Ed Christian's World

The End Of Days…

In 1999, they made an apocalyptic action/horror movie called “End of Days.” This expression comes directly from the Hebrew Scriptures – from the Hebrew words, “Akhareet Ha Yameem.” We tend to think of the end times as a time of evil and calamity. And there’s truth to that. But there’s more to it.

The end of days, or latter days, first appears in Deuteronomy 4:30 – where it says this: “When you are in distress, and all these things have come upon you, in ‘the end of days,’ you will return to the Lord your God and listen to His voice.”

The end of days will be a time of distress and tribulation, but it will also be the time of return and redemption. It’s only in the end of days that the Jewish people as a whole will return to the Lord, and only in the end that redemption will come to the whole world.

So when you look at all the problems, challenges, and evils of the last days, don’t forget that there’s another side: The end of days is also days of return, redemption, and victory. Live like it!

Let the wicked forsake their ways
and the unrighteous their thoughts.
Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon. Isaiah 55:7

Today, don’t allow the evils of these end times to discourage you. But allow them to help you turn or return to the presence of God.

Walk daily with God at your side!

The Immanuel Solution…

In Romans 8, Paul writes this: “For what the law could not do…God did by sending His own Son… in order that the requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us…”

In this is a secret. The law testified of a righteousness, a requirement, a lack, a debt, and an absence it couldn’t fulfill. But what fulfilled it? The sending forth of the presence of God. What the law could not do…God did by sending His Son.

The answer never comes by dwelling on the problem or from what isn’t there or from what isn’t right. The answer comes by the presence of God coming into the problem.

The answer to hate is not to hate back, but to love with the presence of God. The answer to what is wrong and evil is not to react to what is evil, but to all the more react with good.

The answer to sin isn’t to dwell on sin, but to fill yourself up with God. For what the law could not do… God, and only God, did and still does.

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Roman’s 12:21

Today, solve the problems around you, or within you, not by dwelling on them, but by filling up with the presence of God.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Throwing A Wrench…

During WWII, the Japanese would broadcast the words of “Tokyo Rose” to throw a wrench in the morale of the Allied Forces.

During the Cold War, the “Voice of America” broadcasted ideas of freedom and samples of western culture to those living under communist regimes. Throwing wrenches into the works of the enemy’s kingdom is a strategy of warfare and revolution.

In the same way, we are at war. There is an enemy kingdom – the kingdom of darkness, sin, and bondage. But you are of the Kingdom of God and of His Light. It’s your job to throw wrenches into the enemy’s kingdom. How?

Where there is a law of hate operating, broadcast the love of God. Where there is depression, despair, and gloom, throw in words of encouragement and hope. Where there’s bondage and oppression, take actions of deliverance and freedom.

Where there are offenses and woundings, confound them with true forgiveness and healing. Make a difference today. Throw a wrench into the works of the enemy.

Paul entered the synagogue and spoke boldly there for three months, arguing persuasively about the kingdom of God. Acts 19:8

Today, see how many wrenches you can throw into the enemy’s works. Shine the light into the darkness, and overthrow the laws of sin and death.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Bible mysteries…

Genesis 22 gives the account of Abraham offering up his son Isaac: The father takes the son on a donkey into the land of Moriah. He places the sacrificial wood on his son’s shoulders and leads him up the mountain.

There on the mountaintop, he binds his son to the wood, lays him on the altar, and prepares to offer him up as a sacrificial lamb. This scene is an awesome foreshadow of the sacrifice of the Son by the Father on sacrificial wood on Mount Moriah (Jerusalem).

There’s an amazing Jewish writing on the offering of Isaac called Pesikta Rab 54A, where it says this: ‘Isaac carried the wood as a man who takes up his cross…’ Even the writings testify of a son who takes up wood like a cross to his sacrificial death.

Genesis 22 is unique in that it’s the first occurrence of the word ‘love’ in the Scriptures – and it centers on a sacrifice. Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross remains the center of God’s love and our faith. Never move away from it – but live your life as a reflection of its light.

The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! John 1:29

Today, meditate on the sacrifice that God gave for you, and seek to live today in that love and sacrifice and manifest it to the world.

Walk daily with God at your side!

The Face – And The Mirror…

Jesus called us to be the light of the world. But God is, by nature, the light of the world – not us. So how do you become a light? By reflecting His light. How? How does a mirror reflect the sun?

By turning its face away from everything else, away from the earth, and into the direction of the sun. What you look at, what you dwell on, what you spend your time and thoughts focusing on, that is what you’ll end up reflecting.

What you reflect, you become. So consider what you’re dwelling on. If you dwell on what is not good, you won’t end up good either. If you dwell on your problems, you’ll become a problem. If you dwell all the time on your troubles, you’ll become troubled and trouble.

Just because there are troubles in your life – you don’t have to let it trouble you or determine who you are. Learn from the mirror. Turn your heart and mind away from the troubles, away from the details of this world, and to the light of the Son – and you will become… the light of the world.

You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. Matthew 5:14-16

No matter what situation you find yourself in today, let His light illuminate the darkness around you. Shine bright!

Walk daily with God at your side!

The Dark Elohims…

The word for God in Hebrew is ‘Elohim.’ But is not a singular noun – it’s plural. This undoubtedly is linked to the mystery of God’s triune nature.

But there’s more – the word is also translated to mean the gods of the nations. So when Israel turned away from “Elohim.” the true God – it turned to the other, the false gods and idols of the nations.

We can even see it happening in America. As America drives the true God out of its life, it creates an vacuum, into which comes all sorts of gods and idols of carnality, materialism, sensuality, and pride.

So it is with individuals, even believers. If you don’t fill yourself up in the joy and presence of God, you’ll end up going after the other, you’ll end with many gods and idols in your life.

If you find yourself already with gods and idols in your life – it’s a sign of the vacuum. Get the wrong out of your life – that you might be filled with the true – God.

They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. Romans 1:25

Today, let go of anything false – any desire, any idol, any pursuit that conflicts with God or His Word – and be filled by the One True “Elohim.”’

Walk daily with God at your side!

The Answer…

Song of Solomon 2:10 says, “My beloved answered and said to me, ‘Arise, my love, my beautiful one….’” Why is that strange? Because the beloved answered – with no question asked.

This reveals a radical key. We think the answer comes after or at the end of a problem or need. But it’s really the opposite. God is the answer – and so the answer must always come first.

This is a revolutionary secret. It’s natural to live your life seeking answers to your problems and needs. But in God – it’s the opposite: the secret isn’t living from the problem to the answer – the secret is living from the answer to the problem.

Get your eyes off the problem and focus on the answer. Start with the answer, with the good news, with your Beloved, with His love and salvation – with the solution, the fullness, the finish, the victory. Start with Heaven. Start with Him.

Then you take the answer back to your problem and you overcome. So let God answer you, and be your answer, even with no problem and no questions asked.

I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread. Psalm 37:25

Seek to live without reacting to the situation and problems, but responding to the answer, and bringing that answer into every situation.

Walk daily with God at your side!

The Anti-momentum Secret…

Which is harder? To stop a car when it just starts rolling on the top of a hill – or to stop it when it’s gained full speed heading down the hill? The answer is obvious – it’s easiest to stop it when it’s on the top of the hill, and hardest when it’s rolling.

So too, that’s the difference between a walk of failure and a walk of victory. The non-victorious believer lets sin start rolling and allows it to pick up momentum and power. And thus that believer must spend massive amounts of energy trying to deal with that rolling sin – and all that energy is exerted on the defense.

But the victorious believer fights sin before it gets rolling – at the starting gate, at the top of the hill. He pushes it back when it’s just a thought, just a temptation – when it has virtually no momentum.

Do that and the power and energy you’ll have against that sin is multiplied many times over. Fight your sin at the starting gate, at the top of the hill, don’t give it a chance to roll, when it’s just a thought, just a temptation – and you too will live as a super believer.

We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. 2 Corinthians 10:5

Fight sin at the very beginning, when it’s just a trace and thought – and start living in victory.

Walk daily with God at your side!

The Portable Mountain Top…

God gave Israel a way to receive His presence in their midst. It was called ‘The Tabernacle.’ But the Tabernacle had another name. It was called in Hebrew, the Ohel Moed. The phrase means “the Tent of Meeting.” But the word Moed means, not only ‘meeting’ but the ‘Appointed Time.’

God also gives you the way for your life to be filled up with His presence – every day – and to overflow with His glory. And one of the secrets is found in this one Hebrew word – ‘moed,’ ‘the appointed time.’

If you want to know the true presence of God in your life – then you need to give God your appointed time. Your prayer life has to be purposeful. You need to treat your time and meeting with Him as something as important as any other appointed time on your schedule – in fact more so.

Make these times with God appointed times. Put them in your schedule if you have to – but treat it just as important as the most important meeting in your life. For it is – it’s your Ohel Moed – your Tent of the Appointed Time.

I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry. Psalm 40:1

Today, take any steps you need to, to secure your appointed time with the Lord. Make it top priority.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Plan B…

God sends Jesus to Israel – to the Jewish people. And though there were many thousands who accepted, the nation as a whole rejected Him. So what happens to God’s plan of salvation? God goes to Plan B.

The Gospel now goes out to others, beyond the border of Israel. Salvation goes to the Gentiles. Now of course, God knew it would happen and that the Gospel would go to the nations – but still, it went first to go to Israel – and in Israel’s rejection, it went to the world.

In its outworking on earth, it was still Plan B. And so if you’re saved today, and you’re not Jewish, you need to thank God for Plan B. God loves Plan B, He works through it all the time.

The next time things in your life don’t work out the way you wanted, the way you hoped, the way you planned – remember that. God loves working through Plan B. So start looking for His Plan B, and rejoice in it. For, in the end, His Plan B, turns out to be Plan A in disguise.

To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Colossians 1:27

Rejoice in Plan B, the Plan B of your life. And in every closed door and disappointment, look for Plan B.

Walk daily with God at your side!