" THE GREAT I AM "

John 18:4-6

   The Easter season is one of my favorite holidays!! We are on our way of getting out of winter and people are so much looking forward to spring! For me it is a time when I reflect on my walk with the Lord. Now, I am not going into all the "stuff" that goes into the season of Lent. What I am going to share with you is one of the most powerful stories that happened in the Bible that made a huge impact to me in my own personal walk. OK, there a lot of them but this one is awesome when you take the time to sit down and study it. 

   In the above scripture reference, Jesus is in the Garden and He is faced with Judas and a huge arm of soldiers and temple guards. I know I shared this before a few years ago about how many soldiers went looking for Jesus that night.  Now, in movies and shows, drama skits and other productions sometimes show a few or a dozen or so but once you study the background of the time that it was in, you see that there were a lot more than that!! 

   Remember earlier in scripture how it was written that the officials tried to get Jesus but they couldn't because it was not "the time."? See Luke 4:30; John 7:30; John 8:59; and John 10:39.  Think about this for a minute.  Jesus had a powerful and productive ministry that grew very quickly and word had gotten out about what He was doing. The officials were getting very concerned that if they didn't get a handle on this, that He was going to cause an uprising that would make the relationship between them and the Romans very bad. And their own power over the people would become weak and uncertain. 

   So, a "small" army of soldiers and temple guards were sent. Now, here is where numbers begin to expand from the common thought. As we have said, a few times the authorities tried to take Jesus but failed. Well, now they had their "man" on the inside and they were going to make sure that He wasn't going to get away this time! 

   Going through the scriptures and the Greek language it showed that over 600+ soldiers were sent along with the Temple guards. The soldiers were bad dudes to begin with but the Temple Guards were the ones that could do anything they wanted in order to keep the order! They were all well trained. 

   They were sent out at night so they had lanterns and torches. They were going to search all night if they had to. Their mission was not to come back without Jesus. And they weren't going to let Him slip away! 

   Do you see the seriousness in this? They had an army of soldiers to hunt down Jesus and any of His men were not going to get in their way!

   So they find Him and surround Him so of no escape. Now, here is Jesus, standing before them with a few disciples, with all these soldiers decked out with the baddest weapons they had at the time, and He asked them who they were looking for!!! They answered Him, "Jesus the Nazarene." 

   Now this is where it gets good!!  Jesus answered them, " I AM"!!  When He said that, the soldiers went backward and fell down!!  If you look at the actual Greek, "went backward" means staggering and stumbling backward. 

   "Fell" in the Greek means to fall so hard, it appeared to be dead or fell like a corpse.

   "To the ground" in the Greek means falling abruptly and hitting the ground hard!

   Our Lord said these two words and it knocked over 600+troops and dropped them like bricks to the ground!!  A small fraction of power was behind those words!!  That is the same power that rose Jesus from the grave a short time later!!  That's the same power that we have when the Holy Spirit comes upon us!!  We just don't allow Him to manifest Himself in us!! 

   There is so much more to share in this but I want you to get before the Lord and give up all the sin and the bondage's that might be in your life and allow His Spirit to take up residency in you. We all have sin and we all sin each day one way or another. No one is perfect!! But we have a choice to make and wouldn't it be better to live with Him than without Him??

   So, during these last few days of this Easter season, think about all that Jesus did on the cross and the victory we have in Him for defeating death and allowing us to share in the inheritance of eternal life.

   It is a daily struggle but Jesus is always there with us. We just have to recognize Him!

God Bless

Paul 

   

When we don't know what to do!

7 POINTS TO PRAY

Ps.25:4-5

  This morning's study time consisted of studying scripture and praying it into my life. I have always been big on praying scripture. People have said to me that they don't know how to pray and I tell them that the The Bible is a prayer book! Just take Psalms and Proverbs and those two can fill your day!!

  So, my scripture this morning was Ps. 25:4-5.  I started to read it and I saw where each section between the commas seem to fit my day today.

I will write down my notes here for you all to check out. Here goes!

1.  "Show me Your ways"--God's ways; the foundation of His Word.

2.  "O Lord"--a statement of commitment of God in our life.

3.  "Teach me Your paths"--Hebrew meaning; refers to the moral principles which the Lord prescribes for His followers. (verses 8-10)

4.  "Guide me in Your truth"--referring to God's commandments--they are trustworthy and accurate expression of His divine will.

5.  "Teach me"--are we teachable? Do we allow ourselves to the Godly teachings and do we learn anything from them?

6.  "for You are my God and my Savior"--acknowledgement of who Christ is in our lives.

7.  "and my hope is in you all day long"--where is our hope? We need to keep Jesus in front of us all day long. His Word, prayer, worship, etc.

  David sensed his need for divine guidance and instruction. How many times do we ask ourselves what to do in any given situation that might come across our path daily? 

  David wanted to walk in The Lord's righteous ways but he needed help in discerning them.

  How do we apply that in our life today? There are so many things going on in and around today.

  We need to stop for a moment and seek God's will in our lives. The last part of verse 5 is: all day long. That's hard to do! 

  So, take these two verses and pray them into your life. Read them. Memorize them. Allow God to minister to you. 

  You never know what He will say!!

God Bless!!

Paul 

 NOW THAT THE HOLIDAYS ARE OVER....

        So, the decorations are put away, we are wearing the clothes we got as gifts, the new tech toys are being used (and maybe returned!) and now we can get back to work and get our lives back in order!! 

        Or so it seems. We look out our window here in the Adirondacks and we see the snow, the frosted over windows, people bundled up, and many of us are already counting down the days till spring.

        Sometimes we get so discouraged about this time of year. A lot of it has to do with the build up to the holidays but it is a "downer" for many people. Now if you enjoy the cold and snow with outdoor activities, that's great! But this weather will sometimes dictate our emotions and attitudes in our everyday life. Do we allow it? I will sometimes let it!

        But lets think about what this time is right now. In the church today, we are entering the time of Epiphany. Now I have talked about this in the past but I will share what I know about this. First, epiphany means: a moment of piercing awareness, the sudden jolt of understanding, revelation,etc.

It begins on January 6th, after the Twelve Days of Christmas. It is the season of celebrating the revelation of the Savior to the world! Now there are some customs that some religions and beliefs do that I don't really partake in because this is about Jesus coming into the world; not religious rituals (not that all are bad). 

         This season has some events and themes that we should really look into and study. Here are a few:

= The visit of the Magi

=The baptism of Jesus

=The wedding feast at Cana

=The ministry of Jesus

=The calling of the disciples

=The teachings of Christ

=The miracles of Christ

=The Transfiguration

           And that is just some of what is in the Word that we need to go over and really seek the Lord during this time leading into Lent.

           In Matt.5:14-16, we are called to be a light to the world. We have to read the Word daily to be able to be ready for the divine appointments that will come across our path everyday. Think about how that light in the sky guided the Magi to Jesus. Do you want to be a light to others? 

           The Magi symbolizes the kings of the world will bow down to worship the true King of Kings! Even as a small baby, people were drawn to Jesus!!            

           So, during this time, we need to be studying the Word, praying, worshiping, the true King of all heavens and the earth!

           I need to study His life, hear His voice, and obey His Word!!

           It will make this "weather" a lot better to get through!!!

God Bless!!

Paul