Ed Christian's World

The Calories Of Holiness…

The priests of Israel had higher standards in everything. They ate the holy sacrifices of God. They were the holy ministers of God. So the holy ministers of God had to live off of holy food.

When you eat food, the food turns to energy. So if you partake of unholy things, you end up with unholy energy to do unholy things–lust, idolatry, pride, bitterness, immorality.

But if you’re to live a holy life, the key is to eat holy food. If you eat holy food, you end up with holy energy. Holy energy is the energy to do holiness; to love, to repent, to do right, to be victorious in God.

Philippians says, “Whatever is good, right, pure, excellent, let your mind dwell on these things.” When you do that, then you’re partaking of these things into your spirit and then that holy food becomes holy energy.

You are called to be a royal priest. The priest of God has to eat holy food. So eat holy food. Partake of what is of heaven and things of God. Rejoice in them. Let them become part of your life. You’ll have the energy of holiness.

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Philippians 4:8

Set this day to partake of your spiritual food, the Word of God, His love, His presence. Then move in the energy of that holy food to accomplish holy and great works for His glory.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

The Good Seed and The Good Soil…

Jesus tells us the parable of the sower through the seed in the ground. The question was where was the power, in the seed or in the ground? The good ground bore life. The bad ground didn’t. The good ground was simply the ground that received the seed.

So the key to abundant life in God is not about trying to produce good works, or holiness in God. The soil can’t produce anything without the seed. It’s the seed that produces the fruit. The seed is the Word of God. The Word of God produces fruit in your life.

Take the Word of God into the soil of your life, and it will do its thing. Your part is to just receive it; let it come in and do its thing. Become good soil for the seed. The soil that becomes good at receiving will blossom with life, a thousand-fold. Receive the seed; it will change your life.

Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. Whoever has ears, let them hear.” Matthew 13:3-9

Receive God’s message for you today. Open your heart to the Living Word. Give it a place to grow within you. Nurture and apply it to your life now.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

The Second Garden…

The fall of man happened in the Garden of Eden, the garden of life. Man was surrounded by life inside a garden of life. And yet in a garden of life, he died – it all happened in a garden.

On the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene ran to the tomb and found it empty–the resurrection. That’s the beginning of our faith. What kind of tomb was it? It was a garden tomb, a tomb inside a garden. Redemption took place in a garden.

If the fall of man happened in a garden, so too the rising of man must also happen in a garden. Death came from the first garden, but true life comes from the second garden, where this first life is finished, where everything new comes alive.

So don’t go after what you see with your eyes or feel with your flesh–there’s no life there. Seek the things of Jesus, the life that is deeper than life; the love that’s deeper than love.

Come to this second garden–the garden tomb. For in the first Garden of Life, we died, and we can only die. But in the Garden of Death, the tomb, we rise to life.

Jesus said to her, ” I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die.” John 11:25

Seek out the eternal and lasting things today. Don’t waste time pursuing temporary pleasures of earthly desires. Go after God’s own heart.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

The Tree

The Tree of Life was sealed up from the sight of man. It disappeared. And yet it’s not gone. It’s in our midst. It’s come back to us in the form of a tree.

The cross is the Tree of Life in disguise. It starts out looking like the Tree of Good and Evil, but it ends up being the Tree of Life. When you partake of the cross, it seems as if you’re partaking of death.

You take up your cross, die to self, surrender. But really, you’re partaking of the fruit of the Tree of Life. The cross seems tough–to love your enemy, to forgive, to sacrifice yourself. But when you partake of it, it ends up bringing life. The fruit of the Tree of Life; you die to self, you come alive, your tears have turned to joy.

Don’t be fooled, the cross only looks hard, but every time you partake of it, it’s going to bear you fruit. Love and joy and peace and faithfulness, gentleness, and goodness; for the cross is none other than the Tree of Life in disguise.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness. Galatians 5:22

Seek to be a giver of kindness and love for others. Look for ways to reveal God’s love and don’t expect anything in return.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

How The Devel Prepares You For Your Ministry….

In the gospel it says that the Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to be tested of the devil. God works all things for good. He uses all things, even evil, for good; for good purposes. Even the enemy is used.

Jesus was going to be tested by evil. It was that Jesus would come out of it approved for ministry. So really it was all part of preparing Jesus for His ministry. So God even used the devil to prepare Jesus for ministry.

So, too, in your life you will be attacked by the enemy. But God is using and will use all these things, even the attacks of the enemy, for your good.

He will even use it to make you grow, conform you to His image and prepare you for the ministry and the calling that He placed you for.

So when you go through that trial, that test, remember it’s not an accident. It is there for your good, pass the test, and it will prepare you to fulfill the calling that God gave you.

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28

Accept every challenge today as a test, as a way to be proven worthy to rise in your calling. Use the test to grow stronger and trust deeper in God’s plan for you.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

The Gospel of The Rosy Cheeks…

The word “GOSPEL” is Jewish. Gospel music, Gospel preachers, Gospel choirs, Gospel recording artists, all Jewish- all from Israel. The word for Gospel in the New Testament in the Greek is, Euangellion but it is the translation from the Hebrew word that appears in the Hebrew scriptures.

In the book of Isaiah it says; how lovely are the feet of those who bring glad tidings to the poor, glad tidings means good news or Gospel. The Hebrew word is “Besorah”, the original word for Gospel. It means “fresh and rosy cheeked.”

If you aren’t fresh in God, then you’ve gone away from the good news. Every time you hear the Gospel it has to be fresh. The Besorah has the power to make you fresh and new. Your life will be renewed, your love, your joy, your zeal, your prayer life, your work, your family, everything will become fresh and new as the Gospel. You will become rosy cheeked.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. Romans 1:16

Begin your day with a fresh message from the Good News of the Gospel. Receive good news anew and afresh, from the Word of God.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

Burning Your Bridges…

There’s a story of a famous battle where the general ordered the destruction of his ships so that there would be no turning back for his army. They could not turn back; they could not retreat. They realized that they had no ship to go back to so they had to go forward and fight all the way.

You need to have the same attitude. When you go forward in God, you have nothing to lose. God commanded the people of Israel to go forward through the Red Sea. They had no alternative, mountains on one side, the Red Sea on the other, and the Egyptians with Pharoah’s army behind them, Had they retreated they would be faced with certain death.

In the same way, you have to enter the battle to win. David ran towards Goliath in the name of the Lord. God wants a people who have nothing to lose. Burn your ships, burn your bridges of the past; move forward in faith and love through the Spirit of God. The only thing we have is what lies ahead.

Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.” Luke 9:62

Destroy any paths leading to your past and make a clean break. Be fearless and focused on the Kingdom that is ahead of you and the One who holds the keys to your future.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

Authority Over Your Thoughts…

A lot of believers think that their thought life has a life of its own and beyond their control. Paul in his epistle to the Corinthians warned them that the weapons of their warfare were “not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds; casting down imaginations and every high thought.”

Holding every thought captive is not a natural process but supernatural. And the Holy Spirit will anoint you to do it. Have you ever noticed that when you walk, your legs are moving without you really thinking; you just move along?

This doesn’t mean that your feet are out of your control. Rather, it’s just a habit. So it is with your thoughts. You may think that your thoughts go on without you, but that’s just the force of habit. You have control over what you do with your mind.

Take responsibility for your thought life; take every thought captive and make a choice to take control over your thoughts. The more you do it, the more your mind will follow. Do you have a godly thought life? It’s your choice, it’s as simple as moving your hand.

For the weapons of nour warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete. 2 Corinthians 10:4-6

Take your thoughts captive. Take any thought that’s not of God be taken down and replaced by one that is.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

The Importance of Somewhere Else…

It says in the Gospel that when the disciples came to the Lord, they said unto Him “everyone is looking for you,” then He answered, “Let us go somewhere else to the towns nearby so I can preach the Gospel there also.”

His last command to the twelve disciples was to “Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit. Behold I will be with you even to the ends of the earth.”

During His ministry on earth, Jesus went everywhere He could go because He knew that the Gospel had to be preached to all the world until the end would come.

You need to have the same heart and to allow the Spirit to move within you to do the will of God. God is on the move. You have to move as well. Don’t be bound in what is comfortable. Be prepared to move forward. Don’t fear, for God is with you wherever you go.

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:18-20

Move away from your comfort zone today and move towards growing deeper in your faith. Open yourself to the mission that the Holy Spirit has for you.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

Prison Praise…

A prison is a dark and miserable place. And yet one night, in one particular prison, the prisoners heard singing, songs of joy. They must have wondered what all that singing was about. Paul and Silas were put in prison for preaching the Gospel. And yet even in prison they weren’t afraid.

For they knew that in the presence of God there is joy. And as they were singing in the middle of the night, the power of praise illuminated the darkness and a great earthquake struck the prison and the prison opened up.

The guard was awakened; he feared that all the prisoners were gone. But Paul said “we are all here.” The guard then asked Paul, “What should I do to be saved?” Paul answered “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved and your house.”

So, no matter what situation you find yourself in, even in the darkest of circumstances, praise God. Let your light shine, make a commotion of your joy. Start a disturbance of faith. Begin an uproar of righteousness and cause an explosion of light to enter in.

About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose. The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!” The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his household were baptized. The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his whole household. Acts 16:25-34

Be that source of light to scatter the darkness. Don’t be afraid to cause a holy disturbance of praise and joy – and shake the lost from their shackles.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed