Psalm 141: 3
Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips.
Proverbs 21: 23
He who guards his mouth and his tongue, guards his soul from troubles.
I pray, O Lord, that You would set Your guard over my mouth, keep watch over the words that proceed out of my lips and fingertips; guide my thoughts and attitudes that I would remember to think before I speak or type, considering the hearers and how they may perceive my words.
Teach me how to season my speech with Your lovingkindness and grace, that I may not criticize, but encourage and build up; that I may "encourage, comfort, and urge [them] to live lives worthy of God who calls [them] to live lives worthy of God Who calls [them] into His Kingdom and glory" (I Thessalonians 2:11-12), inviting them and inspiring them to return to You, O Lord!
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Saturday, October 20, 2018
Friday, October 19, 2018
This Place
I Kings 8: 22-53
Solomon's prayer dedicating the Temple:
... Listen to the prayer which Thy servant shall pray toward this place ... and forgive ...When they sin ...if they repent ... and pray toward this place ... hear and forgive ...
This is the first Temple built to worship God. It's based on the plans God gave Moses for the Tabernacle, that was the tent that the people carried with them while they wandered in the Desert.
It also had elements of other temples, pagan temples, that Solomon was familiar with, so it was more complicated than the tent was. But it retained the basic format, having the altar and holy place and most holy place, and the furniture that was in the Tabernacle.
Solomon recognized that even God's whole Creation cannot contain Him, let alone this house he had just built; nevertheless, this house, this place, would be the focal point of where God will see from Heaven and answer the prayer directed toward this place.
And Solomon knew that Israel would need forgiveness repeatedly, "for there is no man who does not sin" (v. 46).
And he even had a missionary heart, concerning those in other Nations, "For they will hear of Thy great Name and Thy mighty hand, and Thine outstretched arm" (v.42), "in order that all the peoples of the Earth may know Thy Name, to fear Thee, as do Thy people Israel..." (v. 43).
God's purpose is that all peoples, every tribe, every nation, every language group, would hear and know that, "There is no god like Thee in heaven above or on Earth beneath..." (v. 23).
God's Plan of the Ages is still being carried out by the people in this World. The Tabernacle was made according to the "pattern" God showed Moses, the real Temple in Heaven. And now this Temple was also built according to that same basic Pattern.
What is real is what is spiritual and what is material is only temporary, only a shadow or reflection of what is real. Our eyes can only see what is material. One day we will have eyes that can see what is real, but right now we can understand by looking at the models we have here.
They're not the genuine articles, but they show us enough to see what God is doing. Like a model car isn't a real car, but is shows what the real car looks like.
There's a connection between the Temple in Jerusalem and the Temple in Heaven, as that is the place where God has "set" His Name, and the prayers directed toward that place will be heard by God.
Today we as Christians are God's Temple. We don't need to position ourselves geographically to face in any specific direction to assure that God hears our prayers, He has put His Holy Spirit within each of us, and we are the living stones that comprise His Temple on Earth today. The church is not a building, it's the people that are the building.
But God's Plan has not changed. He still wants people everywhere to know that He is God, not anything else. He is the only God, everything else people worship is only an idol, a false god.
Only God can give Life. All the false gods deal only death; division and separation and dis-ease. God provides unity and relationship and health. God is the Source of everything good, everything we are made for, everything we need.
God loves what He made, and He wants us to know Him, and to love Him back, and to love one another as He loves us. Love is Life. God's Love gives us life.
O my Father, strengthen me to clearly show others Who You are. Give me Your clarity of Purpose, to promote Your ways and Your Kingdom, so I won't be distracted by worldly pursuits. Keep my feet straight on the path You have placed me on, and I know You will never let go of my hand.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Solomon's prayer dedicating the Temple:
... Listen to the prayer which Thy servant shall pray toward this place ... and forgive ...When they sin ...if they repent ... and pray toward this place ... hear and forgive ...
This is the first Temple built to worship God. It's based on the plans God gave Moses for the Tabernacle, that was the tent that the people carried with them while they wandered in the Desert.
It also had elements of other temples, pagan temples, that Solomon was familiar with, so it was more complicated than the tent was. But it retained the basic format, having the altar and holy place and most holy place, and the furniture that was in the Tabernacle.
Solomon recognized that even God's whole Creation cannot contain Him, let alone this house he had just built; nevertheless, this house, this place, would be the focal point of where God will see from Heaven and answer the prayer directed toward this place.
And Solomon knew that Israel would need forgiveness repeatedly, "for there is no man who does not sin" (v. 46).
And he even had a missionary heart, concerning those in other Nations, "For they will hear of Thy great Name and Thy mighty hand, and Thine outstretched arm" (v.42), "in order that all the peoples of the Earth may know Thy Name, to fear Thee, as do Thy people Israel..." (v. 43).
God's purpose is that all peoples, every tribe, every nation, every language group, would hear and know that, "There is no god like Thee in heaven above or on Earth beneath..." (v. 23).
God's Plan of the Ages is still being carried out by the people in this World. The Tabernacle was made according to the "pattern" God showed Moses, the real Temple in Heaven. And now this Temple was also built according to that same basic Pattern.
What is real is what is spiritual and what is material is only temporary, only a shadow or reflection of what is real. Our eyes can only see what is material. One day we will have eyes that can see what is real, but right now we can understand by looking at the models we have here.
They're not the genuine articles, but they show us enough to see what God is doing. Like a model car isn't a real car, but is shows what the real car looks like.
There's a connection between the Temple in Jerusalem and the Temple in Heaven, as that is the place where God has "set" His Name, and the prayers directed toward that place will be heard by God.
Today we as Christians are God's Temple. We don't need to position ourselves geographically to face in any specific direction to assure that God hears our prayers, He has put His Holy Spirit within each of us, and we are the living stones that comprise His Temple on Earth today. The church is not a building, it's the people that are the building.
But God's Plan has not changed. He still wants people everywhere to know that He is God, not anything else. He is the only God, everything else people worship is only an idol, a false god.
Only God can give Life. All the false gods deal only death; division and separation and dis-ease. God provides unity and relationship and health. God is the Source of everything good, everything we are made for, everything we need.
God loves what He made, and He wants us to know Him, and to love Him back, and to love one another as He loves us. Love is Life. God's Love gives us life.
O my Father, strengthen me to clearly show others Who You are. Give me Your clarity of Purpose, to promote Your ways and Your Kingdom, so I won't be distracted by worldly pursuits. Keep my feet straight on the path You have placed me on, and I know You will never let go of my hand.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Thursday, October 18, 2018
Dominion Forever
Psalm 139: 23-24
Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my anxious thoughts, and see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way.
Revelation 5: 12-13
Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing ... To Him Who sits n the Throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever.
God alone is God! He will not share His glory of Godhood with any other! He alone is the Creator and Sustainer and Finisher of all that He has made, which is everything that exists!
He has told us of Himself and His ways, and He has redeemed us out of the prison and slavery of sin.
O my Father, try me, search me, uncover whatever is still in my heart that is hurtful; expose the sin I am still hiding from myself, so I can confess it, forsake it, and be cleansed and healed.
Mold me and make me into a vessel that is fit for Your use! Here I am, Lord, use me!
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my anxious thoughts, and see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way.
Revelation 5: 12-13
Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing ... To Him Who sits n the Throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever.
God alone is God! He will not share His glory of Godhood with any other! He alone is the Creator and Sustainer and Finisher of all that He has made, which is everything that exists!
He has told us of Himself and His ways, and He has redeemed us out of the prison and slavery of sin.
O my Father, try me, search me, uncover whatever is still in my heart that is hurtful; expose the sin I am still hiding from myself, so I can confess it, forsake it, and be cleansed and healed.
Mold me and make me into a vessel that is fit for Your use! Here I am, Lord, use me!
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Wednesday, October 17, 2018
"Repeats A Matter"
Proverbs 17: 9
He who covers a transgression seeks love, but he who repeats a matter (he does it again) separates intimate friends.
I was puzzled by this verse for a long time. But as I thought about it, and came back to it to consider it again, I finally came to an understanding of what it means.
It means that I can preserve a friendship with one who has wronged me in some way by forgiving them and not bringing it up again; but if they take advantage of my graciousness and do the same thing again, or are otherwise inconsiderate or do wrong to me again, then the friendship would still be broken.
I am to do my part to heal the relationship, but they are also responsible for doing their part.
I cannot change their attitudes, I can only work on "inviting" them to do right, and "inspiring" them to act on their "higher nature." It is up to them to do so.
O my Father, help me to learn from You to be as shrewd as a serpent yet as gentle as a dove in my relationships with others, that I not push them away, but draw them back to You.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
He who covers a transgression seeks love, but he who repeats a matter (he does it again) separates intimate friends.
I was puzzled by this verse for a long time. But as I thought about it, and came back to it to consider it again, I finally came to an understanding of what it means.
It means that I can preserve a friendship with one who has wronged me in some way by forgiving them and not bringing it up again; but if they take advantage of my graciousness and do the same thing again, or are otherwise inconsiderate or do wrong to me again, then the friendship would still be broken.
I am to do my part to heal the relationship, but they are also responsible for doing their part.
I cannot change their attitudes, I can only work on "inviting" them to do right, and "inspiring" them to act on their "higher nature." It is up to them to do so.
O my Father, help me to learn from You to be as shrewd as a serpent yet as gentle as a dove in my relationships with others, that I not push them away, but draw them back to You.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Tuesday, October 16, 2018
God's Predestined Purpose
Acts 4: 27, 28
For truly in this city there were gathered together against Your holy Servant Jesus, Whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the gentiles and the peoples of Israel,
to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose predestined to occur.
This is part of the prayer the Christians were praying after Peter and John were charged by the Jewish leaders not to preach Jesus any more; after they healed the 40-year-old crippled man who begged at the Temple gate, and were preaching that Jesus was Resurrected.
The Jewish leaders didn't want to be charged with the death of Jesus, and they were the ones who bribed the Roman guards at the Tomb to say that His disciples stole His body away.
But all this happened according to how God had planned it out before He created this Earth. He planned that both the Roman rulers along with all of the Gentiles and all the peoples of Israel--all of Mankind--would put to death His own Son, that we all would be guilty of this dastardly crime.
This is why Jesus was born into our World, to die our death so He could give us His life. He gave us His Law to describe what Jesus would accomplish, and He raised Him from the dead to prove He accepted that Sacrifice as payment in full for all our sins.
O my Father, thank You for Your Love for us, all of us and each of us. Thank You for sending Your own Son to be that Lamb of God, Whose blood was shed for each of us individually to save us, and for all of us together to purchase us, for judgment. Thank You, Father, that His blood washes us white and pristine as the snow, as though we'd never sinned.
This was Your plan from the beginning, Father. To be able to redeem us from our very sin-nature, so that we will shine like the Sun in Eternity with You. We are washed thoroughly clean from every stain, to be perfectly fit to live with You where You are, in Your Heaven, forever.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
For truly in this city there were gathered together against Your holy Servant Jesus, Whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the gentiles and the peoples of Israel,
to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose predestined to occur.
This is part of the prayer the Christians were praying after Peter and John were charged by the Jewish leaders not to preach Jesus any more; after they healed the 40-year-old crippled man who begged at the Temple gate, and were preaching that Jesus was Resurrected.
The Jewish leaders didn't want to be charged with the death of Jesus, and they were the ones who bribed the Roman guards at the Tomb to say that His disciples stole His body away.
But all this happened according to how God had planned it out before He created this Earth. He planned that both the Roman rulers along with all of the Gentiles and all the peoples of Israel--all of Mankind--would put to death His own Son, that we all would be guilty of this dastardly crime.
This is why Jesus was born into our World, to die our death so He could give us His life. He gave us His Law to describe what Jesus would accomplish, and He raised Him from the dead to prove He accepted that Sacrifice as payment in full for all our sins.
O my Father, thank You for Your Love for us, all of us and each of us. Thank You for sending Your own Son to be that Lamb of God, Whose blood was shed for each of us individually to save us, and for all of us together to purchase us, for judgment. Thank You, Father, that His blood washes us white and pristine as the snow, as though we'd never sinned.
This was Your plan from the beginning, Father. To be able to redeem us from our very sin-nature, so that we will shine like the Sun in Eternity with You. We are washed thoroughly clean from every stain, to be perfectly fit to live with You where You are, in Your Heaven, forever.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Monday, October 15, 2018
The Answer Of The Tongue
Proverbs 16: 1, 9
The plans of the heart belong to Man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord.
The mind of Man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.
We are supposed to make our plans to live our lives, but they are not set in stone. While we're going, God will direct us. It's much easier to steer a vehicle when it's moving, so we're not to just sit and wait for His leading.
I can ask my Father to help me in an interaction: I recall a time when my attitude was very critical and I recognized this. So I prayed on my way, and when I got there, I heard myself saying very encouraging things instead of the criticisms I'd been thinking about on the way. This is proof to me of the practical truth of this Psalm.
Now I am depending on Him to direct my steps, in the things I see before me to accomplish. Whenever I find myself trying to work out all the details by myself, I realize that my pride is hiding from me the concern my Father has for even the tiny details of my living each day. Then I turn to Him, and let Him steer me in the right direction. Then I can relax, and not fret over what is going on around me. I can rest in His loving arms, knowing that He has my back, and wants the best for me.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
The plans of the heart belong to Man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord.
The mind of Man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.
We are supposed to make our plans to live our lives, but they are not set in stone. While we're going, God will direct us. It's much easier to steer a vehicle when it's moving, so we're not to just sit and wait for His leading.
I can ask my Father to help me in an interaction: I recall a time when my attitude was very critical and I recognized this. So I prayed on my way, and when I got there, I heard myself saying very encouraging things instead of the criticisms I'd been thinking about on the way. This is proof to me of the practical truth of this Psalm.
Now I am depending on Him to direct my steps, in the things I see before me to accomplish. Whenever I find myself trying to work out all the details by myself, I realize that my pride is hiding from me the concern my Father has for even the tiny details of my living each day. Then I turn to Him, and let Him steer me in the right direction. Then I can relax, and not fret over what is going on around me. I can rest in His loving arms, knowing that He has my back, and wants the best for me.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Sunday, October 14, 2018
Wiser, More Insight, Understand More
Psalm 119: 97-101
O how I love Thy Law! It is my meditation all the day.
Thy commands make me wiser than my enemies, for they are ever mine.
I have more insight than all my teachers, for Thy testimonies are my meditation.
I understand more than the aged, because I have observed Thy precepts.
I have restrained my feet from every evil way, that I may keep Thy Word.
O my Father, Your Word and Your ways are my delight! I keep my mind continually on You all the day: Who You are, how You are, Your qualities and characteristics; what You do, what You have done in the past, what You are doing now, and will accomplish and finish; Your faithfulness to Your promises throughout Time and Eternity; how I can trust You implicitly, even when I don't understand what You're doing in my life.
Your rules and regulations give me a wisdom that goes beyond this World. Even those who are teachers don't understand when they don't consider Your ways. Even when people get old, if they've not spent their days in Your Word, then they won't have learned Your ways.
I wait on You, I do not want to run ahead of You or lag behind, I don't want to wander off or pull away; keep my feet from turning to the left or to the right, but only following hard in Your steps, straight on this path on which You have placed my feet.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
O how I love Thy Law! It is my meditation all the day.
Thy commands make me wiser than my enemies, for they are ever mine.
I have more insight than all my teachers, for Thy testimonies are my meditation.
I understand more than the aged, because I have observed Thy precepts.
I have restrained my feet from every evil way, that I may keep Thy Word.
O my Father, Your Word and Your ways are my delight! I keep my mind continually on You all the day: Who You are, how You are, Your qualities and characteristics; what You do, what You have done in the past, what You are doing now, and will accomplish and finish; Your faithfulness to Your promises throughout Time and Eternity; how I can trust You implicitly, even when I don't understand what You're doing in my life.
Your rules and regulations give me a wisdom that goes beyond this World. Even those who are teachers don't understand when they don't consider Your ways. Even when people get old, if they've not spent their days in Your Word, then they won't have learned Your ways.
I wait on You, I do not want to run ahead of You or lag behind, I don't want to wander off or pull away; keep my feet from turning to the left or to the right, but only following hard in Your steps, straight on this path on which You have placed my feet.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
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