Zebra Ministries

Good morning Zebras,

Sorry, I realized I didn't post this on Tuesday. 

Yesterday, three times God showed me it is important to know who it is you are calling upon.

2 Corinthians 11:4: "For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough."

In many ways, I think we have put up with the preaching of a Jesus that is different than the one revealed in the New Testament. We have focused almost entirely on His mercy and grace and overlooked His holiness.

It will not be possible to overlook the holiness of Christ when He returns. He will not be returning as the lamb but as the lion come to judge the world.

I am concerned God’s people are following teachings that are not Biblical. There is no place in the lives of Christians for a pattern of sin.

1 John 2:1–2: "My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world."

In the Old Testament, the high priest went into the holy place once a year to make atonement for Israel’s sins. They were God’s chosen people and prior to the cross they were under a system of sacrifices. A system that foreshadowed the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

Hebrews 9:7: but into the second only the high priest goes, and he but once a year, and not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the unintentional sins of the people.

Please note the word "unintentional."

Jesus Christ is the lamb of God who went in and made permanent anointment for the sins of the whole world. His blood covered all of our past, present and future sins. But once we are children of God, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, the desire to sin and to live a life that distances us from God should be gone. His blood is there to cover our unintentional sins not flagrant sins made in complete defiance of the Word of God.

The Jesus we preach, the all loving, completely forgiving Jesus, who lets us live however we want and doesn’t expect anything from us is not the Jesus of the Bible. He is a different Jesus and I think it is the product of the incorrect teaching of the Gospel.

Jesus Christ came to close the gap between God and man because He loved us, but also because God is holy and righteous and somebody had to pay the price for sin. We would never be able to stand in the presence of God without the blood of Jesus Christ.

Love and Mercy, Holy and Righteous, two sides of the same coin.

Personally, I think we take our own sin far too lightly and focus way too much on the sins of the world and to me that seems backwards. The phrase “judgement will start with the church” came from 1 Peter 4:17 (a really great chapter about what it means to be a steward of God’s grace which starts with “Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God.”) and it is backed up by the first three chapters of Revelation.

Jesus Christ is knocking at the door of the lukewarm church, it is time to let Him in.

Love,
Jill