“Ask a sign for yourself from the LORD your God; make it deep as Sheol or high as heaven.” Isaiah 7:11.
Dearly Beloved in Christ,
Thanks be to God who gives us the victory in Christ Jesus our Lord! And He has given us THE SIGN from the other side.
Ask for a sign for YOURSELF from the LORD, make it as deep as Sheol or high as the sky. A sign of what? A sign that everything is right between you and God. A sign of reconciliation. A sign that you are forgiven. A sign that you are loved. A sign that He is here beyond the pain, beyond death, beyond the grace, and beyond time. A sign from the side you do not see. A sign that all is well. Shalom.
What sign am I speaking of? It is there for all of us as blessed assurance that all is well and we are One again with God. A sign that we are forgiven, healed, provided for and loved, that all is washed clean and all that divided us and kept us from God and our destiny is gone.
It is the Cross. The sign of the Son of Man.
Jesus reconciled us with God, making peace by the Blood of the Cross. For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, whether things on earth or things in the heavens. Colossians 1:19-20.
In Jesus you have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of your trespasses, according to the riches of God’s grace which He lavished on you. Ephesians 1:7. Christ redeemed you from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”— in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we would receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. Galatians 3:13-14.
For Jesus Himself is your peace, and He reconciled you to the Father through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity. And He came and preached peace to you who were far away, and peace to those who were near; for through Him, Jews and gentiles both have access in one Spirit to the LORD. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s own household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple of the LORD, in whom you also are being built together into God’s dwelling in the Spirit.
God calls us to a very high standard but He has given us His Spirit, His righteousness, His Word, and the Name of Jesus, so that we can live it. Jesus has released you from your sins by His Blood and made you a kingdom of priests unto the Father, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people set apart as God’s own special treasure. Royalty. Reigning with Him forever. Revelation 22:5; Revelation 1:5-6, 1 Peter 2:9-10. And when you receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness, you reign in life through Jesus Christ. Romans 5:17.
The Sign of the Son of Man, it unites man and God as one in His person and reconciled us. So that we can go forward rejoicing in the LORD.
If you have a sin in your past that you just cannot get over and it keeps causing you grief. If you are continually asking God to forgive you and give you another chance. Today the LORD God tells you what He told Ahaz by the prophet Isaiah, “Ask Me for a sign, make it deep as Sheol or as high as the heights of the sky.” And He gave you that sign. And it is always the same. He gave Ahaz the prophetic sign of the baby born to a virgin that would be God with you, and once He came, He died for you and He gave you the sign above every other sign that takes care of all that divided us from our Heavenly Father. It is the Cross.
The Cross is the sign of reconciliation between you and God. By the Cross all the sin, rebellion, and disobedience was justly punished and put away from you. Your sins and offenses God remembers no more, they are gone, borne by Him who knew no sin but became sin for us all. Our unification came through the Blood of the Cross. He reconciled you to Himself through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity. For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to you who are saved it is the power of God, which is the strongest power of all, stronger than death. Yes, it is Love.
Look at Cross and know that the LORD has forgiven you and forgotten the wrong that you have done.
You may be asking Him for a sign that you are forgiven and that all is right between you and Him, just look at the Cross. For just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even was the Son of Man lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life. And all the poison sin had put in our bodies and souls is be gone forever when you gaze upon the Cross in faith.
He Himself bore your sins in His body on the cross, so that you might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed. For you were continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls. 1 Peter 2:24-25.
And the Cross transcends time. Jesus is the Lamb slain since before the foundation of the world. It is a sign for all ages and its shadow goes back before the foundation of the world. You see the shadow in the Passover Lamb, in the blood on the doorposts, in the heave and wave offering of the peace offering, and in all of the sacrifices of the Old Covenant. It all was the shadow of the good things to come, but Christ is the substance.
God has given us signs from the time of creation until the present day. He spoke of signs for the first time in the first book of the Bible, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years; and let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth.” Genesis 1:14-15. And just look at the stars and see THE SIGN from the other side– the Northern Cross, the backbone of the Milky Way galaxy, and the Southern Cross by which so many have navigated their way through troubled waters. The SIGN from the other side that unites Heaven and earth. You can cross the threshold now and go right into His presence with confidence in the Holy of Holies, beyond the veil, by the new and living way of the Cross. And He gave the rainbow as a sign of His love and it is still around His throne of grace in Heaven. Genesis 9:13, 17, Revelation 4:2.
He gives us personal signs and public signs. Gideon asked for a sign that God was with him to deliver Israel, and the LORD gave him the sign of the fleece showing him the Lamb who would come down full of grace and truth (the dew) into a dry and sinful world, and then empty Himself so that grace upon grace flooded the dry ground of our lives and our sins were taken away. A sign of grace.
And God gave us Shabbat as a sign of our connection to sanctification in Him and entering God’s rest. Exodus 31:13, 27. And Jesus is our Shabbat, He is our peace. He gave us the blood of the lamb as a sign to protect us from destruction. Exodus 12:13; Exodus 13:9, 16. And He gives us His Word as a sign. Deuteronomy 6:8, Deuteronomy 11:18. He gave Saul and Hezekiah signs. 1 Samuel 10:7; 2 Kings 20:8-9, 2 Chronicles 32:24.
David prayed, “Show me a sign for good.” Psalm 86:17. Have you asked God for a sign for all the good He has for your life? Just look at the sign of all signs. The Cross. And then say with the apostle Paul, “But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” Galatians 6:14.
Know that God loves you. And He has given you the sign that settles that question forever. The sign of His love, for He so loved you, He gave His Son as propitiation for your sins. And it is sign of the Cross. Because of the Cross and Resurrection, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. And all this is from the Father who reconciled you to Himself through Christ. For He was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to you the word of reconciliation. Therefore, you are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through you, so on behalf of all that has been freely given you in Christ, seek to bring others to be reconciled with God in Christ too.
When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive together with Jesus, having forgiven you all your transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against you, which was hostile to you; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Colossians 2:13-14. That is your sign. You need seek no other.
Come to our meeting this Sunday, tomorrow, February 16, 2020, and learn more about THE SIGN from the other side and about HUGS, Healing under God’s Spirit. You will be blessed. As, of course, in Christ, you already are. Just look at the Cross, it has made all the difference.
We meet at the Kukui Plaza Diamond Head tower meeting room from 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm. Let us praise His Name together! Park at Century Square for free and just come up Fort Street and Kukui Plaza Diamond Head tower will be on your left hand before you get to Kukui Street. If you hit Long’s Pali and Safeway Pali you have gone too far. Bring a dish to share if you can.
Shalom, shalom, all is well! He has given us the SIGN from the other side. He is near, right there with you.
Bonnie
808-228-4402
www.EL2020.org
