Daily Archives: March 28, 2015

by

“PALM SUNDAY” **REVISITED**

 Palm Sunday, Our opportunity here on earth to foreshadow the forthcoming praise and honor to our God.
The problem is that the enemy wants so desperately to steal our praise ( because he knows the power of it ) that he has managed to convince many Christians to shun and even speak against this celebration.
I have heard it preached against and even a deejay on a popular gospel radio station even hopped aboard the misguided boat.
I now wish I had called her with a few scriptures!
So I’m not making that mistake again!
The argument Satan tricked people into falling for and spreading is that the ones who heralded Jesus on that faithful day, were the same ones that screamed “crucify him” a week later.
I don’t believe that and I am not gonna start now!
I will never be convinced that everyone in that crowd was just giving lip service, Jesus had many, many followers who loved him desperately.
We are blessed that we did not have to witness his torture and crucifixion, I can not imagine what they went through and I do know their love for him and the “Hosannas” they shouted were real.
I have seen palms thrown down, left in pews and even seen people refuse to take one. I always wondered if they think they are going to act like that in New Jerusalem?

Do they really even love the Lord, do they think they are too high or holy to praise him publicly? Is church just a place to go kill time? It really makes me wonder.
If you have fallen victim to this brain washing, please allow me to show you a very different side to that coin.
Think of it as a pep rally before the biggest game in the universe.
Study this out for yourself: Luke 19:29-40,
John 12: 12-16, Mark 11:10
And my text will be taken from Matthew 21:4,5,8,9:
“After Jesus had sent the disciples to retrieve the predestined colt “All of this was done so that it might fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, TELL YE THE DAUGHTER OF SION (Zion), BEHOLD, THY KING COMETH UNTO THEE, MEEK, AND SITTING UPON AN ASS, AND A COLT, THE FOAL OF AN ASS and a very great multitude spread their garments in the way; others cut down branches from the tress and strawed them in the way: the multitude that went before and that followed cried, HOSANNA TO THE SON OF DAVID: BLESSED IS HE THAT COMETH IN THE NAME OF THE LORD; HOSANNA IN THE HIGHEST.”
Translation, Save Now O King, this fulfilled prophecies, but it is also mirrors His second coming, just as those that went before and those that followed. Just as he found all the evils in the temple then and all the evils he will find on earth now when he returns upon Mt. Olive.
While his church is shouting, “Hosanna”, and the saints are praying “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” and “Even so, Come Lord Jesus”
This is the foreshadowing to Revelation 7:9-12
“AFTER THIS I BEHELD, AND LO, A GREAT MULTITUDE, WHICH NO MAN COULD NUMBER, OF ALL NATIONS, AND KINDREDS, AND PEOPLE, AND TONGUES, STOOD BEFORE THE LAMB, CLOTHED WITH WHITE ROBES, AND HAVING PALMS IN THEIR HANDS;

and cried with a loud voice, saying, SALVATION TO OUR GOD WHICH SITTETH UPON THE THRONE, AND UNTO THE LAMB and all the angels stood about the throne, and about the elders, and the four beasts,and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshiped God. 

SAYING, AMEN: BLESSING, AND GLORY, AND WISDOM, AND THANKSGIVING, AND HONOUR, AND POWER, AND MIGHT, BE UNTO OUR GOD FOR EVER AND EVER. AMEN.”
Just as we are told in Zechariah 14, when he begins his reign on earth, they WILL worship him and they WILL keep his feast or it WILL NOT be pretty!
The purpose of  Palm Sunday was to fulfill prophecy:
Zechariah 9:9 “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation, lowly, (humble) and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt, the foal of an ass.”
Psalm 118:26 “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord: we have blessed you out of the house of God.”
There are many more, I’m sure. But think of it as the angel appearing to Joseph in a dream to tell him it was safe to go back home, well I am by no means an angel, but I am here to tell you, DO NOT BE AFRAID TO PRAISE YOUR GOD!
There is no such thing as bad praise, if is from your heart, Satan hates you, he does not want anyone to praise God because this was once his job, he was created to praise, but with his fall and banishment from the kingdom he lost that right and he will never again have it.
Our praise is freewill and it is OUR SACRIFICE.
Hosea 14:2 “Take with you words, and turn to the Lord: say unto him, TAKE AWAY ALL INIQUITY, AND RECEIVE US GRACIOUSLY:SO WILL WE RENDER THE CALVES OF OUR LIPS.“
So praise him, and praise him and continue to praise on, he inhabits the praises of his people!

Need a reminder of WHY we praise? Check out: majesty

EDITED FROM ORIGINAL POST:03/18/2014.

Rev. Nina Brown Johnson 2015

From YouTube, AWESOME SONG!

 

by

OF A DUDE, A DONKEY, AND A VERY ANGRY ANGEL

This is for all who love our furry friends, whom I would like to point out were actually created before us.
And for all who believe in mercy and the sanctity of all life that has been created by our God.
Humans often intentionally misinterpret what it actually meant when we were given dominion over the animal kingdom.
People like to have a scapegoat technicality to hide their own evil behavior behind. So let’s rip the band-aid off this thing and get it some fresh air!
Unless you live in your own world or under a rock ( which could be a refreshing change to this world) you know all to well the abuses committed under the guise of “sport’ and it seems for some reason like the savagery of our nations history, most of it for some reason takes place in the south.
Chicken fights, dog fights, pit bull breeding to produce more victims in their pursuit of the all mighty dollar, the heinous so-called training methods that involve cruelty far beyond what I believe a true human capable of.
“Violence begets violence” the Lord is merciful and desires mercy as a characteristic in his children.
If we are told by Jesus to turn the other cheek, how can we justify hitting anyone or anything? If Jesus was so on point about this that if someone walks up to us and slaps us down, we are, if at all possible, to not hit them back.
So how do we justify hitting animals and children as a method to produce a desired behavior?
If God were that unmerciful to us every time we made a mistake we would all be black and blue!
Most of us know the story of Balaam, the false prophet/sorcerer who was hired by Balak to curse the children of Israel. But God took control over the situation and overruled  the evil plans, however Balaam decided to disobey the voice of God. So God sent an angel to stand in his way, now the donkey could see the angel of God, so three times she would move to avoid him and every time Balaam hit her with his staff. God allowed her to speak and ask him why he did this to her, he was so full of blind fury that he did not even find it strange that suddenly this donkey spoke!
We’ll pick it up at Numbers 22:28-33 “And the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said unto Balaam What have I done unto thee, that thou hast smitten (hit) me these three times? ( NOW HERE HE IS, STILL SO UPSET THAT HE IS HAVING A CONVERSATION WITH A DONKEY,AND STILL NOT FINDING IT STRANGE! )and Balaam said unto the donkey, Because thou hast mocked me: I would (wish) there were a sword in mine hand, for now I would kill thee.
And the donkey said unto Balaam, Am I not thine ass upon which thou hast ridden ever since I was thine unto this day?
Was I ever wont (accustomed) to do so unto thee? and he said, Nay. THEN the Lord opened the eyes of Balaam, and HE SAW THE ANGEL OF THE LORD STANDING IN THE WAY, AND HIS SWORD DRAWN IN HIS HAND: and he bowed down his head and fell flat on his face. and the angel of the Lord said unto him, WHEREFORE (WHY) HAST THOU SMITTEN (HIT) THINE ASS THESE THREE TIMES? behold, I went out to withstand thee because thy way is perverse before me: And the ass saw me, and turned from me these three times; UNLESS SHE HAD TURNED FROM ME, SURELY NOW ALSO I HAD SLAIN (KILLED) YOU AND SAVED HER ALIVE.”
She was protecting him and all he could do was beat her and would have killed her if given the opportunity.
The angel was so enraged by his cruelty that he demanded an explanation and let Balaam know really fast who would have died that day and it would not have been the helpless donkey!
Proverbs 12:10 ” A righteous man careth for the life of his beast: but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.”
So in God’s view, even the best they can do is still immense cruelty.
It is not hidden from God and it carries a hefty price. This is the lesson learned by two sons as Jacob pronounced the blessings on the sons of the tribe of Israel.
Genesis 49:5-7 “Simeon and Levi are brethren; instruments of cruelty are in their habitations (cruel behavior is part of them). O my soul, come not into their secret (council); unto their assembly, mine honour be thou not united (have nothing to do with them) for in their anger they slew a man and digged down a wall (intentionally crippled an ox, by cutting its hamstring) CURSED BE THEIR ANGER FOR IT WAS FIERCE; AND THEIR WRATH FOR IT WAS CRUEL; I WILL DIVIDE THEM IN JACOB AND SCATTER THEM IN ISRAEL.”
Ecclesiastes 3:19 ” For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them; as the one dieth, so dieth the other: yea, they have all one breath; so a man hath no preeminence (advantage) above a beast: FOR ALL IS VANITY.”
Many, many scriptures detail their presence that will be in New Jerusalem, here is just a hint of what to expect:
Isaiah 11:6-9 “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; and their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall put his hand on the hole of the asp (cobra) and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’ (viper) den. THEY SHALL NOT HURT NOR DESTROY IN MY HOLY MOUNTAIN; FOR THE EARTH SHALL BE FULL OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE LORD, AS WATERS COVER THE SEA.”
I think that gives a fair amount of insight to how he feels toward them. He loves all his creations. HE CREATED ALL BEINGS FOR HIS PLEASURE AND WE ARE ONLY SUPERIOR TO THEM IN OUR MINDS!
So as we await this day, please always remember them in your prayers, pray for rescues and deliverance to come, pray that peoples hearts will be opened and that their compassion will be stirred. Be the voice they do not have and never forget them.
That is the true dominion we have been given, their lives are in our hands and we will be held accountable for those lives.

  Original post::06/27/2014.

All rights reserved. Rev. Nina BrownJohnson 2015

by

EL ROI….. The well in our wilderness

“And Abraham rose early in the morning, and took bread, and a bottle of water, and gave it unto Hagar, PUTTING IT ON HER SHOULDER, and the child and sent her away: and she departed and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba.” Genesis 21:14
                                      
I can only imagine the torturous thoughts that played out in Hagar’s mind as she attempted to take her child and embark on what she believed would be their death march to die a slow agonizing death of dehydration and starvation, if they even survived the wild animals that they could be attacked by at even given moment.
Yet again, this was Sarah’s plan, she was quite a character and could have taught Samson a thing or two about manipulation and self righteousness.

She is probably the gene donor responsible for the cattiness, jealousy, and vanity that have plagued women’s relationships one to another since the dawn of time, much more so than anything we inherited from Eve.
How had it come to this? That question surely  flooded her mind, I am sure there were many, many times that she wanted to see both of them suffer, as they had made her suffer.

And now, as he put the bread and water on her shoulder, sending her and the child he was responsible for out into a formidable land to make their way back to Egypt, he was laying the entire burden of the enormous mess on her shoulders to be born alone.
But she WAS NOT alone, she only felt that way. 

She had been down this road before, as a servant subjected to Sarah’s insane idea to force her to bear a child to Abraham, once accomplished Sarah’s jealousy kicked in and she mistreated Hagar, Abraham refused to intervene, BUT God let Hagar know that it was THE CRIES OF HER HEART that he heard, not necessarily Sarah’s.

 Genesis 16:7-14 tells us: “And the ANGEL of the Lord FOUND her  by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way to Shur.  And he said, HAGAR, SARAI’S MAID, whence cometh thou? and whither wilt thou go (why are you here and where will you go?) and she said I flee from the face of my mistress Sarai.

And the angel of the Lord said unto her, Return to thy mistress, and submit thyself under her hands. And the angel of the Lord said unto her, I will multiply THY seed exceedingly, that it shall not be numbered for multitude.

And the angel of the Lord said unto her, Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael (God hears) BECAUSE THE LORD HATH HEARD THY  AFFLICTION.  And he will be as a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man’s hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of his brethren.

And she called the name of the Lord that spake unto her, Thou God (EL ROI) seest me: for she said, have I also looked after (saw) him that seest me? wherefore THE WELL was called Beerlahairoi (well of one who lives and sees me); behold, it is between Kadesh and Bered.”

She did as she had been told, even submitting to the humiliation of giving birth to her son while sitting on Sarah’s knees to appease Sarah’s misguided  belief  that somehow this would really make the child hers.

But now they had Isaac and the very child they had forced her to bear and then taken from her, they have now given back, as if he were an unwanted pet replaced by one of a more valued breed and have sent them both on their way to an unknown fate.

But one thing Hagar was not aware of , this plan, although it had come from the mouth of Sarah, who didn’t care if they both died she just wanted them out of her face, God had given permission for this to happen and it WOULD NOW BE USED FOR HER GOOD.

God was going to use this, as He does all things, to her benefit, as when the angel told her to go back, this was a wilderness walk that she had to take, regardless of the pain and the injustice, this walk WOULD NOT LEAD TO THE DESTRUCTION OF HER AND ISHMAEL, BUT IT WOULD LEAD TO THEIR FREEDOM.
She would never again be slave to Abraham or Sarah and her maker would in fact now be her husband and a father to her son, who was now fatherless.

And just as her son was rejected by his own people and sent to Egypt, there would be another son called forth out of Egypt only to face the same rejection by his kindred.

But when all we can see is the wilderness in front of us, the hunger, the thirst and the fear of what is waiting down that road starts to set in, we forget the promises we have been given, what the angel has spoken and sometimes we need to be reminded.
Genesis 21:15-21 “And the water was spent in the bottle, and she cast the child under one of the shrubs, And she went, and sat down over against (across) him a good way off, as it were a bowshot: for she had said Let me not see the death of the child. and she sat over against him and lift up her voice and wept.

AND GOD HEARD THE VOICE OF THE LAD; and the ANGEL OF THE LORD CALLED OUT TO HAGAR OUT OF HEAVEN, and said unto her, What aileth thee, Hagar? ( THIS TIME HE DID NOT CALL HER SARAI’S MAID) fear not; for God hath heard the voice of the lad, WHERE HE IS.

Arise, lift up the lad, hold him in thine hand; for I will make him a great nation. And God opened her eyes, and SHE SAW A WELL OF WATER; and she went and filled the bottle with water and gave the lad drink. And God was with the lad; and he grew, and dwelt in the wilderness, and became an archer. And he dwelt in the wilderness of  Paran: and his mother took him a wife out of the land of Egypt.”

I know the wilderness is a rough place, I don’t like it myself.
But you know had God not led Hagar on that journey and she had not agreed to trust Him on that trip she would have never realized the power and intimacy of God on her and her son’s life, remember the second time all she could do was cry, God heard Ismael’s prayers, HEAVEN ITSELF ANSWERED!  

She would have never known freedom. Just as Jesus was led by the spirit into the wilderness, and successfully resisted the devil and John the Baptist was prepared for his work and grew strong in the wilderness, it grows us.
There are required traits that we only acquire  in the wilderness, those barren, desolate places, sparse pastures that barely keep us alive, the side paths that are so lonely, we feel like tears are our only companion.
It is in those places, the wilderness, the deserts, the almost uninhabitable lands that the roses bloom and the fountains of living water burst forth out of that parched ground.
If you never had to go there, you would never know the sweetest of that water or the scent of a rose so strong and determined to live that it grew up through sand , pushing the rocks past, as the blazing sun-scorched down on it.

So don’t fight it, don’t even try to resist it, just take that trip with EL ROI, because He does live and He does see and He wants you to know you can depend solely on him, you may be like Hagar, alone in the middle of nowhere feeling like everything you love is about to die, have faith, He sees and He will show up and He will bless that which you thought was hopeless and prosper it and make it something so mighty it will beyond your wildest dreams.
Once you have been given these waters, you will never fear the wilderness quite so much again, I’m sure you won’t be excited to visit there again, but take along an empty suitcase, I promise you will return with a souvenir so rare, so priceless that you will never part with it.
Apostle Paul said “he glorified in his affliction” because he knew the sweet Holy spirit would rest on him and that was worth the brier scratches, the harder the enemy hit him, the greater the power of God would bathe him.
Go, you will be glad you did!
Original Post: 09/05/2014 & 03/28/2015 all rights reserved. Rev. Nina Brown Johnson/ baresoulphlogizo 2015/ revisited 05/02/2021 

Truly beautiful song.. As close as I could find to the thought of this post! Love and Peace!