"THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU"
LUKE chapter 17, verse 21
Jude
...speaks to the consecrated/sanctified people of GOD. The ones that are called out, sacred, and holy.
This is very important because it is a specific voice GOD is speaking to that we should
"Earnestly Contend for the Faith"
When I read this I was personally struck by the seriousness of the tone being expressed...
"certain men crept in stealthily turning the grace of GOD into unbridled lust, excess",
and "denying the Lord GOD and Lord Jesus".
This language shocked me. I've read the Book of Jude plenty times I'm sure in the past but todays reading somehow
made me think more seriously and intuitively about my life in GOD and Christ and the Holy Spirit that resides in me.
JUDE 1:5 - GOD destroyed the non believers in Egypt
JUDE 1:6 - The angels reserved in everlasting chains UNDER darkness unto judgement of the great day
JUDE 1:7 - Sodom and Gomorrah giving themselves over to fornication and going after strange flesh suffering
the vengeance of eternal fire
JUDE 1:8 - Filthy dreamers - (to be beguiled with sensual images and carried away to an impious course of conduct)
He goes on and ends it with JUDE 1:16 - murmurers, complainers... Speaking great swelling words.
The book of Jude ONLY HAS ONE CHAPTER and this ONE CHAPTER speaks VOLUMES! I'm sure, I know for sure I've
read the book of JUDE before plenty times but todays reading had a profound effect on me. I pray it has the
same effect on you as it has me.
The Cross
"And as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name: him they compelled to bear his cross." Matthew 27:32
I've been meditating on what it is to sacrifice, to bear ones cross, to resist temptation, to be Holy.
Living the Life for Christ, our Lord and Savior, is not easy. It's easy to say "I'm a christian". It's
easy to fake christianity for a while. It's easy to claim christianity but to actually live the life
is not easy... at least not for me. I find it very difficult. I find it difficult to love my
neighbor after my neighbor cuss me out for no apparent reason. I find it difficult to forgive my wife
after she insults me in private or public. I find it difficult to ignore attractive women. I find it
difficult to hold back my tongue after someone lashes out at me. It's hard for me to be stopped at
a red light where the homeless often reside and I have nothing but a debit card in my pocket. I periodically
get cash from the bank in order to give to the homeless in order to relieve my guilt of seeing them
in such a condition.
To avoid conflict I prefer solitude over followship. Unfortunately I can't live in complete
solitude. No matter how hard I try I can't avoid human interaction. The Cross cannot be avoided.
Simon of Cyrene was "compelled to bear His cross" and we as children of the Most High God are compelled
to bear His/our cross, that is if we are truly Christian. There are a lot of people that claim Christianity.
Almost everybody I know goes to church but how many of them has actually read the bible? How many of them
pray daily and often? How many of them actually have a PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD???
Jesus said in Matthew 7:22-23"I NEVER KNEW YOU"
A personal relationship with CHRIST is the ONE essential ingredient needed to know CHRIST! How is this
accomplished? By picking up the bible and actually READING IT FOR YOURSELF. You're not going to have a
personal relationship with GOD and Christ by simply listening to some preacher. Furthermore, how would
you know if what the preacher is preaching is biblicly correct unless you find out for yourself?
The Kingdom of GOD is within YOU!!! that is if you engage it. You have to find it for yourself. It's
called having a personal relationship with GOD through Jesus Christ whom we all know is The WORD of GOD.
"There is none righteous, no, not one"Romans 3:10
Paul put it lightly. Isaiah was much more blunt and to the point when he says "all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags..."
... and its much worse than it sounds. The Hebrew translation for filthy rag is "menstrual flux".
Thats pretty bad. WHO DO WE THINK WE ARE! Who do I think I am??? I can't go one day without sinning and thats not
mentioning the sins I don't know I'm committing. I have an unbridled tongue. My thoughts are way out of control
I pray every day and night for salvation and in between the times I'm praying I'm sinning. Unwillingly most times
Knowingly sometimes, and the rest is unexpected. Periodicly throughout the day I have to stop and think "did I
really have to say that? Did I really have to do that? Did I really have to think that?" Our Cross is
not easy. Thank GOD for Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Without GOD (Loving us and fogiving sin), our Savior (crucified for
our sin), and the Holy Spirit (Reviving us and making intersession for us to GOD) we'd be doomed!
GOD, the SPIRIT, the WORD
GOD created heaven and earth
The SPIRIT of GOD moved upon the face of the waters
And GOD said, Let there be Light
In HIM was LIFE = GOD IS LIFE = The GODLY Life is the LIGHT of men.John 1:1-4
John 5:24
"I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work."John 9:4
"Watch ye therefore and pray always..."
We have been chosen by GOD our Father to obtain salvation through the blood, death and resurrection
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We are sanctified by HIS Spirit to live in Holiness. We were
chosen by GOD from the beginning.
We have HIS Holy Spirit. We are HIS children. GOD LOVES us and will see us through this life on earth.
"Watch ye therefore, and pray always..."
Luke 21:34 - 36
YOUR WORD
JEHOVAH
YOUR WORD is the AGAPE of my life
The life that you created in me
YOUR WORD sustains me
YOUR WORD comforts me
YOUR WORD gives me CHARA
YOUR WORD is the AGAPE of my life
Nothing compares to YOUR SPIRIT
There is no thing that can compare
It is YOUR PNO-AY that sustains me
It is YOUR WORD that comforts me
It is YOUR EIRENE that settles me
JEHOVAH
THANK YOU
And he called his name Noah, saying,
This same shall comfort us concerning our work
and toil of our hands, because of the ground
which the LORD hath cursed.
Gen 5:29
Noah, the first prophet of GOD had no idea what he was about to experience.
Let's put this into context...
man to till the ground. But there went up a mist from the earth which watered the whole face of the ground.
From Adam to Noah rain had not come down from heaven. The earth was watered with a mist. Before the sin of Adam,
the mist made it relatively easy to till the ground but the curse of sin was thorns and thistles
making it incredibly hard to break up the ground. Hos 10:12 & Jer 4:3
It was a hard, slow, and arduous death for Adam and Eve after sin entered their lives... the same death walk we experience growing old
(arthritis, cancers, cataracts, work, etc). The earth gradually became more and more difficult to work and as far
as I know no one knows the time span between the creation of Adam to the creation of Eve to the sin that occurred in the garden.
The first man, ADAM, created by GOD in the image and likeness of GOD, was perfect in all his ways until
sin was found in him. His first born son Cain murdered his younger sibling, became a fugitive and dwelt in the city
of Nod (Land of "Wondering") east of EDEN, found a wife, had a son, built a city and named it after his first born son Enoch.
About eight generations passed from Cain before Adam and Eve had Seth. The first death was obviously
very traumatic for the first couple (having experiencing the dead, lifeless body of Abel).
Nevertheless, through his grandson ENOS, men began to call upon the
name of the LORD. Gen 4:26
I can go on and on about how Enoch lived "365 years" "walking with GOD" and "was not" for GOD "took him"
(the same phrase used in "God took Adam, and placed him in the garden"), or how Noah's father lived 777 years:
but I'll get straight to the point...
The sons of GOD were descendants of Seth, therefore I conclude that the daughters of men were from the descendants of Cain.
Gen 6:1.
I also conclude that, according to scripture GOD was "very upset"(to put it mildly), that HE created man because
GOD at this point decided to destroy the world except for eight people and animals (7 by 7 clean; 2 by 2 unclean).
SIDEBAR: I'm a photographer. When I take a picture or print one I don't like I delete or tear it up and trash it.
I also roast coffee beans and when I roast a batch that doesn't hit the mark because I screwed it up, I trash it.
I say that to say GOD must have been extremely pissed off in order to destroy the world that HE created...
Hebrews 10:30-31
The point of this lecture is, out of the whole world, at that time, GOD only saved 8 people and some animals.
It's going to be the same when The Messiah returns. The number of people that will be saved compared to
the population as a whole will be relatively small. The Bible makes this certainly clear. Jesus himself says it...
The Narrow and Wide Gates. Mat 7 - 27.
I don't know where people get the idea that GOD loves everybody. GOD does not love everybody.
Rev 22:14 & 15
Proverbs 29:12
1 Corinthians 6:9 & 10
So I ask this question...
Are you a son or daughter of GOD or are you blinded by the smoke that
arises from the pit of the great furnace? Has your reasoning been darkened by the smoke of the pit?
Can you not see that this world is in a state of chaos? Are you not disturbed by what's happening
in the world today concerning the blatant lying, money grabbing, and hunger for power?
ARE YOU BLIND, IGNORANT, OR JUST PLAIN APATHETIC??? All I'm imploring you to do is READ the bible
for yourself and SAVE YOURSELF FROM THIS CROOKED, PERVERSE and WICKED GENERATION! Acts 2:38 -2:40
The Bottomless Pit
"And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose
a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace;
and the sun and the air were darkened by reason
of the smoke of the pit."
Rev 9:2
I was in meditation when suddenly it occurred to me that the Bottomless Pit
was not a pit at all but a metafore for a state of being. The "smoke of a great furnance"
is the state of deception. "The sun and air were darkened..." is a state of people being
distracted by "the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts
of other things entering in, choking the word..." Mark 4:19
The bottomless pit is the state of the world
which began before the disobedience that occurred in the Garden of Eden.
had made." Gen 3:1
The Hebrew word for subtle is "Aruwm" - cunning (usually in a bad sense):—crafty, prudent,
subtil. The technique the serpent used to decieve the womaan is the same technique used today
by salesmen, preachers, politicians, and shysters of all types. They mix lies with whatever
truth you are familier with to make you think about the deception they have in mind for
you AND to offer/entice you with a bill of goods i.e. "your hearts desire" Luke 4:6-8
"The sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit."
Eph 2:2 explains...
The prince of the power of the air, is the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
"Ye shall not surely die:" caught Eve by surprise. Keep in mind, before this
Adam and Eve only had relationship between themselves and GOD and within this bond
only truth existed. The serpent caused Eve, probably for the first time since creation,
to THINK outside of her bond with GOD and Adam... and that's exactly what she did.
She thought outside the box. She"saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was
pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise,"...
and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world"...
This is that smoke that arises from the pit. The smoke of a great furnance that darkens
the sun and the air (your ability to see and think clearly).
Jude 1:6
"For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered
them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;"
Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the
prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh,
fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children
of wrath, even as others.
But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead
in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
Eph 2:1-5
Do You Have a Relationship with GOD?
a close, long-term association between people, encompassing emotional, physical,
or romantic bonds. Key components include trust, mutual respect, open communication,
and shared affection, which support, security, and personal growth.
Meditation
Jehovah Shalom
Jehovah = "the existing One"
Shâlôwm = "Peace"
Phl 4:6 - Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication
with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.
Phl 4:7 - And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding,
shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Be careful for nothing = (do not be anxious, do not be troubled with cares)
A certain man had two sons...
Luke 15:11
We all know about the prodigal son but what about his brother?
The younger brother was the prodigal while the older was possibly the apple of
his fathers eye. When the younger brother asked for the portion of goods that
belonged to him the father gave them both their portion but the older brother
remained with the father. We know what happened to the younger but what about
The older? What was going through his mind?
Think of how the older brother might have felt. How would you feel if you, being
an older brother or sister experience your younger brother or sister taking off
into the world? I think both the father and elder brother suspected the
younger son/brother wanted to have a "good time" out in the world. I suspect that
the younger brother didn't enjoy working very much. I suspect the younger brother
had all the confidence in the world that he would someday be a Big Star and
working on a farm was like really beneath him. I suspect the older brother thought
his little brother was wild, worthless, a dreamer, and that his
he was better than everyone else. Perhaps after a matter of
time the older brother forgot all about his little brother.
Think of how the father might have felt. How would you feel if your son or daughter
up and moved out? Father probably worried. Father probably was very upset and
grieved. Father probably thought about his son everyday praying he'd
return home soon. The oldest brother may have felt some jealousy about how
father felt. The oldest son may have worked even harder to please his father.
Father loved both sons equally and was probably thankful that the elder son didn't
leave. He did divide the inheritance equally between the two. They could have both
taken off together but the older son was the responsible one, or perhaps
he didn't want to leave his father in a lurch or maybe he really wanted to go, or
maybe he was afraid to leave home. We don't know. These thoughts just crossed
my mind last night thinking about the older brother in this situation because we
always think about the prodigal son and not the rest of the family.
Luke 15:11
...repented, and abased himself. He was humbled. He didn't realize what he had until
he didn't have it. The party was over and it probably didn't last too long and thus
we have an example of repentance.
FIRST - One must come to oneself
SECOND - One must acknowledge sin
THIRD - One must confess sin/s
FORTH - One must be humble enough to return to do the right thing
It's not easy! Some people have to fall way down before they acknowledge they are wrong
Some folks don't get this far. Some loose their life before this stage.
There's nothing wrong acknowledging you're wrong about a thing.
Be like the prodigal son
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
Be Quiet! Be Silent!
Mark 4:35 - 41 "Master! Are you not concerned that we perish?"
JAMES 3:4-6
JAMES 3:2
PSALMS 39:1
Jesus and the disciples were traveling on a ship along with other
ships on their way to the region of the Gerasenes. A storm arose
which scared the daylights out of the disciples and crew, and crew members
on board the other ships. But Jesus was on a cushion asleep, knocked out
in the stern of the ship and deservedly so after a day of teaching
and healing folks. The healing alone probably took a toll on Him and
being tossed by waves on the sea will absolutely make a person sleepy.
NUMBER ONE - I think this is a good example of the humanity of Jesus.
...And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, "Peace, be still".
And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm...
NUMBER TWO - This message is about a ship (your body), the wind (your soul),
the waves (the unpredictability and volatile nature of life) and
"a very small rudder" we know as the tongue.
Look also at ships: although they are so large and are driven by fierce
winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires.
Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great
a forest a little fire kindles! And the tongue is a fire, a world of
iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body,
and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.
For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and
able also to bridle the whole body.
I said, “I will guard my ways, Lest I sin with my tongue; I will restrain my mouth with a muzzle,
While the wicked are before me.”
Meditation
Phl 4:8 - Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest,
JOY (chara); cheerfulness, i.e. calm delight:—gladness
PEACE (eirēnē); one, peace, quietness, rest
LONGSUFFERING (makrothymia); patience, endurance, constancy, steadfastness,
GENTLENESS (chrēstotēs); usefulness, i.e. morally, excellence (in character or demeanor):kindness
GOODNESS (agathōsynē); uprightness of heart and life, goodness, kindness, virtue or beneficence
FAITH (pistis); moral conviction (of religious truth, or the truthfulness of God or a religious teacher)
MEEKNESS (praotēs); mildness, humility
TEMPERANCE (egkrateia); self-control
EVERYDAY: PICK A FRUIT TO MEDITATE ON. THINK ON THE FRUIT YOU PICK ALL DAY.
whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure,
whatsoever things are lovely,
whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise,
think on these things...
LOVE (agape); love, i.e. affection or benevolence; (feast of) charity(-ably), dear, love
perseverance, slowness in avenging wrongs
(the virtue of one who masters his desires and passions, esp. his sensual appetites)
EVENTUALLY THAT FRUIT WILL GROW NATURALLY INTO YOUR HEART, SOUL, AND MIND
HEBREWS 4:12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword,
piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of
the thoughts and intents of the heart. TO THE FRUIT IN SITUATIONS. PROGRESS WILL OCCUR.
WHEN THAT HAPPENS PICK ANOTHER FRUIT TO MEDITATE ON UNTIL THAT ONE IS IN YOUR SYSTEM.
THEY ALL WORK TOGETHER. THERE ARE NO CONTRAINDICATIONS. THIS MEDITATION IS YOUR DAILY BREAD.
Fruit of the Spirit
The Fruit of the Spirit is LOVE (Agape)
The Fruit of the Spirit comes from the Tree of Life which is the Word of GOD
The Fruit of the Spirit falls from the Tree of Life and into human hearts
Some hearts are oblivious to it
Some hearts are made of stone
Some hearts are choked due to the cares of this life
Some hearts are fertle and yield much fruit
The Fruit of the Spirit is ONE
The Fruit of the Spirit is LOVE
The Fruit is:
LOVE
JOY
PEACE
LONGSUFFERING
GENTLENESS
GOODNESS
FAITH
MEEKNESS
TEMPERANCE (self control)
"And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit."
Book of Galations 5:22-26
Agape
What is love?
GOD is love
What is GOD?
GOD is everything we see, feel, and do
I sometimes see bad
I sometimes feel sad
I sometimes do bad
Why do I have these feelings?
You have those feelings because you are not complete
GOD is Spirit
We are spirit wrapped in flesh
It's the flesh part of you
That makes you see, feel, and do bad
If you can overcome the flesh
You won't feel, see, or do bad
That's hard!
Yes, it's a challenge for all of us!
But that's why GOD sent HIS Son
His Son destroyed the feelings we call sin
He died without sin
And was lifted up to the heavens
And gave gifts to the people on the earth
Try not to feel sad
Try not to do bad
Try not to see bad
Try to be like the Son of GOD
GOD is love
Pneuma
Breathe in Breathe out
Spirit of GOD Spirit of GOD quicken me Spirit of GOD sustain me Spirit of GOD course through my veins HIS blood keeps me HIS WORD sustains me HIS WORD concieved me His is everlasting HIS LOVE is eternal There is no LOVE like the LOVE of GOD HIS LOVE is eternal HIS LOVE I am