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Monday, February 13, 2012

The Devotional – A Look at the Book #647


by Jesse Abel


Meditate on this!
There is a difference in seeds, even a child can tell this difference. The Word of God is clearly identified as Seed. One notable difference between godly Seed and ungodly seed is faith… faith working with the Word. There is no working faith in religion even though there may be some of the seed. John 8:37-41.
Hope deferred makes the heart sick Proverbs 13:12, this is a hope that the world uses as a standard rule. “Awe… just give it time and it will heal” well not exactly; this hope is the hope of the ungodly who carries despair too the grave and while it may be the answer for the natural man; it is not the answer for that soul of the natural man that lives forever and is the property of God. The unsaved person lives in a continual state of hopelessness. Say what Jesse? I said that ungodly people who you and I know live in a continual state of hopelessness. The houses (or more clearly… their tents) of these relatives and neighbors live in are located on; Lonely Lane, Discouragement Avenue, Fear Road, Guilty Way, Temptation Cul-de-sac, Worry Boulevard, Procrastination Project, Jealousy Annex, Failure Highway, Resentment Route and Anger Alley. All of these pathways lead to an eventual dead end (the tent meets the grave). The apostle Paul clearly states in Acts 20:26 that he is innocent of the blood of all men. What does he mean and is he reflecting on an Old Testament report from God through one of His Prophets? Turn with me to the book of Ezekiel 33:1-11 and see why the apostle says he is innocent. Now the question for all of us is; can we say as the apostle does that we too are innocent, or is there a gap in our true testimony of being saved by grace; Ephesians 2:1-10 and if there is what would that gap look like? I believe that it would not look like Matthew 5:9 – Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. We tend to leave positional truth out of our testimony; thus we fail the full counsel of God Acts 20:27 and Ephesians 2:6-7.

James
James 1:9-11 –If our faith is unstable in the Word of the Living God, as anything you might consider as unstable; it will fail unless the instability is corrected. Human resources are not stable so the rich and the poor are alike. One glories in his lack and the other is humbled and both the poor and the rich fade into nothing with time. Job 14:2. The first recorded incident of this is found in Genesis. Abel offered a sacrifice of Faith while Cain offered a sacrifice of works. One work was solid, the other unstable. Genesis 4:1-15

James 1:12 – James is not jumping from one thought to another as some might think, his message is clear in that the circumstances of life play an important role when it comes to trial or temptation. His message is that we should profit from trials and be encouraged when temptation comes. Remember earlier he said; “Count it all joy when you fall into various trials”. We tend to avoid trials and temptation at all cost and rather rich or poor (it matters not) we will be tempted and the trials of life will be the driver.

What is the crown of life that James speaks of here, Job 5:17 identifies the crown as the “joy of the LORD” when we are corrected by the Almighty. Luke 6:12-13 identifies the crown as the “joy of the LORD” in time and eternity. Hebrews 10:36 identifies reward as a promise from the LORD. And James 5:11 identifies the identity of the crown as “endurance”.

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