Ed Christian's World

The Invisible Man…

When I was a kid, I used to watch The Invisible Man. This is a guy who wore bandages just to be seen, and when he took them off, there was nothing there. The guy was invisible. You just saw right through him.

Well, many believers are living like invisible men, invisible believers, and being afraid to cause a stir or take a stand. But, God says that we are to make a difference. You are the light of the world. If you don’t take a stand, you won’t make a difference.

You have to stop being invisible; you are called to be a bright and shining light. Start shining as a believer, and let your light show up, let your Gospel show up, and let the righteousness of God show up. Start manifesting the presence of God. Do not try to blend in with the world.

You have the gospel of God, the power of God, and make it known. Jesus didn’t call you to be invisible. He called you to be the light. So be the light. Arise and shine and make the Lord visible.

For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness, and truth) Ephesians 5:8

Be the salt and light and let your light so shine that it will cause others to marvel. Do something good for a stranger or your neighbor that reveals God’s love inside you, beaming out.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

Heaven and Earth As One…

Philippians 3 says, “For our citizenship is in heaven from where we also wait for the Savior.” In the ancient world, citizens specifically referred to a colony of a nation that was residing outside of its home.

But they would live as if they were still in their home country that they were citizens of. In the same way, it is saying that we, as a body of Christ, are living in a colony of heaven.

We are on earth, but we are in an enclave of heaven; we are citizens of heaven, just like synagogues around the world are colonies or enclaves of Israel. Remember, you are a citizen of heaven.

You are to live according to the laws of heaven, not of earth. Choose to live a heavenly life. We have heavenly passports and heavenly social security. We are citizens of heaven, so live like it.

Don’t be bound by the laws of the flesh or laws of this world but be bound by the laws of heaven.

You will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites. Exodus 19:6

Live today as one who is not part of the world, but a citizen of heaven.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

To Become A Saint…

There are people who keep little statues of saints in their car. But there is another kind of car saint. Picture yourself in your car and it feels like the car ahead of you is going 20 miles per hour.

You can’t pass. You are anxious; you are upset; you are worried about being late for work, and you start developing intense hatred for the person in front of you. You have no peace, you have no love and you have no joy.

The problem was that your goal was to get to work. That’s the goal of a worker, but it is not the goal of a saint. The Bible says you are to be a saint of righteousness, of love, and of peace.

The main goal is this: love God with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself, and then that slow car never would have hindered your goal.

Realizing the challenge now is to stay at peace. Seek not to get ahead but seek to be a saint. Because you do need a saint in your car, but it has to be you.

I say of the holy people who are in the land, “They are the noble ones in whom is all my delight.” Psalm 16:3

Today, set your main goals to goodness and loving God. Make it your aim to always step towards being a saint for Jesus.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love.always,

Ed

The Jesus Boat…

The disciples are in the boat and the storm comes to Galilee. Just like that, you are going to have storms in your life. In Galilee, the storms come very quickly, so also in life. But Jesus was in their boat.

You have storms, but you have Jesus. Jesus didn’t come to take away the storms of life or to keep you out of them, but He came to overcome the storm with you. Having the Lord in the boat makes all the difference.

The difference isn’t the weather, but that you have Jesus, Yeshua in your boat. When storms come thank God you have Jesus in the boat. If you didn’t let Him into your boat, you just have the storm. If you didn’t let Him into your life, you just have the storm.

The good times would be empty, and the bad times would be hopeless. When the storms come into your life, keep your eyes on Him. It’s not the state of the storm that matters, not even the state of your boat; it’s the state of the Man who is in your boat. God is in your boat, and that’s enough.

Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them; for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Deuteronomy 31:6

Do everything today with the Lord and do it with assurance – He’s in your boat!

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

Patience – Walk In The Spirit…

Galatians 5:22-23 The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things, there is no law.

LOVE

Does human love fulfill and mend our hearts? Or is there a love beyond human love that is more fulfilling, a spiritual and unconditional love that underlies our lives? If so, how do we access it?

Love is the motivation behind many of our dreams, actions and thoughts. Yet we often have a lot of rules and ideas about love that stop us from feeling love for ourselves and others. One way to expand your capacity for real love in your life is to look at your inner rules honestly. See which ones work and see which ones place limits on your capacity to give or receive love.

Consider this: Look at the rules for what they really are: Attempts to make human love conform to the parameters of divine love. Our rules around love are well-intentioned, but they are usually stifling. Divine love has no bounds and conditions; human love is filled with bounds and conditions.

We want others to love us as we are, but we usually put so many conditions on what love is in the first place. We have to step out of the rules and move into spiritual love. Love, without any rules, conditions, limitations, or neediness, is spiritual love. Spiritual love is pure and unveiled. It is always present, regardless of whether or not we are in a relationship. It is in your own heart.

JOY

Find a place inside where there’s joy, and the joy will burn out the pain. When you are sad and feeling blue and really don’t know what to do, open God’s Word, and you can read Scriptures to give you the strength you need. The joy of the Lord is our strength. God’s joy can end depression’s length, so don’t mope around with a long, sad face if you have accepted God’s merciful grace.

There’s not a problem that God can not solve. We should resolve, in our hearts, to take our problems to Him in prayer, give Him the burden, and leave it there. I know it’s easier said than done, but was it easy when God gave His own Son to die for our sins on a cruel tree to give eternal life to you and me? If we can trust Him to save our souls, we can trust Him with problems that take their tolls and steal our joy that we need to display to others that we meet along life’s way. Joy is the serious business of heaven.

PEACE

Peace is not the absence of conflict from life but the ability to cope with it.

Perhaps the key to feeling real peace is being able to accept what is. Acceptance simply means recognizing your ego’s voice and rejecting it. Knowing that the only person we can change is ourselves enables us to do this.

As soon as we start to think there is something not right, not the way it should be, or we become judgmental about a situation or a person—their words or behavior—we know we have moved away from accepting what is, by wanting to control what is outside of us.

There is a lot of negative energy and craziness in this world, but we can all learn to live with inner peace.

If your intention is strong and comes from the deepest part of you, it will happen. Outwardly, nothing changes; peace comes from making changes inside you.

It begins and continues through becoming more aware of who you really are, knowing you are loved, making changes in the way you think, practicing loving-kindness, and accepting what is.

As serenity and unconditional love fill your heart, you will accept that you cannot go back, and will not relinquish what you have now found, that peace that you seem to have been searching for your whole life.

Finally, you will come to this—deep inner peace inside you that endures, regardless of what challenges life brings.

FORBEARANCE

The Spirit’s fruit of forbearance is much more patient. It is choosing not to retaliate when wronged. It’s extending terms to benefit another instead of demanding a justifiable immediate payment. Forbearance is the long suffering the Lord has towards sinners who need Him. He knows that time away from Him eventually loses its luster and appeal.

By faith, we are able to model God’s great patience towards those who anger us, who deeply disappoint us. The Holy Spirit fills us with the fruit of forbearance so He can lengthen the fuse of our temper. The longer it takes for our temper to smolder under self-control, the more time we have to cool down. The Spirit’s forbearance releases our vengeance to the Lord.

“Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance.” Romans 2:4

Do you thank the Lord for His kindness, forbearance, and patience toward your ignorant indiscretions and your intentionally unwise acts? Are you taking for granted God’s great grace? Eventually, His patience does run out on those who run away from Him. There comes a time when secret sins come to roost on God’s righteous roof. So, come clean and learn how to walk wisely in this season of forbearance from your heavenly Father.

Lastly, do not buckle in unbelief under the pressures that threaten to crush your spirit. Christ has given you a deep reservoir of forbearance to bear these burdens. There is not a drought of God’s grace during hot summers of suffering. Critics will come and go. And hard circumstances are meant to soften your heart to grow a harvest for Christ. The fruit of forbearance in your life waters seeds in other searching souls. Thus, be a faithful forbearer of faith!

KINDNESS – GOODNESS – FAiTHFULNESS

Kindness, Goodness, and Faithfulness pretty much speak for themselves. Yet, it does seem we have a weakness for forgetting kindness and goodness come with love for your fellow man. If we faithfully follow His command to put no other before Him and to love your neighbor as yourself, and as He has loved you, we would have no problem walking daily in the Spirit.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

Nero and Paul…

In the Roman Empire, there were people called the hedonists, those who seek pleasure. They would gorge themselves, vomit, and then eat more. They lived for pleasure.

Nero was one of those people. Yet he committed suicide. There is another type of people that were in the Roman Empire called disciples. They were people of discipline, sacrifice, and following Jesus.

They were putting pleasure on the back seat for righteousness, exemplified by Paul, the person of purpose, and often a person of discipline and self-sacrifice. Paul wound up rejoicing at the end of his life while Nero ended up killing himself.

You see, it’s a paradox. You live for pleasure; you end up without it. But if you live your life with purpose seeking God and His kingdom, joy is added. Scientists did studies and found that those who were seeking pleasure resulted in being unhappy.

Don’t live by seeking pleasure; it’s an empty and desolate road. But live rather seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you.

Live for Jesus with purpose because in the end, it’s not the hedonists who rejoice but the disciples.

Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” John 4:13-14

Today seek not to find pleasure – but seek to live with righteousness, to do the will of God (and you will be blessed).

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

Your Fallow Ground…

Paul said “I am determined to preach the Gospel where it has not been preached.” The results are usually more dramatic where the Gospel has never been preached, rather than in places where the Gospel has already been heard.

When you sow seed, consider the fallow ground principle. The fallow ground, the place where the ground has not been sown before; when broken up, usually produces the most fruit. The ground that has not been touched produces the greatest reaction.

We are to spread the Word to those who have not heard. You can praise the Lord in worship service and talk of God, but when you praise the Lord and talk about Him to those who do not know Him, the reaction is going to be dramatic.

In your life you want miracles; apply the Word of God to untouched lands in your life and your heart. That is where the miracle is. Look for the untouched lands in your world, your workplace, your home, your life, your family, and your heart.

Bring the Word, truth, love and power of God into those parts. They will be transformed with miracles when the Word comes.

He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.” Mark 16:15

Choose an area in your life left fallow and start letting it be touched by God. Apply His Word and will to it.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

Soak It Up…

Did you ever make tea? You put the tea bag in hot water and let it sit. It takes time. Believers treat God like fast food. You run in and have His presence and Word and then run out. You put the tea bag in, you take it out, and then complain there is no tea.

That is how we act with the Lord. We come in and out of God’s love, word, and prayer quickly. God’s love is not fast food. His love is more like the tea bag principle; it takes time.

We are the water; His love, truth, and presence are the tea bag. His righteousness is the tea. You have to let it soak in through the junk of the past – the emotions, all the scars. You need to be touched deeply.

Spend time in God’s presence. Let God’s presence dwell and remain in your life. Let the peace, love, joy, and purity of God soak into and penetrate your heart and emotions.

The love, word, and presence of God are so good; you need to give it time. It’s like tea, and you need to soak it up.

Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. Colossians 3:16

Come into the presence of the Lord and practice the art of soaking.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

The New Testament Sacrifices…

The Old Testament is filled with sacrifices, guilt offerings, sin offerings, trespass offerings, peace offerings, and thanksgiving offerings…so many offerings in the temple. We are glad that the sacrifices are over, right? No more temple, no more sacrifice. Wrong!

The New Covenant requires higher standards and deeper sacrifices to God. You are called to bless God with your gifts and offerings of thanksgiving, praise, love, obedience, and your life…sacrificial gifts.

In the Old Testament, they gave up things that cost them, meant something to them, something they did not want to give up. That’s precious to God. Romans says that your life, your body, is a living sacrifice.

Bless God today and give Him an offering, a gift, a sacrifice because your very salvation came to you through the sacrifice of Messiah. That’s God’s gift to you. Every joy, every good thing is in His sacrifice to you.

My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise. Psalm 51:17

How can you repay? You can’t, but you can bless the Lord, and that is the only proper thing to do, with a greater covenant, a greater salvation, a greater sacrifice. Bless God with your sacrifice today because God has blessed your life with His.

Plan today to offer sacrifices for God – then, in faith and joy, offer them to God.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed