Jesus was Jewish

Jesus was Jewish.  He had a Bar Mitzvah ceremony when he reached the required age.  He practiced Shabbat, attended synagogue,  celebrated the required Jewish holy times.   

Jesus did not write the King James version of the Bible.  He did not even read it.  Why?  The King James version was not published until 1604, 1600 years after Jesus.  The Geneva Bible was a popular translation to read at home before King James created his own. The Church of England had its own translation.  

There was no Bible in the form we know today comprised of an "old" and "new" testament  untl several hundred years after Jesus Christ lived.  No translation of the Bible today can claim to be the true translation.

I saw a sign out front of a church once.  It said, "which church would Jesus attend?"  My thought as I drove by, in answer to the question, was no church.  Is there a church today that can claim to be the true church? No.  How could it be?  People who followed Jesus in the early churches pooled their resources and worked together.  There were no weathy pastors.  Church leaders were servants of God who renounced wealth.  Church wealth came when Rome and then England took the church over.

Who was Jesus?  Why did he come?  Was Jesus God?  Was he Messiah of the Jewish Scriptures, our Bible's Old Testament?  Many questions.

One thing we cannot deny is that Jesus was Jewish.  The English name Jesus comes from his Hebrew name Yeshua.  Yeshua actually translates to English as Joshua.

But is he Messiah?  Is Yeshua God's perfect Lamb?  He who takes away the sin of the world? The final sacrifice?  God is Holy.  We cannot meet God as sinners.  Eternity is a very long time.  Yeshua loved me so much that he became the sacrificial lamb so I can meet God when I die.  I am convinced that he is the prophesied Messiah of the Old Testament.  I believe he is the lamb of God.

I have had many convincing, supernatural experiences.  I know for myself that he is Messiah.  But you must ask yourself within your own Spirit.  You must know him yourself.  I cannot tell you to know it.  How can anyone?  We must know our self.

Ask him to come into your heart and show you for yourself, to find out.  Trust in the Lord and lean not on your own understanding.  Right where you sit.  Ask him into your heart.  Surrender works.

Thou Shalt Not Kill

There are many ways to kill another human besides killing the body.   Do we really believe this commandment refers ONLY to killing the body??  We are not naive.

Seems some people can get pleasure out of crushing and killing the Spirit of another human.  Have you ever felt like you killed the Spirit of another human being?  May be you did not even realize what you were doing.

May be someone has killed another's Spirit with a most eloquently placed sarcastic comment at just the right moment in front of just the right people.  It is possible to witness a person crushed in a brief moment.  Thou shalt not kill.

Some have perhaps killed another's Spirit with retaliation of some kind for an unintentional word or deed they received.  Thou shalt not kill.

May be you have not killed another human's body, but have you said or done anything that has killed another's Spirit?  (There are much more darker ways to kill another human's Spirit as well, but I am not going there today.)

I have asked God for forgiveness and feel penitent for my own transgressions.  I am doing my best to make amends where I am able.  I have also done my best to forgive those who have transgressed against me.  I forgive myself.

There are so many ways we humans can kill the Spirit of other humans.

Jesus says that the 1st and 2nd commandments are to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and love your neighbor as yourself.

Thankfully, we already have the Grace of God.  It is finished. God was willing. It is done.  Jesus Christ's atonement is for body, mind, soul and spirit.  We can ask for forgiveness and submit our will to his Will.  If we are willing, His Grace will do its good work in us and make us white as snow.  It is not by our works, though, so no one can boast.  He will even help us do the needed changing within ourselves if we will let him.  It is a free gift from a merciful God who understood that we cannot be Holy without Him.

1 Cor 13:1

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.

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Thank you for reading!  If you enjoyed this, please feel free to share this with others.  Copyright © Terrie Harmer, August 16, 2022

Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled

 Why wait to turn to God until a situation becomes dire?  Why not practice God's presence every single moment?  Why not lean into God's everlasting arms?

Jesus was the way shower.  He clearly says that we can do the things that he did and even greater things, in his name - SO NO ONE CAN BOAST. 

He clearly says in John 14 not to let our hearts be troubled.  Why would he say that?  He answers further on and says, if you really know me, you will know my Father.  He said, from now on [BECAUSE YOU KNOW ME], you will know my Father and have already seen my Father.  Whoever believes in me will do the works that I do and even greater works.  Jesus became the sin offering to God for all time; He became the High Priest on our behalf.  

How does it work?  It is simple, but not easy.  Jesus told Nicodemus how it works in John 3.  It is as simple as the bronze serpent God commanded Moses to put on a pole.  It is God's free gift here and now. Can we thrust in our sickle and reap?  Our "work" is to believe and surrender. Simple, but not easy.  God can do the changing work in us and will.  Learning to lean in to God's everlasting arms is the key.  Surrender works.

We cannot earn it.  God did it this way SO NO ONE CAN BOAST.  It is God's great and merciful gift to anyone who dares to believe it!  

Let not your heart be troubled.  It is finished. Thrust in your sickle and reap!

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Thank you for reading!  If you enjoyed this, please feel free to share this with others.  Copyright © Terrie Harmer, July 29, 2022

God's Prophesied Messiah

God created us perfect, without sin.  Sin is the ability to miss the mark of God's perfection.  We took on sin and chose to miss God's perfection when we chose dualism.  (When Adam and Eve desired to know both good and evil and ate that fruit any way.  Dualism.)

God is holy.  In order to approach God, we need to be holy.  Jewish law required the sacrificial blood of a spotless lamb to atone for sin.  

Throughout the Old Testament, we read the history of God's chosen people.  The prophets in the Jewish scriptures testified about the coming MESSIAH.  God's lamb.  The Jewish scriptures are part of the Bible, called the Old Testament.

God sent MESSIAH, in fulfillment of the prophesies, to atone once and for all for everyone's sin so all can return to God's perfection.  We cannot make ourself holy enough to approach God.  

Our Creator sent MESSIAH to atone for all sin, so no one can boast.  All miss the mark of God's perfection.  In God's great mercy and love, we have been made perfect again.  God's spotless lamb, MESSIAH, has atoned for all sin.

Jesus told Nicodemus his mission.  See John 3.  No one can see God's kingdom unless they are born again, of water and spirit. Water is completely nonresistant, yet it can wear away rock and can wash away everything in its path.  God did not send MESSIAH to condemn, but to save.  Saved by God's Grace, not by our work SO NO ONE CAN BOAST.

It is a blessed confusion to both love and fear our Creator at the same time and is REVERENCE.  God is HOLY.  God's holiness is why we can only be holy through God's mercy and grace.

We can humbly accept God's simple solution by our own free will and allow God to wash his FREE grace over us to do its work in us and through us.  We are made holy in an instant by God himself.  This happens by FAITH in God's plan of salvation, not by any work WE do . . . BY FAITH ALONE so no one can boast.

In God's perfection he is able to use all our imperfections in his perfect timing.  

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Thank you for reading!  If you enjoyed this, please feel free to share this with others.  Copyright © Terrie Harmer, July 5, 2022