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Gifts of Life Community Fellowship is a place to fellowship with like-minded believers in collective praise, collective thought and collective unity through the Way, the Truth and the Life, Jesus, the Christ.

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Why Jesus' Blood?

We were meant to have life, live and live forever.

When God created Adam, He breathed the breath of life in him.  And God created a garden and placed in the midst of it The Tree of Life, and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Then God took man and placed him in the Garden, and He told Adam, "Of every tree in the midst of the garden you may freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shall not eat of it: for in the day that you eat thereof, you shall surely die."

From the begining we had the choice of life and death.

See if you agree with me in this:
  • God created life
  • The opposite of life is death
  • The opposite of everlasting life is everlasting death
  • The only antidote to everlasting death is everlasting life
  • The only one with the antidote to death is the One who has life
  • God is the only cure from an eternal death.
God had already breathed the breath of life into Adam and he became a living soul in Genesis 2:7.  They were meant to eat of the tree of life and continue living life eternally.  But when Adam and Eve sinned and ate of the tree that would cause them to die, God expelled them from the Garden lest they eat also of the tree of life and live forever in a sinnful state of death. (Genesis 3:22-24)

And we were kept from the Way of the Tree of Life... until such a time as we could be redeemed from death and receive eternal life once again.  That time finally came 2000 years ago when Jesus died on the cross for our sins, and rose again so that we could have everlasting life.

John 1:1 "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
John 1:14 "And the Word wsas made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

Jesus is the Word that became flesh; the same Word that in the beginning was with God and was God.  Jesus is the same God that gave us life, breathing His own Spirit into us so that we could live.

So why then is the blood so important?  Why Jesus' blood?

Levitucus 17:11 says, "For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I [God] have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul."

Only the blood of Jesus is pure enough, holy enough and righteous enough to cure us from the sin of death that infected our blood through the sin of disobedience and separation.

Our original ancestors (Adam and Eve) were exposed to the sickness of sin that imbedded death like a disease into our very DNA.  Our life-giving blood needed to be purified back to its original state of life.  That is why the Word had to come as Jesus - fully human and fully God - with the DNA of his earthly mother, and the DNA of his heavenly Father, so that His blood could redeem, reconcile and repurify the human race.

But God is a Spirit.  And by His Spirit He breathed the breath of Life into Adam.  And so by receiving that redemption and reconciliation through faith in Jesus, we too can receive the Spirit of God and the breath of Life, living eternally free from the sin of death, just as was originally intented.

John 3:16, "For God so loved the WORLD that He gave His only begotten Son, that WHOSOEVER should believe on Him, would not perish (die), but have everlasting LIFE."

Believe and receive LIFE... eternally.

Power, Love & Peace, ya'll -
~Min. Dez

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Back to the Garden...

... a story of reconciliation.
Last week we talked about redemption and how through the price that Jesus paid for us, we have been redeemed from every curse of the law.  The price that was due for our sin was paid in full by Jesus' death on the cross.

But it seems since the dawn of church history, we as men and women have been taught that Adam and Eve were cursed in the Garden because of their sin of disobedience.

Well, here comes the controversy....

Adam and Eve were NEVER cursed in the Garden!!

And by the way, if I'm clearing up long standing myths... let me also clear up the belief that Eve ate an apple or some other fruit and Adam ate it too.  In actuality, Eve believed the "fruit" of satan's mouth.  Proverbs 12:14; Proverbs 13:2 and Proverbs 18:20 all describe the "fruit of [a man's] mouth."  The fruit of one's mouth are our words.  Eve believed satan's words and told (gave) them to Adam and he did believe (eat) also.

Then after all this went down and God came to confront Adam, He first cursed the serpent - Genesis 3:14.  Then God gave the woman the consequences of her actions.  The He gave Adam the consequenses of his actions, and finally God then cursed the ground for Adam's sake.

You see, when God created Adam and Eve He blessed them.  And because God is the Almighty Creator, every thing He speaks creates truth.  This is why God cannot lie.  His word creates truth.  The truth God spoke over Adam and Eve were blessings.  God cannot curse what He has already blessed.

However, since Adam and Eve were not cursed, but only the ground and satan were cursed, we (mankind) were subject to the curse of the ground and the curse of the enemy as a consequence of disobedience.  That disobedience relinquished our blessing to the hands of that which was cursed.

Genesis 1:28 "And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it and have dominion over [it]."  Every blessing God originally gave mankind was then subject to the curse of the enemy or the curse of the land.

Oh, but praise God for Jesus!  Praise God for His death! Praise God for His resurrection!  Praise God for redemption and Praise God for reconciliation! 

Galatians 3:13 says we are redeemed from every curse of the law because Jesus became a curse for us.

But give praise and glory to the Lord of Hosts, because II Corinthians 5:18 says, "And all things are of God, who hat reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hat given to us the ministry of reconciliation;"

Redeemed means: to pay off; to ransom; to deliver from sin; to fulfill a promise; to make amends or atone; to restore.

And Reconciled means: to settle a quarrel; to make consisten; to make friendly.

Through our redemption we are reconciled from the original act of disobedience in the Garden - we are reconciled back to our original blessing.  It was never revoked - God never repents of His blessings or promises to us.  But instead, we are delivered from every curse, so that we can walk fully in the blessing of our reconciliation.

Yes we can be fruitful - in our bodies, souls, spirits and all our relationships; yes we can multiply and multiply all that we have; yes we can replenish what we have, what we use and replenish what is used upon this earth; yes we can subdue the earth, the devil and every aspect of this world; and yes - we have dominion!

But not only that, if you go back to God's original intent for Adam and Eve in the Garden, they were meant to be clothed with God's Glory and in constant communication with Him.  They were meant to eat freely from the tree of Life and life eternally with God.  Women were not meant to have enmity with the devil, we were meant to subdue him.  Women were not meant to have sorrow in conception, childbirth and raising our children.  We were meant to desire God, not our husbands and they were not meant to rule over us.  Men likewise, were meant to have all their provision, labor and worked blessed, and were not supposed to work, suffer and struggle for everything they needed for their families.  Man was not meant to be the insignificant dust that the enemy would seek to devour.

This is the life we are reconciled to through Jesus Christ.  We can live life as if still in the Garden before the fall.  We are reconciled back to the Garden...

Power, love & Peace, ya'll -
~Min. Dez

Monday, March 12, 2012

Basically... Redeemed

Here's the basics on redemption.

As Christians we hear all the time that we are "redeemed" - but it's Christianese that has a vague meaning.  We know it has something to do with Jesus and being saved from sin and that's good enough!

Ever redeem your recyclables for cash?

Ever redeem a coupon at the grocery store?

If you buy a bottle of soda, part of your purchase price includes the recycling redemption costs.  When you take the bottle to the recycling center, they give you back that portion that you already paid at the grocery store.

When you redeem a coupon, the grocer discounts the amount of the coupon that technically, the manufacturer is has already paid, or will pay on the behalf of the coupon holder.

Well, Jesus has paid the redemption price for our sin - death.  His death on the cross paid the ultimate price for our sin and separation from God.  Our debt of sin is completely paid in full and this is why on the cross Jesus exclaimed, "It is finished."  We are redeemed by faith when we confess Jesus by faith.

Michah 4:8-10 speaks to the "daughters of zion" - and I do believe there is a special redemption coming in the last days for women (as I've written about before in "The Redemption of Eve") - but Micah is prophetically speaking to those of who have confessed Jesus as our Lord and King.

"And you, O tower of the flock, the strong hold of the daughter of Zion, unto you shall it come, even the first dominion; the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem.  Now why do you cry out aloud? Is there no king in you? Is your counsellor perished? For pangs have taken you as a woman in travail.  Be in pain and labour to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in travail.  For now shal you go forth out of the city, and you shall dwell in the field, and you shall go even to Babylon; there shall you be delivered; there the Lord shall redeem you from the hand of your enemies."

Now notice certain wording in these passages: first dominion implies that there are subsequent dominions; the kingdom shall come - just as Jesus expressed in the prayer He taught His disciples; and where is the king in you? Isn't Jesus the King of Kings? And isn't He a Mighty Counsellor?

Jesus said it was necessary for Him to die so that the Comforter could come - Comfortor in this case, also being another name for the Counsellor.  But we know that Counsellor did not simply die, but He rose again and is alive... so why to we labor, struggle, strive and suffer in sorrow; crying out and crying aloud as if Jesus does not abide within us or as if He died and did not rise again?

Micah says to go ahead and cry in our sorrows, because deliverance is coming.  He says we will be delivered from the midst of whatever is causing us to cry and travail over: the city; the field and the Babyonian Systems - such as credit, social security, banking and all those other worldly systems of managing this world.  In this day and age, our enemies are not Amalakites and Jebusites.... instead our enemies are IRS, Experion, Transunion, Wall Street and the Bank of Whoever...  A more detailed list can be found in the book of Deuteronomy.

Deuteronomy 28:1-14 states how we are blessed, but verses 15 - 68 says how we are cursed if we do not follow the commandments of the Lord.  And there are 75 detailed curses! Many people try to ignor the curses - if they've ever even read Deuteronomy at all!  But now, because of my redemption, I am excited to read those curses!

That's because Galatians 3:13 says, "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:"

We are redeemed!

Do yo believe in Jesus? Do you believe that He died on the cross for your sin?

If so, then you are REDEEMED from every curse of the law!

You are no longer subject to the curse of the Garden; the curse of the law; or the curses of not tithing.  Your are only subject to the blessings! All the blessings of the Garden, all the blessings of the law and all the blessings of tithes and offerings.

You are redeemed.

Walk in power, love and peace, ya'll!
~Min. Dez