Liberating Ministries for Christ International-LMCI

06/07/2026

05/29/2026

This has been a recurring theme in our local fellowship--the truth that God created a material dwelling for His creation and His intention that we should dwell "on Earth" eternally in His presence.

The “New Earth” isn’t a figure of speech any more than calling Jesus a “man” is a figure of speech. He is a man. The Resurrection was not merely a symbol of God overcoming spiritual darkness; it was an actual, physical resurrection. The New Earth will be a real Earth where mankind and God will dwell together. Therefore, we should be open to taking literally its depiction of earthlike realities. “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and welcome you into My presence, so that you also may be where I am” (John 14:3, BSB). www.epm.org/heavenbook

05/29/2026

In the final moments of the Crucifixion, a Roman soldier lifted a sponge to Jesus’s lips. Though often translated simply as “sour wine,” the drink was almost certainly posca, the standard daily ration carried by nearly every Roman legionary. Cheap, common, and practical, posca was made by diluting vinegar or sour wine with water—a mixture that sounds harsh to modern tastes but was brilliant in its simplicity. Its acidity killed harmful bacteria in uncertain water sources, helping protect soldiers from diseases like dysentery and typhoid as they marched across the empire.

Posca was the drink of ordinary Romans: soldiers, laborers, and the poor. It required no luxury ingredients, only water and leftover wine turned to vinegar. Even emperors recognized its symbolic importance. Suetonius records that Hadrian drank posca publicly with his troops to show that he shared their hardships and was, at heart, “one of them.” The Gospels use the Greek word oxos, meaning sour wine or vinegar—the very substance legionaries carried on their belts. In offering Jesus this humble drink, the soldier was reaching for the same simple remedy he relied on every day. In that moment of immense spiritual weight, the practical realities of Roman military life quietly touched one of history’s most enduring events—a reminder that even an empire’s most ordinary tool could play a small but meaningful role.