The Devotional – 1442 – Are you a Lobster?

The Devotional – 1442 – Are you a Lobster?

Proverbs 31:8-9 – Open your mouth for the speechless, in the cause of all who are appointed (passing away) to die. Open your mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and the needy.

Comments and challenges

Waiting for my turn to enter the simulated smoke filled room, I was told to put on the white cover. The cover was to keep me from seeing the obstacles and obstructions inside the room. All of us were training to become firefighters. For us there was little danger the simulated smoke would not affect us in anyway there was no heat from a fire and this was our first encounter with the use of the fireman’s air pack called the SCPA.

Months later; at the end of our training the final test was to go into a building where fire was present. This too was simulated and controlled, but it was hot and the simulator was capable of doing what fires do best… scare you! Fire roll overs are intimidating in that the fire reaches the ceiling and rolls across to the other side, then down that wall and then travels up behind you and if you are not careful you of this you will know how the lobster feels just before it turns red.

The enemy is the fire and according to Proverbs 30:16 the words says this, we will need to back up to verse 15 – The leech has two daughters crying. “Give! Give!” there is three things that are never satisfied, four things that never say enough. The grave, the barren womb, the earth that is not satisfied with water, and the fire that never says, “It is enough”!

Without going into great detail, Agur is saying, there is no life in the grave, the barren womb, a parched land or a consuming fire. But then! One does not need to be a “rocket scientist” to see the effects of a world where life is consumed and we are surrounded by the graves of those babies whose parents were CARE LESS. By adults who have DISOBEYED their parents and are filled with all sorts of sexual immorality. Romans 1:29.

Our land is parched with the lack of water in some areas and overfilled with water in other areas. Some would say that this is just the ecosystem is out of balance, these people ignore God who is a consuming fire and say things like: “where is the promise of His coming?” 2 Peter 3:4. My thought is… “You blind fool” God is at your back and ready to turn you into a “Lobster”!

Many of us reject that the “Laws of Creation” belong SOLEY to God; Proverbs 8 and it is He who controls the beginning and the end. He has done this from the very beginning of time, why because He is God and knows the ending of time. We know that God has developed the Laws of Living Life, but we volitionally disobey these laws. We create programs, plans and policies that do not WORK and instead of returning to God, we add to our misery by our ever increasing ignorance. “His counsel will stand and He will do all He has promised to do: Okay enough said. On your own please read; Isaiah 46:8-12.

The Devotional – 1441 – Standing Bold!

The Devotional – 1441 – Standing Bold!

Proverbs 28:1-2 – The wicked flee when no one pursues, but the righteous are bold as a lion. Because of the transgression of a land, many are its princes; but by a man of understanding and knowledge Right will be prolonged.

Comments and challenges

Sometimes when looking into the Written Word of the Living God, Who by the Way is the Creator and Savior of the world as in the gospel of John – “For God so loved the world”, the Greek (kosmos) meaning the “orderly arrangement” which literally includes the inhabitants of the world, is adored by God. Look up this word in Vines concordance; it is 2889 in the Greek section. So the thought that boldly travels through my mind is… “How could God so love this world”? Just a mere glimpse of any street corner is enough to make one chilled to the bone in fear.

We have heard in churches throughout this land and if you are fortunate to have visited some other countries and gone to these churches, you have even heard in these lands the same message. “For God so loved the world” What? Again, how could God love this world? It is not this present condition of the world that God loves, God hates sin; God loves the world. This for me is serious and I hope it will be for you as well, so let me add this. PAY ATTENTION!

Before SIN entered into the world in which we now live, God was so very pleased with His Creation that He writes in Genesis 1:31 – Then God saw everything that He had made, and INDEED (beheld and approved) it was VERY GOOD. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day. Also on the day that God completed Creation, God saw the earth as; beautiful, the best, bountiful, cheerful, at ease (rest). He found it as a glad and joyful place, a place where LOVE is, a merry place and a pleasant place; a place that pleases Him and His inhabitants. It is a place of sweetness.

You say; Jesse! How do you know this? Just take the moment if you have a Vines concordance and look up the words; BEHOLD and VERY GOOD and you will see the same as me. So God rested on the seventh day from all His work. “What a joyful rest this must be, everything that God did at this time in Creation was in perfect order and God approved. Now you know the story that follows, but it is not the END of the STORY. Praise God, it is AWESOME to know the full story and if you believe in the only begotten Son of God, you can know the WHOLE story.

From this vantage point in eternity and remember, eternity has no beginning or ending so the mindset of God is still… “For God so loved the world, (remember – He beheld and approved of His work). At the time appointed God again submitted a work of Himself; that being His only begotten Son”. He will call out those and is calling out those who believe Him through His Son (John 14:1). God has appointed His Son as the sacrifice for sin in that believing in Him no one should perish.

To perish is to reject the perfect place of the sweetness of God’s love and experience the following: “And it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment” Hebrews 9:27, to accept God at His Word, you will experience the following; So Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation, Hebrews 9:28.

Hmm, my intention was to write a few words about Proverbs 28:1-2, well maybe I did only God knows for sure!

The Devotional – 1440 – The rock and the hard spot!

The Devotional – 1440 – The rock and the hard spot!

Proverbs 26: 27 – Whoever digs a pit will fall into it and he who rolls a stone will have it roll back on him. A lying tongue hates those who are crushed by it and a flattering mouth works ruin.

Comments and challenges

I took a peek into the book of Ecclesiastes this morning… as a result it could be good to open up my thoughts and see what I am thinking. A part of a verse in Ecclesiastes 5:2 reads this way in the NKJV. “For God is in heaven and you on earth.” The context surrounding these words have to do with making promises; promises to God who seeks “fear” (reverence) over “sacrifice” (ritual) or a promise that we cannot keep.

What I would like to pull from the statement is the thought that Solomon has regarding the dwelling place of God and the dwelling place of you and me. Now it may seem a bit “farfetched” and maybe it is since I seem to lean in that direction from time to time; but here it is. 

Solomon as other writers, both Old and New Testament refer to God, the angels and the saints who are in God’s presence as “In heaven” not “on heaven” and when referring to the ministry (life, or first advent) of the LORD Jesus Christ on earth, or angels and people, the reference to the whereabouts of these is “on earth”, I for one find this most interesting. Just a brief thought on this raises many questions.

For one: To be IN HEAVEN is to be in a place that is permanent and to be ON EARTH is to be on a platform that is temporal. Here is another: Since heaven is a place of permanence, any Word coming from heaven has to be absolute TRUTH in judgment and justice, while words spoken on the earth (except those of the LORD Jesus Christ) are relative (the mixing of truth and false principles) to judgment and justice.

Matthew 6:9-13 when Jesus was teaching His disciples to pray, He used this same “in heaven and on earth” principle. God’s Will is always carried out in heaven and it is God’s desire to see His Will accomplished on earth. Yet this is only two thirds of the thought.

Not only should we see this permanent and temporal “in heaven and on earth” principle, but we should also see the permanent and temporal aspects of being in the world. We refer to this as the “world system” which belongs to Satan and his fallen angels. The apostle John in 1 John 2:15-17 explains this very well.

The world system is a system of good and evil or as I mentioned earlier, a system of (true and false) or as some have called the world system a counterfeit system. Also we can see the strength of these three entities. Heaven is a permanent place; the earth is a temporal abode for all of God’s Creation and the world is a “stronghold” of false judgment and injustice.

Speaking to you and me is the apostle John in 1 John 4:4; he says – You are of God, little children and have overcome them, because He that is in you is greater than he who is in the world. (See the context: 1 John 4:1-4) And you remember in reading 1 John 2:17 – the world is passing away. If you are a believer in Jesus this truth is the justice of God for you. If you are an unbeliever, then this truth is the judgment of God for you. The world is dying, do not be a fool and die with it.

There seems to be a lot that we could do with this if there were the time to devote to it. Maybe as the days go by we could take a deeper look.

The Devotional – 1439 – Honeycomb!

The Devotional – 1439 – Honeycomb!

Proverbs 24:13-14 – My son, eat honey because it is good, and the honeycomb which is sweet to your taste; so shall the knowledge of wisdom be to your soul. If you have found it, there is a prospect (latter end), and your hope will not be cut off.

Comments and challenges

The last time I took a bite out of a honeycomb will be my first. What about you? It is not common these days to find honeycomb in the market and it is not something readily available at the local candy store. On the other hand there is a lot of honey around and a variety of products that contain honey.

If you think about this in the way Solomon has you might be surprised that the same is true about wisdom and knowledge. There is little use of Wisdom in the world around us; much like the honeycomb, it is available but hard to find. Of course if you go to a college or university the shelves drip with knowledge; but little wisdom.

At one of our services in church our pastor was sharing that one of his favorite chapters in Proverbs is chapter 8. I wanted to shout since it is one of my favorites too. Notice if you will Proverbs 8:12. “I wisdom dwell with prudence, and find out knowledge and discretion”. The world around us has this entirely backwards.

The world around us teaches the young to depart from the foundation of family and church. The world teaches the young person to taste the knowledge of life from contaminated sources of that ooze from the current technology of the world. 

Now it is your turn to say; is not technology applied wisdom? NO! Technology is a mechanical art or science developed for the purpose of disseminating knowledge or to make life easier without wisdom. The wisdom of technology has long ago lost all ability to be prudent (sound judgment and cautious practices) and all of the technological products are not managed well by those who own them. 

In this thought: Wisdom being the container of knowledge, like the honeycomb being the container of honey! If the honey bee bags up pollen that is contaminated, it will produce contaminated honey and in the same way; wisdom is contaminated by a lack of sound judgment and poor parental caution.

The table is set for the future of our children who are dining on contaminated knowledge from objects that have no fear of God and have only a love for evil. Talk to any child today who has one of these gadgets in their hand and you will quickly see that you are not getting through to them. They are as Proverbs 8:13b describes, full of “pride and arrogance and the evil way”. What is in your child’s hand?