Ed Christian's World

The World – Your Bridegroom…

Every bride seeks to appear beautiful in the eyes of her groom. But it’s often an involved process, an expensive and a long process. In the ancient Hebrew marriage, the bride and groom would stay separated for a year.

The groom would prepare a place for the bride. And the bride would prepare herself for the groom. Her mission was to get ready and make herself beautiful.

Now anyone who has witnessed a woman making herself beautiful knows things often get worse before they get better. A woman covered with facial cream is not very beautiful. Sometimes, looking uglier is a necessary part of becoming more beautiful.

If you’re born again, you’re the bride, and now is the time of your preparation. That’s why you and Jesus are separated, because this is the time given you to prepare for marriage, to become beautiful in His eyes.

If you’re looking at yourself, your heart, your attitude, your spirituality… it can be pretty ugly… but don’t be discouraged. For it’s in seeing her lack of beauty that the bride becomes beautiful in the Lord. This is the time of your preparation. You have to become beautiful.

It is the bridegroom who marries the bride, and the bridegroom’s friend is simply glad to stand with him and hear his vows. Therefore, I am filled with joy at his success. John 3:29

Today, in every situation, look to see it as Heaven’s bridal chamber. Seek to see in everything, the good and the bad, the purposes of God to make you grow into His image.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

Healing…

Isaiah 53 is one of the most amazingly clear prophecies of Jesus and His death ever given in the Scripture. One of the verses is particularly powerful. It says, ‘The punishment for our peace fell upon Him.’

In the original Hebrew, it doesn’t say ‘The punishment for our peace.’ It says ‘the punishment for our shalom.’ Why is this important? Shalom means a lot more than peace. When you have shalom, you don’t just have peace, you have fullness, wholeness, prosperity, and well-being.

Jesus didn’t die simply so you would have peace. He died so you would have shalom. In Hebrew, it doesn’t say ‘our shalom’ but ‘shalomeinu.’ It’s not two words, but one: “our” and “the shalom” can’t be separated.

It’s inconceivable that in Jesus, you should ever be separated from shalom. Jesus didn’t die so you would ever be separated from shalom. He died that you and shalom would be together, that it would be inconceivable to ever imagine you without it.

So start receiving your ‘shalomeinu,’ your fullness, your wholeness, and your well-being. It’s His gift and it’s your shalomeinu.

But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. Isaiah 53:5

No matter what your circumstances bring or what’s surrounding you, choose to live in the fullness of His Shalom.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

The Missing Years…

The first thing Jesus said to His disciples was, ‘Follow Me.’ If you call yourself a disciple, this must be the will of your life. A disciple follows his or her Rabbi. To be godly, you have to follow God.

How do you follow Jesus? What is the first thing Jesus did in His ministry? Jeaus became human – specifically, a little child. He became a little child so you also could become a little child. It’s one thing to be a child. It’s another thing to become a little child. Anyone can be a little child.

But only God and those who follow Him can become a little child. God emptied Himself to become a little child and He had to learn how to be a little child.

You also need to do the same and learn how to be a little child, to trust again, to be humble again, to be lighthearted again, and to let another carry your burdens. God became a little child.

That’s a miracle – so you also could know the miracle of becoming a little child again. Become little again. Become a child. It’s only natural, when you follow God.

But Jesus called the children to him and said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” A certain ruler asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Luke 18:16-18

Today, seek to think and see all things through the eyes of a beloved child of God.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

The Nature Of God – Love…

There is nothing more precious than to look out over a field at sunrise and see the bright golden haze washing across the dew covered blades of grass. I feel this new freshness every morning is Gods way of showing mankind a new beginning – a new life.

I live in the country and for the most part am a country boy. I have a fairly decent education and am considered to be somewhat above average in intelligence. But even with all this education and knowledge I find I am still being educated on a daily basis by the wonders of nature. I have learned every creature, even the ant has a special place in our everyday living. I am in awe over the lessons we, as people, seem to overlook in our very busy lives.

Every flower is a soul blossoming in nature. Yet we don’t take the time to enjoy the glory of it’s birth. I remember when Grandfather would tell me to stop to smell the roses, enjoy the beauty of it’s birth. Just living is not enough… one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower. Let the rain kiss you. Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops. It all has meaning in life, so take the time to learn and enjoy natures lessons.

Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer’s day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time. If you are going to even begin to understand what life really means, you have to take time to learn how nature portrays life. It is also a great time to talk to God. For it is He who created all this and everything we have – out of love for us.

Over the years I have learned it is all about love, the freshness of the dew covered grass, the beauty of the new blossom on the flower – it is God showing us His love on a daily basis, gently showing us there is more to love than meets the eye. Love is the key to everything in life and He shows us that rather than loving to live we should live to love.

So, if we are to live to love, we should know what love really is. 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 shows us – Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

When Jesus commanded us to Love our neighbors as He has loved us, I think he had this in mind. He wants us to do everything, everyday with the love He has given us.

Love is life, and if you miss love, you miss life. Love is stronger than knowledge. I believe that imagination is greater than knowledge because it encompasses the world. That myth is more potent than history. That dreams are more powerful than facts. That hope always triumphs over experience. That laughter is the only cure for grief. And I believe that Love is stronger than death because it overcomes all.

When I look at God, I see someone that overcomes all and something that we all should be sharing every minute of everyday. Love is more easily experienced than defined. As a theological virtue, by which we love God above all things and neighbors as ourselves for his sake, it seems remote until we encounter it enfleshed, so to say, in the life of another – in acts of kindness, generosity and self-sacrifice.

Love’s the one thing that can never hurt anyone, although it may cost dearly. The paradox of love is that it is supremely free yet attaches us with bonds stronger than death. It cannot be bought or sold; there is nothing it cannot face; love is life’s greatest blessing.

Love is the nature of God, and life is not worth living without it. You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert. You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.

Meanwhile the world goes on. Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain are moving across the landscapes, over the prairies and the deep trees, the mountains and the rivers. Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air, are heading home again.

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, nature offers itself to your imagination, calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting – over and over announcing your place in the family of things. To me this is the nature of love and the nature of God.

But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds in the sky, and they will tell you; or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish in the sea inform you. Which of all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this? In His hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind. Job 12:7-10

Nature is love given to us everyday, love so special that one can’t help but notice – if you just take the time to look at everything God has given us. I love life and I live to love. How about you?

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

Knowing God’s Will…

Most believers spend a good deal of time seeking to find out the will of God. Who should I marry? What job should I take? What house should I buy? And there’s something to all this…

But on a deeper level, it misses the point. The will of God is much deeper than whom you should marry, what job you should take, what home you should live in.

What most believers miss, and never get to, is that the will of God is the will of God. It’s a matter of the heart. You can’t have a will without a heart. To know the will of God is to desire the things that God desires.

To be passionate about those things about which God is passionate, and to be broken by those things which break the heart of God. You can’t know the will of God unless you know the heart of God.

To know the heart of God is to have the heart of God. If you want the will of God in your life; read the Bible. Find out what He wants and make that your desire. And the will of God will follow.

Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5:18

Today, seek to find what the heart and will of God is in every situation, and make it your heart and your will.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

The Darkness Needed For Light…

Y’hee Or!’ It’s Hebrew for ‘Let there be light!’ It’s what God said in the beginning. This is His very first act of creation and the foundation of all His other works.

It was in the darkness of a Judean tomb circa the year 30 A.D. that God said again, ‘Y’hee Or! Let there be light!’ And there was light, in the resurrection. So it’s not just that God brings light, but that God brings light specifically out of darkness.

Most believers curse, fear or shun the darkness; or, at best, avoid the darkness. That may be you. Chances are, there is some darkness in your life, in your circumstance, or on the horizon that you fear or look upon as a negative thing.

But according to the Scripture, darkness is not something to be cursed, feared, shunned, or avoided. God doesn’t fear the dark; He brings miracles out of it.

You need to be the same. It’s only in the dark that you might have the awesome privilege of performing a miracle by the power of God. Let’s hear it: “Y’hee Or! Let there be light!” And there will be light.

And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. Genesis 1:3

Confront an area of darkness in your life. Open it up to the Lord and let the light of His word, the light of truth, and the light of His love break in.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

The Cornerstone…

Much of the modern world was built by the Jewish people. Modern capitalism had its roots in the Middle Ages among Jewish merchants and moneylenders. Also modern communism was built by a Jewish man, Karl Marx.

Why is that? The answer is found in Psalm 118; the Jewish people are called, “the builders.” They were called by God to be His builders, to build His kingdom on earth. It also says, ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.’

In other words, though the Jewish people are God’s builders, they would reject the cornerstone of their Temple. The Cornerstone is Jesus. Without that cornerstone, whatever house is built, will be empty.

That’s why communism had to fail, and capitalism without God, is empty. It’s not just true for the Jewish people but for you too – for you are called to be a builder.

You’re building your life. What are you building right now – your looks, reputation, abilities or comfort? If you build your life on these things other than Jesus, then your life will be empty.

Come back to the foundation and ground everything you do upon the rock that the builders rejected: Jesus, the Cornerstone.

The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes. Psalm 118: 22-23

Seek today, to be a builder for God. Aim to build up in everything you do.

Read Psalm 118

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

The Secret Of Stability…

In Proverbs 12:3, it’s written: “A man will not be established by wickedness but the root of the righteous will not be moved.”

The word there for established is the Hebrew word, “Koon”. It also means stable. It’s saying, “A man will not be established by wickedness…” Sin in your life will not establish you and will not make you stable.

Righteousness in your life is stability. Righteousness will make you a “Koon Person,” who’s rooted and not moved. Unfortunately, “stability” is a foreign word to many believers.

For many believers, life with God is not a “walk”, but a ride on a roller coaster. You’re up, down, in the clouds, in the pits, God loves you, He loves you not. God calls you for better than that.

If you are truthful and see a lack of stability in your life, chances are you’re doing things your way and not God’s way. You’ve got some sins to put away and some righteousness to take up.

God wants you stable. Turn away from the ups and downs of sin and turn to the root of the righteous – one of the “Koon People.”

Give careful thought to the paths for your feet and be steadfast in all your ways. Proverbs 4:26

Spend time today rooting your soul, grounding your emotions, centering your feelings, in the love and peace of God.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

The Need For Talking Bushes…

An old man is standing in the wilderness. He’s eighty years old. He’s minding his own business and he hears a voice… his name.

You don’t go out into the middle of the desert and expect to hear your name. There’s just sand, rocks and bushes. He turns around, and he’s being called by a bush.

When you find yourself being talked to by a bush, it’s not going to be a normal day. Of course it wasn’t really a bush, it was God talking. God is into surprises.

He doesn’t want business as usual for your life. He wants you to change and step out of business as usual. Be open to the new, even when you don’t understand it.

If God ceases to surprise you, you’re not dealing with God anymore. The problem with too much of Christianity is there’s no burning bush, no surprise anymore. We have it all down to a science.

Our religious systems, organizations and lifestyles could pretty much function without the intervening and surprising presence of God. Break out of your routine today, get alone with God, and you might end up hearing from a talking bush.

When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!” Exodus 3:4

In your alone time with God today, pray and ask Him to speak to you in a new way, to surprise you. Expect to hear from Him.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

The Miracle Keepers…

Unless you live in the tropics, you have to think about heat loss. There’s an old proverb – a house with open windows retains little heat. That’s also true for hearts, lives, and walks in the Lord.

If your mouth is always open, your ears always filled with television and radio, your heart always responding to what’s going on outside – you’re not going to be able to keep the warmth of God inside.

It’s written that Mary treasured the things of God in her heart. You do the same. Have secret chambers in your life in which only you and God can dwell. Have secret times with God, secret treasures that are only for you and God into which no one or nothing else can come.

No husband or wife make public every detail of their marriage. Otherwise they’d lose the intimacy and warmth of it. It’s the same with you and God. Have deep secrets between just you and Him.

Close the doors, shut the windows, get alone with Him, face to face, presence to presence. Don’t tell anyone else about it. Don’t lose the fire. Keep the heat.

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Matthew 6:21

Establish a secret time and place today – just for you and God – where you can be in His presence – and be there!

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed