God with us

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Thankfully God is not some impersonal power far away.
His name is not merely The Universe, although this name does reflect well that there is something higher and greater than us.
This something  is a Person though.
The bible tells us that God exists of three persons, and yet He is one.
These are The Father, the Son which is Jesus Christ, and The Holy Spirit.
Maybe they can be best described as the three faces of God.
Like a cube has different sides and yet it’s one object.
And yet it’s not the same because these three Persons interact with each other and seem to have different roles.
Yet their nature is the same. They love the same. They are holy the same.
There is one God. Yet they are three Persons.

In the biblebook Exodus God meets with Moses and tells him to make a tabernacle so He could dwell among them.
God always wanted to dwell with people and He still does.
In him we live and move and have our being says the book of Acts in the New Testament.
Yet there seem to be different levels in which we can encounter and experience God.
To a degree we all experience him no matter if we believe in him because we exist through him and in him.
In Genesis it says that the breath of God is in all living beings.
So when we are alive we experience God. Just through living. Just through being.
It’s not even possible to be away from his presence.
He is always with us.

That does not mean we are always aware of him.
Neither does it automatically mean that we have a personal relationship with him where we share our lives with him and surrender to him, to his lordship.
Yet He is good and never leaves us.
It seems to be the Holy Spirit who always works on drawing us to God.
Who gives us an awareness of “something more”, like when we marvel at the beauty of nature.
Or when we look into the face of a newborn child.
He won’t stop doing that as long as we live.
He won’t stop blessing us with the gift of live itself.
Until…yes until we die.
And then we might experience even more of his glory, of his goodness.
Depending on wether we accepted him or not.
His love never changes.
We choose our own destination though. He doesn’t do that for us.
He doesn’t violate our will.

Read also “Choice”.

It’s all about relationship with God if we want to experience him in a deeper, more personal way.
In the tabernacle God told Moses to make there were several places.
There was an outer court, and a holy place, and the most holy place.
And of course there was the place outside the outer court.
Which is were most people live.
It’s the place were we live in this world, in the midst of his goodness yet without having a personal relationship with him.

Read also “Saved from what?” about the origin of sickness and destruction.

God invites us to draw closer.
He’s not going to force you to live with him. What kind of relationship would that be?

See also “Bride of Christ”.

So we can come closer.
We can have a relationship with God and experience his love and guiding in our lives.
His wisdom for decisions.
His nearness so we never feel alone.
His healing for our body and soul.

It starts with entering the outer court.
This is the place of washing and were sacrifices were made.
The sacrifices were a picture, a foreshadowing, of the sacrife Jesus would make for us with his own life.

See “Justice and forgiveness” for why Jesus had to die.

Once we accept the sacrifice of Jesus we are made clean.
The dirt of our sin is erased, we have been given a new heart (see also “Free Gift”)
And now we can approach God boldly without cringing in shame and fear.

So we enter the holy place.
(don’t stay in the outer court, we have access to come close!)
That’s were relationship starts.
Relationship with Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
There are a table with bread which is a picture of Jesus who is called the bread of life.
It’s his body that is the bread which sustains us when we eat it.
This is symbolical language and it simply means that we accepted Jesus sacrifice of his body for us.
Like with any gift, you have to accept it in order to receive it.
In the holy place we meditate on the meaning of the cross.
We partake of every benefit it can give us by consciously receiving it again daily.
It’s called communion. Through it we experience his presence and nearness.
Through spending time with him we receive more and more healing and we become more like him.

Read also “Beloved”.

There’s also a candlestand with seven arms which speaks of the Holy Spirit that stands before the throne of God and consists of seven spirits.
Jesus is called the Light of the World because the Spirit of God is on and in him.

“The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him,
the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and might,
the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.”

Isaiah 11:2

We get to partake of all these aspects of his Spirit when we draw near.
Keith Miller wrote an amazing book about this called “The Seven-Fold Spirit of God”.
You can find it on amazon.

But that is not all.
Between the holy place and the most holy place was a most sacret veil.
It separated the two places and only the high priest was allowed to enter past it once a year.
The high priest in the old testament of the bible is a picture of Jesus.
He is now our high priest.
Only through him we can enter.
However we don’t just have access once a year.
When Jesus died on the cross the veil in the tempel was torn from top to bottom.
It was very thick and would have been impossible to tear with the strenght of human hands.
But God himself tore it in pieces.
Saying: you now have access, the barrier is gone.
You see Jesus was that veil.
His body was torn on the cross so we could have access to God the Father.
To a degree God had been showing himself on the earth through his Spirit and through human appearances, probably of Jesus.
(eg read the encounters of Abraham in Genesis and Moses in Exodus to whom God appeared in human form or in the form of a “messenger” which is usually translated with “angel” but was probably Jesus because he accepted worship and angels don’t do that)
And in the spirit-realm prophets had encounters with God on the throne.
But now access is granted to all people.
All who go through the door which is Jesus.
Our sin was a barrier because God is holy and good and can’t look upon evil.
And since we all have evil inside of us we needed a Saviour. A mediator.

Read also “Mediator”.

Jesus broke the barrier.
He took our sin upon himself and died because of it.
He took our place and now we have access.
Our slate is wiped clean.
The price for our sin is paid.
We are in rightstanding with God.

WE MAY ENTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Free Gift: learn here how

Restoration

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Jesus told us that all things would be restored.
Before He would come back.
So what things need to be restored?
We would have to look at the beginning when things first started to fall apart and when God’s purpose and intention for mankind and creation became defiled.
Not because God changed his mind about us but because we didn’t cooperate with him anymore.

Life on earth was never meant to be separated from God.
It was never supposed to be alienated from it’s Maker.
We were never supposed to wander though life alone, being in the unknown about God’s love and intention for us.
When men rebelled against God and chose not to trust him and his good intentions for us a breach was made, by men, not God, between how life was suppposed to be and how we started to live and experience life.
Away from relationship with God.
Away from the fullness and satisfaction He intended us to have.

So the first thing that needs to be resored is our trust in God. Our relience on him.
God showed us we could trust him by dying for us on a cross.
By doing that He showed us his devotion towards us even when we sinned and turned away from him.
He showed us that He still loved us and would never stop pursuing out heart.
To win us for him so we would have relationship with him again.
I believe all the other things will be restored from there.
When we truly see and realise what He did for us and accept it we allow him access in our lives. Access He won’t give himself if we don’t give him permission.
Because He values our will.
Because He wants us to want him.

Then He can heal our body and every hurt in our soul.
Then He can fill us with his love that is a consuming fire that changes us from the inside and makes us like him. Full of love and passion.
Then, I believe, righteousness will sprout up in the earth and justice will be done.
Then we become selfless. And yet still love ourselves.
Then we will fight for the hungry and poor to be fed.
We will go after solutions for the major problems in the earth and find them.
Because our heart is set on it.
Because we don’t live for ourselves anymore but love others equally. With the same measure of love that we love ourselves. Not less.
Then there can be peace on all levels, because we’re not set on WHO’s right but on WHAT’s right.
Because we don’t need to strive for approval and acceptance anymore. Because we already found this in God and his love is truly enough.

Love Like Honey

By Karen Ladage 1/2021

There is a Love as thick and heavy as Honey –
Glistening Golden, full of Life and Healing;
Dripping down upon our cares
smothering our concerns in its relentless waves
of sweet Grace.

There is a Love as sweet and gentle as Rain,
Drip, drip, dripping from the sky.
Quenching the thirsty earth with its revival dew,
Releasing a refreshing that nourishes the soul.

There is a Love as strong and unquenchable as Fire
It cleanses, it heals, it will not be denied.
It pursues, it overtakes, it encompasses, it takes hold.
It draws you to Itself to cause you to be inflamed
by a passion that consumes.

There is a Love that exists,
beyond time and space,
beyond reason or understanding –
that would undertake the most unimaginable feat possible:
to translate That Which Exists beyond time and space
and embody IT in human veil.

There is a Love. There is Love. There is LOVE
Love that accepts. Love that heals.
Love that reaches out for you.
Love that sees -all the hurts and wounds and pain
and would heal, and make you a healer.

There is Love like Honey

copyright work (art and poem) by Karen Ladage – shared with author’s permission

Free Gift

Justice and Forgiveness

Hanna RietdijkLeave a comment

Many people struggle with this idea that if God is love, then why doesn’t He just forgive?
Why do people have to believe in Jesus to be forgiven?
Why did Jesus have to die?

It is BECAUSE God is love that Jesus died and God refuses to forgive those who don’t believe in him and submit to him.

Why?
God is righteous and this is part of his love.
Honor is one of the ways He shows us his love.
He holds us in high esteem.
Also He doesn’t let himself be mocked.
What kind of God would that be?
He would not be loving himself nor would people hold him in high regard.
Who would want a God that people walk over?
We would not have trust in his power and ability to love and protect us if He would not even stand up for himself.
We would scorn him, even more than we might do now.
We would not love and obey him.
And how could He protect us from harm if people didn’t obey him?
How can a child be protected if it refuses to listen to it’s parents warnings?

So God is righteous.
That means that He doesn’t let any wrongdoeing go by without consequences.
It is because He loves and honors us so much that if someone hurts you or wrongs you that person has to give an account to God for what he did.

The same goes for you.
If you do any wrong then one day, either in this life or after you died, God will require of you a righteous payment. (unless…you receive Jesus and submit to him!)
Just like in this society when you commit a crime punishment has to be paid.
It sits well with no one  when a crime is overlooked with the argument that we all sin and that the crime has it’s root in a depraved upbringing anyways.

How would that make the victim feel?
He would not feel taken serious.
He would not feel loved and valued.
Also he would not feel protected.
The criminal can just commit the same crime again and again if he is not restrained.

No one might request an account of your wrongdoings while you live.
They might not be considered crimes in this society.
Yet God’s standard of right and wrong is often different from ours.
We might think it doesn’t matter if we gossip or put someone down.
If we get angry unjustified.
Or if we have idols. Things or even gods that are not truly God.
If we don’t acknowledge God and give Him the rightfull place in our lives.
Who cares?

But it does matter.
HE cares.
He cares about us so much that He won’t allow any injustice done to us without the right consequences.
He holds us and himself in high esteem.
However He also knows very well that we all failed his standard of love.
That none of us can love the way He does.
That we all deserve to die if righteousness truly was done.

We rebelled against the God of the universe.
How can his kingdom stand if rebels are allowed and given free range?
How could He offer any protection to anyone?

See also “Creator’s joy”.

And that’s why Jesus died in our place.
His death was the righteous payment for the sin of all mankind.
Because He is sinless, and He is God, his suffering and death
was enough to settle our debt with righteousness.
The debt of all mankind.

Read also “Loves price”.

But we cannot be forgiven if we don’t accept this sacrifice of love.
That would be like trampling on Jesus all over again.
God gave his Son Jesus to us to pay the price for our sin.
He let him be mocked and killed for our sake.
And Jesus did it willingly.
God himself died on that cross.

But He won’t accept the sacrifice of Jesus as valid, as rightfull payment, for those who won’t accept it and won’t submit to Jesus.
He won’t let you trample on his beloved Son.
Just as He doesn’t let anyone trample on you.

By dying for us He paid the rightfull punisment for those that did us wrong and thereby acknowledged our value, our worth.
He also paid the price for our own wrongdoing.
Only when we accept this and submit to him He can change us from the inside so that we won’t keep hurting others.
Read also “Choice”.
But also so that we can be healed from every hurt done to us.
This does mean though that we have to forgive others and not play judge over them.
After all the rightfull punishment for their sin has been paid, just as it was paid for you.

NOW (after accepting Jesus)
We can be forgiven and healed completely.
Now every wrong can be made right.
Now we can walk in forgiveness without feeling our hurts have not been acknowledged.
Without feeling our pain doesn’t matter.
Without feeling we have been wronged.
Now we know someone valued us so much He paid the rightfull punishment of what was done to us.
Because we matter.
Because we are important to God.
And now we know the rightfull punisment of our own wrongdoing was paid as well.
IN FULL

So that’s why Jesus died.
That’s why you can only be forgiven if you accept Jesus and submit to him.

Free Gift: click here if you want to accept this gift of Jesus.

Choice

Hanna Rietdijk1 Comment

Do we resist the blood of Jesus or do we accept his life within us through forgiveness?

There are many things in life we get to choose.
One of those things is our acceptance of God.
Our acceptance of his acceptance of us.
This goes both for believers and unbelievers.
Once we’ve given our lives to God, and maybe we’ve been believers our whole lives, we still can choose to what degree we let his mercy affect us.
We still get to choose whether we release ALL our sins to him and receive his forgiveness or if we tenaciously hold on to our mistakes and want to pay the price we deserve. To deserve forgiveness so to say.
Of course that isn’t possible. You can never undo your wrongs. Not by a thousand rights.
It might feel like you can recompense for them but you can’t undo them.
That’s why we need the blood of Jesus so much.
To cover our sin. He’s the only one that was able to pay the rightfull punishment for our faults. We cannot do that ourselves. We don’t have that ability.

Two things can prevent us from receiving his forgiveness freely.
And not trying to earn it, to pay back for what Jesus did for us.
If He had to die for it so that righteousness was done then surely there is no way we can make our wrongs right and pay the rightfull penalty for our sin ourselves.

One obstacle is pride.
It takes humility to receive his mercy.

Read also “Pride” and “Humility”.

Another obstacle is a wrong view of God.
Possibly because others that should have reflected God’s character to you didn’t.
Maybe because they didn’t quite have a right view of God themselves.
You can’t give what you don’t have.
A father is supposed to reflect the image of God as our Father.
Remember we are made in his image.
Because many fathers don’t know God or what He is like they can’t reflect Him to their children and this can lead to a wrong image of what God is like.
You can see that many things in live are twisted and defiled when we don’t have a proper (right) view of God.
It affects everything.

Many things in life we don’t get to choose.
Like our parents or where we are born.
Yet the things we do get to choose influence everything else.

God gave ALL people free will, including those that hurt us.
If He had to end all pain He would have to take free will from every single person.
Including you and I.
We all have hurt others and did wrong.
That’s why Jesus had to die.
To pay the rightful punisment for all sin so that righteousness would be done.

God loves us the same if we don’t receive his forgiveness through the shed blood of Jesus.
His life that was given in our place so that we could live and not die.
Yet like all choices, our choice to receive his mercy through the sacrifice of Jesus does have consequences.
If we don’t receive it He will not give us eternal life. By which I mean that we won’t have a relationship with Jesus, who is the source of our life. The one through whom we fully come alive and are cleansed from all sin and are enabled to live righteous.

Receiving Jesus death as payment for our sin is not only about forgiveness.

It’s also about taking evil out of us so that one day, when we fully have surrendered to him, (which even for believers is something that is an ongoing process), the world will be delivered from evil.

See also “The Kingdom of God”.

It’s because God doesn’t want people to keep being hurt and do evil that He is not allowing those who haven’t submitted to him to live on forever and being enabled to continue to do evil.
You will be separated from his presence forever, the very thing that gives us life, if you don’t accept Jesus Christ as Lord.
Not because He stops loving you one day but because one day He won’t allow evil to continue.
Right now the earth is filled with the glory of God. To a degree. Just look at the beauty of nature.
Much more glory is coming.
But if you don’t submit to him and let God transform you, you will spend eternity seperated from his glory and beauty.

Your soul will long forever for the One it was made to love and have relationship with.
I could call it hell, and that’s indeed what the bible calls it, but I believe that the main suffering of hell consists of being separated from God.
The beauty and glory you now can enjoy because God loves us equally and wants to bless us even when we don’t believe in Him, won’t be accessible to you anymore.
This is not God’s will for you, to be apart from him and to suffer forever.
He longs for you even more than you long for him.
That’s why Jesus died in your place.
So that righteousness was done but you didn’t have to suffer.

Don’t let him waiting and longing…
Longing, for a son or daughter.
Give him a chance.
Converse with Him.
Ask for a sign if that’s what you need.
He will pursue to win you heart the rest of your life.
Let him love you.
Let him hold you.
Let him comfort you and heal every hurt and disappointment in your heart.
You’re worth it, not because of anything you did or didn’t do but because He made you.
To be His.
His beloved child.

Read also “Creator’s joy”.

Free Gift: read here how you can become his child.

Truth

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If you are a believer in Jesus Christ and submitted your life to Him then this is the truth about you:

(read it, ponder it, meditate on it, BELIEVE it, declare it out loud replacing “you” for “I”)

You are a son or daughter of God.
You are forgiven of ALL past, present and future sin.
Your shame caused by sin or what others did to you is covered by Jesus blood and hidden forever.

Read also “Unashamed”.

You now have a radiant garment you can put on, it’s called Jesus Christ.
Jesus is your righteousness, not your own discipline and abilities.
You are a branch that is connected with a vine (Jesus) that is FULL of life and healing.
You are holy because He is holy.
You are a whole new creation.
You are perfect in God’s eyes.
You are a light in this world.
You belong to God forever.

Read also “You are Mine”.

If you don’t believe in Him and don’t submit your life to Jesus Christ then this is true about you:

(just open yourself for a moment and consider that it might be true, how would you feel about that if it was? What would your response be?)

You are God’s desire.
He longs to be in relationship with you and show you his love.
He will never stop loving you and He will respect the free will He gave you.
You will be separated from his presence forever if you don’t make the choice in this life that you want to be in relationship with him and submit to him.

So He can be all you would want God to be for you.
So He can save you.

He cannot save you if you don’t put your life in his hands.
Then He would infringe on your free will and He refuses to do that.
He wants you to want him!

Read also “Saved from what?”.

He loves you so much that He,
Jesus Christ the Son of God
who himself is God as well,
came to the earth as a man.
He lived a perfect life
He taught us the ways of God
Then He died on a cross
To pay the sentence
For OUR sin
And because of that we can now be
In rightstanding with God
Forgiven and clean

Read also “Mediator” and “Creator’s joy” for an explanation of why Jesus had to die.

Read “Free Gift” to learn how you can become a child of God.

No matter which of these two categories of people you belong:

GOD LOVES YOU!!!

And so do I

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Blessings!

Lies and Truth

Hanna RietdijkLeave a comment

Sequel to “Victory“

So the battle between darkness and light, good and bad on the earth has it’s origin in the spiritual realm. It’s interwoven with our whole lives.
The main place were this battle takes place is in our mind.
Why does God allow satan to have such an influence in our lives?
You might not like the answer but the bible says God uses everything for good for those who love Him.
Apart from the fact that God gave satan a free will too, He won’t let satan continue forever to bring destruction to men. But as long as he does I believe it has a function.

See also “Purpose of worship”.

You might wonder why satan rebelled in the first place.
And why in turn men rebelled against God, being tempted by satan.

Read also “Saved from what?”.

The main way satan seems to work his evil ways of destruction is by lying to men.
By telling us things about God and ourselves that aren’t true.
Interesting right? That means that we can choose to believe them and act accordingly or not.
It shows that satan has less power than we might often think.
He partners with men who believe him. If we don’t satan really can not do that much harm to us.
Only those who submit to his lies and temptations become victim of his evil schemes.

So key thing is that we discover the truth and hold on to it tenaciously.

Interesting thing is that in the process of resisting his lies we become more aware of the truth and who we are in God’s eyes. It actually makes us stronger and more confident in God’s love for us.
Still one might wonder why we believed satan the first time he lied to men.
After all they lived in relationship with God in a beautiful garden where there seemed to have been no lack or pain.
So why did they believe satan’s assumption that God was holding out on them?
I think in part because we can choose whether we trust God or not.
God did not overwhelm men with himself in such a way they couln’t choose anymore and were simply compelled to obey him because of his power.

God wants us to want him.

Relationships are based on trust and that’s what faith is.
To trust him is to believe him.
It’s the only way we can have a loving relationship with God based on free will.
And that’s what He’s after.
He’s after you and me.
Hoping we will believe him and trust him so we can have a relationship with him that is filled with love, not coercion.
He has no interest in slaves or robots.
He wants family.

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Victory

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There seems to be this battle going on in the place were humans live.
Between hope and despair.
Lies and truth.
Darkness and light.
Have you noticed?
Do you ever feel discouraged?
Yet feel over the top happy another day?
Or just being thankful and satisfied with life one day yet another day you feel something is missing and you can’t lay hold of it? You don’t even know what’s missing or why you feel blue?

Welcome to live on earth.
Or should I say welcome to the spiritual dimension, which is interwoven with all we do and see.
We might not always realise the cause of our feelings and events in the earth.
Many things that are seen have a root in what cannot be seen.
Or should I say all things?
According to the bible all things visible come from the invisible.
That is invisible with our natural eyes.
Thankfully God did not leave us blind and in the dark.
He gave us spiritual sight and understanding of things that are hidden from plain sight.
However the only way to see in the supernatural without the chance of being deceived is when we submit our lives to Jesus Christ. Then we are protected from darkness and can be assured that we gain true understanding. Jesus himself is called the Truth and He will never deceive us.

So were does this deception come from?
Why is there darkness if it doesn’t come from God?
If God is all light and full of goodness and has no bad intentions towards us…
To be honest I do not have all the answers.
(surprised? I’m sure you’re not)
But I will share my thoughts with you.

I believe there is more life than what we know on earth.
That we are not the only creatures that God made.
I believe there is a whole other dimension, a spiritual dimension, were there are angels, demons and who knows what other creatures.
Demons (according to the bible and my believes) are fallen angels. They rebelled against God.
God did not make evil creatures but He gave us free will and therefore the ability to become evil.
I believe that God created a hierarchy in all that He made. For reasons we might not always understand or see in the moment.
I believe that the purpose of those that are above us is to bless us. Like a strong person can help a weaker one. Their purpose is by no means to subdue us and make us suffer.
Unfortunately on earth many things are twisted and upside down. Many leaders are in it for power and personal gain. But it was never meant that way.
A leader actually serves the ones that are under them, under their care. The purpose of a leader is to make things better for others, not worse.
The same goes for the spiritual dimension. I believe we all are spiritual beings but humans happen to have a body, while others spirits like angels only seem to be able to appear in earthly bodies but don’t live in it all the time.
So I believe God placed angels above us to serve us. To bless us.
But the very one that God made most powerfull, Lucifer, turned evil and is now after our destruction.
That doesn’t seem fair right? But you have to keep in mind that God is above all evil and perfectly able and willing to protect us from it.
However just as God gave Lucifer, the angel who became the devil/satan, free will so He gave mankind free will and we only are under satan’s power when we don’t submit to God.

Read also “The Kingdom of God” and “Enthroned on our praises”.

If we submit to God we have autority to fight all evil that tries to come against us. Sometimes it’s just a matter of seeing the victory God gave us over the devil.
This victory is only found in the cross were Jesus took the place of sinful man, thereby erasing all the autority the devil had over us through our obedience to him, satan.

Read also “Mediator” and the other articles in the category ”The Message”.

To be continued…(“Lies and Truth”)

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Purpose of worship

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Jerubbaal means to contend to be lord.
It was the name given to Gideon, a person in the bible to whom God told to tear down the altar of the pagan god Baal that the people of God, the jewish people, had started to worship.
Gideon contended for God to be Lord.
You can read this in Judges 6

The Israelites (jews) could only be saved from their enemies when they stopped worshipping other gods.
You see this pattern over and over again in the bible, were God gives Israel in the hands of enemies when they worshipped other gods.

Read also “Enthroned on our praises” and “The Kingdom of God”.

Thankfully God was willing to deliver them from their enemies every time they repented and turned away from those gods and worshiped Him again.
Unfortunately they kept going back to worshipping idols (other gods) again and again, even when at times they also worshipped God on the side.
That’s like getting married and having affairs as well…

Sad thing is that we still do the same today, often without realising it because we don’t call these gods/idols that we have by their names.
Baal still contends to be lord.

So what is the name of Baal in modern day language?
It’s called The Fear of Men.
If I let other people determine my value I am my own god, because I’m part of the same creation that the people that I let determine my value are part of.
And in turn I try to give value, or devalue, to others with my opinions of them.
But only God should have that place in our lives.
We can have opinions of things of course and give people compliments or critics, but it should not be tied to our perception of their value. We should love and value them the same.
Yet we rarily do.

I believe satan alias the devil is behind these gods. (bear with me for a moment)
All he wants is to be God and he tempts us by giving us the desire to be gods as well, knowing that when we don’t give God his rightful place he, satan, has that place of power in our lives.

Read also “Saved from what?”

So even as believers we can still worship God to a degree and have idols on the side.
Which means we are still on the throne of our own lives.
God won’t love us any less but we won’t be free from the destruction that the devil tries to bring if we are not 100% surrendered to God. We are still in his power.

It may seem weird that God only protects us when we worship Him.
After all He is God and does not need our approval or compliments to feel good about himself.
He does not need our service to have power.
He can override our free will if He wants. And yet He rarily does.
He really is all for having a relationship with us were we choose with our own will to connect with Him.
Amazingly He takes pleasure in that!

So why does He require our worship if He’s all about free will?
I think He’s protecting us through that.
If God gave men the ability to become their own god without coming under the power of someone else, in this case satan (because he’s the one we listened to), when rejecting God above them, they could never be delivered from their rebellion. They would become through and through evil and would never be able to change and turn back to God. God would have to destroy them forever if He wanted to destroy evil.
And that’s exactly what He eventually will do with the devil but what He doesn’t want to do with us.
He so wanted to give us second changes if we rebelled against Him, that He ordered satan to be lord over us if we reject Him.
Thereby He limited our ability to do and become evil so He could still save us and draw us back to his heart of love towards us.

There’s only one way to defeat the devil and his temptations for us to be lord over our own lives. Not that there really is such a thing as being lord over yourself, since you just hand the lordship of your life over to the devil when you don’t give God the rightfull place in your life.
Like darkness vanishes by turning a light on, we overcome the place and power the devil still has in our lives by giving that place back to God.
Through worship.

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Bride of Christ

Hanna Rietdijk1 Comment

Sequel to “Light of the World”

But there is more.

More of Jesus I mean.
Jesus is not only our Saviour.
It is through Jesus that God showes us his love.
The bible says that God is our Husband.
God made the world through Jesus and like his Father He is our God and Creator.
Jesus is the Lover of our soul.
He is the one that loves us like no one else can.
God gave us loving relationships to enjoy, but they never were to replace Him.
We all have a place inside of us, a deep longing for love and fulfillment, that only God and His Son Jesus and His Spirit can fulfill.
The bible calls this a mystery. It’s something that is not quite revealed yet.
Our love-relationship with Jesus is compared to the love between a husband and wife.
This is not physical but spiritual.
The intimacy we have with Jesus is way more satisfying then the intimacy we can have with any human being.
It’s like in this picture, were you see how lovesick the bride is, longing for and leaning on her groom.
And the groom supports and strenghten’s her. Because we were never made to live without His love.
She is his delight and he is so very proud that she is to become his.

Artist: Tazia Hall (used with permission)

It’s like that with Jesus.
But like in a love-relationship intimacy and trust are to be developed. It comes through spending time together. Through enjoying each others presence. Setting time apart for each other and talking, sharing  hearts.
We can have this kind of relationship with Jesus if we want.
It doesn’t happen over night. It’s a daily interaction with Him that satisfies our soul more than anything else can.
Just speak to Him.
Tell Him what’s on your mind and listen for his reply.
Put on some soothing worship music that helps you relax and quiet the noise and business in your mind, so you can hear HIS voice. (See also “you are Mine”)

I can really recommend music from Julie True for this.

And do you see the beautiful weddingdress?
God didn’t just give us undergarments to cover our shame barely. (see “Unashamed”)
He gave us beautiful clothes to wear. This garment He gave us is the righteousness of Jesus.
The bible says our own good deeds are like a filthy garment (a menstrual cloth, disguisting right?!).
We do not have the ability to live righteous apart from God. So don’t even try.
That’s called religion. Not the definition that is mostly used of religion, but what I mean here is what all religion has in common: striving to earn something from God, through good behavior.
But this is not possible. All our abilities come from Him (see “Free Gift”) and we don’t have to earn his love and approval. We already have his devotion for us since birth.

Like a bride adorns herself for her husband so we can adorn ourself for Jesus.
We do this through putting on the garment He gave us. We do not have to and are not even allowed to make one ourselves. Because all we have comes from Him.
You put it on by trusting and believing that He indeed is your righteousness and you do not have to be righteous in your own strenth. (see “Identity in Christ” and last paragraph from “Free Gift”)

So because of the blood of Jesus our shame that came through sin is covered and He doesn’t treath us based on our sin anymore. But because of the righteousness of Jesus we now look radiant and pure to Him like being clothed in a white weddinggarment.
We have to choose to put on this garment though by believing and confessing that we have it so it won’t be just that we are accounted as being righteous because the righteousness of Jesus is accounted to us, which is true as well, but that we live out that righteousness. That our life and deeds become rigtheous, holy and pure. THAT is adorning yourself for Jesus your groom.

He’s not going to marry a bride in filthy clothing.
There’s a parable in the bible Jesus tells about 10 virgins waiting for the bridegroom to come.
(matthew 25)
Five have extra oil in their lamps to sustain them during the delay.
Five don’t.
They are all ten virgins (which speaks of their purity and devotion to Jesus).
But only the ones with burning lamps get access to the weddingfeast.
To the others He says He doesn’t know them.
They may have served Him their whole lives but Jesus is not after slaves.
He is after relationship.
The oil symbolizes that.

I’m not saying you won’t be saved if you don’t have an intimate relationship with Jesus.
But that would kind of be like getting married and then both living in another house and not speaking to each other.
You might live on God’s property, but He wants you in His mansion!
His love for you is passionate, not distant.  
He invites you to come closer and experience His love for you.

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Light of the world

Hanna Rietdijk

The purpose of life, I would say, is to be enjoyed by God and to enjoy Him.
And everything He made, with Him in it.

God made us out of pure delight. He had pure joy when creating us.
You might have heard it say it’s better to give than to receive.
This sure is true in God’s eyes.
He so enjoys giving us life and all kinds of things we take pleasure in.
He enjoys seeing us enjoying.
He is a loving Father and like all good parents He can’t have enough of blessing us with good things.

One of those good things is his Son Jesus Christ.
The bible says Jesus is the Light of the world.
Like light in the natural changes the whole atmosphere and makes everything come alive and full of hope, so I believe God made the world in such a way that it would only come alive and have hope through his Son Jesus.
He loves Jesus so much that He wanted to give him great honor and pleasure. So much that He decided Jesus would be the King of the world one day.

And He now is. But only a few have yet accepted his reign.
But God is kind and extremely patient with all.
Yet there will be a day when our chance to choose Him freely will be over and all will bow to Him.
Not because He stopped loving us but because it would not be love if He let injustice reign forever.
Since injustice is part of all of us (when was the last time you were selfish, gossiped, treated someone too harshly…?) the only way for us to be saved from condemnation is if we are saved from the evil inside of us.

And that is exactly what Jesus came to do.
He came to take away the sin of the world. He was punished for it’s sin so that we would not have to be punished for it and then He gave us his Spirit, the Holy Spirit, inside of us, thereby enabling us to overcome our sinful tendencies.
We still have a choice if we surrender to his nudges and guiding. God doesn’t take everything over and takes away our ability to sin. But He gives us the ability not to.
So all who believe and acknowledge Jesus as King are now saved from evil and the judgement that one day will befall on all injustice.

Now THAT is a good and gracious gift right?!
One we didn’t deserve, but as I mentioned in “Free Gift”, we cannot earn anything from God. For He made us and all our abilities are a gift from Him as well.
Jesus truly is our only hope. The light of the world.

To be continued…(”Bride of Christ”)

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