The Devotional – 1436 – Humility overrides Strife.

The Devotional – 1436 – Humility overrides Strife.

Proverbs 17:1 Better is a dry morsel with quietness, than a house full of feasting and strife!

Comments and challenges

One way for a person to fail the grace of God is to think that they have arrived to some level of spirituality where sin is not present. For the record… sin is always present and always at the ready to cause one to trip over the smallest of bumps in the trails we intend to blaze.

In James 4:1-6 we can see two bumps (1) of sinful desire and (2) of sinful pleasure; these are two bumps can redirect us to dead ends that cripple our personal relationship with God and our relationships with the people in our lives. The first redirected trail we blaze is the one of desire. The lust of something we believe to be a need. To lust for anything is idolatry.

We may even take these desires before the LORD, but knowing that these are sinful we dress them up in garments that appear from our viewpoint to be something worthy or even within God’s Will. This war within our framework is not honored by God and our prayers are never heard by Him because we ask based on the desire of the flesh.

Then standing in full view of desire is the pleasure of the sin awaits fulfillment. The sin of desire and the sin of pleasure are powerful; both feed off of the other and both are found in the man and the woman. I am sure that James does not have “adultery” in mind in James 4:4 although adultery can be a desire and a pleasure that we might seek the LORD to bless rather than curse.

I believe that James is referring to another form of adultery, one that replaces our friendship with God, with friendship with the world. Notice the call of Jeremiah for the nation of Israel to repent; (Jeremiah 3:1-25) but note 3:6-9. So first we seek to qualify our desire for the pleasures of the world by saying to God that our idle thoughts of idolatry are somehow justified and that God should agree. 

This according to God is adultery and we cause others within our circle of influence to do the same. The word “backsliding” is not new to the average student of the Holy Bible, it simply means “faithless” and we can and do involve our self in faithless activity that encourages the flesh of others to follow. By the fulfillment of desire and pleasure we commit ten sins.

Say what? Yes (10) sins: First we fail the first four Commandments found in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5. To have no other gods, to make no graven image, to refrain from taking God’s name in vain and to rest in Him alone. Then we fail the other six that govern our relationships with our fellow man. Dishonoring parents, murdering, stealing, coveting, committing adultery and lying; so it is not odd that God resists the proud is it? And yet; as His children you and I should be so awe struck by the mercy of God in that while we are destroying our relationship with Him and the people around us, He extends His mercy to those of us who agree with Him that we are in trouble and humble ourselves seeking forgiveness.

James 4:7-9 – Therefore submit to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands you sinners and purify your hearts you double minded. lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the LORD, and He will lift you up.

There is so much more to say – hang in there… we will look again at this on Wednesday.

The Devotional – 1435 – Conduct

The Devotional – 1435 – Conduct

A quote from Billy Sunday - I believe that a long step toward public morality will have been taken when sins are called by their right names.

Comments and challenges

Proverbs 14:34 – Righteousness exalts a nation, But sin is a reproach (shame or disgrace) to any people. As time pushes forward it is as if the tines of plow of the wicked are digging in deep. Proverbs 20:4 – Paraphrased: The prideful look on the face of worldly people, the contempt and arrogant acts of undisciplined men and women is a visible picture of our world today. I found it interesting that the word for “plowing” means a lamp, this means to me that if the righteous take the time to look into the eyes of the unbeliever, the light in eyes will reveal Romans 1:18-23.

This is a serious issue, as many so called believers and unbelievers fall victim to the remaining words of Romans 1:24-32. It is easy for us to allow the world to gloss over the issues of sin; recently I heard of a believer in Jesus Christ who thought that same sex marriage was nothing more than the trend of another minority movement that would soon be accepted. STOP! It is already accepted! The issue is serious because once sin is accepted into a society; the nation’s integrity (infrastructure) begins to crumble.

(Let me stop for a moment – just out the window where my office is that faces due east is today’s sunrise and it demonstrates the “Awesomeness of the Creator” – Thank you LORD for eyes to see Your Beauty).

What is infrastructure? Roads, power plants, transportation, military, government, communication and so on! As simple as I can say it – our roads are filled with rage, our power plants fail daily and demand more revenue, public transportation is filled with terror, crime and the rising costs of fuel, our military is weaken with sins of immoral conduct; (hetero and homosexual), our government is full of corruption and public communication is full of commercials that drug the listener and into a comma of moral unrestraint.

Yes God is in control and truly I am so thankful that He is. But it is a bit aggravating, when I hear comments from believers that are in neutral or reverse when it comes to the issue of national SIN. I do believe this happens when a person’s mindset is, “well you know, I am not affected by what the world does and if it is of God Will, who can stop it?” Bosh Humbug! First; God is in control as I said earlier, He has a Perfect Will that often overrides the will of mankind, but the LORD God also has a Permissive Will that will give over mankind to the abominations of his heart.

Even the believer is subject to both Wills of God, we certainly do not have a seating in the grandstand to watch as the angels do – 1 Peter 1:12; we are active participants in the world to do good and to be a witness of Jesus Christ who personally bore our sin and the sin of the world. Both national and personal sin is covered in the Blood of Christ, therefore the apostle Paul should not stand alone with the following words.

Romans 1:16-17 – For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed form faith to faith; as it is written, the just shall live by faith. 

Today, we as believers, we are too cozy with the world and today we only agree with the words of Paul and what is our common reply when we get the chance to tell the old, old story? “Yes, I had the opportunity to mention to that person that I have faith, but…” you can fill in the results and if you are like me, you have little comfort in the results because you failed to use the power of the Holy Spirit and that would be “confidence in the power of God that brings salvation to all of mankind”. God has done His part, we on this side of Glory; well… maybe you are an exception!

The Devotional – 1434 – Stewardship is Righteous Living.

The Devotional – 1434 – Stewardship is Righteous Living.

Proverbs 12:28 – In the way of righteousness is life, and in its pathway there is no death.

 Comments and challenges

Throughout the Living Word of God there is the ongoing challenge to live righteously, even here in Proverbs 12 we see this; verses 3, 5, 7, 10, 12, 13, 17, 21, 26 and 28. Additionally many if not all of the verses speak of the conditions of righteousness and the effects of unrighteousness. For the person who walks the fence there is stumbling, failure and despair, so do we as believers… stumble, fail and lose hope? Well you know the answer; yes we can, but it is not the norm. The saint of God through faith can avoid the distractions of unrighteous behavior by “stewardship”.

As simple as I can say it; our human eyes often focus on the performance of others around us and our inner eyes focus on our own personal performance. If we are not spiritually careful can become distracted from keeping our eyes on Righteousness; the LORD our Righteousness: Righteousness is not our normal pathway, it is the LORD’s way; a way that He is willing to share with us. This thought is not promoting a sinless life, but I do believe that we have a lot of spring cleaning in our personal walk with the LORD and each of us should do better, remember the LORD is at hand, Proverbs 24:30-34.

Notice also how the apostle Paul writes in Romans 13:11-14, passages that we have covered before: And do this. Knowing the time, that now is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in licentiousness and lewdness, not in strife and envy. Put on the LORD Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.

For me this is casting off unrighteous works, works that can and do develop in the saints’ life. If he or she is lacking the personal effort of maintaining stewardship over their relationship to the LORD; unrighteousness becomes the only pathway for these folks. The epistles are written for admonition; to warn, reprove mildly or aggressively and to exhort the saints of God to wake up to Righteousness. Notice too how the apostle James puts this into perspective.

James 3:13-18 – Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual and demonic. For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. 

The thoughts that I have about this is that “stewardship” is first, Spirit filled; secondly, Spirit motivated and lastly, spiritually included in our daily activities; as the apostle says… “Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace” if you are not a peace keeper, than you are a trouble maker.

The Devotional – 1433 – God is not distant, but very near!

The Devotional – 1433 – God is not distant, but very near!

Proverbs 10: – He who gathers in the summer is a wise son, but he who sleeps in harvest is a son who causes shame.

 

 Comments and challenges

While doing some college work years ago I was required to read several books by Andrew Murray and during that time some spiritual leaders of those days frowned on some of Mr. Murray’s interpretation of scripture. There is no reason to go into the detail of that and even much of it I have forgotten anyway. Yet through the study of this man’s work I began to like his spiritual intellect. In his book “The Inner Life” and others like this one I began to see that the believer in Jesus Christ can be close to God and walk with Him even as the man Enoch did, because he pleased God; Hebrews 11:5.

(Source – Wikipedia): Andrew Murray was the second child of Andrew Murray Sr. (1794–1866), a Dutch Reformed Church missionary sent from Scotland to South Africa. Andrew Murray was born in Graaff Reinet, South Africa. His mother, Maria Susanna Stegmann, was of French Huguenot and German Lutheran descent. Murray married Emma Rutherford in Cape Town, South Africa, on 2 July 1856. They had eight children together (four boys and four girls).

Andrew was sent to Aberdeen in Scotland for his initial education together with his elder brother, John. Both remained there until they obtained their master's degrees in 1845. From there, they both went to the University of Utrecht where they studied theology. The two brothers became members of Het Réveil, a religious revival movement opposed to the rationalism which was in vogue in the Netherlands at that time. Both brothers were ordained by the Hague Committee of the Dutch Reformed Church on 9 May 1848 and returned to the Cape.

Do you find it odd that some of the men out of every dispensation who seem obscure or even mysterious have a truly personal inner walk with God? Enoch who was the seventh generation from Adam (Jude 1:14) is said to have prophesied of the return of the LORD Jesus concerning the “end times” yet and apart from this passage in Jude, little is known of Enoch. Jude also, who is the half-brother of Jesus Christ (they enjoyed the privilege of having the same earthly mother). Even the letter from Jude in the church age is not a popular read, although as the time of Christ’s return draws near, Jude is being read more and more.

I am sure you are developing the picture; we could name the obscure men and women in time who were involved with FAITH in God, but the writers of the New Testament have already done this for us and it is our responsibility today to pick up the Living Word of God and read of these saints. The moment by moment awareness of God with us, or the developing love and peace found in the inner life of His saints is mostly obscure to the world, but as the LORD Jesus Christ it is an everyday, every moment read of Him who indwells us.

We may believe that we are even more obscure than Lot (Genesis 11) of the Old Testament or Syntyche of the New (Philippians 4:2) but if you are a saint, then your name is known personally by the LORD Jesus and His kingdom ought to be reigning in your soul. The scripture is very clear that if the Holy Spirit is indwelling you, then also Christ is present with you. 2 Corinthians 3:17 – Now the LORD is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the LORD is, there is liberty. (Liberty to fellowship with our God).

Thus Andrew Murray would say in his opening words of this little book “The Inner Life” the following quote: “The daily need for the time of solitude and quietness to pray and read God’s Word is of utmost importance. This time spent in fellowship with God will bring a blessing, strengthen our spiritual life, and prepare us to meet the world. Thus we will be equipped for service in God’s kingdom in soul winning and intercession”.

God’s saints are less equipped today to bring good news simply because we have no “inner life moments” with the One who is our Inner Life.

The Devotional – 1432 – Polishing the Apple!

The Devotional – 1432 – Polishing the Apple!

Proverbs 7:1-3 – My son, keep my words, and treasure my commands within you. Keep my commands and live, and my law as the apple of your eye. Bind them on your fingers; write them on the tablet of your heart.

 

 Comments and challenges

When is the last time you polished an apple only to take a large bite from it as soon as the apple seemed bright enough to eat? Why do we do that? There may be many warranted reasons, but if you are a student of the Living Word of God you may find the best reason standing tall above the others. Having first to do with the heart, as the Word of God is always at the ready to expose the dullness of the heart we see that Solomon has much to say about Wisdom and understanding in the world around us.

Often I have thought about the subject of wisdom and understanding, I do not have much of either and what I do have can be a blessing or a cursing, yet and basically there are only two sources of wisdom and understanding. One source is the credentials provided by living under the sun. Now one can go to many verses of scripture to see that the wisdom of the world lacks the ability to make things right, just as it lacks the ability to make things wrong, thus the wisdom of the world is pure VANITY. The wisdom of the world is governed by mankind, not by God.

Ecclesiastes 1:14-15 – I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and indeed, all is vanity and grasping for the wind. “What is crooked cannot be made straight, and what is lacking cannot be numbered”. Now for some of us we would say; yes Ecclesiastes is the in the Word of God; but Solomon was out of fellowship with God when he wrote this little book. Really! And how might you know that? No doubt you understand this from secular viewpoint and not from Divine Wisdom.

Here is the Rub! From the small family to the very pinnacle of government most of the wisdom that controls the thoughts of mankind in this country today is VANITY. Most of US today have allowed teachers to teach them to be “mentally stupid”! Well yes you read that right… go ahead and read it again: “MENTALLY STUPID” of course the Living Word of God is softer with the words like… DULL OF HEARING. Let us take a quick look at the three or four times “dull of hearing” shows up in the Word of God. I say three or four times because of the available translations.

Isaiah 6:10 – Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy (dull) and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed. What is interesting about this verse of scripture is that Isaiah was commissioned by the LORD God to tell the people of Israel regarding God’s love for His people. And Isaiah says to the LORD; how long should I do this? Until the cities are wasted without inhabitant, and houses without man, and the land utterly desolate. Isaiah 6:9-13. Dull of hearing is progressive!

Then in Matthew 13:10-17 – the LORD Jesus quotes from Isaiah 6:9-13; this is before the church age begins and He adds – for assuredly, I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear and did not hear it. What Jesus is saying is that these prophets and righteous men were listening, but the people retained their secular waxed over heart and continued being DULL of hearing.

Again in Acts 28:26-27 the apostle Paul uses the SAME passage of scripture in Isaiah to say that the same dullness of hearing is visible now in the church age. And in 2 Timothy 4:1-5 as Paul understands that his ministry is ending, he challenges Timothy that in the later years of the church that mankind will turn their ears AWAY from the TRUTH and turn to FABLES. Hebrews 5:11 also agrees that the church will become dull of hearing.

So, like a child eager to get to grandmothers house… “ARE WE THERE YET?” Oh yes sons and daughters we are THERE, but of course TOO; we as a nation have become DULL of HEARING the TRUTH. The tablet of the HEART is full of SECULAR NONESENSE in the family; the tablet of the community is full of IMMORALITY and the tablet of the countries government is full of CORRUPTION.

Well we change? Let us hear the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep His commandments: for this is the whole duty of mankind. For God will bring every work into judgment including every secret thing. Whether it is good or it is evil, Ecclesiastes 12:13-14. Mankind cannot change, but God can change each person who comes to Him by FAITH. John 14:1-6 – looking at verse 6; Jesus said to him, “I am the way (the faith), the truth (the TRUTH), and the life (the resurrection); no one comes to the Father (the One True God) except through Me. (the One True God).

The Devotional – 1431 – The Peril of Adultery!

The Devotional – 1431 – The Peril of Adultery!

Proverbs 5:3-4 – For the lips of a strange woman drip honey, and her mouth is smoother than oil; but in the end she is bitter as wormwood; sharp as a two edged sword.

 

 Comments and challenges

A quote from Billy Sunday “Better to die an old maid, sister, than marry the wrong man”, (1862 – 1935). Sunday was a professional baseball player who was saved in 1886 and became a popular evangelist. He was bold in his preaching about liquor, immorality and sin. These days from the pulpits across this land we do not hear much about these subjects.  The reason is that many preachers are fearful of these issues simply because they stand as guilty as the men and women they preach to.

Okay, this is a tough subject and some of you no doubt have problems with this, but truly it is time for the believers in this land to take a look around. Everything and I MEAN EVERYTHING we see today is corrupted with liquor, immoral conduct and just plain sin. Do you not find it strange that if we are reading in Galatians 5, that we tend to travel through verses 19 through 21 at the speed of light and linger like lazy dotes over verses 22 through 25. The human side of this is that we instruct people that God is Love and fail to teach that God also is God of Righteousness and Justice.

I do not like the subject matter of Proverbs 5:1-23 – it reads like one of those paperback novels that many people are addicted to; but like it or not the words of Proverbs Five are SCRIPTURE and for some it is as if God has borrowed Billy Sunday’s bat and is beating them up with words that penetrate with another SHARP sword. Hebrews 4:12 – For the Word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Now I do not have some special insight to all of what I am attempting to say! “Man, Woman, Young Adult or Child just open your eyes and look around. If you are a believer in the LORD Jesus; look from your position in HIM at the world around you. The world around you is not covered in “beauty” it is covered is “sin” okay… the words are not sufficient are they; that is beauty and sin; so how about… bitterness and wormwood? Proverbs 5:4.

God has provision for all men and women to be satisfied with life and liberty; please note the following comments of Solomon. “Drink water from your own cistern and running water from your own well, should your fountains be disbursed abroad, streams of water in the streets? Let them be only your own, and not strangers with you. Let your fountain be blessed and rejoice with the wife of your youth. As a loving deer and a graceful doe, let her breasts satisfy you at ALL times and always be intoxicated with her love”.

Now, even Solomon could not say what these verses are intended to say; these are very intimate words of a close personal relationship found only in a marriage between a man and a woman. It is also a sad DAY in the USA when a person has to define what “MARRIAGE IS and IS NOT” “The ways of mankind are before the eyes of the LORD. And He ponders (observes or weighs) all of mankind’s paths. The sins of people entrap them, they are caught in the cords of their sin. And of course if they do not repent (turn from their wickedness) this folly will lead them astray and they will die in SIN.

Some folks say that God and His instructions are “old fashion”; REALLY? When did TRUTH become SUCH and by what authority do you say such things? Those who teach such nonsense will die because they LACK instruction and misrepresent or distort the HOLY Word of God and in that folly they have gone astray, leading many down the same path.

Hebrews 9:28 - so Christ was offered to bear the sins of many, and unto them that look for Him shall He appear a second time without sin unto salvation.  Jesse <><

The Devotional – 1430 – Mercy and Truth – Departing!

The Devotional – 1430 – Mercy and Truth – Departing!

Proverbs 3:3 – Let not mercy and truth forsake you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart and so find favor and high esteem (good understanding) in the sight of God and man.

 

 Comments and challenges

When aboard Naval vessels in port it is common to hear over the loud speakers; the name of the ship and the following word – departing! In shipboard regulations and Navy tradition it is proper that when the Captain of the ship is departing that the entire ship’s crew on board at the time should know this. So the words; “USS Sailing Ship – Departing”. Thus with the captain ashore, the next senior officer usually the Executive Officer will have command of the ship.

Now what would the above paragraph have to do with you and me personally, well if I leave the paragraph alone… nothing at all since I am retired and maybe you are too. Then again maybe you have never been on a naval ship, but we do have a connection in another way. So stand-by (another naval term to “pay attention”)! Paying attention is something we fail at. We hear from our churches that God is Love and that is Good News meaning that it is impossible for God to hate us. I know someone is saying will the Word of God reveals that God hates sin and I am a sinner.

True God does hate sin; sin caused God to sacrifice His Son, His only begotten Son on the cross at Calvary, just outside of Jerusalem for the sin of the world. “Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour there was darkness over the land. And about the ninth hour JESUS cried out with a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is” My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” Yes, God hates sin, but HE LOVES YOU as you are the home where the soul of His abides! (see Ezekiel 18:4, or better yet read the entire 18^th chapter).

We see from this passage in Matthew 27:46 a departure of another kind. The departure of the Sovereignty and Power of God (God the Father and God the Spirit) departing from the Human Body of God’s Son (Jesus) as He was left to bear that “sin of the world” ALONE. For me I understand that if God had not turned His back on His Son (had not departed) then Jesus could not have made the transition from life to death and the sacrifice would not have been complete.

This departure of the Almighty God allowed the “ruler of this world” (Satan) to believe that he had destroyed God and now he would be free to advance his kingdom even over “eternity” heaven itself (1 Corinthians 2:7-8). A mutiny which began before mankind was created is now in Satan’s mind completed and victorious with the death of Jesus Christ. The one thing that Satan missed in all of this was the full bodily resurrection of the LORD Jesus Christ three days later. Departure through death’s temporal victory gave way to God’s Eternal and permanent victory over Sin (AMEN) but Death also; (1 Corinthians 15:54-58). AND AGAIN… AMEN!

I wish that I had time to stay and write, tears are not absent in these thoughts. Such thoughts about God overwhelm my soul. So my beloved friends, companions and relatives (saints) and those who ought to be saints… do not forget the law (Word of God) but let your heart retain His commands. For length of days and long life and peace they will add to you. Let not mercy and truth forsake you; (pay attention to His Word) do not set aside the Mercy and Truth of God. Hold tight to the Words He has given you in Christ. Better yet… write those Words on the tablet of your heart and let your soul rejoice.

If you are going to do any “texting” today make sure you “text” the Word of the Living God to your Soul as it is hungry for MERCY and TRUTH. Share this with a friend!