Face to Face

This is a series of devotions and meditations on scripture that reject fear and champion faith. It discusses the symbolism of Jesus riding a donkey into Jerusalem and the significance of the crowd waving palm branches. It also explores the concept of sin and how we can create an environment where sin has trouble thriving by staying close to God. The process of sanctification is mentioned, as well as the assurance of forgiveness through Jesus. The ultimate goal is to be in line with God and experience His love and everlasting promises. Welcome to Fear No Fear. Grace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. May the Holy Spirit embrace you today. This is a series of devotions and meditations on scripture. We reject fear in any and all forms. Fear is a spiritual force, the currency of darkness and ignorance. It's what we inherited when Adam gave up his faith and Satan uses it to keep people down. His only weapon is words. If he can get you believing or looking at words of fear, he's got you. Instead, we champion faith as an allegiance to God, as a belief and trust and loyalty to the Lord God Almighty. We accept the evidence of his word as unvarnished truth, as is, just as it's written. We get close to his perfect love through the word, and perfect love casts out fear. 1 John 4.18 All scripture is taken from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Visit eBible.org John 12.14-15 Jesus, having found a young donkey, sat on it. As it is written, Don't be afraid, daughter of Zion. Behold, your king comes, sitting on a donkey's colt. Zechariah 9.9 Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion. Shout, daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, your king comes to you. He is righteous and having salvation, lowly and riding on a donkey, even on a colt, the foal of a donkey. The donkey was a common form of transportation in the ancient world, even for royalty. They had value and were often a symbol of wealth. They were also pictures of peace and humility. All of these apply to Jesus as he was abundant in blessing, royalty, peaceful, and humble. This ride on the donkey was prophesied by the prophet Zechariah, in the verse I just quoted, and another sign of Jesus being the Messiah, the Anointed One. Jesus was arriving for the Feast of Passover. One of the major components of the feast was the sacrifice of lambs. Now, like everybody, every God-fearing faithful Jew would come to these feasts. So hundreds of thousands of lambs were needed. They were driven up into the city all day long. As Jesus traveled into the city, he did so surrounded by lambs being led to the slaughter. Jesus, riding a symbol associated with peace, went into the city as a lamb among lambs. In direct opposition to this was the crowd. They were waving palm branches at him. The palm branch had become a national symbol because of the Maccabees. The Maccabees were rebels who seized control of Judea and ruled an independent kingdom from about 110 to 63 BC. The palm branch was one of their symbols used when they marched around Jerusalem to celebrate their capture of it. It became something of a national symbol and in Jesus' day was the major symbol of the rebels seeking to oust the Romans and gain independence. Surrounded by sacrificial lambs, the sacrificial Lamb of God rode into the city of Jerusalem among people who were proclaiming him as their socio-political savior who they were hoping would remove the yoke of the Romans and grant them independence. Talk about opposites. Spiritual and flesh. Now, Daughter of Zion was a title or a symbol of Jerusalem, the city of David, and by extension, the people of Israel. It was prophetically considered a daughter under the sacred relationship of protection of God Almighty. This is the positive likeness to a daughter that Jerusalem had. In scripture, it is first linked this way in Isaiah when he was prophesying against Sennacherib. But the likeness was not always positive. It started as a princess, a faithful city. But she becomes scornful, full of betrayal. She suffers, she is exiled, she has lost all her glory. But in the end, the prophecies are full of consolation and a return. Looking forward to the time when Israel got to be a nation again. When there would be a temple that they could offer sacrifices in again. A return to their first love, Yahweh. Now, moving forward from the time of Isaiah and Zechariah, it didn't work out for the Israelites as well as they hoped. Yes, they got to return to Israel. Yes, they rebuilt the temple. And yes, they began to worship Yahweh by sacrificing to Him in the temple. But they fell away. They began to skimp on their sacrifices. It began to be lip service. They rejected God. And God was unable to keep His face toward them because of where they chose to go and what they chose to do. But God kept looking for faithful people. God didn't give up. And hundreds of years later, an honest sacrifice came again to that altar. Again and for the last time, a faithful and pure sacrifice focused on Yahweh and in worshipful obedience. The perfect sacrifice to eliminate sin instead of covering it temporarily. When we move out from God's covering, when we let ourselves get sucked into the world and the world's interests, we turn away from where we should stand in the world but of the kingdom. We put ourselves into the wrong environment. We speak words into the air around us that helps the wrong environment to grow. When we are in the wrong environment, the wrong things will develop and grow. Purely in the natural, what is a great strategy to avoid disease? It's to put your body into an environment where disease doesn't thrive or spread. Healthy food, healthy lifestyle, and healthy outlook makes for a situation in your body where cancer doesn't thrive. Where disease has trouble growing. It isn't foolproof, but it makes it harder to be sick and easier to recover. We can wear masks and isolate ourselves. Keep our kids from school. Avoid large gatherings. This, again in the natural, in the flesh, helps keep the disease from finding new hosts. From spreading through the population. In some areas, it worked really well during the Spanish flu in 1918 to 1920, with some early island quarantines leading to an almost 50% saving of lives there. These are imperfect methods, but they are some of the best ways we have in the flesh to deal with fleshly things. Now, spiritually, it works the same way. We need to empower the things that create an environment where sin has trouble thriving. God inhibits sin. His very presence inhibits sin. Sin cannot exist in pure righteousness. If we abide in Jesus and seek to inhabit the arena of the throne, how can sin thrive in us? When we are plugged into God, we are plugged into an environment where sin doesn't exist. Now, it can be hard to grasp, but we have a God-given example. Sex. Far from being original sin, as the world would have you believe, it was created as a type and a shadow to show us the intimate bonding we should seek with God. And also, it was made for procreation. Now, naturally, two join to become one. That's the whole point of sex. Genesis 2, 24-25. It's to create a sense of intimacy between those two people. Now, spiritually, we are resurrected into Jesus and we become one with him by grace. Both the natural one that we enjoy with our partners and the spiritual one. They're both an intimate companionship. Both can be righteous. You know, sex isn't sin in the right circumstances. A good tester is to think, can I worship God and then do this? I mean, if you can kneel on the floor, honestly pray to God, worship him, and then jump into the sack, you either have a righteous relationship with your partner or you have zero conscience and belief in God. And if you aren't close to God, prayer would probably have a tendency to kill the mood. Our entire lives should be like that. An open, unending prayer of thanksgiving and worship to God. Laundry time, cooking time, cleaning time, driving time, working time, bathing time, all the time. All the time. That will enable an environment where sin won't thrive. Stay in it, you'll find you don't sin. We only sin when we are out of the presence of God. We don't sin when we are focused on the presence of God, grounded in his word. Isn't that a simple concept? Simple, but not easy. We're spiritual beings, but we're housed in flesh. To say that a human will never sin again is fallacy. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 1 John 1.8 It is inevitable that we will sin, because whatever isn't of faith is sin. Romans 14.23 You think about that. Anything you do that isn't done in an atmosphere and intent of faith is sin. Because we are called to do all things in faith. Hebrews 11.6 We're called to do everything in a way that pleases God. And if you don't have faith, if you don't do it in faith, you can't please God. Now, do you have trouble with that? I do. Don't lose hope. Sanctification is a process. We walk it out throughout our lives, getting better every day in every way. And when we enter heaven, we will have our new bodies and the fight with flesh will be over. In the meantime, behold, your king comes. Jesus does not leave us in sin. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us the sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1.9 Jesus does not leave us lost. Jesus comes to us, stays with us every time, all the time. Jesus is constantly talking to us. Holy Spirit is constantly talking to us. Trying to engage us. Trying to get our eyes back on the Father where we should always have them. That's why Jesus came. That's why Jesus died. To get us back in line with heaven. Don't you ever doubt that. It was all about getting us back to the place where God could walk with us and talk with us. Face to face. Just like in Genesis. In the garden. Isn't that wonderful? Our daily affirmation of God's love is Isaiah 54.10. Many things in creation end. And the word promises that eventually all of creation will end. So look around the world. Mountains are broken down by the elements of nature. Earthquakes happen. Tectonic plates shift and alter the shape of the landscape. Massive and catastrophic changes occur more and more as time goes on. It seems that the saying, nothing lasts forever, is accurate. But the word disagrees. The word tells us that God has promised everlasting things. His loving kindness endures forever. His covenant of peace with us lasts forever. He is not a wrathful God seeking to punish us. Fear has punishment. Love does not. Love only has reward. God is love. Perfect love. Unselfish love. For you. For me. For us all. Yahweh is merciful. And Yahweh has mercy for you. The word promises that. And in it, there is no lie. As we close, remember that you have Earth. You are precious and valuable. Declare this. Today, God loves that I, now you, fill in the blank. Was it a meal you made? A smile you gave? Did you get out of bed? Read? Put on socks? There's no wrong answers here. There is no end to God's love. And no end to the things about you that he loves each and every day. Pick one. And remember, the Lord loves you. Just because you're you. 1 John 4, 9-10 tells us, By this, God's love was revealed in us. That God has sent his only born son into the world. That we might live through him. And this is love. Not that we loved God. But that he loved us. And sent his son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins. His perfect love turned away God's wrath because of sin. And it casts out our fear too. See verses 18 and 19. We love because he first loved us. He just loves us. Can't get enough of us. And that is wonderful. See you next time.