Philippians 3:13-14 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
There are two kinds of birds that roam the desert: vultures and hummingbirds. The vulture thrives on a diet of rotting meat. He flies overhead searching for traces of leftover carcasses from slow-footed critters eaten by wild animals who’ve already had their fill.
Hummingbirds, on the other hand, will sweep through the desert, passing over all those repulsive, dead animals and seek colorful patches of beautiful wild desert flowers. They will suckle the delicious juices of those sweet desert blossoms and be satisfied.
How similar we are, at times, to these two birds. There are those among us who, perhaps unknowingly, cling to the past—our regrets, our failures, our sins. We feed on memories that drain our joy and diminish our hope. Like the vulture, we sustain ourselves on what should remain buried and left behind.
Yet, we have another choice. Let us take wisdom from the hummingbird and move swiftly past the lifeless things of yesterday. Let us intentionally seek the sweet promises of new life in the Lord, focusing our hearts and minds on the abundant, vibrant future God has prepared for us. In choosing life, we find true satisfaction and renewed strength.
Let’s sweep past that which is dead and focus on the sweet new life — the exciting future that God holds for us as we continue seeking Him and moving forward in our relationship with Him!
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[worthy_plugins_devotion_single_body]From the moment we were conceived we began aging, growing older by the day. We may slow down the physical aging process by exercising, eating right and other natural techniques – but we cannot ultimately stop it. This mortal flesh, our outer man, is “wasting away” and moving toward decay as we await the immortal bodies promised us in the Resurrection.
In his letter to the Colossians, Paul reveals the prophetic nature of Shabbat and the Biblical Feasts as “shadows of things to come”, whose substance is the Messiah Yeshua (Jesus). My study of the feasts therefore seeks to discover their relevance to the Lord, His identity, work, and purpose for my life in relationship to Him.
A few years ago, I was in a debate with an atheist who had a legal background, and the Lord gave me a revelation about the tactics of the enemy. At Yeshua’s first coming, his tactic was to destroy the infant before He could grow up; [Revelation 12:4-5]. After the Lord’s death and resurrection, Satan continued his direct assault by attacking the church through persecution, which lasted through the first three centuries. The tactics of the enemy were to destroy any “eyewitnesses” of God’s goodness.
An interesting parallel exists between these two passages of scripture: Isaiah 53:9 and Acts 3:15. Isaiah renders the “death” of the messiah in the plural form, “deaths” (“motav”). Acts renders the life of the Prince of Life as “lives” (“chaim”). Some scholars suggest that the plurality of the word death indicates a violent death this servant would suffer, and that making the noun plural is a way of emphasizing the terrible intensity of his experience. Jewish counter-missionaries suggest that the “death” in plural shows that the suffering servant is not an individual man, but a group of people, specifically the nation of Israel, thus denying that the passage refers to an individual messianic figure.
Proverbs says the “highway of the upright is to depart from evil”. It’s a highway — a way of life so to speak. And this proverb coincides with the central teaching of Yeshua (Jesus) — “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand.” What does it mean to repent? The Greek Word is “metanoia” which simply means to change your mind about sin or to depart from evil.
D.L. Moody has been influential in my personal life as I study and read about his life and ministry in the 1800’s. I remember reading a story about how D.L. Moody was preparing to lead a revival throughout England to which an elderly pastor protested and said, “Why do we need this ‘Mr. Moody’? He’s uneducated, inexperienced, etc. Who does he think he is anyway? Does he think he has a monopoly on the Holy Spirit?”
If these really are the “Days of Noah,” we would expect to see a world filled with increasing violence. The Hebrew for “violence” is , by coincidence, the name of the terrorist organization Israel has been fighting for decades. And simply perusing my news briefs in recent years gives abundant evidence for the conclusion that this terrible season is well underway. Noah’s day was filled with violence and also false witness, which is a second meaning for the word “Hamas” [e.g., ; ]; violence and lies, then and now…