The Lion Has Roared; God Has Spoken

(Amos 3:3-7)

How much do we know about the king of the beast- the lion? Unless, we are involved in their lives, we do know very little. It is a well-muscled cat; when it roars, its prey becomes paralyzed with fear, for it is loud and intimidating to all who hears it. Its roar can be heard five miles away. The roar of a lion is like a warning, and an announcement. With the exception of its prey, those who hear him, run for shelter. It is a powerful cat and no one can escape its claws when he attacks. Peter compared the devil persistence in attacking the Christians, in a figure of speech, to that of a roaring lion when roaming around, looking for someone to devour (I Peter 5:8). On the final moments of its prey, the lion announces his victory over it with a loud and intimidating voice for all to hear.  The roaring of a lion has a spiritual meaning for all to consider. There is in it a warning for judgement we must heed to. The Prophet Amos asked the question, Will a lion roar in the forest when he has no prey? Will a young lion cry out of his den if he has taken nothing? … The Lion has roared; who will not fear? The Lord God has spoken; who can but prophesy? (Amos 3:4,8)

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Lo-Debar- a Thing of Naught

Lo-debar was a place where history opened its pages through the Bible and showed its conditions- spiritual, and physical. This city existing even in the time of Joshua carries a negative prefix Lo, and debar meaning “word” or “thing.”  It was there that Jonathan’s son’s nurse found refuge when she had to flee the palace at the news of King Saul’s death to protect Jonathan’s son from being killed.  He was only five years old when his nurse took him up and fled; and in her haste, he fell and became lame (II Sam.4).  She then fled to Lo-debar, where she found refuge in the house of Machir son of Ammiel at Lo-debar (II Sam. 9:4).  While still alive, Jonathan made a friendship covenant with David saying if anything would happen to him, David would take care of his family.  Jonathan knew that David, and not he was to take the throne of his father, consequential to the destruction of his family.  His son was taken and hidden in a remote place, where only the outcasts from society, the unskilled and non-educated people lived.  Lo-debar was nonetheless, a place of refuge.  Mephibosheth son of Jonathan lived there all his life until he was sought for and rescued by King David for the sake of his friend Jonathan.

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This Is High Time

(Romans 13:11-14)

Besides this you know what hour this is, how it is high time now for you to wake up out of your sleep, for salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone and the day is almost here. Let us then drop the work and deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light (Rom. 13:11-12).

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Five Loaves of Bread and Two Fish

(John 6:1-14)

The Jewish Passover was approaching when a crowd of people seeing what YAHSHUA had done in reference to miracles, followed Him. Testing Philip, one of His disciples, YAHSHUA, aware of the people’s need, asked him a question: “Where are we to buy bread, so that all these people may eat?” There was a reason why YAHSHUA directed the question to Philip. He singled him out for a divine appointment. There is a significant meaning in every singularity of events YAHSHUA presented. Here YAHSHUA was perhaps telling Philip wherever he goes to share His broken body, his needs will be provided supernaturally, or perhaps He was asking Philip how he was going to share the Gospel (His broken body –the Living Bread) to the famished world.

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The Righteous Are Living Memorials of God’s Faithfulness

(Psalm 92: 15)

The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree; they shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon, planted in the house of the Lord, they shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be full of sap and verdure. [They are living memorial] to show that the Lord is upright and faithful to His promises; He is my Rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him (Psalm 92: 12-15).

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By Your Endurance You Will Gain your life

(Luke 21:10-38)

Persistence is the key to success in every situation. There is no victory in giving up; no reward and no going forward; life will not stop for one giving up; and regrets will be the thing that will make him look back for the rest of his life. YAHSHUA, in this instance, when warning His disciples, emphasized greatly the importance of persevering amidst the troubled times. His emphasis was without a doubt, in the spiritual aspect of life. “Those who persevere to the end will be saved,” He said. When God in His wrath, cause “the powers of heaven to be shaken and the earth to totter,” it will be nothing that man could do to alleviate the consequences. Life as it was known will be no more the same.

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Nevertheless, Your Will Be Done

After eating His last Passover with His disciples, YAHSHUA led them to the Gethsemane Garden. It was night. The darkness of the night could not hide the agony expressed in His voice saying, Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done (Luke 22:42). What was He expressing in that hour, fear? Hardly.  He, for a moment of His earthly life, was going to suffer as a human being in the fire of hell, when He would break himself away from Whom He was in the holy trinity- the Son.  How hard it was going to be for Him, Who knew no sin! We can never understand how God in three persons – Father, Son and Holy Spirit would condemn Himself in the person of the Son to hell.  But this is for another time. My point here however, is that even  to the point of His death His prayer remained embedded  in the will of the Father, as He had been teaching: “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

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The Expected Long Blast Trumpet Sound

(I Corinthians 15: 52; I Thessalonians 4:15-18; Joshua 6)

When you make a long blast with the ram’s horn and you hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the enclosure shall fall down in its place and the people shall go up, every man straight before him (Josh. 6: 5). “When you make a long blast with the ram’s horn… the people shall go up.”  The destruction of Jericho is a picture of the rapture preceding the tribulation.

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Raised With Christ For Salvation

(Ephesians 2:6; 7:11, 12)

The wonderful book of Ephesians is without a doubt, a treasure for the believer in Messiah YAHSHUA. The first chapter is full of blessings from the beginning to the end: We are chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world and set apart as blameless; we are adopted as His own through our Lord YAHSHUA; in him we are redeemed and in Him we were made heritage and have obtained an inheritance; we have been stamped with the seal of the long-promised Holy Spirit as a guarantee, an anticipation of our redemption (Ephesians 1).The beautiful thing here is that we have all of these blessings now, while in our corrupted body. Also, we have been raised with Christ and He has made us to sit down together in the heavenly sphere with Him (2:6). That’s where we are spiritually speaking; that’s the position God has given us now and forever that He might clearly demonstrate through the ages to come the immeasurable riches of His free grace in His kindness and goodness of heart toward us in Messiah YAHSHUA (2:7). The believer has become in Him children of Light. YAHSHUA is the light of the world. His light is reflected in all believers. We were marked for our redemption through the seal of the Holy Spirit, as Israel was when the door post of their houses were marked with the blood of a sacrificed lamb for their salvation.

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