The Word of the Lord

Brothers and sisters in the Lord, This week has been very difficult to write to you…I have so much on my heart and it is very difficult to get a complete thought out in a short devotional. Believe it or not, there is a theme in all the breads of this week. It has to do with this world we live in. It has to do with discerning what are mere traditions of men and what is scriptural practice, or a better word, COMMAND of The Lord. Our entire church system today, although sprinkled with many people who love the Lord, is a stew of ‘traditions of men’ mixed with the commands of God. How are we to even know the difference? We belong to church denominations whose roots go back to the original Roman Catholic Church. All of these daughters, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Methodist, Brethren, Church of Christ, and so on, have their own little doctrine they call truth, most of which are mere traditions of men. They have all split off from the one, for one doctrinal dispute or another. It is like one big dysfunctional family. I am not here to tell you stop going to church. In fact we are mandated by the apostle Paul to not forsake the gathering together of believers. What I am saying is this….WE MUST SEEK THE LORD OURSELVES! We must take the words we hear from men, and treat them for what they are….WORDS OF MEN. This is true of the words you get from ANY man whether he call himself a pastor or pope. We must search the scriptures daily ….…

Acts 17:11
Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.

The Bereans in the book of acts even treated the words of the apostle Paul in this way!!!! Jesus even said:

Matthew 22:29
Jesus replied, "You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God

Dear brothers and sisters…in this mess of religion stew we are given the gift of the Word. The tried and true word of God is at your disposal, it is in your hand. Your bible does not merely contain the word of God, IT IS THE WORD OF GOD. Every letter, space and period. It is the only thing that has no contradiction. It is the only pure truth we have in this crazy world. Jesus said “I am the WAY, TRUTH, and LIFE”

John 17:17
Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth

Jesus in John 17 used ‘word and truth’ synonymous on purpose….He is the Word…He is TRUTH.

Luke 24:45
Then he (Jesus) opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures

Show yourselves as workmen that need not be ashamed, RIGHTLY DIVIDING THE WORD OF TRUTH. We Love you ALL…Max and Tammy

I Corinthians 5:7

Dear brothers and sisters in the Lord,
The Passover or what we are now by “tradition” calling easter is I think misunderstood by many of us as we celebrate. Easter Sunday is one of the most attended church services of the year, yet the very theme of the easter celebration is very different from what the Passover celebration was and should be all about. The focus of easter today is celebrating the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is what we should celebrate every moment of every day. The easter celebration was adopted in what is known as ‘The Nicene Council’ in 325 AD. There is much controversy about the Council of Nicaea. The Nicene Council is the first so-called organized church doctrinal meeting. Roman Emperor Constantine, who made Christianity the official state religion, convened this council of bishops. The council ordered that the observation of Passover will now be called easter. Instead of the celebrating the Levitical Passover (Wednesday-Saturday), which is what was commanded in the old testament, we are now to call it easter and start this new celebration on Friday and ending on Sunday, which oddly enough coincides with the vernal equinox, or the aligning of the planets. The Lord was on the cross through the Passover and rose before dawn on Saturday, which was the Sabbath. This change is similar to Christmas being celebrated during the winter solstice another of Romes mixing of pagan and Christian ideals. Most scholars agree that Jesus wasn’t born in winter, and there are very early pagan traditions predating Christ that have to do with the winter solstice (planets aligning) and bringing trees into your house. (See Jeremiah 10:3-4) I’ll let you investigate these things for yourselves. The creation of ‘easter’ is just one of many things that happened at this meeting some 300 years after Christ. There is much controversy to this day about the motives of Constantine. Was his adoption of Christianity just a political move, or was he truly converted from his well-documented pagan beliefs to faith in Christ? The pagan worship of the sun and other heavenly bodies go all the way back to Egypt, and the fact that the Passover was changed to coincide with the planets aligning is more than a coincidence in my mind.

The Passover celebration should be our celebrating being delivered from the slavery of sin and deliverance from the uncertainty of a godless world. Just as the Israelites celebrated being delivered from the bondage of slavery and pagan Egypt. The Holy communion is what the Lord at the last supper commanded us to do in remembrance of Him, and it was on the eve of the Passover that the Lord said this. They were celebrating the Passover! The apostle Paul tells us that Christ IS our Passover

1 Corinthians 5:7
Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed for us.

We live in a crazy world of religion stew. With contradictory preaching on every other TV channel, and with books a million spewing all sorts of doctrine, we must do what the apostle Paul told Timothy:

2 Timothy 2:15
Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

We must search the scriptures and rightly divide the Word of truth, not calling the traditions of men doctrine. Ask the Lord for understanding, through prayer and our daily intake of the Word of God. Our prayers are for you always, that the Lord would give you a heart to seek Him (Ezekiel 36:24-29)…Happy Passover!!!!

Max and Tammy

Sons of God

I talked in yesterday’s bread about how God our Father sees us as His sons and daughters. The Lord has been showing me that not only does He love us and want us to know He loves us as sons and daughters, but He also has made us, and all of creation for a purpose. If you look at the many stories we have in the bible, there is always what starts out as some seemingly obscure circumstance or tragic event in someone’s life, and it always ends up accomplishing a purpose for the fulfillment of God’s plan. The men and women in these stories are usually just going about the business of their days. As they are being shepherds, servants, or whatever, we can see God has a plan knitted into these seemingly random, sometimes very subtle, and on the surface insignificant details of daily life. Here are a couple of verses to ponder, as I believe they are directly related to not only the realization of BEING a son or daughter, but also walking IN that revelation.

John 1:12
But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:

Romans 8:14
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
The “power to become the sons of God” lies in our realizing that 24hrs a day, 7days a week, we are playing a role in some way fulfilling His purpose. Being led by the spirit means we are seeing our seemingly random interactions with each other, and even our mundane tasks as taking part in God’s plan. It is being constantly aware of our surroundings, seeing those we interact with through God’s eyes and not our own.

Romans 8:18-21
I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. 20For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21that[a] the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.

Philippians 2:12-16
12Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. 13For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. 14Do all things without murmurings and disputings: 15That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world; 16Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ,

1 John 3:1
Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.

My prayer for us is that we would walk in the revelation of the sonship of the MOST HIGH, rightly dividing the word of truth, workers who need not be ashamed.

Much Love in the Lord,
Max and Tammy

Psalm 103:10 - 14

Dear brother's and sister's in the Lord, The Lord has been dealing with me for a couple years about what it means to be his son. The Lord has created an order in the natural to mirror things in the spirit. The way an earthly father looks and thinks of his son for example is designed for us to understand how he thinks of us.

Psalm 103 10He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. 11For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. 12 As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. 13Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him. 14 For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.

Isaiah 55 6 Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near. 7 Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon. 8 "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. 9 "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."

The thoughts of a small child compared to the thoughts of his adult father are a great comparison to the above verses. If a 3yr old has a favorite toy that is broken, his little world is shaken. His pain and tears are real and we as parents can’t help but feel broken hearted with him. Our heavenly father wants us to know that he feels our pains with us. I truly believe these experiences are by design reflections of the love our heavenly father has for us. How awesome is it that the God of the universe wants us to know that he feels our pains as a father who pities his child! The understanding of how our Father thinks of us, and His thoughts toward us have a lot to do with our ability to seek Him. Understanding how the Lord sees us is only the first step to actually walking in the power of the sonship. It is impossible to seek Him if you don’t believe he hears and cares for you. This again is why it is necessary for us to be INTO the word of God daily, RIGHTLY DIVIDING THE WORD OF TRUTH.

My prayer for us is that we would, with the rightly divided word, seek Him daily and Ephesians 3: 16That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; 17That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, 18May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; 19And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God.

Max and Tammy

Sin - The Universal Problem

Sin - The Universal Problem (from Max Lucado - In The Grip of Grace)

Ponder the achievement of God. He doesn't condone sin, nor does He compromise His standard. He doesn't ignore our rebellion, nor does He relax His demands. Rather than dismiss our sin, He assumes our sin and incredibly, sentences Himself. God's holiness is honored. Our sin is punished and we are redeemed. God does what we cannot do so we can be what we dare not to dream: perfect before God.

35 And when the men of that place had knowledge of him, they sent out into all that country round about, and brought unto him all that were diseased;

36And besought him that they might only touch the hem of his garment: and as many as touched were made perfectly whole. Matthew 14

22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:

23 I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. John 17

What separates us from God is sin. We aren't strong enough to remove it, and we aren't good enough to erase it. For all of our differences there is one problem we all share...we are separated from God.

There is no one who always does what is right, not even one. There is no one who understands.

There is no one who looks to God for help. All have turned away. Romans 3:10-11

We are a long way away from our Father.

13"Their throats are open graves;their tongues practice deceit."[a]"The poison of vipers is on their lips."[b]
14"Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness."[c]
15"Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16ruin and misery mark their ways,
17and the way of peace they do not know."[d]
18"There is no fear of God before their eyes. For the way of sin is death.

Sin does to a life what shears do to a flower. A flower cut at the stem separates the flower from the source of life. The flower is attractive, still colorful and strong. But watch that flower over time, the leaves will wilt and the petals will drop. No matter what you do the flower will never live again. Surround it with water. Stick the stem in soil, Do what you wish. The flower is dead.

A dead soul has no life. Cut off from God, the soul withers and dies

Romans 3:19-20 19Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.

20Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.

Upon seeing the problem, can't we see the solution? The solution is not more government, education, man-made rituals and doctrines. We need a miracle.

That miracle that Someone is introduced in Romans 3:22, Jesus Christ.

22This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.

My prayer is that we see the simplicity in the Gospel. Jesus ended religion. He ended rituals. He ended death for those who believe in Him. Through Him and Him only we are made perfect and can stand before God.

Max and Tammy