The Devotional - A Look at the Book #699

The Devotional – A Look at the Book 699

Many treat the LORD as a fast food restaurant. We come to the call box make our request; draw near to Him and receive forgiveness. Then, we wipe our mouth and soon forget who we are; in Christ. This means that we have forgotten some of the response found in James 4:1-9, false humility and pride promote strife rather than the intended grace and peace which bring about the Joy of the LORD.

Many of you know that I just switched computers, now you would think that this is no big; to some it might be easy but for those like me who are not computer savvy, it can be mentally painful. I have all the tools on the computer as I had on the older one, but it seems these are in different locations and the reactions are not the same as the old and the program managers say; “that is because it is newer and better”. Maybe true, I’ve not figured that out yet.

One of the tools (major in my thoughts) is that I cannot get www.filehorde.com/jesse to work as it did in the past since that blog spot does not recognize Microsoft Word thus I cannot get the scripture verses to pop up as these did in the past. Why, take this time to tell you? Well again I am looking for help. I am wondering if there might be another site that I can use.

Let’s go back to Philippians. I love the Word of God and yes I’ve said this before, but if you say that you love Someone, it would not be very good if you said it only once in a lifetime. I know some out there is thinking… well Jesse the Bible is just words! Bah-humbug to you dear friend; have you not noticed. Genesis 1:3 “and God said”, or John 1:1 “and the Word was God” and 1 John 1:1 you might just as well read that verse on your own, John is speaking of Jesus. So! Which what is easier to say? I love the Word; or I love Jesus, His Father and the Holy Spirit.

Now back to Philippians. The apostle was in prison during the writing of this epistle, he was imprisoned twice in his lifetime but there is no way of telling whether this letter was written in the first or second imprisonment, but this has no effect in the message. The message of this epistle at least for me is the potential of the joy of the LORD available to every believer. Scofield references that the key verse is Philippians 1:21, I like that too, however I like this as a key passage; Philippians 2:5-11

One of the attributes of joy in the LORD is found in verse 4 of chapter 2. “Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also the interests of others. This means that we have to take into account verse 3 as well. Selfish ambition and conceit is not a humble mind or attitude. The mind of Christ esteems others over His own interests and we should be like minded. This brings verse 2 into focus. If there is any consolation in Christ, any comfort of love, any fellowship in the Spirit, if any affection and mercy; these will only be accomplished by those of us who abide in the gospel of Jesus Christ, obedient to the point of death. I love the Word of God in context.