Return to Me

Lord: If my Church is to have any impact in the world today they must return to some basic principles. The first is to accept that I am God, and return to me.

When I gave the children of Israel the 10 commandments, the first one was :

I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me.

It saddens me so much that many who claim to be Christians, and have positions of trust within the church, do not believe that I am God. With their lips they say, yes, but with their actions they say, no!

Every day the second commandment is broken from dawn till dusk :

You shall not make for yourself any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters beneath the earth: You shall not bow down yourself to them, or serve them: for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me, and showing mercy to thousands of them that love Me and keep My commandments.

In the 21st century world, there are so many gods which get in the way, and so often are placed in a place of honour in man's heart, and have become to him, more important than Me! These gods range from articles made by human hands, such as TV's, computers, cars and houses, to ideologies, fantasies, and addictions. Other human beings are often revered like gods, such as film stars, models, politicians and sportsmen and women. The worship of these other gods, is backed by a massive human invention called the popular media. For those with a weak will, the media, and the power of advertising is an almost irresistible force, which claims the lives and freedom of many thousands, especially young people, every day.

And that's only two out of ten! The second principle that My Church must return to, is an acceptance of the Bible as My true and unchangeable Word.

The scriptures in their entirety were given to the Church as their authority. Being my word, the Bible is your authenticating document, your royal commission, your qualification. My word will gain you access to places normally unreachable. But not if you yourself do not accept its authority and truth. I have not made it hard to accept it as authentic. Every day its truth is lived out and proved by countess individuals in a life-changing way. No other document has that effect on men and women of every culture across the world. No other book has stood the test of time remaining unchanged and true, and as relevant today as it was for the first Christians. No other book reveals Jesus, My beloved Son to mankind.

The third, but by no means the least, basic principle, is to place Jesus in the centre of the Gospel. In the last few years in Western Christendom, Jesus has been pushed out of the centre and replaced by statements of belief, some of which don't even mention His name! Generations are growing up who only know the name of Jesus as a swear word.

The third commandment clearly states that :

You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain: for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that takes his name in vain.

Jesus, My beloved Son, bears My name, as all sons bear the names of their fathers. When you dishonour Him, you dishonour Me! If seekers are not being introduced to Jesus by the church, The church is not My Church any more. Jesus' command or commission to his disciples was to :

Go into all the world, and make disciples of all men everywhere.

A Church that looks only in on itself will crumble and die. I have given you a wonderful Gospel, good news for all men everywhere. It's all about Jesus, and it hold all the answers for all the problems of mankind.

Return to Me, and let Me set you free. I love you.

Spreading the True Gospel - Part 3

Lord: Now that the necessity for some sort of action, has been established, let's explore what happened.

Since the foundation of the earth and the heavens, man has been My central purpose. The climax of creation week was the creation of man. All that I had made was both perfect and very wonderful. But in all the things I created, I found nothing to satisfy My need to love. I loved everything I made, from the smallest particle, to the greatest star systems, from the smallest living organism, to the greatest of the creatures that have ever roamed on land, or lived in the deepest depths of the sea. I know them all by name, and I command their coming and their going. Something was still lacking, so I made a man in my own image. I placed within the man, whom I formed out of clay, the breath of life. I made him a being, capable of thinking, feeling and loving. With him, I began to share the delights of the creation I had made for him. But he rebelled against me, choosing to walk his own way, and in so doing, upset the very delicate, and finely tuned balance of creation. Something had to be done to restore the balance. Without some action, mankind would destroy himself, and all creation with him.

The man himself knew what he had done, and over the centuries, vent his anger at himself, for losing paradise, by trying everything he could think of to fill the gaping hole inside him, which was once occupied by his close relationship with Me. He tried accumulating wealth, exercising power over other people. He raped, murdered, terrorised. He tried being alone, he tried large cities, he explored the Earth, and he tried to build towers to reach into heaven. When all this didn't satisfy the aching in his soul, he sought to find truth and fulfilment in thinking, fantasy, mysticism, magic and religion. He became adapt at creating gods, to rule his life, for he realised, that without Me, he had no direction, no purpose and no satisfaction. Generations tried to find a way back to Eden, and to Me. However man could not pass the Angel, who guarded the way with his flaming sword. This may all sound like a myth, but the reality of it is more stark, than you have even begun to imagine.

When man rebelled against me, and was expelled from the Garden of Eden, a great gulf was fixed between Heaven and Earth. Its purpose was to contain sin, and confine it to the Earth, preventing it from entering into Heaven. It was also for man's good. In his fallen, sinful state, to enter the perfection and brilliance of My presence, would burn man to a cinder. That is why I could not even allow my friend Moses to see My face. For no man, can look on the face of God, and live.

As man himself is not able to put the situation right, and, as the offence was against Me, and not man, any action to redeem this situation, was down to Me. I could have walked away from man, and creation, which would have caused all things to cease to exist, or I could act and put things right. There was only one reason why I chose to make a way for man to be redeemed. That reason, was the same one that caused me to create all things: Love. Yes, even in his fallen state, I loved the man that I had made. I hate the sin, and the disobedience, I hate evil in any form, but when I made the man, he was perfect. I loved him then, and I still do. It is this force of love, the most powerful force in all of creation, that I use, to bring man back to Paradise.

A life of sin and evil causes man to become isolated and lonely. He soon becomes rejected, even by others who live in that same state of sin. Any love between sinners, can very easily become lust and craving. A form of selfishness that thinks only of personal satisfaction. The deeper man falls into this pit of sin and evil, the less love features in his existence, and the more he craves for love. The only way to reach into the depths of this prison man is in, is to reach out with love. It has to be a love that can forgive, and go beyond his present state. No other man can love him, as much as he needs loving. Because the sin is not primarily against man, no man can truly forgive him.

Therefore I had to act! I am the one, who has been sinned against, so only I can truly forgive sin. However, there is still one small problem. The direct result of sin is death. Mankind started walking down the pathway to death as soon as he cut himself off from Me. In the same way that cutting a rose bloom from its bush means that you have cut it off from its source of life, and it will surely die, so by cutting himself off from Me, man secured his own death. The result or wages, of sin is death. It is a fact of life, it is inevitable!

Just as with the rose, there is an answer, but it does require outside action. Many fruit bearing trees and plants, like roses, can with the help of a gardener, be grafted back into good rootstock. Man had cut himself off from his source of life (rootstock). There is no way for him to graft himself back in. But it is possible for Me to provide a way. That is exactly what I have done through Jesus! The Bible clearly traces My actions, as I prepared a people to receive the answer to man's sins.

By letting go of the Bible, by not teaching it and believing it, the church undermines  the gospel it is trying to promote. The New Testament, the story of Jesus, cannot be taught on its own, for its foundations are very firmly in the old Testament. Remove or undermine the Old, and the New topples over.

Tomorrow we look at what Jesus did, and how it made a difference.

Good Friday Passion

Me: Good morning Lord. Please be with those who are performing the Passion this morning. Help them and let this act be a powerful witness to all those who see it. Also bless those who will walk the walk of witness today, and all who hear about you.

Lord: Good morning son. I love these performances, whatever form they take, because they spark the imagination of men and women everywhere, and speak far more powerfully of the gospel, than hours of sermons.

Reading: 1 Samuel 4-6

The penalties for looking upon the Ark of the Covenant were set in place by me to be a lesson in respecting My holiness. You only have to glance at what I had done for Israel in delivering them from Egypt, in caring for them in the wilderness, then in occupying the land, to see that I was moving with them in mighty power. Under Eli they had become too familiar with Me, and taken Me for granted!

I am the Lord Almighty. I bow to no man. All things in the Heavens and on the Earth, are made by Me, and are therefore subject to Me. That is why I am holy and should be respected and revered in the heart of every man. But the heart of man is rebellious and hard, and he has filled the God-shaped hole in the centre of his existence, with self and man-made images. Mankind will not return to Me, if I let this situation continue!

Because I am God, and I really care about My creation, I cannot abandon man to the results of his sin! I want him to return to me, to be saved. For this reason I sent my Son Jesus into the world, to deal with sin, once and for all. There was no other way than Passion Week, to deal with sin.

Sin had to be dealt with by Me, not by man. For man there is no escape from sin. For Jesus, sin could not hold Him, because He alone, born of a woman, was without sin. Original sin passes down from Adam, the first man. Even Eve was a descendant of Adam, in that she was taken, and cloned, from Him. Jesus however, was not descended from Adam, for it was by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit that Mary conceived him. I am His Father, not Adam, or a descendant of Adam,s!

Once Jesus had dealt with the sin issue, by dying on the cross, I made it possible for anyone, yes, any man woman or child born of Adam, to come to me, through the work Jesus had done. The Cross of Jesus is, in every sense of the word, a bridge, over which man may cross, and come back into My will. It is the Jesus who died upon that Cross, that must occupy that God-shaped space in the heart of every man. It is only when Jesus has His rightful place in the centre of your life, that you can gaze on anything that is holy. This is why Moses could come into My presence, and could touch the tablets on which I had written with My own finger, and live! If I were to reveal the Ark of the Covenant to man today, only those whose hearts are Jesus-centred, and are right with Me, could approach. What I have made holy, remains holy for all eternity, which is why, throughout the dark ages of man I have kept certain things from the eyes of man, until He is right with me, and ready to look into My face.

Eat up your Greens!

Me: Good morning Lord. Thank you for waking me this morning and for this new day. Thank you for your love and goodness to us, and for taking care of all our wants and needs. I love you Lord.

Lord: Good morning son. Thank you for joining us this morning and for focusing of My Word. The Word I have spoken is food for you. Keep feeding on the Word each day.

When you eat a meal, there is often something in the meal that you are not too keen on, but which you eat in order to receive a balanced diet. Often, the foods which people don't like and avoid, are the very bits which keep them strong and healthy. It is much the same with My Word. The parts which are often taken lightly, or even avoided, provide a great deal of nourishment, even in modern situations. The Old Testament is largely neglected as a teaching tool, by a lot of main stream congregations. Individuals also reject 90% of the Old Testament as irrelevant to modern living, and therefore do not read it.

Even on a secular level the Jewish Scriptures are dismissed by historians, scientists and thinkers alike, purely because of their 'religious' setting. Take for example the account of the Global Flood or the Exodus. Secular historians are far more likely to read and take notice of the writings of secular people. Yet, time and again, I am allowing discoveries to be made, which reinforce and back up My Word, which is truth!

But aside from the secular world of unbelief, My people, who are called by My name, are also abandoning My Word, because it doesn't fit comfortably with their current world view. To you I say, Return to the Lord your God, and seek My forgiveness for the casting aside of My Word. Treat My Word as a balanced meal. There will be parts of the meal that you find difficult to digest, but, 'Eat up your greens, they will do you good!' Remember how, as a child, you used to let the greens slip down your throat, without chewing them, so you didn't have to taste them! Well, they still did you good in the long run. So with My Word. Take both the Old and the New Testaments and consume them. Do not pass judgement on them, until the Word has done its work. Over time the goodness and truth in the Word seeps out and nourishes the body, so that, when you need the truth, or you need a foundation for what you think you believe, My Word is there in your innermost being, to give you the support and truth you need.

The other way to feed on the Word is to chew it over and allow the goodness and the flavour to come out like honey in the mouth. Sometimes this can be difficult, but I am always here, and ready to help you. All you need to do is ask.

While the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness for forty years, I fed them on manna from Heaven. I have provided for My Church the same sort of provision, with the written Word, the Bible. Those who rely on it and feast on it never find it wanting, while those who reject it, or only pick at it are always hungry.

Do not be confused by clever theological comments, or blinded by the remarks of 'eminent' scholars. Always start by taking My Word at face value. Just eat it. You see it wasn't written as a puzzle or code. I did not hide the truth from you. It doesn't need a priest or a theologian to unravel the truth for you. It requires only for you to sit at a table and consume it like a good meal. To be able to digest your food, you don't have to be a doctor or understand all the processes of digestion. Your body knows what to do with the food and you can get on with life. So it is with My Word. Consume it and allow your spirit to be nourished. Just as you accept, by experience, that your food is good for you, so begin to accept that the Word is truth and food for you. As you consume it regularly you will soon discover by experience that the Word IS truth and IS good for you. I love you and therefore would not prescribe for you anything less than the best!

Let there be Light!

Me: Good morning Lord. Thank you for waking me this morning and for this new day. Thank you for your light which shines in our lives, lighting up the dark places. Please walk with us today Lord and be our tutor and our guide. I love you Lord.

Lord: Good morning son. Welcome to the club this morning and thank you for walking with us. Martin I always walk with you through every moment of the day. It is I who lights your path and guides you in the darkness. When you fail to see the light or feel that I have left you, it is because you have turned away from me!

In the beginning of all things I created light. The words of mine that broke the age long silence of eternity were, "Let there be Light." It was in fact, the moment I brought light into world I had created. Two things were needed to create the environment I wanted for physical life: sound and light. My Voice provided both these things. The Sound of my voice and the Light I created on the first day, still resound around the universe, that surrounds the earth. When the sound of my voice and the light I first created fade away, which they will only do at my command, the present universe of material things will cease to exist.

Why did I create the light and why did I speak the word? It was because I had in my mind to make a man in my own image. A man I could love and who would love me of his own desire (free will). Yes, all the extravagance of the universe was to give this little creation of mine called man, a glimpse of my glory and splendour. I created the Heavens, the stars and the sun, the planets and the moon. I created the constellations and nebula to display to man the light of the glory of his Creator. The sun, the moon and the stars speak of my incredible order and design, and I built into man a sense of wonder and pleasure as he looks upon this beauty. I put within the man I had made a song or praise and wonder, and I filled his mind with poetry and art, to help him find expression for the joy and wonder he was experiencing as he gazed on all that I had made.

You know son, man is actually able to behold all that I have made and see it with the same eyes I had, as I said after each day. "God saw it and behold it was very good." That is a formal, not very good translation of what I was experiencing. In today's English it would be more accurate to say, "God saw everything he had made, and it was a delight to behold." I took great pleasure in every atom of creation. I saw beauty in the patterns of the maths, the colours, the designs, the curves, twists and angles. I sang with the sounds of creation and gave the birds of the air their songs. There is not one single event in creation that is accidental. Everything from the greatest star cluster to the smallest molecule is designed and placed where it is.

Now son, I will let you into a secret. The only thing that spoils creation is that the man I made to love, and who can freely love me back, has so often chosen to ignore and to spoil the beauty and perfection I created for him. Sin I can wipe out with the flick of my little finger. Evil I can destroy in the lake of sulphur. But when man, whom I love so much, chooses to turn away and ignore all that I have created for him, that hurts. It hurts more than man himself could ever endure.

I am working so hard to reveal to man the wonders I have made. I have made science beautiful and exciting in every field, and there is so much to discover, enough for every man, woman, and child, alive today, or who has ever lived. or ever will live, to each discover something new and unique, and for there still be more to find!

Some of my children are doing just that, and are making enormous discoveries in every field of science, but often their discoveries and enlightenments are being pushed aside by the closed-mindedness of those who are trying so hard to prove I don't exist!

I have blinded their eyes so they cannot see and I have switched off the light of revelation for them, until such time as they humble themselves before me and seek my face. For those who know me and seek my face, I shine my light upon them and open their minds and their understanding, filling them with the light and sound of my glorious creation.

The same thing is happening in the fields of art, music and creativity. There are those who have turned their back on the light and are creating black art, black music, and creations that jar with all thing beautiful. But those who walk in the light I am shining, hear the sounds of Heaven and see the vision in My mind. As they work with me, we continue the work of creation and behold it as very good.

My beloved children, In all your works, whatever you do, in any field, do all in the light I give. Let me enlighten you and show you all that I have made so that your delights may be turned into discovery and creativity. You see, I love you and I made it all for you to discover. That is why, on the very first day of creation I said, "Let there be Light."