Proverbs 31:28

Her children arise and call her blessed;

Her husband also, and he praises her

Freedom

Now the Lord is the Spirit, 

and where the Spirit of the Lord is, 

there is freedom.

2 Corinthians 3:17

Do You Believe the Bible?

I believed parts of it, the easy parts, the parts I liked. So I should probably say I didn't believe it. Not really. Not until I met Jesus. Then it was like I could see and had not even known I'd been blind. The words came alive to me.

It may seem backwards. Don't you read it and then believe? Not me. Experience came first. I was surprised at how my perception changed. What once seemed true was a lie and what once seemed out of date and ancient became timely, relevant, and true. I can't explain it. I can only tell you what happened to me.

Do you believe? If so, why? If not, you're welcome here anyway!

Yeshua Ha Mashiach

Isaiah 53

1 Who has believed what he has heard from us?

And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

2 For he grew up before him like a young plant,

and like a root out of dry ground;

he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,

and no beauty that we should desire him.

3 He was despised and rejected by men,

a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;

and as one from whom men hide their faces

he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

4 Surely he has borne our griefs

and carried our sorrows;

yet we esteemed him stricken,

smitten by God, and afflicted.

5 But he was pierced for our transgressions;

he was crushed for our iniquities;

upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,

and with his wounds we are healed.

6 All we like sheep have gone astray;

we have turned—every one—to his own way;

and the Lord has laid on him

the iniquity of us all.

7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,

yet he opened not his mouth;

like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,

and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,

so he opened not his mouth.

8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away;

and as for his generation, who considered

that he was cut off out of the land of the living,

stricken for the transgression of my people?

9 And they made his grave with the wicked

and with a rich man in his death,

although he had done no violence,

and there was no deceit in his mouth.

10 Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him;

he has put him to grief;

when his soul makes an offering for guilt,

he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;

the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;

by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,

make many to be accounted righteous,

and he shall bear their iniquities.

12 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many,

and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,

because he poured out his soul to death

and was numbered with the transgressors;

yet he bore the sin of many,

and makes intercession for the transgressors.

1 Timothy 4:8

For physical training is of some value, 

but godliness has value for all things, 

holding promise for both the 

present life and the life to come.

 

Psalm 118:24

This is the day that the Lord has made;

let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Plans, plans...pffft

But God...

Romans 5:8

Intercession

He sat in a cafe in the land of supermodel people and good bread. The old man had lived many years and then a few more and knew many words, some now forgotten and relearned a hundred times. But his thoughts and words these days were only ordinary and precise, lacking in all flamboyance and grandeur. He said only what he said and nothing more. 

This is a hidden place. It is Heaven on Earth, or looks like it. The sun shines and the buildings stand and nothing shakes the ground or disturbs the quiet. But he could see what would wreck havoc if it could. All around him shadows stood and moved, curled and menaced, though they could not touch the inhabitants. 

He could see prayers, many laid here over the years, some yesterday, some a thousand years before, all entwined, dancing like wiry ballerinas who are stronger than they seem. He watched the prayers and he watched the shadows move out of their way, all the while looking for a way in. The prayers gave none, only continued dancing, moving, taking new ground. And the people walked. Here and there. Up quaint stone stairs, over bridges, home, with no hint that they saw the protection wrapped around them or the shadows or anything but the sunshine above and the world as open to them as the ocean and the clouds and the sky.