Proverbs
{3:1} My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments
{3:2} For length of days, and long life, and peace, shall they add to thee.
{3:3} Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart
**
Forget not God's law
Let our hearts keep His commandments
Not forgetting God's law and keeping His commandments can only bring good to us in a personal way- no guarantee there for an easy life but rather peace and that can be found in turmoil of circumstances. People crying for peace some times miss the mark. They're looking for peace of circumstance, not peace inside, not peace with God.
You hear the term-- 'inner peace' and people associate it with mystism and such, but God offers us peace in Him too. An inner peace, because if we look for it outside ourselves in our day to day lives the occurances that step in to rock our worlds will throw things at us that even the most calm person would have a hard time dealing with it all.
We can't look for it outwardly, peace has to come not from within us, but from God, God who puts it inside us, in our hearts, God who is the source of peace.
God's law and His commandments will give us this peace, this life.
Mercy and truth- we can't let them forsake us.
We can let them forsake us make no mistake that it is possible. They don't have to stay with us, they're not forced to be with us.
Let not mercy and truth forsake thee...
How can we keep mercy and truth?
'Bind them about thy neck, write them upon the table of thine heart'
Binding anything about the neck is what? Something that can take our breath away, our lives away, or it is something we want to keep close to us, something so important we want it to be close to our hearts. In fact we're to write them upon the table of our hearts.
God's law, His commandments are to be on our hearts!
Yet these are the very things that people want to say are gone! They want to say they're no longer valid. They want the very things that God wanted written on our hearts and hung about our necks, destroyed. They don't see the love in them, they only see the restrictions. They only see them as 'works' and yell out we're not saved by works. We aren't that is true, there isn't a lifetime of works we can do that could pay for our sins. We could live a million years and we wouldn't live long enough to pay for any sins. There is only one that can do that for us and that is Jesus. The thing is... we don't keep the commandments to save ourselves, we keep them out of love for the one who made them and found them worthy enough to want them to be bound about our necks; and written upon our hearts.
Keeping mercy and truth is all tied up with having the love of God in our lives. There is so much we have to learn, to much to realize.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Monday, September 29, 2008
Happy are those who... keep truth for ever.
Psalms
{145:18} The LORD [is] nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth.
**
Calling upon God in truth.
Can we call upon God in falsehood? In lies?
I think we can. I think just as we can call upon anyone in truth, we can also call upon them in lies. Our intentions hold the key to which, right? Our intentions are honorable when we are being truthful, and not honorable at all when we are trying to deceive. If we pray to God with a heart that is wide open, hiding nothing at all it's in truth. If we pray to God thinking that we can hide things from him what does that say?
The Lord doesn't promise to be nigh to those who call on Him without truth.
The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth.
See...
Not nigh unto all who call upon him.
But nigh until all who call upon him in TRUTH.
Truth.
Throughout Psalms we've learned a lot about truth. We've one last verse in this study in Psalms--
Psalms
{146:5} Happy [is he] that [hath] the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope [is] in the LORD his God
{146:6} Which made heaven, and earth, the sea, and all that therein [is:] which keepeth truth for ever
Happy are those who have God for their help.
God who made heaven and earth, the sea and all that's in them.
Those which keep truth for ever.
Happy are those who... keep truth for ever.
The truth isn't something to toy with, to have one day toss aside the next, to play with on a whim.
You can know the truth but it doesn't necessarily mean you will accept it. Knowing and accepting it is what is most important and keeping it close to your heart always is equally important. Being able to come to God, to call upon Him in truth is very special and necessary because God doesn't condone anything but the truth. We shouldn't either.
The truth is the love of God in all its glory, revealed in His law, revealed in His Son, love.
“For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.”- John 3:20-21
{145:18} The LORD [is] nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth.
**
Calling upon God in truth.
Can we call upon God in falsehood? In lies?
I think we can. I think just as we can call upon anyone in truth, we can also call upon them in lies. Our intentions hold the key to which, right? Our intentions are honorable when we are being truthful, and not honorable at all when we are trying to deceive. If we pray to God with a heart that is wide open, hiding nothing at all it's in truth. If we pray to God thinking that we can hide things from him what does that say?
The Lord doesn't promise to be nigh to those who call on Him without truth.
The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth.
See...
Not nigh unto all who call upon him.
But nigh until all who call upon him in TRUTH.
Truth.
Throughout Psalms we've learned a lot about truth. We've one last verse in this study in Psalms--
Psalms
{146:5} Happy [is he] that [hath] the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope [is] in the LORD his God
{146:6} Which made heaven, and earth, the sea, and all that therein [is:] which keepeth truth for ever
Happy are those who have God for their help.
God who made heaven and earth, the sea and all that's in them.
Those which keep truth for ever.
Happy are those who... keep truth for ever.
The truth isn't something to toy with, to have one day toss aside the next, to play with on a whim.
You can know the truth but it doesn't necessarily mean you will accept it. Knowing and accepting it is what is most important and keeping it close to your heart always is equally important. Being able to come to God, to call upon Him in truth is very special and necessary because God doesn't condone anything but the truth. We shouldn't either.
The truth is the love of God in all its glory, revealed in His law, revealed in His Son, love.
“For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.”- John 3:20-21
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Child Like Believing
Psalms
{138:1} I will praise thee with my whole heart: before the gods will I sing praise unto thee.
{138:2} I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.
{138:3} In the day when I cried thou answeredst me, [and] strengthenedst me [with] strength in my soul.
{138:4} All the kings of the earth shall praise thee, O LORD, when they hear the words of thy mouth.
{138:5} Yea, they shall sing in the ways of the LORD: for great [is] the glory of the LORD.
{138:6} Though the LORD [be] high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly: but the proud he knoweth afar off.
{138:7} Though I walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive me: thou shalt stretch forth thine hand against the wrath of mine enemies, and thy right hand shall save me.
{138:8} The LORD will perfect [that which] concerneth me: thy mercy, O LORD, [endureth] for ever: forsake not the works of thine own hands.
**
Praise God's name for his lovingkindness, for his truth.
'In the day when I cried thou answeredst me, [and] strengthenedst me [with] strength in my soul.'
Strengthening with strength in the soul.
Strength in the soul.
Most times isn't that where we need strength, in our soul more so that any other way.
Hope gives us soul strength. Hope gives our will a chance to carry on when all seems lost. When there is so much heartache and pain in our lives we can find the will to carry on. Strength in our souls.
'Though the LORD [be] high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly: but the proud he knoweth afar off.'
Respect to the lowly.
The proud he knows far off.
God knows. He does. God loves us and He will guide us.
**
Yesterday as I was studying some it hit me once again how far from being 'Christ-like' I am. We're to strive to walk the walk in Christ, we can't say that once we accept Jesus that's it, we can be as bad as we like because we're not saved by works. That's not how it all goes.
For many, many, many years before Christ, God guided his chosen people and many times they broke the covenant they made with Him. They'd repent and He'd take them back and it would start all over again. God is a forgiving God. During that time there were many punishments for the breaking of the covenant as well.
Christ came and revealed the law more fully. The law pointing to Christ's saving grace was realized in Christ. Through Christ we are saved and no other. Out of that saving grace we are to follow Christ's ways. We are to love God and to love man, so often we love ourselves more than either of them. Selfishness being totally against all that is God.
I grew up with two older sisters and one older brother, I was the fourth child. I'm not making excuses for who I am, I'm sure there are many that grow up the same. Growing up with the expectation of wanting to be special.
Wanting and never seeming to attain anything special in a good way within myself. I could focus on the bad in my life, I could see how plainly I was 'bad' and it only made me want to be something, someone different.
I can honestly say that it's part of me still and it's that part that I look at and need to get rid of, or need to give to God and have Him get rid of, I'm not sure how it all works.
Yesterday as I studied I realized how alive and well that desire to be 'special' is in me and how contrary it is to being 'the least', to being 'lowly', to being a 'servant', to putting others 'first', to being 'last'.
In making the realization part of me started to feel that old despair that tells me I'll never be right with God. Clinging to Jesus I know my hope has to be in Him and Him only, not me. And I started to think about this verse--
Matthew {18:3} 'And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.'
The thing about children is their ability to trust. Little children, not big children, but little children had that innocence about them a sweet innocence that life beats at as they age and the distrusting begins. A little child doesn't know how to worry. Worry is another thing growing older gives to us.
We can watch little children at play and while they can be selfish in the sense they want 'that toy', they can also be very giving, very loving, very trusting, and they don't worry.
'Except ye be converted, and become as little children,'
Become as little children.
It's only with that complete trust in Jesus, that child-like trust, that inability to worry that we can get into heaven. Why is that?
Heaven isn't going to be a happy place for those who find happiness in worrying and distrust.
As a child trust its parents, we have to trust God.
We can't pick apart God, we can't be rebelling older children, we can't be obnoxious teenagers and we certainly can't be jaded, cynical adults and hope to be happy. The older we get the more we question authority, the more we form our 'own' opinions and take stances that please us and our senses of right/wrong, regardless of what others think. We become very opinionated, we take great pride in our beliefs. Pride in being the 'adults' we've become.
While we bask in that pride, or lament our inability to be able to take that pride in ourselves, we miss the whole point of being like children.
A child's trust. A child's inability to worry.
We have to tap into that child-like part of us.
Ha! I sound like a psychologist- tap into your inner child. But you know it's true. Christ said it Himself.
'Except ye be converted, and become as little children,'
How is that possible? Only through Christ. Only through really accepting the fact that He and He alone can save us. Believing in it with a child-like trust that doesn't question it, that doesn't worry over it, but believes.
I'm tempted to say as a child believes in fairy tales, Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and you know I think that might be true.
A child doesn't question their reality why should they, they've seen what Santa and the Easter Bunny brings, they see a rainbow and a fairy tales tells them there is gold at the end, they believe, really believe and adults nod and smile at the happiness the deception brings to them in their innocence. We have to believe contrary to what our senses tell us about our unworthiness. We have to be child-like in our belief, our trust.
Jesus is the way, the truth, the life.
And we have to believe in Him beyond doubt.
Hebrews {11:6} 'But without faith [it is] impossible to please [him:] for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and [that] he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.'
Faith, trust, hope. Child like believing. Child like love. May God help us all as we each struggle in our own ways to find the child we need to become so we can enter the kingdom of heaven with Jesus when He returns to take us home with Him. In His name.
Amen.
{138:1} I will praise thee with my whole heart: before the gods will I sing praise unto thee.
{138:2} I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.
{138:3} In the day when I cried thou answeredst me, [and] strengthenedst me [with] strength in my soul.
{138:4} All the kings of the earth shall praise thee, O LORD, when they hear the words of thy mouth.
{138:5} Yea, they shall sing in the ways of the LORD: for great [is] the glory of the LORD.
{138:6} Though the LORD [be] high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly: but the proud he knoweth afar off.
{138:7} Though I walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive me: thou shalt stretch forth thine hand against the wrath of mine enemies, and thy right hand shall save me.
{138:8} The LORD will perfect [that which] concerneth me: thy mercy, O LORD, [endureth] for ever: forsake not the works of thine own hands.
**
Praise God's name for his lovingkindness, for his truth.
'In the day when I cried thou answeredst me, [and] strengthenedst me [with] strength in my soul.'
Strengthening with strength in the soul.
Strength in the soul.
Most times isn't that where we need strength, in our soul more so that any other way.
Hope gives us soul strength. Hope gives our will a chance to carry on when all seems lost. When there is so much heartache and pain in our lives we can find the will to carry on. Strength in our souls.
'Though the LORD [be] high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly: but the proud he knoweth afar off.'
Respect to the lowly.
The proud he knows far off.
God knows. He does. God loves us and He will guide us.
**
Yesterday as I was studying some it hit me once again how far from being 'Christ-like' I am. We're to strive to walk the walk in Christ, we can't say that once we accept Jesus that's it, we can be as bad as we like because we're not saved by works. That's not how it all goes.
For many, many, many years before Christ, God guided his chosen people and many times they broke the covenant they made with Him. They'd repent and He'd take them back and it would start all over again. God is a forgiving God. During that time there were many punishments for the breaking of the covenant as well.
Christ came and revealed the law more fully. The law pointing to Christ's saving grace was realized in Christ. Through Christ we are saved and no other. Out of that saving grace we are to follow Christ's ways. We are to love God and to love man, so often we love ourselves more than either of them. Selfishness being totally against all that is God.
I grew up with two older sisters and one older brother, I was the fourth child. I'm not making excuses for who I am, I'm sure there are many that grow up the same. Growing up with the expectation of wanting to be special.
Wanting and never seeming to attain anything special in a good way within myself. I could focus on the bad in my life, I could see how plainly I was 'bad' and it only made me want to be something, someone different.
I can honestly say that it's part of me still and it's that part that I look at and need to get rid of, or need to give to God and have Him get rid of, I'm not sure how it all works.
Yesterday as I studied I realized how alive and well that desire to be 'special' is in me and how contrary it is to being 'the least', to being 'lowly', to being a 'servant', to putting others 'first', to being 'last'.
In making the realization part of me started to feel that old despair that tells me I'll never be right with God. Clinging to Jesus I know my hope has to be in Him and Him only, not me. And I started to think about this verse--
Matthew {18:3} 'And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.'
The thing about children is their ability to trust. Little children, not big children, but little children had that innocence about them a sweet innocence that life beats at as they age and the distrusting begins. A little child doesn't know how to worry. Worry is another thing growing older gives to us.
We can watch little children at play and while they can be selfish in the sense they want 'that toy', they can also be very giving, very loving, very trusting, and they don't worry.
'Except ye be converted, and become as little children,'
Become as little children.
It's only with that complete trust in Jesus, that child-like trust, that inability to worry that we can get into heaven. Why is that?
Heaven isn't going to be a happy place for those who find happiness in worrying and distrust.
As a child trust its parents, we have to trust God.
We can't pick apart God, we can't be rebelling older children, we can't be obnoxious teenagers and we certainly can't be jaded, cynical adults and hope to be happy. The older we get the more we question authority, the more we form our 'own' opinions and take stances that please us and our senses of right/wrong, regardless of what others think. We become very opinionated, we take great pride in our beliefs. Pride in being the 'adults' we've become.
While we bask in that pride, or lament our inability to be able to take that pride in ourselves, we miss the whole point of being like children.
A child's trust. A child's inability to worry.
We have to tap into that child-like part of us.
Ha! I sound like a psychologist- tap into your inner child. But you know it's true. Christ said it Himself.
'Except ye be converted, and become as little children,'
How is that possible? Only through Christ. Only through really accepting the fact that He and He alone can save us. Believing in it with a child-like trust that doesn't question it, that doesn't worry over it, but believes.
I'm tempted to say as a child believes in fairy tales, Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and you know I think that might be true.
A child doesn't question their reality why should they, they've seen what Santa and the Easter Bunny brings, they see a rainbow and a fairy tales tells them there is gold at the end, they believe, really believe and adults nod and smile at the happiness the deception brings to them in their innocence. We have to believe contrary to what our senses tell us about our unworthiness. We have to be child-like in our belief, our trust.
Jesus is the way, the truth, the life.
And we have to believe in Him beyond doubt.
Hebrews {11:6} 'But without faith [it is] impossible to please [him:] for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and [that] he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.'
Faith, trust, hope. Child like believing. Child like love. May God help us all as we each struggle in our own ways to find the child we need to become so we can enter the kingdom of heaven with Jesus when He returns to take us home with Him. In His name.
Amen.
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Life Now - Temporary to Eternity
A song...
It's a Christian rap song, probably not something a lot of people would listen to and all, and even the lyrics are a bit odd but read it through, please.
**
Separated, I cut myself clean
From a past that comes back in my darkest of dreams
Been apprehended by a spiritual force
And a grace that replaced all the me I've divorced
I saw a man with tat on his big fat belly
It wiggled around like marmalade jelly
It took me a while to catch what it said
Cause I had to match the rhythm of his belly with my head
'Jesus Saves' is what it raved in a typical tattoo green
He stood on a box in the middle of the city
And claimed he had a dream
What will people think
When they hear that I'm a Jesus freak
What will people do when they find that it's true
I don't really care if they label me a Jesus freak
There ain't no disguising the truth
[There ain't no disgusing the truth]
[I don't need to hide it... The truth]
Kamikaze, my death is gain
I've been marked by my Maker
A peculiar display
The high and lofty, they see me as weak
Cause I won't live and die for the power they seek
There was a man from the desert with naps in his head
The sand that he walked was also his bed
The words that he spoke made the people assume
There wasn't too much left in the upper room
With skins on his back and hair on his face
They thought he was strange by the locusts he ate
The Pharisees tripped when they heard him speak
Until the king took the head of this Jesus freak
What will people think
When they hear that I'm a Jesus freak
What will people do when they find that it's true
I don't really care if they label me a Jesus freak
There ain't no disguising the truth
People say I'm strange, does it make me a stranger
That my best friend was born in a manger
People say I'm strange, does it make me a stranger
That my best friend was born in a manger
What will people think
When they hear that I'm a Jesus freak
What will people do when they find that it's true
I don't really care if they label me a Jesus freak
There ain't no disguising the truth
What will people think
When they hear that I'm a Jesus freak
What will people do when they find that it's true
I don't really care if they label me a Jesus freak
There ain't no disguising the truth
What will people think [What will people think]
What will people do [What will people do]
I don't really care [What else can I say]
There ain't no disguising the truth [Jesus is the way]
**
So true!
There ain't no disguising the truth!
There isn't.
You can choose not to believe the truth, you can turn from the truth, but the truth is bold and there in our faces as a reality. You ask someone what is the truth, and they might shrug and say 'I dunno.' Or they might come back with, 'Truth about what?' a logical question. So you answer and say, 'What is the truth about Jesus?' Now you might get a lot of replies to that, a lot of possible answers. 'How should I know?', 'Who cares?', 'He lived and died.', 'He's God's Son.', 'He's our savior.' Yes, there are a lot of answers to that question. The truth is...
Jesus is the truth, and that is the truth. There is no disguising that truth, that fact. Should we care what people think of us if we're living the truth? Should we care at all what they might think or say? No. If we have the truth in our lives there isn't any hiding it is there?
I like that verse in that song a lot- 'There ain't no disguising the truth'
We're almost to the end of our study of the word 'Truth' in the book of Psalms. Here's a whole chapter for the next little bit--
{145:1} I will extol thee, my God, O king; and I will bless thy name for ever and ever.
{145:2} Every day will I bless thee; and I will praise thy name for ever and ever.
{145:3} Great [is] the LORD, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness [is] unsearchable.
{145:4} One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts.
{145:5} I will speak of the glorious honour of thy majesty, and of thy wondrous works.
{145:6} And [men] shall speak of the might of thy terrible acts: and I will declare thy greatness.
{145:7} They shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness, and shall sing of thy righteousness.
{145:8} The LORD [is] gracious, and full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy.
{145:9} The LORD [is] good to all: and his tender mercies [are] over all his works.
{145:10} All thy works shall praise thee, O LORD; and thy saints shall bless thee.
{145:11} They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom, and talk of thy power;
{145:12} To make known to the sons of men his mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of his kingdom.
{145:13} Thy kingdom [is] an everlasting kingdom, and thy dominion [endureth] throughout all generations.
{145:14} The LORD upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth up all [those that be] bowed down.
{145:15} The eyes of all wait upon thee; and thou givest them their meat in due season.
{145:16} Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing.
{145:17} The LORD [is] righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works.
{145:18} The LORD [is] nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth.
{145:19} He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him: he also will hear their cry, and will save them.
{145:20} The LORD preserveth all them that love him: but all the wicked will he destroy.
{145:21} My mouth shall speak the praise of the LORD: and let all flesh bless his holy name for ever and ever.
*
{145:18} The LORD [is] nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth.
Call upon him in truth.
No matter our lives here and now we can be assured that God hears us when we call upon Him in truth.
If there is sincerity within us he knows it's there.
People scoff and say that God isn't helping all those innocent abused, so there can be no God. I say, we live for a different world. This isn't our final home, this isn't the world we live for. We are passing through this world on the way to the heavenly world to come when Jesus returns and takes us with him, those living in truth will go with him and those dead in the truth will rise to meet him in the air. This isn't our final home and with that as the outcome, the here and now suffering is ours for reasons we cannot begin to understand. The horrors of this life for so many are temporary no matter how long they last- 1, 2, 10, 50, years they are still temporary to eternity.
Easy for me to say, I'm not being tortured? Yes, easy for me to say.
But each individual endures a private torture. Seriously. Even people who seem happy-happy all the time might cry themselves to sleep every night. We can't begin to judge the pain people go through as they endure life where sin is bashing at them all the time. No one is exempt, not a single person. Some are called to endure a lot more physical torture, others more mental torture, others more emotional, and there are combinations of all of them as well. We can speculate about the atrocities of life and we can blame God for not being with those people if we want, but we can't even know that, not really.
Heartless? Hardly.
There is only love with God, an eternity of love.
If we are looking to find that perfection on earth now then we're not looking in the right place. The perfection of life will only come when Jesus returns. Happiness now? No. That can't be our goal, that can't be the standard we judge God with. Happiness and peace here and now, all good things right now are not feasible.
The truth is our Savior Jesus Christ and all He offers us which is life eternal in Him, in His love.
Maybe we should make it our mantra- Truth Jesus, happiness in heaven.
Happiness in heaven.
Jesus knew...
Phillipians {3:20} For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ:
{3:21} Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.
Eph. {1:3} Blessed [be] the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly [places] in Christ
Luke {18:22} Now when Jesus heard these things, he said unto him, Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me.
Matthew {6:19} Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:
{6:20} But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
{6:21} For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
Treasures in heaven.
Can we put our 15 dollars of extra money in a heavenly bank? How about that diamond necklace? Is there a safety deposit box up there for that sort of thing? No. Why, because those treasures are not important.
Tell that to the poor woman who can't feed her children because she has no money here and now?
Alright, I will.
Maybe life here will be filled with horrors and trials beyond our imaginations, but we can't change that, not by much. People have lofty ideas of ridding the world of corruption and evils, poverty, abuse, and while it's not wrong to try and help those caught up in all that, seeking to make life here and now perfect isn't our ultimate calling. Our ultimate calling is heaven with Jesus. We need to live here and now trusting in Him no matter our circumstances, and I know... I know! I'm not the poor widow left with a babe in my arms and no roof over my head so it's easy for me to say that from my comfortable place where I have food for the taking and a roof with no leaks over my head. I can't deny I live a life of comfort where so many live lives of despair. Rich or poor, those who have a little or those who have a lot ultimately there is only one life we all should strive for and that's a life in the truth, and the truth is Jesus Christ.
Faith that stretches out and grasps Christ's hand no matter where we are, as we live for heaven with Him when He returns for us- dead or alive- he'll take us with Him. He's our heavenly treasure now and forever.
Call upon Jesus. Call upon Jesus. May God help us to call upon Jesus in truth, in the love that He personifies.
It's a Christian rap song, probably not something a lot of people would listen to and all, and even the lyrics are a bit odd but read it through, please.
**
Separated, I cut myself clean
From a past that comes back in my darkest of dreams
Been apprehended by a spiritual force
And a grace that replaced all the me I've divorced
I saw a man with tat on his big fat belly
It wiggled around like marmalade jelly
It took me a while to catch what it said
Cause I had to match the rhythm of his belly with my head
'Jesus Saves' is what it raved in a typical tattoo green
He stood on a box in the middle of the city
And claimed he had a dream
What will people think
When they hear that I'm a Jesus freak
What will people do when they find that it's true
I don't really care if they label me a Jesus freak
There ain't no disguising the truth
[There ain't no disgusing the truth]
[I don't need to hide it... The truth]
Kamikaze, my death is gain
I've been marked by my Maker
A peculiar display
The high and lofty, they see me as weak
Cause I won't live and die for the power they seek
There was a man from the desert with naps in his head
The sand that he walked was also his bed
The words that he spoke made the people assume
There wasn't too much left in the upper room
With skins on his back and hair on his face
They thought he was strange by the locusts he ate
The Pharisees tripped when they heard him speak
Until the king took the head of this Jesus freak
What will people think
When they hear that I'm a Jesus freak
What will people do when they find that it's true
I don't really care if they label me a Jesus freak
There ain't no disguising the truth
People say I'm strange, does it make me a stranger
That my best friend was born in a manger
People say I'm strange, does it make me a stranger
That my best friend was born in a manger
What will people think
When they hear that I'm a Jesus freak
What will people do when they find that it's true
I don't really care if they label me a Jesus freak
There ain't no disguising the truth
What will people think
When they hear that I'm a Jesus freak
What will people do when they find that it's true
I don't really care if they label me a Jesus freak
There ain't no disguising the truth
What will people think [What will people think]
What will people do [What will people do]
I don't really care [What else can I say]
There ain't no disguising the truth [Jesus is the way]
**
So true!
There ain't no disguising the truth!
There isn't.
You can choose not to believe the truth, you can turn from the truth, but the truth is bold and there in our faces as a reality. You ask someone what is the truth, and they might shrug and say 'I dunno.' Or they might come back with, 'Truth about what?' a logical question. So you answer and say, 'What is the truth about Jesus?' Now you might get a lot of replies to that, a lot of possible answers. 'How should I know?', 'Who cares?', 'He lived and died.', 'He's God's Son.', 'He's our savior.' Yes, there are a lot of answers to that question. The truth is...
Jesus is the truth, and that is the truth. There is no disguising that truth, that fact. Should we care what people think of us if we're living the truth? Should we care at all what they might think or say? No. If we have the truth in our lives there isn't any hiding it is there?
I like that verse in that song a lot- 'There ain't no disguising the truth'
We're almost to the end of our study of the word 'Truth' in the book of Psalms. Here's a whole chapter for the next little bit--
{145:1} I will extol thee, my God, O king; and I will bless thy name for ever and ever.
{145:2} Every day will I bless thee; and I will praise thy name for ever and ever.
{145:3} Great [is] the LORD, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness [is] unsearchable.
{145:4} One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts.
{145:5} I will speak of the glorious honour of thy majesty, and of thy wondrous works.
{145:6} And [men] shall speak of the might of thy terrible acts: and I will declare thy greatness.
{145:7} They shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness, and shall sing of thy righteousness.
{145:8} The LORD [is] gracious, and full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy.
{145:9} The LORD [is] good to all: and his tender mercies [are] over all his works.
{145:10} All thy works shall praise thee, O LORD; and thy saints shall bless thee.
{145:11} They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom, and talk of thy power;
{145:12} To make known to the sons of men his mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of his kingdom.
{145:13} Thy kingdom [is] an everlasting kingdom, and thy dominion [endureth] throughout all generations.
{145:14} The LORD upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth up all [those that be] bowed down.
{145:15} The eyes of all wait upon thee; and thou givest them their meat in due season.
{145:16} Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing.
{145:17} The LORD [is] righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works.
{145:18} The LORD [is] nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth.
{145:19} He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him: he also will hear their cry, and will save them.
{145:20} The LORD preserveth all them that love him: but all the wicked will he destroy.
{145:21} My mouth shall speak the praise of the LORD: and let all flesh bless his holy name for ever and ever.
*
{145:18} The LORD [is] nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth.
Call upon him in truth.
No matter our lives here and now we can be assured that God hears us when we call upon Him in truth.
If there is sincerity within us he knows it's there.
People scoff and say that God isn't helping all those innocent abused, so there can be no God. I say, we live for a different world. This isn't our final home, this isn't the world we live for. We are passing through this world on the way to the heavenly world to come when Jesus returns and takes us with him, those living in truth will go with him and those dead in the truth will rise to meet him in the air. This isn't our final home and with that as the outcome, the here and now suffering is ours for reasons we cannot begin to understand. The horrors of this life for so many are temporary no matter how long they last- 1, 2, 10, 50, years they are still temporary to eternity.
Easy for me to say, I'm not being tortured? Yes, easy for me to say.
But each individual endures a private torture. Seriously. Even people who seem happy-happy all the time might cry themselves to sleep every night. We can't begin to judge the pain people go through as they endure life where sin is bashing at them all the time. No one is exempt, not a single person. Some are called to endure a lot more physical torture, others more mental torture, others more emotional, and there are combinations of all of them as well. We can speculate about the atrocities of life and we can blame God for not being with those people if we want, but we can't even know that, not really.
Heartless? Hardly.
There is only love with God, an eternity of love.
If we are looking to find that perfection on earth now then we're not looking in the right place. The perfection of life will only come when Jesus returns. Happiness now? No. That can't be our goal, that can't be the standard we judge God with. Happiness and peace here and now, all good things right now are not feasible.
The truth is our Savior Jesus Christ and all He offers us which is life eternal in Him, in His love.
Maybe we should make it our mantra- Truth Jesus, happiness in heaven.
Happiness in heaven.
Jesus knew...
Phillipians {3:20} For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ:
{3:21} Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.
Eph. {1:3} Blessed [be] the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly [places] in Christ
Luke {18:22} Now when Jesus heard these things, he said unto him, Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me.
Matthew {6:19} Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:
{6:20} But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
{6:21} For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
Treasures in heaven.
Can we put our 15 dollars of extra money in a heavenly bank? How about that diamond necklace? Is there a safety deposit box up there for that sort of thing? No. Why, because those treasures are not important.
Tell that to the poor woman who can't feed her children because she has no money here and now?
Alright, I will.
Maybe life here will be filled with horrors and trials beyond our imaginations, but we can't change that, not by much. People have lofty ideas of ridding the world of corruption and evils, poverty, abuse, and while it's not wrong to try and help those caught up in all that, seeking to make life here and now perfect isn't our ultimate calling. Our ultimate calling is heaven with Jesus. We need to live here and now trusting in Him no matter our circumstances, and I know... I know! I'm not the poor widow left with a babe in my arms and no roof over my head so it's easy for me to say that from my comfortable place where I have food for the taking and a roof with no leaks over my head. I can't deny I live a life of comfort where so many live lives of despair. Rich or poor, those who have a little or those who have a lot ultimately there is only one life we all should strive for and that's a life in the truth, and the truth is Jesus Christ.
Faith that stretches out and grasps Christ's hand no matter where we are, as we live for heaven with Him when He returns for us- dead or alive- he'll take us with Him. He's our heavenly treasure now and forever.
Call upon Jesus. Call upon Jesus. May God help us to call upon Jesus in truth, in the love that He personifies.
Friday, September 26, 2008
Let's live in the light no matter the nightmare it reveals in us
So beautiful really.
Ps.
{119:151} Thou [art] near, O LORD; and all thy commandments [are] truth.
{119:152} Concerning thy testimonies, I have known of old that thou hast founded them for ever.
Truth, testimonies founded forever.
All thy commandments are truth.
There is beauty in this, knowing that in God there is only truth, never a lie, never a misconception, no deceptions. Everything is made plain, the path is straight. Living in a world where there are so few you can really trust, where deceptions are so common you have to raise your children letting them know that 'that's the way people are', is so sad. It's no wonder depression is rampant. You have to wonder if your partner will deceive you, if your children are lying to you, even if parents aren't being deceptive. If you can honestly say that your mate, your family, your children would never lie to you then people were call you deluded. Why? Because that's the world we live in today. Integrity, honesty, uprightness is called strange and abnormal. Not going out there and sewing your wild oats is odd and makes you different and off in some way, not the norm.
God's commandments are true, His testimonies forever.
God's way is deception free.
I'm not saying all Christians are deception free, nooooooo, not saying that. I'm saying God's way is. If a Christian is following God's way they'll shun deception, they'll know deception is a sin and want to repent from deceiving, to turn from it by the grace of God.
That old- Christians aren't perfect, just forgiven- is true and yet Christians may come off as if they're trying to be perfect because the example they are aiming to follow is perfect. Striving for perfection will never make you perfect, striving to live as Jesus instructs us to live will naturally lead towards that perfection, it's an automatic outcome of the life they are trying to emulate with Christ in them and they in Christ.
Col. {1:27} To whom God would make known what [is] the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory
Gal. {2:20} I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
Christ living in us, living in the spirit of Christ.
An old friend might meet the daughter of a woman she knew long ago and upon meeting them and watching them over a period of time be able to say truthfully that they're just like their mother, their mannerisms and such, they might even say the spirit of your mother is alive in you. You've heard that before- keeping someone's spirit alive and you know what they mean- it's the way about someone that keeps that alive.
Gal. {5:25} If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
Jesus promised us the Holy Spirit would come to us, walking with Christ, Christ living in us, having the Spirit, when we do this the automatic outcome is being more and more like Christ and less and less like our former self.
1 Pet.
{1:13} Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ
{1:14} As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance
{1:15} But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation
{1:16} Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.
God is truth.
Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.
Jesus is forever.
Jesus' truth is forever.
Grace gives us hope, without the grace of God there is no hope. Clinging to that hope, to the grace of God, to Jesus, is life. Drawing closer and closer to Jesus our lives will reflect Him. Don't despair if you feel farther away and less worthy the closer you get, those are tools of Satan eager to use so that you will give up your hope by making you think you are trying to save yourselves and failing miserably. We don't have to let Satan use those feelings against us. We can embrace them and know that any chastising, any clarity to our own unworthiness is really showing us that we are standing in the light of Christ and that light is revealing our failings but more importantly it's revealing His glory and His power to save to the uttermost.
Heb. {7:25} Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them
The light can blind, the light can reveal the dirt in the corners, but the light also offers protection from darkness, the light gives warmth, the light gives sight.
May we all be bathed brilliantly in the light of Christ's truth and glory even if it means seeing each and every ugly blemish upon us and in our lives. While seeing the blemishes only make us feel ugly and unworthy, we can see them and have our hope that one day we will be blemish free, our characters will be free of sin in that day. Let's live in the light no matter the nightmare it reveals in us. Don't let the light be used to drive us back into darkness where we don't have to look at the horrors of sin we live with that's a trick of Satan- letting us 'feel' better about life and ourselves when we look back to the darkness and find comfort in our sins thinking it's just 'easier' that way. It might be easier and feel better but the end of it is death everlasting without any hope of glory, the only true happiness and true love we have to look forward to, a life, a love Christ promises to us in Him, by His grace.
Amen.
Ps.
{119:151} Thou [art] near, O LORD; and all thy commandments [are] truth.
{119:152} Concerning thy testimonies, I have known of old that thou hast founded them for ever.
Truth, testimonies founded forever.
All thy commandments are truth.
There is beauty in this, knowing that in God there is only truth, never a lie, never a misconception, no deceptions. Everything is made plain, the path is straight. Living in a world where there are so few you can really trust, where deceptions are so common you have to raise your children letting them know that 'that's the way people are', is so sad. It's no wonder depression is rampant. You have to wonder if your partner will deceive you, if your children are lying to you, even if parents aren't being deceptive. If you can honestly say that your mate, your family, your children would never lie to you then people were call you deluded. Why? Because that's the world we live in today. Integrity, honesty, uprightness is called strange and abnormal. Not going out there and sewing your wild oats is odd and makes you different and off in some way, not the norm.
God's commandments are true, His testimonies forever.
God's way is deception free.
I'm not saying all Christians are deception free, nooooooo, not saying that. I'm saying God's way is. If a Christian is following God's way they'll shun deception, they'll know deception is a sin and want to repent from deceiving, to turn from it by the grace of God.
That old- Christians aren't perfect, just forgiven- is true and yet Christians may come off as if they're trying to be perfect because the example they are aiming to follow is perfect. Striving for perfection will never make you perfect, striving to live as Jesus instructs us to live will naturally lead towards that perfection, it's an automatic outcome of the life they are trying to emulate with Christ in them and they in Christ.
Col. {1:27} To whom God would make known what [is] the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory
Gal. {2:20} I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
Christ living in us, living in the spirit of Christ.
An old friend might meet the daughter of a woman she knew long ago and upon meeting them and watching them over a period of time be able to say truthfully that they're just like their mother, their mannerisms and such, they might even say the spirit of your mother is alive in you. You've heard that before- keeping someone's spirit alive and you know what they mean- it's the way about someone that keeps that alive.
Gal. {5:25} If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
Jesus promised us the Holy Spirit would come to us, walking with Christ, Christ living in us, having the Spirit, when we do this the automatic outcome is being more and more like Christ and less and less like our former self.
1 Pet.
{1:13} Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ
{1:14} As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance
{1:15} But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation
{1:16} Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.
God is truth.
Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.
Jesus is forever.
Jesus' truth is forever.
Grace gives us hope, without the grace of God there is no hope. Clinging to that hope, to the grace of God, to Jesus, is life. Drawing closer and closer to Jesus our lives will reflect Him. Don't despair if you feel farther away and less worthy the closer you get, those are tools of Satan eager to use so that you will give up your hope by making you think you are trying to save yourselves and failing miserably. We don't have to let Satan use those feelings against us. We can embrace them and know that any chastising, any clarity to our own unworthiness is really showing us that we are standing in the light of Christ and that light is revealing our failings but more importantly it's revealing His glory and His power to save to the uttermost.
Heb. {7:25} Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them
The light can blind, the light can reveal the dirt in the corners, but the light also offers protection from darkness, the light gives warmth, the light gives sight.
May we all be bathed brilliantly in the light of Christ's truth and glory even if it means seeing each and every ugly blemish upon us and in our lives. While seeing the blemishes only make us feel ugly and unworthy, we can see them and have our hope that one day we will be blemish free, our characters will be free of sin in that day. Let's live in the light no matter the nightmare it reveals in us. Don't let the light be used to drive us back into darkness where we don't have to look at the horrors of sin we live with that's a trick of Satan- letting us 'feel' better about life and ourselves when we look back to the darkness and find comfort in our sins thinking it's just 'easier' that way. It might be easier and feel better but the end of it is death everlasting without any hope of glory, the only true happiness and true love we have to look forward to, a life, a love Christ promises to us in Him, by His grace.
Amen.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
We need to determine to live for God, with God now and always, forever.
Psalms
{119:25} My soul cleaveth unto the dust: quicken thou me according to thy word.
{119:26} I have declared my ways, and thou heardest me: teach me thy statutes.
{119:27} Make me to understand the way of thy precepts: so shall I talk of thy wondrous works.
{119:28} My soul melteth for heaviness: strengthen thou me according unto thy word.
{119:29} Remove from me the way of lying: and grant me thy law graciously.
{119:30} I have chosen the way of truth: thy judgments have I laid [before me.
]{119:31} I have stuck unto thy testimonies: O LORD, put me not to shame.
{119:32} I will run the way of thy commandments, when thou shalt enlarge my heart.
**
My soul cleaveth unto the dust- a human being is made of the dust of the ground.
Genesis
{2:6} But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.
{2:7} And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground,
and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life
and man became a living soul.
**
Formed of the dust of the ground, life breathed into us. The two combined create a living soul.
'My soul cleaveth to the dust'
'Quicken thou me according to thy word'
The word of God bring us life. We can have breath in us and be living, but life everlasting is only through the word of God, through Jesus.
'I have declared my ways, and thou heardest me: teach me thy statutes.'
God hear us. God wants us to speak to Him. God wants us to declare ourselves to him, our intentions, our ways. He hears us and we need Him to teach us and He has. He's given us His statutes.
'Make me to understand the way of thy precepts: so shall I talk of thy wondrous works.'
Understanding enlightens us so that we can't help but speak of God's wondrous works.
'My soul melteth for heaviness: strengthen thou me according unto thy word.'
How can we not feel the weight of life, of the the war we are in - good vs. evil? We need the strength of God in Jesus.
'Remove from me the way of lying: and grant me thy law graciously.'
The way of lying. And lying is so easy to do. We do it daily to others and to ourselves, as well as God. Lying. Yes, we need the way of lying removed from us. We need the law of God in our lives. The law wrought of love, the law of God and our gracious Lord, we need that law written on our hearts.
'I have chosen the way of truth: thy judgments have I laid [before me.'
We need to choose the way of truth. Choose truth. Choose...truth. We need to put God's ways before us as we live. Our day to day life is to be lived with God's ways before us.
'I have stuck unto thy testimonies: O LORD, put me not to shame.'
See, we have to live our lives unto God now and always, and trust in the Lord, that it will all be according to His will and we won't be put to shame.
'I will run the way of thy commandments, when thou shalt enlarge my heart.'
We must live in God's love, in His law, in His way and God will cause the love within us to multiply, to grow, to enlarge.
God's love.
God's law.
God's way.
We need to determine to live for God, with God now and always, forever.
{119:25} My soul cleaveth unto the dust: quicken thou me according to thy word.
{119:26} I have declared my ways, and thou heardest me: teach me thy statutes.
{119:27} Make me to understand the way of thy precepts: so shall I talk of thy wondrous works.
{119:28} My soul melteth for heaviness: strengthen thou me according unto thy word.
{119:29} Remove from me the way of lying: and grant me thy law graciously.
{119:30} I have chosen the way of truth: thy judgments have I laid [before me.
]{119:31} I have stuck unto thy testimonies: O LORD, put me not to shame.
{119:32} I will run the way of thy commandments, when thou shalt enlarge my heart.
**
My soul cleaveth unto the dust- a human being is made of the dust of the ground.
Genesis
{2:6} But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.
{2:7} And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground,
and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life
and man became a living soul.
**
Formed of the dust of the ground, life breathed into us. The two combined create a living soul.
'My soul cleaveth to the dust'
'Quicken thou me according to thy word'
The word of God bring us life. We can have breath in us and be living, but life everlasting is only through the word of God, through Jesus.
'I have declared my ways, and thou heardest me: teach me thy statutes.'
God hear us. God wants us to speak to Him. God wants us to declare ourselves to him, our intentions, our ways. He hears us and we need Him to teach us and He has. He's given us His statutes.
'Make me to understand the way of thy precepts: so shall I talk of thy wondrous works.'
Understanding enlightens us so that we can't help but speak of God's wondrous works.
'My soul melteth for heaviness: strengthen thou me according unto thy word.'
How can we not feel the weight of life, of the the war we are in - good vs. evil? We need the strength of God in Jesus.
'Remove from me the way of lying: and grant me thy law graciously.'
The way of lying. And lying is so easy to do. We do it daily to others and to ourselves, as well as God. Lying. Yes, we need the way of lying removed from us. We need the law of God in our lives. The law wrought of love, the law of God and our gracious Lord, we need that law written on our hearts.
'I have chosen the way of truth: thy judgments have I laid [before me.'
We need to choose the way of truth. Choose truth. Choose...truth. We need to put God's ways before us as we live. Our day to day life is to be lived with God's ways before us.
'I have stuck unto thy testimonies: O LORD, put me not to shame.'
See, we have to live our lives unto God now and always, and trust in the Lord, that it will all be according to His will and we won't be put to shame.
'I will run the way of thy commandments, when thou shalt enlarge my heart.'
We must live in God's love, in His law, in His way and God will cause the love within us to multiply, to grow, to enlarge.
God's love.
God's law.
God's way.
We need to determine to live for God, with God now and always, forever.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
The truth is God's love, now and forever.
Truth in Psalms
{98:3} He hath remembered his mercy and his truth toward the house of
Israel: all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our
God.
**
Remembered his MERCY and his TRUTH.
ALL the ends of the earth have seen the SALVATION of our God.
Mercy, truth, salvation.
It is mercy and truth that give us salvation.
Jesus is the embodiment of mercy and truth, our salvation.
You can't have salvation without mercy and truth, it's impossible. Mercy and truth given to us from God, gifts from God just as salvation is.
Eph. {2:8} For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.
There is a beauty to the salvation of God, a beauty we can't deny. Just as we hear touching heroic tales of sacrifice and love, tales that have us moved to tears, this too is a true tale that should move us all to tears, glorying in the promise and gifts of the Lord. He loves us, He is love. Without the mercy and truth of God there would be no love at all, none.
Life without love. The hollow emptiness, the despair that being loveless brings has destroyed many people. Loveless. Many people sink into depression at the thought of not finding *true* love. Scores of songs are written about love. More cocky, bold people write songs about not needing love. Others find it *cool* to be independent and above needing love, being that cold-hearted baddie and yet they seek adoration in that stance as well. Adoration a form of love. There are many forms of love- those forms we even say aren't because we want to deny it. Then again- there are many warped ideas of love that have nothing to do with love at all. We tend to *want* love in a very selfish way. We want to be adored exclusively. We want love to fulfil a need in us and we seek for love in many ways. God alone offers love in the way we really need and we could spend an entire life time seeking and finding various forms of love and be satisifed over and over, but it won't last. The satisfaction is short lived, in the end only God's love remains stedfast and true, unfailing, everlasting.
The truth is God's love, now and forever.
{100:5} For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations
We need God's love, God's truth, God's mercy.
God, heavenly Father, Lord of all in heaven and earth, please bless us and teach us your love, to be loved by You, to know love, to be loving.
Amen.
{98:3} He hath remembered his mercy and his truth toward the house of
Israel: all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our
God.
**
Remembered his MERCY and his TRUTH.
ALL the ends of the earth have seen the SALVATION of our God.
Mercy, truth, salvation.
It is mercy and truth that give us salvation.
Jesus is the embodiment of mercy and truth, our salvation.
You can't have salvation without mercy and truth, it's impossible. Mercy and truth given to us from God, gifts from God just as salvation is.
Eph. {2:8} For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.
There is a beauty to the salvation of God, a beauty we can't deny. Just as we hear touching heroic tales of sacrifice and love, tales that have us moved to tears, this too is a true tale that should move us all to tears, glorying in the promise and gifts of the Lord. He loves us, He is love. Without the mercy and truth of God there would be no love at all, none.
Life without love. The hollow emptiness, the despair that being loveless brings has destroyed many people. Loveless. Many people sink into depression at the thought of not finding *true* love. Scores of songs are written about love. More cocky, bold people write songs about not needing love. Others find it *cool* to be independent and above needing love, being that cold-hearted baddie and yet they seek adoration in that stance as well. Adoration a form of love. There are many forms of love- those forms we even say aren't because we want to deny it. Then again- there are many warped ideas of love that have nothing to do with love at all. We tend to *want* love in a very selfish way. We want to be adored exclusively. We want love to fulfil a need in us and we seek for love in many ways. God alone offers love in the way we really need and we could spend an entire life time seeking and finding various forms of love and be satisifed over and over, but it won't last. The satisfaction is short lived, in the end only God's love remains stedfast and true, unfailing, everlasting.
The truth is God's love, now and forever.
{100:5} For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations
We need God's love, God's truth, God's mercy.
God, heavenly Father, Lord of all in heaven and earth, please bless us and teach us your love, to be loved by You, to know love, to be loving.
Amen.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
They received not the love of the truth...
Psalms {96:13} Before the LORD
for he cometh
for he cometh to judge the earth
he shall judge the world with righteousness
and the people with his truth.
His truth will be our judge.
We are judged. The entire world is judged and the standard by which He judges is His righteousness and His truth.
We have laws we are judged by. We break a law, we are arrested, we go to court where we are judged for our crime. Once we are judged we are sentenced. Then...the sentence has to be carried out.
The earth, the world, the people will be judged and yet we don't generally act as if we are being judged.
Romans {2:11} For there is no respect of persons with God.
{2:12} For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law:
and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law;
{2:13} (For not the hearers of the law [are] just before God,
but the doers of the law shall be justified.
{2:14} For when the Gentiles, which have not the law,
do by nature the things contained in the law,
these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves:
{2:15} Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts,
their conscience also bearing witness,
and [their] thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;)
{2:16} In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.
Do you understand what that is saying?
I'm not sure if I do, but I'm going to give it a go.
We are all the same to God as individuals. We all make choices during our lives whether we have a law such as the Children of Israel were giving. Gentiles, Jews, we all have a law that is in our conscience. A sense of right and wrong formed by our choices from the time we are old enough to begin making choices and make no mistake that's pretty young. That sense of doing wrong isn't always taught, it lives within us and we nurture it or we suppress it. People don't like being wrong so sometimes they try to make the wrong seem right and acceptable, once it seems that way it's not so hard to do wrong. We have a history in our world of making the wrong right and calling it acceptable because it allows us to live to our base nature. Yet inwardly we know, we might laugh and ignore the right and wrong voice inside us, we might give it no regard, we might shut it out and want to be left alone completely but it exists for us all.
We talk about God knowing the heart, knowing the inward spirit in each of us and it's true.
'For when the Gentiles, which have not the law do by nature the things contained in the law'
The law is wrought out of love.
Jesus revealed it by saying it's summed up in two laws- loving God and loving Man.
The law is love.
When people by nature keep the law- loving God and Man- and they are judged they'll be judged righteous by the standard set by Jesus Christ. We can't make the mistake of thinking that God doesn't know the inward man. We can't believe that people aren't given the knowledge where by they can be saved. We are all given it, every single person.
Doing the law by nature, loving by nature or loving by choice as we are given the law, it's all wrought in Jesus. It's accepting Jesus Christ's sacrifice, His love, His life. He is love and we have to choose love.
2 Thess. '{2:7} For the mystery of iniquity doth already work:
only he who now letteth [will let,]
until he be taken out of the way.
{2:8} And then shall that Wicked be revealed,
whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth,
and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:
{2:9} [Even him,] whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
{2:10} And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish;
because they received not the love of the truth,
that they might be saved.
They received not the love of the truth that they might be saved.
We need to choose love and in that love is the truth, in that love is Jesus Christ our saving grace.
We can choose to ask God to reveal our inward hearts and let Him work in us to show us where we need to choose right from wrong, ask that our eyes be opened, our hearts to be open, we need to accept the chastising of the Lord. We can't choose to wear spiritual blinders and expect to embrace the truth.
May God help us all by the grace of His Son.
Psalms {96:13} Before the LORD
for he cometh
for he cometh to judge the earth
he shall judge the world with righteousness
and the people with his truth.
Amen.
for he cometh
for he cometh to judge the earth
he shall judge the world with righteousness
and the people with his truth.
His truth will be our judge.
We are judged. The entire world is judged and the standard by which He judges is His righteousness and His truth.
We have laws we are judged by. We break a law, we are arrested, we go to court where we are judged for our crime. Once we are judged we are sentenced. Then...the sentence has to be carried out.
The earth, the world, the people will be judged and yet we don't generally act as if we are being judged.
Romans {2:11} For there is no respect of persons with God.
{2:12} For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law:
and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law;
{2:13} (For not the hearers of the law [are] just before God,
but the doers of the law shall be justified.
{2:14} For when the Gentiles, which have not the law,
do by nature the things contained in the law,
these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves:
{2:15} Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts,
their conscience also bearing witness,
and [their] thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;)
{2:16} In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.
Do you understand what that is saying?
I'm not sure if I do, but I'm going to give it a go.
We are all the same to God as individuals. We all make choices during our lives whether we have a law such as the Children of Israel were giving. Gentiles, Jews, we all have a law that is in our conscience. A sense of right and wrong formed by our choices from the time we are old enough to begin making choices and make no mistake that's pretty young. That sense of doing wrong isn't always taught, it lives within us and we nurture it or we suppress it. People don't like being wrong so sometimes they try to make the wrong seem right and acceptable, once it seems that way it's not so hard to do wrong. We have a history in our world of making the wrong right and calling it acceptable because it allows us to live to our base nature. Yet inwardly we know, we might laugh and ignore the right and wrong voice inside us, we might give it no regard, we might shut it out and want to be left alone completely but it exists for us all.
We talk about God knowing the heart, knowing the inward spirit in each of us and it's true.
'For when the Gentiles, which have not the law do by nature the things contained in the law'
The law is wrought out of love.
Jesus revealed it by saying it's summed up in two laws- loving God and loving Man.
The law is love.
When people by nature keep the law- loving God and Man- and they are judged they'll be judged righteous by the standard set by Jesus Christ. We can't make the mistake of thinking that God doesn't know the inward man. We can't believe that people aren't given the knowledge where by they can be saved. We are all given it, every single person.
Doing the law by nature, loving by nature or loving by choice as we are given the law, it's all wrought in Jesus. It's accepting Jesus Christ's sacrifice, His love, His life. He is love and we have to choose love.
2 Thess. '{2:7} For the mystery of iniquity doth already work:
only he who now letteth [will let,]
until he be taken out of the way.
{2:8} And then shall that Wicked be revealed,
whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth,
and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:
{2:9} [Even him,] whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
{2:10} And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish;
because they received not the love of the truth,
that they might be saved.
They received not the love of the truth that they might be saved.
We need to choose love and in that love is the truth, in that love is Jesus Christ our saving grace.
We can choose to ask God to reveal our inward hearts and let Him work in us to show us where we need to choose right from wrong, ask that our eyes be opened, our hearts to be open, we need to accept the chastising of the Lord. We can't choose to wear spiritual blinders and expect to embrace the truth.
May God help us all by the grace of His Son.
Psalms {96:13} Before the LORD
for he cometh
for he cometh to judge the earth
he shall judge the world with righteousness
and the people with his truth.
Amen.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Taught the way of Jesus
Truth in Psalms.
We continue to go through the Psalms of David studying the word- truth.
There are exacts in life, and the truth is an exact. The truth is factual not abstract. You can't make the truth bend to your own ideas. The truth isn't changed from one day to the next subject to outside forces. There is the truth and there is nothing else. I know people would argue that one person could believe one thing and that is their truth, another a different thing and that is their truth, but there is only one truth in God, a single truth. Jesus. Long before Jesus came as man to walk the earth the truth in Him existed.
Ps. {86:11} Teach me thy way, O LORD; I will walk in thy truth.
**
How are we to walk? And in walking- live? We are to walk in truth--
Micah {4:5} For all people will walk every one in the name of his god, and we will WALK IN THE NAME OF THE LORD OUR GOD FOR EVER AND EVER.
Zechariah {3:7} Thus saith the LORD of hosts; If thou wilt WALK IN MY WAYS, and if thou wilt keep my charge, then thou shalt also judge my house, and shalt also keep my courts, and I will give thee places to walk among these that stand by.
Luke {1:6} And they were both righteous before God, WALKING IN ALL THE COMMANDMENTS AND ORDINANCES OF THE LORD BLAMELESS.
John {12:35} Then Jesus said unto them, Yet a little while is the light with you. WALK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT, lest darkness come upon you: for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth. {12:36} While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light.
Romans {6:4} Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so
we also should WALK IN NEWNESS OF LIFE.
Romans {8:1} [There is] therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, WHO WALK NOT AFTER THE FLESH, but after the Spirit.
Romans {8:4} That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, WHO WALK NOT AFTER THE FLESH, but after the Spirit.
2 Cor. {5:7} For we WALK BY FAITH, not by sight
2 Cor. {6:16} And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I WILL DWELL IN THEM, and WALK IN THEM and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Gal. {5:16} [This] I say then, WALK IN THE SPIRIT, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
Gal. {5:25} If we live in the Spirit, let us WALK IN THE SPIRIT
Eph. {2:10} For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus UNTO GOOD WORKS, which God hath before ordained that we should WALK IN THEM.
**
Jesus is the truth, faith, newness of life, spirit, light, good works, the commandments.
Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.
Living in that truth is something we all need to do.
Ps. {86:11} Teach me thy way, O LORD; I will walk in thy truth.
We need to be taught the way of Jesus.
Once again we're back to talking about life after we accept Christ as our Savior, the fact that we have to walk in Jesus. We accept Jesus and we have to walk in Him, live in Him, be taught His ways. There is an effort involved- living. Our day to day actions matter, our lives matter, what we do matters it really does. It won't save us, we don't have the power to save ourselves, but we have the power to choose our actions, the power to choose how we live life. Even in the most dire of circumstances we have the power to choose how we respond to the circumstances. Yes, sometimes we feel like we're out of control- hormones or illness ravaging us and making us feel like we have little control over the grumpiness, the anger, the sadness we feel. Those situations are real and they do affect how we act, but no matter the outside influence of the body we can make choices. You read heroic tales of people keeping their spirits up as they endure torture and other horrifying things, and you read of those who succumb to the horrors. You read of traitors who give in as they suffer just to end their pain, and then you read of others who endure unto death rather than give in. Choices. We all have to make them and it's something we can't get away without doing on a daily basis. Oh I know I've written about this before but it keeps coming up for me so maybe it's me just trying to make this more a reality for me, a truth for me, a walk for me. This is a blog I started to put my daily Bible studies in with little thought to cohesion. Those of you reading this, if any, I hope that there is something of value here for you, if not I'm sorry- I'm no Bible scholar, no preacher, or teacher, just me seeking a closer walk with God striving to study and learn, to grasp hold of God in this way hoping that my life will be a walk with Him, in Him someday, by the grace of Jesus, by His mercy and His love now and always.
We continue to go through the Psalms of David studying the word- truth.
There are exacts in life, and the truth is an exact. The truth is factual not abstract. You can't make the truth bend to your own ideas. The truth isn't changed from one day to the next subject to outside forces. There is the truth and there is nothing else. I know people would argue that one person could believe one thing and that is their truth, another a different thing and that is their truth, but there is only one truth in God, a single truth. Jesus. Long before Jesus came as man to walk the earth the truth in Him existed.
Ps. {86:11} Teach me thy way, O LORD; I will walk in thy truth.
**
How are we to walk? And in walking- live? We are to walk in truth--
Micah {4:5} For all people will walk every one in the name of his god, and we will WALK IN THE NAME OF THE LORD OUR GOD FOR EVER AND EVER.
Zechariah {3:7} Thus saith the LORD of hosts; If thou wilt WALK IN MY WAYS, and if thou wilt keep my charge, then thou shalt also judge my house, and shalt also keep my courts, and I will give thee places to walk among these that stand by.
Luke {1:6} And they were both righteous before God, WALKING IN ALL THE COMMANDMENTS AND ORDINANCES OF THE LORD BLAMELESS.
John {12:35} Then Jesus said unto them, Yet a little while is the light with you. WALK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT, lest darkness come upon you: for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth. {12:36} While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light.
Romans {6:4} Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so
we also should WALK IN NEWNESS OF LIFE.
Romans {8:1} [There is] therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, WHO WALK NOT AFTER THE FLESH, but after the Spirit.
Romans {8:4} That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, WHO WALK NOT AFTER THE FLESH, but after the Spirit.
2 Cor. {5:7} For we WALK BY FAITH, not by sight
2 Cor. {6:16} And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I WILL DWELL IN THEM, and WALK IN THEM and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Gal. {5:16} [This] I say then, WALK IN THE SPIRIT, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
Gal. {5:25} If we live in the Spirit, let us WALK IN THE SPIRIT
Eph. {2:10} For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus UNTO GOOD WORKS, which God hath before ordained that we should WALK IN THEM.
**
Jesus is the truth, faith, newness of life, spirit, light, good works, the commandments.
Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.
Living in that truth is something we all need to do.
Ps. {86:11} Teach me thy way, O LORD; I will walk in thy truth.
We need to be taught the way of Jesus.
Once again we're back to talking about life after we accept Christ as our Savior, the fact that we have to walk in Jesus. We accept Jesus and we have to walk in Him, live in Him, be taught His ways. There is an effort involved- living. Our day to day actions matter, our lives matter, what we do matters it really does. It won't save us, we don't have the power to save ourselves, but we have the power to choose our actions, the power to choose how we live life. Even in the most dire of circumstances we have the power to choose how we respond to the circumstances. Yes, sometimes we feel like we're out of control- hormones or illness ravaging us and making us feel like we have little control over the grumpiness, the anger, the sadness we feel. Those situations are real and they do affect how we act, but no matter the outside influence of the body we can make choices. You read heroic tales of people keeping their spirits up as they endure torture and other horrifying things, and you read of those who succumb to the horrors. You read of traitors who give in as they suffer just to end their pain, and then you read of others who endure unto death rather than give in. Choices. We all have to make them and it's something we can't get away without doing on a daily basis. Oh I know I've written about this before but it keeps coming up for me so maybe it's me just trying to make this more a reality for me, a truth for me, a walk for me. This is a blog I started to put my daily Bible studies in with little thought to cohesion. Those of you reading this, if any, I hope that there is something of value here for you, if not I'm sorry- I'm no Bible scholar, no preacher, or teacher, just me seeking a closer walk with God striving to study and learn, to grasp hold of God in this way hoping that my life will be a walk with Him, in Him someday, by the grace of Jesus, by His mercy and His love now and always.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Mercy and truth are met together
Ps. {57:3} He shall send from heaven, and save from the reproach of him that would swallow me up. Selah.
God shall send forth his mercy and his truth.
**
Send from heaven.
Save from the reproach of him that would swallow us up.
God will send forth his mercy and his truth.
2 Tim. {1:18} The Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day.
**
Mercy of the Lord.
Jesus brought mercy with Him from heaven.
John {14:6} Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
**
The truth.
Jesus brought truth with Him from heaven.
Ps. {57:3} He shall send from heaven, and save from the reproach of him that would swallow me up. Selah.
God shall send forth his mercy and his truth.
God did send His mercy and His truth, He sent us Jesus, His Son.
****
Ps. {57:9} I will praise thee, O Lord, among the people: I will sing unto thee among the nations.
{57:10} For thy mercy is great unto the heavens, and thy truth unto the clouds.
{57:11} Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens: [let] thy glory [be] above all the earth.
Mercy, truth!
Ps. {69:13} But as for me, my prayer [is] unto thee, O LORD, [in] an acceptable time: O God, in the multitude of thy mercy hear me, in the truth of thy salvation.
The multitude of thy mercy.
The truth of thy salvation.
{85:8} I will hear what God the LORD will speak: for he will speak peace unto his people, and to his saints: but let them not turn again to folly.
{85:9} Surely his salvation [is] nigh them that fear him; that glory may dwell in our land.
{85:10} Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.
{85:11} Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven.
{85:12} Yea, the LORD shall give [that which is] good; and our land shall yield her increase.
{85:13} Righteousness shall go before him; and shall set [us] in the way of his steps.
**
How beautiful- righteousness and peace have kiss each other.
Mercy and truth are met together.
They're all intertwined. Mercy, truth, righteousness and peace.
Let them not turn again to folly.
We have a choice always. Salvation is ours but so is damnation. We make that choice no one makes it for us. We have to honor God, to love Him, to give Him the reverence due to Him as our creator, our savior. Salvation is close to those who love Him, to those who give Him the reverence He deserves.
People want to forget about the turning from their follies part. The part where *they* have to do something. They hear that we can't do works to be saved and so they glory in their sins thinking that to abandon them is a work and that they are working to get salvation.
Turning from our follies, turning from our sins isn't a work to obtain salvation. It is a choice we make knowing that sin is hated by the One we love.
If we love another person and we know they hate something- we don't do it out of love for them. Are we perfect when we try not to do these things those we love hate? Not always, sometimes we fail and then we have to try all over again and not because they'll stop loving us, but because we love them and don't want to hurt them.
Sin is an enmity against God.
God hates sin.
Sin separates us from God.
When we love God and receive salvation through the mercy and grace of His Son Jesus we too hate sin, the part of us that is one with God, our spiritual side. Sin will tempt us, sin offers gratifications for the present, no one can deny that sin is something insidious and yet something we find ourselves committing over and over again.
We have to turn from our follies, from our sins, not embrace them, not glory in them, recognize that they are a barrier between us and God, something hateful and to be despised. Turning from them won't save us, only Jesus can save us, but out of love we turn from them.
Psalms
{85:8} I will hear what God the LORD will speak: for he will speak peace unto his people, and to his saints: but let them not turn again to folly.
{85:9} Surely his salvation [is] nigh them that fear him; that glory may dwell in our land.
{85:10} Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.
{85:11} Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven.
{85:12} Yea, the LORD shall give [that which is] good; and our land shall yield her increase.
{85:13} Righteousness shall go before him; and shall set [us] in the way of his steps.
Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.
Jesus is all truth, all mercy in Him is all righteousness and peace.
May God help us to accept the love of Jesus into our hearts, to ask for forgiveness and accept the grace and mercy He alone offers. May we offer up our lives to Him, and seek to turn from our sins, from our follies and towards Him and Him alone, through His grace, through His strength and righteousness...
Amen!
God shall send forth his mercy and his truth.
**
Send from heaven.
Save from the reproach of him that would swallow us up.
God will send forth his mercy and his truth.
2 Tim. {1:18} The Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day.
**
Mercy of the Lord.
Jesus brought mercy with Him from heaven.
John {14:6} Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
**
The truth.
Jesus brought truth with Him from heaven.
Ps. {57:3} He shall send from heaven, and save from the reproach of him that would swallow me up. Selah.
God shall send forth his mercy and his truth.
God did send His mercy and His truth, He sent us Jesus, His Son.
****
Ps. {57:9} I will praise thee, O Lord, among the people: I will sing unto thee among the nations.
{57:10} For thy mercy is great unto the heavens, and thy truth unto the clouds.
{57:11} Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens: [let] thy glory [be] above all the earth.
Mercy, truth!
Ps. {69:13} But as for me, my prayer [is] unto thee, O LORD, [in] an acceptable time: O God, in the multitude of thy mercy hear me, in the truth of thy salvation.
The multitude of thy mercy.
The truth of thy salvation.
{85:8} I will hear what God the LORD will speak: for he will speak peace unto his people, and to his saints: but let them not turn again to folly.
{85:9} Surely his salvation [is] nigh them that fear him; that glory may dwell in our land.
{85:10} Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.
{85:11} Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven.
{85:12} Yea, the LORD shall give [that which is] good; and our land shall yield her increase.
{85:13} Righteousness shall go before him; and shall set [us] in the way of his steps.
**
How beautiful- righteousness and peace have kiss each other.
Mercy and truth are met together.
They're all intertwined. Mercy, truth, righteousness and peace.
Let them not turn again to folly.
We have a choice always. Salvation is ours but so is damnation. We make that choice no one makes it for us. We have to honor God, to love Him, to give Him the reverence due to Him as our creator, our savior. Salvation is close to those who love Him, to those who give Him the reverence He deserves.
People want to forget about the turning from their follies part. The part where *they* have to do something. They hear that we can't do works to be saved and so they glory in their sins thinking that to abandon them is a work and that they are working to get salvation.
Turning from our follies, turning from our sins isn't a work to obtain salvation. It is a choice we make knowing that sin is hated by the One we love.
If we love another person and we know they hate something- we don't do it out of love for them. Are we perfect when we try not to do these things those we love hate? Not always, sometimes we fail and then we have to try all over again and not because they'll stop loving us, but because we love them and don't want to hurt them.
Sin is an enmity against God.
God hates sin.
Sin separates us from God.
When we love God and receive salvation through the mercy and grace of His Son Jesus we too hate sin, the part of us that is one with God, our spiritual side. Sin will tempt us, sin offers gratifications for the present, no one can deny that sin is something insidious and yet something we find ourselves committing over and over again.
We have to turn from our follies, from our sins, not embrace them, not glory in them, recognize that they are a barrier between us and God, something hateful and to be despised. Turning from them won't save us, only Jesus can save us, but out of love we turn from them.
Psalms
{85:8} I will hear what God the LORD will speak: for he will speak peace unto his people, and to his saints: but let them not turn again to folly.
{85:9} Surely his salvation [is] nigh them that fear him; that glory may dwell in our land.
{85:10} Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.
{85:11} Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven.
{85:12} Yea, the LORD shall give [that which is] good; and our land shall yield her increase.
{85:13} Righteousness shall go before him; and shall set [us] in the way of his steps.
Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.
Jesus is all truth, all mercy in Him is all righteousness and peace.
May God help us to accept the love of Jesus into our hearts, to ask for forgiveness and accept the grace and mercy He alone offers. May we offer up our lives to Him, and seek to turn from our sins, from our follies and towards Him and Him alone, through His grace, through His strength and righteousness...
Amen!
Saturday, September 20, 2008
No other truth out there
Horror/fantasy preview-
"We promise! We promise! We swear!"
The screams were deafening, the cry of the multitude, all of them looking skyward while with terror filling their faces. Eyes bulging, mouths contorted, the horror filled them with fear unlike any fear they had ever felt before.
"WE PROMISE!"
And from the sky- thick with roiling black clouds, brilliant with lightening bolts blazing their almighty fiery torches everywhere, there came the thundering reply of acceptance.
The covenant was struck. The deal was sealed. The contract was binding. The people were saved.
Falling down where they stood, the people covering their heads with their arms, relief flowing through them. The worst was over.
Or was it...
The horror/fantasy movie recap-
Evil oppressors fill the land holding a multitude captive. A hero ruled by a supernatural force frees the people taking them away from their oppressors. The newly freed people commence on a perilous journey filled with the evil oppressors attempts to enslave them once more. With their enslavers thwarted they journey on until they come to the supernatural mount where the hero reveals that their freedom comes with conditions. The conditions however begin with the knowledge that they are free to choose either to accept the conditions or go about with their lives on their own risking enslavement once more, only the hero will no longer fight for them if they choose to live on their own.
The former slaves are fearful of being on their own without the hero's protection. They've witnessed the workings of the hero using the supernatural and know that it's best to hear the conditions out. Deciding that as long as the conditions aren't something detrimental to them, making them worse off than being with their previous oppressors, they'd accept them.
Gathering around the mountain of the hero's supernatural power, quickly the power is revealed in all its magnificence. A storm filled with thunder and lightening descends on the mountain as the people look on. This wasn't the first time the people had seen the power at work, they'd seen it as they were freed from their oppressors only now they are face to face with the source of the hero's power and it is terrifying them!
Pleading with the hero, asking him to intercede on their behalf and speak with the supernatural being for them, they continue to shake in fear, in awe of this force before them. The hero agrees and goes up into the storm of the mountain, fearless.
Finally the hero returns and tells them all the supernatural power demands from them and quickly the people agree to it all. There was nothing in the demands about being slaves to the supernatural power, nothing about feeling the whip of the supernatural being upon their backs day after day as they live in bondage. The supernatural being promises them a new life, a life filled with no more oppression and each of the demands the power is making upon them is for them and their own good! It's amazing! It's a dream come true! Of course they'll agree to such demands they'd be fools not to.
Peace filled the people and their new lives were to begin with their hero going to the supernatural being and receiving ALL the instructions they'd need for their new lives.
In a fairy tale the words, 'and they lived happily ever after', right here with the movie coming to an end would be perfect. Unfortunately the words are never uttered and in their place leading to the sequel of the tale are these words...
'And while the hero communed with the supernatural force, the newly freed people quickly grew restless and decided that all the demands they'd agreed to with the supernatural being weren't really meant to be kept. Some of the old ways of their oppressors were now theirs to use, and the ways of their former oppressors are all against the supernatural being demands. Breaking the newly established covenant could only have a dire outcome, look for part two in this continuing saga.'
What in the world does all this have to do with Bible study? With God?
Only that it's a true story, based on reality and truth, not fictional at all.
The Lord promised so much to the children of Israel and all He promised, all He said was truth.
Let's read as Joshua speaks to the children of Israel about this situation--
Joshua
{23:14} And, behold, this day I am going the way of all the earth and ye know in all your hearts and in all your souls, that not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the LORD your God spake concerning you;
**
Not ONE thing failed that the Lord God told the children of Israel, not ONE thing.
{23:14} ...all are come to pass unto you, and not one thing hath failed thereof.
{23:15} Therefore it shall come to pass, that as all good things are come upon you, which the LORD your God promised you; so shall the LORD bring upon you all evil things, until he have destroyed you from off this good land which the LORD your God hath given you.
**
Wait! What?! Why?!
{23:16} When ye have transgressed the covenant of the LORD your God, which he commanded you, and have gone and served other gods, and bowed yourselves to them; then shall the anger of the LORD be kindled against you, and ye shall perish quickly from off the good land which he hath given unto you.
**
That explains it doesn't it?
The truth is... we have choice God, and His covenant or life without God and that life without God has no happy ending.
It didn't have a happy ending then, and it won't in the future either.
All God says is true.
All God reveals comes to pass.
People make the mistake of thinking that the Bible is just a storybook without truth to support it, but history supports the prophecies inside the Bible. History is a testament to it's truth and the truth is, without the saving grace of God there is no hope. In accepting the saving grace of God we accept a new way of life, a life that will be slowly altered to be a life that will make heaven a place we long to live not mere fairy tale.
Eph. {4:17} 'This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, {4:18} Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: {4:19} Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. {4:20} But ye have not so learned Christ; {4:21} If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: {4:22} That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; {4:23} And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; {4:24} And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.'
Learned of Christ- the truth is in Jesus! Put off concerning the old man...be renewed in the spirit...put on the new man.
The truth.
Jesus is the truth.
And satan fills the earth with his lies deceiving all but those with such a love for the truth, for Jesus; those saved by His grace and alive to His righteousness.
May God help us all, we live in perilous times. Cling to Jesus...cling to the Savior's grace and mercy for there is no other truth out there, none.
Amen.
"We promise! We promise! We swear!"
The screams were deafening, the cry of the multitude, all of them looking skyward while with terror filling their faces. Eyes bulging, mouths contorted, the horror filled them with fear unlike any fear they had ever felt before.
"WE PROMISE!"
And from the sky- thick with roiling black clouds, brilliant with lightening bolts blazing their almighty fiery torches everywhere, there came the thundering reply of acceptance.
The covenant was struck. The deal was sealed. The contract was binding. The people were saved.
Falling down where they stood, the people covering their heads with their arms, relief flowing through them. The worst was over.
Or was it...
The horror/fantasy movie recap-
Evil oppressors fill the land holding a multitude captive. A hero ruled by a supernatural force frees the people taking them away from their oppressors. The newly freed people commence on a perilous journey filled with the evil oppressors attempts to enslave them once more. With their enslavers thwarted they journey on until they come to the supernatural mount where the hero reveals that their freedom comes with conditions. The conditions however begin with the knowledge that they are free to choose either to accept the conditions or go about with their lives on their own risking enslavement once more, only the hero will no longer fight for them if they choose to live on their own.
The former slaves are fearful of being on their own without the hero's protection. They've witnessed the workings of the hero using the supernatural and know that it's best to hear the conditions out. Deciding that as long as the conditions aren't something detrimental to them, making them worse off than being with their previous oppressors, they'd accept them.
Gathering around the mountain of the hero's supernatural power, quickly the power is revealed in all its magnificence. A storm filled with thunder and lightening descends on the mountain as the people look on. This wasn't the first time the people had seen the power at work, they'd seen it as they were freed from their oppressors only now they are face to face with the source of the hero's power and it is terrifying them!
Pleading with the hero, asking him to intercede on their behalf and speak with the supernatural being for them, they continue to shake in fear, in awe of this force before them. The hero agrees and goes up into the storm of the mountain, fearless.
Finally the hero returns and tells them all the supernatural power demands from them and quickly the people agree to it all. There was nothing in the demands about being slaves to the supernatural power, nothing about feeling the whip of the supernatural being upon their backs day after day as they live in bondage. The supernatural being promises them a new life, a life filled with no more oppression and each of the demands the power is making upon them is for them and their own good! It's amazing! It's a dream come true! Of course they'll agree to such demands they'd be fools not to.
Peace filled the people and their new lives were to begin with their hero going to the supernatural being and receiving ALL the instructions they'd need for their new lives.
In a fairy tale the words, 'and they lived happily ever after', right here with the movie coming to an end would be perfect. Unfortunately the words are never uttered and in their place leading to the sequel of the tale are these words...
'And while the hero communed with the supernatural force, the newly freed people quickly grew restless and decided that all the demands they'd agreed to with the supernatural being weren't really meant to be kept. Some of the old ways of their oppressors were now theirs to use, and the ways of their former oppressors are all against the supernatural being demands. Breaking the newly established covenant could only have a dire outcome, look for part two in this continuing saga.'
What in the world does all this have to do with Bible study? With God?
Only that it's a true story, based on reality and truth, not fictional at all.
The Lord promised so much to the children of Israel and all He promised, all He said was truth.
Let's read as Joshua speaks to the children of Israel about this situation--
Joshua
{23:14} And, behold, this day I am going the way of all the earth and ye know in all your hearts and in all your souls, that not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the LORD your God spake concerning you;
**
Not ONE thing failed that the Lord God told the children of Israel, not ONE thing.
{23:14} ...all are come to pass unto you, and not one thing hath failed thereof.
{23:15} Therefore it shall come to pass, that as all good things are come upon you, which the LORD your God promised you; so shall the LORD bring upon you all evil things, until he have destroyed you from off this good land which the LORD your God hath given you.
**
Wait! What?! Why?!
{23:16} When ye have transgressed the covenant of the LORD your God, which he commanded you, and have gone and served other gods, and bowed yourselves to them; then shall the anger of the LORD be kindled against you, and ye shall perish quickly from off the good land which he hath given unto you.
**
That explains it doesn't it?
The truth is... we have choice God, and His covenant or life without God and that life without God has no happy ending.
It didn't have a happy ending then, and it won't in the future either.
All God says is true.
All God reveals comes to pass.
People make the mistake of thinking that the Bible is just a storybook without truth to support it, but history supports the prophecies inside the Bible. History is a testament to it's truth and the truth is, without the saving grace of God there is no hope. In accepting the saving grace of God we accept a new way of life, a life that will be slowly altered to be a life that will make heaven a place we long to live not mere fairy tale.
Eph. {4:17} 'This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, {4:18} Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: {4:19} Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. {4:20} But ye have not so learned Christ; {4:21} If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: {4:22} That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; {4:23} And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; {4:24} And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.'
Learned of Christ- the truth is in Jesus! Put off concerning the old man...be renewed in the spirit...put on the new man.
The truth.
Jesus is the truth.
And satan fills the earth with his lies deceiving all but those with such a love for the truth, for Jesus; those saved by His grace and alive to His righteousness.
May God help us all, we live in perilous times. Cling to Jesus...cling to the Savior's grace and mercy for there is no other truth out there, none.
Amen.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Create in me a new heart, O God, renew a right spirit within me
Truth in Psalms
Written after David's sin with Bathsheba--
51:1} Have mercy upon me, O God,
according to thy lovingkindness
according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies
blot out my transgressions.
**
Sinners.
None escape from being sinners, not one.
But we can be sinners saved by grace.
David, knew God to be forgiving, and loving, merciful. David lived in a time where the old testament wrath of God was alive and well in the sense the focus was upon God and the covenant and breaking the commandments of God, more so than the forgiveness of Jesus. Jesus was still future in David's time, the Messiah was a dream to be realized, a hope to cling to.
David prayed to God for mercy as he acknowledged God's lovingkindness.
David knew God to be love and embodied in that love was mercy.
God's mercy, God's wrath is no different then the mercy and wrath of Jesus. If you've seen the son, you've seen the father, Jesus said that. Their principles, their beliefs, their morals are the same. Even today you'll find father and son businesses where the son incorporates the same high standards of a father, continuing a father's beliefs in all they do and hoping to pass that on to their son. At no time did Jesus ever denounce His father in any way whatsoever.
David knew the God of Love, and he recognized his own very sin-filled state.
{51:2} Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
**
Only God can wash us throughly and cleanse us from sin.
{51:3} For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.
**
Like any good ten step program to recovery the first step is admitting you have a problem, a need and that you need help. David wasn't covering up the sin, he was telling it like it was. He was acknowledging his sins, and proclaiming that they were something he couldn't forget. If something is ever before you then it's certainly not tucked neatly away anywhere, right?
{51:4} Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight:
that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.
**
When we sin, we are transgression a law.
If there were no law, there'd be no sin.
If it weren't a crime to murder, there'd be no crime when someone was murdered. Only because we call it a crime is it wrong.
When we sin we are breaking the law and we have to ask ourselves, whose law?
If it's man's law then we are accountable to man for our sin, right? If I run a red light I'm sinning against a manmade law.
If it's God's law then we are accountable to God for our sin, right?
David knew when he sinned it was against God. The evil he did was done and God knew it was evil.
God is justified when he judges us all.
The law is before us and when we break it, God knows and has the right to judge us for our evil ways.
{51:5} Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.
**
Conceived in sin.
Ultimately our heritage is sin.
We inherit sin from our parents all the way back to Adam and Eve.
David was no different. His tendency towards sin existed in him as it does in all of us from before birth. No one is born sinless, save Jesus, and even He was tempted just like we are, only there was no sin in Him at all. Born of woman and God, Jesus took on our humanity and sinned not. His being born of God kept Him from inheriting the sin of Adam and Eve, and being sinful in that respect, but it did not keep Him from the temptation to sin. It's only because He didn't sin that He can offer us His mercy and grace, His truth. He wasn't magically protected from sinning. He wasn't given some magical protection spell. He was tempted to sin and while tempted He didn't yield to sin, but called upon His Father and remained sinless. To say temptation wasn't the same for Him would be a lie, if anything it was worse for Him than for us.
Jesus overcame!
He wasn't gifted with magical abilities.
Jesus had to overcome.
Jesus had to have the exact same - or worse - temptation to sin as we do, and yet He had to remain sinless to save us, to prove that God's love is powerful enough to overcome the lies of Satan.
Jesus had to suffer the penalty of sin, of sin which He never committed.
David knew sin existed in himself and didn't try to put himself above it at all. He also knew that God's will was for him to not sin.
{51:6} Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts:
and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.
**
God desires truth in our hearts, in our lives. Truth and that truth is His love, His mercy where we find grace. God wants that truth in all of us, He wants us to desire that truth, for it to be real within us. As real as sin is, so is truth. What makes us free creatures is the power of choice. Truth exists even if one never sins. Sin exists and we have the truth to set us free.
{51:7} Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean:
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
**
Yes, we can be purged and sinless, we can be cleaned from our stains of sin, but only through God's grace, God's washing- we can never clean ourselves the way God can clean us, never. Ever hear of snow blindness? The snow is so white the sun's reflection upon it can blind a person. Whiter than snow. Can we truly imagine that?
{51:8} Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.
**
Again the chastening of the Lord shouldn't be despised at all. We need to rejoice and be glad, be joyous as we are corrected by God knowing He loves us and that is why we are broken, so we may mend in Him. We chastise our own children out of love, God loves us more than we can ever love our own.
{51:9} Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.
{51:10} Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
{51:11} Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.
{51:12} Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.
**
Amazing! So amazing.
{51:13} Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.
{51:14} Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation:
and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.
{51:15} O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise.
{51:16} For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it:
thou delightest not in burnt offering.
{51:17} The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit:
a broken and a contrite heart,
O God, thou wilt not despise.
**
A broken spirit and a broken and contrite heart all all God needs. The realization that we depend upon Him for our lives everlasting, that His ways are love beyond our comprehension, this is what God desires. A heart and spirit of truth, of love, of God. Oh that we could do ANYTHING to please God, we could give Him our all but without a spirit and heart broken to the realization that God is love, righteous, and our hope eternal everything we do means nothing at all. There isn't a single sacrifice we can make that would be greater than our broken spirit, than our broken and contrite hearts. Do you see? God desires something we ALL can give to Him, our hearts, our spirit, our lives. We don't have to have riches, we don't have to be brilliant, we don't have to have a college degree in theology, we don't have to have anything that we don't ALL have the ability to give to God, not one thing. I don't need a priest, a pastor, a Pope, to pray me to heaven. In fact none of them can give God what He wants from me, only I have what He wants, only You have what He wants.
While the sacrificial system was a type to point to the true, and necessary to teach that sin requires sacrifice if it's to be forgiven, it wasn't perfect. God could accept the sacrifices offered but only if the spirit with which they were giving was a true spirit, a repenting, contrite spirit. Not a single burnt offering was acceptable to God without a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, acknowledging the sinfulness and helplessness without God's grace. A person could offer a whole herd of burnt offerings and it would do him no good if his heart wasn't truly contrite.
May God help us all to find our grace and hope in Him now and always and not look to ourselves to work for it in anyway. We're sinners saved by grace. We're sinners that cling to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for doing for us what we could never do. With our spirits broken, with our hearts broken and contrite we bow before our King and offer Him our lives and know that our Heavenly Father through the mercy and sacrifice of His Only Son will accept us to Him and we can become sons of God, adopted to Him now and forever.
Amen.
Romans {8:12} Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.
{8:13} For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
{8:14} For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
{8:15} For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
{8:16} The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
{8:17} And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.
Amen.
This is truth.
Written after David's sin with Bathsheba--
51:1} Have mercy upon me, O God,
according to thy lovingkindness
according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies
blot out my transgressions.
**
Sinners.
None escape from being sinners, not one.
But we can be sinners saved by grace.
David, knew God to be forgiving, and loving, merciful. David lived in a time where the old testament wrath of God was alive and well in the sense the focus was upon God and the covenant and breaking the commandments of God, more so than the forgiveness of Jesus. Jesus was still future in David's time, the Messiah was a dream to be realized, a hope to cling to.
David prayed to God for mercy as he acknowledged God's lovingkindness.
David knew God to be love and embodied in that love was mercy.
God's mercy, God's wrath is no different then the mercy and wrath of Jesus. If you've seen the son, you've seen the father, Jesus said that. Their principles, their beliefs, their morals are the same. Even today you'll find father and son businesses where the son incorporates the same high standards of a father, continuing a father's beliefs in all they do and hoping to pass that on to their son. At no time did Jesus ever denounce His father in any way whatsoever.
David knew the God of Love, and he recognized his own very sin-filled state.
{51:2} Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
**
Only God can wash us throughly and cleanse us from sin.
{51:3} For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.
**
Like any good ten step program to recovery the first step is admitting you have a problem, a need and that you need help. David wasn't covering up the sin, he was telling it like it was. He was acknowledging his sins, and proclaiming that they were something he couldn't forget. If something is ever before you then it's certainly not tucked neatly away anywhere, right?
{51:4} Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight:
that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.
**
When we sin, we are transgression a law.
If there were no law, there'd be no sin.
If it weren't a crime to murder, there'd be no crime when someone was murdered. Only because we call it a crime is it wrong.
When we sin we are breaking the law and we have to ask ourselves, whose law?
If it's man's law then we are accountable to man for our sin, right? If I run a red light I'm sinning against a manmade law.
If it's God's law then we are accountable to God for our sin, right?
David knew when he sinned it was against God. The evil he did was done and God knew it was evil.
God is justified when he judges us all.
The law is before us and when we break it, God knows and has the right to judge us for our evil ways.
{51:5} Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.
**
Conceived in sin.
Ultimately our heritage is sin.
We inherit sin from our parents all the way back to Adam and Eve.
David was no different. His tendency towards sin existed in him as it does in all of us from before birth. No one is born sinless, save Jesus, and even He was tempted just like we are, only there was no sin in Him at all. Born of woman and God, Jesus took on our humanity and sinned not. His being born of God kept Him from inheriting the sin of Adam and Eve, and being sinful in that respect, but it did not keep Him from the temptation to sin. It's only because He didn't sin that He can offer us His mercy and grace, His truth. He wasn't magically protected from sinning. He wasn't given some magical protection spell. He was tempted to sin and while tempted He didn't yield to sin, but called upon His Father and remained sinless. To say temptation wasn't the same for Him would be a lie, if anything it was worse for Him than for us.
Jesus overcame!
He wasn't gifted with magical abilities.
Jesus had to overcome.
Jesus had to have the exact same - or worse - temptation to sin as we do, and yet He had to remain sinless to save us, to prove that God's love is powerful enough to overcome the lies of Satan.
Jesus had to suffer the penalty of sin, of sin which He never committed.
David knew sin existed in himself and didn't try to put himself above it at all. He also knew that God's will was for him to not sin.
{51:6} Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts:
and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.
**
God desires truth in our hearts, in our lives. Truth and that truth is His love, His mercy where we find grace. God wants that truth in all of us, He wants us to desire that truth, for it to be real within us. As real as sin is, so is truth. What makes us free creatures is the power of choice. Truth exists even if one never sins. Sin exists and we have the truth to set us free.
{51:7} Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean:
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
**
Yes, we can be purged and sinless, we can be cleaned from our stains of sin, but only through God's grace, God's washing- we can never clean ourselves the way God can clean us, never. Ever hear of snow blindness? The snow is so white the sun's reflection upon it can blind a person. Whiter than snow. Can we truly imagine that?
{51:8} Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.
**
Again the chastening of the Lord shouldn't be despised at all. We need to rejoice and be glad, be joyous as we are corrected by God knowing He loves us and that is why we are broken, so we may mend in Him. We chastise our own children out of love, God loves us more than we can ever love our own.
{51:9} Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.
{51:10} Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
{51:11} Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.
{51:12} Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.
**
Amazing! So amazing.
{51:13} Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.
{51:14} Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation:
and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.
{51:15} O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise.
{51:16} For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it:
thou delightest not in burnt offering.
{51:17} The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit:
a broken and a contrite heart,
O God, thou wilt not despise.
**
A broken spirit and a broken and contrite heart all all God needs. The realization that we depend upon Him for our lives everlasting, that His ways are love beyond our comprehension, this is what God desires. A heart and spirit of truth, of love, of God. Oh that we could do ANYTHING to please God, we could give Him our all but without a spirit and heart broken to the realization that God is love, righteous, and our hope eternal everything we do means nothing at all. There isn't a single sacrifice we can make that would be greater than our broken spirit, than our broken and contrite hearts. Do you see? God desires something we ALL can give to Him, our hearts, our spirit, our lives. We don't have to have riches, we don't have to be brilliant, we don't have to have a college degree in theology, we don't have to have anything that we don't ALL have the ability to give to God, not one thing. I don't need a priest, a pastor, a Pope, to pray me to heaven. In fact none of them can give God what He wants from me, only I have what He wants, only You have what He wants.
While the sacrificial system was a type to point to the true, and necessary to teach that sin requires sacrifice if it's to be forgiven, it wasn't perfect. God could accept the sacrifices offered but only if the spirit with which they were giving was a true spirit, a repenting, contrite spirit. Not a single burnt offering was acceptable to God without a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, acknowledging the sinfulness and helplessness without God's grace. A person could offer a whole herd of burnt offerings and it would do him no good if his heart wasn't truly contrite.
May God help us all to find our grace and hope in Him now and always and not look to ourselves to work for it in anyway. We're sinners saved by grace. We're sinners that cling to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for doing for us what we could never do. With our spirits broken, with our hearts broken and contrite we bow before our King and offer Him our lives and know that our Heavenly Father through the mercy and sacrifice of His Only Son will accept us to Him and we can become sons of God, adopted to Him now and forever.
Amen.
Romans {8:12} Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.
{8:13} For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
{8:14} For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
{8:15} For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
{8:16} The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
{8:17} And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.
Amen.
This is truth.
We must be delivered from evil by the grace of God
Psalm 43
{43:1}
Judge me,
O God,
and plead my cause against an ungodly nation:
O deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man.
{43:2}
For thou art the God of my strength
why dost thou cast me off?
why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?
{43:3}
O send out thy light and thy truth
let them lead me
let them bring me unto thy holy hill
and to thy tabernacles.
{43:4}
Then will I go unto the altar of God,
unto God my exceeding joy
yea, upon the harp will I praise thee,
O God my God.
{43:5}
Why art thou cast down, O my soul?
and why art thou disquieted within me?
hope in God
for I shall yet praise him,
who is the health of my countenance,
and my God.
**
Send out thy light and thy truth, let them lead me.
Why dost thou cast me off....
Despair, doubt is no stranger to any who would follow God.
Despair and doubt afflict all of us.
Maybe we don't have enemies in the sense we are fighting them for our lives physically, at least I don't have anyone trying to kill me. Yet we have enemies and we fight for our lives maybe not physically but spiritually there isn't a single person who isn't fighting that battle.
Our attacker might be against our faith and there is no worse attacker.
The oppression from our enemy, any that oppress our faith are our enemies make no doubt about it whatsoever.
We do mourn when our faith wavers? How can we not mourn when something so important is threatened?
We ask God to send out His light and His truth, only that can save us. Light and Truth, Jesus' Christ is the light and truth, His grace, His mercy is truth.
'Why art thou cast down, O my soul?
and why art thou disquieted within me?
hope in God
for I shall yet praise him,
who is the health of my countenance,
and my God.'
We all know the disquiet of our souls don't we? We call it depression, we call it anxiety, we call it my all sorts of *modern* names but it is all the same in the end- a disquiet within us, something that keeps us from a peaceful existence. We place our hope here and now, we place the desire for our peace here and now, we want contentment and happiness here and now and the ONLY way to get that in any small way is to place our hope in God.
Our hope must be in God. It must be in something more than this life. Our hope must be in the saving grace of Jesus.
We aren't going to have it easy here. We fool ourselves by experiencing moments of joy and happiness, periods of praise and song, we can't rely on those! We can have them, we can, but they can't be our mainstay. We can't believe that when we're caught in a depression, or heartache that it's all gone, that hope is gone. It's when we're down the farthest that hope is made even more real if we let it. Hope. Grasp the hope when you feel like all hope is really gone, grasp at it and in faith believe that no matter how you're feeling, no matter how close we are to despairing that God is there as our hope. We don't have to feel it, we can know it. Praise God who is our health, our hope when we are disquieted within. Praise God who will see us through the dark, we can't give up or give in to despair, we can't let evil take hold of us, we must be delivered from evil by the grace of God through His Son, Jesus.
Amen!
{43:1}
Judge me,
O God,
and plead my cause against an ungodly nation:
O deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man.
{43:2}
For thou art the God of my strength
why dost thou cast me off?
why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?
{43:3}
O send out thy light and thy truth
let them lead me
let them bring me unto thy holy hill
and to thy tabernacles.
{43:4}
Then will I go unto the altar of God,
unto God my exceeding joy
yea, upon the harp will I praise thee,
O God my God.
{43:5}
Why art thou cast down, O my soul?
and why art thou disquieted within me?
hope in God
for I shall yet praise him,
who is the health of my countenance,
and my God.
**
Send out thy light and thy truth, let them lead me.
Why dost thou cast me off....
Despair, doubt is no stranger to any who would follow God.
Despair and doubt afflict all of us.
Maybe we don't have enemies in the sense we are fighting them for our lives physically, at least I don't have anyone trying to kill me. Yet we have enemies and we fight for our lives maybe not physically but spiritually there isn't a single person who isn't fighting that battle.
Our attacker might be against our faith and there is no worse attacker.
The oppression from our enemy, any that oppress our faith are our enemies make no doubt about it whatsoever.
We do mourn when our faith wavers? How can we not mourn when something so important is threatened?
We ask God to send out His light and His truth, only that can save us. Light and Truth, Jesus' Christ is the light and truth, His grace, His mercy is truth.
'Why art thou cast down, O my soul?
and why art thou disquieted within me?
hope in God
for I shall yet praise him,
who is the health of my countenance,
and my God.'
We all know the disquiet of our souls don't we? We call it depression, we call it anxiety, we call it my all sorts of *modern* names but it is all the same in the end- a disquiet within us, something that keeps us from a peaceful existence. We place our hope here and now, we place the desire for our peace here and now, we want contentment and happiness here and now and the ONLY way to get that in any small way is to place our hope in God.
Our hope must be in God. It must be in something more than this life. Our hope must be in the saving grace of Jesus.
We aren't going to have it easy here. We fool ourselves by experiencing moments of joy and happiness, periods of praise and song, we can't rely on those! We can have them, we can, but they can't be our mainstay. We can't believe that when we're caught in a depression, or heartache that it's all gone, that hope is gone. It's when we're down the farthest that hope is made even more real if we let it. Hope. Grasp the hope when you feel like all hope is really gone, grasp at it and in faith believe that no matter how you're feeling, no matter how close we are to despairing that God is there as our hope. We don't have to feel it, we can know it. Praise God who is our health, our hope when we are disquieted within. Praise God who will see us through the dark, we can't give up or give in to despair, we can't let evil take hold of us, we must be delivered from evil by the grace of God through His Son, Jesus.
Amen!
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Thy TRUTH continually preserve me.
Truth in Psalms
{40:1} I waited patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry.
Patiently waiting, in our day and age that almost seems to be an oxymoron. We don't want to wait patiently, we want action, results, satisfaction and we want it now, or as some would say, 'and I want it yesterday', indicating they want it faster than is really possible and yet as fast as they can get whatever it is they're after.
Patiently waiting.
I don't think I'm a very patient waiter at all personally.
I think about having to wait for doctors and I'm always chanting in my head, 'hurry up, call me, hurry up, me next'. I think about waiting in a fast food drive thru going on about how it's *supposed* to be FAST food, when in reality it's a lot faster than food ever should be. I think about standing in line at the grocery store looking about complaining, they should open more lanes or darn it, I got in the wrong line again! Why is the cashier being so chatty? Doesn't she realize I just want to go, go, go!
Waiting patiently for the Lord.
No, we want instantaneous with the Lord too. Hurry Lord, hear my prayer, hurry Lord do this, hurry Lord do that, hurry, hurry... if I don't see results soon then what's this all about. Hurry and come Lord, end the world so we can be with you in heaven . Hurry, hurry, hurry.
'I waited patiently for the Lord.'
The Lord wasn't instantaneous here in this psalm was He? Someone had to wait on Him. Wait on Him and they could have done so impatiently but they didn't, they waited patiently on the Lord- we've no idea how long the wait full of patience was, could it have been one hour? Two? Five days? Ten? A month? A year? We do know that the patience paid off because of this-- '...and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry.'
A cry to the Lord and a patient waiting. Again an oxymoron? When we cry out for something it's usually something we want instantly, not something we want to wait on. A cry denotes need, an urgent need and yet to cry and wait patiently, that truly is amazing. For the state of the world I can imagine myself crying to the Lord daily and hopefully waiting patiently, see I said 'hopefully'. To wait for the Lord is a lifetime endeavor, something we have to be willing to wait for patiently and not get discouraged. In this world of instantaneous response and gratification, we have to realize that something’s truly do involve a lifetime of waiting.
Let's go on...
{40:2} He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.
How often do we find ourselves despairing? Our lives are fraught with challenge after challenge and we want to give up? We're stuck in a horrible place in life and it seems as if there is no getting out of it? Hopefully we don't find ourselves in that 'pit' too often. God can get us out of it, He can and He will make it so we are back on solid ground and headed in the right direction.
{40:3} And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD.
Amazing, simply amazing. When we are saved we want to sing the praises of the one who saved us. I just saw recently an article in the news where a father and son were rescued from the ocean after being lost at sea for 12 hours and the father was so happy when his son was rescued as well as himself (the two having become separated in the night) that he went about hugging and kissing the rescuers. Was he singing their praises? Oh yes he was. We do get a new song in our mouths, our praise does go unto God who saves us. Others can witness this change in us and they too will find a place with God.
{40:4} Blessed is that man that maketh the LORD his trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies.
{40:5} Many, O LORD my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.
Amazing.
{40:6} Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required.
{40:7} Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me
{40:8} I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.
{40:9} I have preached righteousness in the great congregation: lo, I have not refrained my lips, O LORD, thou knowest.
{40:10} I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart; I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation: I have not concealed thy lovingkindness and thy TRUTH from the great congregation.
Thy lovingkindness and thy truth.
Read this again how it's all tied up together-
'I have not hid they RIGHTEOUSNESS within my heart; I have declared thy FAITHFULNESS and thy SALVATION: I have not concealed thy LOVINGKINDNESS and they TRUTH from the great congregation.'
Righteousness, faithfulness, salvation, lovingkindness, and truth.
Amazing.
{40:11} Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me, O LORD: let thy lovingkindness and thy TRUTH continually preserve me.
So amazing.
We need God's tender mercy in our lives. We need God's lovingkindness and the truth in us, preserving us, keeping us unto that great day when we are with Him finally. We need this so desperately now, just as man has always needed this. Why? Read on...
{40:12} For innumerable evils have compassed me about: mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart faileth me.
Sound familiar? It does to me. We are so sinful. Only God can save us, we can't save ourselves.
Remember the patiently waiting- well read on and see how that has slipped a bit here as deliverance is sought.
{40:13} Be pleased, O LORD, to deliver me: O LORD, make haste to help me.
{40:14} Let them be ashamed and confounded together that seek after my soul to destroy it; let them be driven backward and put to shame that wish me evil.
{40:15} Let them be desolate for a reward of their shame that say unto me, Aha, aha.
{40:16} Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee: let such as love thy salvation say continually, The LORD be magnified.
{40:17} But I am poor and needy; yet the Lord thinketh upon me: thou art my help and my deliverer; make no tarrying, O my God.
Make haste.
Make no tarrying.
I waited patiently.
Patiently - perseverance? In it for the long haul, determined to wait forever if necessary and yet even with patience, with perseverance the longing for God and His world made new, the longing for salvation is something alive and desperate within us. Willing to wait as long as it takes, but wanting the wait to not be so long. Willing to wait, willing to hope and cling to the promises even when it seems like forever and a day. Faith in our darkest hour, faith to wait and believe, to trust and hope and yet I can't help but cry out... 'Make haste to help me,... make no tarrying, O my God!.'
I recently caught bits and pieces of a movie about prisoners of war in Vietnam and how ten years or so later people were going to find them. They showed a part where a captor was telling the pows that if they'd only admit to their wrongdoing they'd go free, but ten years of hardship in the most deplorable conditions would not make them admit to the wrongdoing, they were holding fast to their faith so to speak through conditions unimaginable. This was just a movie and I'm sure I don't have the facts of it all straight, but the gist of it was holding fast through all of the hardship. We have to holdfast, and like those POW who never gave up hope of being rescued and didn't give in to their captors, we have to be patient. We might die, as some did in that movie, but we can't give up this fight we're in, we can't give in to the enemy. We have to cling to Christ and His mercy and pray that He comes soon to save us. It's through Him we can find our hope, through His grace and mercy we can find salvation through faith, believing on Him and knowing no matter how awful everything in our lives seems, no matter how dark the night is, our light in Christ will shine forth. While the enemy surrounds us with thoughts demons of our own seeking to pull us down into despair we have to pray, 'lead us not into despair but deliver us from evil'.
May God bless all of us as we seek to hold on through each of our own personal dark hours as evils surround us and our sins take hold of us so we can't even look up to God and our heart sinks in our chest...let us hold on to the promises of God. We have a deliverer in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior now and forever.
Amen.
{40:1} I waited patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry.
Patiently waiting, in our day and age that almost seems to be an oxymoron. We don't want to wait patiently, we want action, results, satisfaction and we want it now, or as some would say, 'and I want it yesterday', indicating they want it faster than is really possible and yet as fast as they can get whatever it is they're after.
Patiently waiting.
I don't think I'm a very patient waiter at all personally.
I think about having to wait for doctors and I'm always chanting in my head, 'hurry up, call me, hurry up, me next'. I think about waiting in a fast food drive thru going on about how it's *supposed* to be FAST food, when in reality it's a lot faster than food ever should be. I think about standing in line at the grocery store looking about complaining, they should open more lanes or darn it, I got in the wrong line again! Why is the cashier being so chatty? Doesn't she realize I just want to go, go, go!
Waiting patiently for the Lord.
No, we want instantaneous with the Lord too. Hurry Lord, hear my prayer, hurry Lord do this, hurry Lord do that, hurry, hurry... if I don't see results soon then what's this all about. Hurry and come Lord, end the world so we can be with you in heaven . Hurry, hurry, hurry.
'I waited patiently for the Lord.'
The Lord wasn't instantaneous here in this psalm was He? Someone had to wait on Him. Wait on Him and they could have done so impatiently but they didn't, they waited patiently on the Lord- we've no idea how long the wait full of patience was, could it have been one hour? Two? Five days? Ten? A month? A year? We do know that the patience paid off because of this-- '...and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry.'
A cry to the Lord and a patient waiting. Again an oxymoron? When we cry out for something it's usually something we want instantly, not something we want to wait on. A cry denotes need, an urgent need and yet to cry and wait patiently, that truly is amazing. For the state of the world I can imagine myself crying to the Lord daily and hopefully waiting patiently, see I said 'hopefully'. To wait for the Lord is a lifetime endeavor, something we have to be willing to wait for patiently and not get discouraged. In this world of instantaneous response and gratification, we have to realize that something’s truly do involve a lifetime of waiting.
Let's go on...
{40:2} He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.
How often do we find ourselves despairing? Our lives are fraught with challenge after challenge and we want to give up? We're stuck in a horrible place in life and it seems as if there is no getting out of it? Hopefully we don't find ourselves in that 'pit' too often. God can get us out of it, He can and He will make it so we are back on solid ground and headed in the right direction.
{40:3} And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD.
Amazing, simply amazing. When we are saved we want to sing the praises of the one who saved us. I just saw recently an article in the news where a father and son were rescued from the ocean after being lost at sea for 12 hours and the father was so happy when his son was rescued as well as himself (the two having become separated in the night) that he went about hugging and kissing the rescuers. Was he singing their praises? Oh yes he was. We do get a new song in our mouths, our praise does go unto God who saves us. Others can witness this change in us and they too will find a place with God.
{40:4} Blessed is that man that maketh the LORD his trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies.
{40:5} Many, O LORD my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.
Amazing.
{40:6} Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required.
{40:7} Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me
{40:8} I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.
{40:9} I have preached righteousness in the great congregation: lo, I have not refrained my lips, O LORD, thou knowest.
{40:10} I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart; I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation: I have not concealed thy lovingkindness and thy TRUTH from the great congregation.
Thy lovingkindness and thy truth.
Read this again how it's all tied up together-
'I have not hid they RIGHTEOUSNESS within my heart; I have declared thy FAITHFULNESS and thy SALVATION: I have not concealed thy LOVINGKINDNESS and they TRUTH from the great congregation.'
Righteousness, faithfulness, salvation, lovingkindness, and truth.
Amazing.
{40:11} Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me, O LORD: let thy lovingkindness and thy TRUTH continually preserve me.
So amazing.
We need God's tender mercy in our lives. We need God's lovingkindness and the truth in us, preserving us, keeping us unto that great day when we are with Him finally. We need this so desperately now, just as man has always needed this. Why? Read on...
{40:12} For innumerable evils have compassed me about: mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart faileth me.
Sound familiar? It does to me. We are so sinful. Only God can save us, we can't save ourselves.
Remember the patiently waiting- well read on and see how that has slipped a bit here as deliverance is sought.
{40:13} Be pleased, O LORD, to deliver me: O LORD, make haste to help me.
{40:14} Let them be ashamed and confounded together that seek after my soul to destroy it; let them be driven backward and put to shame that wish me evil.
{40:15} Let them be desolate for a reward of their shame that say unto me, Aha, aha.
{40:16} Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee: let such as love thy salvation say continually, The LORD be magnified.
{40:17} But I am poor and needy; yet the Lord thinketh upon me: thou art my help and my deliverer; make no tarrying, O my God.
Make haste.
Make no tarrying.
I waited patiently.
Patiently - perseverance? In it for the long haul, determined to wait forever if necessary and yet even with patience, with perseverance the longing for God and His world made new, the longing for salvation is something alive and desperate within us. Willing to wait as long as it takes, but wanting the wait to not be so long. Willing to wait, willing to hope and cling to the promises even when it seems like forever and a day. Faith in our darkest hour, faith to wait and believe, to trust and hope and yet I can't help but cry out... 'Make haste to help me,... make no tarrying, O my God!.'
I recently caught bits and pieces of a movie about prisoners of war in Vietnam and how ten years or so later people were going to find them. They showed a part where a captor was telling the pows that if they'd only admit to their wrongdoing they'd go free, but ten years of hardship in the most deplorable conditions would not make them admit to the wrongdoing, they were holding fast to their faith so to speak through conditions unimaginable. This was just a movie and I'm sure I don't have the facts of it all straight, but the gist of it was holding fast through all of the hardship. We have to holdfast, and like those POW who never gave up hope of being rescued and didn't give in to their captors, we have to be patient. We might die, as some did in that movie, but we can't give up this fight we're in, we can't give in to the enemy. We have to cling to Christ and His mercy and pray that He comes soon to save us. It's through Him we can find our hope, through His grace and mercy we can find salvation through faith, believing on Him and knowing no matter how awful everything in our lives seems, no matter how dark the night is, our light in Christ will shine forth. While the enemy surrounds us with thoughts demons of our own seeking to pull us down into despair we have to pray, 'lead us not into despair but deliver us from evil'.
May God bless all of us as we seek to hold on through each of our own personal dark hours as evils surround us and our sins take hold of us so we can't even look up to God and our heart sinks in our chest...let us hold on to the promises of God. We have a deliverer in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior now and forever.
Amen.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
We have to grasp the truth beyond feeling
Psalm 33
{33:1} Rejoice in the LORD, O ye righteous: [for] praise is comely for the upright.
{33:2} Praise the LORD with harp: sing unto him with the psaltery [and] an instrument of ten strings.
{33:3} Sing unto him a new song; play skilfully with a loud noise.
{33:4} For the word of the LORD [is] right; and all his works [are done] in truth.
Rejoicing.
Praising.
Singing.
Loudly playing instruments.
Why should there be rejoicing and praising and singing, playing of instruments?
The word of the Lord is right, all his works are done in truth.
The Lord's word is right.
All his works are done in truth.
There's the truth again.
I think we underestimate the truth.
Seriously, I really think we do. Christ brought with Him Grace and Truth. He didn't come to earth, born as a human with supernatural abilities, He didn't come to earth as a man taking on out humanity without the same propensity to sin as we did. He came sinless, unlike us who are born into sin, but he still had the same temptation as us.
Hebrews {4:15} 'For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as [we are, yet] without sin.'
In all points tempted like we are.
Christ our Savior, our Lord and Master, brought with Him Grace and Truth. Grace for us all, truth for us all.
'All his works are done in truth.'
The truth is powerful, so very powerful.
John {8:32} 'And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.'
Make you free.
And if you're like many, you want to know free how? Because you're not captive. Here's what Jesus had to say.
John {8:33} They answered him, We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?
{8:33} They answered him, We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?
{8:34} Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.
{8:35} And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: [but] the Son abideth ever.
{8:36} If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.
Sin.
Captive to sin.
Freed by Jesus.
Truth will make you free.
All His works are done in truth.
The truth is so important. The truth is...
Eph. {4:17} This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind
{4:18} Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:
{4:19} Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
{4:20} But ye have not so learned Christ;
{4:21} If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as THE TRUTH IS in Jesus:
{4:22} That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;
{4:23} And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;
{4:24} And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
1 John {1:8} If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and THE TRUTH IS NOT in us.
{1:9} If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us [our] sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
{1:10} If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
1 John {2:1} My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:
{2:2} And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for [the sins of] the whole world.
{2:3} And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.
{2:4} He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and THE TRUTH IS NOT in him.
{2:5} But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.
{2:6} He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.
**
The truth is in Jesus.
And sometimes we realize what something is when we realize what it is not.
'If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and THE TRUTH IS NOT in us'
Remember- Jesus told us we were in bondage to sin, captive to sin and the truth would set us free.
John {8:36} 'If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.'
Free from sin only in Jesus.
If we say we have no sin, we aren't realizing what the truth of life is.
We are free only in Jesus.
The truth is Jesus and His saving Grace.
Read this closely--
1 John {2:1} My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:
{2:2} And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for [the sins of] the whole world.
{2:3} And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.
{2:4} He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and THE TRUTH IS NOT in him.
{2:5} But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.
{2:6} He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.
**
Now lets continue with the Psalms-
{33:1} Rejoice in the LORD, O ye righteous: [for] praise is comely for the upright.
{33:2} Praise the LORD with harp: sing unto him with the psaltery [and] an instrument of ten strings.
{33:3} Sing unto him a new song; play skilfully with a loud noise.
{33:4} For the word of the LORD [is] right; and all his works [are done] in truth.
{33:5} He loveth righteousness and judgment: the earth is full of the goodness of the LORD.
{33:6} By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.
{33:7} He gathereth the waters of the sea together as an heap: he layeth up the depth in storehouses.
{33:8} Let all the earth fear the LORD: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.
{33:9} For he spake, and it was [done;] he commanded, and it stood fast.
{33:10} The LORD bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nought: he maketh the devices of the people of none effect.
{33:11} The counsel of the LORD standeth for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations.
{33:12} Blessed [is] the nation whose God [is] the LORD: [and] the people [whom] he hath chosen for his own inheritance.
{33:13} The LORD looketh from heaven; he beholdeth all the sons of men.
{33:14} From the place of his habitation he looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth.
{33:15} He fashioneth their hearts alike; he considereth all their works.
{33:16} There is no king saved by the multitude of an host: a mighty man is not delivered by much strength.
{33:17} An horse [is] a vain thing for safety: neither shall he deliver [any] by his great strength.
{33:18} Behold, the eye of the LORD [is] upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy;
{33:19} To deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine.
{33:20} Our soul waiteth for the LORD: he [is] our help and our shield.
{33:21} For our heart shall rejoice in him, because we have trusted in his holy name.
{33:22} Let thy mercy, O LORD, be upon us, according as we hope in thee.
***
The truth is outside of ourselves, only found in Jesus.
We're trapped in ourselves when we believe we can find any hope in ourselves outside of Jesus.
Life with all its heartaches and pains, illnesses and accidents, it can wrap itself around us drawing us away from Jesus as we only become absorbed with ourselves. Jesus is the truth, our Savior from the sin that has such a vile hold upon us. We need to step outside ourselves completely and trust in Him and Him only.
Easy to say? Hard to do? Only if we don't want the truth. Only if...
Eph. {4:17} This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind
{4:18} Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:
{4:19} Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness
**
We aren't past feeling, we know, we see and we have to believe that Christ is our hope, our truth. Even if we don't feel right, we can know that beyond feeling we have Jesus as our Savior, Jesus who alone can save us from sin and the sin in our lives.
May Christ bless and keep us in Him even when life wraps us up in a thick, black darkness of hopelessness. We have to grasp the truth beyond feeling.
You can be born into a family of royalty- and know you're of royalty, but you don't have to live a life as one born of royalty you can turn your back on it all and throw away all the trappings of being royal- but it won't make you any less born of royalty. We are all called to be children of the King, but we don't have to wear the trappings, we can deny our heritage in Christ, we can deny Christ, but that doesn't change that we are called to be His children. Beyond the feelings, the emotions that can often trap us with their insidious hold over our lives blinding us to our freedom in Christ through His truth, beyond all that we can know. When things are the darkest the light is found in Christ. We can know, even when we feel further from the truth than ever. Let us use our knowledge beyond the feeling. Know.
May God bless and keep us all in His loving embrace through His son, through the grace and mercy of the truth in Jesus now and always.
Amen.
{33:1} Rejoice in the LORD, O ye righteous: [for] praise is comely for the upright.
{33:2} Praise the LORD with harp: sing unto him with the psaltery [and] an instrument of ten strings.
{33:3} Sing unto him a new song; play skilfully with a loud noise.
{33:4} For the word of the LORD [is] right; and all his works [are done] in truth.
Rejoicing.
Praising.
Singing.
Loudly playing instruments.
Why should there be rejoicing and praising and singing, playing of instruments?
The word of the Lord is right, all his works are done in truth.
The Lord's word is right.
All his works are done in truth.
There's the truth again.
I think we underestimate the truth.
Seriously, I really think we do. Christ brought with Him Grace and Truth. He didn't come to earth, born as a human with supernatural abilities, He didn't come to earth as a man taking on out humanity without the same propensity to sin as we did. He came sinless, unlike us who are born into sin, but he still had the same temptation as us.
Hebrews {4:15} 'For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as [we are, yet] without sin.'
In all points tempted like we are.
Christ our Savior, our Lord and Master, brought with Him Grace and Truth. Grace for us all, truth for us all.
'All his works are done in truth.'
The truth is powerful, so very powerful.
John {8:32} 'And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.'
Make you free.
And if you're like many, you want to know free how? Because you're not captive. Here's what Jesus had to say.
John {8:33} They answered him, We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?
{8:33} They answered him, We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?
{8:34} Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.
{8:35} And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: [but] the Son abideth ever.
{8:36} If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.
Sin.
Captive to sin.
Freed by Jesus.
Truth will make you free.
All His works are done in truth.
The truth is so important. The truth is...
Eph. {4:17} This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind
{4:18} Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:
{4:19} Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
{4:20} But ye have not so learned Christ;
{4:21} If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as THE TRUTH IS in Jesus:
{4:22} That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;
{4:23} And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;
{4:24} And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
1 John {1:8} If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and THE TRUTH IS NOT in us.
{1:9} If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us [our] sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
{1:10} If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
1 John {2:1} My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:
{2:2} And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for [the sins of] the whole world.
{2:3} And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.
{2:4} He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and THE TRUTH IS NOT in him.
{2:5} But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.
{2:6} He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.
**
The truth is in Jesus.
And sometimes we realize what something is when we realize what it is not.
'If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and THE TRUTH IS NOT in us'
Remember- Jesus told us we were in bondage to sin, captive to sin and the truth would set us free.
John {8:36} 'If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.'
Free from sin only in Jesus.
If we say we have no sin, we aren't realizing what the truth of life is.
We are free only in Jesus.
The truth is Jesus and His saving Grace.
Read this closely--
1 John {2:1} My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:
{2:2} And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for [the sins of] the whole world.
{2:3} And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.
{2:4} He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and THE TRUTH IS NOT in him.
{2:5} But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.
{2:6} He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.
**
Now lets continue with the Psalms-
{33:1} Rejoice in the LORD, O ye righteous: [for] praise is comely for the upright.
{33:2} Praise the LORD with harp: sing unto him with the psaltery [and] an instrument of ten strings.
{33:3} Sing unto him a new song; play skilfully with a loud noise.
{33:4} For the word of the LORD [is] right; and all his works [are done] in truth.
{33:5} He loveth righteousness and judgment: the earth is full of the goodness of the LORD.
{33:6} By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.
{33:7} He gathereth the waters of the sea together as an heap: he layeth up the depth in storehouses.
{33:8} Let all the earth fear the LORD: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.
{33:9} For he spake, and it was [done;] he commanded, and it stood fast.
{33:10} The LORD bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nought: he maketh the devices of the people of none effect.
{33:11} The counsel of the LORD standeth for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations.
{33:12} Blessed [is] the nation whose God [is] the LORD: [and] the people [whom] he hath chosen for his own inheritance.
{33:13} The LORD looketh from heaven; he beholdeth all the sons of men.
{33:14} From the place of his habitation he looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth.
{33:15} He fashioneth their hearts alike; he considereth all their works.
{33:16} There is no king saved by the multitude of an host: a mighty man is not delivered by much strength.
{33:17} An horse [is] a vain thing for safety: neither shall he deliver [any] by his great strength.
{33:18} Behold, the eye of the LORD [is] upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy;
{33:19} To deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine.
{33:20} Our soul waiteth for the LORD: he [is] our help and our shield.
{33:21} For our heart shall rejoice in him, because we have trusted in his holy name.
{33:22} Let thy mercy, O LORD, be upon us, according as we hope in thee.
***
The truth is outside of ourselves, only found in Jesus.
We're trapped in ourselves when we believe we can find any hope in ourselves outside of Jesus.
Life with all its heartaches and pains, illnesses and accidents, it can wrap itself around us drawing us away from Jesus as we only become absorbed with ourselves. Jesus is the truth, our Savior from the sin that has such a vile hold upon us. We need to step outside ourselves completely and trust in Him and Him only.
Easy to say? Hard to do? Only if we don't want the truth. Only if...
Eph. {4:17} This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind
{4:18} Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:
{4:19} Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness
**
We aren't past feeling, we know, we see and we have to believe that Christ is our hope, our truth. Even if we don't feel right, we can know that beyond feeling we have Jesus as our Savior, Jesus who alone can save us from sin and the sin in our lives.
May Christ bless and keep us in Him even when life wraps us up in a thick, black darkness of hopelessness. We have to grasp the truth beyond feeling.
You can be born into a family of royalty- and know you're of royalty, but you don't have to live a life as one born of royalty you can turn your back on it all and throw away all the trappings of being royal- but it won't make you any less born of royalty. We are all called to be children of the King, but we don't have to wear the trappings, we can deny our heritage in Christ, we can deny Christ, but that doesn't change that we are called to be His children. Beyond the feelings, the emotions that can often trap us with their insidious hold over our lives blinding us to our freedom in Christ through His truth, beyond all that we can know. When things are the darkest the light is found in Christ. We can know, even when we feel further from the truth than ever. Let us use our knowledge beyond the feeling. Know.
May God bless and keep us all in His loving embrace through His son, through the grace and mercy of the truth in Jesus now and always.
Amen.
Monday, September 15, 2008
Let us be redeemed by God now and forever.
Ps. {31:5} ‘Into thine hand I commit my spirit: thou hast redeemed me, O LORD God of truth.’
God of truth.
The only God.
The only truth.
You can serve any god you want but there is only One God of truth.
David here isn’t dying, and yet he’s committing his spirit into God’s hand.
Our lives are made up of the spiritual, though people won’t often call it what it is, they use emotions to take the place of spiritual and that’s something very tricky. I’m in good spirits they’ll say, or I’m in low spirits- they’re talking about spirits in a way that take God out of the spiritual and that’s fine, it’s just not including the spirit we can commit to God.
‘Into thine hand I commit my spirit..’
Do we commit our spirit to God?
The part of us that can only be truly satisfied by God is a part that can be corrupt. Once again it’s is a part we can claim as our own to fill, or try to get another to fill, or we even try ‘things’ to fill that spot. We have to choose to commit our spirit to God, it’s not something that will ever be forced.
We can’t make the mistake that our will is only pointed towards God upon death. There are different meanings for the word spirit, and that’s a study all it’s own. When we commit our spirit into God’s hand we are redeemed. He is our Lord God of truth and we need our spirits connected with His.
God of truth.
Truth.
Who among us doesn’t want truth?
There are so many lies in our lives, so many we are told all the time. We equate lawyers with ‘bloodsucking liars’, we say politicians are all liars they have to be because they are immersed in a world of nothing but lies. The world we term as corporate is almost synonymous with lies and lying. People are duped, conned, the wool is pulled over their eyes and it hurts. Every single lie hurts something inside us. Those lying, those lied to and yet it never ends- it can’t seem to end. The old saying that we weave tangled webs when we start to lie is so true. Webs that we get caught up in so easily.
There are no sticky webs of lies with God, none. He is the truth.
We need to commit our lives to God, all of our lives, every part of our lives.
Truth.
Ps. {31:5} ‘Into thine hand I commit my spirit: thou hast redeemed me, O LORD God of truth.’
We need to commit our spirit to God, all of us. We need to place ourselves into His hand, He is the God of Truth.
We need truth.
We need God.
We need the love God possesses.
May God help us to see that the truth of Him is life, the only real life, the only real hope we have, everything else is lies.
With David let us cry to God—
Ps. {31:5} ‘Into thine hand I commit my spirit: thou hast redeemed me, O LORD God of truth.’
Let us be redeemed by God now and forever.
God of truth.
The only God.
The only truth.
You can serve any god you want but there is only One God of truth.
David here isn’t dying, and yet he’s committing his spirit into God’s hand.
Our lives are made up of the spiritual, though people won’t often call it what it is, they use emotions to take the place of spiritual and that’s something very tricky. I’m in good spirits they’ll say, or I’m in low spirits- they’re talking about spirits in a way that take God out of the spiritual and that’s fine, it’s just not including the spirit we can commit to God.
‘Into thine hand I commit my spirit..’
Do we commit our spirit to God?
The part of us that can only be truly satisfied by God is a part that can be corrupt. Once again it’s is a part we can claim as our own to fill, or try to get another to fill, or we even try ‘things’ to fill that spot. We have to choose to commit our spirit to God, it’s not something that will ever be forced.
We can’t make the mistake that our will is only pointed towards God upon death. There are different meanings for the word spirit, and that’s a study all it’s own. When we commit our spirit into God’s hand we are redeemed. He is our Lord God of truth and we need our spirits connected with His.
God of truth.
Truth.
Who among us doesn’t want truth?
There are so many lies in our lives, so many we are told all the time. We equate lawyers with ‘bloodsucking liars’, we say politicians are all liars they have to be because they are immersed in a world of nothing but lies. The world we term as corporate is almost synonymous with lies and lying. People are duped, conned, the wool is pulled over their eyes and it hurts. Every single lie hurts something inside us. Those lying, those lied to and yet it never ends- it can’t seem to end. The old saying that we weave tangled webs when we start to lie is so true. Webs that we get caught up in so easily.
There are no sticky webs of lies with God, none. He is the truth.
We need to commit our lives to God, all of our lives, every part of our lives.
Truth.
Ps. {31:5} ‘Into thine hand I commit my spirit: thou hast redeemed me, O LORD God of truth.’
We need to commit our spirit to God, all of us. We need to place ourselves into His hand, He is the God of Truth.
We need truth.
We need God.
We need the love God possesses.
May God help us to see that the truth of Him is life, the only real life, the only real hope we have, everything else is lies.
With David let us cry to God—
Ps. {31:5} ‘Into thine hand I commit my spirit: thou hast redeemed me, O LORD God of truth.’
Let us be redeemed by God now and forever.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Declaring His truth, His love for us.
Ps. {30:9} What profit is there in my blood, when I go down to the pit?
Shall the dust praise thee?
shall it declare thy ********TRUTH******?
{30:10} Hear, O LORD, and have mercy upon me LORD,
be thou my helper.
**In death, we don’t praise God.
In death, we don’t declare God’s truth.
Declaring God’s truth.
I’ve been reading from a book called, ‘Mere Christianity’ by C.S. Lewis. Now, I don’t agree with it 100%, but I have to say 98% of it has hit home. Lewis tried to right a book that when outside of any one Christian faith, not for Catholics or Protestants be for any Christian or either main faith. I think for the most part he succeeded. If you haven’t read the book you should.
I bring up the book because in it Lewis talks in one section about living for heaven. I’m not going to give exact quotes, but he says something along the lines of if we live for heaven we’ll automatically live life here in a much better way. How those who don’t live for heaven actually have less respect for life here. It’s sort of paradoxical but I can understand what he was trying to say.
Living for heaven as a reality, a place where we will one day live, a place promised to us to be free of all the pain that we encounter in our lives, and others in theirs, a place where Jesus our Lord and Savior lives, living with heaven in our sights can be amazing. Knowing that the here and now isn’t all there is, it something Jesus did, something Jesus taught. He taught hope and placed the hope where it belonged- in Heaven.
Right here in this particular truth Psalm it says-
Ps. {30:9} What profit is there in my blood, when I go down to the pit?
Shall the dust praise thee?
shall it declare thy ********TRUTH******?
{30:10} Hear, O LORD, and have mercy upon me LORD,
be thou my helper.
**
In death we are not able to praise God. In death we cannot declare the Lord’s truth.
We are to praise God and declare His truth.
John {17:17} Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
John {1:1} In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
{1:2} The same was in the beginning with God.
{1:3} All things were made by him;
and without him was not any thing made that was made.
{1:4} In him was life;
and the life was the light of men.
{1:5} And the light shineth in darkness;
and the darkness comprehended it not.
John {1:14} And the Word was made flesh,
And dwelt among us,
and we beheld his glory,
the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,
full of grace and truth.
**
Jesus is the truth, His way is the truth, He became man and brought with him grace and truth.
Declaring His truth, His love for us.
Jesus came to earth and sacrificed Himself for us out of love, and His apostles declared His truth, we are all to declare His truth in our lives, all of us.
Help us oh Lord God to declare Your truth, Your love, life in You now while we live. We can’t witness of You and Your love and mercy once we are dead, we have to witness for You now and we need You in us to do so. Bless and keep us Lord, by the mercy of Your amazing, all merciful, all loving Son, Jesus Christ, who came to declare You to the world, now and forever in Him, by His grace.
Amen.
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Christ is our truth, He is our shield and buckler, our protection.
Ps. {91:4} He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust:
his ****TRUTH*** shall be thy shield and buckler.
**
His truth a shield, a protection.
A shield against what?
Protection against what?
1 Pet. {5:8} ‘Be sober,
be vigilant;
because your adversary the devil,
as a roaring lion,
walketh about,
seeking whom he may devour’
Eph. {6:12} ‘For we wrestle not against flesh and blood,
but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.’
**
We have Christ’s truth as our shield and buckler, as our protection. Truth protects us. Not against anything physical, not against the hurricane, the flood, the stalker, the murderer, the thief, not against heartache and pain, not against sorrows and death, no… Christ’s truth is eternal life, life everlasting, the future life, life with Him forever without any of those things. That is the truth, His love for us. The truth is the choice we make to follow after love, to accept the grace of Christ, the mercy He offers us. All we can do is choose. All we can do is make the choice for Him, to be His, to accept Him into our hearts, our lives—He does the rest, but we have to constantly allow him access to us by choosing Him. It’s a constant process in a way many aren’t fully aware of. It’s not something we can take a break from, in fact why would we want to?
We are in the middle of a war, the enemy is raging at us, he’ll stop at nothing to get to us, nothing! We have a protector, why in the world would we ever want to step out from behind that protection? Why? Has the enemy fooled us into thinking that he’s stopped attacking? I think he has, he’s fooled many with that tactic of his- there is no warfare, there is no battle, no fight at all and the air outside the protector’s covering is sweeter somehow, so who needs the protector when there isn’t a war? He’s the great deceiver Satan is, the great deceiver who will stop at not a single tactic to get each of us. The closer we get to Christ the more Satan wants to draw us away and he has ways beyond our imagining to work at us.
We need the constant presence of Christ in our lives. We need His constant protection and we get that by constantly choosing to be His, yes, His.It’s not something we can ever grow slack about. We grow slack and we leave the protection. Christ is our truth, He is our shield and buckler, our protection.Please Lord, please help us to remember always how much we need You in our lives and not just when we kneel to pray, not just when we bow our heads, not just when we wake up or go to sleep, not just when we thank You for the food You provide, not when we’ve made it through some hardship, not just when we’re suffering inconsolably. We need You always every step of the way. Guide us Lord, guide us to You, we want You to live in us, we want to be in You. Help us Lord, help us, protect us. We choose You now and always Lord. Now and always.
Amen.
his ****TRUTH*** shall be thy shield and buckler.
**
His truth a shield, a protection.
A shield against what?
Protection against what?
1 Pet. {5:8} ‘Be sober,
be vigilant;
because your adversary the devil,
as a roaring lion,
walketh about,
seeking whom he may devour’
Eph. {6:12} ‘For we wrestle not against flesh and blood,
but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.’
**
We have Christ’s truth as our shield and buckler, as our protection. Truth protects us. Not against anything physical, not against the hurricane, the flood, the stalker, the murderer, the thief, not against heartache and pain, not against sorrows and death, no… Christ’s truth is eternal life, life everlasting, the future life, life with Him forever without any of those things. That is the truth, His love for us. The truth is the choice we make to follow after love, to accept the grace of Christ, the mercy He offers us. All we can do is choose. All we can do is make the choice for Him, to be His, to accept Him into our hearts, our lives—He does the rest, but we have to constantly allow him access to us by choosing Him. It’s a constant process in a way many aren’t fully aware of. It’s not something we can take a break from, in fact why would we want to?
We are in the middle of a war, the enemy is raging at us, he’ll stop at nothing to get to us, nothing! We have a protector, why in the world would we ever want to step out from behind that protection? Why? Has the enemy fooled us into thinking that he’s stopped attacking? I think he has, he’s fooled many with that tactic of his- there is no warfare, there is no battle, no fight at all and the air outside the protector’s covering is sweeter somehow, so who needs the protector when there isn’t a war? He’s the great deceiver Satan is, the great deceiver who will stop at not a single tactic to get each of us. The closer we get to Christ the more Satan wants to draw us away and he has ways beyond our imagining to work at us.
We need the constant presence of Christ in our lives. We need His constant protection and we get that by constantly choosing to be His, yes, His.It’s not something we can ever grow slack about. We grow slack and we leave the protection. Christ is our truth, He is our shield and buckler, our protection.Please Lord, please help us to remember always how much we need You in our lives and not just when we kneel to pray, not just when we bow our heads, not just when we wake up or go to sleep, not just when we thank You for the food You provide, not when we’ve made it through some hardship, not just when we’re suffering inconsolably. We need You always every step of the way. Guide us Lord, guide us to You, we want You to live in us, we want to be in You. Help us Lord, help us, protect us. We choose You now and always Lord. Now and always.
Amen.
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