Header Graphic
Thoughts Archived > The Sacrificial Lamb...The Living God


4 Apr 2010

Please accept my apologies.  I was going through all the listings, and I find I managed to not secure into archives the Scriptures for April 4, 2010.  It is here below in its entirety sans the pictures and appropriate layout.

He is not here. He is risen!

Luke 24:6

Alleluia!

Welcome

to the

Church of the Holy Spirit

Current Sunday Scriptures below!

Archived Scriptures in The Family Room!

Embracing understanding with open arms...so all may become one.

Who We Are

The Church of the Holy Spirit is a Christian church.

We believe in God the Father, Jesus the Son
and
Holy Spirit the Comforter and Teacher.

We believe that God made the heavens and the earth,
and gave all creatures His son, Jesus,
who died on the cross to forgive our sins
and
to give us eternal life.

We believe Jesus went to heaven, he is now seated at God’s right hand,
and
that God gave us Holy Spirit to teach, comfort, and guide us.

We believe the Bible is the inspired word of God.

***

 

Who are God, Jesus and Holy Spirit?

God is our heavenly Father who created heaven and earth. He gave us His Son, who died on a cross to allow our sins to be forgiven and give us eternal life becoming our Lord and Savior. When Jesus died, Holy Spirit was made available to us to comfort, teach and guide us.

God in the beginning: Genesis 1:1
Jesus: Matthew 1, 2 & 3
Holy Spirit: John 15:26

Are you one with God, Jesus and Holy Spirit?

If you have not accepted the Trinity into your life and you would like to, pray this prayer or use your own words from your heart:

“Dear Heavenly Father God, Jesus, and Holy Spirit, please forgive me of my sins known and unknown. Please come into my life, heal me and make me whole. Give me a new life in and with you. I wish to receive all that you have to give. Baptize me in the fullness of your Holy Spirit, so that I can learn all I can about you to love you, and others, as you love me. So I can love myself. Thank you for giving me this new life. Please send other Christians to surround me to help me grow and be strong to defeat Satan and the things of the world. Help me to be worthy of your love. Thank you God, Jesus and Holy Spirit. In Jesus name I pray by and with the power of the Holy Spirit, dear Heavenly Father God. Amen.”

***

If you have prayed this prayer, please email us at "mailto:TrinityMissions@msn.com", so we can agree with you in prayer, praise God, and uplift you with prayer support. We are thrilled to welcome you into the family of believers and encourage you to find a church home nearby where you can study, grow and fellowship with others. Someone may need your support as much as you need them. We are commanded to come together in fellowship to worship His majesty.

If you choose to fellowship with us via the web, we are honored to welcome you to the Church of the Holy Spirit. We pray you will be enriched and uplifted in the fullness of the Trinity to their glory. Stay in touch and let us know how you are doing from time to time. As the website grows, we will have a special page for this purpose, and, you will be able to list prayers for all to see, so that we may come together as a body of believers, for ‘wherever two or more shall gather, there will I be.’ Don’t forget to send prayers of thanksgiving, as well as petitions of tears.

***

You are who I call ‘The Promise Children’, as in Romans 9:25-26 NLT:

“Those who were not my people, I will now call my people. And I will love those whom I did not love before. And, once they were told, ‘You are not my people.’ But now he will say, ‘You are children of the living God.”

***

“The Kingdom of God is near you now.”

***

The Apostle Paul gave us a “Prayer for Spiritual Empowerment” in Ephesians 3:14-21 NLT. It reads

“When I think of the wisdom and scope of God’s plan, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will give you mighty inner strength through his Holy Spirit. And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts as you trust in him. May your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love really is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it. Then you will be filled with the fullness of life and power that comes from God.

Now glory be to God! By his mighty power at work within us, he is able to accomplish infinitely more than we would ever dare to ask or hope. May he be given glory in the church and in Christ Jesus forever and ever through endless ages. Amen.”

Jesus told us to remain in his love in John 15:9-13 NLT:

“I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. When you obey me, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father and remain in his love. I have told you this so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow! I command you to love each other in the same way that I love you. And here is how to measure it - the greatest love is shown when people lay down their lives for their friends.”

***

 

April 4, 2010

Hebrews 9: 11 - 10: 18

The Sacrificial Lamb...The Living God

Hebrews

So Christ has now become the High Priest over all the good things that have come. He has entered that great, perfect sanctuary in heaven, not made by human hands and not part of this created world. Once for all time, he took blood into that Most Holy Place, but not the blood of goats and calves. He took his own blood, and with it he secured our salvation forever.

Under the old system, the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a young cow could cleanse people's bodies from ritual defilement. Just think how much more the blood of Christ will purify our hearts from deeds that lead to death so that we can worship the living God. For by the power of the eternal Spirit, Christ offered himself to God as a perfect sacrifice for our sins. That is why he is the one who mediates the new convenant between God and people, so that all who are invited can receive the eternal inheritance God has promised them. For Christ died to set them free from the penalty of the sins they had committed under that first covenant.

Now when someone dies and leaves a will, no one gets anything until it is proved that the person who wrote the will is dead. The will goes into effect only after the death of the person who wrote it. While the person is still alive, no one can use the will to get any of the things promisied to them.

That is why blood was required under the first covenant as a proof of death. For after Moses had given the people all of God's laws, he took the blood of calves and goats, along with water, and sprinkled both the book of God's laws and all the people, using branches of hyssop bushes and scarlet wool. Then he said, "This blood confirms the covenant God has made with you." And in the same way, he sprinkled blood on the sacred tent and on everything used for worship. In fact, we can say that according to the law of Moses, nearly everything was purified by sprinkling with blood. Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins.

That is why the earthly tent and everything in it--which were copies of things in heaven--had to be purified by the blood of animlas. But the real things in heaven had to be purified with far better sacrifices than the blood of animals.

For Christ has entered into heaven itself to appear now before God as our Advocate. He did not go into the earthly place of worship, for that was merely a copy of the real Temple in heaven. Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, like the earthly high priest who enters the Most Holy Place year after year to offer the blood of an animal. If that had been necesary, he would have had to die again and again, ever since the world began. But no! He came once for all time, at the end of the age, to remove the power of sin forever by his sacrificial death for us.

And just as it is destined that each person dies only once and after that comes judgment, so also Christ died only once as a sacrifice to take away the sins of many people. He will come again but not to deal with our sins again. This time he will bring salvation to all those who are eagerly waiting for him.

The old system in the law of Moses was only a shadow of the things to come, not the reality of good things Christ has done for us. The sacrifices under the old system were repeated again and again, year after year, but they were never able to provide perfect cleansing for those who came to worship. If they could have provided perfect cleansing, the sacrifices would have stopped, for the worshipers would have been purified once for all time, and their feelings of guilt would have disappeared.

But just the opposite happened. Those yearly sacrifices reminded them of their sins year after year. For it is not possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. That is why Christ, when he came into the world, said

"You did not want animal sacrifices and grain offerings. But you have given me a body so that I may obey you. No, you were not pleased with animals burned on the altar or with other offerings for sin. Then I said, 'Look, I have come to do your will. O God--Just as it is written about me in the Scriptures.'"

Christ said, "You did not want animal sacrifices or grain offerings or animals burned on the altar of other offerings for sin, nor were you pleased with them." (though they are required by the law of Moses). Then he added, "Look, I have come to do your will." He cancels the first covenant in order to establish the second. And what God wants is for us to be made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all time.

Under the old covenant, the priest stands before the altar day after day, offering sacrifices that can never take away sins. But our High Priest offered himself to God as one sacrifice for sins, good for all time. Then he sat down at the place of highest honor at God's right hand. There he waits until his enemies are humbled as a footstool under his feet. For by that one offering he perfected forever all those whom he is making holy.

And the Holy Spirit also testifies that this is so. First he says, "This is the new covenant I will make with my people on that day, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, so they will understand them, and I will write them on their minds so they will obey them." Then he adds, "I will never again remember their sins and lawless deeds." Now when sins have been forgiven, there is no need to offer any more sacrifices.

***

Thoughts...

Jesus Christ. The only sacrifice needed once for all time. "And what God wants is for us to be made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all time." We must not sacrifice ourselves to situations or to people. We are called to give ourselves in trust and love to Jesus Christ to be made holy. He has already sacrificed his life for us. We must never sacrifice to another or for another. But only to him who loved us first and gave his life for us, that we may be forgiven of our sins, if we but ask, and then we will be granted eternal life through the saving, life giving blood of Jesus Christ.

This Easter, let us honor the resurrection of Jesus Christ and make him Lord of our lives.

Jesus said, "I know all the things you do, and I have opened a door for you that no one can shut. You have little strength, yet you obeyed my word and did not deny me. Look! I will force those who belong to Satan--those liars who say they are Jews but are not--to come and bow down at your feet. They will acknowlege that you are the ones I love. Because you have obeyed my command to persevere, I will protect you from the great time of testing that will come upon the whole world to test those who belong to this world. Look, I am coming quickly. Hold on to what you have so that no one will take away your crown. All who are victorious will become pillars in the Temple of my God, and they will never have to leave it. And I will write my God's name on them, and they will be ciitzens in the city of my God. And they will have my new name inscribed upon them. Anyone who is willing to hear should listen to the Spirit and understand what the Spirit is saying to the churches. Rev 3: 8-13.

And the Lamb of God heard these songs in heaven:

"Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty--the one who always was, who is, and who is still to come."

"You are worthy, O Lord our God, to receive glory and honor and power. For you created everything, and it is for your pleasure that they exist and were created."

"You are worthy to take the scroll and break its seals and open it. For you were killed, and your blood has ransomed people for God from every tribe and languare and people and nation. And you have caused them to become God's kingdom and his priests. And they will reign on the earth."

"The Lamb is worthy--the Lamb who was killed. He is worthy to receive power and riches, and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessings."

Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea. They also sang:

"Blessing and honor and glory and power belong to the one sitting on the throne and to the Lamb forever and ever." Rev 4-5

For the Lamb who stands in front of the throne will be their Shepherd. He will lead them to the springs of life-giving water. And God will wipe away all their tears. Rev 7:17

Don't you want to live a new life with the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world? Don't you want to start your new life today?

"Anyone who is willing to hear should listen to the Spirit and understand what the Spirit is saying to the churches."

Jesus Christ is the Bread of Heaven...the Bread of Life...the ever living, ever loving, life giving Spirit...the Lamb of God. He is here...now...waiting to receive you into his arms and into his heart. Let him cleanse you with life-giving water. Allow Holy Spirit to come into your heart and wash you anew....right now. He yearns to hold you in his arms....to take away your sorrows, to heal your wounds, to give you a new life today. Reach out to him. It's okay....it's safe....only Jesus and you. Bow down on your knees and release your tears of sorrow and shame, pain and guilt...only Jesus can wash it all away. Whatever hurt you have within you, he is waiting to release you from it and wash it all away. He will lift you into the arms of his heart and embrace you with an everlasting love. You can do this....go on now....reach out to him....now. Be blessed. Receive him today, and I promise you, your life will never be the same. He loves you and will love you forever. And he forgives you all your sins as far as the east is from the west. Honor him and you'll never be alone again. Ask him into your heart now, ask him to forgive you for your sins, and ask him to baptise you in the fullness of the Holy Spirit, that you might learn how to live your new life with him and for him. Now shout to the Lord a new song! Give him honor and glory and praise. Praise God! Join the family of God, so we can welcome you today.

***

Let Us Pray

Dear God, Jesus, Holy Spirit take me into your loving arms, forgive me, heal me and make me whole. Let me open the eyes of my heart Lord, as you open your arms to me. Please forgive me of my sins and make me whole. As you arose from the grave of this world, lift me to new heights that I may 'see you more clearly, love you more dearly, and follow you more nearly, day by day'. Today I am resurrected into your heart....and you are born anew in mine. Thank you for being there for me, waiting for me, and loving me fully....til the end of time. I love you, Lord. To you goes all the honor, glory and praise. Let me rise up with a full voice to share who you are, that you are and how wonderful you are with all others in the world so that all may have an abundant life in you, a victorious life with you. Alleluia! You, Lord, are risen! You are risen indeed! Alleluia! Amen.

***

Sing these songs with love and praise, adoration and humility:

LORD YOU HAVE MY HEART

Lord, You have my heart

And I will search for Yours

Jesus, take my life and lead me on

Lord You have my heart

And I will search for Yours

Let me be to You a sacrifice

And I wll praise You, Lord

And I will sing of love come down

And as You show Your face

We'll see Your glory here

I COULD SING OF YOUR LOVE FOREVER

Over the mountains and the sea

Your river runs with love for me

And I will open up my heart

And let the Healer set me free

I'm happy to be in the truth

And I will daily lift my hands

For I will always sing of when

Your love came down, yeah

I could sing of Your love forever

I could sing of Your love forever

I could sing of Your love forever

I could sing of Your love forever

Oh, I feel like dancing

It's foolisheness I know

But when the world has seen the light

They will dance with joy like we're dancing now, yeah.

I could sing of Your love forever

I could sing of Your love forever

I could sing of Your love forever

I could sing of Your love forever

LOVE YOU JESUS!

More love....

Benediction...Blessing

Let us hear from Paul as he prays:

When I think of the wisdom and scope of God's plan, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resouces he will give you mighty inner strength through his Holy Spirit. And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts as you trust in him. May your roots go down deep into the soil of God's marvelous love. And may you have the power to understand, as all God's people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love really is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it. Then you will be filled with the fullness of life and power that comes from God.

Now glory be to God! By his mighty power at work within us, he is able to accomplish infinitely more than we would ever dare to ask or hope. May he be given glory in the church and in Christ Jesus forever and ever through endless ages. Amen. Ephesians 3:14-21 NLT

***

Scroll down to read Jesus' Prayer of Thanksgiving...'The Unforced Rythms of Grace'.

***

Definition of a Christian: Anyone who believes in God, Jesus and Holy Spirit, and accepts Jesus as Lord and Savior. Regardless of church name or religious affiliation.

***

 

***

If you feel that the Church of the Holy Spirit has inspired or helped you, we'd like you to prayerfully consider tithing regulary to us or gifting us, so that we can further the work and carry out the will of the Father as proclaimed in Matthew 28:16 NLT

to

"Go and make disciples out of all the nations

baptising them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this:

I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

***

Our Current Cause

As in all things, we need to test the waters to see which Spirit is speaking. I have recently found myself ensnared in a barb unrelated to the sincere cause of furthering the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is with much regret that I have to ask your forgiveness for having been human, and having been led astray on a path that could have taken me away from you, my brothers and sisters. I thank and praise Father God Almighty, Jesus, and Holy Spirit for coming to my rescue 'in the nick of time'. That having been said, I am back on Holy and firm ground. The current cause I set before you is to ask for your fervent prayer for myself, and all Ministers, Pastors, Priests, Rabbis, and other Triune God ordained religious leaders, that I, and they, may be wary as foxes in these end times, surrounded and protected by the God in the Trinity, with all the love, care and concern, they possess. May we rise up with one voice, and one Holy Spirit, to minister to the masses as one.

Please accept my sincerest thanks

....and may God bless you!

***

Checks or money orders can be made out to

Trinity Missions

or the

Church of the Holy Spirit

and sent to

Trinity Missions

P.O. Box 86076

Tucson, Arizona

85754-6076

If you have any questions, we can be reached at:

1-866-402-GIFT

10 a.m. - 8 p.m.

Mountain Time

or

"mailto:TrinityMissions@msn.com"

Please note Trinity Missions or CoHS in your subject line.

As we grow, you will have options for allocating your gifts.

In the meantime, we hope you will trust us to direct them to where the need is the greatest.

***

One last thing....

Jesus' Prayer of Thanksgiving

'The Unforced Rythms of Grace'

"Abruptly Jesus broke into prayer: "Thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth. You've concealed your ways from sophisticates and know-it-alls, but spelled them out clearly to ordinary people. Yes, Father, that's the way you like to work."

Jesus resumed talking to the people, but now tenderly. "The Father has given me all these things to do and say. This is a unique Father - Son operation, coming out of Father and Son intimacies and knowledge. No one knows the Son the way the Father does, nor the Father the way the Son does. But I'm not keeping it to myself; I'm ready to go over it line by line with anyone willing to listen."

"Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me - watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn how to live freely and lightly.

Matthew 11: 25-30

The Message

And the people said,

"Amen."

***

 

***

I now write most prayers in the position of ' I ' (first person) because most people are sitting at their computer alone, not in groups, and it allows those reading and praying to personalize the prayer as coming from them going to God. Variations may appear on holidays when families may wish to use the prayer provided.

***

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

* LORD YOU HAVE MY HEART

Music and lyrics by Martin Smith c 1992 Kingsway's Thankyou Music (PRS) All rights in the Western Hemisphere administered by EMI Christian Music Publishing p 1998 Furious ?Records / Sparrow Records. Delirious? appears courtesy of Furious? Records / Sparrow Records.

* I COULD SING OF YOUR LOVE FOREVER

Music and lyrics by Martin Smith, c 1994 Curious? Music U.K. (PRS) Admin. in the U.S. and Canada by EMI Christian Music Publishing. p 2001 Gotee Records. Produced by Jason Halbert and Dwayne Larring for Rythmic. From the album SONICPRAISE on Gotee Records. "http://www.gotee.com".

Both recordings from the Worship Together CD

*

*
*

Bible Authors and Minister