"Open to Me!"

"My children,

I know you believe that you can see,
and that you can see more 'light'
than others who call on My name.

Come, let Me touch your eyes, My children,
for you have not seen as clearly
as you have been told.

Come, ask Me to open your eyes.
Ask Me to remove any veil you may have.
Ask Me to lead you into all truth.
Ask Me to be the light of your world.

Ask Me to reveal to you
the glory of the new covenant."

*****

Art: "Born This Way"

"Everlasting Glory"

"What once had glory has come to have no glory at all
because of the glory that surpasses it."
- 2 Corinthians 3:10 ESV

"I want you to know My law.
I want you to know My Spirit.
I want you to know My eternal covenant.

"I am so much bigger than you have understood,
because you have defined My law by the Ten Words of the old covenant
instead of by the love I gave you on the Cross
and commanded you to give one another.

"Cease your striving and your struggle to fit Me into the Ten Commandments!
Stop trying to define My character by the tablets of the old covenant!
Let Me be who I really am, and I will give you rest!"

*****

Art: "No Comparison"

See also:
"The Fulfillment of the Ten Commandments"
and
"Identifying the 'True' Church"

"Perfect Performance"

Then they asked him,
"What must we do to do the works God requires?"

Jesus answered,
"The work of God is this:
To believe in the one He has sent."

- John 6:28-29

"My children,

"I know you think you can keep the law. I know you think you're supposed to. But I tell you that it was a burden too heavy for you to bear, so I bore it for you. I carried, kept, and fulfilled what you could not.

"I do not judge you by how well you keep the old covenant law—I do not judge you by how well you survive carrying something that is too heavy for you! I do not judge you according to the ministry of death, but rather according to your heart's response to My love for you.

"If you know that your performance is weak and insufficient, then that is good enough for Me. If you have heard My love for you and call out to Me who won the game for you, then that is good enough.

"I don't need your help to win the game (I've already won it!), and I don't need your help in saving you (I've already done that, too!). All I want is for you to know in your heart that I am your champion, not you yourself.

"That's all."

*****

See also: "The Champion!" (art link)

"Lord of the Sabbath"

"I am the Lord of the Sabbath.
I am the One who gives you rest.
I am the One who makes you holy.

"Who has dwelt on high?
Who has ascended to heaven?
Who has ridden on the clouds into glory?

"I am the First and the Last.
I am the Creator of all things.
I am He who does not grow tired or weary.

"I am He who made the Sabbath for ancient Israel,
—not for Myself—
but to point them to Myself,
because I was to come
and bring them into My rest;
for though they kept Sabbath days
they had not yet entered—
they had only known shadows of My rest.

"I am He to whom the Sabbath pointed them,
to whom the testimony of the Old Covenant points;
for though the Old Covenant has passed away,
it still testifies to all mankind
that I am He.

"I am the Lord of Sabbath-rest,
I am He of whom the promise spoke.
I am rest for your souls.
I am your sanctification.
I am your heaven."

*****

See also: "Christ, the Substance of the Two Shadows"

"Fulfilled!"

"My blood covers all things, even the Ten Commandments—the list of charges against you. Every sin that you have ever committed, every law you have ever broken, every thought you have every had that has turned away from Me—all have been covered by My blood on the Cross. I died for all of these, and My sacrifice takes them all away. They do not belong to you any longer: your sins and the charges against you have been nailed to the Cross. I have fulfilled the Law and all requirements for your salvation. All that is left for you is to believe and love."

*****

See also: "Fulfilled!" (art link) and "The Fulfillement of the Law"

"A Better Covenant"

"Come! Come to the Cross! Come be free of the Law of sin and death! Come find life in the Spirit of life.

"You will never be able to repair the broken covenant, and you will never live in the light dwelling in its shadows.

"Come to the Cross, come to the light!"

*****

See also: "A Better Law" (art link) and "The Fulfillment of the Law"

"Paid in Full"

"Yes, I paid your debt in full! I have told you plainly—why has it been hard for you to see?

"You are frightened and scared because you have not known the Scriptures. You have been told that My words were difficult to understand and confusing at times. You have been taught that what My servants wrote about 'the law' could not mean what it said. Therefore you have clung to the law—and your righteousness—for fear of being deceived and lost, instead of being comforted and entering the peace of resting in My finished work.

"Come, let go of your fear. Trust Me that I will protect you and not let you fall. Look again at My words. Ask Me for the faith to take Me at My word—to let My words mean what they say."

*****

See also:
• "Sabbath in Colossians 2"
• "The Old Covenant" (study)
• "The Fulfillment of the Ten Commandments"
• "Before & After" (art link)

"What Have I Done?"

"What do you see when you look at the Cross? A sign of My love for you, of how far I will go for you? Yes, that is part of it. But do you really know how far I have gone for you?

"I have not just taken away your past sins and then left you to keep the Law now that you know better. On the Cross I took your past, present and future sins! And I did not carry them halfway! I did not not carry them temporarily only to transfer them to another location. Nor did I did carry your sins on the Cross temporarily in order to see if you would obey the old covenant Law. I did not carry your sins halfway: I carried them all the way.

"I know you are going to mess up again. I know you aren't going to be 'perfect', and I know you'll feel like you've let Me down when you stumble. Listen to Me: you have not let Me down! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I have seen your future and your end. I know what you will say before you say it, I know what you will do before you do it. On the Cross I saw every choice you will make before you make it, and I chose to love you and die for you anyway!

"I am not afraid of your sins, and I am not afraid of your bad choices. I have already died for them, and I also died to set you free of being afraid of them. I didn't die on the Cross to shame you or to make you obey out of guilt for the rest of your life: I died on the Cross to free you from shame and guilt! I took your shame, and I took your guilt! I did not die on the Cross in order to make you go about hanging your head trying to be good and pretending you like it. I died to set you free. And so you are free!

"Come, look upon the Cross again. I am the Beginning and the End, and I am your beginning and end. I have taken care of you completely here! It is finished! Trust Me. I won't let you go. You don't have to earn this or become worthy of this. I've given it to you freely. I will carry you until the end."

*****

See also: "Perfection: Accepting My Brokenness"

"Perfection"

"I have never called you to be perfect enough for Me to fill you. I have not promised to give you My Spirit (or 'the latter rain') once you keep the Ten Commandments well enough. I am not holding back doing great things through you and your church because you have been too sinful.

"Instead I have given you My grace. I have promised to fill you with My Spirit when you simply rest in My grace, when you believe that I have loved you and given you My all not because of the righteous things you have done. When you rest in Me alone, when you accept My righteousness instead of trying to earn it, then you will begin to understand that the perfection I call you to is not the perfection of the commandments of the old covenant.

"I have called you to recognize your brokenness and accept My perfection on your behalf. I have called you to accept My grace, and be filled with My Spirit even in the midst of your brokenness. My Spirit is not a means toward the perfection of the old covenant commandments, but My Spirit is poured out to bring dead things to life, to restore places that were once dry and deserted in you and in others.

"Be perfect as I am perfect is not a command to match My righteousness, for that was beyond you and I have never called you to the ministry of the old covenant. Rather I have called you to love others with My love, to share My perfect love, not yours. I have chosen you as a vessel to pour out healing through. I have chosen you as a broken vessel, not as a 'perfect' vessel; I have called you in your brokenness, not in your wholeness.

"Come, accept your brokenness and imperfection, and you will see rivers gush forth in your wilderness."

*****

See also:
• "Perfection" (art link)
• "Admitting Weakness" (at Weeping Jeremiahs)

"False Yoke"

"I am coming with freedom to My captive children in Adventism! I will break the yoke that has enslaved you for over 165 years. I will deal with those who continue to put My children under the Law that I died to set them free from.

"My yoke is easy, and My burden is light. I bore the burden of the Law for you so that you would not have to, for it was too heavy for you to bear. My commands are that you believe in Me and the One who sent Me, and that you love one another as I have loved you. No further burdens have I laid on you.

"Those who lay further burdens on you desire to enslave you to that which I have set you free from. They tell you that you must wear this yoke to please My Father, but I tell you that you cannot please My Father because My Father is pleased with Me. When you rest in Me, you rest in His pleasure and He sees Me instead of you.

"You do not have to prove to My Father that you are worthy, nor that you are strong enough or obedient enough to become adopted. He has already chosen to adopt you freely through My sacrifice, not because of righteous deeds you have done.

"Come, rest in Me and in the freedom of My Father's love."

*****

See also: "The Fulfillment of the Ten Commandments"

"Reduced"

"You have thought the 'heritage' of your church has been a treasure, a unique package of special, privileged revelation and clarity. Your heritage has seemed rich to you, but you have been wandering around in the barren wilderness carrying this heavy load of your 'heritage', feeling far less assurance than your literature advertises.

"I am calling you to let go of this heavy package, these countless volumes of writings and unique beliefs, at the foot of the cross. It is time for you to find find freedom and life once and for all.

"As much 'fruit' as you've tried to boast that your heritage brought, deep down you have known it was barren, but you have kept trying to make it something, trying harder and harder. You have carried many things in addition to the Cross, and these have been a burden to you that I never meant for you to carry. The good news is about Me, not about you, your church, your 'heritage' or unique beliefs.

"I am calling you back to the simplicity of the Cross, where My grace alone is your salvation. I have taken your sins, and if you are willing to surrender them at the Cross, I have even taken our efforts to adorn, improve upon and complicate the simplicty of My gospel.

"Come lay down your burdensome additions at the foot of the Cross. And in their place receive My heritage, My inheritance that you did not deserve. Receive a crown of beauty instead of ashes, a garment of praise instead of heaviness, My free gift of righteousness instead of an earned righteousness of your own according to the Old Covenant law.

"The hour is late, the sun is setting and the night is almost here. Hear Me today. Come to the foot of the Cros and release your heavy package!"

*****

See also: "For the Apostles' Creed"

"Gently Broken"

"My beloved, My bride. You are broken. Your efforts to try and keep the old covenant laws only showed you how much you failed and fell short. You have no hope, no rest, and you are dressed in filthy rags.

"In this place of brokenness, I long to reach down and lift up your head. I long for you to look in My eyes instead of attempting to piece together your broken law-keeping. I long for you to lose yourself in My perfection instead of losing yourself trying to become perfect enough for Me to receive you.

"I will receive you just as you are. Lay down your burden. It is a yoke too heavy for you to carry. Come rest in Me, and I will give you rest for your soul, and rest from your fear of sinning and fear of being lost.

"Come to Me and I will give you real rest in Myself."

*****

See also: "Ultimate Rest" (study) and "The Fulfillment of the Law"