Running The Race As A Winner – Day Eighteen

I Value my adoption – loving, honoring, and obeying my father;
And Yeshua my Savior, my Lord, and my Brother;
My Kinsman redeemer who cares for me.
I will demonstrate love to this Royal Family, to which by his grace I belong.
Father, humble me and make me your own true child.

We have been adopted by the Father and are of the seed of Abraham. We are children of the promise by faith. We are positionally a royal family member; therefore, we walk worthy of our calling with all discernment and gentleness; and with tolerance accepting one another in love.

Knowing Yeshua compels love; it is the result of knowing the One whose name is Love.

We love God with every emotion available to us, with every breath we take, with every thought; and we love him as mighty, as strong, and as intently as we are able to.

In loving Yeshua we love ourselves because he loves us; and we love others because he loves them – because we understand how precious and dear every individual is to our Father. This is the complement of love, that our self-interest grows to include God and others with an awareness of “being” in relation to the family of God. The total of our personality finds expression. We are integrated with the Love of God and that love finds its fulfillment in its expression to others.

As winners in the race we have a mindset toward comforting love, affection, and mercy in the Spirit; and we are aware of our place in the body along with the equal importance of every other member of the body. We regulate our actions for the good of the whole with the spirit of co-operation.

Prayer: Lord, you are Love. You are the love of my life. I commit my will to you and your love flows through me like rivers of living water. I have not always known how to love or why I should love. The world has a counterfeit love that I have often confused with real love. I will practice the love which my position in you makes me capable of and I will rely on your love to take over where my practice is faulty. Thank you, Love. And blessed be the name of the Lord God from this time forth and forevermore.

Running The Race As A Winner – Day Seventeen

Trusting in my father for the consequences
I will follow his leading
Not counting the cost
Allowing him to lead in all that I do
I live by faith.

In every circumstance of our lives, bad or good, we are more than conquerors through Yeshua through his love for us. We don’t know what the effects or costs of following Mashiach will be but we can trust him and know that, although sometimes it seems like this may have been a bad idea, it’s a good idea because he is in control; and is working everything together in our lives so we will be more like him. The prize at the end is worth it all and we have his power in the fallouts of running faithfully under his yoke.

We and our Father are committed to each other. We have chosen to join forces. Sometimes the fog rolls in and the darkness hides his face. We can’t see what he’s trying to do. We can’t hear his voice. The words in Scripture are just words. We try but the fog is obliterating everything. It seems he must have left us alone and forgotten us – but he couldn’t have left us because he said, “I will never leave you, nor forsake you.”  We don’t see, hear, or feel him but we know he is with us because he said he is, so we keep our eyes on the lookout for him, our ears open to hear him. The fog will lift and the Light will shine through the darkness. He is the light at the end of every tunnel. When he was in the world, he was the light of the world. Now his followers are the light of the world through the power of Rauch Ha Kodesh. As we wait for the fog to lift and the light to shine on the face of our Savior in the countenance of each other, we cling to the truth and keep running.

Prayer: Lord I believe. Help thou my unbelief.

Running The Race As A Winner – Day Sixteen

My constant concern must be
To deliberately perform well.
I must conduct myself in such a way
As to glorify my father.

Faith is a product of grace; the material and evidence of our unseen hopes created from promises God made to us. Mashiach/Christ is the one who our faith comes from and he is the only one who can strengthen and work it to perfection. We are his well-done, completed production; therefore, we function correctly.

In the beginning God created us faultless. However; through our disobedience since the beginning we are dead (separated from God) in our transgressions and failings. But God, rich in mercy, great in love; by grace made us alive in Christ, which united us again with our Creator.

We are his workmanship: the product of his effort. Created unto good works, we are not repaired with old parts, but given new parts that are working right and made into a good man in good working condition. God takes the dim eyes and gives them clear sight, the ears that are heavy and gives them hearing; the slow tongue, he gives words to utter.

When the gears get dirty, we wash them in the water of the Word and oil them with Rauch Ha Kodesh/the Holy Spirit. When they wind down, we plug them into the power source – The Light of the world.

Prayer: O Lord, from you comes every good and perfect gift. In you there is no shadow of turning. You are consistent in all your ways. You have brought me forth by the word of truth that I might be among the kind of first-fruits of your creatures. For this reason, Lord, you will direct me into and through the perfect law of liberty, so I am working well to demonstrate your attributes to the world.

Random thoughts and things

Two important things happened to my earthly father in the middle eighties. He was born on 1902 and was in the middle eighties of his life. The most important thing was when he made a public confession that there was a God, that Jesus was the Son of God, and that he needed the atoning sacrifice of Jesus. He was born of God and stepped from death into life. The second thing that happened to him was the result of stuffing benzoin up his nose, then putting it in the tobacco in the bowl of his pipe so he could get it through the smoke, and finally pouring it in his coffee. One day I went into the room where he always sat in a rocker and watched T.V. He was sitting in another chair with his head back and was unresponsive. I called an ambulance and when I was allowed I went into his hospital room to see him. I wrote the following “poem” about the experience.

In the Hospital
“Hey! Careful there; can’t you
See we are trying to make a movie.
Here, don’t get in the way of the cameras
Now, I know you have to take my temperature
Again. You don’t have to explain your moves
to me. Just walk over here closer to the bed
Side of the room a little more so you’ll be
Out of the way of these busy people. We’re making
A spy movie and I’m the star you know. It’s important
For you to understand.”

Home again, Home Again – whoopity-do!
“I can’t go in there. You go in there
And you’ll see the evidence is stacked up
Against them in a pile by the door
Way over there, you see. They’re trying to kill me
Now; I know too much – you’ll see it all in there
Its standing in there. I heard them talking and I knew
I’d never go back in there again. You’ll see how I’m
Only safe in here where they can’t get to me. I will
Stay in my chair where I’m safe.
You’ll see.

He stayed in that chair except to go to the chair across from him to relieve himself. It wasn’t until he had put himself in an unhealthy situation that the law allowed the authorities to put him back in the hospital and give him medicine to take the voices and pictures away.

My father’s faith was genuine but he had made choices in his early life that affected his last days. He lived with the destructive results of some of those bad choices but that is not the end of the story. The story ended when he was set free from those results and when home to be with the Savior that he so recently acknowledged.

We are broken human beings living in a damaged world where nothing is perfect, but we have a perfect God who conquered sin and death by his death, burial, and resurrection. Those of us who have some time left on this earth and have stepped from death into life are equipped to represent the love and mercy of our God to the world. He has told us what is good and what he requires of us. He expects us to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with him. As we walk with him our actions and emotions will be in agreement with him. Blessed be his holy name.

Running The Race As A Winner -Day Sixteen

My constant concern must be
To deliberately perform well.
I must conduct myself in such a way
As to glorify my father.

Faith is a product of grace; the material and evidence of our unseen hopes created from promises God made to us. Mashiach/Christ is the one who our faith comes from and he is the only one who can strengthen and work it to perfection. We are his well-done, completed production; therefore, we function correctly.

In the beginning God created us faultless. However; through our disobedience since the beginning we are dead (separated from God) in our transgressions and failings. But God, rich in mercy, great in love; by grace made us alive in Christ, which united us again with our Creator.

We are his workmanship: the product of his effort. Created unto good works, we are not repaired with old parts, but given new parts that are working right and made into a good man in good working condition. God takes the dim eyes and gives them clear sight, the ears that are heavy and gives them hearing; the slow tongue, he gives words to utter.

When the gears get dirty, we wash them in the water of the Word and oil them with Rauch Ha Kodesh/the Holy Spirit. When they wind down, we plug them into the power source – The Light of the world.

Prayer: O Lord, from you comes every good and perfect gift. In you there is no shadow of turning. You are consistent in all your ways. You have brought me forth by the word of truth that I might be among the kind of first-fruits of your creatures. For this reason, Lord, you will direct me into and through the perfect law of liberty, so I am working well to demonstrate your attributes to the world.

Running The Race As A Winner – Day Fifteen

As I do the will of God,
Jesus is my Brother and I am a branch;
Identifying with the vine,
Living by the Royal family Code.

A search of the scriptures reveals 13 words for love -a  passionate, spiritual, emotional attachment that reflects the high regard one has for another person; a gentle and solicitous feeling.

To list all these words here would be pointless, but their meanings will help us understand the immeasurable power love has in the life that seeks to honor Mashiach/Christ.

These are the meanings:
1.         Spiritual and sexual affection
2.         Tender friendship
3.         To have pleasure or delight in (admiration)
4.         Desire
5.         Amorous words (very lovely, etc.)
6.         To Caress
7.         To have compassion, mercy,
8.         Benevolence
9.         Brotherly bond
10.       Fondness for mankind
11.       A husband and wife being a friend to each other
12.       Fondness for one’s children – Warm instinctive affection (has to do with choice or preference)
13.       An inclination to preform acts of kindness and to love in a social or moral sense (denotes the love of esteem, embracing the judgment and deliberate assent of the will as a matter of principle, duty, or propriety).

All the above are love; all are the same action verb described in I Corinthians 13 – the Royal Family Code. All, whether from a social or moral sense, love for brother/sister, husband/wife, one’s child; whether it is love from choice or preference; love for a friend, or love between God and man – all are patient, kind, not fearful about loss of position or affection, not boastful or self-important, polite, puts the loved one first, forgives eagerly, encouraging, supportive, optimistic, and consistent. This love is produced by the Rauch Ha Kodesh/ the Spirit of God and fulfills the law. It is alluring, enduring, faithful, and sure.

As we run the race with our eyes on Love we take on the qualities of love. We see Love in action and Rauch Ha Kodesh produces love in our lives.

Prayer: Lord, you who are perfect love, teach me to love. You are planting the seeds in my heart as I seek to obey you. You water them with the water of your word. Your spirit breathes life into the flames of my love so it burns brightly. The love that flows through my life will take root in the dirt of the world and produce the fruit of the Spirit, returning beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for sorrow, and the covering of praise for the spirit of heaviness. Then I will be a tree of righteousness that you have planted (you who are the root of the tree) and you will be glorified.

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Running The Race As A Winner – Day Fourteen

Never cast off, I am pitied, protected, and chastened;
Sealed to the day of redemption, an heir to the promises
By my Father.

The Church is the true seed of faithful Abraham – Jew and non-Jew together; we are chosen by God, justified through faith, and delivered from sin. We, the children of faith, have acquired blamelessness through our confidence in the God of our salvation; and we are free from the law of sin and death. We are the family of a loving Father – the community of the resurrection. We are fit and formed together by the one who began and will finalize the vocation and development of the individual parts of the whole – the body of Christ – the Church.

This is the fourteenth day of our wonderful challenge of running the race as a winner. As ones who are running in the victory already won, we will look for God’s direction in all that touches us. We know the Father is with us all the way – supportive in difficulty, ready to come to our defense, listening to what we have to say; we look for his answer in his Word and know it is wisdom speaking. He accepts us as we are but quickens us to new awareness; challenging us to greater heights, he induces more understanding by stimulating superior insight. He shows us our position spiritually, which gives us increased self-esteem, bringing light to our darkness and moving us to walk closer to himself.

Prayer: Lord God, my Father, my Savior, my Friend; you my strength; your law is perfect, it restores my soul; your testimonies are sure, they turn my simple faith to wisdom; your precepts are right, they put joy in my heart; your commandment is pure, it brings understanding to my sight. I will continually search the Scriptures for a better understanding of your character and that will strengthen the bond between us.

Running The Race As A Winner – chapter Thirteen

I Peter 2:5
Ephesians 2:19-22

With a parent entirely wise and good,
And my position permanently assured,
I abide with absolute security and stability
In the family of God.

God spoke to Abraham and told him to leave his father’s house and go to a land that he would show him. Abraham’s father and his father’s house left for Cannon, not directly across the wasteland but up through what is now Turkey where they lived until his father died. Abraham missed the mark on two counts: he didn’t leave his father’s house, he took it with him, and he failed to go directly to Cannon. When he was seventy-five years old he left Turkey for Cannon but when life got hard because of famine, he went to Egypt where he lied and risked Sarah to ensure his own safety. God blessed him in spite of his breakdown and for a time Abraham walked close to God. But he nose-dived again when he tried to accomplish God’s purpose with his own plan for a son. Again he lived in partnership with God for a time, and again missed the mark of perfection when he lied to Abimelech about Sarah to save his own neck.

The Accuser would say,”He’s worthless. He disobeys, procrastinates, and stumbles at every turn. What good is he?” But God’s Word says, “Abraham believed God and it was accounted unto him for righteousness.”

Abraham’s position with God was absolutely secure and stable. He was called blameless looking forward to that city whose builder and maker is God of which we are a part, with our position secure in Christ.

Prayer: Blessed are you, the God and Father of our Lord Yeshua Ha Mashiach who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Yeshua. Thank you for the security and stability of my position in Yeshua ha Mashiach, and the confidence that you are working in my life to cause me to become more like you as I study your face in the mirror of your word and match my practice with my position.

Running The Race As a winner – Day twelve

Emotionally involved with the King
In the vicissitudes and victories of his cause in the World
Known by him,
In spite of which he wants me as his friend.  (Psalm 139)

We are in love with the King and he is in love with us, and our personalities inter-penetrate as we live in his world where we have a mutual understanding and shared subjectivity with its own special music and emotional quality.

He is our emotional support system, our sanctuary, source of nourishment and energy, and a point of certainty that is solid and real.

We and the King have committed ourselves to each other. We have chosen to join forces. This kind of love takes courage on our part and unlimited grace on his part. As it made him vulnerable to the death of his only Son, it makes us vulnerable because it requires self-disclosure. We must be willing to know and encounter ourselves. The King has a genuine interest in our private worlds. In an atmosphere of respect and acceptance we are involved in his viewpoints, passions, and responses – his pain and anger, his joy and happiness. We are attentive to what he has to say and are confident in his concern about what we have to say. Our King and “I” communicate to each other the full range of our mental and emotional worlds: love, joy, excitement, perceptions, and thoughts.

Prayer: I will praise you with my whole heart; before the gods I will sing praise to you. And praise your name for your loving kindness and your truth; for you have magnified your Word above all your name. In the day that I cried out to you, you answered me, and made me bold with strength in my soul. Search me O God and know my heart. My soul delights in you. And blessed be the name of the Lord God from this time forth and forevermore.

Running The Race As A Winner – Day Eleven

Ephesians 5:8, 17, 18

Filled with the Spirit,
I develop a deep acquaintance with Yeshua,
My God and my Savior –
Practically applying the truth.

Born in the flesh, we grew without God; separated from him in our desire, action, intent, and purpose. Born of the Spirit and adopted by God we are united with Yeshua and grow closer to the aspiration, accomplishment, purpose, and objective of God as our own craving, accomplishment, determination, and drive are disciplined by Rauch Ha Kodesh/the Holy Spirit of God.

When the last trump sounds and this body of flesh joins the spirit of life, united in hope, deed, aim, and goal with the Spirit of God our salvation will be complete. Until that day compliance is the key word. He says, “If you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love …that your joy might be full.” We let Rauch Ha Kodesh/the Holy Spirit control us so His fruit will germinate and become effective in our lives, then the body of Christ will, with one mouth and one mind exalt the God and Father of our Lord Yeshua Ha Mashiach/Jesus Christ.

Prayer: Lord, you are very great. How precious also are your thoughts to me. You understand my thoughts afar off. You comprehend my path and are acquainted with all my ways. Fill me with your Spirit, Lord. Control my action and manifest your gifts in me.