The Dream That Saved Pilate

Matthew 27:19

While Pilate was sitting on the judge's seat, his wife sent him this message: "Don't have anything to do with that innocent man, for I have suffered a great deal today in a dream because of him."

Don't you worry! God speaks through many ways. Who is as powerful as He is. No one. When we speak, even though how powerful we claim to be among men, we can only speak in words and thats it, but God speaks through many ways. No one can stand and oppose Him. He is the most powerful one. He can speak through dreams, visions, His thunderous voice, His gentle whisper and just many many ways.

Before Darkness Overtakes You

John 12:35
Then Jesus told them, "You are going to have the light just a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, before darkness overtakes you. The man who walks in the dark does not know where he is going.

Some are comfortable being blind even though they are being led aimlessly by others who are also heading for a fall. Some know the difficulty of being in the dark and not being able to make another safe step forward. They have no other chioice but to follow the lost leader. They are heading no where and yet they refuse to go the right way.

Night Is Coming

 

John 9:1-5

As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" "Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life. As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world."

The work of God brings glory to the LORD. There will come a time soon, when no one wants to give the glory due to God but will only seek glory for themselves. Why else do they fight and quarell? Read the rest of the chapter and you will find out the reason for their fighting and quarelling. You will find the answer to why the Pharisees were angry about the healing of the blind beggar above. They were not satisfied that the Lord Jesus Christ had healed the blind beggar on the Sabbath. They felt that they had the authority over who does what on the Sabbath. Little did these foolish men realise that they were facing the Lord of the Sabbath. The 'Lord of the Sabbath' means He is the same God who created the whole heaven, earth and everything in it in six days and rested on the seventh day as Sabbath. Another words. He created the Sabbath.

They were fighting and quarelling over this to bring glory to themselves that they were the defenders of the Sabbath.  This time around, they were meeting the Lord of the Sabbath and they did not know it? They were the defenders of the Pharisees sect. They were more concerned about what practices they were defending rather than caring for the blind beggar. They asked, why did the blind beggar stop his begging? They were told that he was healed by the Lord Jesus Christ.  Now, the very important issue to them was, why did the Lord heal the blind beggar on the Sabbath? How foolish of someone who claims to know God. Instead, musn't they be grateful to the Lord of the Sabbath that He had cared for and healed one of their fellow men when no one else could all these years? To break the bondage of this man who was born blind to bring glory to the LORD. The Pharisees were worried here that they will not get any glory out of this. They did not like the idea of Christ bringing the glory to the Heavenly Father with this impossible act of healing the blind beggar by opening his eyes to see again with saliva mixed with mud rubbed on his eyes and washed in the pool of Siloam. Just ponder to yourselves, how degradingly unhuman were they in fighting and quarelling over foolish things for themselves?

 

Cross references:

1. John 9:2 : S Mt 23:7
2. John 9:2 : ver 34; Lk 13:2; Ac 28:4
3. John 9:2 : Eze 18:20
4. John 9:2 : Ex 20:5; Job 21:19
5. John 9:3 : Jn 11:4
6. John 9:4 : Jn 11:9; 12:35
7. John 9:5 : S Jn 1:4

Look at Yourself in The Mirror and Do Something

James 1:23-25

Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.

The exhortation here is that whoever looks intently and obeys the word of God when it is revealed will be blessed if they continue obeying the word of God till the end. They must not forget all their lives what God has commanded through Christ our Lord.

The “mirror” will show how ugly you are before God or to what extent you are defiled by the sinful nature of the Devil in you.  When you know how ugly you are with the sinful nature of the Devil still found in you, what must you do?

You must make every effort to put to death it’s misdeeds by the power of God the Holy Spirit in you. You cannot put it to death with your own human strength. You need the power of God in your life but you must first surrender your life to Him with the obedience of Christ that is formed in you.

The Golden Rule Applies To All and Not to Some Only.

Matthew 7:12

So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.

“This sums up the law and the prophets” means that this sums up the Old Testament because, the law and the prophets are found there. In the New Testament, the law and the prophets are fulfilled in Christ. What sums up the law and the prophets? This truth that “in everything, you should do to others what you would have them do to you” sums up the Old Testament and this truth is fulfilled only in Christ. Now, if you want to “do to others what you would have them do to you” you would need Christ to be formed in you. If Christ’s divine nature isn’t formed in you, it would be impossible to do this. The fulfilment of the law and the prophets is only found in Christ our Lord.

It would be impossible to practise this without Christformation in you.

Like An Earring of Gold

Proverbs 25:12
New International Version 1984 (NIV1984)
Like an earring of gold or an ornament of fine gold is a wise man’s rebuke to a listening ear.

The Sinful Nature Makes You Ugly

Revelation 16:12-14
New International Version (NIV)
The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up to prepare the way for the kings from the East. Then I saw three impure spirits that looked like frogs; they came out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet. They are demonic spirits that perform signs, and they go out to the kings of the whole world, to gather them for the battle on the great day of God Almighty.

Never did you think that demonic spirits can perform signs and look where they are headed to.
The battle on the great day of God Almighty is fast approaching. The Devil, knowing that his time is up with God, he makes his minions act out of his sinful nature more and more. His sinful nature in man is ugly inside out. Somehow, his ugliness will keep showing. Why frog, you might have asked? Frog represents the ugliness of the sinful nature of the Devil in you. How it makes you ugly inside out when you obey it?


Romans 1:18-32
The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about
God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to
him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error. Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents;they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy.Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.