Thought this was going to be a great day in my life . . . but today brings new light on an emptiness I have never felt. Please read on . . . Chained! “But God” . . . Set Me Free. By Mike Pallagi July 7, 2014 Freedom A term having a myriad of meanings and associations, finds a touching place very deep within my heart. Most of you know my story, but my story just gets even greater every day; and I give All the Glory to God for everything in my life; and I mean EVERYTHING! My life was suddenly changed by my obsession for money; in my case I was just full of greed. If I was to give you a few catch words describing my life, here’s what they would be. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. “But God” . . . had other plans for me. There are so many occurrences where things have happened to me that leaves no other explanation other than it was “God’s work and orchestration” in my life, according to his Master Plan. My life has been turned around completely by the One and Only – The Great I AM! I am full of the Love of Jesus, and I have a lifestyle that promotes sharing the Love of Jesus through helping people everywhere 24/7. It’s not my job . . . it’s my life. I have recently been blessed with a wonderful and awesome wife (Britt) that shares the same beliefs I do. She prays with me daily about issues in our lives to keep us on the right path and she is a blessing to me beyond compare. We share the love of God and a deep love for each other. And as I look back in time, I now see how God placed us together within His Master Plan. Glory to His Name! My relationship with my daughter Natalie has also taken a leap forward from where it was. Once again, this could have only happened through prayer after prayer, and giving the entire situation to God. HE worked it out in His time, and is still working on all of my family. I love them all. I have so many people who have crossed my path or entered into my life that could have only been placed there by one thing; a Divine Intervention/Appointment. No other explanation exists. So . . . How’s my life right now? Great! Incredibly great! And all because God has worked all of it out for me, and keeps me in His hands as a “work in progress”. And why is freedom so important to me? I have spent a few years in federal prison, and had a long probation period. But it’s over. My official full release from Federal Probation and the US Government obligations come on 7-7-14! Halleluiah! . . . And Glory to God! The significance of the number seven comes to mind and how it plays out biblically throughout His Word. I have referenced a few of them and included them below. Incredible stuff! All “God Stuff”! Significance of Seven And seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of rams horns before the ark. But the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times and the priests shall blow the trumpets. (Joshua 6:4) In the Bible, numbers have spiritual significance. Of all the numbers, seven is the most familiar because it appears in the Bible about 600 times. Seven (as a Biblical reference) denotes spiritual perfection. It means divine fullness, completeness and totality. It comes from a Hebrew word meaning to be full, to be satisfied, and to have enough. Many times seven is important as a symbol rather than as an actual number. Whenever you read seven, it does not always literally mean seven things or seven occurrences. It is symbolic of the whole or the completion or the ideal situation or the perfect picture of things. Seven constitutes a complete cycle. One of the greatest examples of the use of the symbolic number seven is related to the fall of Jericho in the Joshua 6:1-20. Note how many sevens appear in the scripture above. The use of the number seven simply means fulfillment or enough. Actually, it’s pretty simple. Enough priests blew the trumpets and enough people marched around the walls enough times for the walls to come tumbling down. Revelation, the last book of the Bible that completes the word of God contains more sevens than any of the other books. There are . . . Seven churches, Seven seals, Seven trumpets, Seven personages, Seven vials, Seven woes, Seven new things, Seven glories of the Son of Man, and Seven blessings. The word Jesus is found seven times. Jesus Christ is found seven times. The wrath of God is found seven times. In just one verse in Isaiah 11:2 . . . the Holy Spirit rested on Jesus in Seven special ways . . . Spirit of God, Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Power, Knowledge, and Fear of God. Our desire should be that the Holy Spirit will rest within us in the same seven ways. Additional significance of the number seven . . . “Throughout the Bible, God often gives symbolic significance to mundane items or concepts. For example, in Genesis 9:12–16, God makes the rainbow the sign of His promise to Noah (and, by extension, to all mankind) that He will not flood the whole earth again. God uses bread as a representation of His presence with His people (Numbers 4:7); of the gift of eternal life (John 6:35); and of the broken body of Christ, sacrificed for our sins (Matthew 26:26). The rainbow and the bread are obvious symbols in Scripture. Less obvious meanings seem to be attached to some numbers in the Bible, especially the number seven, which at times provides a special emphasis in the text. The first use of the number seven in the Bible relates to the creation week in Genesis 1. God spends six days creating the heavens and the earth, and then rests on the seventh day. This is our template for the seven-day week, observed around the world to this day. The seventh day was to be “set apart” for Israel; the Sabbath was a holy day of rest (Deuteronomy 5:12). Thus, right at the start of the Bible, the number seven is identified with something being “finished” or “complete.” From then on, that association continues, as seven is often found in contexts involving completeness or divine perfection. So we see the command for animals to be at least seven days old before being used for sacrifice (Exodus 22:30), the command for leprous Naaman to bathe in the Jordan River seven times to effect complete cleansing (2 Kings 6:15), and the command for Joshua to march around Jericho for seven days (and on the seventh day to make seven circuits) and for seven priests blow seven trumpets outside the city walls (Joshua 6:3–4). In these instances, seven does signify a completion of some kind: a divine mandate is fulfilled. Interestingly, man was created on the sixth day of creation. In some passages of the Bible, the number 6 is associated with mankind. In Revelation “the number of the beast” is called “the number of a man. That number is 666” (Revelation 13:18). If God’s number is seven, then man’s is 6. Six always falls short of seven, just like “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Man is not God, just as 6 is not seven. Series of seven things crop up often in the Bible. For example, we find seven pairs of each clean animal on the ark (Genesis 7:2); seven stems on the tabernacle’s lampstand (Exodus 25:37); seven qualities of the Messiah in Isaiah 11:2; seven signs in John’s Gospel; seven things the Lord hates in Proverbs 6:16; seven parables in Matthew 13; and seven woes in Matthew 23. Multiples of seven also figure into the biblical narrative: the “seventy weeks” prophecy in Daniel 9:24 concerns 490 years (7 times 7 times 10). Jeremiah 29:10 predicted the Babylonian Captivity would last for seventy years (7 times 10). According to Leviticus 25:8, the Year of Jubilee was to begin after the passing of every forty-ninth year (7 times 7). Sometimes, the symbolism of seven is a great comfort to us: Jesus is the seven-fold “I AM” in the Gospel of John. Other times, it challenges us: Jesus told Peter to forgive a wrongdoer “seventy times seven” times (Matthew 18:22, NKJV). And then there are passages in which the number seven is associated with God’s judgment: the seven bowls of the Great Tribulation, for example (Revelation 16:1), or God’s warning to Israel in Leviticus 26:18. Speaking of the book of Revelation, the number seven is used there more than fifty times in a variety of contexts: there are seven letters to seven churches in Asia and seven spirits before God’s throne (Revelation 1:4), seven golden lampstands (1:12), seven stars in Christ’s right hand (1:16), seven seals of God’s judgment (5:1), seven angels with seven trumpets (8:2), etc. In all likelihood, the number seven again represents completeness or totality: the seven churches represent the completeness of the body of Christ; the seven seals on the scroll represent the fullness of God’s punishment of a sinful earth, and so on. And, of course, the book of Revelation itself, with all its seven’s is the capstone of God’s Word to man. With the book of Revelation, the Word was complete (Revelation 22:18). In all, the number seven is used in the Bible more than seven hundred times. If we also count the words related to seven (terms like sevenfold or seventy or seven hundred), the count is still higher. Of course, not every instance of the number seven in the Bible carries a deeper significance. Sometimes, a seven is just a seven, and we must be cautious about attaching symbolic meanings to any text, especially when Scripture is not explicit about such meanings. However, there are times when it seems that God is communicating the idea of divine completeness, perfection, and wholeness by means of the number seven.” --- S. Michael Houdmann So . . . is there significance to my release date? I truly believe there is in this date: 7/7/14(2X7) It is “completion of a season” in my life, and a “divine wholeness” placed in me by Jesus Christ. God’s fingerprints are everywhere in my life, and I mean everywhere! This short writing is Glorification to His Holy Name; Jesus Christ. I am blessed beyond compare, and will continue to walk in faith and fight the good fight. Jesus can . . . and will provide for me and my family . . . in every situation or circumstance in our lives. “Freedom, how sweet it is. Glory.” You may “click” on the link below to view a YouTube video of a few factual instances in my life, which are just a small part of my testimony. These instances are truly God’s Work! https://youtube/watch?v=F91s2ldohl4&list=WL&index=2 References: S. Michael Houdmann at gotquestions.org/
Posted on: Mon, 07 Jul 2014 16:07:15 +0000
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