Brag on God Friday

I'm so glad you are here! I hope during your visit you get a glimpse of God's heart for we become what we are gazing at. I pray that God refreshes you and gives you readiness to persevere in what He has for you today.  My desire is to be a blessing to you in helping you know God more and make Him known so I've made these Resources available to you and have the Missional Living blog tab for practical ideas of how to live on mission right where you are. If you are blogger please come by on Friday to link up for Brag on God Friday. 

Merry Christmas!

" When the people willingly offer themselves-praise the Lord!" Judges 5: 2 (the rest of Chapter 5, Deborah's Song 5:3-31)

Christmas, The time to reflect and bring gifts to the King, a time to focus on the incredible gift of Jesus putting on flesh.

What has God given you to present back to Him as a please sacrifice? For "When the people willingly offer themselves-praise the Lord!" Judges 5: 2  

As I was asking the Lord what I had to give Him, He reminded me that I have writing. Writing about Him, bragging about Him is so honoring to Him! Have you ever had someone talk good about you behind your back and it gets back to you? Angi is great at this, I just found a comment on someones blog of her saying good things about me. Incredible girl! Not that God ever has His back turned... but you know what I mean. Bragging about Him through written words is a beautiful gift to Him. The wise men bring gold, frankincense and myrrh (cool post about myrrh) and I bring my blog, my written words and join them at laying them at Jesus feet. 

Birth is Only the Begining

This Christmas, as you set your hearts gaze on the King of Kings, don't stop there. Remember the big picture. He didn't come to get a cool birthday present of gold. And He didn't only come to make a way for us to be forgiven. He came to Redeem...  it ALL.  

"Jesus didn't just come in order to just snatch our spirits from this world to another. He came to redeem this whole creation." Randy Alcorn Jesus' birth, life, death, resurrection and return are less about us and more about God displaying His character.

He even spelled it out in Genesis 5 through the meaning of names. I'll show you. Here it is:
Adam means Man
Seth-Appointed
Enosh-Mortal
Kenan-Sorrow
Mahalalel- the Blessed God
Jared- Shall come down
Enoch- Teaching/Narrowing
Methuselah- His death shall bring
Lamech- the Despairing
Noah- Rest.

So here it is, Man appointed mortal sorrow. The blessed God shall come down teaching. His death shall bring the despairing rest. 

It's not all about us, it's about Him. The miraculous birth speaks more of a Savior than the needing to be saved. The cross and return speak more about the Redeemer than the Redeemed.


Bragging on God as the One who came down. The One who left the perfection and worship of heaven to bring redemption.

Bragging on God as the One who endured to the point of death for the redemption of people from every tribe and nation and for the restoration of His fallen creation.

And bragging on God as the One who will redeem and restore. Our Kinsman-Redeemer!

The  Sealed Scroll of Revelation 5 gives a glimpse of the incredible-ness of His return and redemption of the fallen. 

Have you ever wondered what in the world the scroll was and why it is so important? And why crazy catastrophies of the tribulation have to happen in relation to breaking the seals? Well, here it is: 

"It seems apparent that the sealed scroll Christ took from the right hand of God in heaven (Rev. 5) is the deed of purchase for mankind's tenant possessionn or administration of the earth... He will thereby assert His right to recover mankind's forfeited inheritance. He declared that Christ will do this 'admist demonstrations of judgment, affecting every departmet of nature, as though to shake it from the enemy's grasp."

"The unique, eternal God created the universe for His own benefit and soverign purpose; therefore, only He has the right to rule the entire universe, and that right includes the right to crush any enemy who challenges His rule... God gave mankind tenant possession of the earth as an inheritance with the intention that mankind function as God's representative, administerring God's rule over the earth in accordance with His will. This was a theocratic arrangement.

Mankind forfeited thier tenant possession fo the earth by following Satan's lead and rebelling against God. As a result, the theocracy was lost. Satan usurped the tenant possession of the earth and has continued to rule the world system ever since mankind's fall.

God purposed to restore the theoracy, which would require the redemption of mankind's forfeited inheritance. To do so, God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, into the world to become a man so that, as a kinsman, He could redeem mankind's tenant possession of the earth. Christ paid the redemption price for mankind and their inheritance by shedding His blood on the cross, thereby fulfilling the first responsibility of the Kinsman-Redeemer.

When Christ paid the redemption price, a scroll deed of purchase for mankind's tenant possession of the earth was repaid, sealed with seven seals (to guarantee its security against change, so that it could serve as irrefutable evidence in the future), and placed in a safe location-God's right hand.

Christ did not take tenant possession of the earth immediately after paying the redemption price.... During His absence, Satan and his forces have continued to exercise tenant possession of the earth as usurpers.

Seven years before His comig to the earth, Christ will take the sealed scroll deed of purchase from God's hand in preparation for the fulfillmet of the second responsibility of the Kinsman-Redeemer-the eviction of Satann and his forces and the taking of the earth's tenant possession.

Satan and his forces will strongly challenge Christ's right to take tenant possession. In order to give refutable evidence of His right as the Kinsman-Redeemer, Christ will take the scroll, break its seals, open it, and read it. As He breaks the seven seals, Christ will instigate a tremendous seven year bombardment of divine wrath or judgment against the domain of Satan and his forces in preparation for His coming invastion to evict these enemies. This seven-year bombardment is described in Rev. 6-18. Through this bombardment Christ will prove that He has the power and authority to fulfill the second responsibility of the Kinsman-Redeemer.

...After Christ has read the scroll deed, He will evict Satan and his forces from the earth (Rev. 19:20-20:3). Then He will take tenant possession of the earth and , together with redeemed mankind, will rule the earth in accordance with God's will as the last Adam, God's representative, for a thouand years..." 

Yeah, no wonder John would weep and the angels would fall down and worship when Jesus took the scroll. He is the only hope for our earth to be restored and redeemed!!
  
Excerpt from Our Lord, Come by Renald Showers who is widely recognized as one of the most distinguished theologians in America today.

Rejoicing with you this Christmas weekend 
in the reality that Jesus came to be born, live, die, resurrect and return as the Kinsman-Redeemer!!

And since it's Christmas, I wanted to give you a gift. I started making my Life Purpose Plan; discovering how your uniqueness, current reality and the mission fit together for the glory of God  available for free if you subscribe. I hope it blesses you!

The Entire Series of Weekday Devotionals,

Chapter One
{Day One} Delighting in God as the Know-er of All Things
{Day Two} Reliance 
{Day Three} Bigger Picture 
{Day Four} Prepare for Battle
{Day Five} No More 

Chapter 2
{Day Six} Revealer 
{Day Seven} The Lord's Anger
{Day Eight} Love Conquers All
{Day Nine} The Great Rescue
{Day Ten} The Big Test 

Chapter 3
{Day Eleven} What God Can Do with the Willing & Available 
{Day Twelve} Facing the Enemy
{Day Thirteen} Freedom for Captives
{Day Fourteen} Lone Ranger-Overcoming Comparison

Chapter 4
{Day Fifteen} Beauty of Bridled Strength  
{Day Sixteen} Tons of Nuggets 
{Day Seventeen} Where's the Trust

Will you join us in bragging on God?

Each Friday, I love to give others and opportunity to ban together and tell about how incredible God is. If you'd like to "proclaim the excellencies of Him who called us out of darkness" click the link below and follow the prompts to link up your post. 

Please let your readers know by including a link in your post or put my button code (found on the side bar) so they can find these other great people bragging about the greatness of God.


And will you leave some comments on these sweet peoples posts linked up. It sure can get discouraging sometimes and a kind word goes a long way. 

I'm joining The Beauty in His Grip and Spiritual Sundays