Daniel 1: 8-16
Daniel made up his mind to not let himself become ritually unclean by eating the food and drinking the wine of the royal court, so he asked Ashpenaz to help him, and God made Ashpenaz sympathetic to Daniel.
Ashpenaz, however, was afraid of the king, so he said to Daniel, "The king has decided what you are to eat and drink, and if you don't look as fit as the other young men, he'll have my head."
So Daniel went to Melzar, the guard whom Ashpenaz had placed in charge of him and his three friends. "Test us for ten days," he said. "Give us vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then compare us with the young men who are eating the food of the royal court, and base your decision on how we look."
He agreed to let them do it for ten days. When the time was up, they looked healthier and stronger than all those who had been eating the royal food. So from then on the guard let them continue to eat vegetables instead of what the king provided.
What do you think would have happened if Daniel had simply refused to eat the food that wasn't Kosher?
Daniel was wiser than that. He negotiated, and was willing to abide by whatever decision the guard made concerning the food.
I can imagine how fresh and vibrant these four looked after their ten-day cleanse! I think it was the best idea Daniel could have come up with, so I would contend that God put him up to it.
There's a lot to learn from here, about getting along with a boss. Don't make demands. Be willing to compromise on what is not essential. Be open to take a chance that things might not go your way, without complaint.
Daniel was willing to go along with whatever decision Melzar made, even if it meant they may have to eat "unclean" foods.
But God was looking out for them. And because Daniel was honest and open with God as well as with his new boss, God caused their attitudes to be favorable toward him and his friends.
Daniel's attitude toward those in authority over him, even though they were Pagan unbelievers, gives us a lot to learn about getting along and doing well in our societies that are hostile to our faith.
It's never to our advantage to aggravate those around us, giving off a holier-than-thou attitude. And we need to be careful that if someone is offended by our witnessing to them, that it's not our attitude of "I know the Truth and you don't," but is a genuine "offense of the Cross."
Daniel maintained his high government position under several different kings, when changing administrations usually meant changing personnel. He hung on as a valuable employee. Because God was with him. Because he was really serving God, not these human bosses.
I want to always be serving my Lord in whatever position I find myself in. To serve my employers honestly and transparently, promoting their welfare and prosperity above my own, displaying Christ's sterling character.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Tuesday, July 31, 2018
Monday, July 30, 2018
Our Lord God's Passion
Isaiah 62: 5
... As the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.
The Church is called the Bride of Christ. The Lord God called Israel His wife.
God loves us passionately, as a newlywed bridegroom is enamoured with his new bride. And His passion will never wane, will never grow cold.
Jesus wants us to also be as enraptured with intimacy with Him as He is with each of us.
He knows us intimately, every molecule of every cell of every organ of our body; and every mote of spiritual substance of our life, our soul and our mind. He knows that we are but dust, and our spiritual parts are corrupted, but He loves us anyway. We are His by creation and by purchase.
And those He has called to faith in His Death in their place are His by Redemption. We are His property, we are His family, we are His bride.
That's how much He loves us. And He never changes, He will always love us more than we can imagine. There's nothing we can do to make Him love us less, there is nothing we can do to make Him love us more. He is Love. Period.
That's why the Father sent the Son to be our Savior, and the Son sent the Spirit to live in each of us He has Redeemed, as the down payment guaranteeing that the work He began in us will be finished, and we will be made suitable to live in His Holy Presence forever.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
... As the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.
The Church is called the Bride of Christ. The Lord God called Israel His wife.
God loves us passionately, as a newlywed bridegroom is enamoured with his new bride. And His passion will never wane, will never grow cold.
Jesus wants us to also be as enraptured with intimacy with Him as He is with each of us.
He knows us intimately, every molecule of every cell of every organ of our body; and every mote of spiritual substance of our life, our soul and our mind. He knows that we are but dust, and our spiritual parts are corrupted, but He loves us anyway. We are His by creation and by purchase.
And those He has called to faith in His Death in their place are His by Redemption. We are His property, we are His family, we are His bride.
That's how much He loves us. And He never changes, He will always love us more than we can imagine. There's nothing we can do to make Him love us less, there is nothing we can do to make Him love us more. He is Love. Period.
That's why the Father sent the Son to be our Savior, and the Son sent the Spirit to live in each of us He has Redeemed, as the down payment guaranteeing that the work He began in us will be finished, and we will be made suitable to live in His Holy Presence forever.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Sunday, July 29, 2018
Good Plans
Jeremiah 29: 11
I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord. They are plans for peace and not disaster, plans to give you a future filled with hope.
God is love (I John 4:16), and He loves us. Each one of us.
God has made each of us for His purposes. He has gifted each of us with different talents, desires, bents, so that everything will get done (I Corinthians 12:4-11). I may be good at one talent, you are good at another, and someone else is good at something else. So we are to help one another to accomplish what is good for all of us (12:7).
God has planned out all of Time, from the beginning to the end. And He has told us about it in His Word. It amazes me that He told Daniel the course of the Nations of the World from his own time all the way to the End of Time (Daniel 11 and 12).
And He has included in His Grand Plan of the Ages all the individual plans for our lives, each one of us. What He has planned for us is good, and will bring peace and hope to each of us.
It's when people don't follow His plan for them that sorrows and troubles and disasters defeat them.
When we know God and His ways, and are following them in our lives, and experience sorrows and troubles, and turn to Him; then He shows us the way out of these disasters, and we need not worry or be afraid because we trust Him (I Corinthians 10:13 says there will be "a way to escape").
When His Love lives in us, we will not need to be afraid of anything, because His Love is perfect, and perfect Love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and God put all the punishment we each deserve on Jesus. So the person who lives in fear doesn't have God's perfect Love, because they don't know Him (I John 4:18).
We can love Him because He has loved us first (I John 4:19). When we accept His Love by letting Jesus take our death on the Cross, then we will love others with this unconditional Love that He loves us with, and we will accept other people. If you think that you love God, but you discriminate against someone else, then you are living a lie--you can't reject someone He loves, who you can see, and at the same time love Him Who you can't see (4:20). That shows that you really don't know Him.
God is not willing that anyone should perish, but that all of us would come to repentance (II Peter 3:9), to turn around our thinking patterns to realize we deserve death, and let Jesus take our place, as a Substitute, as the Lamb of God. Jesus fulfilled that first Sacrifice God wanted the Levites to teach the people, in the First Chapter of Leviticus, the personal sacrifice.
Each individual was to bring his own personal animal to the priest, put his hand on its head identifying with it, and let the priest slaughter it, dying in the person's place. Then it was sacrificed on the altar and its blood sprinkled on the sides of the altar to cover the person's sins (Leviticus 1).
Jesus, as the Lamb of God, is our Personal Sacrifice, that we would admit that we deserve death and let Jesus die for us. Then His blood sprinkled on the sides of His altar, the Cross, doesn't just cover, but washes away all our sinfulness.
He died individually for each one of us to save us.
So if you have never done this, if you haven't come to the conclusion that you deserve death, then ask God for saving faith.
Jesus said that no one could come to Him unless God the Father draws them to Him (John 6:44). So if you ask the Father for this saving faith to believe that Jesus died in your place, He will answer that prayer.
Then He will pour His unconditional Love upon and into You, giving you His own Holy Spirit to make your human spirit alive, giving you a whole new life.
I had thought that I was one of many that Jesus died for, until He showed me Jesus on the Cross, and I knew He took my place there, because I deserved it. And His Love overwhelmed me that day, and I've never been the same.
And I have been able to see that the Plan He has for me is good, and I have great hope for my future here, as well as my Eternal future. And His peace fills my mind and heart, even in the midst of troubles and sorrows, because I trust Him to be God and to do everything He has said He would do in my life and in this World.
And when Jesus returns, I look forward to seeing Him face-to-face because I will be resurrected like Him, and He will reward me for doing the things He did through me.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord. They are plans for peace and not disaster, plans to give you a future filled with hope.
God is love (I John 4:16), and He loves us. Each one of us.
God has made each of us for His purposes. He has gifted each of us with different talents, desires, bents, so that everything will get done (I Corinthians 12:4-11). I may be good at one talent, you are good at another, and someone else is good at something else. So we are to help one another to accomplish what is good for all of us (12:7).
God has planned out all of Time, from the beginning to the end. And He has told us about it in His Word. It amazes me that He told Daniel the course of the Nations of the World from his own time all the way to the End of Time (Daniel 11 and 12).
And He has included in His Grand Plan of the Ages all the individual plans for our lives, each one of us. What He has planned for us is good, and will bring peace and hope to each of us.
It's when people don't follow His plan for them that sorrows and troubles and disasters defeat them.
When we know God and His ways, and are following them in our lives, and experience sorrows and troubles, and turn to Him; then He shows us the way out of these disasters, and we need not worry or be afraid because we trust Him (I Corinthians 10:13 says there will be "a way to escape").
When His Love lives in us, we will not need to be afraid of anything, because His Love is perfect, and perfect Love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and God put all the punishment we each deserve on Jesus. So the person who lives in fear doesn't have God's perfect Love, because they don't know Him (I John 4:18).
We can love Him because He has loved us first (I John 4:19). When we accept His Love by letting Jesus take our death on the Cross, then we will love others with this unconditional Love that He loves us with, and we will accept other people. If you think that you love God, but you discriminate against someone else, then you are living a lie--you can't reject someone He loves, who you can see, and at the same time love Him Who you can't see (4:20). That shows that you really don't know Him.
God is not willing that anyone should perish, but that all of us would come to repentance (II Peter 3:9), to turn around our thinking patterns to realize we deserve death, and let Jesus take our place, as a Substitute, as the Lamb of God. Jesus fulfilled that first Sacrifice God wanted the Levites to teach the people, in the First Chapter of Leviticus, the personal sacrifice.
Each individual was to bring his own personal animal to the priest, put his hand on its head identifying with it, and let the priest slaughter it, dying in the person's place. Then it was sacrificed on the altar and its blood sprinkled on the sides of the altar to cover the person's sins (Leviticus 1).
Jesus, as the Lamb of God, is our Personal Sacrifice, that we would admit that we deserve death and let Jesus die for us. Then His blood sprinkled on the sides of His altar, the Cross, doesn't just cover, but washes away all our sinfulness.
He died individually for each one of us to save us.
So if you have never done this, if you haven't come to the conclusion that you deserve death, then ask God for saving faith.
Jesus said that no one could come to Him unless God the Father draws them to Him (John 6:44). So if you ask the Father for this saving faith to believe that Jesus died in your place, He will answer that prayer.
Then He will pour His unconditional Love upon and into You, giving you His own Holy Spirit to make your human spirit alive, giving you a whole new life.
I had thought that I was one of many that Jesus died for, until He showed me Jesus on the Cross, and I knew He took my place there, because I deserved it. And His Love overwhelmed me that day, and I've never been the same.
And I have been able to see that the Plan He has for me is good, and I have great hope for my future here, as well as my Eternal future. And His peace fills my mind and heart, even in the midst of troubles and sorrows, because I trust Him to be God and to do everything He has said He would do in my life and in this World.
And when Jesus returns, I look forward to seeing Him face-to-face because I will be resurrected like Him, and He will reward me for doing the things He did through me.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Saturday, July 28, 2018
Job's Wisdom And Understanding
Job 28: 23-28
God understands the way to [wisdom]. He knows where it lives
because He can see to the ends of the Earth and observe everything under Heaven.
When He gave the wind its force and measured the water [in the sea],
when He made rules for the rain and set paths for the thunderstorms,
then He saw it and announced it. He confirmed it and examined it.
So He told humans, "The fear of the Lord is wisdom! To stay away from evil is understanding."
Job is telling us what God is teaching him, that He is Creator and Designer of all that exists, and designed the geography and weather, laying down rules for them to follow.
Nature follows God's rules, and never disobeys.
God is a God of order; so the Earth, Sun, Moon, Stars, all the Universe obey the laws He set for them; and because of that our Science can study them and find out the Natural Laws.
But God has given Mankind a free will to choose whether we will obey the rules He set for us. And because we as a race have disobeyed Him, deciding that we "know better," we find chaos in our lives, our relationships, our governments.
God has given us His written Word to read about the ways He wants us to live, with examples of people who did or didn't obey Him, and the results.
I find the book of Judges is a good textbook to see how, when His people respected Him and obeyed His rules, they experienced prosperity and peace with their surrounding peoples. But when they got self-satisfied and "forgot" the Lord, that's when they were vulnerable to believing all the deceptions being promoted among and around them, and lost their way and their prosperity, even to being conquered by the other Nations around them.
Then they would remember the Lord, cry out to Him, and He would raise up a "judge," a military leader who would deliver them out from under the domination of the other Nation; and they would obey His rules again and regain the peace and prosperity. Until the cycle repeated.
This book teaches me that when I obey the rules He set for me, in loving Him above all and loving my neighbor as myself, then my life flows much more smoothly and I experience peace of mind and heart even in the middle of problems and troubles.
And when governments rule over their people with the good of the people in view (loving their neighbor) instead of their own advancement and finances, then the population is free to pursue their own happiness, bringing prosperity to everyone.
The "fear of the Lord" is the reverential respect due to the One Who has total authority over us, and is the Source of everything we need or want. And when we give Him this first place in our attitudes and life, then we can make our decisions in a wise manner.
When we forget that He is to have pre-eminence in our thinking and turn to some other spiritual being for help, or depend on ourselves or other people to meet our needs; that is going against His ways, which He calls "evil," because it robs us of the order that brings goodness to us, leaving chaos.
Job got it right. Staying away from evil shows that we understand this process, and honoring God as God is the way to think straight and do right.
O my Father, thank You for Your Word. Thank You for Your provision of everything I need or want. Thank You for loving me so much that You even gave up Your most precious, Your only Son, to be the Sacrifice for my sins as the Lamb of God. Thank You that He was willing to go through this Death, that I deserve, as my substitute, so that I could have Your life, Your Holy Spirit living in my spirit, making it alive.
Thank You that Your Spirit is the Seal that I belong to You, and to be my Teacher, as the Spirit of Truth, to open my mind and heart to the Truth of Your Word in my life.
Thank You for Your promises, that I can seek You and You will answer me. That You will always care for me, and lead me, and show me great and mighty things in Your Word. And that I can trust You to always keep Your Word. And that Jesus is returning soon.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
God understands the way to [wisdom]. He knows where it lives
because He can see to the ends of the Earth and observe everything under Heaven.
When He gave the wind its force and measured the water [in the sea],
when He made rules for the rain and set paths for the thunderstorms,
then He saw it and announced it. He confirmed it and examined it.
So He told humans, "The fear of the Lord is wisdom! To stay away from evil is understanding."
Job is telling us what God is teaching him, that He is Creator and Designer of all that exists, and designed the geography and weather, laying down rules for them to follow.
Nature follows God's rules, and never disobeys.
God is a God of order; so the Earth, Sun, Moon, Stars, all the Universe obey the laws He set for them; and because of that our Science can study them and find out the Natural Laws.
But God has given Mankind a free will to choose whether we will obey the rules He set for us. And because we as a race have disobeyed Him, deciding that we "know better," we find chaos in our lives, our relationships, our governments.
God has given us His written Word to read about the ways He wants us to live, with examples of people who did or didn't obey Him, and the results.
I find the book of Judges is a good textbook to see how, when His people respected Him and obeyed His rules, they experienced prosperity and peace with their surrounding peoples. But when they got self-satisfied and "forgot" the Lord, that's when they were vulnerable to believing all the deceptions being promoted among and around them, and lost their way and their prosperity, even to being conquered by the other Nations around them.
Then they would remember the Lord, cry out to Him, and He would raise up a "judge," a military leader who would deliver them out from under the domination of the other Nation; and they would obey His rules again and regain the peace and prosperity. Until the cycle repeated.
This book teaches me that when I obey the rules He set for me, in loving Him above all and loving my neighbor as myself, then my life flows much more smoothly and I experience peace of mind and heart even in the middle of problems and troubles.
And when governments rule over their people with the good of the people in view (loving their neighbor) instead of their own advancement and finances, then the population is free to pursue their own happiness, bringing prosperity to everyone.
The "fear of the Lord" is the reverential respect due to the One Who has total authority over us, and is the Source of everything we need or want. And when we give Him this first place in our attitudes and life, then we can make our decisions in a wise manner.
When we forget that He is to have pre-eminence in our thinking and turn to some other spiritual being for help, or depend on ourselves or other people to meet our needs; that is going against His ways, which He calls "evil," because it robs us of the order that brings goodness to us, leaving chaos.
Job got it right. Staying away from evil shows that we understand this process, and honoring God as God is the way to think straight and do right.
O my Father, thank You for Your Word. Thank You for Your provision of everything I need or want. Thank You for loving me so much that You even gave up Your most precious, Your only Son, to be the Sacrifice for my sins as the Lamb of God. Thank You that He was willing to go through this Death, that I deserve, as my substitute, so that I could have Your life, Your Holy Spirit living in my spirit, making it alive.
Thank You that Your Spirit is the Seal that I belong to You, and to be my Teacher, as the Spirit of Truth, to open my mind and heart to the Truth of Your Word in my life.
Thank You for Your promises, that I can seek You and You will answer me. That You will always care for me, and lead me, and show me great and mighty things in Your Word. And that I can trust You to always keep Your Word. And that Jesus is returning soon.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Friday, July 27, 2018
Know The Lord
Jeremiah 31: 34
No longer will each person teach his neighbors or his relatives by saying, "Know the Lord." All of them, from the least important to the most important, will know Me, declares the Lord.
There will come a time when evangelism will be obsolete, because everyone alive will know that their King is Jesus, the Lord over the whole Earth. They will all know not only Who He is, but will all individually be acquainted personally with Him. He will not be aloof from the people, He will walk among them, getting to know each of them, to meet every ligitimate need they have.
This will be after Jesus returns, after He does away with all the wicked people who have fought against Him at the Battle of Armegeddon (Revelation 16:16; 9:19-21), has Satan bound for that thousand years (Revelation 20:1-3), and has set up His government (throne) in Jerusalem to rule the World (Revelation 20:4-4, 6).
And we who are His Bride and have been Resurrected by being Raptured are helping Him run the Family Business, as His kings and queens governing the Nations under His authority (Revelation 1:6; 5:10; 21:2, 9).
And His government will be in righteousness and perfect justice and fairness. And everyone will be prosperous, in having everything they need all the time (Psalm 67:4-5).
This will be Mankind's Golden Age. Every infraction will be immediately dealt with, so everyone will live in safety and security. We won't need locks on our doors, or protection services like ADT. We won't need to buy insurance, because this Earth will work the way it was designed, with no "acts of God" disasters.
All the people who have entered into this Kingdom in their mortal bodies will be repopulating the world, and living long, healthy, productive lives.
O may that wonderful Day come.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
No longer will each person teach his neighbors or his relatives by saying, "Know the Lord." All of them, from the least important to the most important, will know Me, declares the Lord.
There will come a time when evangelism will be obsolete, because everyone alive will know that their King is Jesus, the Lord over the whole Earth. They will all know not only Who He is, but will all individually be acquainted personally with Him. He will not be aloof from the people, He will walk among them, getting to know each of them, to meet every ligitimate need they have.
This will be after Jesus returns, after He does away with all the wicked people who have fought against Him at the Battle of Armegeddon (Revelation 16:16; 9:19-21), has Satan bound for that thousand years (Revelation 20:1-3), and has set up His government (throne) in Jerusalem to rule the World (Revelation 20:4-4, 6).
And we who are His Bride and have been Resurrected by being Raptured are helping Him run the Family Business, as His kings and queens governing the Nations under His authority (Revelation 1:6; 5:10; 21:2, 9).
And His government will be in righteousness and perfect justice and fairness. And everyone will be prosperous, in having everything they need all the time (Psalm 67:4-5).
This will be Mankind's Golden Age. Every infraction will be immediately dealt with, so everyone will live in safety and security. We won't need locks on our doors, or protection services like ADT. We won't need to buy insurance, because this Earth will work the way it was designed, with no "acts of God" disasters.
All the people who have entered into this Kingdom in their mortal bodies will be repopulating the world, and living long, healthy, productive lives.
O may that wonderful Day come.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Thursday, July 26, 2018
God's Original Intention
Jeremiah 33: 6, 9
Behold, I will bring to it health and healing, and I will heal them; and I will reveal to them an abundance of peace and Truth.
And it shall be to Me a name of joy, praise, and glory before all the Nations of the Earth, which shall hear of all the good that I do for them, and they shall fear and tremble because of all the good and all the peace that I make for it.
This will all happen when He returns again, as the King of the World. Israel will be the Head of the Nations, and all the promises God made to them will come true. And all the other Nations will see.
This has always been God's plan from the beginning, why He chose this one Nation to give His Law to so their obedience would bring the great prosperity all the other Nations would want to emulate.
To draw them all to Himself, to know that He is God, not any of their idols; and as Creator and Designer, following His rules brings all kinds of good: in our relationships, in our physical health, in our thinking processes and mental health, in our finances, in our politics, and our foreign policies, in every realm of living. His ways are the Manufacturer's Instructions.
Because He loves us, He has given us freely all the rules and precepts and commandments to obey and follow so we will be able to access the great abundance He has put into this Earth for us.
God wants us to enjoy Him in this life, as well as in the next. He wants us to understand how much He loves us, and has already provided everything we will ever need.
First, to take care of the sin problem that separates us from Him through sending His Son to fulfill the Law and wash away all that stands between us.
Then to help us to mature as His children, understanding how everything fits together, to prepare us to spend Eternity with Him, helping Him rule over it.
While we're here now, we are to live our lives in such a transparent way that others who see us will ask why we can live in such a way, triumphing over all the trials and sorrows and evil of this world. And we are to be prepared to give them the answer, based on God's Word, that has given us this life.
We will gain every victory through the Blood of the Lamb (Salvation) and the word of our testamony (our witness) (Revelation 12:11).
I have learned to know what I believe, why I believe it, and to support it with Scripture. And I try to live it in such a transparent way that people would see the character of Christ in me, instead of me. To draw them toward the right, the moral, the God Who is the standard for how we measure right, and beauty, and justice, and Love.
In the Old Testament times, Israel was supposed to be that magnet. Now the church has been given that role. But the enemy has infiltrated the churches, so they will be unsuccessful, having lost the Truth.
So the job falls to God's individual children who are still faithful, and firm in our confidence in God. I want to be one of those.
I want to do whatever I can do, however small, to do my part as His child, to show others Who my Father is. Then when Jesus returns, I will not need to be ashamed before my Judge: I want to hear Him say, "Well done, My good and faithful servant (Matthew 25:23).
He is coming soon.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Behold, I will bring to it health and healing, and I will heal them; and I will reveal to them an abundance of peace and Truth.
And it shall be to Me a name of joy, praise, and glory before all the Nations of the Earth, which shall hear of all the good that I do for them, and they shall fear and tremble because of all the good and all the peace that I make for it.
This will all happen when He returns again, as the King of the World. Israel will be the Head of the Nations, and all the promises God made to them will come true. And all the other Nations will see.
This has always been God's plan from the beginning, why He chose this one Nation to give His Law to so their obedience would bring the great prosperity all the other Nations would want to emulate.
To draw them all to Himself, to know that He is God, not any of their idols; and as Creator and Designer, following His rules brings all kinds of good: in our relationships, in our physical health, in our thinking processes and mental health, in our finances, in our politics, and our foreign policies, in every realm of living. His ways are the Manufacturer's Instructions.
Because He loves us, He has given us freely all the rules and precepts and commandments to obey and follow so we will be able to access the great abundance He has put into this Earth for us.
God wants us to enjoy Him in this life, as well as in the next. He wants us to understand how much He loves us, and has already provided everything we will ever need.
First, to take care of the sin problem that separates us from Him through sending His Son to fulfill the Law and wash away all that stands between us.
Then to help us to mature as His children, understanding how everything fits together, to prepare us to spend Eternity with Him, helping Him rule over it.
While we're here now, we are to live our lives in such a transparent way that others who see us will ask why we can live in such a way, triumphing over all the trials and sorrows and evil of this world. And we are to be prepared to give them the answer, based on God's Word, that has given us this life.
We will gain every victory through the Blood of the Lamb (Salvation) and the word of our testamony (our witness) (Revelation 12:11).
I have learned to know what I believe, why I believe it, and to support it with Scripture. And I try to live it in such a transparent way that people would see the character of Christ in me, instead of me. To draw them toward the right, the moral, the God Who is the standard for how we measure right, and beauty, and justice, and Love.
In the Old Testament times, Israel was supposed to be that magnet. Now the church has been given that role. But the enemy has infiltrated the churches, so they will be unsuccessful, having lost the Truth.
So the job falls to God's individual children who are still faithful, and firm in our confidence in God. I want to be one of those.
I want to do whatever I can do, however small, to do my part as His child, to show others Who my Father is. Then when Jesus returns, I will not need to be ashamed before my Judge: I want to hear Him say, "Well done, My good and faithful servant (Matthew 25:23).
He is coming soon.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Wednesday, July 25, 2018
Call - And I Will
Jeremiah 33:3
Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know.
After my husband died and I felt overwhelmed with all the responsibilities I was left with, when I came to the end of my rope, this was the knot I tied into it to hang on. God showed me this verse, and I believed Him to do just that. I trusted Him.
Since that day, so many years ago, God has taught me so many wonderful things in His Word, truely great and mighty things.
And He is still teaching me. I expect that He will continue to grow me in grace and knowledge, as long as I live, and as long as I still seek Him and His ways.
God always keeps His promises, always.
Whenever you come to a promise He has made, you can trust Him to keep that promise. Many of His promises are conditional: if you will--then I will. But some are totally unconditional. Some are for individuals in Scripture, like to Abraham to give him a son by Sarah. Most are for all of us, as the promise at the top of this page.
This is conditional: I must call to Him, I must be open to accept what He says, and seek His will. Then He will show me, teach me, tell me stuff that is meaningful to me in my life right now. Interesting things, obscure connections that I would have never dreamed had anything to do with anything else, but it all makes sense.
I've been able to connect a lot of dots to see a much bigger picture. I understand now that our Bible gives us the whole history of our Earth, the Age of Man, from before its beginning to beyond its end.
And I believe (with Paul) that Jesus will return in my lifetime.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know.
After my husband died and I felt overwhelmed with all the responsibilities I was left with, when I came to the end of my rope, this was the knot I tied into it to hang on. God showed me this verse, and I believed Him to do just that. I trusted Him.
Since that day, so many years ago, God has taught me so many wonderful things in His Word, truely great and mighty things.
And He is still teaching me. I expect that He will continue to grow me in grace and knowledge, as long as I live, and as long as I still seek Him and His ways.
God always keeps His promises, always.
Whenever you come to a promise He has made, you can trust Him to keep that promise. Many of His promises are conditional: if you will--then I will. But some are totally unconditional. Some are for individuals in Scripture, like to Abraham to give him a son by Sarah. Most are for all of us, as the promise at the top of this page.
This is conditional: I must call to Him, I must be open to accept what He says, and seek His will. Then He will show me, teach me, tell me stuff that is meaningful to me in my life right now. Interesting things, obscure connections that I would have never dreamed had anything to do with anything else, but it all makes sense.
I've been able to connect a lot of dots to see a much bigger picture. I understand now that our Bible gives us the whole history of our Earth, the Age of Man, from before its beginning to beyond its end.
And I believe (with Paul) that Jesus will return in my lifetime.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Tuesday, July 24, 2018
Total Destruction
Jeremiah 52
Vs. 3ff The Lord became angry with Jerusalem and Judah and threw the people out of His sight. King Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon. On the tenth day of the tenth month of the ninth year of King Zedekiah's reign, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon attacked Jerusalem with his entire army.
Then we read about how he and his Captain of the Guard destroyed everything, and deported a total of 4,600 people to Babylon, leaving only a few poor people "to work in the vineyards and on the farms," burning every important building, tearing down the Temple and the wall, and carrying everything of value to Babylon.
II Kings 24-25
Basically tells the same story, mentioning that King Nebuchadnezzar captured all Jerusalem, all the generals, all the soldiers (10,00 prisoners), and all the craftsmen and smiths (24:14). And he brought all 7,000 of the prominent landowners, 1,000 craftsmen and smiths, and all the men who could fight in war as captives to Babylon (24:16).
And he set up a puppet government in Jerusalem to maintain order (25:22).
These two passages both describe in detail the same account of the fulfillment of prophesy for the total destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple and the walls of the city that were all broken down.
God is always true to His Word. When Israel had obeyed God's rules, they experienced prosperity and peaceful relations with other Nations. But that didn't last very long.
When they turned away from the Lord, He sent prophets to bring them back, but they were enticed and deceived by all the other gods among them, the ideas and attitudes of the World around them.
So they persisted in their rebellion, and were destroyed, just as God said would happen. But that destruction was not permanent. Everything that happens on this Earth always "comes to pass," never to stay.
So God will bring His people Israel back to return to the Land, as they did under Persian King Xerxes and King Artaxerxes; and as we see has happened again today (after 2,000 years!). And He will build them up again if they obey His commandments. The cycle continues 'round and 'round.
God is still God, and His rules are still in effect on this Earth. Now we see the fulfillment of Jeremiah 31:33-34, that says that I will put My Law within them, and on their heart I will write it, instead of on tablets or parchment. Jesus fulfilled all those laws, and today we have the Principle of Love in our hearts, that underlies all the Law, as Jesus said in Matthew 22:37-40.
But He hasn't forgotten His people Israel. He will always do as He said He would. Not always the way we expect, or even desire, but just exactly as He said He would.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Vs. 3ff The Lord became angry with Jerusalem and Judah and threw the people out of His sight. King Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon. On the tenth day of the tenth month of the ninth year of King Zedekiah's reign, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon attacked Jerusalem with his entire army.
Then we read about how he and his Captain of the Guard destroyed everything, and deported a total of 4,600 people to Babylon, leaving only a few poor people "to work in the vineyards and on the farms," burning every important building, tearing down the Temple and the wall, and carrying everything of value to Babylon.
II Kings 24-25
Basically tells the same story, mentioning that King Nebuchadnezzar captured all Jerusalem, all the generals, all the soldiers (10,00 prisoners), and all the craftsmen and smiths (24:14). And he brought all 7,000 of the prominent landowners, 1,000 craftsmen and smiths, and all the men who could fight in war as captives to Babylon (24:16).
And he set up a puppet government in Jerusalem to maintain order (25:22).
These two passages both describe in detail the same account of the fulfillment of prophesy for the total destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple and the walls of the city that were all broken down.
God is always true to His Word. When Israel had obeyed God's rules, they experienced prosperity and peaceful relations with other Nations. But that didn't last very long.
When they turned away from the Lord, He sent prophets to bring them back, but they were enticed and deceived by all the other gods among them, the ideas and attitudes of the World around them.
So they persisted in their rebellion, and were destroyed, just as God said would happen. But that destruction was not permanent. Everything that happens on this Earth always "comes to pass," never to stay.
So God will bring His people Israel back to return to the Land, as they did under Persian King Xerxes and King Artaxerxes; and as we see has happened again today (after 2,000 years!). And He will build them up again if they obey His commandments. The cycle continues 'round and 'round.
God is still God, and His rules are still in effect on this Earth. Now we see the fulfillment of Jeremiah 31:33-34, that says that I will put My Law within them, and on their heart I will write it, instead of on tablets or parchment. Jesus fulfilled all those laws, and today we have the Principle of Love in our hearts, that underlies all the Law, as Jesus said in Matthew 22:37-40.
But He hasn't forgotten His people Israel. He will always do as He said He would. Not always the way we expect, or even desire, but just exactly as He said He would.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Monday, July 23, 2018
Never Reject Israel
Jeremiah 33: 25-26
Thus says the Lord: "If My covenant for day and night do not stand, and the fixed patterns of Heaven and Earth I have not established, then I would reject the descendants of Jacob and David My servant, not taking from his descendants rulers over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
"But I will restore their fortunes and will have mercy on them."
God had Jeremiah write specifically that He would never forget about the Hebrew peoples that have come down generationally from Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham; and that David would be the direct ancestor of the rulers over this nation.
When the Day-and-Night cycle stops cycling; when the heavenly bodies, the stars & planets & the other objects in the sky, in space, stop doing what they do; only if they can disobey God's directions and rules for them; only then will God be able to disregard the Children of Israel.
Some people are teaching that God has substituted the Church for Israel and has given up on them; but these verses refute that notion.
Jesus said, "Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear My voice; and there shall be one fold and one Shepherd" (John 10:16), referring to the Gentiles who would hear the Gospel and be saved, forming the church, in addition to those of Hebrew/Jewish heritage.
(Abram [Abraham] was first called a "Hebrew" [ancient Habiru; Eberite, from Eber] in Genesis 14:13; and "Jewish" refers to the nation Judea, named from the tribe of Judah, who, with Benjamin, formed the Southern Kingdom of the divided Israel after King Solomon [I Kings 12:16, 20], and returned to the territory of Israel under the Persian kings Xerxes and his son Artaxerxes [see Daniel and Esther and Ezra and Nehemiah].)
So the "one fold" under "one Shepherd" is both Jews and Christians together as one family; recognizing Jesus as Messiah, Savior, and King.
Until Jesus returns, those Jewish people who become Christians (Messianic Jews) are part of the Church, and will be raptured with the rest of the church.
All this will come together on that Day when Jesus returns to this Earth, calls out all those who are His church (the Rapture, I Corinthians 15:51-52; I Thessalonians 4:15-17), bursts through the clouds and "every eye will see Him" (Revelation 1:7), and "all Israel will be saved" (Romans 11:26) along with all those who have not taken the Mark of the Beast (Revelation 13:16-18); and they will enter His Kingdom in their flesh bodies to re-populate the Earth.
So Jesus, descendant of King David in the flesh, will rule from Jerusalem (Revelation 20:6), and all the promises to Israel will be fulfilled. God never forgets a promise: He knows what He's going to do, promises to do it, and He does it. Not always the way we think He will, but exactly as He said He would. Every time.
Jesus is coming soon.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Thus says the Lord: "If My covenant for day and night do not stand, and the fixed patterns of Heaven and Earth I have not established, then I would reject the descendants of Jacob and David My servant, not taking from his descendants rulers over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
"But I will restore their fortunes and will have mercy on them."
God had Jeremiah write specifically that He would never forget about the Hebrew peoples that have come down generationally from Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham; and that David would be the direct ancestor of the rulers over this nation.
When the Day-and-Night cycle stops cycling; when the heavenly bodies, the stars & planets & the other objects in the sky, in space, stop doing what they do; only if they can disobey God's directions and rules for them; only then will God be able to disregard the Children of Israel.
Some people are teaching that God has substituted the Church for Israel and has given up on them; but these verses refute that notion.
Jesus said, "Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear My voice; and there shall be one fold and one Shepherd" (John 10:16), referring to the Gentiles who would hear the Gospel and be saved, forming the church, in addition to those of Hebrew/Jewish heritage.
(Abram [Abraham] was first called a "Hebrew" [ancient Habiru; Eberite, from Eber] in Genesis 14:13; and "Jewish" refers to the nation Judea, named from the tribe of Judah, who, with Benjamin, formed the Southern Kingdom of the divided Israel after King Solomon [I Kings 12:16, 20], and returned to the territory of Israel under the Persian kings Xerxes and his son Artaxerxes [see Daniel and Esther and Ezra and Nehemiah].)
So the "one fold" under "one Shepherd" is both Jews and Christians together as one family; recognizing Jesus as Messiah, Savior, and King.
Until Jesus returns, those Jewish people who become Christians (Messianic Jews) are part of the Church, and will be raptured with the rest of the church.
So Jesus, descendant of King David in the flesh, will rule from Jerusalem (Revelation 20:6), and all the promises to Israel will be fulfilled. God never forgets a promise: He knows what He's going to do, promises to do it, and He does it. Not always the way we think He will, but exactly as He said He would. Every time.
Jesus is coming soon.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Sunday, July 22, 2018
Today's Science In Ancient Times
Job 26: 7-8
He stretches out the Heavens over empty space, and hangs the Earth on nothing whatsoever. He holds the waters in His thick clouds, and the clouds don't split under its weight.
Some science here:
People used to believe that great pillars held up the Earth, or that Atlas held it on his shoulders, or some other support. But we know now that it really is suspended in "empty space."
And all the moisture in the clouds that hasn't rained down yet is very heavy, yet the clouds don't split or fall down with the weight, because, "A way to illustrate the relative lightness of clouds is to compare the total mass of a cloud to the mass of the air in which it resides. Consider a hypothetical but typical small cloud at an altitude of 10,000 feet, comprising one cubic kilometer and having a liquid water content of 1.0 gram per cubic meter. The total mass of the cloud particles is about 1 million kilograms, which is roughly equivalent to the weight of 500 automobiles. But the total mass of the air in that same cubic kilometer is about 1 billion kilograms--1,000 times heavier than the liquid!" [Scientific American].
Job most likely lived in the second millennium B.C. or earlier, before Moses or the Law. Even if the book was written later, Job still had knowledge of the Natural World that was accurate according to modern Science.
How can that be?
It's because the God Who made it so was still known in Job's day, and He caused His Truth to be recorded in this ancient manuscript.
Job lived not many years after Adam and Noah lived, so the people who wanted to know God did. It was later that all the other theories were recorded.
So God's Truth does not change, even though man's theories constantly change. True Science always is the search for God's Truth in the Natural World.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
He stretches out the Heavens over empty space, and hangs the Earth on nothing whatsoever. He holds the waters in His thick clouds, and the clouds don't split under its weight.
Some science here:
People used to believe that great pillars held up the Earth, or that Atlas held it on his shoulders, or some other support. But we know now that it really is suspended in "empty space."
And all the moisture in the clouds that hasn't rained down yet is very heavy, yet the clouds don't split or fall down with the weight, because, "A way to illustrate the relative lightness of clouds is to compare the total mass of a cloud to the mass of the air in which it resides. Consider a hypothetical but typical small cloud at an altitude of 10,000 feet, comprising one cubic kilometer and having a liquid water content of 1.0 gram per cubic meter. The total mass of the cloud particles is about 1 million kilograms, which is roughly equivalent to the weight of 500 automobiles. But the total mass of the air in that same cubic kilometer is about 1 billion kilograms--1,000 times heavier than the liquid!" [Scientific American].
Job most likely lived in the second millennium B.C. or earlier, before Moses or the Law. Even if the book was written later, Job still had knowledge of the Natural World that was accurate according to modern Science.
How can that be?
It's because the God Who made it so was still known in Job's day, and He caused His Truth to be recorded in this ancient manuscript.
Job lived not many years after Adam and Noah lived, so the people who wanted to know God did. It was later that all the other theories were recorded.
So God's Truth does not change, even though man's theories constantly change. True Science always is the search for God's Truth in the Natural World.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Saturday, July 21, 2018
Prosperous But Not Secure
Job 24: 22-24
... These people may prosper, but they will never feel secure about life. God may let them feel confident and self-reliant, but His eyes are on their ways.
Such people may be prosperous for a while, but then they're gone. ...
This life is only a moment in the great Scheme of things. In view of eternity past and eternity future, the whole history of this Earth is only a passing moment of time.
Each human life is only a breath, a disappearing vapor (James 4:14). We're born, and we die, and that little dash on our gravestone is our whole life.
Some people who are super-rich deny that God has anything to do with their lives. They think that they've earned and deserve all the material wealth they have gathered. But they can enjoy it only as long as they live, only this brief moment in time, then they're gone.
And even when they're here, with all their prosperity, they "never feel secure about life." The richest man in the World was asked, "How much is enough money?" His answer was, "Just a little bit more." Even with all his riches, he still didn't have enough.
Jesus said, "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole World, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" (Mark 8:36-37).
The soul is the spiritual part of each of us that gives life to our bodies. Life is spirit, and when that spiritual part leaves, the body is dead.
So even if someone can amass great riches, he can only enjoy them while he lives, he can't take it with him when he dies. And even if he lives a long life, what is that in the whole time-line of this Earth? And he will have lost out on the most important part, his eternity.
Even Job knew that, way back in time probably before Abraham (Job is the oldest book of the Bible).
God had given Job great riches, then tested him by allowing Satan to take them all away, including his good health and his grown children. After Job passed the test, God allowed him to amass twice as much wealth, regain his good health, and even double the number of his children.
People to whom God gives the ability to gain wealth (Deuteronomy 8:18) can lose it all and regain it, sometimes repeatedly. Money is fluid, it flows in and out of a life. God gives the ability to gain wealth to those who live according to His ways, the ways He put into this Earth for the World upon it to operate, by design. And even when a person follows these ways, even if he doesn't know or acknowledge God, he will still experience the consequences of his choices, to either gain or lose wealth.
When the Israelites followed God's ways, they gained prosperity. But when they were comfortable, they got into the deception that they'd gotten it all by themselves, and began to make poor decisions, which resulted in the loss of their material possessions, and even under the tyranny of outside peoples. Then they turned back to the Lord, crying out to Him, and He sent a military leader to win back their freedom, and they went through the cycle again, over and over (see the Book of Judges).
This World is still running as it was designed, but Mankind has broken the cycle of blessing, so that most of those living in the World are poor materially. Many don't even have the necessities of life. This is because people have rejected God and His ways, and the people are suffering because of it.
Leaders of Nations lead unrighteously, having no concern for the people they rule, but sometimes telling them they do; putting scarcity in the place of plenty, and selfishly amassing wealth for themselves.
But it will do them no good if they have not recognized God for Who He is, having sent His Son Jesus to be our Savior and Messiah to rescue us from the deceit and unrighteousness of the World, and cleansing us of all that besmirches God's creation of us.
How much better for all of us to seek God and His righteousness in our lives, to share with those in our lives who may not know God yet, and to enjoy Him, along with His blessings. He is our prize; He is our reward; He is our dwelling place; wherever He is, is our home (Philippians 3:14; Psalm 91:9; Lamentations 3:24).
So whether the Lord gives you the power to get wealth (Deuteronomy 8:18), or He sustains you in your everyday life, He will never allow you to be destitute while you're following Him in His ways (Psalm 37:25).
The whole chapter 8 of Deuteronomy explains how vulnerable the people will be when they enter this good land and enjoy the prosperity it provides.
We are all vulnerable, as human beings, to the seductions to deception from the World, our own flesh, and our enemy the Devil. Especially if we come into wealth after being poor.
The most important, that should have First Priority with each of us, should be to get to know God, seek Him with our full focus, determined to follow His ways.
Jesus is coming soon, and whether I have great wealth with many possessions, or I'm living hand-to-mouth, I want to be ready to meet my Lord either in death or by Rapture, unhindered by things of this World.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
... These people may prosper, but they will never feel secure about life. God may let them feel confident and self-reliant, but His eyes are on their ways.
Such people may be prosperous for a while, but then they're gone. ...
This life is only a moment in the great Scheme of things. In view of eternity past and eternity future, the whole history of this Earth is only a passing moment of time.
Each human life is only a breath, a disappearing vapor (James 4:14). We're born, and we die, and that little dash on our gravestone is our whole life.
Some people who are super-rich deny that God has anything to do with their lives. They think that they've earned and deserve all the material wealth they have gathered. But they can enjoy it only as long as they live, only this brief moment in time, then they're gone.
And even when they're here, with all their prosperity, they "never feel secure about life." The richest man in the World was asked, "How much is enough money?" His answer was, "Just a little bit more." Even with all his riches, he still didn't have enough.
Jesus said, "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole World, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" (Mark 8:36-37).
The soul is the spiritual part of each of us that gives life to our bodies. Life is spirit, and when that spiritual part leaves, the body is dead.
So even if someone can amass great riches, he can only enjoy them while he lives, he can't take it with him when he dies. And even if he lives a long life, what is that in the whole time-line of this Earth? And he will have lost out on the most important part, his eternity.
Even Job knew that, way back in time probably before Abraham (Job is the oldest book of the Bible).
God had given Job great riches, then tested him by allowing Satan to take them all away, including his good health and his grown children. After Job passed the test, God allowed him to amass twice as much wealth, regain his good health, and even double the number of his children.
People to whom God gives the ability to gain wealth (Deuteronomy 8:18) can lose it all and regain it, sometimes repeatedly. Money is fluid, it flows in and out of a life. God gives the ability to gain wealth to those who live according to His ways, the ways He put into this Earth for the World upon it to operate, by design. And even when a person follows these ways, even if he doesn't know or acknowledge God, he will still experience the consequences of his choices, to either gain or lose wealth.
When the Israelites followed God's ways, they gained prosperity. But when they were comfortable, they got into the deception that they'd gotten it all by themselves, and began to make poor decisions, which resulted in the loss of their material possessions, and even under the tyranny of outside peoples. Then they turned back to the Lord, crying out to Him, and He sent a military leader to win back their freedom, and they went through the cycle again, over and over (see the Book of Judges).
This World is still running as it was designed, but Mankind has broken the cycle of blessing, so that most of those living in the World are poor materially. Many don't even have the necessities of life. This is because people have rejected God and His ways, and the people are suffering because of it.
Leaders of Nations lead unrighteously, having no concern for the people they rule, but sometimes telling them they do; putting scarcity in the place of plenty, and selfishly amassing wealth for themselves.
But it will do them no good if they have not recognized God for Who He is, having sent His Son Jesus to be our Savior and Messiah to rescue us from the deceit and unrighteousness of the World, and cleansing us of all that besmirches God's creation of us.
How much better for all of us to seek God and His righteousness in our lives, to share with those in our lives who may not know God yet, and to enjoy Him, along with His blessings. He is our prize; He is our reward; He is our dwelling place; wherever He is, is our home (Philippians 3:14; Psalm 91:9; Lamentations 3:24).
So whether the Lord gives you the power to get wealth (Deuteronomy 8:18), or He sustains you in your everyday life, He will never allow you to be destitute while you're following Him in His ways (Psalm 37:25).
The whole chapter 8 of Deuteronomy explains how vulnerable the people will be when they enter this good land and enjoy the prosperity it provides.
We are all vulnerable, as human beings, to the seductions to deception from the World, our own flesh, and our enemy the Devil. Especially if we come into wealth after being poor.
The most important, that should have First Priority with each of us, should be to get to know God, seek Him with our full focus, determined to follow His ways.
Jesus is coming soon, and whether I have great wealth with many possessions, or I'm living hand-to-mouth, I want to be ready to meet my Lord either in death or by Rapture, unhindered by things of this World.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Friday, July 20, 2018
Mars Hill
Acts 17: 22-31
Paul's sermon on Mars Hill, the Areopagus.
V. 22 So Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, "Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects.
This was a high compliment to the people.
V. 23 "For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Therefore what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you.
He was going to tell them about the God they don't know yet.
Vs. 24-25 "The God Who made the World and all things in it, since He is Lord of Heaven and Earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things;
God is too big to be able to live in a building. And He is the Source of everything.
V. 26 "And He made from one man every Nation of Mankind
From Adam, the father of the whole Human Race.
to live on all the face of the Earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation,
God is sovereign in having each people live in the portion of the Earth He determined they would live: Orientals in the East, Negroid people in Africa, Caucasian people in the West, and Middle-Easterners in the middle of them all.
V. 27 "That they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us;
(Jesus lived in the center of the inhabitable Earth, in Jerusalem. He is Savior of us all, everyone all around the center is called to come to Him.)
V. 28 "For in Him we live and move and exist,
We are God's imagination, so we have our being inside His thoughts; if He were not thinking about us, we wouldn't exist!
"As even some of your own poets have said, 'For we also are His children.'
Some of the Greek philosophers came to the conclusion that we are from God, as though He had a family of human children. He did make us in His image, after His likeness (Genesis 1:26-27).
V.29 "Being then the children of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man.
Paul is indulging these Greeks in saying that all human-kind are God's children, to make the point that God is not less than Mankind, as if made of Earth's elements by the craft of Human intelligence; He is way above all that.
V. 30 "Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to man that all people everywhere should repent,
He's saying that they have no more excuse; now is the time for everybody to listen up and be turning their attitudes and thinking processes around to turn away from all the ideas and things and actions and lifestyles that draw us away from God and His ways and the great Salvation He has provided for us all.
V. 31 "Because He has fixed a Day in which He will judge the World in righteousness through a Man Whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the Dead."
Here is where Paul is introducing these Greeks to Jesus. They invite him to stay and teach them some more, and some of them joined him and became believers.
Paul has given us a good overview of how to witness to people who have never known God: Start from where they are coming from and draw them into the story of Redemption. Paul said that he wanted to be all things to all people so that by all means he would be able to bring some to salvation (I Corinthians 9:22).
As Christians we all should be able to give our personal testimony of how God drew us to Himself (Revelation 12:11), to be ready to share with anyone who asks us why we have hope in this hopeless world, or can be cheerful in the middle of the problem we're facing, or maintain joy in our sorrow (I Peter 3:15).
Paul told Timothy, who was a young pastor, to also do the work of an evangelist (II Timothy 4:5), even though he wasn't gifted to be an evangelist, but a pastor. So whatever our spiritual gift may be, each of us needs to also present the Gospel to everyone who is willing to listen.
I hope that you have been reading this continuing blog, and that it has been able to help you know why you believe the way you do, and to back it up with God's Word. To be able to explain these deep truths in a simple way that can be understood by the hearer.
I want everyone to know my wonderful God. He loves everything and everyone He made as Creator. And He is not willing that any should perish, but that all would come to know Him and His great Salvation through repentance and faith.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Paul's sermon on Mars Hill, the Areopagus.
V. 22 So Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, "Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects.
This was a high compliment to the people.
V. 23 "For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Therefore what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you.
He was going to tell them about the God they don't know yet.
Vs. 24-25 "The God Who made the World and all things in it, since He is Lord of Heaven and Earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things;
God is too big to be able to live in a building. And He is the Source of everything.
V. 26 "And He made from one man every Nation of Mankind
From Adam, the father of the whole Human Race.
to live on all the face of the Earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation,
God is sovereign in having each people live in the portion of the Earth He determined they would live: Orientals in the East, Negroid people in Africa, Caucasian people in the West, and Middle-Easterners in the middle of them all.
V. 27 "That they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us;
(Jesus lived in the center of the inhabitable Earth, in Jerusalem. He is Savior of us all, everyone all around the center is called to come to Him.)
V. 28 "For in Him we live and move and exist,
We are God's imagination, so we have our being inside His thoughts; if He were not thinking about us, we wouldn't exist!
"As even some of your own poets have said, 'For we also are His children.'
Some of the Greek philosophers came to the conclusion that we are from God, as though He had a family of human children. He did make us in His image, after His likeness (Genesis 1:26-27).
V.29 "Being then the children of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man.
Paul is indulging these Greeks in saying that all human-kind are God's children, to make the point that God is not less than Mankind, as if made of Earth's elements by the craft of Human intelligence; He is way above all that.
V. 30 "Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to man that all people everywhere should repent,
He's saying that they have no more excuse; now is the time for everybody to listen up and be turning their attitudes and thinking processes around to turn away from all the ideas and things and actions and lifestyles that draw us away from God and His ways and the great Salvation He has provided for us all.
V. 31 "Because He has fixed a Day in which He will judge the World in righteousness through a Man Whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the Dead."
Here is where Paul is introducing these Greeks to Jesus. They invite him to stay and teach them some more, and some of them joined him and became believers.
Paul has given us a good overview of how to witness to people who have never known God: Start from where they are coming from and draw them into the story of Redemption. Paul said that he wanted to be all things to all people so that by all means he would be able to bring some to salvation (I Corinthians 9:22).
As Christians we all should be able to give our personal testimony of how God drew us to Himself (Revelation 12:11), to be ready to share with anyone who asks us why we have hope in this hopeless world, or can be cheerful in the middle of the problem we're facing, or maintain joy in our sorrow (I Peter 3:15).
Paul told Timothy, who was a young pastor, to also do the work of an evangelist (II Timothy 4:5), even though he wasn't gifted to be an evangelist, but a pastor. So whatever our spiritual gift may be, each of us needs to also present the Gospel to everyone who is willing to listen.
I hope that you have been reading this continuing blog, and that it has been able to help you know why you believe the way you do, and to back it up with God's Word. To be able to explain these deep truths in a simple way that can be understood by the hearer.
I want everyone to know my wonderful God. He loves everything and everyone He made as Creator. And He is not willing that any should perish, but that all would come to know Him and His great Salvation through repentance and faith.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Thursday, July 19, 2018
When God Relents
Jonah 3: 8-10
... "Cry loudly to God for help. Turn from your wicked ways and your acts of violence. Who knows? God may reconsider His plans and turn from His burning anger so that we won't die."
God saw what they did. He saw that they turned from their wicked ways. So God reconsidered His threat to destroy them, and He didn't do it.
God never enjoys destroying the wicked. He would rather they turn from their wicked ways. Always.
God had called Jonah to go preach in Nineveh that God would destroy them in 40 days because of their great wickedness. They deserved it; Jonah had heard all the stories, and may have even witnessed, how cruel and violent these people were, in perpetrating unspeakable cruelty on those they conquered.
Jonah wanted God to destroy them, and he knew that if they repented that He wouldn't, so he ran in the opposite direction (4:1-2). While he was in the big fish's belly he cried out to the Lord, and He performed a miracle in having that fish vomit him up on dry land, instead of at the bottom of the sea (2:1-10).
I've seen a picture of a fish cut open with a man inside it. People who have spent any time inside a big fish have all their flesh and hair bleached white from the fish's digestive juices.
Can you imagine how stark Jonah must have looked there in the Middle East? That had to have had an effect on the Ninevites. Johah got only a third of the way through the city when they all decided to repent, from the king down to the lowest servant, and recognized the power of Jonah's God (3:5-9).
God does destroy the unrepentant evil people, and He destroyed Neneveh a generation later. But He will also always relent and forgive those who repent and turn away from evil.
God has told us His ways; His good, moral, kind, generous ways. Evil is always bad for us, it always hurts and harms us. Ourselves and those around us.
And God calls all people everywhere (Acts 17:30) to turn from their idolotries and thefts and murders and immoralities (Revelation 9:21), and turn to Him, to recognize that His Son Jesus is our Savior by taking our place in death as our personal Sacrifice (as He fulfilled that first chapter in Leviticus, the individual person's sacrifice). His Blood shed for our forgiveness actually takes away all of our sinfulness, from the grossest sin down to the "innocent" fib, and that Original sin that we inherit from Adam as our "flesh," our "sin-nature." This cleansing makes us fit to enter Heaven, because God will not tolerate any kind of sin to dwell in His Presence (see Habakkuk 1:13).
O my Father, You are so kind, so wise, and so powerful to have designed this Earth for us, to put in it everything we need, and to give us Your written Word so we can know You. Thank You for Your Holy Spirit in us to teach us Your Truth, and to be able to understand how all parts of Your Word fit together to tell one Story, the Story of Man, from before the beginning to beyond the end; the Story of our need and Your provision; about Jesus from beginning to end of the Book.
Thank You for Your great Love, wanting for everyone everywhere to repent and follow Your ways. That is how we can access Your bountiful provision here on this Earth, and be cleansed to spend our Eternity with You.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
... "Cry loudly to God for help. Turn from your wicked ways and your acts of violence. Who knows? God may reconsider His plans and turn from His burning anger so that we won't die."
God saw what they did. He saw that they turned from their wicked ways. So God reconsidered His threat to destroy them, and He didn't do it.
God never enjoys destroying the wicked. He would rather they turn from their wicked ways. Always.
God had called Jonah to go preach in Nineveh that God would destroy them in 40 days because of their great wickedness. They deserved it; Jonah had heard all the stories, and may have even witnessed, how cruel and violent these people were, in perpetrating unspeakable cruelty on those they conquered.
Jonah wanted God to destroy them, and he knew that if they repented that He wouldn't, so he ran in the opposite direction (4:1-2). While he was in the big fish's belly he cried out to the Lord, and He performed a miracle in having that fish vomit him up on dry land, instead of at the bottom of the sea (2:1-10).
I've seen a picture of a fish cut open with a man inside it. People who have spent any time inside a big fish have all their flesh and hair bleached white from the fish's digestive juices.
Can you imagine how stark Jonah must have looked there in the Middle East? That had to have had an effect on the Ninevites. Johah got only a third of the way through the city when they all decided to repent, from the king down to the lowest servant, and recognized the power of Jonah's God (3:5-9).
God does destroy the unrepentant evil people, and He destroyed Neneveh a generation later. But He will also always relent and forgive those who repent and turn away from evil.
God has told us His ways; His good, moral, kind, generous ways. Evil is always bad for us, it always hurts and harms us. Ourselves and those around us.
And God calls all people everywhere (Acts 17:30) to turn from their idolotries and thefts and murders and immoralities (Revelation 9:21), and turn to Him, to recognize that His Son Jesus is our Savior by taking our place in death as our personal Sacrifice (as He fulfilled that first chapter in Leviticus, the individual person's sacrifice). His Blood shed for our forgiveness actually takes away all of our sinfulness, from the grossest sin down to the "innocent" fib, and that Original sin that we inherit from Adam as our "flesh," our "sin-nature." This cleansing makes us fit to enter Heaven, because God will not tolerate any kind of sin to dwell in His Presence (see Habakkuk 1:13).
O my Father, You are so kind, so wise, and so powerful to have designed this Earth for us, to put in it everything we need, and to give us Your written Word so we can know You. Thank You for Your Holy Spirit in us to teach us Your Truth, and to be able to understand how all parts of Your Word fit together to tell one Story, the Story of Man, from before the beginning to beyond the end; the Story of our need and Your provision; about Jesus from beginning to end of the Book.
Thank You for Your great Love, wanting for everyone everywhere to repent and follow Your ways. That is how we can access Your bountiful provision here on this Earth, and be cleansed to spend our Eternity with You.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Wednesday, July 18, 2018
Our Generous God
Philippians 4: 17, 19
Not that I seek the gift itself, but I seek for the profit which increases to your account.
And my God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
Paul wasn't wanting only to have his own needs met, but that those who provided for him would be blessed. "Help me want the Giver more than the giving" (song: "More Than Anything," by Natalie Grant).
Then those who have been generous with their material goods will be blessed abundantly by God, according to His riches in glory. God is not stingy, He is very generous. He is the Source of riches beyond compare.
He is the Source of everything that exists, and He is extremely generous with everything He put into this Earth for our use and prosperity. To access this abundance, we only need to follow His ways, according to His purposes for each of us.
God wants us to prosper, but we don't because we violate His Love He has given us, rejecting it and Him, and do things our own way. Then we deny ourselves and others the good things He put here for us to enjoy by closing off the ways to access them. Governments do this, also businesses and individuals let greed overtake their attitudes. They believe the enemy who tells them that to have something it must be taken from someone else.
But wealth grows, just as trees grow, crops grow, and children grow. God has designed this environment for our sustenance and benefit; and just as the number of people grows, the capacity to grow what we all need is inherently in the soil and oceans and mountains and streams and our imaginations.
Whatever you need more of, give it away. God's ways are not our ways. When we hoard, we lose what we have, but when we're generous like God is, then He will multiply what we have to not only meet our needs but have more than we need to share with others. The more generous we are, the more we will receive. It's an upward spiral.
Most of us just don't trust God enough to try Him on this (Malachi 3:10).
I know I have given away some time when I was "running late," and ended up at my destination on time or even early. Now I try never to hurry, but consider that I will get there in God's time.
But Paul's talking about money here. Do I trust God enough to give away money for His work even if I think I won't have enough left? Do I tithe off of my top, or wait to see if I'll "have enough"?
If I wait, I won't have enough. My tithe must come off the top, to receive God's blessing to multiply the 90% to cover more than the 100% covered before. I don't know how He does it, but He stretches what I've tithed on. I have never gone hungry, or lacked a roof over my head or a place to sleep.
So Paul wanted those in the church at Philippi to benefit by sacrificially giving. Because He knew how generous God is.
O my Father, You are God. You are God Almighty. You are our Source for all wealth, health, and well-being. You have given us to one another so that we can love one another as You have loved us. When we care enough to notice what their needs are, and take of what You have given us to help them, then the World will know a little of Your character.
Father, I want others to get to know You, to get acquainted with how wonderful You are, and how You love us all. Help me, Father, to live out Your character in all my relationships with my family and friends and neighbors and clients and readers. And even the strangers I meet while I'm out.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Not that I seek the gift itself, but I seek for the profit which increases to your account.
And my God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
Paul wasn't wanting only to have his own needs met, but that those who provided for him would be blessed. "Help me want the Giver more than the giving" (song: "More Than Anything," by Natalie Grant).
Then those who have been generous with their material goods will be blessed abundantly by God, according to His riches in glory. God is not stingy, He is very generous. He is the Source of riches beyond compare.
He is the Source of everything that exists, and He is extremely generous with everything He put into this Earth for our use and prosperity. To access this abundance, we only need to follow His ways, according to His purposes for each of us.
God wants us to prosper, but we don't because we violate His Love He has given us, rejecting it and Him, and do things our own way. Then we deny ourselves and others the good things He put here for us to enjoy by closing off the ways to access them. Governments do this, also businesses and individuals let greed overtake their attitudes. They believe the enemy who tells them that to have something it must be taken from someone else.
But wealth grows, just as trees grow, crops grow, and children grow. God has designed this environment for our sustenance and benefit; and just as the number of people grows, the capacity to grow what we all need is inherently in the soil and oceans and mountains and streams and our imaginations.
Whatever you need more of, give it away. God's ways are not our ways. When we hoard, we lose what we have, but when we're generous like God is, then He will multiply what we have to not only meet our needs but have more than we need to share with others. The more generous we are, the more we will receive. It's an upward spiral.
Most of us just don't trust God enough to try Him on this (Malachi 3:10).
I know I have given away some time when I was "running late," and ended up at my destination on time or even early. Now I try never to hurry, but consider that I will get there in God's time.
But Paul's talking about money here. Do I trust God enough to give away money for His work even if I think I won't have enough left? Do I tithe off of my top, or wait to see if I'll "have enough"?
If I wait, I won't have enough. My tithe must come off the top, to receive God's blessing to multiply the 90% to cover more than the 100% covered before. I don't know how He does it, but He stretches what I've tithed on. I have never gone hungry, or lacked a roof over my head or a place to sleep.
So Paul wanted those in the church at Philippi to benefit by sacrificially giving. Because He knew how generous God is.
O my Father, You are God. You are God Almighty. You are our Source for all wealth, health, and well-being. You have given us to one another so that we can love one another as You have loved us. When we care enough to notice what their needs are, and take of what You have given us to help them, then the World will know a little of Your character.
Father, I want others to get to know You, to get acquainted with how wonderful You are, and how You love us all. Help me, Father, to live out Your character in all my relationships with my family and friends and neighbors and clients and readers. And even the strangers I meet while I'm out.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Tuesday, July 17, 2018
Our Judge
John 5: 22, 27
For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son.
And He gave Him (the Son) authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man.
God the Father has given to Jesus to be the Judge of the Earth. And not just the Earth but the whole Universe. Why?
All three Persons participated in the Creation, so is (are) the Owner(s).
Now the Son, the Second Person of the Godhead, has become Man, and bought us with His precious Blood, so we belong to Him by purchase, also. That's why Jesus has all authority to judge.
And those He has redeemed, He has taken upon Himself the wrath due each of us; so those who belong to Him by faith will face Him as Judge for rewards only (the Bema seat, I Corinthians 3:10-15).
All the rest will face His Justice for all the evil that has deceived them, and drawn them away from what is Good. They will suffer the wrath that sin brings (the Great White Throne, Revelation 20:11-13).
God takes no pleasure in the death of a wicked person (Ezekiel 18:32; 33:11), because that person has no more opportunity to turn away from wickedness to embrace God's Love, which is what He would much rather they do.
We are all responsibie for all our choices, even when we think we have no choice but to do what we do. We just don't recognize the alternative, to do what's right. So we all will give an account for even every word that we say (Matthew 12:36-37). And especially our choice to accept or reject that we deserve the Death Jesus died for each of us to save us from the power of sin and death and deception.
O Father, thank You so much for sending Your own Son, my Lord, Christ Jesus, to be my substitute in Death so that You could give me Your Spirit to live in my spirit, making it alive; now I can communicate with You. Teach me to listen closely for Your quiet voice in my spirit, leading me into the path You want me to take.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son.
And He gave Him (the Son) authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man.
God the Father has given to Jesus to be the Judge of the Earth. And not just the Earth but the whole Universe. Why?
All three Persons participated in the Creation, so is (are) the Owner(s).
Now the Son, the Second Person of the Godhead, has become Man, and bought us with His precious Blood, so we belong to Him by purchase, also. That's why Jesus has all authority to judge.
And those He has redeemed, He has taken upon Himself the wrath due each of us; so those who belong to Him by faith will face Him as Judge for rewards only (the Bema seat, I Corinthians 3:10-15).
All the rest will face His Justice for all the evil that has deceived them, and drawn them away from what is Good. They will suffer the wrath that sin brings (the Great White Throne, Revelation 20:11-13).
God takes no pleasure in the death of a wicked person (Ezekiel 18:32; 33:11), because that person has no more opportunity to turn away from wickedness to embrace God's Love, which is what He would much rather they do.
We are all responsibie for all our choices, even when we think we have no choice but to do what we do. We just don't recognize the alternative, to do what's right. So we all will give an account for even every word that we say (Matthew 12:36-37). And especially our choice to accept or reject that we deserve the Death Jesus died for each of us to save us from the power of sin and death and deception.
O Father, thank You so much for sending Your own Son, my Lord, Christ Jesus, to be my substitute in Death so that You could give me Your Spirit to live in my spirit, making it alive; now I can communicate with You. Teach me to listen closely for Your quiet voice in my spirit, leading me into the path You want me to take.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Monday, July 16, 2018
What Was Gain Is Now Loss
Philippians 3: 7-14
But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.
More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ,
and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith,
that I may know Him and the power of His Resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death;
in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.
Brothers, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead,
I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Whatever things were gain to me are now loss for detracting from Christ in my life.
I won't attain the goal of the Resurrection of the dead until Jesus returns, but I will continue to press on, putting in the past what is in the past, and stretching forward to reach what lies ahead, toward the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
This is a new day, the "first day of the rest of my life." A new start on doing what I can toward the benefit of God's Kingdom that is here on Earth within us now, and will cover the World at His return.
O my Father, help me, strengthen me to do these things. Teach me how to keep the past in the past, how to reach forward to lay hold of what You are offering me, and to allow the loss of whatever is keeping me from fully embracing You and Your ways in my life.
Father, you allowed Saul of Tarsis, the Pharisee, to give up all his standing in the community, and the wealth it gave him, to become Paul the Apostle and Evangelist, travelling the whole known World, supporting himself as a tentmaker, and depending on the generosity of strangers to meet his needs.
I feel like I am on my way to do what Paul did, and I am looking forward to see what that will look like for me. I am not Paul, I am not like Paul in many ways, but I trust that You gave me the dream of vagabonding the World spreading the seed of the Gospel, much like Paul did.
And I have given up my mansion for a small house, which I don't consider a sacrifice at all, any more than Paul did, in counting all he had before as garbage.
Father, now that I have turned this corner of ridding myself of that burden and becoming debt-free, please show me step by step what You would have me do to obey You in sowing the seed of the Gospel wherever You have determined is fertile soil.
Lead me, Father, take my hand and guide me into the very path You have designed me to traverse in this World, until Jesus returns to claim His own.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.
More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ,
and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith,
that I may know Him and the power of His Resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death;
in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.
Brothers, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead,
I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Whatever things were gain to me are now loss for detracting from Christ in my life.
I won't attain the goal of the Resurrection of the dead until Jesus returns, but I will continue to press on, putting in the past what is in the past, and stretching forward to reach what lies ahead, toward the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
This is a new day, the "first day of the rest of my life." A new start on doing what I can toward the benefit of God's Kingdom that is here on Earth within us now, and will cover the World at His return.
O my Father, help me, strengthen me to do these things. Teach me how to keep the past in the past, how to reach forward to lay hold of what You are offering me, and to allow the loss of whatever is keeping me from fully embracing You and Your ways in my life.
Father, you allowed Saul of Tarsis, the Pharisee, to give up all his standing in the community, and the wealth it gave him, to become Paul the Apostle and Evangelist, travelling the whole known World, supporting himself as a tentmaker, and depending on the generosity of strangers to meet his needs.
I feel like I am on my way to do what Paul did, and I am looking forward to see what that will look like for me. I am not Paul, I am not like Paul in many ways, but I trust that You gave me the dream of vagabonding the World spreading the seed of the Gospel, much like Paul did.
And I have given up my mansion for a small house, which I don't consider a sacrifice at all, any more than Paul did, in counting all he had before as garbage.
Father, now that I have turned this corner of ridding myself of that burden and becoming debt-free, please show me step by step what You would have me do to obey You in sowing the seed of the Gospel wherever You have determined is fertile soil.
Lead me, Father, take my hand and guide me into the very path You have designed me to traverse in this World, until Jesus returns to claim His own.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Sunday, July 15, 2018
Blessing For Insult
I Peter 3: 8-9
To sum up, let all be harmonious, like-minded, sympathetic, brotherly, loving one another, kind-hearted, compassionate, and humble in spirit; not returning evil for evil, or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead.
Let's all think the same way, have sympathy for one another, love one another with brotherly/sisterly love, being kind-hearted (not hard-hearted), and considering myself as no better than the one reviling me.
Not "giving as good (or bad) as I get," but turning the situation around in giving a blessing, a compliment to the other, answering in a soft voice, not yelling back.
Lord, help me to think before reacting, and then responding in Truth, gently, compassionately. Strengthen me to be able to do this, Lord.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
To sum up, let all be harmonious, like-minded, sympathetic, brotherly, loving one another, kind-hearted, compassionate, and humble in spirit; not returning evil for evil, or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead.
Let's all think the same way, have sympathy for one another, love one another with brotherly/sisterly love, being kind-hearted (not hard-hearted), and considering myself as no better than the one reviling me.
Not "giving as good (or bad) as I get," but turning the situation around in giving a blessing, a compliment to the other, answering in a soft voice, not yelling back.
Lord, help me to think before reacting, and then responding in Truth, gently, compassionately. Strengthen me to be able to do this, Lord.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Saturday, July 14, 2018
"Healing Of The Nations"
Revelation 22: 2
... And the leaves of the Tree of Life were for the healing of the Nations.
God will never stop working to heal us completely even throughout all eternity!
He will never give up on us.
There will be a whole New Heaven and New Earth, and there will be no more curse; no more sickness, sorrow, wearing out, death, etc. It will be a whole New Universe! Based on a whole new Basis of Existence.
Since God will finish the work He began in us on the Day Jesus returns (Philippians 1: 6), then maybe we will be His servants who serve Him, and other "peoples" will be the Nations that will need healing.
I don't know; God can make as many Worlds and Universes as He wants, and He's only given us a bit of a glimpse of what will come after this one.
He has told us that we will, "be His people and He will be with [us] and be [our] God" (Revelation 21:3); and everything will be made "new" (v. 5). We will live with Him forever, and belong to Him. Jesus' Kingdom will never stop increasing (Isaiah 9:7), and we are His Royal Family who will "sit on His Throne" with Him (Ephesians 2:6; Revelation 3:21), meaning that we will help Him "rule" or run this New Creation.
We are God's imagination, and He's made us in His image after His likeness, so we have imagination, too, to create new things out of what He has created for us.
We can see even now in this life that God has given us so many gifts of abilities and skills and propensities to accomplish whatever our imaginations can conger up when we get together with our purposes and are willing to do the work to make it happen. (As God said in Genesis 11:6.) As a Race of Man we have accomplished so many "miracles" of technology, medicine, manufacturing of goods, quality of life, etc., whatever we've been able to imagine.
O my Father, You are so great, greater than I can imagine. You are good, and our standard for goodness. You are just, and our standard for justice. You are our Creator, our Maker, our Designer; and You are our Model for who You want us to be.
You sent Your own Son, Who is the same as the Father, to be our Messiah and Savior. And to show us how You are. You gave us Your Law, all the rules to guide our lives, to show us what He would accomplish, and He did. He said, "I have not come to destroy the Law, but to fulfill it" (Matthew 5:17), which He did in His life (all the civil and moral laws) and His death (the sacrificial laws, as the Lamb of God).
Father, You have planned out everything that has happened, is happening, and ever will happen, throughout all eternity past, present, and future. And You are so wise and clever to use even what evil people wickedly imagine in their rebellion against You to accomplish Your will and Your plan, so that everything will come out and end up exactly the way You planned it.
I know I can trust You to do whatever You do for my benefit, even when I am not enjoying what is happening in my life or in the World around me. Just as You used my choices to show me how much I needed You (and still need You, every day), so the freewheeling of the evil surrounding us in this World is to show those of the World their need for You, also.
Show me, Father, where I am to go, what I am to do, what attitudes to hold, who I am to converse with, what words to use, what lifestyle to display; that You will use me to draw many to Yourself. That I will be used of You to find and gather some of Your lost sheep into Your fold.
That Your Kingdom will grow to tremendous proportions, and You will receive all the glory for all You are and do.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Friday, July 13, 2018
Your Own Estimation
Romans 12: 16
... Do not be wise in your own estimation.
Sometimes when we compare ourselves and our accomplishments with others, we will see how far they are ahead of us in some way and feel envy for their achievements, or see ourselves as better than they are and become vulnerable to pride.
This is why we are not to compare ourselves with others. Each one of us is gifted differently from everyone else, so we'll always find inequities (II Corinthians 10:12).
But we each are accountable to our Lord (Romans 14:4).
Having studied Scripture for so many years, I could look down on others who have not had that opportunity. But they would be able to look down on me in some other skill or talent in which they excel.
O my Father, please help me to see others as You see them, not in the light of my own experiences. Teach me to value them as You do, and to value myself with the worth with which You see me. Help me to always remember how sinful and depraved I was when You found me, to humble me before You, and in the sight of others, to consider their needs before my own.
Thank You so much, Father, for Your great Love wherewith You love me. Help me to love others with Your agape Love, humbling myself before them, whatever it may cost me.
Because I know You will always provide my every need, and whatever is more than my bare necessities is to share with others who don't have even that much.
Teach me Your ways, Father; Your generosity, Your compassion, Your tenderness. That my life in this World might show forth Your character through my personality, to draw others to Your great Salvation.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus.
... Do not be wise in your own estimation.
Sometimes when we compare ourselves and our accomplishments with others, we will see how far they are ahead of us in some way and feel envy for their achievements, or see ourselves as better than they are and become vulnerable to pride.
This is why we are not to compare ourselves with others. Each one of us is gifted differently from everyone else, so we'll always find inequities (II Corinthians 10:12).
But we each are accountable to our Lord (Romans 14:4).
Having studied Scripture for so many years, I could look down on others who have not had that opportunity. But they would be able to look down on me in some other skill or talent in which they excel.
O my Father, please help me to see others as You see them, not in the light of my own experiences. Teach me to value them as You do, and to value myself with the worth with which You see me. Help me to always remember how sinful and depraved I was when You found me, to humble me before You, and in the sight of others, to consider their needs before my own.
Thank You so much, Father, for Your great Love wherewith You love me. Help me to love others with Your agape Love, humbling myself before them, whatever it may cost me.
Because I know You will always provide my every need, and whatever is more than my bare necessities is to share with others who don't have even that much.
Teach me Your ways, Father; Your generosity, Your compassion, Your tenderness. That my life in this World might show forth Your character through my personality, to draw others to Your great Salvation.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus.
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