The Devotional - #017

A Thought for the Day – 017

No one I know wants to be labeled as ignorant or stupid. However if what you know is not founded upon the solid rock of faith, your wisdom foundation is missing a pillar or two. Proverbs 9:1; Matthew 16:18; 1 Corinthians 3:9-10; Ephesians 2:20-22 and 1 Peter 2:5.

Comments and challenges

Once again I am experiencing internet and email problems; there are at least two objects that need clearing up before things get back to normal. ONE: Yahoo mail keeps dumping me out of the system and TWO: I need to resolve the issue of having verses of scripture pop up. Please bear with me while I work with these obstacles. Thank You.

As I have said, many times; I love the Living Word of God. For me the Word of God is Alive; is a Word Picture Book, a Word Story Book, a Word Text Book and a Powerful Work Book. I suppose one could add a few more synonyms, but this enough for us to get the drift of what is on my mind about my love for God’s Word.  Let’s not forget also that the Word of God is Jesus Christ. John 1:1-18 and 1 John 1:1-4.

So, could you be wondering like I did about those seven pillars of wisdom in Proverbs 9:1, as to what these might be? As said by Solomon; “Wisdom has built her house, she has hewn out her seven pillars” some would want to argue that wisdom is the preparation of the banquet table of slaughtered meat, mixed wine, breads and maid servants. This is only part of what Solomon intends for us to know from his exhortation.

Wisdom can only bring us so far in life which is the academics of wisdom. This wisdom must be taken two steps further; one: practical and two: faith. Notice Proverbs 9:10-12. Yet some will scoff and reject FAITH as in; the FEAR of God is the beginning of wisdom.

We have learned from good Pastors and teachers of the Holy Word of God that this “FEAR” is not the outward fear of the coward before a mighty person, but the respect and awe that we give to someone who deserves reverence. Such reverence we find in the prayer that Jesus teaches His disciples to model after in Matthew 6:9-13.

Determining that there is a natural ability for mankind to gain wisdom and concluding that this wisdom alone is insufficient to keep us from being ignorant in some areas of life and downright stupid in other areas we can now take a look at those seven pillars that wisdom includes and of which God has provided. Notice if you will in 2 Peter 1:2-11. Grace and peace to you in your knowledge of God and His Son Jesus Christ; this is awe and reverence of His divine power, as to life and godliness through the knowledge of HIM; (FEAR).

So for the very reason of reverence for God we are to grow with wisdom and faith. Adding to this building a pillar of (1) Virtue; (2) knowledge; (3) self-control; (4) patience; (5) godliness; (6) brotherly kindness and (7) love and as the apostle brings this to light, he adds that; if these attributes are in us and growing that we will not be unfruitful by expressing ignorance or acting stupidly. Spirituality is not relative it is absolute, notice also in closing this morning, Isaiah 11:2.

For Bible Reference: http://www.biblos.com (Temporary fix)

The devotional - #016

A Thought for the Day – 016

Someone has said, “I know that I should not be emotional over objects or circumstances that I have no control over, but I know of no other way to react!” Here is the pathway that works for everyone who will heed it. Proverbs 8:12-14 the opposite of emotion is prudence. So go ahead and be a prude!

Comments and challenges

Being somewhat interested in Naval History, I like stories and pictures of events and battles that have taken place over time on the seas around the world. I would suppose that this interest is founded on the fact that I spent nearly thirty years traversing those seas with the millions of men and women who have this experience too. There are far less of us though who can claim the following, yet the number is still large… thousands upon thousands.

The history of the sailor often involves a flight from one port to another; for example in my day in the Navy we submariners flew from a home base in the states to a home port in Spain or Scotland to our ship. We had the added element of riding that ship back to the states once in a while for major overhaul. So here is the rub if there is one in this. So I have crossed the ocean on the surface, under the surface and over the surface.

Stories of life events need elements that are like stories of the past, but in order for a story or historical event to be interesting enough to search it out, the story must have an element that engages the mind to search it out the facts. For this in biblical matters of Truth, we turn to Deuteronomy 29:29. The secret things belong to the LORD, our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.

I want for us to see that God made a covenant with Israel in the land of Moab while Israel wandered through the wilderness for forty years. In verse 1 we see that God had made another covenant earlier in their journey to the promise land in the land of Horeb; this covenant was the giving of the Law. The people of the nation Israel had seen a Great Light to lead them by night and a pillar of white (a cloud) to lead them by day. To condense this down a bit, Moses says in verse two of Deuteronomy 29; “You have seen all that the LORD did before your eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land… for the remaining detail you could read the remaining twenty-ninth chapter.

The Great Light of the Holy Bible is God, His message is clear; it is also a secret worth searching out. For those of us who have; we have by the grace and mercy of God seen the LIGHT and we are witnesses of our covenant keeping God who is the LIGHT. This then is the element that the world does not experience but remains a secret to those who ignore HIM.

Now is that LIGHT visible to the world today? Most certainly! Notice if you will; this experience that Israel saw first and now is revealed to the rest of the world. John 1:6-13; 1 John 1:5-7 and of course we cannot forget what God said in Genesis 1:3.

Have a great and godly day, for what good is a great day if God is not in it?

The Devotional #015

A Thought for the Day

The Word of God has many warnings regarding sin and the Book of Proverbs is one book that reveals to you and me that there are sins of the flesh that first ruin the PERSON, then the COMMUNITY and then the NATION. Those sins are directly related to the immoral conduct of mankind. In the greatness of folly this peoples and this nation have gone astray. Proverbs 5:1-23

Comments and challenges

Recently in our little town in the “Quiet Corner” of Connecticut as this area is called (that is the Northeast corner) two well-known town men died, I do not what to talk about the details, these are normal events in the life of any town in the United States of America. But I am one who always seeks to see the hand of God in the everyday life of all people. It is He who is and who will always know what is going on and nothing in life or death ever catches Him off guard.

Even we like the nation Israel express false proverbs; speaking through the Prophet Ezekiel; Thee Almighty God explains to Israel that the fathers of the land have consumed sour grapes (false or counterfeit wisdom) and have fed this lie traditionally to their children which resulted in much bitterness as the children matured. This condition in the nation of Israel in those days is much like the condition of our nation today. This information is found in Ezekiel 18:1-18. So what may this have to do with the two men in our town who are now deceased?

God knows those who belong to HIM, He also knows what it takes to belong to HIM and the remaining chapter of Ezekiel will explain this, (Ezekiel 18:19-32) so my point is in the soul of mankind and its destiny since for these two men, eternity, destiny and the Truth of the Holy Bible are already realized by them. Ezekiel 18 is a great passage of scripture; that for me is an open door to this spiritual side of life which we seldom see or think about.

For example; God clearly is concerned about physical life and what we do with it. Physical life is a gift from God to the SOUL which was created by God when you were conceived by your mother and father before you were physically born. Because of sin we are delivered into the world with a nature to sin in the same pattern established by our parents and the traditions of our homeland. This is basically the subject of the first half of Ezekiel 18.

The second half though is God’s personal response to the souls of His chosen nation, but not to just them alone; but to our nation as well as to all nations of the world. Our soul is the only link that connects us to our Creator. It cannot be severed by any human being. You and I belong to God by soul, not by body and it is simple really. God has a compartment somewhere in your personal body where He has put the soul that belongs to HIM. Do you know where it is? No, you do not! Yet and it is not God’s will for you to destroy it, but you can; but again you cannot get rid of it. Only God can do that. Hebrews 4:11-13

There are two men in the Holy Bible who died and you can read the whole context but I am interested in only one verse. Luke 16:19-31, my one verse is Luke 16:22 both men died but both men went to separate locations within the realm of the eternal world. I understand that “Abraham’s bosom” does no longer exist with the resurrection of Christ, but there still remains this wonderful truth that to be absent from the body for the saint of God, is to be present with Him. 2 Corinthians 5:8

So this is my point! I do not know the eternal destiny of the two men who recently passed from this physical earth; but I do know that their souls are very much ALIVE and seated somewhere in God’s eternal PLAN. They are either in the grave with many unrepented souls, or they are in the presence of their Savior. While there is still hope for the living and if you are reading this, you are among the living… if you need too; CHANGE YOUR MIND about God who owns your SOUL. Romans 10:8-10

The Devotional - #014

A Thought for the Day – 014

The path of the just is a way of light, they seldom stumble and keep others from falling too. The way of the unjust is dark; they stumble much and cause others to stumble too. The one in the light knows the Light, sadly the one in the dark, does not know or recognize the one who is who leads their way or why they stumble. Proverbs 4:18-19

Comments and challenges

In the early days of my naval career (which began in February of 1958) all sailors were required to wear their uniforms while on liberty. Some may be saying what is the Navy’s definition of liberty in this capacity? Liberty is the freedom to leave the ship or shore station where it is normally ones duty to be there. In addition to wearing the uniform, a liberty card was required to leave the duty station. Both the uniform and the card were needed to walk about in town.

Those days have long disappeared; even the dress code for a sailor ashore is relaxed to a standard equivalent to the bobbles and beads found in our liberal or relaxed code of dress. Many local neighborhoods today are dangerous for those wearing strange attire. In other words, by simple observation you cannot tell a sailor today from a regular civilian on the street so safety could be considered as important; but is there a rub in this? Of course!

When I became a believer in the LORD Jesus Christ in May of 1975 I observed for the very first time in my life people who were at peace with God and with the people around them. Men and women who made bold testimonies of Christ in them and people who were willing to give sound reasoning of what the LORD Jesus was doing or had done in their life. My thought on this today is like that of the typical sailor today. Both have difficulty explaining who they are simply because they do not stand out in the outstanding clothing of who they represent.

We “so called Christians” seem to lack the luster of being who we say we are. Just as the Navy’s Standard of the Code of Conduct has fallen into the abyss of worldly attire so has the Christian’s Code of Righteousness fallen as well. It is well past the time for us saints or if you prefer (children of God) to wake up from this drunken stupor of friendship with the world. The whole of our salvation is a stake! Really? Yes really!

Deliverance is the thought here; to be delivered first by being “justified in Christ” second to be “sanctified in Christ” and third to be “glorified with Christ”. Have we lost focus of this truth? Just as the sailor is to see himself as all about the Navy, we as believers in Jesus should see ourselves as all about Jesus. It is He who Justified us, it is He who sanctifies us daily and it is He who will one day say to you and me “Well done thou good and faithful servant, or those other words that none of us what said; being identified as a lazy and wicked servant!” Matthew 25:14-30

I know some will say…”Jesse, are you not being a bit legalist”? Could be, but if I look at Romans 13:8-14 I find that this links up very well with the Matthew passage. Yet if you have the time Romans 12:1-31 will give additional thought to the Believer’s code of Righteousness and clothing.

The Devotional #013

A Thought for the Day – 013

One of the ways a nation hides from God is to claim that He does not exist. My thought is simple but this is like trying to hide and elephant in an empty room. God has Power over all He has created and has Omnipresence over every corner of the room!  Proverbs 3:19-26

Comments and challenges

This morning was a good example of what we retain from reading the word of the Living God. Roughly for the past twenty four years we have read a chapter a day out of the book of proverbs. We missed a couple of years when we decided to read through the Holy Bible in a year (did you get that?) anyway you would think that by now we would have the Book of Proverbs memorized. Not so! In fact; this morning my slip of the tongue was “bones” instead of house (Proverbs 3:33).

We laughed and then I said, “I don’t think that the word bone is found in the book of Proverbs so where did that come from?” Of course my wife responded with; “these bones are our house” and we agreed that the curse of the LORD is on the bones of the wicked, too. Then she said that she thought that the word bones showed up somewhere in Proverbs and she is right, but the passage she quoted which was in Matthew 23:27.

So I looked up in the concordance the word “bones” and in Proverbs it is found seven times and this will be our thought for the day. Here is the RUB! Right here in Proverbs 3, our reading for the day in verse eight we find these words. “It will be health to your flesh and strength to your BONES” I tell you if life was calm water at that moment; for me it was enough to “rock my boat!” How quickly can one forget? It is a God designed miracle that we are held on earth by gravity.

Proverbs 12:4; 14:30; 15:30; 16:24; 17:22 and 25:15 are goads to encourage us to stay within the limits of sound doctrine and this brings up my main thought for the day. Our national heritage is being crippled by the voices of ungodly and undisciplined men and women all across this land; as in Proverbs 12:4.

In a right relationship; one man for one woman; over fifty percent of the crowns to their husbands have become rottenness to his bones; this is not to say that the woman is a fault, to the contrary the husband is to be the head over the household under the authority of God and I would say that in today’s marriages over ninety percent of the men have stepped out from “IN GOD WE TRUST”

Well we have time for one more, how about Proverbs 25:15, with so much ungodliness in the nation and this not just in the higher ranks of national and corporate leadership. This ungodliness is found also in the blue collar, grey color and ring around the collar work force and neighborhood all across the land. Our tongues are not gentle over our economy, national security or our loss of Constitutional freedoms.

When shall we learn; “houses and bones today are filled with ungodliness” Would to God that we would return to the “gentle tongue”. The Word of the Living God says this: “By long forbearance a ruler is persuaded, and a gentle tongue breaks a bone”. PRAY FOR OUR NATION! And be GENTLE with those in AUTHORITY. Romans 13:1-7

A Thought for the Day - 012

That word “IF”! Now (if) one could find a way to not use it; what might be the outcome of that? A treasury of wisdom, a silver lining of knowledge and a wonderful understanding of the fear of the LORD.  Proverbs 2:1-9

Comments and challenges

Pictures of times gone by are comforting to review; I can remember looking for something in the attic or basement and then come across a box where old pictures are stored. Relatives of long ago and pictures of old cars, buildings and plots of land and as the memory recalls a familiar face not seen in years; you find yourself wiping away a tear or two. Awe! such good times we had together! Yes there is little else that compares to search for an old trinket in the middle of a box of pictures.

The value of living life can be evaluated from the parable of the Lost Coin. There is no one that I’ve met that will not help to search diligently for something lost. Sometimes we spend endless hour looking for a coin, a tool, a key or some other object that is in many cases… right before our eyes. Luke 15:8-10 highlights our daily oversight of the lost. Not the coin, but the LOST. These men, women and children are right before our eyes, yet we are seemingly more interested in the lost coin.

Ever had the opportunity to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with someone and see the repenting heart make a direct connection with Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit? It is just as Jesus illustrates in these parables found in Luke 15, the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin and the Lost Son. The joy is overwhelming and unexplainable in human terms.

One of the very real characteristics of a child of God is the countenance of a joyful heart and it seems evident to me that many of God’s children (believers) have no joy. We seem to tumble and stumble our way around our little circle of influence with no thought of living in the “Joy of the LORD”. Could it be that one of the reasons is because we have stopped searching for the lost?

This brings me to the chapter of Luke, Luke 14:25-35. As God’s children we have not left the details of life; or the father, mother and children. Nor the sister and brother, the uncle or cousin; no Jesus is not talking of our physical hatred and departure from these wonderful folks, but He is talking of hating and leaving their way of life, which was in fact, your ways of life before Jesus changed all of that for His Mercy and your grace. He (Jesus) replaced your sin and suffering with the joy of forgiveness.

Salt is good, if it has not lost its flavor, just as joy is good if it has not lost its flavor. But like the salt that is no longer salt, even the dunghill will remain a dunghill. He, who has an ear, let him hear.

 

A Thought for the Day – 011

 

It is said that the pen is mightier than the sword; this of course is only true when the pen is in the hand of men with integrity. But fools reject the fear of the LORD; therefore they despise discretion, lack knowledge and destroy nations. Proverbs 1:1-7

Comments and challenges

Sitting in the laundry room on a submarine is a little different than the coin laundry at the end of the street, yet it is somewhat like a typical laundry room in the home. One washer, one dryer and room for a chair, most sub sailors spend one to two hours per week in the room cleaning their jump suits, socks and other items for the upcoming week. I suppose for the most that one to two hours was a quiet time; to read study or write a letter.

I usually read my Bible or some Bible commentary, but it seemed that the LORD used this time too. People would come by and ask me questions about my belief and personal relationship with God. As I was thinking this morning about the gospel and our service yesterday in church, it came to my mind that the LORD did some cleansing too in that room; in that while I washed my clothing, He was busy cleansing souls.

The laundry room was conveniently located outside the library so men in there off duty status would swing in to grab a book or just have some quiet time. Yet, I always thought that God was involved in bringing them to the room at just the right time. I remember several men committing their life to the LORD Jesus Christ during those laundry days.

Personal one-on-one evangelism is where the Holy Spirit gets the attention of those whom God is seeking. Now do not get me wrong; God is not slack or willing for any to perish 2 Peter 3:9. Repenting is a process for every soul to experience and is a promise to whoever will change their mind toward God. Romans 10:9-10

Now we normally do not have a public laundry room to go to once a week, but let me say this; God does His best work when the soul He is working through has put on the fine linen of the Righteousness of the LORD Jesus Christ. Far too many believers today are caught up in the world. We look sharp, smell great and are outstanding neighbors. We are pious, trustworthy and likeable; but we are not fulfilling the ministry that God has ordained for us to be involved in.

We were reminded yesterday that since we have been “born again” that is; since we have received Christ Jesus the LORD, so WALK IN HIM! This really is not some mysterious science or mystical esoteric experience. It is however a COMMAND from God. Colossians 2:6 and Romans 13:14 are exhorting commands from God through the pen of the apostle Paul who; under the power of the Holy Spirit says; our righteousness is as filthy rags. Isaiah 64:6-7, so put on Christ.

Jesus put it this way in John 13:6-10 in doing so we have the sweet aroma of life, rather than that aroma of the world which is the stench of death. 2 Corinthians 2:12-16.