A dark shadow over the world

“Christ’s salvation is of such a kind that it expresses the ultimate reality of guilt and exposes it in all its stark actuality. It exposes it in terms of the wrath of God, but at the same time manifests in the midst of it all the infinite and overwhelming love of God, and enacts the union of God and man in a union and communion that nothing can undo.

In forgiveness Jesus Christ offers himself on behalf of and in the place of the sinner, and the gulf of human sin and guilt is spanned, but in throwing a bridge over the abyss, the depth and breadth of it are made still more evident.

That is why Golgotha casts such a dark shadow over the world. That is why the cross unmasks the inhumanity of man, at once exposing sin and guilt and dealing with them at their worst — in mankind’s ultimate attack upon God in Jesus Christ — and out of the heart of that there come two words that reveal the infinite guilt of humanity and the infinite love of God. ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ ‘Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.’”

—T.F. Torrance, Incarnation: The Person and Life of Christ (Paternoster, 2008), 255, 256

Kari Jobe : We cry out

Salvation

God. Thank you for saving me from self destruction. Keep me in your abounding love and grace.

Please have mercy on lady gaga and Kesha and every nonbeliever for without you, they're on their way to eternal death and self destruction.

Please save them and give them the gift of salvation.

"To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God
has forgiven the inexcusable in you."
-C.S. Lewis

Sanctification

January 15, 2010
Do You Walk In White?
We were buried with Him . . . that just as Christ was raised from the dead . . . even so we also should walk in newness of life —Romans 6:4
No one experiences complete sanctification without going through a "white funeral"-the burial of the old life. If there has never been this crucial moment of change through death, sanctification will never be more than an elusive dream. There must be a "white funeral," a death with only one resurrection-a resurrection into the life of Jesus Christ. Nothing can defeat a life like this. It has oneness with God for only one purpose— to be a witness for Him.

Have you really come to your last days? You have often come to them in your mind, but have you really experienced them? You cannot die or go to your funeral in a mood of excitement. Death means you stop being. You must agree with God and stop being the intensely striving kind of Christian you have been. We avoid the cemetery and continually refuse our own death. It will not happen by striving, but by yielding to death. It is dying— being "baptized into His death" (Romans 6:3 ).

Have you had your "white funeral," or are you piously deceiving your own soul? Has there been a point in your life which you now mark as your last day? Is there a place in your life to which you go back in memory with humility and overwhelming gratitude, so that you can honestly proclaim, "Yes, it was then, at my ’white funeral,’ that I made an agreement with God."

"This is the will of God, your sanctification . . ." (1 Thessalonians 4:3 ). Once you truly realize this is God’s will, you will enter into the process of sanctification as a natural response. Are you willing to experience that "white funeral" now? Will you agree with Him that this is your last day on earth? The moment of agreement depends on you.

-Oswald chambers

The act of Remembering

"Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God. Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you." - Revelation 3:2-3
Waking up physically usually involves turning off my alarm clock. But if I want to wake up spiritually, I've got to remember some things. What should I recall, Lord? Jesus spelled it out for us, just as He did for His church in Sardis. First, we must remember "what [we] received" (Revelation 3:3). What did I receive? Paul asked, "What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?" (I Corinthians 4:7). I love stuff that's easy to understand. This is one of those cases. What do you have that you did not receive? The answer doesn't require higher math - it's nothing! Everything that we have fits in the category of received. James 1:17 says, "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above." What do you have? Everything you can see around you - and the eyes you use to see - you received. Every relationship in your life - husband, wife, children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren - received!
So you want to wake up spiritually? "Remember... what [else] you received." You received the Gospel! You received the free gift of eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ. How did you get in on it? You’re like, "I don't know. I don’t deserve it. I didn't earn it. It just showed up. He just grabbed me."
Second, we must remember “what [we] . . . heard.” We pray, “Wake me up, Jesus!” How does that happen? By remembering the things that you have received and heard. Revelation 3:3 then adds “Keep it.” “Keep it,” as in put what you know and remember into practice.
You're like, "I haven't been keeping it, James. I know the truth, but I haven’t been living it." Well, your awakening is right there in the text: "repent." Do it right now while you are reading. As the Spirit of God is stirring in your heart, just pray, "I've been wrong. I've been selfish, self-indulgent, and sensual. I've been worldly. I've been distracted. I've been mean-spirited - I've been forgetful!" I don't know exactly what you have been; I just know what I've been. And we need to repent of spiritual deadness: "Sorry, God. I'm wrong; You're right... again."

-James Mcdonald

Does my Sacrifice live?

DOES MY SACRIFICE LIVE?
"And Abraham built an altar . . and bound Isaac his son." Genesis 22:9 This incident is a picture of the blunder we make in thinking that the final thing God wants of us is the sacrifice of death. What God wants is the sacrifice through death which enables us to do what Jesus did, viz., sacrifice our lives. Not - I am willing to go to death with Thee, but - I am willing to be identified with Thy death so that I may sacrifice my life to God. We seem to think that God wants us to give up things! God purified Abraham from this blunder, and the same discipline goes on in our lives. God nowhere tells us to give up things for the sake of giving them up. He tells us to give them up for the sake of the only thing worth having - viz., life with Himself. It is a question of loosening the bands that hinder the life, and immediately those bands are loosened by identification with the death of Jesus, we enter into a relationship with God whereby we can sacrifice our lives to Him. It is of no value to God to give Him your life for death. He wants you to be a "living sacrifice,"  to let Him have all your powers that have been saved and sanctified through Jesus. This is the thing that is acceptable to God. -Oswald Chambers

Here I come, 2010.

So.  Alot has happened since I've posted here. MK, Monica and I went to New York for a little bit.

I was asked by Patrick what was the most memorable moment that I had in New York.  There were alot of things but nothing truly stuck out to me like the time of worship we had all together in NY and bible study we had in NJ. In NY, Mike had a songbook that he clearly hasn't updated for a while since it had some worship songs from the 90s and 2000. We had a time of worship together around 3 in the morning.  Mike busted out his guitar and tried to play some strings and MK played mike's awesome and very expensive ukelele. Even though I had lost my voice due to a cold that came with me to NY, I tried to whisper the lyrics with mk and mon. I felt so at peace and I just wanted to cry! hahaha. It was truly awesome. God was faithful throughout the entire trip.  We were late to the airport, late to the train to NJ, got snowed in, flight got cancelled, MK got yelled at couple of times for videotapping, mon coughed and had sore throat, I had a fever and nearly threw up on the metro, we walked through central park at night, etc etc. God was faithful. We literally had to pray alot every moment that we had. It was truly awesome. It was great to spend time with Mike and also to see Tina, Dave, Helen and meet MK's oh so very talented family also. I guess if I had to put it into words, what this trip would be called, it would be "God is Faithful".

Next big thing that happened...
HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESUS!
That in itself should explain how wonderful it is!

Jesus Generation Conference:
After Christmas, My sister invited me to a Jesus Generation Conference at a church called Blessed International, located in Anaheim. I personally didn't want to go since it was obviously going to be about signs and wonders and health wealth when walking in glory gospel.  And I was right. The guest speakers were Jerame and Miranda Nelson.  I took notes during the whole seminar so that I can go back to scripture.

During worship, Jerame picked up a stone from the ground and claimed it to be a diamond.  He said that the diamond was one of the stones on the breastplate of the priest in the OT and it represented the tribe of Benjamin.  He also claimed that the Lord had "most" favor on Benjamin and since the diamond fell, God had favor on Blessed and wanted to work mightily during the service.
 I immediately searched through scripture.

Exodus 28
15 "Fashion a breastpiece for making decisions—the work of skilled hands. Make it like the ephod: of gold, and of blue, purple and scarlet yarn, and of finely twisted linen. 16 It is to be square—a span [a] long and a span wide—and folded double. 17 Then mount four rows of precious stones on it. The first row shall be carnelian, chrysolite and beryl; 18 the second row shall be turquoise, lapis lazuli and emerald; 19 the third row shall be jacinth, agate and amethyst; 20 the fourth row shall be topaz, onyx and jasper. [b] Mount them in gold filigree settings. 21 There are to be twelve stones, one for each of the names of the sons of Israel, each engraved like a seal with the name of one of the twelve tribes.

There was no diamond. (I checked again when I got home and found out that other translations had diamond)

Next thing I wrote in my notes was: Tribe of Benjamin = diamond?

The scary thing was as Miranda spoke, she mixed in truth with the lies.  Very keen and decieving. She mentioned some scriptures in their correct context but others she did not.

She mentioned things similar to Bill Johnson saying, " Are you made untouchable when you obey the Lord? His Glory will be revealed on YOU.  If you let God arise in you, poverty will vanish.  Things have to go.  Kingdom of God is coming to earth and you have to release it.  She stated (using Shadrach, Meeshach, Abendego) that, " every form of enemy could not touch them because they had a fire inside them." " We are made to be signs of God."  He wants you to walk in good health and in prosperity.  You don't have to accept sickness.  You don't have to recieve attacks.  We must be so on fire, that we do not compromise.  You rebuke the sickness by not cursing but blessing."  If you walk in the fruits of the holy spirit, good things start happening to you.  God wants to use you as a sign and wonder."

Obviously, all this is false.  I got the gest of the message where it's about walking in holiness and attaining the fruits of the holy spirit, but clearly, there is many many many false teachings in there. Sucks for people who are sick, and they're told it's because they don't have the fire or it's cuz they have a sin or they don't have the fruits of the HS. Bill Johnson was sick this passed year from a hernia. I wonder if he thought, " Maybe it's because the glory of God left or if it's because I've sinned against the Lord... etc. It's devastating to hear people ask,  "Do I have this sickness because of a sin I've committed? or Do I not have enough faith and that's why God's choosing not to heal me? or Is it my fault that I'm still sick?"

BILL JOHNSON IS SICK!

Clearly, the story of JOB is evidence that it's not because of any of those things. It happens cuz it happens. Sometimes it's something we reap because of our actions, but it's clearly not ALWAYS because someone sinned that they're being punished.

So after the conference was over and everyone got prayed over by these two guest speakers, I told my sister how much they're twisted the word of God and how I couldn't find a correlation between diamond and tribe of benjamin and also diamond on the priestly garment. She told me to talk to them and so I asked them.

I've asked Where is it in the Bible?, Show me in the bible, Where is it? like 10x. (i'm overexaggerating)  Jerame: "That's a very good question."
Jerame could not answer me but told me to look it up online typing benjamin and diamond on google and that I probably had the wrong translation. (He was right about the wrong translation.) Miranda pushed Jerame slightly to usher him to leave the room while I was standing in front of them with my bible open.

I wished I had a tape recorder.

So to make the long story short, Diamond does not represent Tribe of Benjamin, it's Amethyst. I haven't found anything using google on the tribe of benjamin being God's favorite.

I pray for the people at Blessed International Fellowship. God please give them discernment. Help them uphold the word of God above their personal experiences.