Ed Christian's World

The Joy Of Autumn…

Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles, was the greatest feast in Biblical times. Sukkot took place not in the beginning, but at the end of the Hebrew year – not in spring, but in the autumn. In the world, the party of youth, beauty, health, ability and power is at the beginning of life.

In the autumn of life there’s less celebrating because all those things only go downhill. In God, it’s the opposite. The biggest celebration comes at the end, in autumn. God saves the best for last. The things of the world always get worse and old and dry and fade away, but the things of God always get better.

The peace of God as you move on, gets more peaceful. The life of God, the more you go on with it, becomes even more alive. The joy of God, becomes more joyful, the fullness of God, becomes more full.

So throw away that worldly pursuit. Pursue God and keep going even when it’s tough, because God always saves the best for last. In God, it only gets better, and with God, the party comes in autumn.

Consider the blameless, observe the upright; a future awaits those who seek peace. Psalm 37:37

Get into the joy of pursuing God with all your heart and mind, forget the temporary distractions this life.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

The Science of Giving…

Acts 20:35 says, “It’s more blessed to give than to receive.” Recent scientific studies found that the most joyous people are those who are the most giving people. Science is catching up with the Bible.

When you give cheerfully, when it’s your joy, you’re going to be blessed. That joy is worth far more than any amount of money that you’re giving. You can’t buy joy, but so many blessings come when you give away.

When you live to give, you’re free. No one can take anything from you anymore. You don’t fear because you’re not going to lose anything. You’re going to be blessed. He who will hold on to his life will lose it. The one who will lose his life for Jesus’s sake will find it.

Start living, giving. Give of your treasure, money, time, and it shall truly be given to you. Give and it shall be given to you, pressed down, shaken together and running over.

Scientifically speaking, it’s what the Bible said all along about the most joyous people in the world. Do you want to be one of them? Then be a giver.

Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” Matthew 19:21

Look for as many ways as possible to be a giver today. Find the true joy of being used to give your time, and blessings to others. Give freely, not holding back.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

Thoughts…

Thought for today:

Century follows century—There it stands.
Empires rise and fall and are forgotten—There it stands.
Dynasty succeeds dynasty—There it stands.
Kings are crowned and uncrowned—There it stands.
Emperors decree its extermination—There it stands.
Despised and torn to pieces—There it stands.
Storms of hate swirl about it—There it stands.
Atheists rail against it—There it stands.
Agnostics smile cynically—There it stands.
Profane prayerless punsters caricature it—There it stands.
Unbelief abandons it—There it stands.
Higher critics deny its claim to inspiration—There it stands.
Thunderbolts of wrath smite it—There it stands.
An anvil that has broken a million hammers—There it stands.
The flames are kindled about it—There it stands.
The arrows of hate are discharged against it—There it stands.
Radicalism rants and raves about it—There it stands.
Fogs of sophistry conceal it temporarily—There it stands.
The tooth of time gnaws but dents it not—There it stands.
Infidels predict its abandonment—There it stands.
Modernism tries to explain it away—There it stands.
Devotees of folly denounce it—There it stands.
It is God’s highway to Paradise.
It is the light on the pathway in the darkest night.
It leads business men to integrity and uprightness.
It is the great consoler in bereavement.
It awakens men and women opiated by sin.
It answers every great question of the soul.
It solves every great problem of life.
It is a fortress often attacked but never failing.
Its wisdom is commanding and its logic convincing.
Salvation is its watchword. Eternal life its goal.
It punctures all pretense.
It is forward-looking, outward-looking, and upward-looking.
It outlives, outlifts, outloves, outreaches, outranks, outruns all other books.
Trust it, love it, obey it, and Eternal Life is yours.

The Bible

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

Getting the Mold Into The Light…

Mold thrives in darkness, not in light. Mold is like sin. It thrives in darkness, in secret. In the Psalms, it says, I wasted away until I confessed my sin. Then I was free; then I was right.

If you keep things in the dark and hidden – that secret sin, bad attitude – that’s mold in your life. It will keep thriving and growing as long as it’s in the dark. Mold cannot thrive in the light, nor can sin.

Lift it up to God. Confess it even if it hurts. Confess your responsibility. Declare it wrong. Receive God’s forgiveness and let Him cleanse you of it. Be open and honest with God. Let the light come in.

It might be uncomfortable. But just like cleaning out mold is uncomfortable, the mold will be gone when you lift it all out and have it all out with God. You will be blessed, because by staying in the dark, your life will get really moldy. Lift it up to the light of God and soon your life will become mold free.

If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us. 1 John 1:8-10

Bring everything into the light of God today. Confess. Come clean. Be free.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

Unclouding The Glory…

Anan Ha Ketoret, the Cloud of Incense, appeared on the holiest day of the year – Yom Kippur. In ancient times, the High Priest of Israel was allowed to enter into the Holy of Holies once a year, but he had to do it with the incense.

The glory of God was too much to behold, so the High Priest had to cloud it up with the incense. The New Covenant has no Cloud of Incense, just the glory.

We as New Covenant believers, tend to make our own cloud of incense because we’re afraid of the glory. We, cloud up the word with compromise. We blur the lines of what God said. “Did God really say that? Well it’s not for today, or for me.”

What we’re doing is forming a cloud. The problem with the cloud is that as long as you live in it, you’ll never see the glory of God or know the glory of the glorious life He has for you.

Be done with compromise. Take God at His word. Go all out with it. Then you’ll live a glorious life… with no clouds in sight.

Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path. Psalm 119:105

Let nothing get in the way of God’s intended glory for your life.. Take His Word for you full strength.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

The Arrival of The Goat…

On Yom Kippur the High Priest of Israel would stand in the courts of the Lord with two goats. He drew two lots, one for each goat. One lot read, “TO THE WILDERNESS.” That goat became the “Scapegoat.” The other lot read, “TO THE LORD.”

This goat was offered as the Yom Kippur sacrifice. The Scapegoat was going somewhere. The Sacrifice Goat didn’t look like it was going anywhere. It looked like they were losing a goat, a non-profit write off, a loss. But the goat’s name was “TO THE LORD.”

In a sense, the goat was arriving in the Lord’s presence. When we sacrifice something for the Lord, we tend to think of it as a loss, but it isn’t gone. It’s “TO THE LORD.” It’s leaving, but it’s arriving in Heaven. It’s really a gain, found in the hands of God.

When you give a gift to someone, you don’t cry that you lost money. You rejoice in their joy of receiving it. Give your gift to the Lord with joy, offer your sacrifice with thanksgiving, for only what’s given to the Lord… can never be lost.

In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ Acts 20:35

Learn to give to the Lord freely and rejoice in that giving. Store up heavenly treasures and be the source of someone’s blessing.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

The Dragon Slayers…

In the beginning, God said, let there be light and there was life. All that came into existence, everything we know comes by the Word. A dragon, the enemy, wants to erase the Word of life by erasing the Word of God.

In the garden, he made them doubt God. It’s a war with the word of the dragon against the Word of God. The dragon speaks words of destruction to tear down and destroy. Sometimes we can hear it, other times it’s whispered in our minds, thoughts, or something conveyed in life.

We’re to not only have nothing to do with the dragon’s mouth, but we have to oppose the words of the dragon with the Word of God. Fight the good fight of faith.

When you have that thought of gloom, despair, or temptation, take out the Word of God and fight that sin. Because, unlike legends where the dragons are slain by swords of steel, we fight the dragon with the Word of God, the sword of the Spirit. By that you’ll overcome and you’ll shut the dragon’s mouth.

They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death. Revelation 12:11

Fight the good fight today. Answer every attack the enemy, every thing; by standing proclaiming the Word of God.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

The Unmixed…

Jesus told us to be as gentle as doves. The word in Greek for gentle is really interesting. It’s akeraois, which means unmixed. Pure as a dove. Not mixed, not complicated, not adulterated, pure heart, pure motives.

What it’s saying is that we need to be un-compromised, un-back and forth, un-double minded; it means pure and pure means one, one heart, with no ulterior motives. When you pray it’s 100%. When you talk it’s 100%.

You mean what you say and you say what you mean. The blessings in God come in being unmixed. When you are unmixed, you’re clear, not wasting half your time going in the other direction.

You’re not in conflict with yourself. Only then can the blessings flow when you’re unmixed, free, unhindered, uncomplicated. Set your heart on becoming unmixed. Put away that thing that mixes you up.

Put away anything that’s not of God, not right. Become pure, whole, total, one. Become 100%. Whatever you do, do with your whole heart, a total person. Become like a dove, unmixed.

I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves. Matthew 10:16

Do whatever it takes today to uncomplicate your walk with God. Stay single minded with one purpose, to serve and love Him with a pure heart.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

There are a lots of sacrifices and offerings in the temple of Jerusalem, but not all offerings had blood. There was one that’s called in Hebrew, Levan. Levan was white powder – frankincense.

The Incense Offering…

It was offered at the veil of the Holy of Holies. It went completely up in one smooth sacrifice, nothing left of it, completely taken up in a cloud to God. That’s it. We are a sweet fragrance, an aroma of Jesus. That’s the fragrance of the incense offering. The only way to offer incense is that it has to be offered completely.

We have to offer up our lives completely. You can only find the purpose of your life when you offer it up, not hold on to it. You can only have what you give. You can only become what you give. You can only have love when you give love. That’s what it’s about.

Give your life freely to God. Whatever you give for God is what you have forever. Give all and your life will become an offering, a holy offering of incense before the Holy of Holies, a sweet fragrance of Jesus.

Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 2 Corinthians 9:7

Give your whole heart to God completely to be used for His purposes. Hold nothing back today as He touches and blesses His plans for you.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

Let The Past Bury The Past…

When Jesus asked a man to follow him, he said, “Let me first go and bury my father.” What happened? Did his father die that morning? The man is with Jesus, and he has to go home to bury his father?

Probably he was saying, let me stay with my father until he dies and I will bury him, and then I will follow You. But in Jewish culture, the fact is burials, are fast. You die, you’re out. If you are over 60 and you take a nap too long, hey, you’re out. Burials are quick.

In the Jewish culture, people are to have nothing to do with death. If you’re born again, you’re a spiritual Israelite. Gossip, bitterness, the past, lust, temptation, greed, selfishness – that stuff is dead.

Bury it quickly. Say goodbye, put on the dirt, get it in the grave, because God is the God of life, not death. You have to be a person of life; have nothing to do with death. That means, speedy burials.

But Jesus told him, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.” Matthew 8:22

Have nothing to do with death today. Whatever action, thought, activity or thing that is not life – put it away. Choose life.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed