The Devotional - 062 - Just over the Hill

 

A Thought for the Day – 062 – Just over the Hill

How wonderful is the Living Word of God? Do you ever think about that in your daily walk about of how wonderful God is? If He were not involved with the world there would be no time to be born, nor would there be a time to die. Nor would there be TIME for anything else in-between! We would do well to thank Him each day by living it to the full. Ecclesiastes 3:1-15 and Job 5:8-27 (a real good read).

Comments and challenges

The other day I referred to Acts 17:27 in one of the devotionals and I got to thinking about a story I had heard many years ago about two people; newlyweds who were traveling back from their honeymoon. They had word that the woman’s grandmother had taken ill and they were in a hurry to get home. The new husband after searching the map decided to take a road through the farming country that was off the beaten path and save time.

 

It was early in the morning and they expected to be home that evening; the road was straight but it had rolling hills that often prevented seeing for any length but it was early. Surely no one would be out at this time; cruising along at well over sixty miles per hour the young man suddenly felt the need to stop the car. He ignored the urge to slam on the brakes.

 

He was approaching the crest of the next hill and the urge was stronger; STOP THE CAR! He slammed on the brakes, scaring his wife out of a good sleep; she screamed as they crested the hill, just on the other side was a small child of two years of age. The car slid to a stop only a few inches from the little girl who had woke up a little earlier and left the home to go out and play. The farm house she lived in was very close to the road which in those days was common.

 

This is a true story; one that I read shortly after being saved in the seventies and the event happen just after World War Two. Acts 17:27 tells me this. Mankind is surrounded by darkness and as a result many folks worship idols and a few call out to the unknown God. How close is this God who is unknown? Not only to the idol worshippers, but those who are ignorant too. According to what I know about God… He is close, closer than only a few inches!

 

In the midst of danger, of toil, of heartache, of fears, of tears, of life, of death, of pain and of every other condition known and experienced by man. God is right here… ready to help, ready to save and ready to love. Have you noticed lately, Romans 5:8 – But God demonstrates His OWN love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, CHRIST died for us. With the penalty of sin paid for by the Son of God; you and I have no excuse to remain in darkness, if you choose darkness you do so by your own personal choice. What’s over your next hill?

 

For scripture references please CTRL+ click on the following website: http://www.biblos.com

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 - 061 - GI Joe

 

A Thought for the Day – 061 – GI Joe

The world around us has a reward and Solomon says it is; “I hate life, I hate labor, I hate people, I hate the future, I hate to give up to the one who comes after me. I hate, I hate, I hate!” Those who pursue life under the sun without God are blinded by hate, but to those who find God, though He is not far from anyone of us, He gives wisdom to love and enjoy the gifts of physical and spiritual life. Ecclesiastes 2:17-26 and Acts 17:24-28.

Comments and challenges

Ever watch any of those “one man war movies” you know the hero who walks with his chest out, two assault rifles and belts full of ammo; The weapons never need loading and although the man is as dirty and grimy with two day old blood and his body is lanced with all sorts of near misses. He remains “fresh as a daisy” shooting and growling and scaring the daylights out of everyone he comes in contact with, even himself at times, with words like; “hmm, I can’t believe I just did that!” GI Joe in real life… sorry to burst your bubble does not exist.

 

There is a man however, who has waged war for nearly six thousand years, maybe longer only He knows this measured length of human time; but to Him the battle is presently fixed in a portion of the Holy Bible and you won’t find it anywhere else. The ending of the battle is contained in a promise recorded by the apostle Peter in 2 Peter 3:1-18. Of course to get a better understanding of the entire war, you might try reading the entire Holy Bible. If this is not feasible for you today, then there is another smaller portion in the Holy Bible to take a look at.

 

Some will say, did you not forget the enemy; Satan? NO! Satan has his fallen angels and He uses all of them to promote his agenda, which is “death” to all who follow him. Then you might now say, well Jesus has his angels, they wage war with Him; awe but contraire dear friend, contraire. The angels of God are ministering angels who do not wage war, but protect humans (both dead and alive ones; Jude 1:9-11) and both the humans and the angels of God are to observe God who alone wages war. 1 Peter 1:3-12. God does not put to death any one, He is the giver and protector of LIFE. John 10:7-18.

 

Some might say; how does God wage the battle alone? I am so glad you asked; Jesus said to Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life, He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?” John 11:25-26. Jesus defeated Satan with Satan’s own strategy. Jesus allowed Satan to kill Him, but what Satan failed to understand that in the killing of Jesus, God took away the sin of the world by placing it on Himself; Jesus carried the burden of sin and death to the grave for all of human life.

 

Jesus took the enemy to the grave with Him, Sin and Death along with Jesus went to the grave, if you chose not to believe this; you must carry the wrath of God and your unbelief to the grave. But if you believe in Jesus as the scripture reveals; like Martha says: “Yes, LORD, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is come into the world.” You will come alive in God, just as Jesus did on the third day, this Victory (He is risen; Matthew 28:1-8) has already happened, to Jesus Christ first and to all who believe Him we will follow and some already have. 2 Corinthians 15:50-58. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Such truth overwhelms my soul, and I hope yours as well. Amen!

 

For scripture references please CTRL+ click on the following website: http://www.biblos.com

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 - 050 - Rock, Paper, Scissors?

A Thought for the Day – 060 – Rock, Paper, Scissors?

Wisdom adds grief for the wise person in that the wise uses the eyes in his or her head. Solomon says that for the fool, he perceives everything through the darkness of his or her interior parts. Hmmm! I wonder where that is? Solomon also concludes that it matters little; whether you see it coming with your eyes are react to it from the seat of your pants, the same events in life happen to us all. A few years later it all drifts into vanity. Ecclesiastes 2:12-16

Comments and challenges

I know that many of us live to remember events of the past, you know like remembering the way it was by saying to someone; “ya know… back in the day, this road were on went up over that hill yonder, it was rerouted when the mayor of our little town decided that all the roads around town should be flat!” Of course this little statement is false, but it does demonstrate the wisdom of both the wise and the fool as well. It is not that the wise gets it right and the fool gets it wrong, because through the corridor of time both become vanity in the eyes of those who have to live with the results.

 

Solomon provides answers to our questions of living in that he looks at three main aspects of life that we sort of cycle through. Many of us do not pay attention to these cycles within ourselves but we are very tuned in to what is happening to the person next to us. For example; he says there are three observations from ones perspective that he observes. ONE: Wisdom; TWO: Madness, and: THREE: Folly. Ecclesiastes 2:12.

 

He reminds me of that game that most of us have played, “rock, paper, scissors” by saying that wisdom excels; darkness (madness) and folly, so wisdom is the principal thing, therefore get wisdom, Proverbs 4:7. Some of us might conclude with this thought; so what is the sense in living if the outcome of things does not matter? I mean if what I do doesn’t make a change; then why do anything at all?

 

These thoughts are very important. Physical life under the sun does matter but if you have not noticed; there are many young people today who have no purpose for living. They observe firsthand the wisdom, madness and folly of the fallen world around them. The broken home being #1 on the parade of ten platforms that are broken in this country and around the world. Want to know the other nine.

 

#2 – the human spirit; #3 – sexual relationships; #4 – advancing evil; #5 – Haters of God; #6 – civil disobedience; #7 – Parental disobedience; #8 – unloving relationships; #9 – unforgiving circumstances; and #10 – pending physical death (Romans 1). In this mindset there is no hope and no way out. For the young person the escape is to bypass these events of hopelessness by opting out to #10.

 

The suicide rate of young people is between seven and eight children per 100,000 per year from age ten to twenty-five. For an example of how many that is per year? Just in the United States alone in 2004 there were over 4,000 people who chose to end their life because the future to them was hopeless. Now WHY? It is because wisdom, madness and folly in our country is the hub mankind who has rejected God. Men and women professing to be wise without godly input, they became fools. Romans 1:22

 

As a man or woman, or better yet; as a nation of men, women and children we need to put on the brakes and stop our speeding vehicle of autonomous living and get rid of it. Then we need to do what Isaiah said to Israel in Isaiah 55:1-13. We need to return to God, instead of the thorn of our day we could have the cypress tree, instead of the brier bush to come up we can have the myrtle tree; all we need to do is turn to the Name that is above all names. JESUS, JESUS, JESUS the sweetest name you and I will ever know.

 

For scripture references please CTRL+ click on the following website: http://www.biblos.com

The Devotional - 059 - The Spider knows!

A Thought for the Day – 059 – The Spider knows!

Have you ever held the position of authority where you were in charge of qualifying people for position in an organization? If you have then you must know that to qualify for that authority, you must know the subject. Solomon says he qualified himself to conclude that all of the effort of mankind is meaningless and void under the sun. The things he did and accomplished are the things that we do daily, notice Ecclesiastes 2:1-11

Comments and challenges

Once a very long time ago, my mom came in from work (I was about twelve) and as she came through the door I noticed a very large spider on the ceiling above the door and said to my mom; look mom a spider, she thought I was pointing to her head and she went wild. She ran down the hallway screaming, “get it off, get it off, get it off” well now if she did have a spider on her head, no one would have been able to catch her to get it off!

 

Once we (my other brothers and me) calmed her down after three or so trips around the house from room to room we all had a good laugh. I think spiders do that, just sit on ceiling waiting for the moment when fear strikes the household, but there is method and purpose. With all that running by everyone it shakes the building and causes the other bugs in the house to take a looksee at all the commotion. For the spider another large meal is served.

 

So what does that story have to do with the scheme of things this morning? The spider was very large about the size of quarter so I would say that it was very good at what it did. Whatever bug the spider placed its eyes on; bam! the spider snatch it, the spider did not withhold any attack and took pleasure in all that it caught. The labor of the spider rejoiced its heart and the reward was large. (Ecclesiastes 2:10-11)

 

Now I know that while the base story is true, the large spider while intelligence, did not have such a plan, but then again read this insert from Wikipedia; maybe they do!

 

Florida Wolf spiders are members of the family Lycosidae, from the Ancient Greek word "λύκος" meaning "wolf". They are robust and agile hunters with excellent eyesight. They live mostly solitary lives and hunt alone. Some are opportunistic hunters pouncing upon prey as they find it or even chasing it over short distances. Some will wait for passing prey in or near the mouth of a burrow.

 

Many of us are afraid to venture or excel in things like Solomon did, we run from one event to another with family or friends in pursuit saying, “Why don’t you stop and listen to what is being said?” People run from job to job looking for just the right one, but it is not just the job, some run from relationship to relationship, looking for peace and safety in life. Others seem to fall into it, they just hang around and prosper.

 

This life we live is designed by God to be ‘JOYFUL’ if it is not joyful and full of gladness then the other side of that coin is ‘SADFUL’ or vanity and grasping for the wind, no profit under the sun. This is not conditional to just a few people on the planet. The whole of God’s created world suffers from a very bad case of vanity or emptiness while a bountiful supply stares us in the face. God owns the cattle on a thousand hills (Psalm 50:10) His is willing to share or use against us.

 

There is abundant truth in the Living Word of God, Psalm 50:1-23 is just a small example of the checks and balances that God has placed in the way of life for mankind. Heed what God says and He says that He will show His salvation to you. There is no greater joy to experience or witness. 3 John 1:1-4.

 

For scripture references please CTRL+ click on the following website: http://www.biblos.com

The Devotional - 058 - Rejoice! Again I say... rejoice!

A Thought for the Day – 058 – Rejoice! Again I say… rejoice!

I do not think that it is appropriate to identify myself with the wisdom such as Solomon speaks of in the remaining verses of Ecclesiastes 1:12-18 but I do understand some of the grief that he shares in his dissertation. Think with me for the moment here. The wisdom of the world still prospects for unsolved answers; one realization of this is that the world has never solved the purpose for living. Why? The world rejects the Creator and thus has no reference point.

Comments and challenges

I sometimes get so wound up with the joy of the LORD that I think that this must be my last day on the planet. I suppose if I were to walk beside myself and see me from that observation point I might say things like; “man is that guy weird or what?”

Not long ago my two brothers and I went to a funeral parlor to set up and pay for a funeral for our mother. She is in a nursing home and one of the prerequisites for the state aid she is receiving to live there is that these arrangements must be made and paid for in advance.

The parlor was dreary and sad and it seemed that the director; having been thoroughly trained to be politely morbid was setting the pace for us to follow his cream filled path to pay up front. I felt as though I was wading through a large chocolate éclair, but without the delicious taste. So to break all of this up I saw a bunch of umbrellas in the corner of the room and said, “Oh look these folks are so nice, customers get a free umbrella with every casket purchase”

 My younger brother who is always a wit with words said; “have you gone completely nuts?” my other brother who is the true business man did what he always does when I abruptly toss out a grenade of laughter; he laughed! Of course this took the funeral director by surprise, but I have to hand it to him as he quickly said; “No those or for when it rains, but we do give away free pens” So I got a free pen.

Now I blame my conduct in matters like these on the “Joy of the LORD” and I suppose when I go face to face with the LORD, He will straighten me out on being a wise guy! But this is the sort of visual that I continually have when I am faced with how the world deals with life, liberty and the pursuit of it.

 Vanity of vanities says the preacher, what Solomon is saying as we will see as time goes on is this; “life apart from God is empty, not just from the standpoint of having nothing, but from the standing of life without God, if you do not have faith in God… your life can be nothing more than a VOID and it does not matter what you dump into it. Ecclesiastes 1:20

 For scripture references please CTRL+ click on the following website: http://www.biblos.com

The Devotional - 057 - Rejoice!

A Thought for the Day – 057 – Rejoice!

As a child I used to enjoy going to town with my mom and walking through those revolving doors. One second you are standing and waiting for your turn to enter and then quickly you are thrust from the heat of the summer to the cool delicious smells of roasted nuts, chocolate and the perfumes of the department store. In some ways life is a revolving door and the preacher in Ecclesiastes sets this tone for us in Ecclesiastes 1:1-11

Comments and challenges

There are without a doubt, many reasons to complain about life; I know that I do more than my share of complaining. No I don’t complain so that you won’t have to! But it would be nice if one out of ten of us were designated complainers, then we could go to that person and explain our complaint and give them a tip or some gratuity and be done with it. But no it is more like nine out of ten of us are complainers and for the one who does not complain we smother them with our miseries.

 

The Holy Bible is saturated with the JOY OF THE LORD and we as a church family were reminded of this by our pastor just this week that one of the areas neglected by believers today is the joy that we can have in Christ; so in thinking about this, I agree. Therefore in this thought I plan that if the LORD will open the door to begin sharing joy on a daily basis rather than complaining about things that only PRAYER to God will solve, than it is time to look to the biblical command for you and me to be full of JOY.

 

First let me say that being “happy” is not a popular subject in the Holy Bible since the references of being happy in the Old Testament are twenty-one and for the New Testament are seven. Now this does not mean that God is against people being happy so don’t take that approach, but consider this. Happiness is generated by man, like in Genesis 30:13 or Proverbs 127:5 and Acts 26:2.

 

The references to joy and rejoicing in the Holy Bible are too numerous to count and joy is expressed by mankind but it is generated by God, for example; Ezra 6:16, Isaiah 35:10, John 15:11 and often in the epistles we are commanded to rejoice because of God’s gift of our position in Christ; like the command found in Philippians 4:4.

 

The world around us strives to be happy and when this emotion is expressed the fallout can end in the bitterness of tears. Now the world knows this, it is not ignorant or naïve to the dangers of being happy one moment and down trodden the next. Happiness is like a rug, stand on it too long and there will always be someone to jerk it out from under you. On the other hand since God is the giver of joy, no one can trip you up and take it away, notice John 16:16-24.

 

The world has rejected the joy of the LORD and now lives in minute happiness’s; a short lived period of time in life when laughter is cruel and full the onslaught of pending fears. But those of us who have sorrowed in this world; who have come to Jesus, now live in the JOY OF THE LORD. He has given us opportunity to be joyful even in our weeping and sorrow. This is a large part of the salvation gift that only those who are in Christ can know and experience.

 

Rejoice today, again I say rejoice… the LORD is at hand. Yes, to the world you might look a little loony singing and making melody in your heart to the LORD. But to Him you look like the Saint He is conforming and transforming you to be. This is simply walking in WISDOM of His Word – Ephesians 5:15-21 and Romans 12:1-2

 

For scripture references please CTRL+ click on the following website: http://www.biblos.com

The Devotional - 056 - Crashed at Sea

A Thought for the Day – 056 – Crashed at sea

No doubt in my mind! A woman of virtue does not need all of the attributes found in Proverbs 31:10-31, she only needs her husband who sees the gift of grace that God provides through her; gifts that exceed the value of a ruby. Because she fears the LORD with the fruit of her hands, she will know her husband’s praises because there is no displeasure in his bones. Proverbs 12:4

Comments and challenges

What sort of life would we have if everything went right? You and I do not know a day like that but this does not give us the green light however to overlook the wrong. This thought reminds me of the very first water recovery I was involved in just off the coast of Spain in 1964. Our destroyer, the one we talked about yesterday was heading for Rota, Spain when we got word that a plane had crashed into the water; we were asked to search the crash site for the pilot before entering port.

 

The pilot; a Navy officer was spotted floating face down so our captain sent our small whaleboat out to retrieve the body. The procedure was to place our diver in the water who would secure a rope around the body and bring it aboard and return to the ship. Since this procedure is dangerous and not practiced much our corpsman that was aboard the small boat and in charge, chose not to put the diver in the water.

 

This proved to be a mistake, in trying to secure the dead pilot with the rope from inside the whaleboat we bumped the body with the boat and knocked the air out of the lungs and our pilot disappeared into the deep. At this point all efforts to retrieve the man were lost. It is always necessary to follow the standard operating procedures in any military evolution, our Corpsman who feared losing the diver via rope entanglement chose to follow his emotional fears and failure was certain.

 

Naval Air Station Rota, Spain did not send us a “well done” message after our ship’s message informed them what had happened. In fact; the Commanding Officer of the Air Station had our ship banded from entering the port at Rota, claiming that we were incompetent. I do not think the Captain was wrong in this and certainly the base personnel would be overwhelmed with anger, and our crew could have experienced harm when going to the Air Base for duty free purchases at the exchange.

 

Looking at the parable of the lost sheep in Luke 15:4-7; I am reminded of the universal church of our day that is failing to fulfill the standard operating procedure that God provides in His Word. The world (a military operation for God) in which we live is a crash site of sin. In Matthew 28:18-20 we who are saved are given orders to go and save, to teach and to baptize those who are approaching their final and eternal rest. All of the unsaved are spiritually dead; all have fallen short of the runway. Romans 3:23.

 

What will you do today? For the physically dead we can do nothing, but there is hope for the recovery of the living lost and there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents, God expects one hundred percent, or all of the lost sheep, so what do you think? Have we missed a few?

 

For scripture references please CTRL+ click on the following website: http://www.biblos.com