A Devotional Look at the Book #537

A Devotional Look at the Book #537

by Jesse Abel

A Thought for today by Papa “J”

The nickel on the nightstand: Is never alone, it is always seen whether literally with the eye or in the minds eye. To the child this is temptation and without proper training the nickel will produce sin, James 1:14-15

A DAY IN THE PAST, THE PRESENT OR THE FUTURE

Some of us older generation remember the song by Pete Seeger: “Where have all the flowers gone?” The song sung by he and his wife Tao conveyed the message that everything created eventually goes to the graveyard. The song (a poem) was written in 1961 by Pete Seeger is a stoic expression; while it creates the thought of pain and suffering in ones mind, it totally rejects the idea to suffer since everything in the song ends with death as the victor. A message of no hope of recovery; thus life having no intrinsic value is not worthy of the reward of living, nor to suffer the pain of dying. Well what does this song have to do with things today? “Where have all the nations gone?” They’ve gone to Hell… yes every one!” What should be done? Shall we stop living like everyone? Should we stop looking at the flowers of our Creator? Should young men stop chasing young women? Should we stop building families who may of necessity send their children to war? Well guess what? We have; many of us today do not have an aroma of life about us; our nation smells like death. Smelling of deadly abortions, of same sex marriages that reek with the death odor of aids. Our children are fat with complacency and disobedience; the aroma of the living dead. Those of us who believe in Jesus Christ must be willing to preach the gospel. The door is open by the LORD Himself. He is the sweeter, He is the living aroma of Life so let us stop peddling religion and start again to be sincere, as from God. 2 Corinthians 2:12-17

2 Corinthians

2 Corinthians 1:12-14 – Speaking of being sincere; there are many people peddling religion today who are not sincere. There are those who say that if you trust in God you will prosper materially and there are those who will tell you that when you trust in God you will be healed of all disease past, present and future. And if they can sell it to you that they have the answer to the end times they will! All of this is done in the name of Jesus Christ (fact) and spoken of as truth (fiction). Paul identifies this lack of sincerity as apostasy 1 Timothy 4:1-5

Apostasy is a lack of sticking to the truth; meaning that some depart from the truth in order to bring into the church a lot of people who are unsaved by offering things that appeal to the world. Promises and priorities that appeal to the unsaved are nothing more than gimmicks that actually backfire on a church. This causes the leadership to fall into revisionism. Now here is a word that has literally been extracted from the Bible, meaning that the leadership finds no future value in standing firm on the foundation to preach the Word. 2 Timothy 4:1-5 so they have retreated to other methods of working for God.

So to boast in part or in whole will mean little at the judgment seat of Christ. The sincere in Christ will have a reward; this is already established as we will see as we travel through this epistle. The foolish in Christ will have a reward as well and this will also be revealed as we study. I love the Word of the Living God and He tells me that death does not have a victory and this is my confidence and I hope yours as well. 1 Corinthians 15:50-58