Ed Christian's World

The Cornerstone…

When the Hebrews built the temple, they started with one stone. In Hebrew it was called the Rosh Pinah – the cornerstone – the head of the corner. The cornerstone was the first stone. Once laid down, the rest of the temple would go up.

In scripture, Jesus is called the Rosh Pinah. Why? He gives you the power to begin something new in your life. You can’t change your entire life overnight, but you can begin the change of your entire life right now.

New life begins with the first step, laying down the cornerstone of a new beginning. He’ll give you the power to do that, because He’s the cornerstone and He gives the power of new beginnings.

You don’t have to build a whole new life overnight, but you need to take the first step. Without it, the rest won’t happen. Lay down that cornerstone to a new work, a new habit, a new action, a new life.

God will bless you, because everything new begins with the cornerstone. Jesus is the Rosh Pinah. He’s the cornerstone and that’s the secret for you to have a new life.

We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. Romans 6:4

Today make any decisions you have to make, with Jesus as the Cornerstone; the beginning of new thoughts, new actions, and a new course.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

Following Your Joshua…

Do you know where the name Jesus came from? Moses, by the power of the Spirit, changed the name of his apprentice to Yehoshua. Yehoshua became Yeshua. In English it became Joshua, and in Greek, Iesus. In Greek/English, Jesus.

So who was Joshua? He was the one appointed to take the children of Israel across the Jordan into the promised land. Then the Messiah was born. The angel told his parents to name Him Yeshua, Jesus because He will save His people from their sins.

Yeshua means salvation. He’s the one who will lead His people into the promised land. If Jesus is your Lord, He’s your Joshua, your Yeshua. He is your Salvation. He will lead you. You will be following Him where you’ve never been before, crossing from an old life into a new life.

He takes you into the land of promises, the promised land. That’s His ministry. He knows how to get you there. Follow Him. Leave the old behind and move forward with Him into the newness of His promises. Move forward because He is your Joshua, and He’s only going to take you into the promised-land.

Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me. John 12:26

Follow the leading of Yeshua, completely trust that His path is perfect. Leave the old behind and walk into a new place with Him today.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

The Secret Of A Heavenly Life…

The Feast of Sukkot-Tabernacles is a unique feast. During the festival, according to Scripture, Jewish people build a Sukkah, tent or tabernacle. They leave their houses and camp out. The Hebrews camped out in the wilderness.

But why do it again when they’re already in the promised land? God was saying, join the two realms together – the wilderness and the promised land, the journey and the destination. Right now we’re in a type of wilderness and we’re heading home.

Heaven is the promised land, but the two realms are joined together. That’s what Tabernacles says. We are to live our lives now as if seated in heavenly places. We’re to live now in the finished work as if we were walking on the streets of gold. As if He were here all the time, because He is!

That’s the secret of heavenly life. Our journey here is joined to heaven. Rejoice, celebrate – live the heavenly life on earth now because heaven is too good to be contained by the hereafter. In Jesus it overflows into the here and now.

From that time on Jesus began to preach,  “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near” Matthew 4:17

Today, ask the Lord to make you more aware of His constant presence. See yourself raised up and seated with Him in the heavenlies. Join your heaven to earthly life right now!

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

Stop Dwelling On The Saints…

There are denominations that focus on saints: praying to saints, looking to saints, dwelling on the saints. We tend to take pride in the fact that we don’t get caught up in the saints. Are you looking at your brothers and sisters in the Lord?

The Bible says they’re saints. Sometimes believers lose sight of God because of the saints. Do you have your eyes on the saints, what they’ve done or haven’t done? Expecting from them what you should be expecting from God?

It’s no better than the people who bow down to statues. It’s time to get your eyes off of the saints, time to release and forgive. It is time to stop obsessing about other saints, trying to get your needs met from anyone other than God.

Start looking to God and receive from Him. He will provide what you need. Let the saints be saints, and let God be God. You too, are a saint. Make your focus the Lord of the saints. Trust in Him with all your heart. He will never let you down.

Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching. Hebrews 10:22-25

Ask the Lord to show you if there is a brother or sister you need to forgive or release. Then confess it to Him, let it go and pray for them to be blessed.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

God Almost Killed Moses…

Moses, in the wilderness, comes to the burning bush. The voice of God tells him, “Take off your shoes, Moses.” God is talking to him and he is receiving a revelation and His high calling.

The God of his fathers is choosing him to know God and be the instrument of God, to redeem the entire nation of Israel. The deliverer, liberator, Moses the law-giver. But something strange happens.

As he is heading out to Egypt, God is waiting on the way and is about to kill him. His wife quickly grabs a rock and circumcises his children. Why was God about to kill Moses? He was to be the law-giver, but now he was a breaker of the law, by not circumcising his children.

Greater entrustment means a greater responsibility. You have great entrustment, but you have to live with a great responsibility, greater sacrifice, greater accountability, greater purity, greater holiness. Do you want to do greater things in God? Live a greater life with greater obedience before God. For to whom much is given, much is required.

If you love me, keep my commands. John 14:15

God has entrusted you with a high calling and with the responsibility to obey His Word. Is there anything in your life that is not in God’s will, out of His perfect calling? Get it out. Then fulfill your calling.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

The Crown On The Priest…

In the Old Covenant, according to the law, a king could not be priest and a priest could not be king. Then God tells Zechariah in 6:11, “Take silver and gold, make a crown, and set it on the head of Joshua the high priest.”

Although this seemed to be breaking the law, in reality it was a prophetic act. The Lord said, “this is a sign of the man who will be called the Branch.” That’s Jesus! He is going to be Priest and King at the same time. He is going to build the temple of the Lord forever.

So that means, when Jesus comes, there has to be a New Covenant, because it would be against the law in the Old Covenant. Jesus is of the royal house of Judah and is the High Priest of the New Covenant.

A crown on the head of a high priest. A sign that in God all things are new in Jesus. You are a new creation, not bound by the past. You are free in the power of Jesus, who is both your King and High Priest.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 2 Corinthians 5:17-19

Today, take new steps of action in the power of newness in Jesus. Make newness, new actions, and new steps a part of your everyday life.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

Talking To Ghosts…

I went to Gettysburg one time with a friend. They had some people dressed up as the soldiers who fought in the Civil War. One was dressed as the Confederate soldier, Jeb Stuart, who was responsible for contributing to the defeat at Gettysburg.

My friend starts arguing with him, saying you messed up everything. Then the actor starts arguing back. My friend is arguing with a guy who doesn’t exist.

Many believers do the same thing. Maybe you. Are you still reacting to things from the past? Doing things that are dead, gone? Are you living your life in the shadow of them? Maybe about your childhood? Things that happened years ago?

Stop arguing with it. God says, don’t commune with the dead. It’s dead. Stop trying to prove it. God is not there, the tomb is empty. Get out of the dead thing. Get out of the tomb, and get on with your life. God has great things ahead for you, but you have to get out of the past; stop arguing with the dead, and start moving on with the living.

Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland. Isaiah 43:18-19

Today give thanks that you are a new creation. Stop dwelling on issues from your past, things long gone. Close the door on it, and move forward with God’s plan for your life.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

The Synagogue and The Church…

Acts 18 says “He departed from there and went to the house of a certain man named Justus, a worshiper of God, whose house was next to the synagogue.” Right there, by the synagogue, were the God-fearing gentiles. Those who would begin the church of Corinth. Where did the church start?

Right next to the synagogue. This faith we call Christianity is the Messianic faith, which was started right outside the synagogue. It was clearly a Jewish faith branching out. Paul ministered there, right next to the synagogue. Christianity’s roots have always been inherently Jewish; a daughter of Israel.

In Ephesians it says, “You are now of Jesus, citizens of Israel.” The fact is, you are now a child of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. You have been grafted in by His Spirit. Rejoice in the fact that, in Jesus, you are now one of the children of Israel in Spirit. You don’t replace Israel. You are a part of Israel. You are of the house that is right next door to the synagogue.

Then Paul left the synagogue and went next door to the house of Titius Justus, a worshiper of God. Crispus, the synagogue leader, and his entire household believed in the Lord; and many of the Corinthians who heard Paul believed and were baptized. Acts 18:7-8

Today spend time in prayer for the people of Israel, that they will recognize Jesus. Give thanks that you are a part of the whole house of Israel.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

The Sleeping Guard…

When I was in college, I was working as a security guard. One of my coworkers was a ministerial student, who every night would go into the president’s office at night and sleep. One day the president came in early and this ministerial student was found sleeping on the job.

That was the end of his job. Jesus gave us a parable in Luke 12. The master goes away, the servants grow complacent, doing whatever they want, beating other servants. He returns, finds them unfaithful and punishes them.

The parable is about Him. He left the world. He is the master and you don’t see Him, so it’s easy to grow complacent. What are you doing with your life? What are you doing with your time that He gave you? Are you doing His will? Are you letting your light shine?

The Master is coming back. There is no time to live a complacent life. Prepare for eternity. You want Him to say, “Well done good and faithful servant. Enter the joy of your Master.”

It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he . Truly I tell you, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them. It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the middle of the night or toward daybreak. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him. Luke 12:37-40

Look for an opportunity today to be a good servant, to do His will. Share the love of God and let your light shine!

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

Being A Christian…

Over the years I’ve been asked many times what is being Christian really mean? It’s one thing to say you’re a Christian, but its another to live a life that sets an example of what a Christian is.

I’ve always told them to live the life Jesus has blessed them with sharing His blessings along the way. Spread your seeds on the furtile souls leading them the His light.

Then I would tell them a story my Granfather shared with me when I was 10 years old:

In the early twentieth century, people of India were under the rule of the British. Mahatma Gandhi, the father of modern India, was approached by Lord Irwin, the British viceroy. Irwin asked him what he considered to be the solution to the problems of India and his country.

Gandhi took a book and opened it to the Gospel of Matthew, the fifth chapter. He answered, “When your country and mine shall get together on the teachings of Christ in this Sermon on the Mount, we shall have solved the problems not only of our countries but those of the whole world.”

It took a Hindu to remind Christians of the British Empire of the teachings of Jesus and to notice the striking disparity between what many Christians quote on one hand, and how they live their lives on the other.

It took a Hindu to remind Christians that Jesus’s words are to be applied to every area of our lives and say that if one doesn’t do that, one has no business calling oneself by the name of Jesus.

Let’s conform our lives to Jesus’s words, that we may have the honor of being called His disciples.

Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them.

He said: “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Matthew 5:1-12

I would like to add here that this is just a starting point to being a good Christian. I would suggest that you don’t stop there and continue reading through chapter 7.

We as Christians tend to get a bit lazy the longer we walk the path. We need to shine our lights daily and show others, by example, how a Christian is to live. That’s 24/7 not just on Sunday morning or Wednesday night.

When you read the Bible today, don’t take God’s words lightly. Take one verse that you’ve read today and apply it to your life. Then continue to do it every day of your life. The Bible is full of life lessons and love.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed