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Tonight in the Feast course I am teaching on the Feast of Unleavened Bread. At first glance this seems simple enough with most books agreeing that leaven = sin, and we have got to get rid of that – don’t you know. Well I think the verse below give us a clue as to how we will be led tonight. I will write more tomorrow, Lord willing. In the meantime, just read the passage below in meditation and prayer.

“Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” 1 Corinthians 5:7-8 NKJV

Our Friday Fellowship went exceptionally well. Christina Mancuso led our worship team (along with all there) in precious worship time. Then Lauren taught Romans 3. She is becoming an excellent expositor of the Word. She values the word and brings honor to the Lord as she allows the Spirit to teach us through it. We were very blessed. Thank you for praying.

My Thursday evening teaching on “Building a Community,” seemed to go well. This first in a 5-part series was on “Building a Community of Focus.” There were three main points. (I am not known for my 3 point lessons – so this was interesting for me. I usually have more – but who knows how the Lord is training me here).

1. Building a community is something that is intentional. It does not just happen, but we must exercise our free will and accept: a) An appointment to a group of Christians – specifically the local church. We do not lose our free will in the choice. This is not a bondage, but an opportunity to experience our Lord in community. b) The Lord is the one who decides and appoints for mature believers. We do not attend a particular local group because we like it there (though the Lord probably will not run counter to your heart here), but we attend and become a part because we are appointed by the Lord to be there.

2. True Biblical Fellowship follows a pattern. John 17:20-26 describes the heart of our Lord in His High Priestly prayer to include all of us in the fellowship of the Trinity and in His glory. By these two things we express Biblical unity. We are enveloped in a fellowship that already exists in eternity – the Lord’s own – and then we begin to relate with one another in that given unity.

3. Biblical Fellowship has a God-given focus. Acts 2:42 “They continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine, in fellowship, in breaking bread, and prayer.” The focus of our fellowship is not to be our love for one another. This is dangerous and will end in frustration, disappointment, failure and pain. Our focus must be Him through these things. We are to always be looking at Him through the Word and having our fellowship around the truth and life that the Word brings. Then true fellowship develops. True fellowship is not seen in cliques, nor in any exclusive behavior. It is felt in a true openness the Word brings and envelopes all who are near. It is not exclusive in any way. When we focus on getting to know one another, we miss the mark. We will gradually develop that knowledge together as we share the Word, but our problems must never be the center of our knowledge of one another. Instead we are to develop that through the focus of the Word.

Food, marvelous thing that it is, plays a big role in enjoying the fellowship and binding hearts together in His love. We share not only communion, but also meals. This does not have quite the social understanding it did in Biblical times, but it is still there somewhat. Sharing meals is what people do who choose to relate together.

Then the last thing we are to focus on is praying together. Talk ing with the Lord together. Allowing our hearts to continue to have a focus of Kingdom – not just our individual needs. Praying for individual needs is always good, but that must not be the primary reason or summary of our time in prayer together. We are to listen to Him as well as talk – we are to share this intimacy together.

These are to develop as our focus. So there you have a brief summary of what took approximately 50 minutes to deliver. It was well received and we looking forward to next Thursday when we will work with “Belonging” as our next Kingdom understanding of life in a Biblical Community – local church expression.

Our regularly scheduled Psalm 19 meeting is tonight. We will gather from many different denominations to worship our Lord Jesus Christ and eat at the table of His word. Then we will fellowship and enjoy Him. Our worship leader for tonight is guest, Christina Mancuso from the Church of the Resurrection, East Syracuse, and our preacher/teacher for the evening is my daughter, (pictured here playing base guitar) Lauren.

We are in for a special evening as both young ladies are anointed and gifted in the Holy Spirit. I am excited to be there. Normally when Lauren speaks, I am away, but this was planned this way due to my busy schedule. It gives me a rare opportunity to be present when I am not speaking. I am delighted!

I realize I have not yet summarized last evenings teaching for you as promised, but it is coming. I was just away from my computer all day. Those of you who read before 7-9 pm EST, join us in prayer for a wonderful evening in our Lord.

I thought we might all enjoy a touch of spring – on this snowy, cold night in Central NYS. In a few months iris’ like these will be growing in my flower beds. I look so forward to seeing them. A friend gave me such beautiful bulbs a couple of summer’s ago and the bed is beautiful in the spring.

Class seemed to go very well last evening. We had such a good time together with the Passover with a special emphasis on its original purpose and noticing how the Lord in His last Passover supper before His death, made use of at least one of the traditions – the cup of wine (or new wine it would have probably been).

We had a good time working with the fulfillment of it in Christ and then ended with our own Passover Supper the way Jesus told us to share to remember that He died for us and is coming again. It was really an appointment of the old Passover into the realized one we call communion. It was a sweet time of sharing with Him, in Him and together. The Lord blessed us so. That class is composed of folk from 6 different denominations. We experienced “miracle” together. The Body of Christ is truly one in Spirit. He made us so.

I am teaching tomorrow night at my local church’s mid-week service. My Pastor has asked that I teach a series on “Building a Community.” Tomorrow evening is the first of 5 sessions with the adults. I will try to post a summary on Friday so those of you who choose to do so can share with us.

Tonight I am teaching Lesson #3 in our Institute class “The Feasts of the Lord.” I am approaching the study as a discovery for us of what Christ has done and how these are fulfilled in Him. The one thing that is very, very clear is that the Lord intends for us to be a people of celebration. Israel of old were a people of joy and celebration when they followed Him. He organized their years by the marking of His work among them and then instituted celebrations.

The first lesson was an overall introduction to the Feasts, and last week we discovered how the understanding of the Sabbath is basic to all understanding of the works of God. We discovered that Jesus is our Sabbath and all He is calls us to trust Him and rest. All our work is to be done out of rest and faith. We had a good time with it.

Tonight I am working with Passover. It is, of course, easy to connect the dots with this one, but it is the beginning of the Spring Festivals and lays the ground work for all of the blessings through the sacrifice of Christ Jesus our Lord. I look forward to it. The KeyNote (Mac’s Power Point) is ready and now I go to the notebooks and read and let the Lord show me His intended emphasis for tonight.

One big thing we are looking at in Scripture is the difference between what is commanded for them and what traditions have developed. The prophecies of Christ are found in the Scripture structure, not necessarily in the traditions. Although at times those too are incorporated in the New Testament celebrations. It will be interesting I think, and hopefully we will rejoice and celebrate through it all.

Well I am trying a new program that will enable me to blog remotely. Let see how this works. It should make things much easier (even though I find WordPress much easier than any other I have tried). This program Blogo. We will just try a few items and see how it works

I am caught in my spirit with the fact that some Christians love the Lord Jesus, are dedicated to Him and also love His written Word. Then there are other dear ones who also love Him and are dedicated to Him but find it a difficult task to spend much time at all learning His Word. Why is that? What is going on in the heart that would make one person devour the Word and another touch it ever so lightly, if at all?

As a Bible teacher, I simply cannot separate the written Word from the very personal living Word. He is the same. I do not consider the actual printed book the same as His person, but what He has instructed in His book through the ages is the revelation of Himself and very important in my heart and life. I cannot imagine living in the United States with an ability to read and write, and not actively using those skills to enrich my heart, mind and soul with His words.

So I am seeking God’s heart (long term) about what I can do in presenting the Word that would make others love it too. I know most of this work must be done by the anointing, provided in and through the Holy Spirit, but I am so longing to see some progressive change  in my skills as a teacher. My students all have such a hunger and I am bless constantly, each season, by their love for the Lord and their study of the Word. However, there are those who come and go, who really do not get a “word emphasis” in their church and are satisfied with what they can hear on TV or the pulpit.

There is no condemnation in my heart here. All who are His are equal in His treatment of them. The one special reward for those who consistently seek the truth of His word is more understanding and release into Him, but those who love the Word do not study it primarily for reward, but simply because they love Him.  Why does the church as a whole seem interested only in “feeling” Him when He moves in a tangible way? Why are we not, as a whole, folk who simply cannot get enough of what He has said and therefore know more of what He is saying?

Just some questions on my heart this morning. Comments are welcome if you have any ideas about the answer to some of the questions posed here. Please keep them positive and uplifting. Putting others down is simply not the way of the Word. I guess I should say that shaming folk or condemning them for not doing something never works for long and really isn’t what the Lord does. Hunger and thirsting is like eating potato chips or peanuts – you can’t just eat one. Why are we not hungry for more Word?

There are some choruses that are seeping into our common worship that are troubling me a bit. They do not trouble me because I don’t like them because they are sweet, they trouble me because they are advocating something that is not in our Bibles. The phrase is some form of “empty me.” Now the thought is that we want less of ourselves to be visible and more of our Lord. Usually the next phrase has to do with Him filling us, which is very Biblical and very appropriate.

The phrase has bothered me for some time, so I finally took the time to do some research. The term is, of course, used in scripture but usually is a negative. His people in the OT were chastised for coming before Him with empty hands, etc… However, there is nothing – nowhere – about us becoming less in order for Him to become more.

John the Baptist made a statement, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” (John 3:30) He was not talking about his person, He was talking about the scope of his ministry. His ministry must become less prominent while the ministry of Jesus must become seen. To make this mean that we need to disappear in our relationship with Him is to misuse the scripture.

As I was pondering this, the Lord spoke sweetly, “I have no space problem.”  The Lord told the servants at the wedding to fill the water jars with water, prior to His turning that water into wine. This is the understanding I think we need to reach for. He takes us as we are, full of ourselves, and makes the “best wine” out of us. He does not ask us to eliminate ourselves, but invites us to allow Him to be King in “our” heart. He treasures our being enough to die for us. He never wanted to eliminate us, or “empty ourselves of ourselves,” instead He desires to enrich us and bless us with Himself. The Spirit takes no space because He is spirit. He fills us with Himself while we are full of ourselves. I know that is not possible in the natural world, but in the Spirit it is what happens.There is never an entreaty to “empty” what He desires to love because He takes no space in us yet fills us with the “fullness of God.”

We, of course, desire to allow the transforming of our lives for His glory and that means corporating with Him in eliminating certain thoughts and behaviors. However, He doesn’t do that for us, but asks us to use Him and the power of His word to effect change as needed. Oh yes, you have also discovered with me, that need never ends.

We choose His will – that glorifies Him. Us being empty without a will is not what He is after. I hope some of this helps. We do not need to allow un-Biblical theological concepts to dominate our thinking of ourselves. When we do, we become “religious” but it is no help in becoming truly spiritual.

This was posted on facebook this afternoon by one of my friends. I thought it worth sharing. It is worth a read. Bless you.

THE SNEEZE

They walked in tandem, each of the ninety-two students filing into the already crowded auditorium. With their rich maroon gowns flowing and the traditional caps, they looked almost as grown up as they felt.

Dads swallowed hard behind broad smiles, and Moms freely brushed away tears.

This class would NOT pray during the commencements, not by choice, but because of a recent court ruling prohibiting it.

The principal and several students were careful to stay within the guidelines allowed by the ruling. They gave inspirational and challenging speeches, but no one mentioned divine guidance and no one asked for blessings on the graduates or their families.

The speeches were nice, but they were routine until the final speech received a standing ovation.

A solitary student walked proudly to the microphone. He stood still and silent for just a moment, and then, it happened.

All 92 students, every single one of them, suddenly SNEEZED !!!!

The student on stage simply looked at the audience and said,

‘GOD BLESS YOU’

And he walked off the stage…

The audience exploded into applause. This graduating class had found a unique way to invoke God’s blessing on their future with or without the court’s approval.

This is a true story; it happened at the University of Maryland.”