confess it, to repent of it, and then… to accept the grace of God. It was the battle to accept God’s love when everything pointed against it, to believe that God was still faithful to Him even though there was no reason for God to be so.

So it is with you my friend. Your greatest battle will have nothing to do with habits or career or people. It will have to do with you and God, and staying close to His heart. It will be about His grace and love… how much you truly accepted and how much you never did.

David won the battle, and at the end it was written that he was a man ‘after God’s own heart.’ You be the same. Fight your good fight of faith, believe in God’s grace, and take hold of His love, no matter what, and you too will be as triumphant as King David.

After removing Saul, he made David their king. God testified concerning him: ‘I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.’ Acts 13:22

Fight the good fight of faith today. Choose faith when other disheartening thoughts are trying to creep in. The Lord is very near to bless and keep you through to your victory.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

Breaking Tradition – The Power of The Holy Spirit…

Most people think of religion or faith as something very much grounded in tradition. But the essence of faith is not traditional at all – it’s even anti-traditional.

Think of Abraham. He encountered God and it changed his life. He broke out of all the traditions of his past, his pagan culture, his life. He stepped out of tradition to follow God to the Promised Land.

Think of Moses. His tradition was Egypt and slavery. But Moses encountered God and broke all the traditions of Egypt and of a people for whom bondage was tradition. Then there was Elijah who broke the traditions of Baal worship.

And then there were the disciples. The Holy Spirit came upon them and it changed everything. They broke the traditions of their culture, the traditions of men, of the status quo, of the Pharisees, and ultimately of the Roman Empire itself.

True faith is not about tradition – it’s about encountering God. Make it your aim to truly encounter God. Then, in His power, break out of the old, and into the new. Because to truly follow God has never been traditional – but revolutionary!

And Jesus said to him, “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.” Matthew 8:22

Break out of tradition and take time to have a true encounter with God.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

The Model Of Life…

A man was once doing carpentry work using a square measure to make sure the board was straight. “Why are you so careful, Daddy?” asked his little boy. “We can’t guess in carpentry work.” “You have to be just right.”

“I guess there are no squares of living by,” the boy replied. “Yes, there are” said the man, “you’ll find them in the Bible. Test all that you do by them, and you’ll go straight in life, my boy.” You want to build something out of wood, you need a straight measure.

That’s true for carpentry, and also true for life. And you can’t build a life without a straight edge, a ruler, a measure to keep you straight. The measure of straightness is the Word of God.

Measure all you do by it. Plan all you do with it. Test all you’ve done and everything else in your life according to it. Start with the Word and take it straight for what it is. Then get your life straight.

How? By lining up your life with the Word of God. Do this and your life will be blessed and straight. And that’s the truth… pure and straight.

All your words are true; all your righteous laws are eternal. Psalm 119:160

Find a verse today with which your life does not line up. Don’t ignore it or bend it to fit your life – Bend your life today to line up with the Word of God.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

The Resistance…

At the beginning of World War II, the French defensive lines collapsed. Marshall Petain became prime minister and surrendered France to the Nazis.

The Vichy government, under Marshall Petain, was convinced that Germany had won the war, and so saw its mission as that of adapting France toward submission to Hitler.

The Nazis began increasingly draining France of her natural resources and her people. French collaborators, in submission to Hitler, began rounding up Jews to be sent to the concentration camps.

By November of 1942, the Vichy government was nothing but a shadowy puppet regime of the Nazis. But, in the end, the collaborators were put to shame.

The judgment of their nation and of history fell against them. Petain, a great war hero of World War 1, was put in prison where he died. The lesson? There’s no compromise or collaborating with the enemy. No matter what it looks like or how hopeless it seems, don’t give in, and don’t collaborate.

Join the Resistance of God. Resist the sin, the temptation, resist the devil… and he will flee. Fight the good fight, my friend, and you’ll win in the end. Vive le Resistance!

Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. James 4:7

Is there any area of life – a sin, an indulgence, and attitude, where you’re cooperating with the enemy? Cut the ties. End your collaboration and join the Resistance!

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

The Jerusalem Evidence…

Skeptics claim that the Bible is not from God, but from men. So the question then is, what kind of men? Bad men wouldn’t want to write the words of the Bible. For the words of the Bible condemn sin and judgment on those who live in evil.

Bad men could not come up with Psalm 23, John 3:16 or the Beatitudes. Even if they could, they would certainly take credit for it. To come up with it and not take credit is evidence of great virtue and extreme humility. The words of the Bible turn bad men into good men.

The problem is, good people wouldn’t do very bad things. And so, to say that the Bible was the Word of God, when it was really their own words and stories they just made up, would be a very bad thing–a hoax and fraud.

The fact is, whichever way you go… you’re led back to one thing. The Bible is the Word of God. So read it, study it, receive it, treasure it… and live it. It’s the Word of God and it will transform your life for blessing, whether you be good… or bad.

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3:16-17

Give thanks and rejoice for the Word of God. Take a word today, ponder it, take it specifcially to your life, and go with it.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

Kadosh (Holy) In Every Realm…

Two words today… Kohayn and Kadosh. Kohayn means ‘priest.’ Kadosh means ‘holy.’ In 1 Peter 2 it says that if you’re born again, you belong to a royal priesthood. But what does that mean?

Well, if you look at the high priest of Israel, you see he wore a crown on his head. Engraved on the crown was the word “Kadosh” or “Kodesh.” “Kadosh L’Adonai,” “Kadosh to the Lord.” Kadosh means “Holy,” “Separated,” and “Consecrated to God.”

If you are God’s priest, your life must be separated from the world to Him. A Kohayn, a priest, must be holy with regard to his or her home life, finances, temper, relationships and sexuality… Holy in treating one’s parents, wife, husband, and children…holy in what one does in one’s private life, in one’s entertainment and pleasures.

If you are Kohayn, a priest of the living God, then, above all, your life must be characterized by ‘kadosh,’ the quality of holiness and separateness to God. Put away that unholy thing and be kadosh as your Father in heaven is kadosh. For that is the crown of your priesthood.

I am the Lord your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy. Do not make yourselves unclean by any creature that moves along the ground. Leviticus 11:44

Assume your royal priesthood today as you walk in holiness and separateness, consecrated to God in all that you do.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

The Street Called Straight…

A Jewish Rabbi named Shaul, or Saul, we know him as Paul, was hit by the power of God and made blind for a season. The Lord told him to go to ‘Straight Street.’

Was that an accident or coincidence? No. God planned that it would be Straight Street. Saul was saved on Damascus Road, but He couldn’t stay there. In order to grow in salvation, he had to take Straight Street.

Saul needed to get straightened out. God had to straighten out his head, his heart, his will, his everything. Saul had to begin a journey that would take a lifetime to complete. That journey could only begin on a street called ‘straight.’

So it is with you. God had great things for Saul, and He has great things for you. Yet you can’t walk into those great things until you walk on Straight Street. Want to be blessed and fulfill your calling?

Stop walking crooked. Stop wavering to the right and the left. Start walking the straight and narrow. Walk straight, think straight, go straight. Your life will be headed straight for blessing, when you live on the road called ‘Straight Street.’

I will go before you and will level the mountains; I will break down gates of bronze and cut through bars of iron. Isaiah 45:2

Check your path today – If you’re heading down the wrong path today, stop and turn around. Walk down the way that is called ‘straight.’

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

The Lawyers Surprise…

He was a hardened man, a lawyer who had never owned a Bible. Finally he obtained one for the purpose of adding another reference book to his legal library.

Gradually, that one book began drawing him away from his interest in legal statutes. His heart opened and changed. He said goodbye to his clients explaining that he had a retainer from the Lord Jesus to plead his cause.

His name was Charles Finney. He shared the gospel throughout America and the British isles and reportedly reached more people for salvation than any other man of his generation.

What other book can have such an impact on a life and the world? There’s never been a book like it and there will never be. If it changed the life of a hardened lawyer and turned him into the great evangelist Charles Finney… then how much more can it still change your life, a life that isn’t hardened to it?

Maybe it’s been a while since you read the word, took it to heart, or really applied it. It doesn’t matter. Start now and this powerful little book will change your life for blessing.

Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Joshua 1:8

Start your day with the reading a good book – the Holy Bible – treasure what you find, and apply it to your life.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed