Real work versus idleness

 In my daily Bible reading yesterday (I was catching up in Exodus), I was struck by a sharp contrast between how Satan and the world counts what is valuable work versus idleness, and how God counts it:

Exo 5:1 And afterward Moses and Aaron came and said to Pharaoh, Thus says Jehovah the God of Israel, Let My people go that they may hold a feast to Me in the wilderness.
2 But Pharaoh said, Who is Jehovah that I should listen to His voice to let Israel go? I do not know Jehovah, and I also will not let Israel go.
8 And the quota of the bricks which they made previously, you shall still place upon them; you shall not diminish any of it, for they are idle; therefore they cry out, saying, Let us go and sacrifice to our God.

Pharaoh, signifying Satan ruling God’s people with his tyrranical world system, considers that when we take time to meet together and enjoy the Lord, we are idle in relation to the building up of his world system. This is in sharp contrast to what God considers productive work versus idleness:

An eternal redemption

Heb 9:12 And not through the ^ablood of goats and calves but through His ^bown blood, ^centered ^donce for all into the ^eHoly of Holies, ¹obtaining an ^feternal ²redemption.
13 For if the ^ablood of goats and bulls and the ^bashes of a heifer ^csprinkling those who are ¹defiled sanctify to the purity of the flesh,
14 How much more will the ^1ablood of Christ, who through the ²eternal Spirit ^boffered Himself ^cwithout blemish to God, purify our ^3dconscience from ^4edead works to ^fserve the ^5gliving God?

 As I was pray-reading Heb 9:12 and reading the Holy Word for Morning Revival on it this morning, I saw much more clearly than ever that the eternal efficacy of Jesus’ redemption is guaranteed by the fact that He has the Spirit of divinity in Him. As a real and genuine man, He could provide real and genuine human blood to pay for the sins of men. But if He were merely a man, then His blood would be like the blood of one goat, which could only cover the sins of one man up to that point. Maybe being perfect human blood, it could truly expitate–pay for–the sins of one man, not just cover it. But then it would only be the sins of one man up to the point of the man’s repentance. Sins after that would require fresh sacrifices:

The Spirit of Jesus in Act 16

In my Bible reading of Acts 16 this morning, I enjoyed seeing that Acts 16 shows Paul experiencing the Spirit of Jesus in the following ways:

• The Spirit of Jesus is the consummated, compound Spirit applying to us the human living of Jesus, in particular His experiences of suffering and crucifixion. I believe it also very much includes Jesus being the Son of Man, a human being not doing things by Himself but doing things only by the Father.
• In Act 16:6-7, Paul experienced the Spirit of Jesus restricting him from going to Asia or Bithynia. The Man Jesus is restricted; He does not go wherever He wants; He only goes where the Father leads Him. Thus, Paul experienced the Spirit as his restriction to not go where God was not going.
  
  Read More

New Testament Grace

Grace is often defined as “unmerited favour.” This is certainly true, but this definition is not complete. You could say that this is an Old Testament...

The harvest is white in Montreal, and the blending is so sweet!