Ed Christian's World

The Mystery of Love…

This is a true story of Richard Wurmbrand, a believer who was imprisoned for his faith in communist prisons in Romania. There was a young man named Vasilescu, a criminal in Romania, who was put in charge by the communists to torture the ministers whom they had imprisoned for their faith.

Then the communists turned against Vasilescu. They put him in prison and tormented him until he was dying. As he was dying, at the same time, the one who he had tortured the most, a minister named Iscu was also dying.

But now Vasilescu was filled with remorse. He asks Isku to pray for him and wanted God’s forgiveness. The minister called two prisoners to bring him to Vasilescu’s bed. There, the one who was tortured ministered to the one who had tortured him.

He said, “If Jesus could forgive me, then I must forgive you. If I can forgive you, then Jesus who is greater than me also forgives you.” If this one who was tortured could forgive his torturer, so can you forgive that one who has sinned against you. That’s the love of God.

For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Colossians 1:13-14

Do something for yourself today, for your health, for your peace of mind – forgive.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

His Mercy – The Womb…

In John 3, Jesus says to Nicodemus, “You must be born again.” Nicodemus says, “But how can I? Can a man go back into his mother’s womb and be born?”

The word for womb is rechem. That’s also the word from which we get the word mercy, racham or rachamim. Rechem is linked to the womb and the womb is linked to mercy. Nicodemus is saying how can a man go back to his mother’s womb.

You can’t do that; the womb is the beginning place. There is nothing before the womb. But it’s such a beautiful picture of God’s mercy, a rechem. You can’t enter a womb, but you can enter God’s mercy, His rechem, His rachamim. God’s mercy is like a womb that brings forth a new birth. Everything becomes new in God’s mercy.

You become born again, and sins are washed away. There is no past. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done; God’s mercy is the rechem that makes all things completely new. And you can’t go back into the past, because you can enter the rechem, the womb of God’s mercy, and which all things are new like a newborn baby.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 2 Corinthians 5:17

Enter into the racham of God, as if entering a womb, let everything become new in His mercy.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

Under The Huppah…

In the Jewish marriage, the wedding, the bridegroom’s garment is crucial. It’s needed for the marriage to be complete. The orthodox Jewish man will drape his prayer cloth (tallit) over his bride so she will be covered.

They will both be covered and are both under the cover of the chuppah, the wedding canopy; a similar principle, that the bride must be covered by the bridegroom’s garment.

Now, Jesus is called the bridegroom. When He died, he was naked. Why? Where was His garment? He is the bridegroom, so His garment is that of the groom. Because He didn’t have His garment, it’s somewhere else. It’s on the bride.

The garment of Jesus and the mantle of Jesus are covering us. Because He was naked, it means you are not anymore. It means you are covered with shalom and with the bridegroom’s righteousness and with His love.

You are covered with the Bridegroom’s power, purity, beauty and glory. Rejoice in your Bridegroom because you are covered right now with the garment of your Beloved – the garment of the Bridegroom.

I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. Isaiah 61:10

Before going out in the world today, dress up in God’s best. Put on His covering of love, power, beauty and don’t be ashamed.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

The Secret Of Living Backwards…

The English language has tenses: past, present, and future. In the language of the Bible, in Hebrew, there are two real tenses, perfect and imperfect. Perfect means finished. Imperfect means unfinished.

Christians tend to live in the natural, to the finished. We work to finish something, so we are always living in what’s unfinished. We’re trying to finish our accomplishments, that project; finish all those things. We live in the imperfect because we are never finished.

In Hebrew, the only thing that’s perfect is to live in the finished work. That’s what salvation is. It’s not that you’re trying to get to the perfect. You start from the perfect. It’s not about trying to get to heaven, it’s getting from heaven. That’s why the Lord said, “It is finished.”

Salvation begins with the finished. The only way to live a perfect life is to live from the finished. You can’t finish your salvation, but live from Jesus’s finished salvation. You can’t finish your calling, but live from His finished calling.

Live from the finished and you will live in His perfection. With God, you can only start from what is already completely finished in Jesus.

And you also are among those Gentiles who are called to belong to Jesus Christ. To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be his holy people: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 1:6-7

Seek to learn and put into practice today, the secret of living from the finished – live not from the problem, but from the answer, not from your situation, but from heaven.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

Gates of Praise…

Jerusalem, the city of peace or shalom; it had walls and gates. Isaiah said that in the day when Jerusalem will be redeemed, your walls will be called salvation and your gates praise.

Gates open so things can go in and out: riches and blessings. If you are born again, you are a child of Jerusalem; it’s your city. How do you receive the blessings of that place?

Through the gates. It says you shall call your gates praise. When you praise God, your life opens like a gate and you enter in and receive the blessings of God. Become a person of praise. If you don’t praise Him, your gates are just gates. When you praise Him, the gates open, the blessings come and you enter in.

Praise Him… at home when you rise, when you work, praise Him when you drive, praise Him when you talk, praise Him when you think, praise Him when you are alone. Praise Him and the gates shall open up.

The blessings of God shall come pouring in because you are a child of Jerusalem and you shall call your walls salvation and your gates praise.

Praise the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens. Praise him for his acts of power; praise him for his surpassing greatness. Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet, praise him with the harp and lyre, praise him with timbrel and dancing, praise him with the strings and pipe, praise him with the clash of cymbals, praise him with resounding cymbals. Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Psalm 150

Praise Him throughout this day and enter the blessings waiting for you just inside the gate.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

Islam and Jesus…

Islamists maintain that the Quran, their holy book, is pure Arabic given right from heaven by the divine. The Quran is Arabic, but not quite pure. The language reveals borrowings.

Example: the word in the Quran for the Law of Moses is the Torah, obviously from the Bible in Judaism. Iblis is the word used for Satan, a distortion of the word in the Greek New Testament, diabolos; not Arabic. The word for “good news” is the word “injil” in the Quran. “Injil” clearly comes from the word “euangel” from the word evangelism, the Greek New Testament word for the gospel.

What does it tell us? Clearly, the Quran borrowed what they got, and got things wrong; an imitation. But you have the original. That the Quran’s “injil” comes from “euangel,” means it’s from the original gospel of God that you have.

Many religions try to claim Jesus Messiah as the prophet, as the New Age, as Christ conscientiousness. Don’t settle for a substitute; you have the real thing. Get back to the real Jesus. Stick to Him… close… and accept no substitutes.

But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse! Galatians 1:8

Go about your day today treasuring the Word of God. Hide it in your mind and in your heart, and use every opportunity to proclaim it out of your mouth…to a world that’s waiting and longing to hear.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

Lessons From The Fish…

Jonah was the prophet who went against God’s will. He ran away, went on a ship, and was thrown overboard. In the original Hebrew, it says, “The Lord ordained a great fish.” This wasn’t just your average fish.

This was seminary material. The fish had never been to Bible college. Nevertheless, it was ordained. Having an ordained shark is a good thing – when a shark ministers, you listen! God has ordained sharks, not just in Jonah’s life, but in yours, too.

There are many sharks in your life-problems that look like they’re going to swallow you up. Yet the shark was ordained. It swallowed Jonah, but it was used to bring him back to God’s will. The shark was ordained to minister to Jonah.

So in your life problems are really ordained fish. God promises that He will work all things for good, so what looks like a problem is ordained to minister to you and bring strength, faith, patience, growth and new beginnings.

Don’t fear the problem. It’s an ordained shark fresh from seminary sent with a mission to be your minister.

Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. Romans 5:3-5

Face up to that problem or that fear you’ve been running from. Look at it in a new way – it’s not against you – but in God, it’s an ordained fish – to be used for your blessing!

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

The No-Answer Answer…

In John 18:38, Pilate asked, “What is truth?” I remember in philosophy class my teacher said Jesus didn’t answer, he walked away. He didn’t walk away,

He was a prisoner. Yet it’s such a good question, why didn’t the Lord answer it? The fact is He did answer the question. He just stood there. He did answer by just standing there.

The truth isn’t an explanation, it’s reality. Truth isn’t summed up in something He said, truth is Him. Even as believers we often miss the whole thing because truth becomes for us words “about” the truth.

These things can be good, but these things are not Him. They are about Him. We as believers, as Pilate, miss the truth standing there. We want the things about Him and want to do all these things around Him, but He’s there.

Be still as He was and come back to the raw truth, because truth is not about Him, truth is Him. You will find He’s standing right there next to you in the quiet. That’s more than enough. That’s the Truth.

He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Psalm 46:10-11

Be still and know that He is God – Discover the reality of God in the quiet.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

The Borrowed Tomb…

The empty tomb wasn’t just borrowed, it belonged to Joseph. God didn’t do the resurrection without us because it was His life, but it was our death. We gave Him our death and He gave us the resurrection.

It’s a joint effort in that we provide Him the tomb. He can’t have His own tomb. He doesn’t die by His own nature. It’s our death, so the resurrection doesn’t happen without you. He didn’t buy a tomb, so we can give Him our tomb.

Your tomb is your place of death, the dark, empty places of your life. It includes your sins, judgment, sorrows, and hopelessness. That’s what He wants. It’s not meant for you to hold on to. It stays dark if you hold on to it–but give it to Him and it’s going to be changed.

The Lord wants to borrow your tomb. He’s not going to keep it, He’s going to give it back, but He can’t promise you it’ll be in the same condition.

Give Him that thing in your life. He’ll roll away the stone, because the miracle comes when it stops being just THE empty tomb and starts becoming YOUR empty tomb.

For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Matthew 11:30

Bring to God whatever sin, hopelessness, sorrow, darkness, shame, that issue that’s still in your life – and borrow His tomb to be finished with it – once and for all.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

Freedom and Dedication…

Hanukkah is the festival that happened between the Old and New Testament. It’s about persecution and tyranny. The people of God had to rise up, commit themselves to serving God, battle and win the great battle. They won, cleansed the Temple, and dedicated it to God.

It was called Hanukkah, the festival of freedom. However, Hanukkah doesn’t mean freedom in Hebrew, it means dedication. We all want to be free from our sins or bondages. Yet, the feast of freedom is the feast of dedication.

The secret of freedom is dedication. Dedicate yourself to God’s purposes. Freedom comes when you’re in God’s will. If you’re half-hearted with God, double-minded, without commitment, you’re never going to be free.

If you’ll commit to God and His purposes for your life with your heart, mind, soul and strength, you’ll find freedom and victory. Victory that’s not just an experience – it’ll turn your failure into victory. Dedicate the victory to Him.

Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord;
trust in him and he will do this: Psalm 37:3-5

Commit your actions, will, thoughts to God’s way and you’ll live victorious and in freedom. Therefore with your dedication will come your freedom.

Take a part of your day and dedicate it to the Lord by doing things His way – not yours.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed