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12 Minutes Reason with these next few words to begin to understand on a panoramic level. Again I say, God is love. And love is over faith and hope and reason. Love never fails, but faith will one day be unnecessary, as it will be turned to sight, and hope will be realized and be unneeded after that. Love, on the other hand, will sustain throughout eternity. Yet as the seed of God, our faith is vitally important, for through faith comes our being as the Word. And our faith is as the object of that word...it is Jesus. We fix our eyes on Jesus, who is the author and perfector of faith. The power of faith, then, is not on its own merits, for faith is temporary. Rather, the power of faith is in the One who began the faith and who will complete the faith. Because He is trustworthy, the faith itself is an assurance, an argument for and the evidence of things not seen. Love is greater than both faith and hope. We couldn't live our lives without faith or hope: without faith, we cannot know the God of love; without hope, we would not endure in our faith until we meet him face to face. But in spite of the importance of faith and hope, love is even more crucial. Without love, there can be no redemption. Love is what determined God the Father to send His only Son to die for us. Thus, love is the virtue upon which all faith and hope now stand in Christ – the supreme act of sacrificial love. And we, as His seed, send our roots down into the depths of the love of Christ, the love of God that we may comprehend it. Not by standing aside and merely observing it, but by rooting our lives in it. Drinking it up. Savoring it. Depending on it. Taking some risks on the basis of it. God is producing a character in us that in every way all ways will please Him. We are becoming like strong trees planted by streams of water that go on bearing fruit, even in the time of drought. Are we ready to see?? What must we have, to come and reason with God? Faith! And we please God when we come by faith to reason with Him and that faith is our earthly pursuit. Once we are united with the One who has created us in His Image, some needs will simply vanish once we leave this world. We come to reason with God to gain understanding for a cause, an explanation, or justification for an idea, a thought, an action, or event. We come to think, to understand, and to form judgments by a process of sensibleness and soundness based upon His truth as He gives us wisdom to know His purpose. Reasoning helps us deliberate about the consequences of our doing life as we sift evidences that our conclusions may be in the will of God. With that, let the Holy Spirit construct higher truth for our learning. What does it mean to move beyond reasoning? Realizing the eternal consequences of our faith. Faith and reason are compatible, but some things are strictly a matter of faith. There is something about our experience as the seed of God in our inner life that gives us the deepest reason to believe in God, to have an eternal faith that ends with the appearing of Jesus. How can something eternal end? Faith comes by hearing and hearing by Jesus, the Word of God. He is our eternal evidence and when we see him will we believe it is him? He is whom we have heard in all our reasoning. Jesus is the beginning, the progress, and the strength of faith that comes by hearing. The word of God is therefore the word of faith. God is love and must transcend faith and reason. And both faith and reason are gifts of God. Or we can say are gifts of love. Neither to be slighted. But nothing is to reduce what pleases God and that is faith. And faith will conclude truth transcendently beyond reason. And it is in Christ that we find this planted rationality as his seed. Jesus tells us things before they happen so that when they happen we believe. Oh, we of no faith. If we believe that Jesus is God then what he says already is! Let me get to the point. Reason alone is untenable. It needs faith to declare it as truth. And it is God’s love and our love for God that impels us to act in the reasoning of the truth of His word by faith. Our Creator stepped out of eternity and was incarnated into humanity, only to be crucified as a propitiation for our sins and that He did it out of self-sacrificing, self-denying love is to accept a concept existing in a realm where reason itself simply cannot reach without faith. The sacrificial atonement of Christ, who suffered the second death in our stead, is not the kind of truth that one can find from reason alone. Reason in and of itself can take us far in the quest for truth but it won’t take us to Golgotha. That event determined in counsel is beyond us. It is based upon a kind of love that looks like God. Who has seen God? I tell you God’s love looks like Jesus. It is His Word, and that Word is to be the seed in us that makes us so like him that we be as he is. And here is where we reason to evidence the faith of our love for God. We cannot anymore do sin...if we are His seed. This is our assertion to the life of Jesus. Brothers and sisters, friends and strangers, the salvation event is radical! It was designed with deep-seated, profound, uncompromising love. It ain’t a thing to play with. The other side to reckon with is sin. If there was no sin, salvation would not have been necessary. To manifest being a child of God, to remain being a child of God, we, if God’s seed remain in us, cannot sin. And that does it. We move beyond reason to evidence our faith because we not only love God, but we love one another. I John 3:1-11 Verse 5 is understandable because Jesus is the ‘only Son’ who came from the Father who sent him. The remaining texts are ejaculatory articulations of divine involvement and enablement of the seed, between being born again and the day of judgment. These statements create the impression to compare the status of the children of God with that of the Son of God. Is our faith truthfully founded upon the evidence that when Jesus comes we will be like him? It is through reason that we are to investigate these things that we may resolve the truth of them that our faith is of Jesus and our obedience to cease from sin changes the conditional “if you love me” to “because you love me” keep my commandments. “If” is conditional. “Because” is the stating of a truth. How deep is the seed of God planted in our life? We must be a community not torn apart by doctrinal differences. God’s principles, instructions, and revelations are to resolve any matter of discord when faith is centered in His every word. Not just the word you want to hear, but in the preceptualization of every word that things to be understood may be truthfully regarded. Let no one think they have illumination above ordinary morality except it be in the light of the word of God. It is not God’s people who claim to be without sin. It is faith in the word of God that says if His seed remains in us, we cannot sin. And if we are born again, we have godly sorrow that brought repentance for sin and if we are His seed we will not sin, and having faith in hearing the word, says now we are the sons of God because of the love He bestows upon us, and He has taken away our sins. In this the divinity of Christ minimizes our humanity as we experience fellowship with God. We have assurance of the indwelling of God through our abiding relationship with Him, through His Son Jesus Christ. He has, therefore, given us His written word to show us the pattern of His Son that we might build this temple according to what He reveals to us...the perfect holiness of His Son. The latter truth spoken by God in the Garden is now before us, “the seed” of Christ. And the beast, that seed of the serpent dragon, knowing that he was thwarted in his every attempt to destroy “the seed” turns his wrath against those men and women all over the world, who keep the commandments of God. The reason the dragon must make war with the remnant of her seed, is to cause them to die. Especially those refusing to worship his image which is being installed in the minds of the wicked. God’s seed will have to endure the sorrowful twinge at the edge of a memory of what would have been had sin never been. For believers, the combined taste of joy and sorrow is a familiar one. It’s the taste we live with every day in this fallen world. Even on days where we experience deep joy, there’s always the accompanying flavor of sorrow. And then on those days where we experience profound sorrow, there’s always joy right there in the midst of it. Our sorrow comes from an awareness that things are not what they should be. There’s sorrow over the fallenness of this world, it’s depth and breadth. There’s sorrow because we know how things began and what happened to bring us to this place of brokenness. There’s sorrow over how the curse of sin affects the world around us and that of our own hearts. There’s sorrow over how the fall comes to bear in our individual life through conflict, illness, heartache, and loss. There’s sorrow over injustice, tragedy, abuse, and death. There is sadness in the spiritual path. And yet there will be buoyant joy in the knowledge that the last day trials are only for the moment. God’s willing sadness and joy given us is mingled together. We acknowledge its presence as we move into so great a cloud of witnesses claiming God’s promise. There is no one who is a greater picture of this astounding effect of joy and pain than Jesus. He is called the man of sorrows. He bore the weight of the pain of this world and looked to the joy set before Him, the redemption of all things. We will remember His intent and purposeful pleasure in structuring our lives in His divine pattern. We will sin no more in perfect obedience to all of God’s commands and we will bear the testimony of our faith in Jesus Christ. We are the true spiritual seed of the woman, the remnant of her seed. We have learned to accept Christ’s righteousness instead of trying to establish our own. And we will overcome by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of our testimony and some even by a victorious martyr’s death. Revelation 12:11 The passage of time will be but a solo moment as faith sees across the portal to the roundest, fullest happiness which will never fade, filling the everlasting ages with His praise. Jesus is God’s opposition to sin. His appearance was for the offering as us in him and him in us. We have faith that we are children of God enlivened by the activity of the Spirit. And that is the metaphor of ‘the seed of God’ being analogous to ‘being born of God’. The content of our faith must be pregnant in this, that Jesus is the Son of God, and as such we are paralleled with his prayer in John 17. We have no excuse, no reason to sin. God the Father sends His Son into the world to give to those who believe in the Son, eternal life, enabling them to be sons and daughters. Jesus is the essential forgiveness as the atoning sacrifice for our sin bringing us to be sons and daughters of God. The Holy Spirit becomes the guiding influence in our life. We become the seed principle of the Holy Spirit. And then it is only through faith that we receive God’s light of salvation and be born into the family of God giving us life ‘through’ him and continuously ‘in’ him. His seed is His salvific event reasoned by faith in the beginning of His love.

13 Minutes This outstanding truth must be taken to expect what God says will happen in God’s particular way, and do not think about any possible problems or difficulties that could hinder His providence. Accept His every truth without question, without objection. The seed signifies the principle of spiritual life as imparted to the believer, which abides in him without possibility of removal or extinction. I John 3:9 Declaring anything less is a denial of God’s provision through the death of Christ. The truth is boldly proclaimed, plainly stated, and never doubted, that every true believer has been given God’s gift of spirit. This is how we are one body, and our oneness comes from that truth, from that Word, from Christ. If you are still thinking with your natural mind, you are lessening the power and effectiveness of the new birth.We are to have a God-glorifying understanding of being born again. The basic truth that we should seriously consider is that the seed, the spirit in us, is perfect, permanent, and with potential. We are blessed with spiritual blessings. Either you are or you’re not. Is this a choice or is this an act of faith in God’s word? The word is to have permanence in our life. We are not born again by man’s seed. That which caused us to be born again, is the Word of God that is imperishable, living, abiding, and lasting forever. And as a result, that is who we are. We are forever. And what is it to believe this? The hope of glory, Christ in us. The picture is complete. God’s sovereign act in the beginning put our hope in Him as His seed. Think about what God does for us in Christ Jesus. Ephesians 3:17-19 Filled with all the fulness of God far exceeds the measure of faith given. This must be wholly reasoned with spirituality. For the fullness of God is the totality of everything God is: His attributes, His character, His perfection, His holiness, His power, His love, it’s His image, His likeness. The fullness of God is His complete nature; it is who He is. We thank God that this is the prayer of the writer and not a declaration of station. None can fully comprehend it because in its full extent it surpasses knowledge. The fulness of God is unknowable by finite minds. How can we know it? Though the love of Christ may be better perceived and known by his true seed than it generally is by those who will not remain, yet it cannot be fully understood on this side of heaven. Being filled with the fulness of God is a high expression. If it was not written in scripture, we should never use it. Let’s understand it not of His fulness as God is in Himself, but of His fulness as a God who is in a covenant relationship with us, as a God to His people. Let’s think of it as a fulness that God is ready to bestow, as He is the One who is willing to fill us all to the utmost of our capacity as we are in conformity with Him. Think about it...we are that seed in bodily form. And, it is in that truth that we powerfully affirm the fact that Jesus is God. The fulness of God is found in Christ. And we are his seed and as such that fulness is in us...but only as we are in Christ and Christ is in us. Colossians 2:9, 10 We know how faith comes...and because we know that is the truth of God, we know that no word of God is mere propaganda, but an awesome truth. God really does want to fill His creation with seed of Himself. Beings whose life will be qualitatively like His own, not because He has any fascination with us, but because our wills freely conform to His. God is performing a good work in us. Why would we not want to so reason with God as to intricately, even tortuously, eliminate the mindful distractions of the human surmising with the word to have constant streams of meditative thought brought forth by the Holy Spirit. Our sufficiency is of God. If we are Christ’s seed, then why do we not believe what God says about us? Why do we still have subpar faith in His word? Maybe we should begin writing down in our mind what the word says and means to us. We don’t have any problem reading the word, but our natural mind wanders in doubt and is in some degree in unbelief. This is due to the word being spiritual and the flesh mind being not. Imagine not believing Genesis 3:15. Could you do what you don’t believe? The seed of God believes not only with the mind and the heart...God’s seed believes with the mouth. Speaking truth accomplishes what pleases God. Isaiah 55:11 God will have a seed that is so faithful, and faith is so absolutely needed to be so obedient, that we will speak the truth despite opposition and in the image and likeness of God will be so like Jesus, that we will be spared the experience of death. We will do as Jesus did. Point blank...it is impossible to please God without faith. Not difficult, not able to achieve, not without reservation...it is impossible. John 8:29 When the Holy Spirit says that a thing is impossible, it is so in a very absolute sense. Do not attempt the impossible. For only with God are all things possible. So, to rush upon an impossibility is madness. We must not hope to please God by any invention of our own, however clever, nor by any labor of our own, however ardent; since infallible inspiration declares that, without faith it is impossible to please God. The man Cain was accepted by God, but what the man did, because it was done without faith, did not please God. If one shows to be your enemy, what faith do you have in them? When the word of God, which performed creation, is not enough for any to rest upon, they may pretend what they will of righteousness and obedience, but when the want of faith creates variance, God can take no pleasure in it. When we come to God we must believe He is, in every position He assumes. God is pleased with us when we are pleased with God and all His doings. By pleasing God we shall become the means of good to others: our example will rebuke and stimulate; our peace will convince and invite. This is what God would have me do, and I will do it in joyful fellowship with others, or alone by myself, as the case may be; but do it I must, if I be the seed of God. Now, to more intimately express the Holy Spirit’s involvement as the ultimate author of truth, knowing that nothing has its origin in man, we must hear the power of the voice in the whisper of the roaring thunder. We ask God to prepare us for truth...let us come to the truth of the spiritual essence of what it is to be the seed of God. Our focus is on Jesus and His Word above all else. We trust that the Bible has all the answers and truths we need to live a holy and pleasing life before God knowing that we don’t need anything beyond what God has provided for us in His Word.All scripture is sacred and not to be tampered with. Hear the Word, not the man. Do not hear what the word of God does not say. The bible is not just a book, it is the ultimate authority of God. In it we find description and instruction for life, for faith. The bible tells us that God’s thoughts are higher than our thoughts, for we cannot know nor see what He can know and can see, because He is God, and He knows all things and He sees all things. That is easy for us to reason in our minds, but to abandon our steadfastness of mind requires a faith that says none of us have seen salvation, yet we have the evidence of it in the reality of Jesus Christ in whom we eagerly await. He is also the evidence of the hope that saves us which we cannot see. Romans 8:24, 25

12 Minutes This seed becomes the kingdom of God which slept, slumbered, but rises up to propagate intentional acts of faith to cultivate selected fruit to harvest from with those same traits of character. Our Lord chose to compare the way His Word works to a seed. There is a germination process of the Word of God in our life that takes time and can’t be avoided. God has given us a job to plant the seed of truth of the word. None are able to cause that seed to grow, it is only God Who gives the growth. This is our experience as the nature of the seed is to grow...to grow in the love of God. We don’t study the word of God with the thought that, O’ I know this, or I have read or heard about this many times before. We seek the growth into the full corn in the ear as we still study and reason further that we not miss any precious life sustaining and fruit nurturing ingredients. This so that we do not randomly sow scripture in our hearts out of ignorance. God is love, Jesus is called the Word because he declares God in every utterance. He is that essential wisdom that is thought. And it is thought that gives conception to every operation. There is nothing we are more sure of than that we think, yet nothing we are more in the dark about than how we think; who can declare the creation of thought. This is why we cannot fathom the eternal mind but we so adore the depth, the height, the unreachableness of its omniscience. The Word is the Being that never began. He is the essence and substance of the distinct Person of God. And we are his seed. There are many desert places where reason and truth may settle when blown by “the Wind”. May our righteousness be that infusion which makes fertile the land. When we grasp and comprehend the revelation of His love in His Word with the help of the Holy Spirit, that is the seed which indeed sows the fulfillment of God’s promises, God’s purposes as we scatter the word that gathers. We expect to harvest an orchard of generous love when our love makes another feel loved. Now the depth of our utterances must find deep root in the truth. Not only to bring forth blades, but trees. Those who are now his seed are being strengthened in him as they suffer such incomprehensible grief of seeing other seed dampening off because of the soil-borne fungi. This seed was not deep enough in the word. It was subject to becoming a natural offspring of the world. These have not the full understanding of the most protuberant affliction to ever come upon the world...sin. Sin is the most serious thing man will ever deal with. Sin is a spiritual virus that invades the whole being. It's a deadly disease that infects every part of the human: our body, our mind, our emotions, our relationships, our motives...absolutely everything. We don't have the strength on our own to overcome its power. Sin is inherited, it is blood borne, it is contagious. What makes it so? Whosoever rejects the healthiness of truth suffers from the worse form of cancer - apostate cancer. It can only be diagnosed with the word of God. It is the cause of all trouble, the root of all sorrow. All have this terminal disease. How is it that sin is both transgression and disease? Romans 8:2 We, every one of us, needs a cleaning and the blood of Christ is the great cleansing cure. With this truth we come to reason why the enmity and “the seed” are the cure. We who are that unique and privileged seed among the nations, determined and chosen, are the blessed seed due to our proximity to Christ, being born again by the word, by the water, through the blood of Christ. The storyline of scripture reveals how the historical figures in the bible bear witness to the coming Christ by faith. In scripture, all things are directed towards him, and so only as we are made perfect by faith in him, do God’s people find their blessing, as children of Abraham, as the seed of the woman. There’s a reason the last day seed is that peculiar people. It has the spirit of Christ, a spirit of full consecration to the Lord, and separateness from the world and its selfish aims. It is peculiar in its adherence to the Word of the Lord as its only law, the basis of all truth, of all reason. It is peculiar in that it rejects worldly wisdom when it conflicts with the divine revelation of God. It is peculiar in that it is in the world, but not of the world. It is peculiar in that it has a decided faith and acts in harmony with its faith, and with zeal. It is peculiar in that it is self-sacrificing and knows no will but the will of its Creator God. It is peculiar in that it knows the truth and is able to give a reason for the hope within, while others merely speculate and wonder and doubt. It is peculiar because it avoids strife and contentions, except where principles are involved; and even when contending earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints, this seed has been entrusted with the great work of blessing all the families of the earth, and bringing them to the knowledge of the Lord, and into harmony, if they will, with the new covenant sealed by the precious blood of Jesus Christ. It is peculiar because it is determined to overcome. Jesus is the seed. Jesus is the Word. The first prophecy pointing to the last things declares that we are his seed...we are his word. His seed had to be planted in us before conception could take place giving us our born again nature. And God controls the law of seedtime and the harvest. God holds special regards for His last day people. This seed has special characteristics that will show as did that tender plant that is “the seed”. Isaiah 53:2; 11:1 Romans 9:27-29 The “seed” reflects back to the “remnant”. The seed resembles the original. When we reason with God’s prophecy, we should give ourselves fully to the work of finding our lost brothers and sisters, as our Father does. He is gathering. We should also love the seed of the woman, be patient with them, and humble ourselves, so we can walk the path of faith tandemly. We resemble and imitate Christ in life and inherit his characteristics. When we have these characteristics, we are called the “seed of God”, “the children of God. We are endowed with the very life of Christ. I Corinthians 6:17 We must be Word minded, meditating on it to be continually planting seed from scripture. It is a simple but profound truth that we are to do. If we are God’s Word, we have a distinct part to play... Romans 10:14, 17 No one can experience the new birth unless they have read in the Word of God who He is or if they be of those who are convinced of His existence as Supreme enough to lead them to their chief end and the glorifying of Him. The God of nature imprinted common natural notions upon the contemplative hearts of those who knew not the Word, but that they had a sense of Deity and the regard and reason to know that this Deity made distinguishment between them and lesser creatures. By this way they knew the invisible things of God as He was not the object of their sense, but these things were sensible as a work of creation. They could not come by natural light to the knowledge of the three Persons in the Godhead, but they did come to at least so much knowledge as was sufficient to keep them from idolatry. This was that truth which they held in their understanding. The plant grows by receiving that which God has provided to sustain its life, whether visible or invisible but that it is available and the part they must play in its reception is the determined faith. That part is to believe what God’s Word declares, and is acted upon, then the Father places His imperishable seed within the person and they become a child of God. As the seed builds up energy it enlarges and breaks through the ground to compliment God’s generosity and grace in giving the water of the Holy Spirit and the Light of the Son and the miracle of life. It is the seed’s confession of being raised from the dead. I Peter 1:23

11 Minutes One thing was made most certain in God’s dealing with the situation that occurred in the Garden. Satan’s judgment was fixed. He knows there will be a deathblow. Satan would have this eternal dread hanging over him that with the birth of every male child this could be the very one who would be his end. And Adam and Eve heard it as they all stood before God. At the time of the giving of this promise no child had been born to Adam and Eve.They learned of their generations to follow. Adam and Eve were so impressed with the message of hope that they reinforced it in the minds of their children and their children passed it on from generation to generation. This is the first prophecy of Jesus. It is impossible to see the fulfillment of this promise without reflecting on and seriously considering the Word of God. Isaiah 7:14 Luke 1:30-35 Because of Adam’s sin this would be completely impossible without a wonder from God. SOP - There is not, and cannot be, a natural enmity between fallen angels and fallen humans. Both are evil. Through apostasy both cherish evil sentiments. Wicked angels and wicked people are leagued in a desperate confederacy against the good. Satan knew that if he could induce the human race, as he had induced angels, to unite with him in his rebellion, he would have a strong force with which to carry on his rebellion. {CTr 28.3} In the hosts of evil there is jarring and discord, but they are all firm allies in fighting against heaven. Their one aim is to disparage God, and their great numbers lead them to entertain the hope that they will be able to dethrone Omnipotence. {CTr 28.4} When Adam and Eve were placed in the Garden of Eden, they were innocent and sinless, in perfect harmony with God. Enmity had no natural existence in their hearts. But when they transgressed, their nature was no longer sinless. They became evil, for they had placed themselves on the side of the fallen foe, doing the very things that God specified they should not do. Had there been no interference on the part of God, fallen humans would have formed a firm alliance with Satan against heaven. But when the words were spoken, “I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel,” Satan knew that although he had succeeded in making human beings sin, although he had led them to believe his lie and to question God, although he had succeeded in depraving human nature, some arrangement had been made whereby the beings who had fallen would be placed on vantage ground, their nature renewed in godliness. He saw that his actions in tempting them would react upon himself, and that he would be placed where he could not become conqueror. . . . {CTr 28.5}. God shall see His seed...and only God can bring forth beauty from death...it is He that can make us new. God’s Word is itself a divine action. For us to come to God reasonably it is vital to see how God’s earlier revelation prepares the way for His latter purposes. If we consider that God stands outside of time and created all things for the purpose of putting them under His Son’s feet, then we must study the Bible as one unified but unfolding plan of God’s will, God’s providence, God’s determination. We must put together the fact that the One God has related to His people in divergent ways. The study of last things reasoned in the most crucial verse in the Bible shows God’s purpose in the first sermon prophecy of Jesus’ sacrifice to redeem his people. The whole of scripture is packed into every word of this verse. And we may allowably and reasonably expect every scripture to prepare and make room for the truth deliberately creating the fulfillment of God’s covenant in this single verse. It was the establishment of the covenant of grace. It establishes the principle that runs throughout the word, creating an expectation of not only “this seed” being actively opposed to sin but showing the intense hostility that will come in the very end between those born by the sperm and those born of the Spirit. This verse establishes a cosmic explanation for the disorder of the world: Satan’s work begins on earth. It even shows us God’s attitude toward Satan. God doesn’t call Lucifer Satan by name, He through inspiration insinuates the depraved character of the fallen angel by speaking to the instrument of his use, the serpent. This being done to discount the notion of Satan being capable of contending in power against God. He is just a representative of evil having a high aptitude for the element of deception. Satan is not the opposite of God. Nothing can be the opposite of God. God is not bound by anything. There is no tomorrow for God. There is no yesterday. There is only ‘now’. He is right now at the creation of the world, right now at the crucifixion, right now at the end of this age. Right now. Why do people give this adversary recognition. God is all- powerful, everywhere present, and all-knowing. Satan is none of these. He does not have unlimited power, he cannot be everywhere at once, and he does not know everything. He is a created, limited being. He depends upon God for his existence. Without God's permission, Satan is not able to do anything. He cannot create or search the human heart. Therefore the conflict between God and Satan is not really a struggle between two great equal and opposing powers with the outcome still in doubt. All power and authority belong to God and Him alone. This adversary morphs from the serpent to the great red dragon and because he has read the bible, he knows his eventual future end. The principle of the victory of the kingdom of God over the kingdom of darkness is established from the beginning. Let there be light. Last things are purposed. God’s prophecy already declared triumph. The enmity premise will be of such a devious nature that true hatred will be concealed until the first human crime. That one act will set the temperament for those who think to please God in their way as opposed to His way, by their words and works, rather than through obedience to His commands as reasoned in His revelations. Unpleasant feelings are created which subsequently generate the enmity. But in this prophecy God promises a Savior and at what cost to Him and the whole of creation. Pause to consider the significance of the price God paid. God gave the life of the Creator to pay the penalty for us. Nothing else would have been sufficient. The cost would have been paid even for one human being. God reasoned that with this payment it was not merely adequate to meet the cost of one person's redemption, but is so great it satisfies the cost for all the sins of the whole of mankind for all time! This One was the Only One who could be exactly as is God. This One is more than life. This One is the very source of all life. God’s glory, majesty, and exaltation is greater than life itself. No matter what happens, God is greater than life! How can we understand God’s sorrow? How can we not love Him with all our heart, and with all our soul, and with all our might, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength, with all our mind. Considering the spiritual perspective, so, what is man...? If we are not moved with compassion for the hurting, the lost, then we need to pray for God to remove our heart of stone and give us the heart of Jesus. He tells us of the earth mother of His Son and those who are in Christ, and how in enemy occupied territory His plan of redemption is worked out within the context of the assurance of victory, rather than the prospect of defeat. We are to be equipped and ready for battle, but with the certainty that the decisive battle with the enemy has already taken place and has been won. We teach this passage as the reasoned truth, as the first evidence of God’s unfathomable love for man. Genesis 3:15 A seed has all the ingredients of what it will be when fully grown. This is to be our faith, our trust in God’s promise to have everything we need to be completely godly and fully effective as His servant. It was after this promise was given that Satan engaged in a relentless but futile effort to destroy the ancestral line of the coming “seed” and then to kill the Christchild himself. In the garden and on the cross, Jesus saw each of us, and therefore the Savior’s atonement in the garden and on the cross is intimate as well as infinite. Infinite in that it spans the eternities. Intimate in that the Savior felt every person’s pains, remorse, desire for, or lack of repentance, sufferings, and sicknesses. Under what time and circumstances will he see us? It was after the cross that Jesus’ seed was prominently germinated. Dormancy was its condition since the Garden. It was in the state of suspended animation until conditions were right for its coming forth to grow in the fullness of time. It is the blood of Christ that anchors the root of the seed as the water of the Holy Spirit is absorbed whereby the seed emerges up into the rising of the Son. The seed struggles to break through that which is the dust of the ground. And the air of life gives the seed resilience to the environment. This “seed” is that of God. Mark 4:26-32

25 Minutes Let the word of the One who is love tell us what love is. As God guides me in this writing, I so want you to know that I so want to love you as God wants us to love one another...and so I lay my love down at your feet as I attempt to show us what love is. Just the idea of love makes it the most powerful word of creation. It is an ideal that we must strive toward. It literally, emotionally, ideally, and spiritually commands intimate faithfulness. Love has no conflict because it is an enduring choice. It requires understanding of and being for the other person more than for ourselves. The challenge to all of us is to love others as part of our love of God and for God. “Of”, relates to something coming from the original, from the cause. “For”, shows a purpose. To bear the weight of this great word is critical in that we cannot ignore the sheer scale by which we fine it difficult to grasp God’s love for us. Love is a deep understanding of God which betokens an ultimate togetherness of our commitments and directions. We lose the inner meaning of love when we think about our feelings and feel about our thoughts. Love is not all feeling nor is emotion its core. Emotions are basic drives that often summarize areas of reflection and judgment which we crystallize in a certain way that lessens the written word. Emotions locate feelings in the subconscious, out of which it comes to conscious life. Feelings reflect our past, our views, our motives, faith, our understanding of ourselves which makes recognizing love a complicated task. What love does is remove such contradictions as good or ill, truth or lie, in our thinking and atttitudes. Love is to be bound up to thought and action as the whole response to truth. Any falsity in any relationship, human to human, human to divine, is deviation from principle. Love is a powerful experience of dependance upon God. It is a powerful motive to examine yourself and to search the openness and transparency of a spiritual relationship with others. The fulness of our humanness unites to the divine sharing of ourselves without fear. Love can look anything in the face and respond with care, hope and faith. We live in God’s creation as He has created us. Love is the wonder of being face to face with God and seeing the awe-filled beauty of who we are. We are not alone. Love is conditionally responsive...”if you love me keep”...”he who loveth God love his brother also”. God’s love is central to the bigger truth. And that bigger truth is that love gives significant consequence to the life of every person and their relationships. Love has its origin with God and goes beyond our weaknesses and is the underlying reality of all our lives. Love is the norm by which God commands us to live in our relationships with one another and with Him. Here is the hard side of the truth of love. The reliability of the words by which it is expressed must be insistent on the need for uprightness before God meaning that this love does not die on our failings. It outlasts our pettiness and comes through our failures. This point is completely basic...love is given by God, reflects the character of God, is written in the creation of God and is exemplified by the conquering commitment of love in Jesus’ life despite the sorrow that we subjected him to. Love, and I pray you know what it is, can move us beyond fallible human relationships. It is evident that love has power to image us not as objects of worship, but as an exclusive creation of God. Psalms 82:6 John 10:34 We are to have the kind of love that we can trust. The kind that recognizes and abides through our weaknesses, through our sin. That love cannot be disillusioned, because in principle it has no weakness, no sin. The prime conception of love is as our duty. Our duty to obedience to every word of God. Our duty to faithfulness to every way of God, in all circumstances. Our duty to doing the will of God as reasoned and guided by His Word. This duty dissociates us from emotion, from feelings. It means giving priority to others, putting the needs and problems of others before our own, whereby we receive innner strength. Know of what source this inner strength is derived. Remember when Martha chided Mary. Jesus’ love commended Mary for her commitment to learning and at the same time allowed Martha to cool down. Jesus refused to allow his disciples to be censored for picking grain on Sabbath. Jesus loved people where they were. Even those he rebuked. He loved a prostitute. He loved a leper. He loved a thief on a cross. His love was tested in straightforward ways. Jesus is our central truth in God and is always able to relativize our performance to our circumstances and situations. As we seek an open loving heart and sincere commitment to one another in Jesus, God so loves us. Love is a matter of knowledge, of understanding, of reasoning, of wisdom, love is a matter of will, to do that which is the determination of God. Love is founded in having a right conduct and carrying it out as an act of the mind. Love is the power contained within, that is only relevant when it is given as our whole self. Deep within this meaning of love is the idea of being good enough to be loved. This vulnerability is because the measurement standard is not Jesus Christ. Too many are aware of things about themselves which they “feel” make them unworthy of love. God treats the past as justified in Christ. Let nothing paralyse the ability that God gives you to love and to be loved. The things you cannot talk about to anybody, talk about with God. Your love is of such value to God that He gave His only Son who was willing to come as you are. You are inestimably valuable. You will not fail in your love. And in Christ, you will learn to love better. Ask God to give you a new heart. Do not ration out love. Give, as was given you. Love is not to have an agenda separate from the fulfillment of the law. Galatians 5:14 Our hope is to move into the enjoyment of God’s love which is not an individual act of the will, but encompasses the whole relationship in grace. This begins with the undeserving commitment of God to us as persons. As Jesus took his disciple through the many failures to love and give, we too may take that journey. It validates our response to God to love one another however pathetic are our present abilities. These relationships penetrate deep, locking us into individual performance, keeping our focus open instead of self-regarding. There will be times your love will suffer for good. You will mourn for the ones you know are troubled in spirit. Your heart pains will drive you to your very knees. But you have a joy that is God-given. And you hang on to the God Who gives it, not the joy “itself”. It is those who truly love God and one another who experience joy. Joy is at God’s disposal as a fruit of His Spirit working in our lives. It is not a possession we can claim for ourselves. The big challenge for all of us is therefore whether we work at our own agenda of happiness, or whether we open up our lives to God and to the provisions of His love. Then it is that the richness of those with whom we live becomes evident and blesses us. God knows better what and how to bless us. Jesus loves us so much that he desires to live with us for life. Love, as God’s intent for love to be, offers deep communion. Bible truth shows that we are created, we are born again to grow in relationships which express who we are. We can be ourselves before God in solitude, but we are to love one another in communion. This is no illusion. The heart of the matter is whether in God’s hand we are willing to be shaped to commune with. What a most generous act...to give love to another. Christ did this, and in doing so, God bought us with a price. And he is ours, and we are his. He’s our Song of Songs. God’s love is the very ground of our existence. This truth reinterprets us as God’s care invested in His creation. His love is direct, personal, open and unmanipulative, and can be seen in every way of Jesus. The sheer transforming vitality of his love is amazing. A woman, kissing and crying upon his feet and drying them with her hair. One who touched the “him of his garment”, a rich little man in a tree, a deaf and dumb person whose friends brought him to Jesus, one at a well who could not contain her joy, and the children who were made well by him. Let us be encouraged ever to show love. And to those who know not what they do...Father forgive them. Love for God opens up our hearts with longings for the revelations of the patterns of purposes concealed in His truths. In this we come to the spirituality of love. The recognition that there is something more to being human than sensory experience, and that the greater whole of which we are part is divine in nature. In our communion with God, we achieve and manifest higher levels of development than the ordinary person. The greatest of those levels is love. We have a surer faith in Christ in knowing to God we have worth, and a capacity for love and generosity, that opens our hearts to essential and true spirituality. God’s word not only reaches spiritual highs but renders the truth that Jesus was touched with the “feeling” of our infirmities to share with us the human lows that we encounter. Loving and being loved are not “givens.” Love is not something we always knew, we do not automatically know how to do it well, especially when it comes to loving ourselves and feeling worthy of being loved by another. There are internal conditions that sets the cornerstone for us to enter into loving relationships with others. Though God places in the heart the ability to trust, and to have faith, it cannot be assumed that the thing called “love” will be experienced. It is something learned through conscious intention with a reasoning and mature mind that permits reflection and expanded life experiences that make room for a broader social and spiritual circle, where people are able to observe themselves and others with curiosity, attention, compassion, and kindness. I John 4:20, 21 We see beneath the surface to the quiet underneath richness to the core of sharing self. We elevate our intention to invest mindfully in one another. With empathy we recognize imperfections made perfect in Christ. We move from emotional energy to a spiritual momentum fueled by the will of God. We gain wisdom beyond the illusion of physical vulnerability. With thoughts of peace, we show nurturant behaviors that acknowledges the consequence that love is an outward worthwhile truth that honors and give glory to God. This is the love wherewith we become like Christ. We share our lives to evolve. We, in truth, navigate our mutual trials and triumphs, and in tribulations we come to appreciate other’s wisdomed strength and we too grow from them, creating a unique bond. Our lives show no empty spaces, for our passion for our love of God in Christ fully engages our faith in our divine existence to be ever mindful that we are the pleasure of God of whom we each are one. We make large God’s principle of love.

15 Minutes Psalm 102:27 God has a people who will continue to grow in their knowledge of who God is and, hopefully, in their intimacy with Him. There is a God that worldly wisdom wants, and there is a God who is as divine wisdom teaches...and they are not the same God. Dulled spiritual senses lead to a harden heart so that these become comfortable with or complacent about studying to show themselves approved. Overwhelmed by God’s divine candor, and lacking humility, too many reside in ignorance. Prayerfully looking at the passages studied again and reflecting on the different aspects of God presented with care and concern under the guidance of the Holy Spirit will transform natural views by conceptual evidence of truth. See God’s power, God’s authority, infinite power, unlimited authority. Almightiness applies to the God of the bible. The faculty of God is such that He can perform all things in polarity, having two opposite or contradictory tendencies or aspects according to His will. Deuteronomy 32:39 Isaiah 45:7 Romans 9:13 God is the Most High who is the Creator who by His word and through His wisdom gave the vast universe its form, stability, and regularity. Have we learned that God’s intervention generally consists in the reestablishment of order, arranged according to a plan, is the same for all people: the Israelites of the northern kingdom, the Judeans of the southern kingdom, the Arameans of Damascus, and the Assyrians and others for His performance. God’s elect knows the God of the last judgment. Our faith in God is to sum up all the attributes of the Being who is ruler of all the universe, perfect in power, wisdom, and goodness, who is worshipped as the very source of all things visible and invisible. Let’s try to reason with truth. We were created not according to “man-kind” but according to “God-kind”, according to the image of God. God desires to gain an image, an expression, in humanity, and for this He created man according to His character image inwardly and bearing His behavior likeness outwardly. The fullness in the understanding of the word of God speaks of how God will gain His image being expressed corporately in man. We need to ask ourselves as we reason with God Is there any difference between image and likeness? What is the image of God? How can an invisible God have a visible image? Who can be the image of God? How can we as human beings have God’s image and bear His likeness? We are to be God’s expression on earth. We are made in such a special way that even our redemption required a change in heavenly things...a different expression. His change was necessary that we might be changed that at the time of his manifestation we will see him as he is and be like him. II Corinthians 3:18 Is our God omniscient...all knowing? Did our God know that as man we would fall? Why did our God create man in His image, His likeness? We were not created as a hopeful experiment for God. We were created to reflect the beauty, the goodness, the creativeness, the holiness of God. We were to be so like Him, not in His omni spheres, but in attaining always unto godliness in every revealed realm of life. God is so creative that diversity is innate within His power to inclusively connect and unite all creation in uniqueness and interrelation. Creation is so organized that whatever we do has universal repercussions. As we reason about God's good creation and our place in it, we come to a great starting point and important truth. God expects us to change. It is as His likeness was determined to show all more of His glory as He condescended in the form of humanity that was determined to give us the power to ascend unto heavenliness. Be not obsessed with God’s changing from Spirit to flesh and blood to flesh and bone. Rather be obsessed with the reasoning of how and why God created us with the power to effect outcome by choice as a “likeness” of His attributes. God expects us to change; He expects us to think differently, and therefore to act differently from the world, and from the way we have been in the past. And it is because we have Jesus that we count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus. Look at what we choose to do for his sake. Philippians 3:7-14 Things that we choose to leave behind are more than the things we failed in. They more meaningfully are those things whereby we were highly successful in. We reason that clinging to what we perceive to be the best part of ourselves is to lose Christ. With pride as our motivator, we might be tempted to look back on our lives to our own perceived successes and dwell on the way things used to be. It certainly is not wisdom that we seek to return. Ecclesiastes 7:10 We reason that the most important thing is our soul’s salvation. Everything else in life, past successes in particular, are not adequate at all in succeeding in what matters most. God’s priority is to save us. What “likeness” is in us that we set our minds on things above? We change our minds about what it means to worship God as coming to His likeness shifts our mindset and anchors our perspective on the sacrifice of Christ that provides our salvation. We reason the essence of true worship is not external, but internal, heart and head, sentiment and thought, spirit and truth. Worship will push us into our destiny and cleanse us of our past and we will change our behavior by doing what we know is right in serving our brother and sister. God loves us just as we are and better still God loves us so much that He will not let us stay there. God does not want to make us like Him. He wants to make us like Jesus...human with an indwelling divine spirit. That is why we need no more proof of God’s love...look to the cross. Luke 2:52 Romans 8:28, 29 God designed this destination for us long ago before we were created. And it was on purpose. Why did God determine all things before ever bringing forth anything? God does not change our circumstances. In His likeness He wants us to reason through our circumstances to begin to transform back to the “image”. Peace, wonderful peace comes to us as the reason of and when we learn from Jesus, we find rest for our souls, no matter what our circumstances are. God’s greatest change was from the Spiritual to the accommodation of the indwelling the human body. The Holy Spirit made his body a “meet habitation” for his holy soul, every way ready and complying with all actings of grace and virtue. The Spirit preserved the divine nature of Jesus as pure from all defilement of sin from the stock of sinful flesh of common humanity. And so we know that God does not change His mind, not in an eternal sense. However, He does in a temporal sense.

15 Minutes God is in accordance with His love. There is nothing that we could ever say to give expression to God’s ultimate highness and authority, it cannot be even thought of by another or any other. If we could only experience God. If our closeness with God was as internal silence. Just deep breathing. In..., out...! In, out. Feel God in your heartbeat. Think how our wordlessness can speak the awe of His glory as we wonder before God. God is so wonderful in His judgment, in His redemption, in His revelation, in His promises, that as we know Him, we are humbly struck silent. God is not some distant Being whom we worship by description only. Worshiping God illuminates our understanding. It models our faith reflectively to explore the old and the new testaments to reason with the obsolete phenomenon rather than the traditional theological explanation. In this, the Holy Spirit discloses and makes known different functions and meanings in diverse texts and contexts. Oh, if only we had the wisdom, the reasoning to conceptually explain sensibly how God could be understood to be God. We consider His relationship, His agency, His attributes. Our approach...to what can God be likened? What similarities to another god can be attributed to God? None, there can be no other god. And because our faith is shaped by the Christ-event, we look to our investigation of Jesus as our central Word for the uniqueness of proclaiming God as the ultimate reality of all things as the one cannot be without the other. This reality is of such excellence that God humiliates God self in Jesus unto death and predetermination. Nothing that God does can be sub-summed to the compliment that God the Father acknowledges His Son. God leads history to the purpose God has chosen. And because He is God, He, the holy One and He, the only One. This is a “vertical” relation. God is above anything else in authority and power. God is free to decide and to act in order to achieve God’s purposes. But this relation also has a “horizontal”, historical aspect. God leads God’s people as a shepherd to their future of peace and justice. In this sense God is proceeding to God’s kingdom. And God’s kingdom is a reality in this world and is being realized. God’s true power is the power He has given us to make judgment choices. That was part of the creation image and likeness. And to live that image, that likeness is the exercising of our choice as it is determined by God’s character, God’s will, God’s purposes, God’s mercy and righteousness. And with this awesome gift of free will, of choice, we are to have wisdom as reasoned with God. That means with every choice we are to realize the sure consequences. So, it is more than just the power of choice...it is the power of the right choice as it reflects the mind of Christ. And there’s an even deeper dimension...God’s purpose to reproduce Himself. God is a Family. And He loves to have sons and daughters. Otherwise, we would not have been created in His image (God’s character) and in His likeness (God’s features). The marring brought that to an end. So, now the power of God is working in accordance with the word of God in our lives, we speak God's word. And we speak simply because we have found our place in God, the life and the power of God is at work in us, and we gain command over life issues and circumstances. We walk in God's way. We have an understanding and knowledge of who God is as we bring His express image to others. The power to suffer and to die for others is love; the power to suffer and die for another is ultimate, divine, perfect love. God’s determination in His people reaches this dimension. And this power of God cannot have a more competent element, a more credible witness than the love, the life of Jesus. This power is indeed often hidden in human life and in the history of this world. But the crucified is risen and exalted. This means that our understanding of God’s power must be in accordance with God’s love. No means of manipulation, threat and coercion...choice alone. God’s power cooperating with human power without diminishing it. God is the unchangeable changer. He cannot gain or lose His attributes. But He does grow in grace and mercy. And whatever the circumstances we find ourselves in, the power of the Most High God is able to change the situations for good as He determined in the counsel and it is by our prayers that He accomplishes His will. When we reasonably investigate God’s specific promise that He does not change, His promise is based upon His character and His authority to uphold it. When God says He does not lie, it is because God’s nature is truthful and He has the power to uphold that truth. When God says He does not break His promises, it is because His nature and authority does not permit it. God said He does not change, this promise is specifically in reference to His covenantal promise to Israel that He would bless all nations through them despite their disobedience. Yet God offered to move that promise from Abraham to Moses. Was this design of intervention, of changing the fate decisioned in the Determinate Counsel? Pray, study, and reason with the 32nd chapter of Exodus. God has every right to judge us in our sin but consider the situation and the appeal in that passage because He promised to fulfill His covenant of redemption for mankind through Abraham. This covenant promise of God was fulfilled by the arrival of God Jesus in the flesh. When Jesus became flesh, God was changing. In fact, this is His providential fulfilling of the promise He gave beginning in Genesis 3:15 and 12:1-3 just as He said He would. Did God become flesh in order to fulfill His promise...it was determined ever before there was anything except the Godhead in Determinate Counsel. To best reason with this, one must understand the difference between nature and position. In order, for God to be faithful and always fulfill His covenant promises, it must require that His character, His nature never change. However, such promises do not necessitate that His position cannot change. Pause. We’ll return to this thought shortly. Remember the promise of Malachi is that God’s promise will not change based upon His truthful nature. Oh, what ignorance we possess when we fail to realize, to reason with the full influx of the truth as it is presented by God Himself. God calls us foolish, having no understanding, no knowledge. If we would but ask for wisdom, not thinking we know what we do not. To what is our God referring when He instructs us that He changes not. To what humbling state of hearing are we to ascend to gain the insightfulness to reason with His purposes determined for our attaining? Hear and consider, think and reflect... Malachi 3:6 Let’s ratify this change not comment. Here we have God's immutability asserted by Himself, and glorified in it. Is God a just revenger of those that rebel against Him? Is He the bountiful rewarder of those that diligently seek Him? In both these He is unchangeable. He is as much an enemy to sin as ever He was, and impenitent sinners will find Him so. God’s judgment is never antiquated, or out of date, but against those that go on still in their trespasses the curse of His law still remains in full force, power, and virtue. Israel had reason to say that He was an unchangeable God, for He had been faithful to His covenant with them and their fathers; if He had not adhered to that, they would have been consumed long ago and cut off from being a people; they had been false and fickle in their conduct to Him, and He might justly have abandoned them, and then they would soon have been consumed and ruined; but because He remembered His covenant, and would not violate that, nor alter the thing that had gone forth out of His lips, they were preserved from ruin and recovered from the brink of it. It was purely because He would be as good as His word. Now as God had kept Israel from ruin, while the covenant of peculiarity remained in force, purely because He would be faithful to that covenant, and would show that He is not a man that He should lie, so, when that covenant should be superseded and set aside by the new covenant, Jesus, and they, by rejecting the blessings of it, lay themselves open to the curses, God will show that in the determinations of His wrath, as well as in those of His mercy, neither is He a man, that He should repent, but will then be as true to His threatenings as previously He had been to His promises. If we are wise, or if we are becoming wise, we may all apply this very sensibly to ourselves; because we have to do with a God that changes not in His character. However, God can in His nature lower Himself in position, to the point of a servant in order to best fulfill His promises. He doesn’t have to change His character to do this, rather He lowers Himself in His nature to do this. He takes on a different position. In fact, we could take it one step further and say, Jesus’s position lowers so that he can fulfill his promises in accordance with his nature. This is our Sovereign God. Philippians 2:5-8

20 Minutes Please, please let us hear, let us speak the word. Not just as simply sounds, but as real power. Our words may not manifest reality to bring forth worlds, but they can manifest the faith in the uniqueness and power of God to give us wisdom that the words we speak are actually the overflow of our hearts in communion with all our brothers, sisters, and strangers. God gives us such blessings in the seriousness of the word that when spoken to give an answer to everyone who asks us to give the reason for the hope that we have in all readiness, they hear why and how we love the Lord. Our words should demonstrate the power of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in our lives. When the word is serious to us it causes our thoughts to line up with God’s patterns to teach, correct, rebuke, encourage, direct, guide, comfort, and confront. God’s word is never contradictory when we have the mindset to effectively relate to the scripture. We should always evaluate our perception of the word to see if there’s anything holding us back from hearing God speak through the Word. Do we not understand that the word empowers us to intentionally interact with God. When we stall God’s word as though we know all that it has to say, we need to adjust our attitude. We should with deep sorrow and celebratory joy have the attitude of expectancy that with every word studied we learn something new about who God is. The word, when believed in seriously, will deposit revelation and understanding, reason and wisdom of the truth that we never come to the end of all there is to learn about God. With His character is revealed the reasoning of His interactions, His involvements with His people. The word is a testament to God’s movement designed to confirm His promises toward us. He wants us personally involved in His experience. That’s why it is so important that we know the word is serious as it is presented in every event of the bible. The problem is that too many cannot discern the difference between their words and God’s words. God speaks from the posture of truth and love. There are too many of us who speak from the stance of judgment and self-importance. Remember, there is another name for the One who guides us into all truth. It is “The Comforter”. Words should be filled with peace in reasoning by faith with what is written...it is God! And negative word without reasoning is just self-talk because of unfamiliarity with the word. There are to be no human add-ons. We will only hear God’s word when the Holy Spirit nurtures the mind. It is the word that gives us evidence of God’s character and His mind. In this God wants us to see, to hear how He relates in the various situations, circumstances, and events that are brought forth for our learning, for our knowledge of the scriptures and laws and in the midst of the most violently oppressive times ever known. He wants us to be filled with an absolute certainty as to the real and different path to peace, love and truth. Where else would such clarity and certainty come from other than the very God whose word is serious. The Word is expressed as a radical and essential message from God. It is a sword. This two-edged sword is the word spoken by one and heard by the other that convicts, convinces, and transforms by the word, both the speaker and the hearer. It is a dialogue. It forms an unbreakable bond with God. It is His will, and our purpose in life. It is manifested in the flesh. God’s Word is a Person and His name is Jesus Christ, our perfect Savior. The whole bible is about Him. The whole bible testifies of Him. Knowing the word is knowing more about the Son’s Father, the Father’s Son, and the Spirit that is Them. It is God with us in the beginning and in His coming quickly. Please see the evidence of the power of the word. Study the, “And God saids”, in Genesis chapter one. And when you get to the second chapter and hear the very climax expressed in the resting, the blessing, the sanctifying, pray. Is there a lesson here? The sabbath was made for man that we may by the word rest in God as we are being blessed by Jesus as we are being sanctified by the Holy Spirit in our communing with the Godhead. God created by resting. The Sabbath was of a different form than was the other days. Everything brought forth on the six days was outwardly visible. But the Sabbath symbolizes to God's children the fact that God is still creating by the word. It is the Sabbath that is producing in us the eternal and everlasting life. The Sabbath is that spiritual dimension of life that the physical alone cannot supply. Toward this end, the Sabbath is no mere afterthought of a tremendous creation. It is the deliberate word of God saying, “I am not yet finished creating. I am reproducing Myself, and you are to be the pleasure of My spiritual creation." By God's own word, He is memorialized and therefore honored by our observance of the Sabbath. God ceased what He was doing in the role of Christ as our Sabbath rest. There is coming a permanent rest for the people of God for the Sabbath is the foreshadowing of Christ in whom we rest and are blessed and are sanctified and are made holy. Jesus is the Word to whom we come, and he is our Sabbath rest in the flesh. Colossians 1:16, 17 Matthew 11:28 God’s Word is so powerful because it gives us all the answers we need for living a godly life. The bible itself is that word which gives us the understanding of the importance of the Word of God. The word is serious. The word is that truth that confirms our being made in the image, the likeness of God as it is His spirit that was breathed into us. Mere humans need food and water to sustain them physically. But our spirit doesn’t need food and water. It needs God’s word because God is Spirit. We are enduring by His word in this world. It is that pillar of truth that supports every teaching for the sum of God’s word is truth. And there is no way we will feed on the Word of God and not grow spiritually. And in that growth our faith progresses in building a deeper relationship with God. The word is serious. I first learned how serious it was when my momma told me as a child that every word in it was truth. That was an important moment for me. That is when I challenged God. I told Him that I would not accept His every word unless I was taught it under a tree. It was a stamp for good. That’s where Jesus saw Nathanael and it was “a” Nathaniel that God first used to teach me. John 1:48, 50 All things that happen to us along the way are determined. The word is serious. Our ultimate belief in the word of God comes when God allows us to come see. John 4:29 The word is determined by God, defined by God, and so are we. And therefore, we cannot know who we are without God. We can’t know who we are individually until we are saturated with His Word telling us. It is the word that moves us from the bible to the truth. Many read and study the bible but fail to understand the truth. Why? Their spirit does not resonate with the Word. They don’t come to see Jesus. Too many people believe what seems right to them. Why can’t they come to the truth of the word of God? They forget they are children. God says “ask”. We ask questions for answers. To come to the truth, you should ask What and Why and When and How and Where and Who. Asking questions is the key to understanding. God wants us to learn how to ask the right questions and reason with Him to reveal the right answers. Reasoning with God through the word is bible study. If anyone is so indifferent to the word as to just deny it without reasoning what can the Holy Spirit teach you. Do you remember that question put to Jesus – what is truth. The powerful aspect of truth is that it is the word in all seriousness. It is the individualization of the word that corresponds to our being. Truth is God’s mind, thought, word. Christ is the truth. And truth is not just saying anything you feel like saying. Study the word of God as they are what God means. When you realize it is He who speaks the word, you will know that you have truth. God is ultimate reality, and truth is what conforms to Him. The place that this reality and its representation in truth become most profoundly One is Jesus Himself...in the beginning was the Word, the reason and the revelation of all things real. And the Word is serious. And the truth of the bible says that the word became us. How serious are we to be about the word? We believe that when we go to the book all of it is true, and it has a centered foundation, a gathering place. And He is the Word, and all these words are meant to make Him plain. All these words are meant to highlight Him. This is a book about Jesus from beginning to end, as it leads to Him and flows from Him. God’s intentions revealed in the bible are the supreme and the final authority in testing all claims about what is truth and what is right. In matters not addressed by the bible, what is true and right is assessed by criteria consistent with the teachings of scripture that do nothing to abort the life giving word. Reasoning with the word presents trajectories and principles and transformative views of our life and heart and society and world, that if we’re confident with this Book, we can discern all kinds of moral issues that may confront us. We with integrity and authenticity, come to know the word as the truth. The worth of the truth of the word is found in the reason, and Christ is the reason we credit the word as truth. Unless we come to a reasonable, solid persuasion and conviction of the truth of the gospel by the internal evidences of it, by a sight of its glory, it is impossible that we should have any thorough and effectual conviction of it at all. The Word is serious.

10 Minutes Every word read or studied from the bible, every word spoken concerning the content of the bible must be characterized by deep thought. The most somber disposition must be displayed to ensure there is no trifling with the distinctive character of each word. Every word of truth read or spoken must be reflective of good judgment. We are to have a strong sense of responsibility to humbly hear and receive the word of God. And whenever we have the opportunity to share the word in any manner, it is to be as though we breathe out that spirit which was breathed into us at the beginning. Every word of God carries with it, its own creative power. Every word has its own fulfilment in that it is alive and incorruptible. The word is eternal because God is eternal. The word is living because God is living. The word is powerful because God is powerful. Everything that is true of God is true of His word. We receive the very life of God when He gives us the seed of His word. All things that He determined, everything in His plan for our life comes within our reach. God determined His will, the Word declared it, and we are to hear it. When we are serious about the word, we give it access to the deepest parts of our being, inviting it to test our hearts. There is an ever-increasing effectiveness of the word when we understand its capability to allow God to speak to us deep inside – in our spirit when we receive it. The word of God is grounded in the truth and builds faith that we can overcome every subtilty that opposes the presence and purposes of God in this world. When Jesus’ words are in us, they empower us to want what he wants and will what he wills. When we pray with his word in us, we’re so tuned to God’s will that we don’t need to pray, ‘If it be Thy will’. We already know God’s will because the word in us has renewed our minds shaping our sanctification. Every word of God which we truly receive in our spirit reveals itself in our thoughts, our deeds, and our words. God is the God of covenant. He created man in His image and His likeness, which implies that we also have a covenant nature. And God’s covenant is of such a truth of commitment that He promises us Himself! God gave us, He gives us Himself in Jesus Christ. And now God’s words become our words. This is what fulfills the promises of the covenant...when we declare them with our mouths. And with that we make two faith avowals; Abba, Father and Jesus is Lord. We could do neither of these without the Holy Spirit. It is He who bears witness with, in, and to us that we are God’s children. And it is He who testifies with and to us that Jesus is Lord. The seriousness of the word must be so principled as to detail the circumstances of our life that we abandon the world. Our desire is to perfectly fulfil God’s righteous standards and re-establish the love relationship we enjoyed before the fall. The solution is in the Christ of the cross. The word of God is not silent, sullen or remote; He’s the God of revelation who personally speaks and declares Himself to His people. With every word He reveals something about His own character and integrity. And His word is not ‘economical’ with the truth. It prevails exceedingly above our thoughts. And yet, we are made capable to spiritually grasp understanding through our reasoning with God under the graces of the presiding Holy Spirit. Jesus is himself ‘the truth’. All his words are fully the revelation of God’s truth. The written record of God’s word to us as expressed in temporal form does not contain everything that God ever says to His people. God is infinite. And we are to have no averseness to any word in scripture. There are revelations and deeper sufficiencies however, that teaches us all we need to know about God. We need but to allow the Word to breathe on us that our wisdom shows to be consistent with the word of God. While here, everything we need to understand about God is reasoned in the scripture when we learn to die to our own thoughts, emotions, feelings, desires and ambitions, and surrender to His full control. God makes Himself known to us in many ways in creation and in His providence, but when it comes to His word...the judgments of His mouth are magnified even above the designation of His glory. God is fixed in His position and in His character, but His word extends to His fixed determination. His name is used for everything which the name of God covers, everything the thought or feeling of which is aroused in the mind by mentioning, hearing, remembering who He is in authority, His interests, His pleasure, His commands, His excellences, His doings and yet even so are greater things done by His word. The wonders of grace exceed the wonders of nature; and what is discovered of God by revelation is the much more greater discerned and encountered by reason. In this we come to the essential Word...we come to know Jesus. Number the words in the bible that Jesus spoke. They are finite. Now think on how many words he most surely spoke in just the three and a half years of his ministry. Jesus’ seriousness in the word can be heard in just one of his words. He says “Go”. I pray that we undertake to know how serious is the word. By it we grow in the grace of God, and it increases our relationship with Him. But and if we do not seek to understand the fulness of the word the opposite can happen. We can slide away from God in the other direction. Now think of the intercourse between God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in the Counsel of Determination. Think of the passages of directives to His four living creatures, His Seraphims, His Cherubims. Think of the groanings of the Holy Spirit making serious the ascendant words of our prayers. Now think of the words that are not rooted in the bible and the bible alone as was shared to the unfallen worlds. This was received in the pure state of innocence as the inspired word of God. Think of how the recording angels embrace every word spoken that the twenty and four elders present to God. Some in our favor and some for our disservice to God. As we study God’s word our seriousness of mind must be as disciplined as self- awareness allows us to understand spiritual answers that we may expand and clarify truth by wisdom and reason. In this we maintain the peace of mind to wait with patience for every issue inwardly impressed to be outwardly expressed, in the uprightness of intention and fervency of affection, that none who speaks or receives the truth of the word will be ashamed of it. Here's the new reality that too many forget...Jesus is the Son of God, yes. And Jesus is God, yes. He is the one who after He created everything, now upholds all things by the word of His power. All things cohere in Him, and they are unto Him. And He conquers in the same way that He creates....through the power of His word. If He has power to do all of these amazing things by His words, can we even begin to imagine what the Lord can do with those who gratefully and eagerly receive these words? I say to us again...the word is serious.

5 Minutes God's peace is a permanent peace offered only by the only One who can be trusted to keep His Word. This peace comes from knowing that the Savior knows who we are and knows that we have faith in him, love him, and keep his commandments, even and especially amid life's devastating trials. This peace only exists among the covenanted community. The true peace of God’s people is not like the world’s peace. Our peace is the peace that only Jesus can offer, can give. This true peace will not change regardless of the circumstances. This true peace is foundationed in our love for the one true God. In this peace there is no smearing of character, no compromise of truth, no symptom of sin, no conflict of matters. This true peace forges a deep reconciliation with God in Christ. It crushes all iniquity, it heals all wounds. This true peace yokes up with the grace and the mercy of God. This true peace is the exercising and experiencing the faith of Jesus. This true peace is a spiritual peace. It is timely for all eternity. This true peace is a Godly peace that has nothing to do with human beings or human circumstances. In fact, it cannot be produced on a human level at all. It is not a fragile peace. This true peace cannot fail. It removes all doubt. It has no fear. It faces any difficulty. It is not a shame. It presents no regrets, brings no sorrow, and will never mistreat another. This true peace is an attitude of the heart and mind when we believe and therefore know deep down that all is well between ourselves and God. Along with it is the assurance that He is lovingly in control of everything. This true peace is the peace of God and is our possession and privilege by divine right. It underscores God’s personal involvement in every aspect of our relationships. This true peace comes personally from Him. It is unique to believers, it is the very essence of God’s nature. In this peace God’s people enjoy perfect harmony. In this true peace we have no threats to our confidence, no dimming to our thoughts, no retreat from truth. This true peace keeps our Lord always near, it is of a divine kind. A peace seared in our minds, our hearts. This true peace is our abiding in God’s word. It makes absolute our spiritual enlightenment with the reasoning of God. This true peace grows our urgency for obedience and our endurance for overcoming. So intense is this true peace that it has the power whereby God’s people recognize their inseparableness is gifted with Jesus’ own spirit. It is in this true peace that we know in our own lives the power of the One who enables in us the fullness of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to unite us in the purposes of God. It is this true peace that remains before us in hope that we are the chosen children of God tasked to hear God’s word because although we are redeemed, we continue to need redemption. This true peace is the assurance of our triumph in the cross of our Lord where we are already but not yet perfected in Christ. Psalms 119:165

7 Minutes Stand firm in the truth. Putting the truth constantly at the forefront of our minds is crucial. It is a challenge to understand precisely the vastness of what God's wisdom contains. The wisdom God gives is not just a scholarly or intelligence thing. God’s wisdom is so much richer than that, and the best part is if any person who is willing to ask God, will receive it. God's wisdom gives us an inner knowing on what is right. This inner knowing is our advocate, the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will guide us to understanding God's wisdom in using the bible, the scriptures, God's word. We have to understand what the bible says and what it means if it is going to produce growth in us. We must soak our minds in the scriptures. In using the word of God, we will find solace and the answers to solve issues of concern. It is the absence of biblical knowledge that retards spiritual thinking and slows spiritual growth. As the truth of God’s word begins to occupy our minds and shape our thoughts, it will produce principles that we desire not to violate. This is what sanctification is about...being inwardly compelled to obedience. II Corinthians 4:13 Our beliefs must be our convictions. There can be no alternative. It is the testimony of our conscience in holiness and godly sincerity. The word is our spiritual sustenance. Worry not about any accusations made toward you. As you stand in truth a perpetual cycle of opposition and oppression will find you. You will have much solitary longing as Christ is revealed to you. He is transforming you into his likeness. We will garner knowledge by study, and gain wisdom by prayer, thought, and effort. Hearing others reason in the truth of the scriptures brings wisdom. Sometimes we are too close to a situation or have already decided what we want to know, but we’re wise to listen to the thoughts, insights, and suggestions of godly people in our lives. Even if the advice is unsolicited, wisdom will consider it anyway and decide if it’s worth heeding. Too often people think they truly have all the answers, but even the people we consider to be wise receive counsel from God. That’s how they continue to grow in wisdom! All have room to grow in spiritual wisdom if they humble themselves before the One who is wisdom eternal. God is not mocked. He will not allow His precepts to be set aside with contempt due to the willing ignorance of a created being...terrestrial or celestial. There is a bold witness in the heart of the one who has passion for gospel experience. Progressive maturity for a true faithful believer is in yielding to the Holy Spirit. One can only be full of faith when belief in a sovereign God to accomplish His eternal purpose is revealed as was at the cross; an inward experience of grace flowing outward into a gracious spirit toward others, even as they do us harm. When unbelieving believers see us in trials of persecution maintaining love it provides the platform for the powerful witness that we know God in a personal way. Blinded believers often see truth as a threat to their pride. So, they refute it, attacking the messenger. Be not hindered, conflict is the opportunity for grace. When you are certain in the truth, as was Jesus, relational conflict is not something that should surprise us as true believers. We need not be ashamed that it exists, and that we’re involved. We should expect it. The world is complicated and fallen, and we are complicated creatures, and fallen. Conflicts will come. They are unavoidable. Truth frees the mind of conflict while those who reject reason fester in faults. God’s love and grace take hold and enable us to rise above and forgive rather than retaliate. Being one of God’s elect is a high calling. He gives us a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the true knowledge of Him as we come to deeper understandings of crucial truths. As a believer, we are always in need of the Holy Spirit to enlighten the eyes of our heart to the great truths of the bible. Many professed believers have a “no” attitude when it comes to coping with the difficult truths of the bible. They think it spiritually dangerous to question the letter. With every revelation of truth, the faithful of God, with a heart that is full and a mind on fire, hold a doxology. God opens to us rare expanding truths to be embraced as joy for the renewing of our minds advancing in obedience of the faith of Jesus. Under this banner of seeing God for who He is, is to open a window in our mind to the infinite expanses of God, His causes, His purposes, His providences. We are brought higher to obey Him more consistently. God is infinitely wise. Unpack that for a moment. Flowing from His truth is wisdom and that is the greatest purpose for discernment to bring to light His will. This will performs the best possible results, by the best possible means, for the most possible people, for the longest possible time. Weigh that in the balances of the sanctuary and our lives become a veritable benediction. God’s wisdom constantly spreads around us providential circumstances where we repudiate our own wisdom and take instead the infinite wisdom of God...knowing that God has charged Himself with full responsibility for our eternal being. God takes us out of the limited philosophies of the world. The limited vision so that we can live in closer union with the Lord. We taste the life of Christ. God is testing us with truth to see how we respond to Him.

11 Minutes Sisters, dear sisters...brothers...we say we study the word of God. But do we approach it with the higher mind. We perceive and interpret countless thoughts throughout the day. Many do not realize that we have two distinct levels of our mind. The higher mind, and the lower mind. The lower mind: fear, doubt, and disbelief. The higher mind: pure truth and divine design. The higher mind is the gateway to our soul and intuition. This is the part of our mind that hears the communication of the Holy Spirit. The higher mind surpasses ego, transcends boundaries and holds universal truths. This is the part of the mind that knows no matter how difficult the situation is, we are loved, worthy and continuously protected and guided by the divine God. This is the part inspired by reasoning. The lower mind keeps us in a limited belief cycle coupled with facts based on past limitations. The lower mind is the representation of our wounded or damaged ego. This is the deception part of our mind because it convinces the self we are limited and are separate from universal truth. We have both. But reasoning with God, in the teachings of Jesus, through the Holy Spirit calms the lower mind so that we can receive answers and guidance. Why we do not understand. We are not reasoning with God. To hear the word is to hear God Himself. And while we distinguish between the word of God written and the living word of God spoken, these two have one thing in common: God. To hear the word written is to hear the word spoken by God. We should be in awe of what God speaks. We should study the word with persuasiveness. With a firm persuasion that the Holy Spirit will enable us to understand and to learn the heart of God towards us and our hearts toward God. Inspiration is true, illumination is necessary. Psalms 73:26 Proverbs 16:1 Psalms 73:28 Do we recall how Moses spoke with God concerning the waywardness of the people? God was not pleased. Moses encountered experimental knowledge of divine truth, which is absolutely necessary to salvation. Moses heard the word of God and reasoned with Him. This was determined by God in the counsel so as to affect the earnestness of the heart of one who communes with Him by faith. Moses talked with God with desire to know, to believe, and to obey the will of God as revealed in His word. This means that hearing the word is not just understanding with our heads the words on the page, but knowing by the work of the Spirit on our hearts the meaning of those words for me as purposed in Christ by God. It is the word of God that He has chosen to reveal Himself in doctrine and theological argument that offers proof of the persuasion of prayerful reasoning. We do not understand the word without reading it with such diligence and careful inquiry so as to accept it as our savor of life. We should read the word with personalness: with meditation, application, self-denial, and prayer. In this we learn the words of God, and we are personally to appropriate and to identify ourselves with the Word. It is not some abstract thing "out there." It is to dwell deeply within us. We are to think intently and intensely about it. Studying the word gets God's truth into our heads, then meditating on it gets it into our hearts, and reasoning with it moves the life spiritually. The more we learn about God, the more we should love God. And the more we love God, the more we should become living epistles of His love for the world. This done only with divine understanding. There’s a reason why we do not understand. Biblical truth cannot be discerned by human intellect alone, but must be spiritually discerned. Many fail to grasp how the words of God go together to form the gospel truth. What keeps some from understanding the truth? They reflect facts, truths, and things that you could prove by experiment. The bible reveals some things we find extraordinarily hard to understand; peculiarly unique things that perplex, confound, and even disturb us. But nature reveals traces of the same designer. Biblical truth is spiritual. We will never understand God exhaustively. The bible is clear that God is ultimately incomprehensible to us. His attributes are far beyond the realm of human experience. Because God can never be fully known, those who seek to know God should be deeply humbled in the process, realizing that they will always have more to learn. The appropriate response to God is a heart of wonder and awe in light of His incomprehensible greatness. Yet, God is knowable. He can be known truly, personally, and sufficiently through personal revelation of Himself. Why we do not understand. We need Christ to strengthen our faith in his word, every word. Philippians 4:13 With God all things are possible.... Divine inspiration moved the hearts of the biblical writers to record the truth. It must be divine inspiration that moves the hearts of the faithful to understand and to live the truth. Many of the questions we have concerning scripture must be answered by how God providentially provides knowledge for those who love Him. The bible merely states the truths. Yet our lack of ability to understand truth is not a reason to deny it. There is something about the communication of God’s truth to humanity. That something is that the origin of the written Word of God began in the mind and in the will of the Godhead. Not to cause complexity so as to confuse human logic, but to give to all those who have truly come to know Him things which human understanding alone will never see. Things that are only understood through spiritual illumination. The spirit in man knows him better than himself. In the same way, the one who knows God best is His Holy Spirit. He knows everything in the mind of God. We have received God’s Spirit if we are true followers of Christ, He is in us. Therefore, we have the mind of Christ in us and the capacity to know everything we need to know from God, not of God. Things we could not have understood before we received the Spirit, we can now understand through the Spirit’s help. A man without the Spirit cannot understand these things, because they are “spiritually appraised”. These things are freely given to us by God. He is not trying to withhold them from us. If we cooperate with Him and reason, He will make them known by His Spirit and by His Word. Once we learn these things from God’s Spirit and His Word, we are made able to share them with others through the power of spiritual words. What an incredible truth. God wants us so to understand. We can know the mind of God because He now lives in us! And we can speak the truths of God to others because He can speak through us. God’s interaction with humanity was formulated in the counsel. God does not have to change because what was divinely designed incorporated His apparent intervention in that formulation. God determined the change of His mind to show as a forewarning of a man, while at the same time, it was the words of the Most High God. Numbers 24:15-17 The authority to write scripture was given under God’s direct control and God decided to reveal certain truths about Himself through the scriptures. The final product was what God intended. Many do not understand because they do not understand the Determinate Counsel, the employment of God’s infinite mind, pursuant to such a purpose for an ultimate end that has a determinate final reference to Himself. It is His will to accomplish, in the dignity of His character, all the means which He would employ in fulfilling this great design. I Corinthians 2:9-16