Showing posts with label Calvary. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 11, 2015

Sharing Love From Sweden - LOVE IN THE CHURCH IS NEEDED - Eva Haglund

LOVE IN THE CHURCH IS NEEDED - Eva Haglund

In the world today we find egoism and lack of love. Also among Christians we can find lack of love. The church has sometimes become more of a club than a family as it was meant to b. Some think the church is a usual building and that we go to church - not that we are the church. As a temple can be built God also wants this temple of living stones to come together, with Jesus as the cornerstone.

In 1 Corinthians 12 it is written that as in a usual body the members need each other. We need each other with Jesus as the head. We need contact with Christians, not just in a church building. There needs to be more fellowship and real friendship. Jesus talks about love among Christians in John 15: 12-13 when He says, "This is My commandment that you love one another as I have loved you." He wants it to be deep friendship among Christians. Jesus also says in John 15: 13, "Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down his life for his friends." He talks here about real friendship among Christians.

Jesus showed his disciples, His friends, to wash each other's feet. I think it can be a picture of showing care and love to each other, humility as a servant. Jesus gave all for us like a servant in love. He showed the greatest love at Calvary, suffering so much by free will for us. We need friendship with Jesus first. We can understand about having first love for Him in a relationship in the Song of Solomon about His Bride - the church.

To show love among Christians is like a sermon we can give to the world - that God is love. The world is full of people who need love. Sometimes people who are ill and poor are looked down at even among some Christians. God wants love to flow and that all people are treated with respect and love and seen with the same value.

In John 17:21 Jesus prayed that love will be a testimony to the world. I think it also means in attitudes and about fellowship, friendship and care. If also Christians stand together as one in an area it is a testimony to the world. Christian cafes can be good when Christians from different Christian backgrounds get together. Fellowship, care and love also open up for sharing the gospel and caring about people. Talking to people can give opportunities to share the faith.

In John 21 we see that Jesus was eating breakfast with the disciples and had fellowship. In Acts 2:46 the disciples ate in the houses and had fellowship. I think God wants to restore more of this among us. Abraham had a heart of love and care as we see when the angels came in Gen 18. The Bible also talks about hospitality. When Jesus was teaching in a home where Mary was listening at His feet I also think there was fellowship.

We can read in Rom 9:1-3, "I tell you the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing witness in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh." We find here a heart full of love. Sometimes Christians live far from each other but in Acts I do not think people who lived in one area lived so far away from each other. You can have good friends in other parts of the world. I also think it is good to have close friends where we live . In Ps 133:1-3 we also read about living close to each other.

It is written, "Behold how good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. It is like the precious oil upon the head running down the beard, the beard of Aaron, running down the edge of his garments. It is like the dew of Hermon, descending upon the mountains of Zion, for there the Lord commanded the blessing, life forevermore."

Even when we go through times of loneliness, as for instance David, God can give back in this area, too. In times of loneliness we can learn to know Jesus better as our first Friend as David and Joseph did. We need Jesus first but we also need fellowship and love among Christians. I think we are in a new time when God wants to restore more of the love in the church, the spiritual temple, as it was meant to be in preparation of Yeshua/Jesus coming back. We need each other and the world also needs love from Christians.

Friday, March 6, 2015

2015 Presents Startling Alignment of Prophetic Events

This year brings amazing signs in skies and Scriptures. Blood moons, solar eclipses, Jewish festivals and a Sabbath year align in startling ways for anyone with eyes to see and ears to hear.

Springtime Holy Days

God designed the Jewish year's seven special festivals around His prophetic calendar. Best- known is Passover, announcing Spring, promising new life and harvest.

At Passover, a spotless lamb was slain to apply its blood on the door of the home and to be roasted for a festal meal, picturing Calvary: "Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us" (1 Cor. 5:7). The Jewish people celebrate exodus from slavery, and Christians find liberation from sin and death through the cross. We are redeemed by the "precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish" (1 Peter 1:19-20).

The feast of unleavened bread follows, as the observant Jewish family removes all leaven from their household and diet for seven days. Leaven symbolizes sin, spreading secretly, puffing up with pride. "Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth" (1 Cor. 5:8).

On the cross Christ forever put away our sins: "now, once in the end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself" (Hebrews 9:27). As leaven was put out of the house, our record of sin has been forever removed. "My sin, oh the bliss of this glorious thought! My sin, not in part, but the whole, Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more, It is well, praise the Lord, oh my soul!"

Removing leaven calls every believer in Christ to diligently search and remove sin from his life. Christ has removed the guilt of our sins, now let us remove their reality and practice: "let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness" (2 Cor. 7:1).

Within the week comes the feast of firstfruits, the first day after the Sabbath, which foretells the resurrection of Jesus: "But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept" (1 Cor. 15:20). As the Jewish worshipper came before the Lord to wave the first stalks of planting, so Jesus was the first to rise from the dead never to die again! His first fruit offering anticipates an abundant harvest, and His resurrection is the pledge of many more on that day when He returns (1 Thess. 4:16-17).

Signs in the Heavens

The Jewish festivals of 2014-2015 are bounded by four "blood moons" (total lunar eclipses, with reddish tinge). Eight times since Christ a series of four eclipses (called a tetrad) have landed on God's holy days. The current tetrad began with Passover last year, continued through the Fall Feast of Tabernacles, marks this year's Passover (April 4), and concludes on this year's Feast of Tabernacles (September 28).

Previous tetrads coincided with world events affecting Israel. In 1493-94, Jews were expelled from Spain, a pattern Europe followed. In that time, an Italian Christian of Jewish descent, Christopher Columbus, navigated back from the "New World" of America. In a few hundred years, the United States rose to be a safe haven for Jewish immigrants from all over the world.

In 1949-50, the tetrad followed Israel's official rebirth as a nation (May 1948). After two world wars, God's ancient people were allowed access to their ancient homeland. The Israeli government was installed in 1949 and regional peace treaties signed by 1950.

In 1967-68, four blood moons heralded the "Six-Day War," when Israel was attacked by Arab neighbors seeking to annihilate her. God gave a mighty deliverance that astonished the world and stunned her enemies. Israel captured additional lands and took back the ancient city of Jerusalem.

And now come the blood moons of 2014-15. The Islamic State (ISIS) marches through Syria and Iraq, seeks to take Jordan and maybe Saudi Arabia, killing Christians and some Shiite Muslims. They intend total obliteration of Israel. Terrorist groups Hezbollah, Hamas, and al-Quaedi are renewing attacks. Iran presses to gain the nuclear bomb. Once radical Islamic states and terrorists have nuclear weapons, everything destabilizes.

Elsewhere, Egypt and Turkey turn a cold shoulder to Israel. Fearful Europe has backed away from support, now accusing Israel of war crimes. The once-reliable United States has taken a long step back from helping. Dangerous days for Israel are here. We may soon witness a Mideast war unlike any recently seen. Joel prophesied and Peter proclaimed, "I will shew wonders in heaven above...the sun shall be turned into darkness [solar eclipse] and the moon into blood [lunar eclipse], before that great and notable day of the Lord come" (Acts 2:19-20).

Spring arrives this year on March 20 with a total solar eclipse, visible in Europe, North Africa, North Asia, and Iceland. A partial solar eclipse happens this September 13 to South Africa, South India, and Antarctica. That last date holds considerable interest.

Sabbath-Year Economic Reset

Those familiar with Jonathan Cahn's works—The Harbinger and The Mystery of the Shemitah—will know 2015 also marks the end of the Sabbath year, or shemittah (Hebrew "release" of debts, Deut. 15:1-3). Many of the biggest U.S. stock market corrections landed on these seven-year cycles of God's calendar, always in September or October. The last one was the largest single-day point drop of the Dow Jones index ever, October 1, 2008. Seven years prior, on September 18, 2001, the stock market steeply fell due to the 9-11 attacks on the World Trade Center.

If the Lord is judging America by toppling our false gods and idols, money would head the list. Seeing no significant signs yet of national repentance and turning back to the God of our fathers, we expect the economy may well take another big hit in 2015. The Jewish new year's eve, when debts are recalibrated, falls on September 13, as a solar eclipse darkens the southern hemisphere, and two weeks before the final blood moon of this tetrad comes on September 28.

Putting it all together, we have an incredible convergence of events beyond manipulation by man. A cycle of four blood moons over two consecutive years ... each total lunar eclipse falling upon a Jewish holy day ... with total solar eclipses between the blood moons ... landing in the Jewish seventh-year of debt release ... leading past 2015-2016 into the next Jubilee Year (when God sets captives free, restores property, and proclaims liberty in the land). Is the Lord shouting at those with ears to hear and eyes to see?

The 2nd annual Prophecy in the News summit will be held March 5-7 at the Hyatt Regency Orlando Hotel in Orlando, Florida. The summit, featuring 26 speakers such as Rabbi Jonathan Cahn, Paul McGuire, Jerome Corsi, Joseph Farah, Dr. Kevin Clarkson, Thomas Ice, Bob Cornuke and many others, starts on Thursday at 3:30 p.m. and ends on Saturday at 9:30 p.m. Call the office 1-800-475-1111 to register or go online at prophecyinthenews.com. The cost is $90 per person for all three days.

Dr. Kevin Clarkson is the host of Prophecy in the News and the senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Moore, Oklahoma. He has pastored four churches during the last 30 years. Clarkson has a deep love for the nation and people of Israel, and a love of all things related to Bible prophecy.

Saturday, April 12, 2014

Holy Week 2014 Includes Palm Sunday, Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday

This March 31, 2014 photo shows a glass of Taylor Fladgate 10-year-old Tawny Porto surrounded by milk chocolate Cadbury creme eggs Easter candy in Concord, N.H. (AP Photo/Matthew Mead)

Holy Week 2014 Includes Palm Sunday, Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday

By Kristina Skorbach, Epoch Times | April 10, 2014

Holy Week is a Christian holiday that takes place on the last week of lent, and one week before Easter. This year Holy Week falls on the week of April 13, 2014.

The holiday starts off with Palm Sunday (April 13), and includes Holy Thursday (April 17), Good Friday (April 18), and Holy Saturday (April 19). Holy Week does not include Easter Sunday which falls on April 20, 2014.

The Christian celebration of lent takes place 40 days before Easter, not including Sundays, and this year began on March 5, 2014 and will end on Thursday, April 17, 2014.

Specific rituals and traditions, as well as set dates for observing lent, vary across denominations, as the Eastern Orthodox churches begins on a Monday and does not celebrate Ash Wednesday.

Just like during lent, during Holy Week, Christians typically abstain from meat and dairy, alcohol, and follow a stricter moral code.

The following has been added by Steve Martin,

Love For His People, Inc, Founder/President