Thursday’s Blog – Are you Blessed?

Thursday’s Blog – Are you Blessed?

Psalm 1:1-3 – Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly (wicked). Nor stands in the path of sinners (guilty); nor sits in the seat of the scornful (complainer); But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates (ponders by talking to himself) day and night.

Bible Challenges and Comments

When I first understood and believed the gospel of Jesus Christ in May of 1975 I could just barely read and in those days it was the King James Version of the Holy Bible that most churches used. Therefore I did not read or pray openly. Now I am not alone in this, there are many people who struggle with public speaking in any form. Their self-esteem is covered in a myriad of “guilty” vocal expressions and body language that blanket who they really are.

These folks do not even know who they are; what direction to go in and/or what they might find around the next corner. For those who are saved by the grace of God, there begins a miracle of change. For me in those days I decided to memorize Psalm 1 and to my surprise I did and also noted that it did not take long. Also I read the entire book of Job in nearly one evening. For me this too was a miracle; hardly able to read and the only religious expression I knew by heart was the Catholic rosary by rote or mechanical repetition in my younger years.

Oh friend, blessed (joyful) is the man or woman or child who ceases to walk in the world’s counsel of ungodliness, blessed also is the man or woman or child who stops complaining about the path ahead or behind them, and too blessed in are these same people who know their sins are covered in the blood of Christ, their guilt is removed and God does not remember their sin anymore. You see for me there was a day when I noticed that Jesus was more than just a man who died on a cross. I saw Him for the first time as John the Baptizer explains. “BEHOLD! The LAMB of GOD who takes away the sin (guilty) of the world”, John 1:29.

There is not a greater “JOY” to know and live in the light of this truth. Another Psalm helps me sum this up. Psalm 103:11-14 says this. “For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward those who fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us and as a father pities his children, so the LORD pities those who fear Him. For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust”.

In the thought of fearing God, many people believe that they must be afraid of Him, but this would be “untrue” as the biblical expression of believing God is to express a change of heart about God and hold Him in respect and awe. If your heart is not changed then you will not have this confession of fear toward God. “That if you confess with your mouth the LORD Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him for the dead, you will be saved” – Romans 10:9.

Thursday’s Blog – Awesome!

Thursday’s Blog – Awesome!

Proverbs 20:10 and 20:23 – Shaving just as small portion from the pound or the inch is an abomination to the LORD. Why? All the weights of the bag are His work; Proverbs 16:11.

Bible Challenges and Comments

Isaiah 44:24-28 – Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, And He who formed you from the womb: "I am the Lord, who makes all things, Who stretches out the heavens all alone, Who spreads abroad the earth by Myself; Who frustrates the signs of the babblers, And drives diviners mad; Who turns wise men backward, And makes their knowledge foolishness; Who confirms the word of His servant, And performs the counsel of His messengers; Who says to Jerusalem, 'You shall be inhabited,' To the cities of Judah, 'You shall be built,' And I will raise up her waste places; Who says to the deep, 'Be dry! And I will dry up your rivers'; Who says of Cyrus, 'He is My shepherd, And he shall perform all My pleasure, Saying to Jerusalem, "You shall be built," And to the temple, "Your foundation shall be laid." '

God did not need help in Creation and He alone accomplished the work. In verse 24 of this exhortation from Isaiah the words “all alone” are literally “by Himself” the power of this statement includes the thought that God has for those who believe the lie of evolution in that the many voices of evolution are nothing more than “babble”. Think about this… in the history of Creation and pro-creation the One God has a perfect record in that He alone makes all things; while mankind offers all sorts of records of failure nothing more than “babble”.

Since the time of Adam to Abraham, God has confirmed His Word through His servants and from the time of Abraham to Jesus God has given counsel by His messengers. God provides for His people. Who are His people, these men, women and children are the nation of Israel, He alone has kept that nation for Himself, while most all of the nations of the world have sought to destroy the Jew. Yet Israel still stand, and stand it will. God, even saying to Jerusalem, “You shall be built” and to the temple “Your foundation shall be laid”.

How will God do this? Hebrews 1:1-4 – God, who at various times and in different ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds (lit. ages). Who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the Word of His power, when He had (here it is again) By HIMSELF purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. Having become so much better than the angels as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.

Thursday’s Blog – Two thoughts or Three!

Thursday’s Blog – Two thoughts or Three!

Proverbs 13:7 – There is one who makes himself rich, but has nothing; and one who makes himself poor, yet has great riches.

Bible Challenges and Comments

Poverty and Prosperity; by human definition these two words divide the rich and the poor to the point of “shame on you Mr. Poor and praise to you Mr. Rich”. Yet and have you noticed, by biblical definition the reverse is true. “Praise to you Mr. Poor and shame on you Mr. Rich”. This does not mean that it is bad or good to be either and I sense that both are of equal value to the LORD God; a parity. God loves all people; no exception.

Proverbs 22:2 – The rich and the poor have this in common. The LORD is the maker of them all. Not only does God form the rich and the poor in the womb – (Psalm 139:13-16 – For You have formed my inward parts; You have covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book, they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them) but He also has a plan and purpose for each of us. 

What is God’s Plan and Purpose for you and me? In our world today we have become distracted from God and have you noticed; many people have plans about life, but they have no purpose for living. The apostle James puts this thought in perspective with these words. James 4:1-4 – Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war (battle). Yet you do not have because you do not ask.

You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures, adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity (warring) with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Without purpose for living (brothers and sisters) we as believers (the church) appear to be moving toward richness in worldliness and poor in the Spirit. As God moves His Church toward the translation (rapture) 1 Corinthians 15:50-52 and 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, let us challenge one another to the good work of becoming rich the Spirit and poor in worldliness.

Thursday’s Blog – Divine or Natural?

Thursday’s Blog – Divine or Natural?

Proverbs 6:12-13 – A worthless person, a wicked man, walks with a perverse mouth. He winks with his eyes, he shuffles his feet (gives signals). He points with his fingers. Perversity is in his heart, he devises evil continually; he sows discord. Therefore his calamity shall come suddenly; suddenly he shall be broken, without remedy.

Bible Challenges and Comments

When is the last time you checked your body language? For the world; communication can be as common as a wink and as understandable as a shuffle of the foot. One can even redirect the house pet with his or her fingers. Evil then is continual threat to the saint of God. Presently in our studies at church on Monday evenings we are reading through the book, “He that is Spiritual” by Lewis Sperry Chafer, a great help resource for understanding the gift of God and the absolute Spiritual nature of the believer. The saint is either absolutely filled with his or her natural mind of evil, or they are absolutely filled with the Divine mind of Christ by the indwelling Holy Spirit.

I need to share a quote from the book since I believe it may help us to understand the two natures that are very much seeking to control our daily activity. Mr. Chafer in describing the natural man and the spiritual man from 1 John 1:1-10 makes the following statement; Page 147 referring to 1 John 1:10.

(“The source of sin then, is the sin nature, rather than the new divine nature. This important truth is pointed out in this same epistle in a passage which primarily teaches that the Christian does not now practice sin as he did before he received the new divine nature, but which also teaches that sin cannot be TRACED to the divine nature as its source”.)

This is an important statement about the two natures that war for control in the life of every saint of God. If you are born-again; or more literally; born from above then the Spirit of God lives (not with you) but in you (Romans 8:8-11). So then! Sin cannot be traced to the New Divine nature of Grace. Sin can only be traced to the natural nature of our old self. Thus the Spiritual Person has no body language that is understood by the world around them. 1 Corinthians 2:1-16.

And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written: "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him."

But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.

These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For "who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?" But we have the mind of Christ.