Calvary Temple

Genesis 22:1 tells us that Abraham’s faith was tested by God. God required him to sacrifice his beloved son, Isaac, the son of promise to God. Abraham said that this act of service to the Lord was “Worship.”

That’s a very, very different interpretation of what some modern-day church goers might call worship. It’s not fancy lights and loud music performed by an entertainment group. Romans says that worship is our spiritual service.

Are we holding on to anything at all so tightly that we couldn’t open our hands and let it go as worship unto the Lord? If we are, we must re-evaluate our worship.

Repentance always precedes revival. It’s God’s way. In the book of I Samuel Chapter 8, God had provided Israel with a righteous judge and prophet, Samuel. But the people rebelled, and demanded a king. Despite God’s warnings that a king would exact taxes from them, put their men into work camps and hijack their women for his own purposes, they still wanted a king. So God gave them Saul as their king.

Saul had every outward appearance of a great king—but inwardly, he lacked righteous character. And this lack led him to make risky, selfish decisions. God repented of putting him on the throne, and together with Samuel, they anointed David as the next king of Israel.

David was so important to be the next king because he had a righteous, repentant heart. And, he was also of the bloodline from which Jesus, the Messiah of the world would descend. Jesus was not only David’s divine creator and human descendent, but also his eternal Savior.

Last week Pastor Debbie called on the congregation to prepare something uplifting and edifying to share with the church this week. Join us as we share our testimonies, favorite scriptures, or whatever else we felt may uplift and edify the church.

The Jewish leaders were so indoctrinated in the laws of Moses that they were blind to the message of Jesus Christ as the Messiah. In Acts 13, Paul built on the familiar, until in Acts 13:23, he told them: And it is one of King David’s descendants, Jesus, who is God’s promised Savior of Israel. There, he’d said it.

Addressing yet another group of staunch Jewish leaders in Rome, in Acts 28:28, Paul said, Brethren,… I believe that the HOPE OF ISRAEL, THE MESSIAH, HAS ALREADY COME.

But, since the message was widely rejected by the Jews, God, in His mercy, opened up the way for the Gentiles to hear, and accept the message of forgiveness of sins and redemption. The Gentiles accepted the message with gladness and thanksgiving. Have you accepted God’s gift of love which is available to all people who will believe?

Yokes are intended to equalize the weight of a heavy load between a team of animals. It serves them well as long as the animals don’t rebel under the yoke.

God told the prophet Jeremiah to fashion a yoke around his own neck as an illustrated sermon to show the people of Israel that they soon would be under the yoke of the King of Babylon because of their sin. He warned them not to listen to their false prophets who would say that all was well and that God would not put them under the foreign King’s yoke, but He did just that, and then dealt harshly with the false prophet.

But, in Matthew 11:28-30 Jesus speaks of another kind of yoke. He said, “Come unto me all you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take MY yoke upon you..." He meant that we can exchange the heavy yoke of sin and shame for His yoke of rest and peace, for His yoke is easy to bear and His burden is light.

Faith or Fear? Sometimes, because we are 100% human, it’s both. The Prophet of Israel, Elijah was mightily used by God in I Kings Chapters 18 &19. He did mighty things through God, but his humanness was a big struggle for him. He was called to a confrontational type of ministry—one that required introspection and personal decision. He asked the people, “How long will you waiver between two opinions? If God is God, then serve Him, but if Baal is god, then serve him!"

The people didn’t like being put on the spot like that and this friction caused Elijah to be lonely and despondent at times, to the point that he felt sorry for himself and became depressed and it affected his ministry.

But, God saw his potential and revealed Himself to Elijah in a very quiet, personal way. Can you hear God’s gentle voice, or do you look only for the loud demonstrations of power?

It’s important to God that we remember. Like in Joshua, Chapter 4, where He instructed Joshua to have the priests erect memorial stones so that they would always have a marker by which to remember God’s miraculous deliverance of them out of Egypt. In Deuteronomy 19:14 God told the people not to forget the landmarks, the stones that would mark their properties in the new Promised Land, and not to move their neighbor’s landmarks.

Physical landmarks are good, but spiritual landmarks of where we’ve met with God in prayer, in church services or alone with Him, where He touched us mightily, where our hearts broke in sweet surrender and we could accept His will in a matter—those are the landmarks we need most for today. For they will give us strength, and build our faith.

Have you ever felt like you’ve lived through something before? Deja vu? We can find the answer to this in Ecclesiastes 3:15! What is happening now has happened before and what will happen in the future has happened before, because God makes the same things happen over and over again.

When God brings the past into a believer’s present, He is virtually giving us a do-over to learn from our mistakes the first time around, repent, and do it better the next time. For non believers, He’s giving them an opportunity to accept Jesus as their Savior so they do not have to face judgment.

Matthew 24:35 tells us that Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.

God calls the past in account according to His eternal word.

I Corinthians 14:33 tells us that God is not a God of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.

From the beginning, on the very first day of creation, through the power of the Holy Spirit, God established order out of chaos. He brought form and filled the voids with all things pertaining to life and godliness.

He did the same with the coming of Christ; all things done in the order in which God intended it. Jesus’ birth, life, death and resurrection all in accordance with prophetic scripture.

God will bring order out of our chaos; Psalm 121 confirms it. He will bring order to our world, our lives, and yes, even to Israel. Psalm 121:4, Behold, He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.

It is said that the drink offering described in Numbers 15 represents the works that the worshipper did in order to make the sacrifice. The drink offering was not shared with the priests or the worshippers, but was only for God. Jesus, under the New Covenant, became our sacrifice, and when he was offered once and for all, the Old Testament sacrifices were abolished.

But, the drink offerings—the worshipper’s efforts and works for others, are still required by God! Romans 1:1-2 tells us that we, who are the strong in the Lord, must bear up our weaker brothers and not just please ourselves. Christ did not please himself, but his Father and all those who reproached him. Yes, the drink offering of our love, devotion, and acceptance of other believers is truly a sweet smelling savor to the Lord.