Genesis 5:24 And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.
Colossians 1:27 To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Revelation 3:4 You have a few names even in Sardis who have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with Me in white, for they are worthy.
Sometimes, the more significant, powerful, or influential someone is, the less you know about him or her. There are some people of influence whose names most of us have never heard, and about whom we know almost nothing, yet they make decisions which affect millions of lives.
Enoch is a Biblical character about whom we know hardly anything besides his age and genealogy; but we do know this -- that Enoch walked with God -- and then God took him. What an example! Is there anything greater that can be said about someone than, "He walked with God"?
Enoch's life was eternally distinguished by this one characteristic: his personal relationship with the Lord. He somehow maintained a degree of divine fellowship that was so pleasing to God that He just transformed the man's earthly body and took him to glory without ever experiencing death, and this was long before the Holy Spirit was poured out on all flesh.
But this ought to be the simple secret of the life of every believer: walk with Him, because the mystery that was hidden from mankind is now revealed to us through His Son – "Christ in you – the HOPE OF GLORY"; so that now, every truly born again soul can walk with the living God through His constantly indwelling presence. Do we realize the amazing opportunity we've been given?
The simplicity of this truth cannot be overstated. The Lord Himself told Martha, "One thing is necessary"... intimacy with Him; a conscious choice to walk with God, to think about Him, to look at Him, to talk with Him, rest in Him, obey Him, care about him, serve Him, and love Him in a million ways. We are all guaranteed the resurrection that Enoch experienced because Yeshua (Jesus) walked with God and totally pleased Him. And we have the choice to follow His example of intimacy...just as our brother Enoch did.
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[worthy_plugins_devotion_single_body]This one of several theophanies found in the Old Testament of the “preincarnate” Yeshua (Jesus). In this story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. These three men refused to bow and worship another God besides the God of Abraham, Issac and Jacob. While they knew that God was able to deliver them, they also knew that He might choose not to do so–and whether He delivered them or not had no influence on their loyalty to Him. These three faithful Hebrews were convinced that idolatry was a non-starter for them, no matter what! Their unquestionable loyalty brought wrath upon their heads. Nebuchadnezzar’s violent rage moved him to increase the furnace fires seven times!
The word “midst”, in the Greek, is ‘meros’ which literally means “the middle”. In the ‘meros’ of the throne in heaven is the Lamb of God. The very focus of heaven — the center of attention — is the Lamb of God!
Judges 6 begins with an angel talking to Gideon saying, “thou mighty man of valor!” However, in this passage Gideon isn’t feeling very valiant — he’s consumed with his circumstances — how poor his family is and how he’s the least of his fathers’ house. He doesn’t feel he’s done anything worthy of being called valiant, yet the angel still addresses him “mighty man of valor!”
Every time I turn on the news it seems the new buzzword is – CHANGE! So how can we just shift gears and change? Let’s learn a lesson about basic automotive mechanics. Generally a car has between 4 and 5 gears. The first gear maximizes power in exchange for speed. As you move through the gears, you can continue to go faster, yet without using any more power, and before you know it – you have to look at the speedometer – cause nobody wants a speeding ticket!
One thing I absolutely love about Israel is that fruit grows everywhere in abundance. Delicious citrus fruit, mango, pomegranate, grapes, cactus fruit, avocado — and much much more! It’s common to see people people pick and eat it as they walk by. And it doesn’t taste like your average western fruit either. It seems to be especially sweet. It must be because God has blessed the land it’s grown upon!
Sometimes it’s very difficult to rejoice in trials – especially when the trials affect ministry! Last week, one of our servers had a database server collapse, but after several days of work, the server is now back online. Although the damage was minimal, the time needed to spend researching the issue and then rebuilding the databases took days.
Reading the gospels I find myself considering and identifying with the very human experiences and emotions of the Apostles, especially as the pace and intensity of the events of their lives with Yeshua were unprecedented. I have to wonder if the pace and intensity of the days of our lives can compete with theirs. Witnessing His miracles, His authoritative and concise way of teaching, His inevitable rejection, torture and crucifixion, His astounding exuberant resurrection, and eventual returning flight to Heaven from whence He came…all this must have had a rather relentless effect upon those who walked in any way closely with Him. Would it be fair to compare our present day scientific and technical accomplishments, political gymnastics, information explosion, pandemics, media magic, and the plethora of personal events, encounters and challenges, with their apostolic roller coaster ride?