Intimacy with GOD by Esher Shoshannah (e book reading free .txt) 📕

my sin nature and said I will be judged and punished for this horrible spiritual filth? This polluted ocean was filled with things lurking to be fulfilled even though I had not acted on all of them. You saw all of the following swirling around in my heart tempting me, waiting for me to say “yes” to: negative thoughts and desires, critical spirit, unforgiveness, disobedience, hypocrisy, gossip, cursing, strife, slander, bitterness, intolerance, unbelief, resentment, sexual impurity, vanity, uncaring, pouting, manipulation, faultfinding, judging, spite, selfishness, addictions, stubbornness, immorality, malice, coldness and so much more (Rom.1:28-32)! "BEHOLD WHAT MANNER OF LOVE THE FATHER HAS BESTOWED ON US, THAT WE SHOULD BE CALLED CHILDREN OF GOD!" (1 John 3:1)

 

HOW CAN I NOT LOVE AND OBEY YOU LORD WHEN…

… You actually became my sin and my curse (Gal.3:13; 2Cor.5:21)? Jesus, You not only took the above spiritual filth but BECAME IT! You felt inside all that was in that sin nature of mine! Dear God, that overwhelms my heart that on the cross You were completely flooded by what You hated. Heb.12:2 declares, that You endured the cross and DESPISING THE SHAME! The old hymn says it all; THE LOVE OF GOD IS GREATER FAR THAN TONGUE OR PEN CAN EVER TELL…!

 

HOW CAN I NOT LOVE AND OBEY YOU LORD WHEN…

…You were blamed for what I was and had done? Jesus, You were punished for the guilty me in Your spirit, soul, as well as Your body. You took all my punishment! "…I HAVE LOVED YOU WITH AN EVERLASTING LOVE..." (Jer.31:3)

 

HOW CAN I NOT LOVE AND OBEY YOU LORD WHEN…

…You said, "My God, My God why have You forsaken Me?" Jesus, You knew that the judgment for all those who die not receiving Your sacrifice would be separated from You forever. They would confess their own words, "I DID IT MY WAY!" "I didn’t need You or Your sacrifice." And You, King Jesus must say in response, "IT WAS NOT ENOUGH!" You were totally forsaken so that I would not be forever forsaken to a place where only evil exist. "IN THIS IS LOVE, NOT THAT WE LOVED GOD, BUT THAT HE LOVED US AND SENT HIS SON TO BE THE PROPITIATION FOR OUR SINS." (1John 4:10)

 

HOW CAN I NOT LOVE AND OBEY YOU LORD WHEN…

…You made the offer of Your salvation a completely free gift to me so You alone would receive all the glory (Rom. 6:23; Eph.2:8,9)? "BUT WHEN THE KINDNESS AND THE LOVE OF GOD OUR SAVIOR TOWARD MAN APPEARED, NOT BY WORKS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS WHICH WE HAVE DONE, BUT ACCORDING TO HIS MERCY HE SAVED US…" (Titus 3:4,5)

 

HOW CAN I NOT LOVE AND OBEY YOU LORD WHEN…

…You live to watch over me (Heb.7:25)? You love me so much that You came to live inside of me and will never leave me (Gal.2:20; Deut.31:6,8). You actually felt all the pain that I would go through in this life (Isa.63:9). You give meaning to the troubles I would go through (2 Cor.1:3-5) so that I can help others. You give Your promises to limit the temptations (1 Cor.10:13). "WE LOVE BECAUSE HE FIRST LOVED US." (1 John 4:19)

 

HOW CAN I NOT LOVE AND OBEY YOU LORD WHEN…

…You love me so much that You discipline me to keep me on the right path of Your plan for me.(Phil.4:6,7; Heb.12:6)? You experienced everything I would go through to sympathize & be deeply touched in all my weaknesses (Heb.4:14,15). "AND WALK IN LOVE, JUST AS CHRIST ALSO LOVED US, AND GAVE HIMSELF UP FOR US…" (Eph.5:2)

 

 

 

 

 

PRAY WITH ME: Dear Lord, the choice of my heart is to surrender all things each day to Your loving, caring, guiding and protecting heart. My choice is to have You daily change my life. I do not want to go back to the old life. I want more of Your life Lord seen in me. I don’t want to lead my life. I no longer own my life! You have all the rights to it! You died not to just save me but that You would be Lord and Leader of it (Rom14:9). As I present myself each day to You (Rom.12:1-2), I will proclaim these words, “The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. You make me to lie down in green pastures; You lead me beside the still waters. You restore my soul; You lead me in the paths of righteousness for Your Name’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; my cup runs over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.” Lord, I love You even more now because of how far You would go to save me! Always, for Your Name’s sake alone Lord Jesus, AMEN!

 

JESUS BECAME A WORM – HE SAID SO!!

 The Holy Spirit now desires to take your heart even deeper into how much His great love endured for you at the cross. He wants you to know just how low God would go to save your soul and make you His bride. The answer, dear bride of Christ, is overwhelming!

  

HE BECAME A WORM – HE SAID SO!! 

 

"This is love; not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins." I John 4:10

 

PRAY WITH ME: "Dear, dear Abba, Father, what an incomprehensible sacrifice You made by sending us Your heart, the Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son to go through infinite suffering for me. Cause my heart to know just a small portion of the breadth, and length, and depth, and height of Jesus’ love and suffering for me His bride, that I may become all that He desires in me, from me and for me! Amen!"

  

HOW COULD THE LORD SAY, HE BECAME A WORM?

He said in Psalm 22:6, "But I am a worm, and not a man, A reproach of men, and despised by the people." On the cross the Lord spoke verse 1 and what was on His heart continued.

 

JESUS SAID THAT HELL HAS WORMS THAT WILL NEVER DIE!

He said in Mark 9:47,48; "And if your eye causes you to stumble, cast it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes, to be cast into HELL, where THEIR WORM DOES NOT DIE, AND THE FIRE IS NOT QUENCHED."

 

THE WORM IS RED! THE WORM IS SIN! THE WORM IS CRUSHED!

Isaiah 1:18 states, "Come now, and let us reason together, says the LORD; though your sins be as scarlet (Hebrew shani), they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson (Hebrew tolaath – worm), they shall be as wool.” The Hebrew word “tolaath” refers to the worm from which the color crimson or red is obtained. The other Hebrew word “shani” is the product (red dye) which comes forth from the crushed eggs of this worm-like creature. So the Hebrew word has two meanings: "scarlet" and "worm". Keep in mind that in Isaiah 1:18 the color red represents “sin” and it also means “worm”!

 

THE JOY OF GOD WHO BECAME A WORM

"Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the JOY set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." Hebrews 12:2

Jesus had just gone into the Garden of Gethsemane, He fell on His face and cried out to the Father, "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will." What was in that cup? God’s anger and all of our horrible, stinking sin worms! He would drink that cup of sin-worms and His pure soul would become full with our sin worms!

Yet, in Hebrews 12:2 it says that "who for the joy set before Him endured the cross". What joy? Seeing you and me saved, changed and out of the clutches of Satan; seeing the devil defeated and knowing that in the future Satan would be locked up forever never to hurt anyone again; seeing that there would never again be any more death, sorrow, sickness, crying, pain, or curse (Rev. 21:4; 22:3)! HALLELUJAH!

Jesus hated the cross but the joy of what the future would hold for all of us sustained Him. All of our sin worms would disappear forever except for those who would reject Him. Those sin worms would live on forever crawling all over them (Mark 9:44,46,48). Can you imagine Jesus loving us this much that He would go to such depths to suffer for us? To help us understand this the Holy Spirit uses the illustration that Jesus became an ugly, sin-filled, meaningless, humiliating, powerless worm.

 

HOW HIGH AND AWESOME IS OUR GOD?

Never forget that our God created the universe! I can’t understand that He is greater than that which He created. HE IS BIGGER THAN THE UNIVERSE ITSELF. Think about these words from the old hymn:

"O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder, Consider all the worlds Thy hands have made, I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder, Thy power throughout the universe displayed. Then sings my soul my Savior God to Thee How Great Thou Art."

How low would God, the One who created the universe, go to save you and me? From the highest heights of His glorious throne in heaven to an excruciating death on a cross, He became a WORM! Yes, you heard right! Let’s begin this amazing journey through the Word of God. After considering these scriptures, ask yourself this question, “Do I love Jesus more?”

 

THE WORM REPRESENTS OUR SINFUL, WEAK CONDITION

Here are some instances where the Hebrew word “crimson” is also translated in the Bible as “worm” in the following scriptures:

Job 25:6 – "How much less man, that maggot, and the son of man that worm."

Isa. 41:14 – "Do not fear, you worm Jacob, you men of Israel."

Worms are lowly and have no power. There is no beauty in them. The worm is ugly. They live, crawling around in the darkness of the earth. Spiritually, God sees our soul in the same condition. Jesus became a human being so that He could have all of our filthy sin worms put in His soul on the cross.

That is what He sees in us! Who would ever want to touch even one of those sickening things? He decided to have all the world’s worms placed in His pure holy soul for you and me.

 

WORMS ARE SEEN AS DESTROYERS OF LIFE

In Deut.28 the Lord pronounces the curses which come upon God's disobedient children. Verse 39 states, "You shall plant and cultivate vineyards but you shall neither drink of the wine nor gather the grapes, for the