CHAPTER 16: REVISIT CHAPTERS 1-15 (part one 2022)
Chapter 16, is preparation. Preparation for war against an unseen enemy that hates you and lay in wait to destroy you. Beware, we are all at risk without God and become easily confused/confounded without constant attention to prayer and study.
2 Corinthians 11:3
New King James Version
3 But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the [a]simplicity that is in Christ.
Let’s blow through chapters 1-9 briefly and efficiently. Believe it or not, it is a short lesson, so pay attention, buckle up, it’s the real deal, Daddyo — Chapter 16 2022, Part One, Chapter 1.
CHAPTER 1 PARTNERING WITH GOD
Partnering with God is the acceptance and a yearning to have a relationship and a mediator between you and God. In the book of Job, the man cried out that he desperately needed a just mediator.
Job 9:32-35
New International Version
“He is not a mere mortal like me that I might answer him, that we might confront each other in court, If only there were someone to mediate between us, someone to bring us together,
someone to remove God’s rod from me, so that his terror would frighten me no more.
Then I would speak up without fear of him, but as it now stands with me, I cannot.
Job, is the probably the oldest story in the Bible. It is the story of a man inflicted with horrible problems. He doesn’t understand why God would do such a thing to him, he pleads for a mediator for Job knows there is no way he could plead any case before the all powerful God of Heaven and Earth. You and I have that mediator in Jesus Christ. And as we all know, life will cause great pain. For me, without Jesus I’m alone, as was Job. God did rescue Job, however for you and I, there is a mediator in Jesus Christ. He mediates for me to the Father, in my time of great pain. Once I understood that, accepted that.., I was able to work, without restraint, and my life changed forever, the past was remembered only to request forgiveness of my sins, and my present situation became a new day in Christ everyday. Did that change my balance sheet? It changed everything including my balance sheet. I had Jesus between me and God, and Jesus understands both sides, God and me. And most important, Jesus loves me and wants me to succeed in the ways of the Father. You cannot find that in any mediator in any court on this Earth.
Romans 8:28
King James Version
28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
For me, without Christ everything worked for a little while and then it didn’t. To commit to Christ is to admit that I am a sinner, and although unworthy I give myself to the Lord’s work, that He use me for His will, not mine — and that my friends is a rocket ride.
Matthew 7:14
English Standard Version
14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.
CHAPTER 2 THE ORIGINAL BLUEPRINT
My destiny. The one God made for me before time itself. You want to meet your best self ever? You want to look in the mirror and be happy with what you see? Great. Get on the path and stay on it. In the book of Acts, it is described as “the way.”
Acts 24:14
New International Version
14 However, I admit that I worship the God of our ancestors as a follower of the Way, which they call a sect. I believe everything that is in accordance with the Law and that is written in the Prophets,
Jeremiah 29:11 New International Version (NIV)
11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
Be careful not to measure yourself by the world. Clearly, some of the worst people in history garner the greatest wealth. Wealth is certainly not a measurement of Godliness.
Philippians 4:11-12 New International Version
11 I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. 12 I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.
CHAPTER 3 FREE FALL
Free fall is an indisputable failure that can only be interrupted by God. You fall off of a 70 story building, God’s about the only thing that can help. My life has been like that, and so has yours. He saved you, now what are you going to do with it? By the way, believers and non believers are susceptible to a free fall. The decision that seemed so right at the time, however it set you on a path of losing it all.
Proverbs 27:12 New International Version (NIV)
12 The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and pay the penalty.
A free fall is definitely caused by wanting more. Contentment and grateful keeps you far away from the cliff of catastrophic loss.
CHAPTER 4: LINE UP AND WAIT
You have turned things around. It is a brighter day, thank you Jesus. With new information and a second chance, why is it taking so long to feel okay. I’m always ready for the other shoe to drop? And what about the feeling that I don’t have enough money in case something big goes bad again. Faith is the reason for Chapter 4. Learning your Faith in God. Best we deal with the way things are and be extra grateful for the challenges, the blessings and the waiting for whatever comes next, strengthening one’s Faith.
Psalm 46:10
New King James Version
Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!
CHAPTER 5: THE BLACK FOREST
For those unfortunates who experience great good or great bad, either one is an equal opportunity employer for those who decide there is no God. Left in this mind there is no good end. Living life without God I struggle with what is important. The bar could change, ever day. It is maddening and unfulfilling. Worse, however is when one is faced with the last moments of life, the decision not to believe, will not only be the last decision you ever make it also carries the worst eternal consequences, i.e. judgement.
Jeremiah 2:21 Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)
21 I planted you, a choice vine
from the very best seed. How then could you turn into a degenerate, foreign vine?
CHAPTER 6: ACCEPT GOD’S WORD AS YOUR PRIMARY WEAPON
The playbook of a soldier in spiritual warfare, struggles in obedience, temptation, rage, fear, self loathing, arrogance, insanity and any number of challenges. The Word is Life.
Deuteronomy 6:6-9
New International Version
6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
CHAPTER 7: ACCEPTANCE
I am a sinner. I am not worthy. I am selfish. Prideful. Deceitful. Disobedient. Arrogant. Pathetic. Unqualified. Unworthy. Jesus died for my sins. He rose from the dead, ascended into Heaven so that I may have eternal life and my sins be forgiven. In the blood of Christ, I have been given a second chance. I ask for the strength to do what needs to be done. Not what I might want to do, but what needs to be done, exactly on time, right now. No talking about the way things should be or used to be or might be or could be. Please God, give me direction and discernment to deal with things as they are the way it “is”.
Ezra 10:4
English Standard Version
4 Arise, for it is your task, and we are with you; be strong and do it.
CHAPTER 8: INTEGRATION
If God is in the small things, He is in the big things. If I am not trustworthy in the small things, I am not trustworthy in anything.
Luke 16:10-11
New International Version
10 “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. 11 So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?
Integration is the combination of all things considered with God, all things known with God, all things experienced with God, all things learned with God, all things prepared with God. Wisdom is God. Knowledge is God. God is God and I am not. In Him I am great, without Him I am not great.
Revelation 1:3
Holman Christian Standard Bible
3 The one who reads this is blessed, and those who hear the words of this prophecy and keep[a] what is written in it are blessed, because the time is near!
Chapter 16 Revisit Chapters 1-15 Part One, Chapter 1-8. We revisit the lessons that brought me out of insanity and into the Book of Life, the Bible, the original manuscript from the Greek text, found and verified over and over in history, rediscovered in it’s original form discovered between 1947 and 1956 in eleven caves near Khirbet Qumran, on the northwestern shores of the Dead Sea. Those manuscripts are approximately two thousand years old, dating from the third century BCE to the first century CE. Most of the scrolls were written in Hebrew, with a smaller number in Aramaic or Greek. Most of them were written on parchment, with the exception of a few written on papyrus. It is the exact same bible, the same words that we are studying today, Wednesday August 31, 2022. It has truly been here, as God said, for the exact time quoted within it.
The chapters fit together like a machine.., a machine that drives people into the next dimension.., into the Grace and Mercy of a loving God. A road map that delivers a person from the hands of fate into the hands of destiny.
Isaiah 11:2 English Standard Version (ESV)
And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
Chapter 16, Part One, Chapters 1-8 — 2022
God is always faithful, especially — to you. Amen.
