Ed Christian's World

Moses On The Couch…

As end-time believers, we have to be careful because there are more distractions now than ever in human history – television, the internet, and social media. It isn’t all bad, but much of it is, and that’s a good argument for staying away from it.

We weren’t put on earth to become passive couch potatoes. Imagine if Moses sat and watched TV, or if the saints gathered in the upper room to watch movies- we wouldn’t have the Bible. You weren’t called to sit on the sidelines and watch the world turn or watch Hollywood’s version of the world turning.

You’re called to be the salt of the earth, the light of the world, to change the world, to dwell in God’s presence, to see from heaven, and to transform this world. I’m not giving you a rule, but a word of counsel and a principle.

Don’t let your calling, your hours, days, weeks, months, and years be wasted away. Don’t miss God’s presence, His glory, the revelation, the power, and the victory that God has because you were too busy sitting on a couch trying to be entertained.

Listen to counsel and accept discipline, that you may be wise the rest of your days. Proverbs 19:20

Get off the couch – unplug yourself, unchain yourself. Get into God’s presence and then out and fulfill your calling.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

Your Pilgramage Life…

I visited my friend who lives in Israel, and he took me on a tour of the Holy Land. Then he came to Texas to see me. I figured I owed him a tour in return, so I took him on a tour of Texas. He saw factories, traffic jams, crowding… I asked him if he wanted to continue, and He said, “No, not really.”

Giving him a Holy Land tour of Texas was ridiculous – and yet not so ridiculous. Israel is the Holy Land, but if you’re a holy person, your life and the ground you walk on is to be holy. You may not live in Israel, but Scripture says you’re a citizen if you’re born again.

Live your life holy in the presence of God, as if you’re in Israel. It doesn’t matter if you’re in America, Asia, or Africa – live your life as if you’re in the Holy Land, walking on holy soil.

Treat every moment as holy, and it will become so, because in the grace and the Spirit of God, your life will become a pilgrimage in the Holy Land – even in East Texas

But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.   Hebrews 10:39

Live this day as if you were walking the ground of the Holy Land. Let every step be. Let your life become a sacred pilgrimage.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

Living Kosher (Cleansed)…

In the vision Peter had on the rooftop, God said, “What I have cleansed do not call unclean” or “what I have made kosher do not call unkosher anymore”. He’s speaking of the gentiles from beyond Israel, from all the nations.

God didn’t just cleanse them, He cleansed you. Your past is filled with things you would rather not have had in it. Sin is always unclean, but God has cleansed you of that sin.

He said your sins were as scarlet, but now they’re going to be as white as snow. He works your past out for good, in grace. What God calls clean do not call unclean.

No matter what happened before, God has cleansed it and He’s used it to bless you and lead you to the good. He doesn’t want you to be defined by that sin anymore; not in your thoughts, actions, identity, or your life.

He wants you to live kosher, think kosher, believe kosher, walk kosher, and be blessed kosher. What God has cleansed, do not call unclean. What God has made kosher, don’t call unkosher, and that includes you.

First to those in Damascus, then to those in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and then to the Gentiles, I preached that they should repent and turn to God and demonstrate their repentance by their deeds.  Acts 26:20

Today, live kosher, think kosher thoughts, do kosher deeds. God has made you kosher- live accordingly.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

Getting Into The Love Story…

Have you ever noticed how many stories or movies are based on the same theme: boy meets girl, boy gets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back, boy kisses girl? There are some variations, but it’s basically the same theme.

God’s story is a love story, and all of creation is part of it. He’s the Bridegroom and we’re the bride, but we fell. Then God comes down to earth and gives His life for us that we would say yes, and like the end of a love story, the two come together.

We shall behold Him at the marriage supper of the Lamb. The Greek word for worship means kiss. We’ll be worshiping Him forever, the two shall be one, and we’ll be joined together in holy matrimony, total marital bliss forever. Creation is a love story and your life is to be a love story between you and God.

Your life can never be complete until you draw near to Him. So come into His chambers, into the secret place, in prayer and worship until your life becomes a true love story sealed with a kiss of worship.

But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for such the Father seeks to worship him. John 4:23

Draw near to your Bridegroom today and dwell in the intimacy and beauty of His presence.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

Your Calling In The Closet…

What do we keep in closets – old things we aren’t using, clothes packed in mothballs that are never used? The Lord tells us not to hide our faith.

We can’t keep our walk, the word, or salvation hidden. How can other people get saved if we hide the light? It doesn’t only hurt them, it hurts us.

When you keep your faith in a closet, it paralyzes your faith so it can’t be used as it should be; it turns it from a victorious walk to a defensive hidden faith- a faith on mothballs. Faith on mothballs won’t do anyone any good.

When you hide who you are, you’re putting your calling in the closet. It doesn’t do any good to have your calling, courage, or victory on mothballs.

Get your faith, your witness, and your calling out of the closet. Dust them off, bring them into the light, and apply them to every area of your life.

Your faith, your witness, and your calling are just too important to let them rot away in darkness, in the closet on mothballs.

There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call. Ephesians 4:4

Get out of the closet today – dust off your calling and let your light shine.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

The Lost Crusaders…

Jerusalem was restored to the Jewish people fifty years ago in the Six Day War. For thousands of years, it was warred over by the nations. In the Middle Ages, the Crusaders fought over Jerusalem.

The Crusades began when the king of Byzantium, concerned for their safety after the Muslims took Jerusalem, appealed to the Pope for help. The crusaders marched from Europe, destroying multitudes of people on their way to Jerusalem. On the last crusade, they actually pillaged Byzantium, leaving it vulnerable to the Muslim Turk invaders who later sealed its doom.

The Crusades which began with a call to save Byzantium ended up destroying it. Therein lies a crucial lesson. Even in the Lord, you can lose sight of your original purpose and end up serving selfish ambition, forgetting your first love or the joy of your salvation.

Have you forgotten your first love, or the fire you had to serve Him? Come back to Him today. Get alone with the Lord and let Him relight the fire that’s gone out.

Renew your love and mission. God hasn’t revoked your calling – you just need to remember it.

For this reason, I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. 2 Timothy 1:6

Have you gone off track in any way or grown distant from God? Spend time alone with the Lord today, and rekindle your love.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always

Ed

The Seven Eyes of God

Some people picture cherubim as child-like creatures, but that’s not how the Bible them. Revelation 4:7-8 talks about cherubim as heavenly creatures full of eyes all around. Zechariah 3:9 speaks of seven eyes on a stone that represent the eyes of the Lord. Revelation 5:6 says, “I saw… a Lamb… having seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God”.

Seven is the number of perfection or completion. Eyes are about seeing and sight. It’s saying there’s nothing hidden from God – no pretense or mask. He sees everything. Most of the time, we live as if that weren’t true.

We still hide things and do things that we would never do in front of others, but we do it in front of God. Remember, no matter what you do, you have an audience. If you lie, gossip, or sin in secret, you’re being watched.

Live your life transparent, pure in the light, with nothing to hide. If even the angelic creatures have eyes all around, how much more does God see? Live in a manner worthy of being seen by the eyes of God.

Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?  Psalm 139:7

Live this day as if at every moment and in every place, God’s eyes were upon you – because they are!

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

Your Real Goal…

Let’s say you come home from a hard day at work and all you want is peace and quiet, but your loved ones need something of you and you become irritated, upset. You end up causing conflict.

They’re miserable, and you’re miserable. The problem is that you had the wrong goal. The real goal should have been to be more like Jesus – to love, to become more beautiful as a person, to become a more holy person.

Your goal isn’t to have a peaceful night, it’s to have a peaceful spirit, a heart of peace. You can apply this to any part of your life, any goal. Don’t let any goal cause you to lose sight of your true goal to become more like Him- to love God and others and glorify Him with your life on earth.

When you do that, you will get the blessing on top of it. Not that your life will always be filled with beautiful circumstances, but that your life will be filled with a beautiful Jesus-like person who happens to be you.

But just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do. 1 Peter 1:15

Make it your one goal today, above and beyond all goals, to be more godly, righteous, and beautiful in the Lord.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always

Ed

The Face of Jesus and You…

My Uncle Larry sent a photograph to a place in Japan that converted photos into paintings at a good price. It came back beautiful, except for one problem – My uncle was a man from Arkansas, but in the painting, he had become Japanese.

When you look at paintings of Jesus from different times and places, the same thing happens. He looks like the people of that time and place. The Bible gives no physical description of Jesus, and there’s a reason for it.

Your job is to make a picture of Jesus on earth with your life. It’s to be Jesus, but it’s you – Jesus with your features in your life. How would Jesus be depicted in terms of you? How would He live your life – show His love to your family, respond to your problems, to your situation, overcome challenges, work on your job?

The key is to take Jesus and portray Him, let Him show Himself through you with the colors, material, features, and context of your life. You’ll end up with a masterpiece even better than the Japanese version of my uncle.

Who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.  Philippians 3:21

Let your being, your body, your soul, your life be the vessel and the portrait of Jesus to all who see you today.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

The Broken Vessel of God…

After 2000 years, on June 7, 1967, the Jewish people regained their holy city of Jerusalem. Compared to other cities, Jerusalem is hardly the most beautiful, sitting on the barren rocks of Judea.

Yet, the Bible is filled with promises to rebuild it, to make it again the Holy City. Why rebuild Jerusalem? It’s like having a beautiful vase; one day, it falls and breaks, and instead of buying a new one, you gather all the pieces, one by one, and put them back together.

When you love something and it breaks, you rebuild it. That goes for your marriage, your relationships, and all the other broken things in your life. It also goes for you – you are God’s Jerusalem, His broken vase.

Because He loves you, He would rather put together the broken pieces of your life, piece by piece, than give up on you. He doesn’t give up on you.

So don’t you give up on yourself or on His love. Keep going until He makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth, for you are His Jerusalem.

And give him no rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.   Isaiah 62:7

Do you have something or someone in your life that is broken? Don’t give up on what is of God. What can you do to bring healing and restoration?

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed