JESUS’ RESTORATIVE WORK  🎧

I Am the Bread of Life.
John 6:48 KJV

When God created man and woman, Adam and Eve, He created them in His image…perfect…good…sinless

And God saw everything that He had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning of the sixth day.
Genesis 1:31

This is very interesting, because we know that no man is good, but man was “good” at the point of his creation. Man fell from good to sinner in the Garden of Eden.

Jesus confirms this in the New Testament
“And Jesus said unto him, why callest thou Me good? none is good save one, that is, God.”
Luke 18:19

So what happened? Humans chose to sin and made all men and women sinners. We are all born sinners. And God is working, according to His mighty Word, to restore us.

Restore means to bring back. To reinstate. To restore to a previous right, practice, custom, or situation.

God’s work within us is restorative, meaning it happens layer by layer, little by little, and precept by precept. (Isaiah 28:10 KJV)

I love Bibles. I love old Biblesthe bottles and one of the first things I do is clean them up and apply leather conditioner. This conditioner removes outward dirt, visible signs that can be easily removed, and replaces it with a shine that represents that shine you would find on a new Bible. A Bible without scars, without scratches, and without history.

I have attempted to restore several Bibles and found that, to gain the desired results, the conditioner must be applied lightly, gently, and repetitively. It must be applied and then the leather must rest between applications. This is so that it can absorb the conditioner. If the conditioner is applied too heavily and too hastily, it saturates the dried out and brittle leather too quickly, causing the leather to separate in layers and it can begin to crumble.

Harshness and impatience destroys; gentleness and patience restores.

Likewise, we are restored through God’s Word, His grace, His mercy, and His Salvation in gentle and restorative steps. He reveals His truth to us as we walk life out through our faith in Him.

He accepts us. He pick us up and gently cleans us up, maybe a little on the outside and a little on the inside at first. Then He gives us time to absorb what He has shown us and applied within us. He gently and lovingly repeats the process, as many times as it takes to perfect us and to restore us, making us more like Him.

Be patient with yourself and be patient with others. Allow humans to be human and God to be God. Through Christ Jesus, by faith, we are saved; we are saved but the restoration is not complete. However, God will lead us and change us slowly. He will perfect us.

Tolerance means to accept or endure, someone or something unpleasant or disliked, with forbearance.

We are not commanded to tolerate people, we to commanded to LOVE people. Love means to have an intense feeling of deep affection.

When we love people, we have the ability to show them the love of Jesus. We have or can invest in a relationship with them that allows us to share the gospel. But when we merely tolerate people we show them the judgment of men and this type of relationship closes ears and hearts to receiving anything we have to offer.

With God given knowledge – there is always to be application. God prepares each of us with the ability to accept and persevere through the changes He is working in us. He will always reveal His revelation to us in His perfect time.

If God poured out upon our hearts too much information at once, it would be too much for us to handle. We would crumble, we would be crushed, and we would be destroyed under the weight of the knowledge of our own sinfulness. Our minds and our understanding would not be prepared to accept His truth. The weight of our own sin, guilt, and shame could destroy us or, out of our fear, drive us further from God and into our sin.

We are perfected through Christ, little by little. God makes us aware of the sins within us, convicted by our Holy Spirit, and through Jesus we repent and are forgiven. This is not a one time perfection process. It is worked throughout a lifetime relationship with the Father. ( 1 Cor 10:13, Ezekiel 36:26 KJV)

Knowledge gained is not always knowledge of God‘s word and God’s truth. We must have knowledge of Him and understand His Truth, in order that we are equipped to recognize all counterfeit knowledge that the world force-feeds the ignorant and the unsuspecting.

I remember so clearly the day that I sat in the floor of the local Christian bookstore, turning one book over after another and reading the back and then reading about the author. I remember becoming more and more frustrated with every book cover that I read. I remember in my spirit calling out to God and asking; How am I supposed to know who loves you? How am I supposed to know who knows the truth? How am I supposed to know who to listen to?

Pressed STRONGLY upon my heart, in the most clear and understandable way I have ever felt, God said “If you want truth come to the source.“

Since then, I seek truth and understanding from God first, through prayer and His scriptures, and only then do I reach out to other God lead people that impart the knowledge that they have gained through God given revelation .

Be strong and diligent in your walk with God. If you always seek truth, first, at the feet of Christ Jesus, you will always be satisfied. If you misinterpret or misunderstand during the learning process, God is fully aware of the learning curve, He will always lead you to the answers.

Uplift and encourage those seeking answers. Never shame anyone or judge them for how slow or timid their walk may seem to you. Don’t let your judgement, in words or actions, steal the bread they have received for now; it may be in fragments but, in God’s timing, He will lead them to the fullness of The Bread of Life.

God is accepted as a whole – Father, Son, Holy Spirit – or not at all. You cannot compartmentalize God in your life. You can not offer up one area of yourself to Him to restore and it not include all of you. You can not repent of one sin willingly, receiving forgiveness, while ‘knowingly’ holding on to another sin and not expect judgment.

God wants to restore us. As long as we inhabit the earth, it will be a life long process. Allow God to permeate every area of your life, working His purifying process to break the chains of sin in your heart, with love, mercy, grace, and patience. Likewise, extend the same love, mercy, grace, and patience as God works His purifying process to break the chains of sin in others lives through you.

Be the light on the path, pointing to Christ, rather than the darkness, judging, on the path leading to Hell.

But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
James 1:4

Love and patience always work together; walk in love.

GOD LOVES YOU !!!

SCRIPTURE

35.And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.

47.Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life.

48. I am the bread of life.
(John 6:35, 47-48 KJV)
(Read content full scripture, John 6:22-59 KJV)

I will not drive them out from before thee in one year; lest the land become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against thee.
Exodus 23:29

There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.
1 Cor 10:13 KJV

I knew heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flash, and I will give you and heart of flesh. 
Ezekiel 36:26

14. For by one offering He have perfected for ever them that are sanctified.
15. Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that He had said before,
16. This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; 
17. and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.
18. Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.
19. Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,
20. by a new and living way, which He has to consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, His flesh;
21. and having a high priest over the house of God; 
22. let us draw near with new heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.
23. Let us hold fast to the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;)
24. And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works:
25. not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of Psalm is; but exhorting one another: and so much more, as you see the day approaching.
Hebrews 10:14-25

12. Not as though I have already obtained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may Apri hand that. Which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.
13. Brethren, account not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth onto those things which are before,
14. I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 3:12-14 KJV

…being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:
Philippians 1:6

But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
James 1:4

For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:
Isaiah 28:10

1. Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, whose glorious beauty is a fading flower, which are on the head of the fat valleys of them that are overcome with wine!
2. Behold, the Lord hath a mighty and strong one, which as a tempest of hail and a destroying storm, as a flood of mighty waters overflowing, shall cast down to the earth with the hand.
3. The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim, shall be trodden under feet:
4. And the glorious beauty, which ison the head of the fat valley, shall be a fading flower, and as the hasty fruit before the summer; which when he that looketh upon it seeth, while it is yet in his hand he eateth it up.
5. In that day shall the LORD of hosts be for a crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty, unto the residue of his people,
6. And for a spirit of judgment to him that sitteth in judgment, and for strength to them that turn the battle to the gate.
7. But they also have erred through wine, and through strong drink are out of the way; the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink, they are swallowed up of wine, they are out of the way through strong drink; they err in vision, they stumble in judgment.
8. For all tables are full of vomit and filthiness, so that there is no place clean.
9. Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, anddrawn from the breasts.
10. For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:
11. For with stammering lips and another tongue will He speak to this people.
12. To whom He said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear.
13. But the word of the LORD was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.