Ed Christian's World

With All Your Lev…

The Bible says in Proverbs 3:5, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart,” but in Hebrew it says this, “Trust in the Lord with all your lev.”

Now Lev in Hebrew is a real important word. It means heart, but it doesn’t just mean heart; it means your mind, your emotions, your will. It means the real core of you.

Most of us trust in one way or another. In our head we might be trusting, but it’s not penetrating your emotions or your feelings, so you’re angry, you’re afraid. You know what? If you really trust God with your heart then your emotions are going to get touched too.

It means let this sink to the deepest part of your life. You want a blessed life? Don’t just trust Him with your head or even your emotions, but trust Him with your decisions, your will, your wants, your desires.

Choose; commit yourself by faith. Let this faith get “deep” into the core of your being. Let your faith not be shallow but let it be a Lev faith. And if you do, your life will be blessed to the core, to the very Lev.

You who fear him, trust in the Lord—he is their help and shield. Psalm 115:11

Seek to let the good news of God’s love penetrate your heart, your mind, your emotions, and step out in faith.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

The Hiney Salvation…

In the Bible there’s a very special word that comes in the Hebrew, but you don’t get it in English. The Hebrew word is Hiney. Hiney is the equivalent of an exclamation point. Whatever it’s saying, when it says Hiney it means Wow!

So many things in the Bible are Hiney. When you first come to the Lord you have a Hiney experience. Everything is, Wow! Salvation is Hiney, Wow! You don’t hear God loves you, you hear Hiney, Wow! You don’t hear follow the Lord, you hear Hiney, follow the Lord, Wow!

There’s Hineys all over the place. Well, you know what? After a while in the Lord you often lose the Hiney and you hear God loves you and God loves me, ok, alright, well, hey, you know. People just end up going to services and doing their thing, but there’s no Hiney anymore.

Get back to the Hiney of your faith because God is awesome! And the only way to really know Him is to know Him as Hiney. Get the Hiney back in your heart. It’s not just that God loves you, it’s Hiney! God loves me, and that’s Wow!

Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. Revelation 2:4

Seek to live today with a heart of “Hiney!” Get in to the awesome wonder, the amazing grace, and the holy ‘wow’! of God’s love and your salvation.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

The Moment Esther Came Alive…

Esther was a beautiful, young Jewish woman who miraculously became queen of the Persian Empire. But she did so by hiding her Jewish identity, living, as it were in the closet. The day came when it was all put to the test.

A plan was set in motion to destroy all the Jewish people of Persia and the only one who could stop it was Esther. But to stop it she would have to reveal her true identity as a Jewish woman and risk losing her wealth, her position, and her very life.

What was she to do? The practical and expedient thing to do was to keep living a lie, and save her position and her life. But instead, she said, “If I perish, I perish.” What she meant was this: there comes a point where you have to decide to stop compromising, and to stop living a lie.

When you live to survive, you’re just existing. Come to that blessed point where you say, “Enough already! I’m through with compromising. I’m through with fear. From now on I live a life worth living or I don’t live at all. And if I perish, I perish.”

“Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my attendants will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish.” Esther 4:16

Today, decide to ‘Stop’ doing that one thing that’s keeping you from living the life that God has called you to.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

The Last Joy…

During the wedding celebration at Cana in John 2, they ran out of wine. When all the celebrations of this world run out; the party ends.

They start out full of life and dwindle. Even the waiter at the Cana wedding said the best was served at the beginning. The wine is the symbol of joy.

The real joy of the Lord never ends. The world seems exciting and new at first, but then it gets old. The Lord comes to the party and He turns the water into wine. The joy of the Lord is different.

The best comes at the end. You might let your walk get old or let things take a natural course and lose the joy of it. But the joy of the Lord never gets old. Like the celebration that ran out of wine, He brings new joy. Stop seeking the joy of the world.

Get some new wine, some real joy, His joy. Give your heart to His joy. He will renew your joy; give you new wine, the abundance of which will never run dry. Come back to Him and He will fill you up.

Nehemiah said, “Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” Nehemiah 8:10

Focus today on really getting into the joy of the Lord – Rejoice in the Lord always!

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

Ask, Seek & Knock…

In Matthew 7:7 Jesus says, “Seek and you shall find.” There is a real key here, a secret. In Hebrew/Aramaic, which He spoke, the word for seek is Bachar.

This is not just a nice gentle word. Bachar is a heavy word, a violent word. Bachar means to plow, to turn over and to break forth. God did not call us to seek the Lord, but to plow forward, overcome, turn over and do whatever you have to do to seek the Lord.

True seeking is linked to plowing, you have to persevere. Sometimes it takes work, sometimes you feel like giving up, but you keep going. The Lord causes our hearts to be plowed. He says, “Break up your fallow ground”.

Get your life turning, seeking God and tuned to receive His blessings. Plow with breakthrough actions. You want to seek the Lord, you want the blessing, then seek him with all your heart and press.

When it seems hard, you will break through. So if you want a breakthrough, break up your fallow ground and His blessings will reign upon you. Seek, plow and you shall find.

Sow righteousness for yourselves, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the Lord, until he comes and showers his righteousness on you. Hosea 10:12

Seek to plow today, let God’s Word and Spirit have their way, and plow over the dormant, fallow ground in your life and walk.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

The Baby Prophet…

Zechariah says an amazing thing in Luke 1:76, “You, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High.” The amazing thing is that he is talking to a baby, but this is not baby talk. He is saying you are going to be a prophet, a Navi in Hebrew, of El Elyon, the Most High.

These are awesome, beautiful words to a baby. The baby cannot fathom what he is saying; yet he is going to grow into it. So it is with your calling. You cannot fathom the calling, the hope that God gives us. Yochanan was a little baby version of what he would be, John the Baptist.

We are little baby versions of what we will become if we obey and grow. The baby cannot understand the calling, but you keep going, just obey. Yochanan, John the Baptist, obeyed God and as he obeyed, he fulfilled his calling. Those words came true.

You have an awesome high holy calling on your life. You do not have to understand it or God’s way. Just obey and you will become the fulfillment of the call on your life.

Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, 1 Peter 2:2

Don’t hinder the growing-up process, get rid of all malice, pretense, envy and hurtful talk from your life.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

Servants…

When I was growing up, I used to read comic books about superheroes. What made them superheroes were the super powers given them. Superheroes are myths. But there does exist one superhero for real, and with true super powers, unlimited powers. Who? Jesus.

It is He who said “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me.” In Hebrew prophecy, Jesus is called, ‘the Servant of the Lord.’ There’s a connection. The one who most serves the Lord and does His will, is the one who will most walk in the power and the Authority of God.

That One is Jesus. And on top of that, it is His will that you walk in the same power. The key is, serve the Lord. Do His will. Stop doing what is not His will.

The more you walk in the will of God, the more power you will have – so that you can say “I can do all things through Jesus who strengthens me.” Get super into His will and you will have super power to become a little super hero!

Then Saul said to David, “May you be blessed, David my son; you will do great things and surely triumph.” 1 Samuel 26:25

Today, dare to live as a superhero – walking in the will and mission of God and do all things by the power of Jesus in the Spirit of the Almighty!

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

Love In The Perfect…

John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever would believe in Him, would not perish, but have everlasting life.”

That could be called the greatest sentence. But it’s interesting that the greatest sentence in the world is not in the present tense, it’s in the past tense, “God loved.” Why is that? Why doesn’t it say that God loves the world?

In Greek, the people who wrote and thought this, wrote and thought in Hebrew Aramaic. In Hebrew there is no real past tense. But what there is, is the perfect tense, and that’s what’s used as the past tense.

So when things are written with what we see as the past tense, it’s really in Hebrew perfect tense. It doesn’t mean that it is necessarily finished in the past, but what it means is, it is complete, it is done.

What does it say? God’s love for you, is not unfinished; it’s perfect, it’s full, it’s complete. Don’t take away from it, don’t add to it, just receive it; for God so loved you, perfect tense.

“I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.” Jeremiah 31:3

Today, learn the secret of resting in His finished and perfect work in your life.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

The Olah…

In the Bible, there were several different kinds of sacrifices. The most awesome one was called the “Olah” and it means the burnt offering, a sacrifice.

In Psalm 97:9 it says, “You O Lord are most high and exalted.” That word, exalted is the Hebrew word Olah. In other words, God is exalted in a complete sacrifice that goes up to heaven.

Thus there is a link in Hebrew between praising the Lord, exalting the Lord and lifting up a sacrifice. When you praise Him you are lifting up a sacrifice. We must live a life of sacrifice. God gave everything for us.

He sacrificed Himself. Salvation is free but it is precious too. When you lift up your sacrifice to Him, your treasure, your goal, your will, your future; then you are praising Him.

When you have lifted it up to Him your total sacrifice then you have offered up your Olah. Bless the Lord with your Olah and God will be exalted in your life.

Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name. Hebrews 13:15

Lift up your sacrifice to God, and do so with praise, worship, and thanksgiving.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

Good to Your own Soul…

In Proverbs 11:12 it says, “He who despises his neighbor lacks sense but he who has wisdom keeps silent.”

I remember in junior high there was a gym teacher who must have said something to the lunch lady about her hairnet that caused the lunch lady to say something back to the gym teacher about his pot belly.

The next moment these two were almost in a fist fight. They were screaming at each other. We were shocked. Finally the janitor broke up the argument and took the gym teacher away over something stupid, the littlest thing.

It says, “He who has wisdom keeps silent.” The littlest things have destroyed marriages and families. For less, for nothing, giving voice to it, there is a real important principle in the Lord; learn not to act on the bad.

Hold off; don’t react, don’t speak, but wait. When there’s anger or anything bad, hold off. Wait until you can act on the good. As soon as you have good in your heart act upon it, speak it, do it, love. Be like Jesus not like the gym teacher and the lunch lady.

A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. Proverbs 15:1

Good To Your Own Soul Use wisdom today, do not act on any bad emotion or thought – but be quick to act on the good.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed