Was Jesus Rich or Poor?

I’ve heard many things regarding the financial status of Jesus when He walked in the earth. 

Those who thought He was rich point to the guards gambling for His clothes—who would gamble for rags? Or the fact that He had a treasurer—would a poor man need someone to watch the money? Or the fact that many rich women supported His ministry, or that He and Joseph had a successful carpentry business before He began His ministry. 

Those who say He was poor say He had nowhere to lay His head—their literal translation of that phrase has Him sleeping on a park bench somewhere, covered in newspaper. Or those who say Mary’s offering for Him as a baby was a poor person’s offering—turtledoves instead of a lamb. 

But the reason I know He was rich was that a curse without cause cannot alight. [Proverbs 26:2] Wealth accompanies righteousness.

Because as many as are the promises of God, IN HIM they are yes [2 Corinthians 1:20] and there is no time limit, either back or forward, in that verse. 

Thoughts on the New Birth [repost]

There’s so much good content from earlier years, I thought I’d start re-posting it. Got lots of good new stuff, too, coming soon!

It seems to me that most of the teaching we as Christians get is God-outside oriented…He’s out there or up there, somewhere, and we need a touch from Him. ‘Oh please pass by, oh please touch us, we need you so…’ etc. etc.

But can we ever do the works that Jesus did, or greater works because He went to the Father until we really grasp the New Birth? That we, the unworthy ones, were actually crucified with Him, buried with Him in baptism, raised up together with Him and seated In Him in heavenly places?

How can we possibly be filled up to all the fullness of God if we don’t understand that there’s only One Spirit in these earthen vessels, and that is the Spirit of the Living God? The Word teaches that we are One Spirit with Him—not two spirits cohabiting the same temple, not the old us with some sort of Divine hitchhiker…as He is so are we in the world! Not as He was—not a prophet functioning under the Old Covenant, but as He is, now, seated at the right hand of God…Hebrews 13 says we’re already there! And the books of Ephesians and Colossians agree!

Lambano

In many of the prayer passages in the Gospel, we are told to ask and we will receive.

Receive is a passive word, implying that we must passively sit by and wait until the answer comes.

But Thayer’s definition of the Greek word lámbanō used in these scriptures is much different. He defines it as an active participation—to take, lay hold of, take possession of, take what is one’s own!

Lambánō

• to take
• to take with the hand, lay hold of, any person or thing in order to use it
• to take up a thing to be carried
• to take upon one's self
• to take in order to carry away, without the notion of violence, i.e. to remove, take away
• to take what is one's own, to take to one's self, to make one's own
• to claim, procure, for one's self
• to associate with one's self as companion, attendant of that which when taken is not let go, to seize, to lay hold of, apprehend
• to take by craft (our catch, used of hunters, fisherman, etc.), to circumvent one by fraud
• to take to one's self, lay hold upon, take possession of, i.e. to appropriate to one's self
• catch at, reach after, strive to obtain
• to take a thing due, to collect, gather (tribute)
• to take
• to admit, receive
• to receive what is offered, not to refuse or reject
• to receive a person, give him access to one's self
• to regard any one's power, rank, external circumstances, and on that account to do some injustice or neglect something
• to take, to choose, select
• to take beginning, to prove anything, to make a trial of, to experience
• to receive (what is given), to gain, get, obtain, to get back

Decree

 ‘You will also decree a thing, and it will be established for you; and light will shine on your ways.’ [Job 22:28]

A decree is an order, edict, or command by someone in authority.

For comfort, strength and power, decree these over your situation, and remember…if you are in Christ, you’ve been made the righteousness of God in Him, and there is NOW no condemnation for you! [2 Corinthians 5:21, Romans 8:1]

God is FOR Us!

This article has been updated from the original…

Try to remember that GOD IS FOR US!

The next time your hear a fear-based word in your ear [or screamed from a pulpit] that tells you why He may not help you this time, why it may not be His will to heal/deliver/bless, why sometimes the answer is NO, try to remember what the Word says.

‘Therefore there is now NO CONDEMNATION for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.’

 ‘What then shall we say to these things? If GOD IS FOR US, who is against us?

‘He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him FREELY GIVE US ALL THINGS?

 ‘Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.

‘Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Just as it is written, "FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE BEING PUT TO DEATH ALL DAY WE WERE CONSIDERED AS SHEEP TO BE SLAUGHTERED."

 ‘But in all these things we OVERWHELMINGLY CONQUER through Him who LOVED us.’ [Romans 8:1,2, 31-37]

Please note: God did not cause the tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril or sword…He made us conquerors over these things!

The Father Within [revised]

Wait a minute...I might have just seen something amazing here!

'"Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works."' [John 14:10]

 'Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.' [John 14:23]

'Now to Him Who is able to do FAR MORE ABUNDANTLY BEYOND ALL THAT WE ASK OR THINK, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.' [Ephesians 3:20,21]

Yes, it's true. The Father is within, and He works through us, just like He did through Jesus. We are One Spirit with the Lord! [1 Corinthians 6:17]

And what are those works? Words…the Father within works by words!

Resurrected!

I know I’ve re-posted this a couple of years in a row, but I read it over and just can’t improve on it!

It is Easter, and our thoughts turn toward Calvary once more.

As you meditate on the wonder of the crucifixion, burial and resurrection of Jesus, consider this: the Word clearly teaches that we were crucified with Him!

What!?!
Paul states in Galatians 2:20 that "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself up for me."

Romans 6:6 confirms this: "...knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin."

These are wonderful quantum verses. 2000 years ago, we were crucified with Christ! And not just crucified...buried with Him in baptism [Colossians 2:12] and raised up with Him, and seated with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus! [Ephesians 2:6]

The Door of Your Lips

Your lips—your mouth, your tongue, your words—are a door!

'Set a guard, O Lord, over my MOUTH; keep watch over the DOOR OF MY LIPS.' [Psalm 141:3]

A door? A door to what? A door, or gate, to your life!

'Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.' [Proverbs 18:21]

Oh, my. How about this?

'But you will CALL your walls salvation, and your GATES PRAISE.' [Isaiah 60:18]

Keys of the Kingdom

Originally written in 2009 and re-posted several times, now expanded and revised…

"I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven." [Matthew 16:19]

I always wondered about the tenses in this verse. The phrase 'shall have been' is a future perfect tense in Greek and stumped me, until I understood the implications from a Quantum Physics point of view.

Reality?
Einstein is often quoted as saying 'Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.' We know that there is much discussion about the past, present and future residing in parallel, and that there is no time or space in the Spirit.

I think Jesus was confirming this. What we bind [or forbid] on earth shall have been bound [already] in heaven...what we loose [or allow] on earth shall have been bound [already] in heaven. These are definitely quantum ideas.

Far More Abundantly

 ‘Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.’ [Ephesians 3:20,21]

God is ABLE to do exceeding abundantly beyond all WE CAN ASK OR THINK!!!!

I always thought that meant He is able but He may not be willing.

The point is not whether He will or not but that He is ABLE, or MIGHTY, to do what WE ask or think—WE are the point, not His willingness! He makes His willingness known in preceding verses!

‘...that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.’ [Ephesians 3:16-19]

Now that’s willing!