Ed Christian's World

The Five Gospels…

The Talmud and the Targums are Judaism’s writings on the Bible and commentary on the commentaries of the Bible. When you read the writings of Paul, it’s clear that he was a rabbi schooled in the Writings of the Rabbis.

His writings are every bit as rabbinical in style and approach as that of the Talmud and the Targums of Judaism – except that he has the answer, the truth of Jesus, and the Spirit of God.

God prepared him all his years before Jesus – to become an expert in commenting on Scriptures and bringing out their deeper meanings so that you could be blessed with the epistles.

So, too, God has given you His Word and salvation, and He wants you to comment on it, discuss it, share it, proclaim it, rejoice in it, and contemplate it.

He’s given you His Word. Your life is to be the commentary on His Word. Let everything in your life, word, and deed be a commentary on God’s love and salvation.God gave you the Bible. Let your life now become its living, continuous, and never-ending commentary.

Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress. Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.  1 Timothy 4:15-16

Make everything you do today a commentary on the truth, love, and salvation of Jesus.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

The Thomas Touch…

Upon hearing the reports of the Resurrection, Thomas said, “Unless I see the nail prints in His hands, put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand in His side, I will not believe.”

Eight days later, Jesus appeared and said to him, “Put your finger here, see My hands, reach out your hand and put it into My side. Stop doubting and believe.” Thomas responded, “My Lord and my God.”

It’s literally a touching scene, and touching is the key. When Thomas touched the Lord, he stopped doubting. We need to do the same. Jesus doesn’t say, “hide or repress your doubts,” or “shame on you for having them.”

He says, “Bring your doubts to me. Don’t let them separate you from Me. Touch Me and let Me touch your doubts and make them disappear.”

Do you have doubts? Learn from doubting Thomas. Really, it’s unfair to call him doubting because he ended up very much believing. He approached the Lord with his doubts and touched Him. You do the same. Touch the Lord with your doubt, and He’ll touch you with faith.

Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD GOD is an everlasting rock.  Isaiah 26:4

Bring any doubts you may have to Jesus today. Bring everything to Him, even the most ungodly parts of your life, and touch Him with it.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

The Contrary Joy…

In James 1:2 says, “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.” It’s the first thing James talks about. Consider it when?

The Greek word for encounter is peripipto, meaning when you find yourself surrounded with troubles. Consider it pure joy when you’re surrounded by trials, when you’re surrounded by evil, when you’re surrounded by adversity, when you’re surrounded by temptation, when you’re being attacked on all sides by the enemy.

Usually, in those cases, our reaction to being surrounded by adversity and trouble isn’t pure joy. But James doesn’t say it is pure joy. It says to consider it pure joy. Not that it seems that way, but consider it – you have to choose.

When you’re in the midst of trials, consider it pure joy. Why? If it naturally produced pure joy, you wouldn’t have to consider it that way. It’s the testing of your faith that will produce great and even more radical faith in you. Consider it pure joy, and pure joy is exactly what you will end up having in the end.

Let your priests be clothed with righteousness, and let your saints shout for joy.  Psalm 132:9

How to Pass the Test: Today, view every problem or challenge as a test for your blessing – Seek God’s purpose in each test and rejoice.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

The Light Of The Virgins…

Jesus’s parable of the ten virgins was based on the ancient Hebrew wedding. The maidens would wait with the bride, not knowing exactly when the groom would come. They had to keep their lamps oiled because it often happened at night.

This parable is linked to the end-times, and we’re near the coming of Jesus. Five virgins didn’t keep themselves ready, and at the time of His coming had lost their light.

We have to be like the faithful virgins. In the end-times, it’s especially crucial for believers to keep that light of faith strong, because for many it goes out.

It’s easy to let your love of God get snuffed out by the world, relationships, distractions, money, materialism, or selfish ambition.

Even busyness in ministry can snuff out the light simply by not refilling it. You’re an end-time believer, and you have to be wise. Stop getting distracted.

Refill your oil in prayer, in the Word, in doing His true will, in rejoicing in Him, and just being in His presence. Refill your lamp every day, and your light will shine bright through the end-times.

The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light. Mattew 6:22

Refill your lamp today in prayer, in the word, and by rejoicing in His presence.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

Your Storm Brother…

Proverbs 17:17 says, “A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.” A brother is born for hard times, not just for the good times. In the good times, having a brother is good, but a true brother is born in the times of hardship, to stand with you when no one else will.

That’s the most important time for being a brother. If you’re born again, you’re the brother of Jesus. You’re born for times of adversity to show yourself true, not just when everything seems fine but also in times of testing.

You’re born not to abandon, forsake, or deny Him, but to stand with Him all the more in adversity, trouble, and persecution. When times are tough in your life, that’s when you should show your true devotion to Him in your brotherhood.

When you go through a trial, don’t despair. Praise and bless Him all the more; He’s your brother and you’re His. You’ll be blessed because you were born as His brother. A brother is born for adversity, and He will stand in your adversity just as well.

To the faithful you show yourself faithful, to the blameless you show yourself blameless, to the pure you show yourself pure, but to the crooked you show yourself shrewd.  2 Samuel 22:26-27

Express your true devotion to God today by praising Him through whatever situations you go through.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

Inside The Name….

Proverbs 18:10 says, “The name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous run into it and are safe.” If you are named among the righteous, you need to run into the name of the Lord. The name of the Lord is not just a group of letters or sounds. It’s His authority, His identity, it’s Him.

To run into the name of the Lord means to get yourself inside Him, inside His identity- your name inside His name, your weaknesses inside His strength, your unrighteousness inside His righteousness, and your sins inside His holiness. Get inside Him.

Salvation is getting your identity in God’s identity, getting your life inside His life so you are in Him. It’s no longer I that live, but Him. When you run into a tower, you disappear. If you want to be safe, disappear in Him.

Get covered. Get your life, heart, emotions, sins, fears, ego, ambition- everything- inside the name, identity, authority, and will of God. Because the name of the Lord is a strong tower, and if you run into it, you will be safe.

Keep me safe, O God, for in you I take refuge.  Psalm 16:1

Run into the Lord today and let Him encompass you with His strength.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

The Boa Strategy…

Boa constrictors can crawl 85 meters through a forest to enter the hole of a large mammal, coil there, and wait for the bait for days. The enemy is a serpent and uses the same strategy; he seeks to find an opening in your life, an unprotected open area, a foothold, a position to strike at you.

If you know that the serpent is waiting to strike, the wise thing to do is identify that opening in your life. It can be an ungodly attitude, a habit, an ungodly incident, or something in your past – a hurt, a wound, unforgiveness, bitterness, a connection to the occult.

Even pride, jealousy, insecurity, rejection, idolatry, lust, or a lack of trusting God can be openings. It could be any entrance at all, such as gossip, that television show, that magazine, the internet, that association, that place you go to that gives the enemy a foothold.

He’s waiting to strike you. Be wise and seal up that hole in your life once and for all. The enemy is a serpent who needs only an opening. Don’t give him room anymore; close the door.

And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.   Philippians 1:9-11

Today, focus on sealing up any openings, gaps, weaknesses, sins, and danger areas to close the door to the enemy.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always

Ed

He Who Is Joy…

God is the King of the universe and the Lord of all. You are part of the universe. Therefore the only way things can be right in your life is when you make Him who is the King of the universe, the king of your heart, and when you make Him who is the Lord of all, the Lord of your life.

The Lord is also the Joy of all existence. The only way things can be truly right and blessed in your life is to make Him who is the Joy of all, the true joy of your life.

You are to rejoice in the Lord always, because you’ve made Him the joy of your life. You are to delight yourself in Him, because you’ve made Him the delight of your heart.

If you’ve made God the Lord of your heart, that’s great and essential. If you’ve made Him the Lord of your life, that’s just as important.

But now do something even more: make Him who is the Joy and Delight of all creation, the joy and delight of your heart, and your life will be blessed.

Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me.  Psalm 51:12

Spend time delighting in the Lord today and allow His joy to fill you to overflowing.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

The Blessings of Anti-semitism…

For two thousand years, the Jewish people have been hated, persecuted, oppressed, killed, and massacred. One of the greatest evils the world has ever known, Adolf Hitler, was devoted to the total destruction of the Jewish people.

You might think that all the hatred and suffering goes against the Word of God, but the Bible foretold it and it does just the opposite. If you look at it objectively, you have to say that there’s something supernatural and unique about the Jewish people.

What else explains why all the forces of hell are against them? The darkness is so great against them because they are greatly linked to the Light. The darkness doesn’t disprove the light, it proves it. They’ve survived because the Bible said they would.

In your life, all the evil you’ve dealt with, sin, problems, adversity, attacks, and setbacks should not discourage you but encourage you. If you’re following God, it’s a witness that He’s real, He loves you, and you’re called to overcome and fight the good fight.

You’ve gone into my future to prepare the way, and in kindness you follow behind me to spare me from the harm of my past. You have laid your hand on me!   Psalm 139:5

Whatever challenges you have today, know that God’s power is greater. You’re on the winning side – Fight your good fight!

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

Magnifying The Magnificent One…

The Koran contains a statement directed at believers in Yeshua (Jesus). It says, “Oh people of the scripture do not exaggerate in your religion, the Messiah, Jesus, Son of Mary.” It calls Yeshua, Jesus, but doesn’t understand what the Messiah is. Don’t exaggerate Jesus?

How could you exaggerate Jesus? He’s the One who reconciles man to God, becomes a light to the nations, brings peace- first spiritually and then physically to the world, makes the lion lie down with the calf, ushers in God’s Kingdom, and reigns upon the throne of David.

Don’t exaggerate the One who saves us from hell and who redeems us for everlasting joy? Don’t exaggerate Him? How can you? If there is one thing you can’t exaggerate, it’s Jesus. As people of the True Scriptures, followers of the Anointed One, Jesus Yeshua, don’t stop lifting up the Lord.

You can’t speak enough about Him, praise Him enough, lift Him up, and rejoice enough in Him. Don’t worry about exaggerating Jesus. You couldn’t if you wanted to, because He’s just too great. He’s the Messiah.

As for us, we can not help speaking about what we have seen and heard.  Acts 4:20

Magnify the Lord today in everything you say and do.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed