Ed Christian's World

The Bunny and The Empty Tomb…

As a young boy, the Easter bunny was more real than the Resurrection. We made Easter baskets in school, but nothing about the Resurrection. The Easter bunny has nothing to do with Easter.

It doesn’t change anyone’s life; it’s imaginary, but the Resurrection is real; it changes everything. For most believers, life goes on as if the Resurrection never happened; nor is the tomb empty; as if Jesus has not risen; there’s really no good news, no actual victory.

It’s as if it were just a fable, and their life remains untouched. That’s not the Resurrection, that’s Easter bunny faith. The Resurrection is real. It’s to be lived, and to touch every part of your life: your family life, marital life, emotional life, your personal life, your everything life.

Stop living the Easter bunny faith; start living the Resurrection. Our faith isn’t about a basketful of colored eggs, it’s based on an empty tomb.

Israel, put your hope in the Lord, for with the Lord is unfailing love and with him is full redemption. He himself will redeem Israel from all their sins. Psalm 130:7-8

Be truly transformed today in a resurrected life, be empowered in a spirit of victory over death because He is risen!

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

The Price of Redemption…

Jesus was bought for thirty shekels of silver, the price one would pay for a slave. In Hebrew, it’s also called the pidyon, the redemption price required for every first-born son.

In Scripture, the number of man is six. Divide the price of Jesus’s life, thirty pieces of silver by six, you get five shekels, the price of redemption. The price of Jesus’s life divided by five, the price of redemption, equals six, the number of man.

Jesus’s life was not the redemption price of one person, but for the redemption of all men. Every sin, bondage, freedom, healing, restoration, it’s all there, covered in the price of Jesus’s life.

If you have anything you haven’t lifted up to God, any sin, guilt, anything out of God’s will, the price for its redemption is already covered. The transaction isn’t complete until you give it to Him.

Whatever the debt, the Lord will pay it. Whatever the loss, the Lord will redeem it, but you have to release it to His hands. In the thirty pieces of silver, it’s all covered.

Let us go to his dwelling place, let us worship at his footstool, saying, ‘Arise, Lord, and come to your resting place, you and the ark of your might.’ Psalm 132:7-8

What is it in your life that isn’t resolved, a guilt, a sin, a failure. Lift it up to God today. He’s already paid for it, covered it. Receive it.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

The Prayer Request of the Apostles…

At the end of his letter to the Ephesians, Paul writes, “Pray for me that the words may be given to me whenever I open my mouth.”

If anybody had no shortage of words, it was the apostle Paul. Yet he asks for prayer that the right words be given to him. If Paul, whose mouth was filled with the very words of God, asked prayer for the right words to come out of his mouth, how much more should you be praying the same prayer?

How often do we pray that the words that come out of our mouth be the right ones? Yet Paul, the one whose words were scripture, prayed this prayer. Take your words just as seriously because as the Bible says, your words have the power to bring life or death.

They can change your life and the life of those around you. Paul’s words brought life because Paul resolved that his tongue would only bear the truth and the love of God and bring life into this world. Let your tongue be just as holy and let the words of your mouth be the very utterance of God.

May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. Psalm 19:14

Let the Spirit lead you, pray just as Paul prayed, that His words fill your thoughts to speak life and love.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

Unclogging the Shofar…

The most uniquely Biblical musical instrument was the shofar, the Hebrew trumpet from a ram’s horn. The word shofar comes from a word that means clear. To make a sound, you have to be clear.

You can’t blow through something that’s all clogged up. You’re called to be the Lord’s shofar–a vessel of God, an instrument for His purposes. He blows through you with the Spirit.

The Spirit is the Hebrew word Ruach, which means breath in Spirit. For you to be God’s instrument, God’s Spirit has to blow through you, breathe through you.

In order for the Spirit to blow through you, you have to be clear, you have to be free of obstructions and clogged up stuff like bitterness, un-forgiveness, pride, lust, anger, or anything that’s going to stop the blowing.

Start clearing up your vessel. Unblock yourself. Anything out of God’s will is stopping you from knowing the Spirit-filled life.

It says in Timothy, if anyone will cleanse himself from these things, he will be used of God, prepared for every good work, a vessel of honor. Become a clear vessel, a shofar of God. It starts when you get unblocked.

In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for special purposes and some for common use. Those who cleanse themselves from the latter will be instruments for special purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work. 2 Timothy 2:20-21

Clear yourself of anything not of God or for Him, remove any trace of anything that blocks the Holy Spirit flowing through you.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

Growing Emunah…

Most believers want to find out what God’s perfect will, their calling, is for their lives. There are all sorts of seminars on how to find your calling. Something even more important in finding your calling is in 1 Chronicles 9:26. It’s about the Levites being in their set office, the set word. In Hebrew the word for set is emunah, or faith, and here it’s being used for set or established in ministry.

The more faith you have, the more set, established in the Lord, you’re going to be in your appointed ministry. You’ll find yourself set in the center of His will. The word emunah also means faithfulness.

The fulfilling of your calling is linked to faithfulness. The more consistent you are, faithful in prayer, the Word, doing His will, the more you find yourself in God’s perfect will and the more established you will be.

You don’t have to go to another seminar or read another book. Live, walk, step out in faith and be faithful. Follow God’s will in faithfulness, consistent every day, week, month and every year, and you’ll be established in your set office in God’s house.

Because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people— the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel that has come to you. In the same way, the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world—just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God’s grace. Colossians 1:4-6

Make it your aim to be faithful to God every hour, every moment, and you will move to the center of His will and of your calling.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

He Who Goes Before You…

At the end of the story of Joseph, his brothers see who he is. He says to them, you meant this for evil, but God meant it for good. God sent me ahead of you to preserve your life.

Joseph is a shadow of Jesus. Jesus is the one who went before you to judgment so you could be saved. He went before you to the Father in heaven so you could go to heaven. If you are saved, then Jesus is the one who goes before you every day of your life.

Before you get up in the morning and go anywhere, He is already ahead of you. Before you encounter that problem, He has already been there and is seeking to work it out for good. Before you encounter that temptation, Jesus has already been there and He’s ready to help you out of it.

Don’t fear your future, because Jesus has already gone there before you. Every problem, challenge, temptation, danger, blessing and everything coming your way–don’t worry! Because like Joseph, Jesus has already gone there before you.

Before they call I will answer while they are still speaking I will hear. Isaiah 65:24

Open your day with Jesus, asking Him to plan your steps ahead of you, lead you and guide you according to His plan. Then walk in His footsteps.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love.always,

Ed

The Little Things…

Some marriage advice today. There are marriages that break up over somebody leaving the toilet seat up or the cap off the toothpaste.

The smallest difference, if not dealt with, forgiven, or resolved, can destroy a relationship. If the smallest issue is kept inside to fester, it’s going to build a wall.

On the other hand, the biggest difference can actually build a marriage, if it causes each one to come together to work it out. Successful marriages aren’t those without any problems or differences, but those marriages in which the differences are worked out.

Your relationship with God is a marriage, and like marriage, the smallest difference can destroy your peace and your relationship. If you’re upset or disagree with God, or are hurt – let Him know it, don’t hold it in. Deal with it together.

Tell Him what you think. Then praise Him for being right and do what He says. Bring it to Him, whatever it is, lift it to Him, take it really close and there won’t be any walls. You’ll have a good, healthy, successful relationship and marriage to God.

Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. James 4:10

Take all the problems you face today to your heavenly Father, release all your burdens to Him, that there is no distance between you.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

Gift to the Mailman…

Imagine that you sent this really costly gift through the mail to a loved one. A week later you get a letter back thanking you for the beautiful gift, signed, the mailman.

The thank you from the mailman would mean the gift never got to the one you sent it to. In the same way, every good work you do is to be for God, a gift to God. If you do things to get someone to thank you, what are you doing? You’re giving gifts to the mailman.

It’s not getting to where it’s supposed to go. All the good you ever do, all the love you ever show, is to be a gift to God. You do it to people, but it goes to God. If you start expecting thank you notes from people, you’re not really addressing your gift or your good works rightly to God.

Stop sending your gifts to the mailman. Stop expecting people to thank you, recognize, or praise your good works. Start getting your good works in to Heaven. That is, do it for God alone, His thank you alone, His eyes only, and not for the mailman.

So that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. Matthew 6:4

Today seek to get nothing from others, no thank you ,no recognition, but live this day completely to bless God and bless others.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

Going Forth…

Why did the Lord command His disciples to “tarry,” to wait in Jerusalem? The answer is sung by Jews in virtually every synagogue. The exact words are: Kee Mitzion Taytzeh torah – The Law shall go forth from Zion – Oo davar Adonai may Yerushalayim – And the Word of the Lord shall go forth from Jerusalem.

It’s prophesied in Isaiah that one day, the Word of the Lord shall go forth to all nations, and will come from Jerusalem. Whenever Orthodox Jews chant this, they are bearing witness to the Gospel as only Jesus brought the Word of God to the world from Jerusalem.

What does it have to do with you? Everything. If the Jewish people and Jesus knew that it’s crucial for the Gospel to begin in Jerusalem -you also must begin the Gospel in Jerusalem. Where is Jerusalem?

Jerusalem is where you start out; your home is Jerusalem, your family is Jerusalem, your co-workers – that’s Jerusalem. Share the Good News now where you’re at – in Jerusalem. Then the power of God will go forth, and the Word of the Lord shall go forth from Jerusalem.

He told them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. Luke 24:46-47

Today focus on your Jerusalem, and bless it with the love of God.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

The Hebrew Mysteries…

In 1967, after 2000 years, the Jewish people regained Jerusalem. In God’s word, Jerusalem – Yerushalayim is called “beautiful.” Rabbis say of the ten measures of beauty bestowed on this world, nine were given to Jerusalem.

Its praises fill much of Scriptures. But if you visit Jerusalem, you’ll find it’s pretty much just a bunch of rocks. Yet, God’s word speaks of it as if it were the most beautiful place in the world. When you’re in love, it doesn’t matter what they look like to you; they’re beautiful.

So it is with God and Jerusalem, and with your life. Look around; you’ll see some very imperfect people. Look at your circumstances; you’ll see lots of problems.

Look at yourself, without God’s grace, you’ll see a sinful wretch. Learn the mystery of Jerusalem, the Beautiful. See your life through the eyes of God’s love and grace.

See your circumstances as blessings, people around you as gifts, your walk victorious, your life something wonderful, and piles of rocks as Jerusalem, the beautiful.

Do not gloat over me, my enemy! Though I have fallen, I will rise. Though I sit in darkness; the Lord will be my light. Micah 7:8

Live today through God’s eyes, see yourself through God’s eyes, and see every situation as a chance to reveal God’s love.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed