Tag Archives: the cross

Pour Down Like Rain

01 Wednesday May 2013

Posted by in faith and Christianity, recovery from addictions, Relationships, the Word of God, Think in Today

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Rain falls, saturates the dry earth and plants. Tree, flowers, crops, soil, all benefit from the rainfall. With no rain the plants wither and dry, the ground hardens and cracks, thirsting for a shower to end the drought.It appears all is lost when rain refuses to fall.
“O God you are my God; early will I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh longs for you; In a dry and thirsty land where there is no water.” Ps.63:1
I need the rain. You do too. Not the moisture falling from the skies…no, the rain that refreshes our spirits, the falling of His presence, saturating the depths of our spirits. Likes the trees and plants His rain falling on us, causing growth and producing fruit many feed from. The showers God sends to our inward man cause the cracked dry soil of our existence, become a dark rich loam, growing new seedlings in undeveloped areas, those places we have  ignored too long.
His showering to make us a well-watered garden, a picture of gracefulness, where everything produces after it’s kind. We being so saturated by Him, that living waters gush from within us so others may drink and be satisfied. God send the rain.
May the Lord send his rain down on you and fill your every moment with His Holy Presence. May you be known for His love in you. May His wisdom in you be obvious to all. May His kindness be your character, His name never leave your breath. May you grow, give, and gather through Jesus, the name above every name. Let it be.
Thanks for reading, God bless and keep you all.

A Recipe for Spiritual Growth

17 Sunday Mar 2013

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The Seed
“Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance  and supplication for all the saints..” Eph.6:18
To grow spiritually, we need to pray. I have found this to be for me, the hardest spiritual exercise. It isn’t praying I find hard at all. What is difficult is to have a set time that belongs to me and “Abba,” free from distractions and interruptions. I have no problem praying as I go about my day. I may pray for my family, for social network request, for requests on the churches prayer chain, for those I work with, those I pass as I drive, those I work with in recovery, etc. It is my determination to spend time just talking with God in humility, on my knees, that I find hard to accomplish but necessary to grow into the stature of Christ.

The Fertilizer
“Every day will I bless You, and I will praise Your name forever. Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised; and His greatness is unsearchable.” Ps.145:2-3
I don’t want to come to God in prayer empty-handed. I want to hallow His name, praise His mercy and grace, His steadfast love, and constant watchful eyes to defend and protect me from danger and evil. The book of Psalms reveals so much of God’s character. If you are like me, to praise and worship God before asking for anything in prayer, gives me the scriptural understanding that I have His attention. He inhabits my praise…in other words, that’s His address.

Add Water
“How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed in accordance to Your Word.” Ps.119:9
This is my bread…daily. I love the Word more than anything in life. If you want to know God better, or at all, grab a Bible and devour it. I often hear others say,” I don’t understand it, so I have no interest in it.” There are several new paraphrase versions, the Message, Good News, NLT, etc., that anyone mentally competent can understand. It is spiritual competence that is the problem, in truth.

Putting these together, prayer is like a seed, fertilized by our praise and adoration to God, watered by the living Truth of His Word. Though I find a set prayer time difficult, I find it much easier after I fertilize the soil of spirituality with praise, and realize the goodness and purity of the One I am addressing. Reading the Word creates the environment to praise and honor God, and like a cycle, prayer makes me grow in my understanding of the Word.

If you struggle with any of these, ask God in sincerity to open your spiritual understanding, He will. Thanks for reading, God bless and keep you all.

Hear The Prophets

12 Tuesday Mar 2013

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Sir Winston Churchill was a voice crying in the wilderness. Prior to WWII, he warned the people of Great Britain of the danger that Adolph Hitler posed. Then Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, met with Hitler in Europe and returned with cheers from the Brits, having obtained Hitler’s word and signed agreement of no further aggression in Europe. Churchill knew better, Hitler could not be trusted, and within a short time, the aggression began. Churchill was right, but few believed him.

In the Old Testament, from Isaiah to Malachi, the warnings to Israel and Judah from these prophets fell on deaf ears. Actually, their ears heard, but the people would not heed them. People do not want to believe their world would possibly change, or that anything they are doing needs to be altered and that may bring judgment. Israel and Judah were stripped from the land God promised them, carried off to be enslaved by a pagan nation. Every warning was ignored. In Deuteronomy 28, Moses declared the blessing of keeping the laws of God, and the cursing. In the children of Israel’s history, they experienced the blessing, and the cursing to their entirety. Yes, the worst of the curse that would come if they refused to obey the law happened. They did eat the flesh of their own children.

…”Jehoshaphat stood and said, ‘Hear me O Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem, believe in the Lord your God and you shall be established; believe His prophets and you shall prosper.” 2Chron.20:20 NKJV

The New Testament has equal warnings, but not just to Israel. These warnings came from Jesus, Paul, Peter, and John. Matthew 24, Jesus tells the signs for the disciples to watch for. In 2Tim.3, Paul, under inspiration, told of the last days and what people would be like. Take a few moments and read these two passages. If you don’t see how these passages reflect our day, think hard and read it again. People have said, those events have happened throughout the ages, our times are no different. That is saying, “I don’t believe that.” Many people don’t believe it. Six plus billion people in this world, and few believe it. “The majority can’t be wrong.” people say. Friends, the majority is normally wrong.

We have fallen into a deeper hole from years of ignoring warnings of the few bold enough to say “STOP.” The inability of people to say no to their desires and cravings have led millions into addictions to drugs and alcohol, as well as pornography, gambling, etc. The schools systems have beaten biological evolution into the minds of people, that even the most brilliant minds believe it. Now that this demonic doctrine is falling apart, many are scrambling for a new explanation of how we came to be. The government has decided that it knows what’s best for the people and enact laws that force behaviors and denounce God’s ways on every platform. Truth is objective. We have arrived. The warnings have been ignored.

The main thing for you and I to remember to do is, keep praying for all people. Our failure to do so has a horrendous effect on ourselves and those near and dear to us. Pray for your neighbors, for the leaders, for the churches. Then, take a look at those passages, they are earth shaking and revealing of this time. When you see this, then see you. What controls your thinking? Your actions? If you see personal need of change, pray for yourself too.

Thanks for reading, God bless and keep you all.

A New Identity, Discover You

07 Thursday Mar 2013

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Coming to, after years of living the party life opens new realities of the person I was, I became, and now am. It’s hard to look at. Seeing the early years of innocence turn into a long period of self-centeredness may be difficult. What I could have been, should have done, can dominate our thinking to the point we live full of remorse. In recovery from alcoholism and drug use, my eyes have been opened to the fact that no action I  performed, good or bad, is wasted if I am bent on using both for serving others. God uses every detail of our lives to His glory through us. This glory He receives graces our lives, for everything we give to Him, He returns to us in untold, innumerable ways.
As a child we see things through rose colored glasses. Mommy and Daddy are the best people in the world. Our view of God is obscure and normally directed by parents, or grandparents views. This may be a shock to you but that strongly affects our future. Parents teaching their children views about God as a storybook, sitting in heaven too busy to answer our small problems, is a major problem. Or the parents may pass their religion that they are faithful to, on to the child. That belief has God waiting to pounce on them the moment they do something sinful, and they will. “You have to walk the walk if you talk the talk,” is how they present God to their children, as though the individual has all to do with their salvation.
The problem here, is that after multiple failures, and asking for forgiveness, and salvation over and over, the young person gives up and considers themselves hell bound. The years of self-service begins. The individual figures, “what’s the use, I can’t live it.” They’re off to the races, living for themselves, along with the multitudes of those who didn’t think God had time for them. Sadly, addiction to drugs, and alcoholism, along with many other character flaws, lie in their path…no one told them the truth. The child becomes a parent, the views of God and religion continue. There are thousands upon thousands of children here in the USA that have never darkened the doors of a church.
What’s the right view?
“He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them. So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! This means that anyone who belongs to Christ becomes a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” 2Cor.5:15-17 NLT
This may shock you. It is nearly a blessing for some that they get into problems from committing crimes, incarcerated, or sentenced to recovery meetings. That may be their opportunity to hear the gospel, and see that God cares, that He is concerned about every detail in their life. in their desperation they hear the good news about Jesus and His great love for them, and many choose Him. The beauty of this decision is that it brings a new view of self, cleansed from the rags of the past. Having this new understanding of God, that He is love, and that there is someone to answer to when they sin that readily forgives them, without a new babtism, or return to church and performing rituals for forgiveness. Self-discovery  follows and becomes the central focus of their recovery as they for the first time see purpose. God used the broken vessel, lovingly putting it back together again.
Don’t fail to give your child the real Jesus based on the Word. If you don’t know Him, ask Him to reveal Himself to you. He will, and you will have eternity with God to pass on to your children. Thanks for reading, God bless and keep you all.

Don’t Allow the Rocks to Do Your Job

15 Friday Feb 2013

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I’m not going to relate the story of Job from the Bible, hopefully you are aware of it already. After he lost all of his children and  everything he owned, instead of pointing an accusing finger to heaven and asking, “why have you done this to me God!”, he did the opposite. He tore his garments in grief, fell to the ground, and WORSHIPPED. When he later had oozing, painful boils on his body from head to toe, and his wife said to him, “curse God and die,” Job said, “though He kills me, I will still trust him!” Could you do the same?
“Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen, no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior.” Hab.3:16-18
Jehoshaphat king of Judah, was told of invading armies from three countries, coming to wipe Judah off the earth. Jehoshaphat assemble the people, and made this statement to God in prayer: …”we do not know what to do; but our eyes are upon You!”
The God spoke to the people through a prophet and said:
“Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army. The battle is not yours but Gods.” 2Chron.20 (read this entire chapter, it has more spiritual principle than any chapter in the OT…my humble opinion.)
The battle was ready to begin, and Jehoshaphat placed who in the front line? his best men? himself? No, he placed the singers and the worshipers ahead of the army. They began to praise God in the splendor of His holiness…and God sent ambushments against the invaders, they thought they were being betrayed by each other, and they killed each other!
“Let all who take refuge in you be glad, let them sing for joy. Spread Your protection over them that those who love Your name may rejoice in You. For surely, O Lord, you bless the righteous, You surround them with Your favor as with a shield.” Ps.5:11-12
As Jesus entered into Jerusalem, the people were praising Him, throwing palm branches before the small donkey he rode. The religious people said, “make these people stop giving you praise!” Jesus said: “I tell you…if they keep quiet, THE STONES will cry out.”  Luke 19:40 (Not the ones from England that roll) If the people who love God refuse to honor Him in praise, the rocks will. God will be praised!
“O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth! You have set Your glory above the heavens.” Ps.8:1
“I call to the Lord who is worthy of praise, and I am saved from my enemies.” Ps.18:1
“Ascribe to the Lord, O mighty ones, ascribe the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord glory due His name; worship the Lord in the splendor of His holiness.” Ps.29:1-2
No matter what you may be going through today, what has happened in your past, make praise a priority in your life. Things may be going downhill fast, nothing to eat, no money for gas, or you may have a child on dope, no matter what is going bad in your life right now, begin to do as Job, and king Jehoshaphat did, praise the Lord, sing praises, psalms, make up a new song! God will do battle for you against your opposition, and give you favor.
When you praise Him, it is like a child crawling up on their daddies lap and saying, I love you daddy, you are the best daddy in the world! What would you do for your child if they did that in sincerity? Abba means daddy. Lift your hands to him in surrender as a child and say, “Abba, pick me up, I need Your help!” and He will. Don’t allow the rocks to do your job.
“Wash your face every morning with praise.” Charles H. Spurgeon
Thanks for reading, God bless and keep you all.

A Month of History and Help

07 Thursday Feb 2013

Posted by in faith and Christianity, History, Politics, Raising Children, recovery from addictions, Relationships, the Word of God, Think in Today

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I am convinced that people who have never had the grand pleasure of being addicted to drug use, alcohol, gambling, porn, overeating, etc., or have had mental health issues, or have had no family or friends with any of these issues…yet, could care less that February is National Recovery Month. In the same respect, people outside of the African-American community, have little interest in Black History month, unless they are history-buffs. There are many other months that the government recognizes for people of various heritages, Irish, Hispanic, Jewish, Filipino, et al, that I had no idea existed. This is the way we Americans celebrate various cultures in our country, ignoring them. Awareness has become, and is becoming more important to me as I grow in recovery, and in Christ. The reasons for their importance is the three tenses, past, present, and future.
Past
“Study the past if you would define the future.” – Confucius “Those unable to catalog the past are doomed to repeat it.” Lemony Snicket, The End
I love history. There is little of the past that doesn’t intrigue me. Americans have this tendency to be so busy racing to the end of life from the time of their adolescence, until in their late forties, when sensing their mortality, and slamming on the brakes of time, and calculating how fast things happened. Just a few years ago, when the kids were little…we pause in reflection of how good the past was, those warming memories of loved ones passed, prices in grocers and restaurants, old TV shows, and the like. If we can look at the importance of the past to teach us the treasure of living one day at a time, we would never be in the zoom-zoom mode, and see the past for what it truly is…a professor of now, and tomorrow.
Black history is important. As a society, we should never want to see happen to a race of people that happened to them. The history of how slavery of African peoples came to be, must  be viewed as diabolical, the greed and treachery of men, never to repeated at all cost. But my view today is not to remember the how, but the why, and look how this culture has risen out of their low estate, to prominence. The focus today should  be on the history and the admiration of a people’s rise from ashes. The contributions of  African-Americans, both noted and unknown, can help every American see that all people, all cultures are important to society.
One more quote:
“I don’t want a Black History Month. Black history is American history.” -Morgan Freeman 
Present
To believe that slavery ended in the nineteenth century is error. I am not referring to the 27 million slaves in the world today, but the millions of Americans addicted to substance abuse, those chained to fears and mental illness, and to love of self, desiring more and more things that have everything but happiness included. Recovery month is obscure to most Americans, mainly because of apathy, some ignorance too. We don’t know, and we don’t care, until directly affected. Get involved, don’t wait for others. Find ways to be a part today, and if nothing else, pray daily for the nation.
The actions I take today has a great effect on my tomorrows. Making decisions early each day to give God the first acknowledgement ahead of what I want to do, has a profound influence on the rest of the day. Each one of us who have been graced with the gift of salvation through Christ Jesus, as well as those of us with the gift of sobriety, should be deeply aware of the danger of ignoring the past, get our spiritual battle gear on, and fight the good fight against slavery to addictions in the realms unseen, the real battlefield. Now, today, the present is the day of salvation. Time is short and even Jesus said we should pray for laborers to enter and work.
“In an acceptable time I have heard you. and in the day of salvation I have helped you,” Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation. 2Cor.6:2 “Then He said to His disciples, ‘The harvest is truly plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore, pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into HIS harvest.” Matt.9:37-38
Brighter Future
We all want the future to be an improvement. The Black history month, Irish, Hispanic, Jewish months, are months we reflect on the past of suppressed peoples, living and contributing in our society today. Through prayer, awareness of this new slavery to substance abuse, and the old ploys of the enemy, using fears to drive greed, hatred, racism, and all other forms of evil, these can be shaken, and strongholds he has built up into the minds of individuals, even entire communities can be toppled.
Forgiveness is key, allowing the light of God’s Word to infiltrate those dark areas we have placed bitterness, and allowed it to fester, rejecting other cultures and their contributions, can be banished. We must make the conscience decision to love. It is Christ alone that can bring us as a people, to accept and unite. The government cannot, secular education will not. It is spiritual in nature, only by understanding the plan and purpose of God can we say, “I once was blind but now I see.”
Thanks for reading, God bless and keep us all.

Eyeballing Death, with Joy

02 Saturday Feb 2013

Posted by in faith and Christianity, Raising Children, recovery from addictions, Relationships, the Word of God, Think in Today

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“People living deeply have no fear of death.” Anais Nin
“Reality means you live until you die…the real truth is nobody wants reality.” Chuck Palahniuk
I can say, without reservation, I have never seen so many people within my sphere of friends and acquaintances, passing away with such frequency. What is happening? It isn’t the elderly, that would be expected. People under retirement age, most less than 60 years, are entering into eternity long before the average age of a man or woman to live. Working with alcoholics and addicts would cause one to think that isn’t so odd, you deal with that often. It is not people with addictions leading this parade of sorrow. Sickness disease, and accidents are the causes of late, and my mind is thinking darkly, “who’s next?”
Death can have different effects on different people. When an acquaintance passes, I normally have little emotional reaction to their passing…at first. It usually smacks me in the face a couple of weeks later. I have this sudden realization, they’re gone, lost to the ages! Memories of times we talked, or were together in school or partying fill my thoughts. I then see how frail life is. Questions come into my mind of what their final days were like, or after they were diagnosed, how did they react?…how would I react?
I have so much gratitude to God for the grace He has shown me through Christ. That grace extends over all of my life, casting those fears of death and living, that could give me a paralysis to think and act in joy through sorrow that is personal, knowing my end is the beginning of life. Those passages spoken at funerals, the 23rd Psalm, Paul’s writings in 1 Cor.15, open up thanksgiving within, amid weeping and grief around me.
“So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, “death is swallowed up in victory,” O death where is your sting? O grave, where is your victory?” 1Cor.15:54-55
Faith, hope, and love in Christ is the internal knowledge that eternal life awaits those who trust in the Lord Jesus, that we who trust in Him shall stand in the sunlight of His presence on that day the sun never again sets. There is no pipe dream, no explanation to be given to the unbeliever. This reality of what will be is born in “new birth” as we put all our hope and dreams in Christ. The joy, however, comes with the revealed presence Who is present in us now in our sorrows and grief, knowing that He has taken the sting of death, the darkness of the grave away, and shepherds us, bearing our sorrow and grief for us.
Hear me well here. No other belief system, no other god of man, no educational reasoning, none, offers what Jesus offers when you ask Him for mercy, and forgiveness, and to enter your heart as Savior and Lord. He has no rejection, never says no to that request. If you want to eyeball death peace and joy, make the request. Thanks for reading, God bless and keep you all.

Devotional- Start the New Year Right!

22 Saturday Dec 2012

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securedownload backmatter If you do a daily read as a personal devotion, this book can be an excellent tool in helping you grow in Christ daily. It is written with those suffering with addictions they want to stay free of with God’s help. It is helpful with any hurt, habit, and hang-up you or a loved one may struggling with. Some who have purchased the book that don’t have a problem personally have said it is what they use as their daily read as well, and it has helped them, and given them a better understanding of how to help those with addictions and hang-ups.

Many people make resolutions at year’s end they plan to do in the upcoming year for self-improvement, and one of the top goals is to start a daily read and time with God. This is a great book to use along with your Bible and I suggest a personal journal too. I like to read a chapter from Proverbs, a Psalm, along with a daily page, and that is perfect to use for my morning program, as we call it in recovery.

You can find the ebook version at Kindle and Nook, and the paper-back at Amazon.com or you can go to Barnes and Noble (no relation) tatepublishing.com, and nearly any bookstore can get it if they do not have it on the shelf. If you want a signed copy, you can go to www.skeithbarnes.com and I will sign it and mail it to you as fast as possible. The site has paypal, and accepts all major credit cards. If you go to my site, be sure to add $3.00 for shipping, anywhere in the US, and $5.00 outside of the country. The cost is $21.50, plus tax, or $23.00 total, $26.oo to ship. I would like to suggest that if you have a loved one with an addiction, get this book for them, something that points them to real living in Christ, instead of a shirt they may never wear.

Thanks for reading, thanks in advance to those who buy the book, have a wonderful, blessed Christmas, with Jesus the center of attention!

Advent…Hope Realized

19 Wednesday Dec 2012

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Hope, is the forgotten virtue of the alcoholic, addict, over-eater, the couch potato, the individual fixed in their dead-end job, etc. Hope is used by so many of us in an off-handed way that when we say to another, “I hope you have a nice Holiday Season, and it is forgotten as fast as it was heard. I am guilty of passing conversation like that. In reality, I really want those I converse with to have a good day or a great holiday, I hope they do, I’m sure you do as well.

Hope is missing in so many people’s lives today. Why? Many reasons, sickness, jobless without prospect, broken relationships, to name a few. I have mentioned this before, and feel it worth repeating. The happiest children in the world is in, of all places, Nigeria. These children face danger daily, possible genocide of the Christians from the Islamic groups that say convert or die. These children are happy because they have hope of a better tomorrow. The most unhappy children in the world are right here in the USA. They seem to have everything, why are they unhappy? Because they have nothing to look forward to…everything they want is within reach, even for most of our poor, but certainly not all.

“Hope deferred, (unrelenting disappointment), makes the heart-sick, but when desire comes, (a longing comes true), it is a tree of life.” Prov.13:12
“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.” Martin Luther King Jr.

Attend recovery meetings and observe the broken entering for their first few meetings. These people are hopeless, beaten down, and walked on, by their own doing. Nobody loves them, none care, even God…there is no hope for them, so they think. But by showing up and at least giving recovery a try, the lights come on for them and they get a small glimpse of hope, and suddenly, that light is in their eyes, hope has been re-discovered! Desiring to live, accomplish, and to become someone who can make a difference is indeed a tree of life. You do not have to have addictions, or overwhelming problems of any kind to be hopeless. Having no purpose, no ambition, and failures have left you totally defeated. You need that tree of life. That tree is the tree of death that Jesus died on, but life for anyone and looks to Him in hope.

“To love means loving the unlovable. To forgive means pardoning the unpardonable. Faith means believing the unbelievable. HOPE means hoping when everything seems hopeless.” G.K. Chesterton

Prior to the first advent of Christ, the people of God looked forward to the “Hope of Israel,” the promised One who would appear. Their hope appeared in Jesus, but that wasn’t what they expected. We still look at Him for hope today as we look back at what He accomplished through his death, burial, and resurrection. By our believing on Him, and inviting Him into our heart for a personal advent, He arrives and our hope is realized, a real tree of life living and changing us continually. This is a mystery to the unbeliever that is hopeless, but certainly not unattainable. HOPE is found in Him. Just ask Him, he will come to you too, and then we can together look for to the second advent, the “blessed hope!”

“Looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.” Titus 2:13

Thanks for reading, God bless and keep you all, Merry Christmas!

Advent…Still Waiting

16 Sunday Dec 2012

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I feel deep sorrow when I hear of how Israel is troubled on every side by people that want nothing less than her destruction. I feel I understand the reasons from both the biblical view of this chosen-by-God group of people, and from a secular view provided by media sources and personal testimony of the people themselves, (on both sides). My sorrow stems from my belief that they missed the advent of the Messiah and still wait for the Promised One. Why? How can you read Isaiah’s messianic prophecies and not see Jesus? Paul the apostle, explains this quite well in the book of Romans. Being a Jew from the tribe of Benjamin, taught by one of the great teachers of his day, and extremely zealous for Israel’s salvation, quotes repetitively from the book of Isaiah, showing how they missed the advent, and why. I cannot, because of time and length give a complete rundown of Paul’s explanation, but if you take the time to read Romans, from a modern language translation, i.e., the NIV, NASV, HCSB, or even the NKJV, or the paraphrase versions, MSG or TLB, you will gain much insight, (and please do not judge), on the reason Jesus was rejected by them.
Why They Do Not See Jesus
But to Israel He (God) says: “All day long I have spread out My hands to a disobedient and defiant people.” Rom.10:21 …as it is written: “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that cannot see, and ears that cannot hear, to this day.” Rom.11:21 …as it is written: “Look! I am putting a Stone in Zion to stumble over, and a Rock to trip over, yet the one who believes on Him will not be put to shame.” Rom. 9:33
It may be hard to grasp what Paul is saying from these few passages. He is wanting to convey that God has reached out to Israel all this time, but they refused His fellowship. The Old Testament reveals the cycle-of-sin that Israel fell into after God brought them from Egypt into the land of promise. They chased after the false gods instead of Him. Though the Messiah was promised even before all of these events, because they fell into idolatry and all sorts of lewd iniquity, God allowed them to fall, He did not and does not force anyone to follow Him. In spite of their obstinance and disobedience, (skipping way ahead), when they returned to the land of promise the second time, religious groups eventually formed that attempted to follow hard after God, but pride and “law interpreters” brought their zeal for God to the ground, buried in impossible-to-follow dictates, and misguided directions as to the advent of Messiah. In other words, they were looking for Him though eyes of flesh not spirit.
They expected Him to come and with a mighty hand wipe out the Romans, and set up His kingdom at that time. Jesus came as a sacrificial lamb and His blood to cover their sin, and set His kingdom into being when He didn’t stay dead but rose, and set down at God’s right hand, enthroned forever, a spiritual kingdom, as it is today. When the church, His kingdom began, they rejected it too, resulting in their attempting to undo what Christ did, in order to keep their ritual and religious order intact.  
And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written: “The Liberator will come from Zion; He will turn godlessness from Jacob, (Israel). And this will be my covenant with them, when I take away their sins.” Rom.11:26 
There was no intent on God’s part for Christ to set up an earthly kingdom.   This one thing needs to be added; the earliest believers were Jews, Peter and they followers of Jesus’ earthly ministry…don’t blame Jews for the churches troubled beginning and subsequent persecutions. Satan, you know, the prince of darkness is to blame, he tried to used every pagan religion to destroy the “Way.” To wrap this up. Judaism rejected Jesus, and still look for their Messiah, blinded by unbelief, and by pride. God allowed this, and Paul adds:
“I will call not-My-people, My- people, and she who is unloved, Beloved. And it will be in the place where they were told you are not my people, there, they will be called Sons of the Living God.” Rom.9: 9-10 But I ask, did not Israel understand? First, Moses said: “I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation; I will make you angry by a nation that lacks understanding.” Rom.10:19  And again, Isaiah says: “The root of Jesse will appear, the one WHO RISES to rule the Gentiles; in Him the Gentiles will hope.” Rom.15:12
Since Israel still waits, we non-Jews are given a window of opportunity, so to speak. God has mercy on all people, and for us looking backward to advent in celebration, they still look for the first advent. Sad, I agree. But God in mercy will not forget Israel, His beloved. There are many Messianic Jewish believers who are full of joy that even the Gentile converts do not experience. These Jews following Christ have received the promise and are filled with the wonder of the promise they received as a people centuries ago. A last thought, Paul warns not to become boastful that we Gentiles have the promise. If you noticed, we are no different. Our lawmakers and interpreters of our Constitution pervert original meaning purposely. They despise the original purpose, and want that to change but cannot gather support from all politicians, so they in judgment interpret the law to suit their personal morals.
Thanks for reading, God bless and keep you all.
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