Thanks to God for Jesus prayer, in Hebrew.

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The time is almost up: Genesis - Deuteronomy

The time is almost up: Genesis - Deuteronomy: "So here we go in this extremely journey on the most fascinating piece of literature on the world has ever known. The Bible consists of 66 d..."

Going through the Bible Book by Book and Chapter by Chapter

So, I am planning on doing a book by book, chapter by chapter study of the entire bible, starting with Genesis. So starting in the next posting I will be going through the book of Genesis chapter 1.

Why should a Christian worry about learning the Old Testament? It doesn't really talk about Jesus, and salvation. It is mostly a bunch of boring stories about a country with which most people don't even really care about. It's only the New Testament that is important because that is what is important to us as Christians in this day and age, Right?

Wrong, absolutely nothing could be further from the truth. Jesus Christ is written on every page of the Old Testament, and the fingerprints of it's author, the holy spirit, are all over it. The overall council of God is written in both the Old and New Testament. It is said that the New Testament is in the Old Testament concealed, and the Old Testament is in the New Testament revealed. It is because of this that I am undertaking this endeavor with the illumination of the Holy Spirit. If this labor of love blesses just one person, and that person comes to a submission and ultimately a relationship to our Savior then this will be worth it and more.

I will be writing this as if someone already has somewhat of a working knowledge of the New Testament. If anyone has ANY questions, please post a comment and I will try my best to answer it as soon as possible.

Please pray that the Holy Spirit guides you through this endeavor, and that He illuminates the scriptures through these teachings. Also pray that the Holy Spirit will guide me and that I accurately, honestly, and respectfully give the true account of the Word of God, because without the Holy Spirit's help this will just be a meaningless endeavor.

The Cost to Jesus for our Salvation

We will never quite know what it took for Christ to die for our sins. What that cost was had to be beyond human understanding. The creator of this Earth, being beaten and mocked by the very creation He created. What it must have taken for Him not to fully and justifiably destroy everything and everyone who had ever lived. The torment of the Holy Spirit to endure that which he knew, and harrowed was coming from before the dawn of time. How about what it must have been like for the Father to have to watch as His own child was spit on and dismantled to the point he was not even recognizable as a human being. Surly I tell you, the cost to the trinity was beyond words.

His last day on Earth was without equal on this planet before, or since. He knew everything that was going to happen to him, and even was the mastermind behind His own death. He set the wheels in motion at the Passover supper when He said someone will betray Him, prompting Judas to act quickly or else Jesus would get away. He knew that it had to occur on Passover, yet it was unlawful for the Jewish people to hold court on a Sabbath. In fact everything that occurred that night, and the following day was completely unlawful. From the Judges arresting and convicting him, to the crucifixion on a Jewish feast, nothing was done properly. He was proclaimed innocent by Pilot, yet He was condemned by the masses. To prevent a riot, Pilot gave the order, and then washed His hands of the situation. In a way I feel bad for Pilot. I don’t think he wanted to do it, I think that all the pressure made him do it. I would like to think that once he got word of the resurrection he converted to a believer. I don’t know this, but it would be a very nice ending to that part.

After the order was given, they beat Jesus so badly that it made him almost look inhuman. The New Testament give details, but the book of Isaiah gives better details. They pulled out His beard, the whipped Him, and punched Him in the face. Let’s just think about that for a second. They pulled out His beard in clumps. Imagine how His face would have looked. Bloody and disfigured. He was so tired and weary from the brutality that He was unable to walk on His own. The mocked Him with the crown of thorn’s. Let’s just call a spade a spade; in essence He became a meat sack. The injuries he sustained that day would probably been enough to kill Him, but then they nailed Him on a wooden cross, and displayed Him to the masses as a common criminal and liar.

After He died, He was taken down and placed in a tomb of an extremely wealthy man. That, in and of itself, is a prophecy spoken of in the Old Testament. Where He was laid to rest in the tomb on the following day, then Romans placed guards to prevent anyone from stealing the body. When He was resurrected that Sunday morning, He was the same person he was when He died. Still had the nail prints, still had the disfigurements from the beating. He isn’t the Jesus we think about in the pictures, all hansom and cleaned up. To the contrary, he would have looked the way he did when He was buried. That is why Mary didn’t recognize Him until he spoke, that is why the two disciples didn’t recognize him until He broke the bread. Peter knew it was Him because He told him to cast the net on the other side of the boat just as before.

We know that when we get to heaven we will see exactly we did to Him on that fateful and horrible day. As it says in Revelation, “I see a lamb as it had been slaughtered.” . But, rejoice, because His death wasn’t a tragedy, it was an accomplishment. It was the ultimate accomplishment by a Loving and Merciful God.

Our body as the Temple of God...Literal or Figure of Speech

As Christians we all know that we are the Temple of God. Most of us read this, ponder it for about 30 seconds, then continue on. There may be more to this though then meets the eye. It is mentioned in the bible 7 times, meaning it is important. I believe that it isn't so much a metaphor an more of an actual fact. In the Torah God gave specific instructions on how the Tabernacle is suppose to be built.

When Solomon built the Temple, it was built in the same fashion except that it included additional areas. New to it was the porch, pillars, and secrete storage areas for the priest. Inside this storage area they used to put false idols and stuff they were not suppose to. In the picture below the brown boxes are these storage areas.

Now when Christ died on the cross, the shroud concealing the Holy of Hollies was torn in half. When the Romans destroyed Jerusalem in 70AD, they destroyed the Temple for the second time, and it hasn't been rebuilt since.

Now when you look at the architecture of the Temple and the architecture of a person, a very strange thing occurs. Similar to a computer the hardware is our bodies, and the our traits is the software.

Our body's seem to represent exactly how the temple was set up. Our bodies are the actual structure of the temple where everything else dwells. The porch is our will power, is it good, is it bad. Are we allowed into the Holy Place to worship God, or are we doing things that make us unclean? Our Soul is in the inner court, it filters everything we come into contact with, and put things into perspective, more or less our consciousness. The heart is in the holy place. It is the place to which we offer our sacrifices to Christ, as well as ask for forgiveness, and offer worship. Our is located in the Holy of Hollies, where God resides. It is where we have our personal relationship with the Lord. The bible says that only God can separate the Soul and the Spirit. Our subconscious is where we store the skeletons in our closet. Things only we know, our dirty secretes, and things we have long forgotten.

As you can see, saying that we are the Temple of the Lord is much more then a statement, it is more of an extremely high honor. Be aware that it was an extreme offence for the Jews to desecrate the temple by being unclean, just as it is in our bodies This is an amazing example of the divine plan of God. He never ceases to bless me.

A very interesting point involving written languages

A simple but effective point to show God's sovereignty over this Earth. Almost all written language points towards Israel. If your east of there you will most likely write from right to left, whereas if you are west of their you will most likely write from left to right. As funny and strange as this may seem, there is another example of this hidden in the first five book so the Bible, called the Torah. In the Hebrew translation it is spelled Torh. In the Hebrew text there is a 49 space code that spells T-o-r-h in both Genesis and Exodus in the very first couple of verses in each book. Then when you get to Leviticus it there. Then both the books of Numbers and Deuteronomy spells h-r-o-T. Torh spelled backwards. That's incredible enough, but then you go and look at the book of Leviticus something incredible happens. Now keep in mind that it is Leviticus that Law is given, and explained to Moses, and alse where he handed the covenant to man. The space of 49 reveals nothing, but the number of completion does...7. The space code of 7 in Hebrew spells YHWH, the inspeakable name of God. That gives me chills everytime I read it.

Bradley