The Scarlet Cord
Joshua 2:14 (New International Version)
14 "Our lives for your lives!" the men assured her. "If you don't tell what we are doing, we will treat you kindly and faithfully when the LORD gives us the land."
It was very perplexing. The carpet was well used, admittedly--but each week I sprayed that amazing enzyme eater stuff that we bought at the home show on it--and it looked clean and fresh again--briefly. A few days later I'd notice with amazement that the splattering of coffee and coke stains in front of the couch had returned. Eventually I gave up and just bought a rug to cover them up. It's a busy kind of rug. It doesn't show stains.
Not to compare Jesus to a coffee stain, but as irrepressibly, he is everywhere, almost on every page, of the Bible. It is as if God planted clues, like the trail of white pebbles in Hansel and Gretel, to lead the reader to find Jesus. Some call it "The scarlet thread," a picture of the Blood of Jesus Christ, shed on the Cross to wash away sin. No human could have devised such a stream, running through 66 books written over 1400-1800 years, by more than 40 writers.
This morning reading Joshua 2 there were glimmers of Jesus--foreshadows of Easter. I saw such a glimmer in the spies who said to Rahab the believing prostitute, "Our lives for your lives" (verse 14) foreshadowing the saving of lives with Christ's life, and in Rahab's words to the men in verse 16, telling them to go to the hills and "hide yourselves there three days," as Christ would be hidden three days in the tomb. Finally the scarlet cord which Rahab hung in her window, a signal that meant her protection, safety and alliance with God and his people.
This morning my friend Frances tried hard to share the light of God's Word with two ladies--members of a well known cult and they were blind to it. At the start of the day--knowing that they were coming to her home, God reminded me that his Word was the sword that she would have to pierce the darkness with, but as she later said--they had rendered themselves unable to hear his voice.
She said, "I figured out that all I had to offer them was being a vessel for the Lord."
"It was freeing,' she said, "I was the broken jar he chose to leak out of a bit."
When they left she was spent and sad for them but she had testified to a vibrant relationship with God, whom she knows intimately as her Father.
They are part of an organization that has their own version of the Bible, carefully reinterpreted to fit their belief system. and which indoctrinates its members with a tight web of control. There is no common ground to reason from and it is "another gospel."
It make me grateful for liberty and freedom to read and think, and most of all for the treasure of God's Word, bought and preserved with the blood of men who have died for it over the centuries.
Revelation 12:11 (New International Version)
11They overcame him
by the blood of the Lamb
and by the word of their testimony;
they did not love their lives so much
as to shrink from death.
14 "Our lives for your lives!" the men assured her. "If you don't tell what we are doing, we will treat you kindly and faithfully when the LORD gives us the land."
It was very perplexing. The carpet was well used, admittedly--but each week I sprayed that amazing enzyme eater stuff that we bought at the home show on it--and it looked clean and fresh again--briefly. A few days later I'd notice with amazement that the splattering of coffee and coke stains in front of the couch had returned. Eventually I gave up and just bought a rug to cover them up. It's a busy kind of rug. It doesn't show stains.
Not to compare Jesus to a coffee stain, but as irrepressibly, he is everywhere, almost on every page, of the Bible. It is as if God planted clues, like the trail of white pebbles in Hansel and Gretel, to lead the reader to find Jesus. Some call it "The scarlet thread," a picture of the Blood of Jesus Christ, shed on the Cross to wash away sin. No human could have devised such a stream, running through 66 books written over 1400-1800 years, by more than 40 writers.
This morning reading Joshua 2 there were glimmers of Jesus--foreshadows of Easter. I saw such a glimmer in the spies who said to Rahab the believing prostitute, "Our lives for your lives" (verse 14) foreshadowing the saving of lives with Christ's life, and in Rahab's words to the men in verse 16, telling them to go to the hills and "hide yourselves there three days," as Christ would be hidden three days in the tomb. Finally the scarlet cord which Rahab hung in her window, a signal that meant her protection, safety and alliance with God and his people.
This morning my friend Frances tried hard to share the light of God's Word with two ladies--members of a well known cult and they were blind to it. At the start of the day--knowing that they were coming to her home, God reminded me that his Word was the sword that she would have to pierce the darkness with, but as she later said--they had rendered themselves unable to hear his voice.
She said, "I figured out that all I had to offer them was being a vessel for the Lord."
"It was freeing,' she said, "I was the broken jar he chose to leak out of a bit."
When they left she was spent and sad for them but she had testified to a vibrant relationship with God, whom she knows intimately as her Father.
They are part of an organization that has their own version of the Bible, carefully reinterpreted to fit their belief system. and which indoctrinates its members with a tight web of control. There is no common ground to reason from and it is "another gospel."
It make me grateful for liberty and freedom to read and think, and most of all for the treasure of God's Word, bought and preserved with the blood of men who have died for it over the centuries.
Revelation 12:11 (New International Version)
11They overcame him
by the blood of the Lamb
and by the word of their testimony;
they did not love their lives so much
as to shrink from death.
Comments
you tell them the truth and they twist it.or shut it out altogether.I then feel the Lord say pray for their eyes to be opened.so I pray.
some times you dont know if anyone else is praying for them.if everyone thinks they are believers,and they arent they could slip into forever and not go the right place.
its sad but what can you do.I know a young girl who I talked to for a while.she was coming to see the light and one day she just turned away and that was it.she had read some book someone had given her.
it was lies and half turths but she took them in hook line and sinker.if I tryed to tell her the truth she would get mad.she would say well this person said this or that.finely I said look you have your own belief and I dont want to fight with you.and I just stopped trying to talk to her about it.
I just pray for her.she was very confused after that.she felt uneasy about what she believed and is still sreaching.
the rope we are holding for some one may be the only thing keeping them out of the devils hands.
I prayed for a friend who was in a life style he should not have been in.and it was taking him down the road to hell.he said well if its wrong how come so many are doing it?
I said just cause there are numbers doing it doesnt mean its right.I showed him what the word said every chance I got.the last time I talked to him I pulled out all stops.
I said you read the bible and if you can find one place in there where it says its ok,then Ill lay off you.
but if you cant then you better get your act together.I did it in a letter so I could put it down in black and white.
it was a very long letter.I had to think long and hard about putting it in the mail.
I had known this person for 23 years and he was my friend.and I loved him.but I couldnt stand by and love him into hell by not reaching him.
so I desided if I was going to do my best then this letter had to go to him.so I put it in the mail box and prayed thy will be done not my will.
months went by,then a year then two and no word form him.then three years.and I thought I had lost my friend.
but one day I got a call from him when I was gone.he had stopped to see me.he said he was going on a search for God to get answers.
I called him back and he said he would call me when he got back.
I was mad at God cause this guy was going to where this kind of life runs wild.
I said "Lord I been praying for 16 years for this guy to wake up and fly right!!! and now you send him to the den of sin!!!!
the Lord said trust me.he will come back a changed man.
2 months later he called and said the Lord had told him he was free from the sinful life style he was living.
and for him to call me and tell me my prayers were answed and he was a changed man.
he never knew I had been praying for him to get out of the life style.but God told him.
he didnt know but I had desided to stop being his friend cause it hurt me so much to see him in the mess he was in.
just a week before he called.I had said Lord I been praying all this time and have seen nothing.if you dont do some thing I will have to walk away.my heart cant take no more.
the Lord stopped him in his car and told him to call me and tell me what he did.
there is more to the story but its too long to go into here.
so dont give up no matter how it may look.you may be only hours or minutes away from a break through.
and you dont know who you have on the end of that rope.paul was let down by a rope to save his life.
who do you have at the end of your rope?
sorry so long.
God bless you.keep up your posts they are great.