Ed Christian's World

The Lost Crusaders…

Jerusalem was restored to the Jewish people fifty years ago in the Six Day War. For thousands of years, it was warred over by the nations. In the Middle Ages, the Crusaders fought over Jerusalem.

The Crusades began when the king of Byzantium, concerned for their safety after the Muslims took Jerusalem, appealed to the Pope for help. The crusaders marched from Europe, destroying multitudes of people on their way to Jerusalem. On the last crusade, they actually pillaged Byzantium, leaving it vulnerable to the Muslim Turk invaders who later sealed its doom.

The Crusades which began with a call to save Byzantium ended up destroying it. Therein lies a crucial lesson. Even in the Lord, you can lose sight of your original purpose and end up serving selfish ambition, forgetting your first love or the joy of your salvation.

Have you forgotten your first love, or the fire you had to serve Him? Come back to Him today. Get alone with the Lord and let Him relight the fire that’s gone out.

Renew your love and mission. God hasn’t revoked your calling – you just need to remember it.

For this reason, I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. 2 Timothy 1:6

Have you gone off track in any way or grown distant from God? Spend time alone with the Lord today, and rekindle your love.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always

Ed

The Seven Eyes of God

Some people picture cherubim as child-like creatures, but that’s not how the Bible them. Revelation 4:7-8 talks about cherubim as heavenly creatures full of eyes all around. Zechariah 3:9 speaks of seven eyes on a stone that represent the eyes of the Lord. Revelation 5:6 says, “I saw… a Lamb… having seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God”.

Seven is the number of perfection or completion. Eyes are about seeing and sight. It’s saying there’s nothing hidden from God – no pretense or mask. He sees everything. Most of the time, we live as if that weren’t true.

We still hide things and do things that we would never do in front of others, but we do it in front of God. Remember, no matter what you do, you have an audience. If you lie, gossip, or sin in secret, you’re being watched.

Live your life transparent, pure in the light, with nothing to hide. If even the angelic creatures have eyes all around, how much more does God see? Live in a manner worthy of being seen by the eyes of God.

Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?  Psalm 139:7

Live this day as if at every moment and in every place, God’s eyes were upon you – because they are!

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

Your Real Goal…

Let’s say you come home from a hard day at work and all you want is peace and quiet, but your loved ones need something of you and you become irritated, upset. You end up causing conflict.

They’re miserable, and you’re miserable. The problem is that you had the wrong goal. The real goal should have been to be more like Jesus – to love, to become more beautiful as a person, to become a more holy person.

Your goal isn’t to have a peaceful night, it’s to have a peaceful spirit, a heart of peace. You can apply this to any part of your life, any goal. Don’t let any goal cause you to lose sight of your true goal to become more like Him- to love God and others and glorify Him with your life on earth.

When you do that, you will get the blessing on top of it. Not that your life will always be filled with beautiful circumstances, but that your life will be filled with a beautiful Jesus-like person who happens to be you.

But just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do. 1 Peter 1:15

Make it your one goal today, above and beyond all goals, to be more godly, righteous, and beautiful in the Lord.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always

Ed

The Face of Jesus and You…

My Uncle Larry sent a photograph to a place in Japan that converted photos into paintings at a good price. It came back beautiful, except for one problem – My uncle was a man from Arkansas, but in the painting, he had become Japanese.

When you look at paintings of Jesus from different times and places, the same thing happens. He looks like the people of that time and place. The Bible gives no physical description of Jesus, and there’s a reason for it.

Your job is to make a picture of Jesus on earth with your life. It’s to be Jesus, but it’s you – Jesus with your features in your life. How would Jesus be depicted in terms of you? How would He live your life – show His love to your family, respond to your problems, to your situation, overcome challenges, work on your job?

The key is to take Jesus and portray Him, let Him show Himself through you with the colors, material, features, and context of your life. You’ll end up with a masterpiece even better than the Japanese version of my uncle.

Who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.  Philippians 3:21

Let your being, your body, your soul, your life be the vessel and the portrait of Jesus to all who see you today.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

The Broken Vessel of God…

After 2000 years, on June 7, 1967, the Jewish people regained their holy city of Jerusalem. Compared to other cities, Jerusalem is hardly the most beautiful, sitting on the barren rocks of Judea.

Yet, the Bible is filled with promises to rebuild it, to make it again the Holy City. Why rebuild Jerusalem? It’s like having a beautiful vase; one day, it falls and breaks, and instead of buying a new one, you gather all the pieces, one by one, and put them back together.

When you love something and it breaks, you rebuild it. That goes for your marriage, your relationships, and all the other broken things in your life. It also goes for you – you are God’s Jerusalem, His broken vase.

Because He loves you, He would rather put together the broken pieces of your life, piece by piece, than give up on you. He doesn’t give up on you.

So don’t you give up on yourself or on His love. Keep going until He makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth, for you are His Jerusalem.

And give him no rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.   Isaiah 62:7

Do you have something or someone in your life that is broken? Don’t give up on what is of God. What can you do to bring healing and restoration?

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

The Chief of Police and Psalm 91…

Before leaving on a mission trip to India, the Lord kept giving me Acts 18:9-10: “Don’t be afraid, but speak and don’t be silent! For I’m with you and no one shall attack you to harm you- many people in this city are for Me.”

While in India, a woman from Holland gave me this same scripture. Then, in a major city with millions of people, the Chief of Police came to visit me. He begins quoting Psalm 91 to me, “No matter what happens, the arrows that fly by day will not touch you.”

God had this man waiting all along, from the beginning, confirmed by scripture. Whether your life is in danger or not, if you’re with Him, He’s there – not just with you, but ahead of you, before you, taking care of your future before you get there.

The Lord says, ‘Do not fear. Wherever you go-the most dangerous place, or just down the hall – I’ll be there ahead of you, waiting for you, taking care of all of it before you get there.’

Fear them not therefore: for there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known.  Matthew 10:26

Step out in faith today and go against your fears to do the will of God – knowing that the Lord has made a way for you to become victorious.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

The Torchbearer…

Olympic runners are charged to carry the flame from the place the last Olympics occurred to the place of the next Olympics. What a task. You and I are the real torchbearers.

We carry the torch of the gospel, the Word of God, the Spirit of God, and the great commission passed down from generation to generation, handed off like a relay race.

You have an incredible responsibility and task to keep your light burning. Keep your torch burning at all times.

Wherever you go, spread the gospel and keep your witness shining. Keep spreading the love of God and the word of God. When you go home, when you work, when you play, and at all times keep that torch lit and raised.

Share the torch of God’s Spirit, the Word and Light at all times, wherever you go. Let your light so shine and men will see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.

The Olympic torchbearer is just for show; you are for real. Lift up that torch and let it shine because you are the true torchbearer of God.

Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever. Daniel 12:3

Take the light of Jesus with you wherever you go today. Lift Him up that everyone might see.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always

Ed

The Proof Of Pentecost…

Pentecost is the Greek name of the Hebrew Feast of Weeks – Shavuot. Shavuot was the holy day that launched the reaping of the summer harvest. It was also the feast during which the Holy Spirit fell, the disciples spoke in tongues, and three thousand came to the Lord.

Acts 2:42 reveals what happened next: “They continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.” Shavuot or Pentecost wasn’t just an experience. It was real. And something real has to become a part of daily life.

Most of your walk is not made up of special experiences, events, or holidays. Most of your walk is made up of daily life. Too often, believers are good at the holy days, but not in daily life. But if you want to have a victorious and joyful walk and life, you need to learn how to become good at daily life.

Bring the power of God from the holy day of Shavuot/ Pentecost into your everyday life – and every day of your life will become a holy day.

In all your ways, acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:6

Bring the power of the Spirit into every part of your life today. Whatever you do, even if mundane, do in the anointing, the flowing, and the power of the Spirit.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

Breaking The Law Of Cause and Effect…

The Law of Cause and Effect states that every effect has a cause and every cause produces an effect.

Two thousand years ago, Yeshua; Jesus was killed. Yet within weeks of His death, His disciples were proclaiming the Good News of salvation to their nation and then to the ends of the earth.

In just a few weeks, they had become the most joyful, confident, and powerful of peoples. The Law of Cause and Effect would dictate that the disciples would have ended up depressed, discouraged, and finished.

But something changed the Law of Cause and Effect… the Resurrection and the outpouring of the Spirit of God. The world works according to the Law of Cause and Effect, but God’s kingdom works by the law of the new life and the Spirit. Maybe you’ve been rejected, abused, abandoned, or unloved.

The Law of Cause and Effect says you’re stuck, but the Law of the Spirit says to forget the past and walk in the newness of life in Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free from the law of sin and death… the law of cause and effect.

For in Christ Jesus, the law of the Spirit of life set you free from the law of sin and death. Romans 8:2

The Passover Resurrection Power Determine, by the power of God, to break out of every law of cause and effect that isn’t good, every cause and effect of sin, of habit, of temptation, and the past.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

The Middle-aged God…

In Greek Mythology, Zeus was married to the goddess Hera, and their marriage needed a lot of help. He continually cheated on her, even taking on animal forms to do it. According to the mythology, he became a swan, a bull, and a cuckoo bird. He had issues. The marriage had issues.

In reality, Zeus was a projection of Greek men. He was a myth created in the image of a lot of frustrated middle-aged Greek men with marriage issues and looking at younger women. Zeus was a god in the image of man.

Even in the Lord, believers often make God into their own image, molding the Word of God to their wants and desires, diluting the Word of God into their own image. But our faith is not pagan. You can not mold or dilute the Word of God to fit your life.

As a child of God, you must mold yourself to fit the Word; and the Word will mold you into the image of God. Find the Word today and let it mold your life into His image. Because anything else… is pagan.

For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing. And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt. Deuteronomy 10:17-19

What parts of God’s word have you not followed or submitted to? Today, bend your life to conform to the Word of God.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed