John Newton, the son of a Captain of a fleet of ships, found himself a slave, “to a black woman” who thought it would be fun to let a white man be treated with the unkindness, she had known, before she found her freedom.
Jesus came into a society of Jews who would not receive him as an equal. . . Jesus tried to explain to His Disciples, that he would voluntarily become the slave . . . to those who knew Him not.
Joh 16:19 Now Jesus knew that they were desirous to ask him, and said unto them, Do ye enquire among yourselves of that I said, A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me? Joh 16:20 Verily, verily, I say unto you, That ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice: and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. Joh 16:21 A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world. Joh 16:22 And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you. Joh 16:23 And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. Joh 16:24 Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. I Have Overcome the World.Joh 16:25 These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: but the time cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall shew you plainly of the Father. Joh 16:26 At that day ye shall ask in my name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you: Joh 16:27 For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God. Joh 16:28 I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father. Joh 16:29 His disciples said unto him, Lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb. Joh 16:30 Now are we sure that thou knowest all things, and needest not that any man should ask thee: by this we believe that thou camest forth from God.
Joh 16:31 Jesus answered them, Do ye now believe? Joh 16:32 Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me. Joh 16:33 These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.
Last week I sat in our prayer and Bible study circle, reading these words of Jesus to His disciples, knowing they would not “see” Him and ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice: and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy.
The attorney for the underprivileged children, had retired and she sat at our table, thrashing out these words, the disciples could not understand. . .as the judgment of the High Priest Caiaphas, would condemn Jesus the Jew. . . and lead Judas Iscariot to be bribed into rebellion against Jesus, to expose his hiding place. The man who held the money bag, became greedy.
At times its seems as “if” we can’t understand, how Jesus would carefully hide His ability to heal the physical ailments of humanity, while He came to own, and they knew him not.
It was the prophecy in Isaiah that the Jews considered a book that should not be opened. Isa 53:1 Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed? Isa 53:2 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. Isa 53:3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Isa 53:4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. Isa 53:5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. Isa 53:6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. Isa 53:7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. Isa 53:8 He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken. Isa 53:9 And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. Isa 53:10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. Isa 53:11 He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. Isa 53:12 Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
In my heart, there are those who do not realize, that anyone can become like the “Jews” who hated JESUS.
Any one can look upon that face of mercy, kindness, who became a willing slave to die. . . defending our freedom to speak. . . of His love and devotion to mankind. . .came to be a SLAVE. . . to FREE US FROM BECOMING LIKE THE JEWS. . . who had THE PROPHECY OF ISAIAH, and forbid their own to even THINK…they would harm their OWN.
Now, some 2020 years after the BIRTH of a son, a CHILD, BORN to DIE, for our sins, we are talking about “color” of skin?
When man looks upon the outside, God looks upon the heart.
Who alone can judge our MOTIVES to obey and love our MASTER?
JESUS IS THE CHAMPION OF TRUE FREEDOM. . . HE LED BY . . . the power of GOD the Father, to be the SON’s HOLY SPIRIT.
This Holy Spirit, Jesus returns to us, to our hearts, to understand, what it feels like to walk in his shoes, to suffer, to be misunderstood, and to cherish freedom of speech. . . freedom to love and be loved.
Written as words from my heart to my sons, and adopted sons, who sense the urgency for mankind to stop wondering if GOD CARES.
The EPIC STORY and ENDING to the book of REVELATION is in the middle of the book, as explained by the teachers of religion at Union College. The book of Revelation 11 amassed the two sides of the great controversy between Michael the Archangel and Lucifer the cruel angel on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, the city of Jerusalem on the earth, has another Jerusalem in Heaven, with a river running through it, with THE GARDEN OF EDEN and THE TREE OF LIFE.
As a professional artist, by “de fault” of entering a juried art show, set up by a high desert artist club in Ridgecrest, California, I won first place in the amateur division. Later I taught art in the little two-room church school in Oakdale, California. This history of winning a first place in a juried art show, and teaching art, disqualifies me to enter a juried art show as an amateur. By default, I am considered by the National Art Society a professional artist.
A group called MARANATHA invited volunteers to help restore the old Soquel Campground, and I volunteered. Women were cooking, painting, cleaning, and the man engineering the pulling of the cables through the PVC pipe, invited me to crawl into the hole, and feed the pipe with a special slippery goo. . .as he pulled three lines at a time together, as a tractor on the other end, began to pull the line, we inched towards pulling some hundreds of feet of wires to their designated trailer hookups.
Feeling sorry for the women, I came in to help peel the boiled eggs. Then the Secretary of the California Conference noticed my eagerness to help, and she invited me to go with her on Mission Trip to Romania. I had already known Jerry and Janet Page, from their early morning prayer groups at Campmeeting. They were launching a mixed group of old ladys and eager men to do a two week evangelistic tour. Carol could not come at the last minute and her position needed someone to fill it. Me, The helper became the teacher. . . and a whole new world of computer, slides, sermons, and equipment brought me to be a two-week evangelist. And watching two mothers come to Christ, with the fear of the Romanian Orthodox Church, and man coming down the street with a pipe, ready to smash out the preacher’s windows in his car. . .we felt the opposition of those who misunderstood our mission. And we prayed a lot!
And perhaps, my zeal in coming home, ready to pull out the slides and sermons we gave that brought the children to sit in the cane backed chairs dangling their legs for over an hour, while we entertained them with slides and the movie about Jesus, became a great paradox when I came home to feel, “she doesn’t know what she is talking about.”
I know the feeling of joy, in JESUS, HIS LIFE, HIS MISSION, was thwarted by the Pharisees and Sadducees’ . . . I came to understand the paradox of those who wish and love to TEACH. . . when they are told, “You can’t do it this way.”
Timothy wrote, I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. 2 Timothy 4:7-8
Rev 2:10 Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.
P.S. Those crowns look heavy to me. . .make mine dainty and light?
God Bless You as you go through your day with visions of Heaven where monkeys play. My sister was thinking she would buy our daddy a monkey. . .because he was always monkeying around. . .in the garage, making things. But he lived in India during WWII and he knew what pests those monkeys could be. . .he assured my little sister, she should not even think of getting him a pet monkey.
I think we will enjoy monkeys in heaven. . . I seldom write my own scripts. But this one is very special to me, sharing my joy of giving those sermons in English and having a good-looking young Romania pastor Emalian and his wife Esther Titus teach me how to work with the threat of the Romanian Orthodox Church Priests, who tell their congregation they cannot own a Bible, they cannot study the Bible and they cannot translate the Bible, or he will not do their funeral and that means they would go to hell.
Slavery or Freedom? Lock up the Bible? Send them to hell, if the priest does not do their funeral? O well. . .if your preacher or teacher will not permit you to read a Bible. . .you have my permission to open one and read for YOURSELF!
You might try going to Egypt, and watching Moses grow up in the Courts of Pharaoh. . .and end up on Mount Sinai. . .holding the Ten Laws that govern the Universe. Just ten? How could ten laws govern the universe? really? just ten?
The Birth of Moses begins in EXODUS 2, a good place to start reading the Bible for you…Exo 2:1 And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of Levi.
Connie in the country where we have more cows than people, over and out. God Bless You!
From slavery to freedom. . .its a big step.
Good job Noah…you inspired me to do my own writing…you see I need a critique. . .as I did in painting classes! Thank you
A true teacher needs to hear from her students, so she will know what “method” will be the best, some learn from hearing, some learn from seeing, some learn from music, and some learn how to get along while swinging on the jungle gym, or like I did in High School when we had a swimming pool. Good old Thomas Jefferson High School in Denver taught us how to swim. But I never graduated with my class. . . would be 65. I skipped a year, and went to college early. So I never made it to Prom night, or even dances, that was not what good Seventh Day Adventist children were doing, in those days. A boy invited me to a dance, while I was volunteering in the high school library. My answer was, “I’ll have to ask my Mother.” Of course I knew what she would say. I just didn’t have the courage to let him know.
But the high light of sitting in my Physics Class, was Mr. Gilmore who taught us, “Man like electricity takes the path of least resistance.” and the good-looking red-headed boy in front of me, who turned around and asked me. “Connie are you saved?”
I had that kinda dumb blonde look on my face, as he pulled his Bible out from under his chair, and proceeded to read Romans 10…Rom 10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
I got saved in Physics class in a public school!
This brings us to our job of saving folks like Peter did. (that good looking kid in class, Peter,)
“Are you saved?”
This raises the question many are asking, “How can I be sure, Jesus was raised from the dead, and taken to heaven on a cloud?”
You see this circle of life, from death to life, is the MYSTERY OF SALVATION and future life in heaven. . .it is so MYSTERIOUS . . . that human minds can’t comprehend, and atheists have created man from cell of primordial swamp. Sunday and Sabbath keepers are confused about a GOD who CAN CREATE and WHO DOES LIFE in HEAVEN.
The answer is in Revelation 11. . .when GOD takes two forgiven sinners, from death to life….THEN TAKES THEM TO HEAVEN IN A CLOUD.
GOT time for the rest of the story?
This has to happen before JESUS RETURNS . . . .You have to know the powers of GOD, even though are like HORNS on baby calf, He will not force you. . .to obey or love Him. He can only DISPLAY, HIS ABILITY to pick up two dead witnesses, and bring them to LIFE and then LIFT THEM OFF THIS PLANET, to take them on a 7 day trip to HEAVEN.
The devil is bound to this earth forever, the snake in the tree, who can live eternally, until the LORD heats up the stoves of lava, after we have serached the heavenly books, to make sure GOD has made the right choice, to KEEP YOU IN HEAVEN. . . because now you are like the GODS who KNOW, both GOOD AND EVIL. . .can you make up your mind to obey just ten laws? And not be FORCED TO GO TO HIS HOUSE TO EAT, at the wedding supper of the LAMB to his bride, the folks who want to be with HIM?
GOD help us see WHY, the death of your son, carries such weight, that YOU LOVE ALL WHO COME to see and KNOW. . .true freedom, lives in your kingdom, showing dignity and respect for each other and their King. The King of the Jews and Gentiles! That includes me and YOU!
The all seeing eye of the eagle….GOD KNOWS YOUR G.P.S.
Jesus, from the TRIBE OF JUDAH, the LION
ONE LIKE THE SON OF GOD, and ONE LIKE THE SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF GOD….are you and I….we are standing in GODS Courtroom voting and crying and sighing…Eze 9:4 ” And the LORD said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof. “
God is setting HIS MARK upon your foreheads, of the men and woman who cry for all the abominations that are being done…”we” are showing GOD, we immensely dislike (those are other words better than saying, HATE) the wars and rumors of war, the disasters by land and sea, we WELCOME YOUR SECOND COMING, and will look up and listen to see REVELATION 11 REVEAL YOUR LOVE AND CONCERN for all who do not BELIEVE….you can take forgiven sinners to HEAVEN, in a cloud, like you did to Elijah! HURRAH! GOD has promised a blessing to all who cry and sigh…about the abominations. . .the lies, the faux and fake news. . .that shows us this world needs a GREAT MAKEOVER…and GOD the Father, God the Son and God the HOLY SPIRIT can’t wait to take to heaven for a thousand years, while Lucifer is BOUND, to walk through the rubble of what he has destroyed . . .then and only then, will the UNIVERSE of inhabited planets, realize the folly of letting Lucifer, sit on God’s Throne and rule just one planet.
The old snake the devil himself, is being exposed as the corrupting influence by sight and sound, to destroy the minds of those who worship JESUS CHRIST, as their Saviour. Saved by the blood of the Lamb, Jesus Christ, the human sacrifice needed to save our souls.
Amen
The Red Horse War Against Gods Government understood by the parables of Jesus 