The Day of Restoration! Easter Sunday!

.....Today is the celebrated day of Restoration for all of mankind. Easter Sunday is the time to rejoice and contemplate the victory, and resurrection, of the finished work of the Cross, through Jesus Christ, our risen Lord and Savior.

.....Restoration can also be seen in Creation as well. Genesis 1:1-2 says, "In the beginning God created the Heaven and Earth. And the earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep..."

.....We can see in Genesis, Chapter 1 a picture of restoration. I am convinced after exhaustive study that there is a great gap between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2. God does not create things without form and void.

.....In verse 3 of Genesis, we see the first day of creation. The first day can be likened to the incarnation, "Let there be light." When Jesus Christ was born into this dark world there was light manifested at that moment. God now had a body to reach the world. The incarnation is what proves to us that Jesus was legally qualified to represent us.

.....In Genesis 1:7, it says, "And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so."

.....We can see from this verse, the crucifixion of Christ pictured here. We can see Jesus as hung between Heaven and Earth on Calvary's Cross. The crucifixion was God getting rid of what was wrong with us. It was God judging the world in Christ. It was getting rid of who you used to be. It was when God separated and divided your "old man" from the "new creature" you have been made to be in Christ. Before you can enjoy who you are, you have to know how you got rid of who you used to be. A Christian is not somebody who just gets a little spiritual salve put over them and are just forgiven. We are new creatures in Christ. Romans 6:6 says that we were crucified with Christ.

.....Genesis 1:11 says, "And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so."
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.....Today is the third day, and is the resurrection, which points to the reality of who we now are. When Jesus came up from out of the tomb, the Bible says we were raised together and made to sit together with Him in Heavenly places, Ephesians 2:6. He is the seed of which brings forth fruit of its kind that is now upon the earth through us bringing glory to God.

.....Genesis 1: 14-16 says, "And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and for years: And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: He made the stars also.

.....The two great lights today point to the Ascension. Not only did God plan for there to be an incarnation, a crucifixion, and a resurrection; but God also wants us as believers to rise up and become one with Christ in His Ascension. The fourth day of creation points to this because there are two great lights referred to here. The sun points to the Son of God, Jesus.

.....The moon represents us, the Church. The moon was created to rule the darkness, the night. But the moon rules the darkness with no light of its own. The only light the moon has is the light that is reflected from the sun. With that light, it rules the darkness on this earth. This clearly points to the Church. You and I today as believers are a part of the Body of Christ, and we are to rule and to reign with the light that is not our own, but given to us by the Son of God. We do not have any light of our own that is capable of driving out darkness. Any light that we have today that will drive out darkness is a reflection of the Son of God, that is on us and in us. This is what we are to grow up into. This is what Ascension Life is all about for us today.

.....Judges 5:31 is a beautiful verse concerning this today, and says, "So let all thine enemies perish, O Lord; but let them that love Him be as the sun when he goes forth in His might." In other words, let him that loves the Lord reflect the light of the sun (Son), everywhere he goes.

.....So what about the stars mentioned in Genesis 1:16? If the sun is Jesus and the moon is the Church, then those little bodies of light up there must parallel this concerning us in some way also.

.....From my studies, the Spirit of God spoke to my heart concerning this. A star is a body that has been placed in the Heavens and given light for the purpose of making people look up. Stars are also used to help us and others to navigate and gain direction in the darkness while journeying on this earth. God has a great need today for people in the Body of Christ, to cause others to look up. Christians as well as the rest of the world, need people who will draw them to a Raised and Seated Christ, giving guidance and direction as spiritual beings, having a physical experience while on this earth today. We have to start thinking differently today, raising our expectations in our own lives, causing our ways and our thoughts to rise up. May we start thinking more like God and less like the world as we enjoy the celebration of this day.
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The Temptations Of Christ!

.....Mathew 4: 1-11 says, "Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He was afterward hungry. And when the tempter came to Him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. But He answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, and set Him on a pinnacle of the temple, and saith unto Him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give His angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Again, the devil took Him up into an exceeding high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; And saith unto Him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve. Then the devil left Him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto Him.

.....Today I would like to take a look at the temptations of Christ, and share some things concerning this. But before we do, let us take a look at the real meaning of the word tempt. In English, the word tempt has a uniformly and consistently bad meaning. It always means to entice a man to do wrong, to seek or seduce him into sin, and try to persuade him to take the wrong way. But the Greek word for tempt, "Peirazein," has a quite different element in its meaning. It means to test.

.....An Old Testament example of this would be the story of how narrowly Abraham escaped sacrificing his only son Isaac. Genesis 22: 1 says, " And it came to pass after these things that God did tempt Abraham. Now clearly, the word tempt here did not mean to seek or seduce into evil. We all know that it is quite unthinkable that God would try to make any man sin or do wrong. What is quite clear here is the true meaning, "After these things God tested Abraham." A supreme test of loyalty. Just as metal has to be refined and tested far beyond any stress and strain that it will ever be called upon to bear before it can be put to any useful purpose, so a man has to be tested before God can use him for His purposes. What we call temptation is not meant to make us sin; it is meant to enable us to conquer sin.It is not meant to make us bad; it is meant to make us good. It is not meant to weaken us; it is meant to make us emerge stronger, and finer, and purer from the ordeal. Temptation is not the penalty of being a man, temptation is the glory of being a man. It is the test which comes to a man whom God wishes to use. So then, we must think of this whole incident concerning Jesus, not so much as a tempting, but a testing.

.....So why did the test that Jesus had to endure have to take place in the wilderness? Because Jesus had to be alone. His task had to come to Him, and God had spoken to Him. He had to think and ponder as to how He was to attempt the task which God had given Him to do. He had to get things straight in His mind before He started out on His mission, and He had to be alone to do this.

.....How many times do we often go wrong simply because we first never try to be alone with God, and to receive the instructions for what He has called us to do. There are certain things today which every man has to work out alone, with God. And, there are times when no one else's advice is any good to him. Such times is when a man has to stop acting, and start thinking. We all would and could make less mistakes in life today if we would just set aside the time, as Jesus did, to be alone with God. So please, take some time out of your day today, to be alone with Him.
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Thought of the Day

.....If I put a dollar bill in an envelope, and then burned the envelope, where is the dollar bill?.....

.....It has gone the same way as the envelope, - to ashes. Where one goes, the other goes too. Their history has become one.

.....God has put us in Christ. What happened to Him, has also happened to us. Romans 6: 5-8 says, "For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him."

.....This fact is not something to struggle with. It is actually pretty simple, it's our history, written in Christ before we were born. Romans 6: 11 says, " You also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord." You just have to consider it, or see it.

.....Now that you see it for yourself, rest upon this fact. You have now found a secret leading to a Holy Life.
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