Faith. Relationship.

My friend Pete shared with me yesterday this that his pastor spoke of sometime ago. The pastor gave them this verse: "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Then the pastor asked them to substitute the word relationship for the word faith. 'Now "relationship" is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.' My friend Pete said but this messed him up real good. We talked about this for several minutes yesterday. It makes sense probably in more ways than one.  One way we talked about was this. The word faith in New Testament is "pistis." The same word is also translated as trust and belief.So this verse might be translated "now trusting is" or "now believing is."

Of these possibilities "trusting" most clearly shows the existence of a relationship. If I don't trust you I'm not likely to pursue a relationship with you. If I don't believe you The same is likely so. Who wants to hang around untrustworthy people who cannot be relieved? Who would rely on, who would have confidence, who would have faith kind of people. If I did have faith in these kind of people what would my relationship with them imply? I think it would imply that the substance of the things I hope for and the evidence of things I don't now see would be very different than what actually came in reality. We don't hope for evil from God. But if we put our faith in the untrustworthy, that is to say if we trust the unfaithful, we shouldn't be very surprised if our hopes are dashed. It seems pretty clear that our relationship to God must be solidly and fully grounded in trust. If a person is untrustworthy he or she is not trustworthy. if unbelievable, then not believable and  if unfaithful then they are not faithful.

So we are well and properly and VIABLY related to God in faith trusting  and believing him with whom we have a relationship and not yet seen.

 John chapter 6 is an extraordinary clear and powerful testimony of safe and relationship. Jesus feeds 5000 people by multiplying five loaves of bread and two small fishes! and after they all ate they had twelve baskets of bread to spare! It's no wonder they couldn't find him the next day they tracked him down on the other side of the Sea of Galilee.  When they found him he immediately informed them of this revealing truth; they were seeking him not because a great miracle had been done but because they were hungry again. Their hunger for food, food which spoils, prevented them from knowing and believing who he was!

Jesus went on to tell them: "Don't work for the meat which spoils; labor for the meat which abides in everlasting life (is from eternal heaven), meat which the Son of man will give you: the one  God the Father has sealed." 

The Father was beginning to unseal and reveal the  precious plan of all time in the Messiah!  And his people the children of Israel the Jews and the religious Jews for the most part we're not understanding. they needed a relationship Father through faith in Jesus who is the Son of man and Son of God.

They asked him, "What should we do in order to do the work of God?" 

It seems that Jesus was beginning to penetrate their carnal nature. And whose answer to them was wonderfully clear and simple!

"This is the work of God that you believe on him whom he has sent." 

And so it is seen that believing God is work! Believing takes energetic effort and God requires believing! Later on the Apostle Paul writes to us in Galatians 5:6 that faith, that believing works by love! 

When God thrust Adam out he had just told him that what he had done he would toil and sweat on and in a cursed ground in order to eat bread.  This is the bread that spoils and  we still toil and sweat for THAT bread. 

 But for the bread of eternal life God  requires a different kind of work.  it's not the sweaty toil of busting sod. 

Come unto me all you that are weary and heavily burdened, and I will give you rest! Take my yoke upon you,  and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: for my yoke is easy and my burden is light

Animals are yoked together that they be able to work together. If we are yoked together in Jesus yoke it is in order to work. And if, or since the work of God is to believe Jesus the Son of man and if believing, if faith works and is energized by love...

💔❤💗💓💖💕💥💞💞💞💞💞

😶😯😮☺😊😀😁💥😇😇😇😇

So when we hear that it's all about relationship we should not be afraid to have 1 or 3 or 20 or 20,000 relationships. Each one and they all together are simply and marvelously opportunity for eternal love in God in the Messiah who is love. ❗❗❗

For Give Ness

Monday May 25, 2020

Does God exist?

Is God a Father?

Is He the Father of His divine Son Jesus called the Christ?

Is God MY Father?
Is Jesus the Savior and the only way to God our Father?

Am I a sinner?
What is sin?
Is sin offensive? Is it an offense?
What is an offense?

Is sin a problem? My problem? Why?
Is my sin a problem? My Problem? Why?
Is my sin a problem for God?
What does sin cause?
How does God deal with sin?
Was Jesus crucified so that we, so that I can be forgiven?
Must I forgive others who offend me? Why?

For Give Ness
"returning to the quality and state of giving in a relationship as was done before an offence"

It is a sorrowful thing to grow up and particularly grow old and not learn that Love is superior to power and that mercy is superior to judgment. Laws, judgments, sentences of punishment, prisons and even scaffolds are necessary to deter the harm, the injury that lawless persons can do. But forgiveness is essential in receiving and God's saving grace and preserving the sanity and cleanness of our God created beings for God's sake. AND forgiving others is essential in receiving forgiveness from Father God.

O Jah, if you took note of every sin, who would go free? But there is forgiveness with you, so that you may be feared. (Psalm 130:3-4)

There is forgiveness with God that He may be LOVED !!!!

James1:19-20 Know this, my dear brothers and sisters: let every person be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger - for human anger doesn’t produce the righteousness of God.

Is it that our anger is tied to our having been offended? And does our failure to forgive the offender amplify our anger? Can righteous anger remain righteous if we embrace, if we treasure the offense and seek to pour the judgment in our heart on the offender? Should we not rather treasure the offender as one needing God's love and forgiveness just as we need it concerning the sins we have done? If God had decided to be angry with all mankind and not forgive anyone how would we be able to live? Isn't forgiveness is the foremost evidence of love. It is almost the exact same thing as mercy. Note the primary definition of Mercy from Webster:

Mercy

MER'CY, n. [L. misericordia.]

1. That benevolence, mildness or tenderness of heart which disposes a person to overlook injuries, or to treat an offender better than he deserves; the disposition that tempers justice, and induces an injured person to forgive trespasses and injuries, and to forbear punishment, or inflict less than law or justice will warrant. In this sense, there is perhaps no word in our language precisely synonymous with mercy. That which comes nearest to it is grace. It implies benevolence, tenderness, mildness, pity or compassion, and clemency, but exercised only towards offenders. Mercy is a distinguishing attribute of the Supreme Being.

The Lord is long-suffering and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty. Numbers 14.But does not forgiveness go even further? For give ness returns the offender and the offended to the freedom of their prior relationship. We are are able to give in the relationship and we did be for e. To repent is to turn, to turn away from sin and self and turn toward God. His forgiveness allows us to return to Him. When we forgive we are being like God. But we are not God. Do not those who do not forgive think they are God? Don't they think themselves empowered and entitled to judge and condemn sinners, and all the while they are themselves sinners?

And Jesus said to us and to them: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Matthew 6:15

Webster: NESS, a termination of appellatives, denotes state or quality, as in goodness, greatness.Forgiveness is the state and quality of a relationship returned to the giving of grace (grace being itself a gift) in which it existed (and enjoyed) before the offense occurred. We, by the forgiveness of God, are returned to the state of grace Adam and Eve enjoyed before they sinned. That state is one of peace (shalom).

John 14:27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be fearful.

not as the world giveth - The world's peace is enforced by others as pleases them. It is variable. God's peace doesn't change. “...there is no change or any shade made by turning.” James 1:17

Who is wise and understanding among you? let him show by his good life his works in meekness of wisdom. But if ye have bitter jealousy and faction in your heart, glory not and lie not against the truth. This wisdom is not a wisdom that cometh down from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. (James 3:13-15)
Every good and true thing is given to us from heaven, coming from the Father of lights, with whom there is no change or any shade made by turning. (James 1:17)

my peace I give unto you - Christ's peace, His shalom has been defined as a state of being in which nothing is broken and nothing is missing. All God's church is complete, full and on earth mature in Christ. This peace is not enforced, it is given and received. We receive Christ, we trust Christ and are forgiven and received by Father !!! As created beings we have only what we are given. We may think our selves creative creators. At best we recreate something out of what has been created. Do we try to recreate our selves? That is popular in politics today. Better that we bow to God and ask Him to create us anew in the Messiah Jesus.

Wherefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature: the old things are passed away; behold, they are become new. But all things are of God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and gave unto us the ministry of reconciliation; to wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not reckoning unto them their trespasses, and having committed unto us the word of reconciliation. We are ambassadors therefore on behalf of Christ, as though God were entreating by us: we beseech you on behalf of Christ, be ye reconciled to God. Him who knew no sin he made to be sin on our behalf; that we might become the righteousness of God in him. (2Corinthians 5:17-21)

And so! Will not the righteousness of God lead us to:

Do nothing out of selfishness or conceit, but with humility consider others as more important than yourselves, looking out not only for your own interests but also for the interests of others. Philippians 2:3-4

We forgive those we love so that we are able to love them, so that we can look out not only for your own interests but also for the interests of others. How can I love you if I seek your judgment? How can I consider others [you] as more important than yourselves [myself]. If I will not do for the one who offends me what God has so mercifully, so undeservedly, so kindly and powerfully done for me, how shall I be surprised if I find that I have now again offended God? To not forgive, is that not to sin?Then came Peter and said to him, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? until seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times; but, Until seventy times seven. Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king, who would make a reckoning with his servants. And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him, that owed him ten thousand talents. But forasmuch as he had not wherewith to pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife, and children, and all that he had, and payment to be made. The servant therefore fell down and worshipped him, saying, Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. And the lord of that servant, being moved with compassion, released him, and forgave him the debt. But that servant went out, and found one of his fellow-servants, who owed him a hundred shillings: and he laid hold on him, and took him by the throat, saying, Pay what thou owest. So his fellow-servant fell down and besought him, saying, Have patience with me, and I will pay thee. And he would not: but went and cast him into prison, till he should pay that which was due. So when his fellow-servants saw what was done, they were exceeding sorry, and came and told unto their lord all that was done. Then his lord called him unto him, and saith to him, Thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou besoughtest me: shouldest not thou also have had mercy on thy fellow-servant, even as I had mercy on thee? And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due. So shall also my heavenly Father do unto you, if ye forgive not every one his brother from your hearts. (Matthew 18:21-35)

What if I could speak all languages of humans and of angels? If I did not love others, I would be nothing more than a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. What if I could prophesy and understand all secrets and all knowledge? And what if I had faith that moved mountains? I would be nothing, unless I loved others. What if I gave away all that I owned and let myself be burned alive? I would gain nothing, unless I loved others. Love is kind and patient, never jealous, boastful, proud, or rude. Love isn't selfish or quick tempered.

It [Love] doesn't keep a record of wrongs that others do.

(It [He!] doesn't because Love forgives!!!)

Love rejoices in the truth, but not in evil. Love is always supportive, loyal, hopeful, and trusting. Love never fails! Everyone who prophesies will stop, and unknown languages will no longer be spoken. All that we know will be forgotten. We don't know everything, and our prophecies are not complete. But what is perfect will someday appear, and what isn't perfect will then disappear. When we were children, we thought and reasoned as children do. But when we grew up, we quit our childish ways. Now all we can see of God is like a cloudy picture in a mirror. Later we will see him face to face. We don't know everything, but then we will, just as God completely understands us. For now there are faith, hope, and love. But of these three, the greatest is love. (1Corinthians13:1-13) 

IS THE RESPONSE TO COVID19 OVERBLOWN?

IS THE RESPONSE TO COVID19
OVERBLOWN?

CDC reckons the first death from covid19 on March 12 in China, almost ten weeks ago. Since that time they have reckoned that 318,201 people have died WORLDWIDE. Of course the figure will grow.

For TODAY I will round that figure up to 320,000. The US Census Bureau estimates the world's population at 7,577,130,400. I will round that down to 7,500,000,000. This will slightly inflate the number of deaths and the percent of the population dead from covid19.

Average deaths per week: 320,000 / 10 =  32,000
Projected number deaths per year: 32,000 x 52 = 1,644,000 WORLDWIDE
Percent of world's population dead from covid19 TODAY =  0.0043%
Projected Percent of world's population dead from covid19 one year from March 12 =  0.022%

[ 0.022% of 7,500,000,000 = 1,650,000 which is inline with the figure above of 1,644,000 ]


The following death statistics are estimates found on the internet @
https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/WLD/world/death-rate  :

(Macrotrends notes these figures DO NOT take the covid19 statistics into consideration.)

World - Historical Death Rate Data
Year: 2020
Death Rate per 1,000:  7.612
Growth Rate: 0.440%

7.612 deaths per thousand = a rate of 0.7612%
(not even 1% of us die each year.)

Rounding to 0.76% we see that 57,000,000 people are expected to die in 2020.
(0.0076 x 7,500,000,000 = 57,000,000)
** Fifty seven million will die from other causes than covid19. **
That's 

156,164 people every day.

Now if we add 57,000,000 expected deaths with 1,650,000 covid deaths we get 58,650,000 total deaths in 2020.

What percentage of these 58,650,000 are from covid19?
1,650,000 / 58,650,000 = 2.81%
Round it to** 3%**

Given that the margin of error for most all statistical calculations is plus or minus 4.0%, and given that world population, birth and death statistics are not easily verifiable, I ask:

Do we really think the covid19 virus warrants such angst, such worry? Is it worth the undoing of our nation's economy? Or the world's economy(s)? Is it worth altering the way people have lived for 6,000 years? 

Nevertheless and notwithstanding whatever is done or not done ALL things still work together for GOOD for those who LOVE GOD and are CALLED ACCORDING to His PURPOSE.