Ephesians 1:3-10 is one long sentence with two time environments: long before creation and since the cross.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace…

God’s choice stands out in eternity past and effectively silences the hypocrisy that has accompanied the message we have heard up to the appearing of the Saviour of the world.

God’s choice touches down in the present with the appearing of Christ and grace through faith.

1. with which he has blessed (graced) us in the Beloved.
2. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,
3. which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose,
4. which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

There is no time that God does not speak well of the believer. The Father’s blessing

1. Predates creation
2. Is heavenly
3. Is in accordance with his choice

We can spare ourselves the misery of unfulfilled desires and the disappointment that is sure to follow of the popular blessing lottery. If there is a prophet who will say with clarity what the blessing is, when and where the blessing arrives, and for whom we have not seen him or her.

Just say “hello”, “good day” and mean it. Genuine disciples are not impressed by scattershot prophecies about what is going to happen in the next day or 10 minutes or what will happen when the 10th or 7th person gets the forwarded message.

Scraping the bottom of the barrel with potus45 is your mistake.

What did you expect to find behind an unprincipled real estate mobster and headless churches?

Lamentations 4:1-2
How the gold has grown dim, how the pure gold is changed! The holy stones lie scattered at the head of every street. The precious sons of Zion, worth their weight in fine gold, how they are regarded as earthen pots, the work of a potter’s hands!

We do not consistently appreciate the difference between head and tail when we express ourselves or pursue the head or tail identity. Being a head or a tail seems to be important to us and we seem to somewhat aware that both are needed in any body. This is important because there is likely to be some discrimination as we are approached by a head or a tail. The head and tail identities are the subject of intense and ignorant passion. What would happen when a body is more head than tail, more head than abdomen, more head than legs is far more disturbing than and simple flip.

Head blessings

The concept of individuals being heads or tails is simple enough. Heads seldom rub shoulders with dirt or earth, and tails (which we do not have) have become symbols of primates and sex.  Dirt (of which we were made) is a symbol of filth and corruption.

The so called blessings of Deuteronomy 28 have never happened, and the curses have run their course. The man that presumes to say that God has given him the nod as one who has

“… faithfully obey[ed] the voice of the LORD your God, being careful to do all his commandments…” (Deut. 28:1).

This accounting took place just as Israel was preparing to enter Canaan. “If you obey” sets forth the condition: but the abundance of produce and livestock are all signs of God’s generosity to all humans, just or unjust.

And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the LORD your God. Deut 28:2

Head of which body?​

Lest we look for some old prophet from Israel or elsewhere for confirmation of what a head really looks like we should remember that reliable sources leave the building when the prophet with the truth arrives.

the elder and honored man is the head, and the prophet who teaches lies is the tail; Isaiah 9:15

No-one is being enrolled as head with blessings of this age and world because they have diligently followed Yahweh’s instructions. There is no-one being registered as tail because they failed to comply with covenant terms. Check your coins before you flip. Each day has both good things and bad things. Each day we live has suffering and glory. Each day has abundance and scarcity of both earthly and heavenly treasures. The acting out of what we are not and doing a slide show of what we not possess is a poor way to flip and disastrous way to honour God’s provisions. Grasping for the blessings listed in Deuteronomy 28 and using the sayings as self-talk is a deadly strategy for lying about God’s arrangement and our performance.

Since the Jewish people, at the end of 4000 years, have nothing with which to prove their compliance and blessing how credible is the claim of people in the 21st century who cannot even read the instructions as written even in English.

The great and powerful thrust

Without a proper identity the ideal of responsible behaviour does not get off the ground. The commandment is stated in a circular way. Love from God’s perspective (the SON-view) peaks in dying and rising from the dead for others. Love from humanity’s perspective peaks in the lifestyle (not events) of humble loving service. All the talk about obedience (doing, guarding, teaching, learning) are a distraction from God’s completed work.

Of what is the Lamb of the foundation evidence?

Salvation is a deliberate plan, not a case of intervention. It declared a many-sided wisdom and the fullness of love. John calls the revelation the Father’s only-begotten’s glory. It demonstrated God’s righteousness and his gift of the same to us.

The full meaning of God’s self-revelation

Exodus records that God said “You shall not” (vss. 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, and 17). However Jesus and James seem to understand the Covenant as saying do not ever kill, commit adultery, steal or witness falsely.

Did God say “don’t ever” sin”?

What would be God’s intent in saying to human beings “Don’t ever sin” if he was not prepared with the remedy for man’s choice to sin? Our one-strike you’re out righteousness is a nonstarter. God stands ready to forgive the proverbial 491st sin.

It seems that the prohibition that should matter most now that God is personally with us is “Stop being afraid”. It is the expression that is common with every divine visitation. We slip so often off the highway of love when things we should not fear get the best of us! We don’t ever need to ask where is God where is his love.

By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. 1 John 4:17

It is strange how much of the reflection on the only person authorized to speak for God comes out in our commitment and comments. Words and actions are fashioned after their author. One cannot have a golden life without discarding the old. Looking unto the pioneer of human salvation includes looking away from something.

looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, Hebrews 12:2a
ἀφορῶντες εἰς τὸν τῆς πίστεως ἀρχηγὸν καὶ τελειωτὴν Ἰησοῦν,

Looking away

Looking away to Jesus, considering the theme of Book, namely that all spokespersons lose their grip as Christ speaks (Heb. 1:1-2), must mean that our interest in the previous messengers must change.

ἀφορῶντες, aforôntes, is a compound action. The “af” is a form of “apo“, meaning from, and the second half is the verb the verb orao, I see, I look.

It is also emphatically stated who the target of our look should be.

The of-faith-pioneer Jesus

The of-faith-finisher Jesus

Both of these appellations configure our faith as exclusively Messianic, eclipsing and replacing prophets, just and wise persons. He starts the saving experience and is ready to finish it. He alone introduces us to an effective salvation. Effective because all who have died as faithful witnesses before the saving sacrifice did not taste the kingdom downpayment (recieving Holy Spirit) as do people who have come to faith since Christ died.
Types and carnal ordinances are not of faith. Faith and grace are the prescription for life, Let us be courageous and abandon the glitter and toys (models) of the former arrangement and step boldly with the Way, the Truth, and the Life: the golden treasure we can rely on.

With no general standing up to say we need a wall and with the disgust and depravity of a Chinese and Israeli wall in plain sight the bleached mind linrd up behind the bigot in the White House trot out a crew of skinheads to wave the wall flag.

The entire military ought to have been there with the bigot saying “We need a wall” because these are the people who know defence. Nations that want to surround themselves with walls to keep people out are basically death cults.

Wall barrier shield coming from White men in power can only mean xenophobia and bigotry

Does China want a wall to keep out foreigners or to keep in its superior culture, or is it to keep out foreign influence and foreign products, and what is Israel doing with its “Great Wall”?

Their communities thrive on violence, on making war, and on creating and marketing weapons of war and the tools of larceny, discrimination and deception.

Take a good look at the chlorine (bleached or pale) powers as predicted by Yeshua.

When he opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, Come! And I looked, and behold, a pale horse! And its rider’s name was Death, and Hades followed him. And they were given authority over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by wild beasts of the earth. Rev. 6:7-8

Many of us are in review mode now and if it seems like too much of a challenge it is probably because are having to acknowledge that we were not as eager to review in situ as we are when the movie comes out.

The feast of Gathering (haqqatsir , haqqawtseer) was a time for harvesting and enjoying the fruit of one’s labour. It may seem that this is what we do when new year’s day approaches. End of Year for the people with whom God forged a special relationship was a gathering time. It was a time for the Hebrew to reap, to calculate the yield of the fields, calculate the prescribed portions for the communal pot, and travel to the capital to celebrate. Our world is very different and trying to adopt the Hebrew practice will prove to be prohibitive.

You and I are going to prevail because nothing exists that can change our destiny. There is no condemnation at the centre of our worship and fellowship. The risks we face are perfectly pastoral. The sheep are always going to be at risk, of being assaulted, but the glory of life has a backdrop.

But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. 2Cor 4:7

1. We are afflicted in every way, (2Cor 4:8a)

2. but not crushed; (2Cor 4:8b)

3. perplexed, but not driven to despair; 2Cor 4:8c

4. persecuted, but not forsaken; (2Cor 4:9a)

5. struck down, but not destroyed; 2Cor 4:9b)

THE GLORY (significance) OF LIFE BY CONTRAST

always carrying in the body the death of Jesus,

so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. 2Cor 4:10

For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 2Cor 4:11

Conquerors conquer, and hyper-conquerors squeeze the oil out of every olive.

We Need Hope

God has already charted a path for us in 2019. It is helpful to forget the 75% we might have given ourselves for 2018 and give God an “A” for having his marvellous way with us in spite of our drifting off to sleep on the job and working when we should be sleeping. Hope is enriching for the human race, because without hope we are telling ourselves we have arrived. A better job of 2018 is not happening. One of the enduring lessons I hope to take with me into the new year is that all the popular means of communication have been exposed as easy tools in the hands bad actors. The news (print and digital), the civic grapevine, the Bible, the public service megaphones have all been co-opted.

Pictures do not always mean what we think we see. What we see is often what someone wants us to see.

The writing we do, from day to day, is a golden cord bringing the aroma of life to each other. Writing has outperformed – in effectiveness – the other forms of communication because it is in writing that God assures us of what to hope for, and there we find his unmoveable promises, all chock-full of YEAH and AMEN.