THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD - PART 401

It was for you and me that JESUS died at Calvary. My eyes were opened wide, and I saw His wounded side. Oh yes, it was for me He died at Calvary!

This is the starting point. The point where we must all - each and every one of us - start if we are going to move forward for without the shedding of JESUS' blood, there cannot be any remission of sin. For it was God who is before all things, who laid upon Himself all of our anxiety, cares, and sin.

Yes God is Spirit. The Spirit of God, upon counselling with Himself decided that He was going to show Himself in visible form. As such, God stepped out of the unseen and shows Himself in form. It is evident that God had a plan. We are not here by accident.

In the beginning, God created man as an earthly image of His own spiritual form. And into that earthly form, God breathed the breath of life. As a consequence, man becomes a living soul. But man in his innocence really was easy picking for the devil. Man was perfect in image but he also very gullible believing every lying tongue at the time. For as we know from Genesis, man knew only good.

Fortunately, God knew before man was ever created and put Adam and Eve in the garden, that man was an unfinished work in progress. Yes, admittedly, man was a living soul but that innocent soul life was soon to become a dead soul reducing man to a place that stagnated his growth beyond his present stature. As we read, Adam and Eve disobeyed God and a death sentence was pronounced upon all living souls. For God had decreed that the soul that sins (the sin of disobedience to God’s instructions) would surely die. Adam and Eve were put forth out of the garden entering into a new school of life. That school is what we today might refer to as the ‘School of Hard Knocks’ where all the works of the devil were the norm. But in reality Adam and Eve were total strangers and foreigners in this new other world.

It also meant that their natural productive seed was no longer pure. Sin now inhabited their seed their two sons Cain and Abel were typical examples of a fall from innocence! God was aware of their plight but God has a higher plan for man. Remember, man is a work in progress. As such, God gave a promise that the SEED of a woman would bruise the head of a serpent, the devil’s head. This explains why that promised SEED passed into Seth as presented in the genealogical record scribed in Matthew and Luke.

This new school that they were now registered in however, has never produced 3 month wonders. Indeed, we are all in attendance to this new world being introduced to sin and depravity on a regular basis. In fact, men and women fell so deep into sin that the animals in the barnyard were better behaved. Morality went out the window. Everyone was walking according to his own untutored mind. That is, until the flood came taking them all away. The exception was the eight persons and the animals! As we read in the scriptures, these eight persons entered into the Ark and God CLOSED the door.

Later, Abraham who was called a friend of God and believed God was blessed of Him because of His faith. Apart from Abraham believing in God, Abraham naturally was hardly what one might consider normal. For example, Abraham offered his wife to another person to save himself. Abraham then takes his servant girl and fathers a child with her. Abraham sends the child along with his mother packing. Abraham takes his son, ties him onto an alter, and is about to drive a knife into his son when Melchisedec meets Abraham. When the two meet, Melchisedec blesses him with bread and wine which Melchisedec had in His hands. (In God’s hands is bread and wine. The bread typifying His Life in flesh and the wine typifying His blood.) As we read, Abraham endeavours to add to the blessing by offering money.

What was happening here is that God was giving Abraham a promise that in His SEED (which is Christ the SEED of the Holy Spirit) would all the nations of the earth be blessed. Abraham misinterprets the message, thinking that the promise concerns his natural Adamic seed. Abraham takes a knife and circumcises all his household. Oh Lord, such were some of us who likewise believed, even as Abraham believed but were equally messed up!

But Lord you came, put us upon your shoulders and carried us home which is why believing in God is good. Indeed, it is the SEED of the Holy Spirit - JESUS - who alone can save. He willing shed His blood for us. JESUS the ‘Lamb of God’ was like a sheep before the shearers. Still, the Lord our God opened not His mouth. He came to make a redemptive way and it is He alone who can deliver! The Lord Our Creator has become our Saviour! Let God’s work of redemption usher in the plan of God for our lives. Peace be!