All through the Scriptures, the prophets did not bring happy or fun filled messages but called the people to repentance by turning back to the ways of the Lord away from sin and idolatry. This was not what people wanted to hear and why they were killed.

Today, the watchmen on the walls are crying loud and clear, time is running out and we are warned not to waste that which remains available to us. We are living in the very last of the time of the end of this age; and notwithstanding our personal life span which is in the Fathers’ hand as to when He calls us home.

Getting our house, our lives in order, is not what our flesh life wants to hear. We want the feel good sermons, the ear tickling teachings and the pat on the back telling us we are doing just fine. We are doing all the right things, aren’t we? So what’s the problem? We’re under grace not law and God is a God of love. His love although unconditional, is not the same as our emotional feelings, His love is Truth. His love is to guide us in His ways and the ways of Messiah by keeping His Word alive in our hearts and lives; so He can protect us and lead us our final destination with Him.

Maybe it’s time for a visit to the potters house and let the Lord reshape us into a vessel fit for the masters use? Holiness and righteousness is the call, and we are encouraged to examine our ways, not as humanity judges but according to our Heavenly Fathers instructions.

2 Tim. 2:21 If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work.

Are we leaky vessels?

A little cracked and maybe with broken parts?

What is leaking out through those cracks… is it stinking thinking oozing from the heart of unclean motives?

As children of the Most High, the only thing that should be overflowing from our lives is the glory from the living waters of His indwelling Holy Spirit within. He is looking for His Body, the ecclesia, His called apart ones, to be prepared without spot or wrinkle; and we are the ones who have to do the doing. We have been given everything we need to obey His teachings.

2 Peter 1:3 For His divine power has bestowed upon us all things that [are requisite and suited] to life and godliness, through the [full, personal] knowledge of Him Who called us by and to His own glory. 

If we are in Christ/Messiah then the walk is not hard. In Christ/Messiah means, our life is not our own, we are supposed to be people who are expressing His life within us; dead to self as Christs image and likeness is revealed by all we say and do. It’s a process, a daily submission to allow Him to shine through us.

Paul said in Phil 1:21 for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. This is an indicator that the more we yield to Him and allow Christlikeness to manifest through us, the more we are dead to self by crucifying that flesh life. We are in fact dying to gain all that He has provided for us.

Again it’s just what Yeshua/Jesus said in Matthew 26:25-27 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.

Its not simply the actual physical self that dies to gain heaven and eternity in His presence, it’s the here and now; laying down what we want, our will in exchange for what He wants, His will for our lives.

The great exchange – die to self and gain it all. This is how to face the trials of life and to find peace within our hard and challenging situations. Circumstances that many face are incomprehensible to most western lifestyles and only through Messiah and faith in Him are those in dire conditions able to endure.

Our ability to trust in situations sometimes is short lived as worry and fear is relentless in its endeavor to nibble away at our resolve.

On reading this verse our first thought is that heaven is far better than anything here on earth.  However when we are facing problems today, in that moment, the idea of heaven is of little comfort.

In Heaven after physical death we will not have these same problems but if we are reading this, we are still alive and need the encouragement now as we must face these problems.

In the Greek language the word gain is the word kerdos and  is very interesting as It means a gain through a fair trade.

 How can you gain or make a profit or increase from a trade that is fair or equal? 

In real life terms the only way would be some kind of exchange of items with an individual, where each person preferred what the other was offering. Similar to a barter system where both parties are equally content with the items traded even if the value of the items were far from equal.

When we trade our life for the life of Christ/Messiah, it is a life for a life, except we profit greatly from it.  Our life and comforts are no longer ours, they and everything else belong to Christ and if we suffered discomfort and abuse, it is not really our life that is suffering. This is if we truly relinquish all.

When we give our lives to Christ it is kerdos, a fair trade for profit.

2771 kerdos: Gain, Profit

Original Word: κέρδος
Part of Speech: Noun, Neuter
Transliteration: kerdos
Pronunciation: ker’-dos
Phonetic Spelling: (ker’-dos)
KJV: gain, lucre 
NASB: gain
Word Origin: [of uncertain affinity]

1. gain (financial or genitive case)

Cognate: 2771 kérdos – gain (profit), acquired through “faith-trading.” Accordingly, faith (4102 /pístis) and 2772 (kérma) are directly connected (Phil 1:21-25,3:7-9).  See 2770 (kerdainō).

STRONGS NT 2771: κέρδος

κέρδος, κερδεος (κέρδους), τό, gain, advantage: Philippians 1:21(with which cf. Aelian v. h. 4, 7 τοῖς κακοῖς οὐδέ τό ἀποθανεῖνκέρδος); Titus 1:11; plural Philippians 3:7. 

 

            Paul applies the language of the day to spiritual assessment. In Philippians he transfers all assets/gains, (heritage, zeal, achievements) to the loss side because Messiah/Christ’s worth far exceeds all of them. Death, often pointed to as the greatest loss, becomes gain because it opens the way for the believer into unrestricted communion with the Father; and without religious legalistic pride or material greed.

The noun translated gain carries the idea of profit in the broadest sense; financial, social, or spiritual. In the New Testament references, it highlights the difference between the world’s idea of gain and the far higher profit found in Messiah/Christ; for the simple reason that the believer’s ultimate advantage is fellowship with the Lord, whether in life or death.

We have to come to the place where we understand and believe that whatever happens in a crisis is going to be according to our Heavenly Father’s will and desires; and if it turns out to be our worst fears, then He will take us through it.  With that attitude, there is true shalom, His peace reigns within us, because, it is not our lives we are conducting any longer, they belong to Him. By trusting Him, we will accept whatever He wants to do with it; poverty, wealth, fame or being ignored, it’s no longer our decision because we made a fair trade for gain.  

In Hebrew Strong’s 3161/3162

The Root: יחד Sounds like: yah-khad 

One study traced the word Gain to yatana in its Semitic root in Aramaic יותנא which may give a deeper truth, because although it’s meaning is the same as the Greek word kerdos, The Aramaic word “yatana” generally means “to increase” or “to grow.” it also has the interesting meaning of joining together to become one. It maybe somewhat of a stretch, but a way to personalize this verse could read: “For me, I‘m living the life of Yeshua Messiah and when I die I will become one with Him which is gain because I will no longer be subject to all of the human, fleshly problems.”

This gain, instead of the fantasy images we have created in our human imaginations of floating past the pearly gates into some mansion in heaven, and sitting on some fluffy cloud playing a harp. In reality it is finally being free from the flesh of human carnality with all its lusts and cravings, which lead to sin and separation from our Father, and becoming truly one with Yeshua/Jesus.  Isn’t our one true desire to be sharing in all the peace, love and joy that He is; because this is the end to which we are all invited, that the two shall become as one. Echad.

Surely the reality is that as we die to self, we become gradually more one with Him, and that is the way to be sure we are not shipwrecked.

We need to get our house in order and gain Messiah at all costs.

Shalom shalom

‘Mishpachah’

‘Family/Tribe’

משפחה

Mish-pa-KHa,

friends, visitors and every reader…

Please don’t leave this page before making certain you are His

and are truly born again from above.

Know of a certainty that Jesus/Yeshua is

your Redeemer, Savior, Lord

and soon returning King

and that you have a personal relationship with Him.

You are greatly loved and precious in His sight.

It’s all about Life and Relationship, not Religion.

NOT SURE? YOU CAN BE..

SAY THE FOLLOWING FROM YOUR HEART RIGHT NOW…

Heavenly Father I come to you in the Name of Jesus asking for forgiveness of my sins for which I am truly sorry.

I repent of them all and turn away from my past.

I believe with my heart and confess with my mouth that Jesus is your Son and that He died on the cross at calvary to pay the price for my sin, so that I might be forgiven and have eternal life in the kingdom of Heaven. Father I believe that Jesus rose from the dead and I ask you to come into my life right now and be my personal Savior and Lord and I will worship you all the days of my life. Because your word is truth I say that I am now forgiven and born again and by faith I am washed clean with the blood of Jesus.  Thank you that you have accepted me into your family in Jesus’ name. Amen.