These blue cord tassels were to be a daily reminder of the Lord’s commandments and the fact that the Jews were a holy and separated people. But if we go to Matthew 23:5, Jesus is calling out the Jewish Leaders who had taken this Scripture to an excess by making their tassels extremely long in order to make a show of their “religiousness”. It’s called Legalism…and the Church over history has been really good at it. We’d rather focus on the strict and excessive conformity to the letter of the Law, than embrace grace and mercy. Or we’d rather obsess over external appearances than do the hard work of changing our hearts, minds, and attitudes. Legalism is taking God’s word to an extreme and then affixing human rules and regulations to it. Legalism lets us focus on things we can control and be proud of…the “Look at me, I’m so very religious!” But like white-washed graves, we look so nice on the outside, but hold so much decay within.
Tag: belief in Jesus
Jeremiah 10:2 ” This is what the Lord says: ‘Do not learn the ways of the nations or be terrified by signs in the sky, though the nations are terrified by them.’ “
In both Exodus 23:24 and Leviticus 20:23 the Lord was emphatic…Don’t bow down to foreign gods, and you must not follow their customs and practices…and this included their response and rituals towards signs in the sky. The world has always reacted to natural disasters such as earthquakes, tornadoes, and hurricanes with alarm…for there is nothing humanly possible we can do to control them. But as Believers, we know these types of signs are finger-marks of God…indicating His spiritual purpose…signs of the End of the Age. We only have to read the words of Jesus in Matthew 24:6-8 for clarification, ” You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains.”
Matthew 8:20 “Jesus replied, ‘Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head.’ “
Jesus was implying that He was a sojourner here on earth. A stranger in a strange place only temporarily. That’s what it means to be in the world but not of it. (John 17:14) And as Believers, we too are sojourners in this foreign land…aliens and strangers just passing through…as we head to our heavenly home.
Mark 5:41 ” Little girl, I say to you, get up!”
The Greek word for “get up” has several definitions…all that could apply to young ladies around the world today. Wake up girl, and realize the potentially dangerous position you have placed yourself in all for the sake of popularity. Get up girl, and walk away from the relationships that are wrong…that fill you with fear and shame, or make you feel powerless. Rise up girl, and refuse to believe the lie that you’ll never amount to anything…that it was your fault…that there’s no way out…that you’re not needed or loved. Be mindful, that no one but Jesus will ever love you as much as He does. No one but Jesus will save your soul and give you eternal life. No one but Jesus will always be there for you, no matter what.
Wake up girl, and take a hard look at where you’re at…are you truly happy with your situation, or do you need to make a change? Jesus is waiting.
Genesis 49:10 ” The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until He comes to whom it belongs and the obedience of the nations is His.”
This Messianic prophecy is of Jesus coming to rule and reign over all the people of the world…both Jew and Gentile. This is also shown in Isaiah 49:6 where it says that Jesus is coming not only to Israel, but to the Gentiles…”that You may bring My salvation to the ends of the earth.” It’s not that there’d be a continuous reign by the descendants of Judah…only the promise of the permanent right to rule…this being in Jesus Christ, the Messiah. And at that time He will say, ” Before Me every knee will bow; by Me every tongue will swear.” (Isaiah 45:23)
Luke 4:28-29 ” All the people in the Synagogue were furious when they heard this. They got up, drove Him out of the town, and took Him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw Him down the cliff. But He walked right through the crowd and went on His way.”
Jesus was back in His hometown of Nazareth…the place where He had been brought up, and where everyone knew Him and His family. We find Him on the Sabbath in the Synagogue where someone handed Him the scroll of Isaiah to read from. He read from Isaiah 61:1-2 …( Which was Jesus’ exact job description here on earth) and then sat down. Everyone spoke well of Him until He uttered 8 words, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” No wonder the people were furious! All they could see was Mary and Joseph’s little boy…and now He’s daring to claim to be the Messiah! Their minds refused to believe…their hearts were hardened by pride…their eyes were blinded to His Deity. Their long-awaited Messiah had come and was in their midst…yet they rejected Him.
Ezra 4:24 ” Thus the work on the House of God in Jerusalem came to a standstill until the second year of the reign of Darius King of Persia.”
The important part of this Scripture is not what is said, but rather the space of time between when the building of the Temple stopped and it was restarted. For it was 16 years that no work was done at the building site. How many people do you think looked at the Temple foundation year after year and considered all the work a loss? We will all have setbacks in life…times when our forward motion is hampered or even stopped for a season… and we don’t know why. This delay is not a time to declare defeat…for with God, any setback is only temporary in His timetable. And if we have faith and persevere, any delay will have success in the end.
I John 2:1 ” My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have One who speaks to the Father in our defense – Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.”
As it tells us in Romans 8:34, at this very moment, Jesus is at the right hand of God interceding on our behalf. Jesus is our advocate…one who comes forward on behalf and as the representative for another. He is then also our intercessor and substitute…standing in our place before God…intervening in our defense. We have no greater advocate than Jesus…no greater champion and friend.
John 4:13-14 ” Jesus answered, ‘Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thrist. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.’ “
Jesus spoke several times in John about this idea of water and thirst. John 6:35 says, “He who believes in Me will never be thirsty.” and in John 7:38, Jesus quoted the Old Testament from Isaiah 58:11, when He said, “You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.” Thirst is a very strong desire. It’s a longing to fill the dryness within us…whether with actual water, or spiritual water. For within us all is this God-shaped emptiness…but sadly, we will spend our entire lifetime trying to fill this emptiness with the wrong type of water. Arid and parched, we search for everything and anything to satisfy our thirst…but every time we think we’ve found it, the water dries up and we thirst again. It’s finally not until we find that Well of Living Water that we can drink and be fully satisfied.
II Peter 1:16-18 ” We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For He received honor and glory from God the Father when the Voice came from the Majestic Glory, saying, ‘This is My Son, whom I love.’ “
Peter, James, and John were with Jesus on the Mt. of Transfiguration when Elijah and Moses appeared and Jesus was for a time transfigured from an earthly form into a supernatural one. True to form though, Peter started to babble, putting a foot into his mouth…when God interrupted him saying, “This is My Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased. Listen to Him!” (Matthew 17:5) However, this mountain top experience changed Peter, James, and John forever. They were witnesses to the power and majesty, glory and honor of the Lord Jesus Christ…and this personal knowledge and experience changed who they were and how they shared the Gospel Message from that time on.
Safetypinlove 