Thought for the Day - 105 - Humilty

Thought for the Day – 104 – Humility

 

Proverbs 6:1-35 – There is a progressive path of life that many seem to follow and it goes like this. Listening to dangerous promises; 6:1-5. The trend of being lazy or having a welfare mentality; 6:6-11. The wicked or immoral conduct of society; 6:12-19. All of this sounds to me like a decadent or failing NATION.

 

Comments and challenges

I sometimes forget that I am not to be critical over problems that are not solvable by secular solutions; I think you know the problems as well as I do so there will be no dressing down or itemizing. It is easy to forget to humble ourselves before Almighty God and seek His Wisdom. (PRAYER) Humility will cure worldliness, just notice what the apostle James has to say about a humble spirit before our God.

James 4:6 – I will look at the first five verses in a moment but verse six says: “But He gives more grace; therefore He says referring (I believe to Solomon in Proverbs 3:34 that God scorns the scornful, but gives grace to the humble). This is something we as believers in Jesus can faithfully do and the question is; are we doing this?

Are we submitting to God? Are we resisting the devil? Is God drawing near and is the devil fleeing? Often we plead these verses of scripture to resist our personal temptations and sin, “okay” nothing wrong with that; we should seek the nearness of God at all times, but now for the purpose of this little message back by the apostle, we should take a look at James 4:1. Where do wars and fights come from among you?

Do these not come from our desires for pleasure that war in our members and explode through our mouth? Is not our desire in life tainted by a government flavored media that leads us to gripe about the nonsense of social and political ruin? (Should we not be praying instead?)

We have become a pleasure seeking society and we seek more pleasure by murder, by coveting and by refusing to ask God rightly in matters that are worthy for Him to respond too. Our ways are not His ways; neither are our thoughts, His thoughts, ever heard that statement before. Isaiah 55:8-9 puts the words of the LORD correctly in focus.

We need to do as the apostle says, scripture is not vain, but humanity is; the Spirit who dwells in BELIEVERS yearns with jealousy because we seek to answer our national and political problems with the power of the secular TONGUE, the secular DOLLAR and the secular DUMBING DOWN that is produced by a liberal media. Yes, the Holy Spirit of God is jealous. He sits on the sidelines waiting for us to stop the COMPLAINT of our sinful mouth and to start the CLEANSING of our heart.

We need to draw near to God, to cleanse our hands, to purify our hearts and to STOP being double minded. What? I am not double minded, oh but dear brother or sister you are. If and I do speak kindly to God about my personal issues, but speak aggressively to my neighbor, friend or brother in Christ about our nation’s political antics or other national problems I PRESENT A DOUBLEMINDED character to the Holy Spirit of God.

If God the Holy Spirit were your friend (as He should be) would your friend be happy or sad that you did not confer with Him first over the matters at hand? Yes double mindedness in our walk is not a work of FAITH, but it is a work that James reveals as DEAD and unstable, and why should anyone with an unstable character think that they should receive anything from the Hand of God. James 2:26; but the fuller picture is the whole epistle.

http://biblia.com/bible/nkjv/

Hebrews 9:27-28 - and as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, 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.
jess.abel01@aol.com

The Devotional - 104 - Golf Balls

Thought for the Day – 104 – Golf Balls?

 

Proverbs 5:1-23 – All pathways of life without the knowledge of God are a choice of ignorance; all ignorance leads to a system of dead end streets. There is only one Creator, His name is Jesus; His path is justice, peace and love. It is the path of a shining Light that shines ever brighter unto the perfect day. Proverbs 4:10-19; the way of the ignorant is wickedness and darkness; they do not know what makes them stumble.

 

Comments and challenges

The faith of young people in their parents is a most precious attribute, it is fragile but it is durable as well. I reckon this faith to be much like a golf ball. Hold a fresh new golf ball just above your head and drop it on a solid flat surface, it will bounce back to the height of just under your chin. After knocking it around the golf course for eighteen holes, it should still bounce from that flat surface to just under your chin. The abuse of hitting the ball and sending it sometimes out of sight means little to your faithful golf ball.

Toss the ball in your bag and forget about it for a year; you know the season is over and next season you open a brand new package of balls that came to you at Christmas and as you come to the water hole you rummage around in your bag for a water ball you find the one you used last year. A little beat up now; but it looks okay for this shot over the water. You hit it and you hear the results; splash! You missed your landing zone by a yard are two. Six months of ignoring your ball of last year causes it to lose ten yards of distance. Leave it alone for two years and you lose twenty yards.

I wonder if we get the picture I am seeking to paint. You can relationally knock a child around for many years and his or her faith will be as solid as a rock. Ignore that child for a year, two years or ten to fifteen as we do today and the faith in that child in you the parent will fail. Faith is the only tool that leads to obedience, or to be blunt: with no faith, no obedience will not be found. In chapter 6 of Ephesians the apostle Paul speaks to children and says; “obey your parents in the LORD for this is right” if mom and dad are not present within the household and God is not present too, what or who is there for them to obey?

The golf ball is not much good without a golf club to make it go the distance needed and you may be saying. (Great now I can treat my child like a mean disciplinarian!) ABSOLUTELY NOT; back to the golf ball; if you are ignorant of the knowledge of how to play golf and if you have not trained yourself in hitting the ball correctly you will wrongly abuse ball and cause you to lose it. So to it is with children if you are ignorant of God who gave that child to you.

Notice Psalm 127:1 – Unless the LORD builds the house; they labor in VAIN who build it; Unless the LORD guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. Go ahead and READ this psalm and while at it; WEEP since our heritage is lost in the WILDERNESS because we have been IGNORANT of God over the last sixty to seventy years in our HOMES, in our TOWNS, in our CITIES and in our NATION. SHAME on US of the U.S. of A.

We need to fall down on our FACE and seek MERCY and FORGIVENESS and maybe God will deliver us from our crumbling and pitiful national estate. Our political leaders today are the abused children raised by unprincipled fathers and mothers over the past decades as mentioned above. Therefore we should not expect them to perform in conservative lawmaking creating good national economy, good national morality and good national prosperity.

And have you noticed; that is if we read the Holy Bible? In Romans 13:1-14 the apostle Paul does not suggest that we submit to government authority, he under the power of God the Holy Spirit commands that we submit. In addition in verses 8 through 10 he adds that we are to love one another; we are not to commit adultery, murder, stealing, lying or coveting sins, these sins are the result of being ignorant of God.

So this command goes beyond the believing in God community. It is a command to you and I who believe in Christ and live in the community of abused children. We are not to mingle within the realm of their sin; we are to put on the LORD Jesus Christ and make no provision to live for the gratification of the flesh and we are to point them to the target. And in using the right CLUB, aim them to the CROSS. That club Romans 13:11-14, praise God if you are already doing this and shame on you if you are NOT!                                 http://biblia.com/bible/nkjv/

The Devotional - 102 - Kingdoms, Con't

A Thought for the Day – 102 – Kingdoms, Con't 

 

Proverbs 2:1-22 – One of the growing concerns I have about religion is the number of people who follow false teachers. We should ALL be careful; after all the choice of one’s heart is a free will effort to be deceived or not to be deceived. Therefore the person who receives the Word and treasures God’s Commands will understand what the will of the LORD’s is. James 1:21-27

 

Comments and challenges

So yesterday we talked about the three kingdoms that mankind can experience in his or her lifetime and it is interesting to me as I gear up some thoughts this morning concerning those kingdoms. If one is a believer in Jesus Christ, they will experience all three kingdoms. One the kingdom of heaven at hand, or more plainly the true church of Jesus Christ on earth; two: the Kingdom of God in eternity and three the kingdom of darkness. Now for me and I hope for you that is very exciting. Also there was enough scripture yesterday to back that up; but here is more, so comfort your self with this. Revelation 11:15-19 and Revelation 20:11-15.

However, the kingdom belonging to Satan, the one and only kingdom that is defined as the power of darkness will be the one kingdom that has nowhere but everlasting darkness to go. These will experience greater deception and greater darkness; those who trust in self, religion or dead works that satisfy the flesh. This kingdom will be tossed as it were into “outer darkness” because they did not repent of their deeds. Deed is another word that God uses for works or the efforts of humans who do not believe the gospel of God. John 3:16; Acts 16:30-31 and Romans 10:9-10. Or the opposite; Revelation 16:10-11 additional darkness in time and Jude 1:13.

I don’t know about you but this is very exciting, I just cannot help myself; this is like being a little tyke looking up at the kitchen table and seeing the candy bowl within reach and then, as my fingers grab the bowl and I look inside I see my favorite peanut butter cups all unwrapped and ready to be tossed into my mouth. Then to boot I hear my dad say; “Son have as much as you want” as this will be sweet and rewarding to your taste. Revelation 1:1-3 and yet there is a warning from scripture too. Note: Revelation 10:8-11 since there are many peoples, nations, tongues and kingdoms still waiting to hear the good news. Hmmm? This is after the rapture of the church.

Additionally and primarily I have been focused on the eternal aspects of God in that God does not live in ‘time’ He lives in eternity. Eternity is a real place where time does not exist. God will make toast out of unbelieving people who do not believe that He; God Created the heavens and the earth by the Word (Jesus) John 1:1-4 for mankind to live in time; for Him this is completed action on His part before He created the heavens and the earth. Isaiah 46:8-13.

We like to measure everything simply because we live a space or compartment of energy that is limited to time, you know like that toaster you may watch every morning. You drop in the bread or a muffin, that’s energy and you push down the lever to start the toasting process; that’s energy, the electricity does its job while you tap your fingers on the counter, that too is energy and the process continues until the toast or muffin is eaten and eliminated as waste. All mankind does is energy related and in time all gone; get the picture?

All of this and everything mankind does takes “time” but for God it is already “done”. Why else would the apostle Peter make this wonderful statement about this Promise of God? 1 Peter 3:1-9, It is God alone who is patiently waiting for all to be saved, for Him time means nothing and the apostle Peter plainly says that if God were attempting to measure time in eternity it would be something like less than two days ago that Jesus offered Himself to God the Father as the LAMB of God to take away the SIN of the world.

I have to take my hand out of the candy dish for now, but there is more candy so go ahead; help your-self to your favorite Psalm, Proverbs, Epistle or Book. God is patiently waiting in eternity to talk to you. He does not want to talk to you about “time” you already know enough about that subject and the darkness that prevails in time. He wants to talk to you about eternity and His love for you, don’t be shy, come boldly to Him and He will draw near to you!

The Devotional - 102 - Kingdoms

A Thought for the Day – 102 – Kingdoms

 

Proverbs 31:1-9 – Growing up I always thought an enigma was something to avoid even baffling or perplexing. I was not far wrong. An enigma should be avoided if the words are not seasoned with salt. The words of a saint of God should produce Truth and Light. So let your enigma shine among mankind (use salt), that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. Matthew 5:13-16

 

Comments and challenges

Since spending most of my active life in the United States of America’s Navy I understand that there are two types of SALT. One such salt is the enigma of “sailors” all over the world and the other is the SALT of the saints of God all over the world. As such; these two languages are “worlds” apart. In this thought most of us do not look at eternity as another world where things happen and many people of various religions do not express any belief in heaven, eternity or life after death.

I do not plan to go into the various beliefs of any people groups although I could, but I plan to reveal through the Holy Spirit that there is a place called ETERNITY by humankind and called the Kingdom of God, by God Himself. There is also another realm of existence called the kingdom of heaven and in these two kingdoms I will use the time to write about these realms as I seek to stabilize our thoughts today and tomorrow depending on the space of time and content.

The Kingdom of God is real; let me show you from scripture in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. First the Old in Isaiah 6:1; Isaiah says that he saw the LORD sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. This is just the first verse in the chapter but the whole chapter reveals the realm of the Kingdom of God; even explaining in detail the things that go on in that Kingdom.

Now looking into the New Testament; Jesus makes a statement in Matthew 19 that provides His focus is on Israel and He speaks of The Kingdom of God and the twelve thrones for the elders Israel to sit on judging the twelve tribes of Israel: note Matthew 19:28. When Israel rejected their Messiah (Matthew 23:37-39) JESUS; not Mohammad, Buda, a spirit being or some other non-existing or dead person of the past; but JESUS who is alive in His Glorified body this very moment allows the apostle John to see that there are twelve MORE thrones; twelve for each of the Elders of the tribes of Israel and twelve for the kingdom of heaven, the CHURCH.

In the regeneration, or after the church age, we need to see from the Book of Revelation that there are now twenty-four thrones in the Kingdom of God, Revelation 4:4, now I do not want to get bogged down in a lot of detail which is very easy for me to do, I have already deleted a lot of worthy material here with scripture backup, but I need to move on. If you wish to dig deeper in this, just shoot me an email.

So basically I am saying that from God’s view, which is to be the “believers” view there is a place that God identifies as His abode and He calls it the KINGDOM OF GOD. There is also an entity that Jesus identifies as the KINGDOM OF HEAVEN which He says is at hand, nearby or present. In the gospels Jesus is the kingdom of heaven. After His crucifixion, resurrection and the Glorified Body ascension of Jesus Christ to the Kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven at hand remains as the universal church of Jesus Christ that He established just before He departed. Note: Acts 1:4-8.

Now is closing today; there is another kingdom at hand, one that has been around since the beginning of time that God calls the kingdom of darkness, or the power of darkness. It is the kingdom of “SIN and DEATH” it is controlled by Satan, it is a religious kingdom devoted to darkness, or the enigma of darkness. Ephesians 1:21 and 6:12, this power is obvious to the saints of God, it is also viewed by the saints of God as counterfeit, in other words this power resembles the light but it is a LIE or Satan’s largest deception. 2 Corinthians 11:5-15.

We will be digging deeper into these worlds, especially the Kingdom of God, if you are saved and I hope you are then it is this Kingdom where you and I will abide when we die or when the translation of the saints of God takes place, 1 Corinthians 15:52, this is when the kingdom of heaven is removed from earth and goes to the kingdom of God; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. So what happens to the kingdom of world or Satan, it is made even darker. See Jude 1:13 and Revelation 16:10-11

The Devotional - 101 - The United States of America

A Thought for the Day – 101 – The United States of America

 

Proverbs 31:1-9 – As the name is searched out about a king in the Holy Bible by the name of Lemuel and his mother who spoke to him about his character and duties as king. I find the name interesting in that this name Lemuel is the name of Solomon and means “belonging to God”. Makes me want to know more!

 

Comments and challenges

Yesterday I mentioned that I would be considering going to the Google Blog to send out the devotional; there was no response from anyone. So beginning tomorrow August 01, 2013 everyone will need to RSS or however you do it these days log into: http://jesse225c.blogspot.com/ to read the devotionals since these will not come by email any longer. The sending of over 100 emails each morning is becoming difficult. I do not know how others do this without complications, but if I find out soon enough or if I see that folks are having difficulty with the blog, I will seek to research this further. Thank You!

There is an increasing number of public issues that are developing that are being swept under the carpet… so to speak; so I am going to begin revealing stuff as I see it and ask God to help me back up these things with scripture. I do believe that we are behind the power curve in our national duties as citizens of the United States of America. Like most of us who say we are Americans, we need to be careful with that statement and here is what I mean.

For months now, even a year I have sought to say just that, that we the people are citizens to the United States of America; therefore we are not Americans of the Americas as peoples of the North and South American Continuants. There is a BIG difference in these terms. My main effort is this: peoples of the United States of America do not entertain the thought of identifying or incorporating nationals of other peoples, tribes, cultures, migrants or other various illegal groups who abide on the soils of these continents as members or citizens of the United States of America.

Our national heritage, language and our Constitution did not permit and strongly opposed the infiltration of foreigners. The government also formed statutes of checks and balances to prevent our nation from becoming a third class nation; like the nations found in our so called America of the Americas today. We are blending in nicely and if we are not careful we will be absorbed into these cultures very soon. It may from a human viewpoint be too late.

Like most of us today we are being bombarded by every political “watchdog group” all conservative patriotic groups and even some high ranking politicians. All seeking donations to help them fix our nation, our government and our society; these even have surveys that ask the same questions. The surveys are of little importance since there is no one who (with any clout) will analyze the input, so these entities are only interested your donations.

My conclusion is this… PRAYER is the only solution to our national woes, not money or motivated groups. Folks we are in the lament stage of asking God to intervene. God is the only hope for the United States of America. Just as king Lemuel’s mother spoke boldly to her son, but also fondly in that she showed affection in calling him the son of her womb. We the people of this United States of America need to let God know that we are FOND of our Nation, fond of our constitutional government; our sons and daughters who lived and die to defend our freedom and fond of our God who can and will protect our national heritage if we call out to Him.

We cannot just roll over and sleep like the drunkard found in the parallel verses of Proverbs 23:19-35, we need desperately to cling to the challenge in the two verses above; Proverbs 23:17-18.

The Devotional -100 - Family

A Thought for the Day – 100 – Family

 

Proverbs 30:7-9 – The two main things that cripple mankind is falsehood and poverty. These are never removed totally in one’s life; but through prayer and petition to the LORD God. He will prescribe the path to follow. Also there is a caution in that there is trouble in too much or too little, therefore be wise as this may be a cause for cursing, now do not say “been there done that!” but say “Amen” it means the same thing, it just sounds more holy.

 

Comments and challenges

Today I am seeking to change over from Yahoo to AOL, I spent the morning creating a new account with the latter email account and this is the new email address: jess.abel01@aol.com anyone interested in receiving the Devotional by email can contact me through the new email address. For a while I will continue with Yahoo, but for some reason unknown to me the Yahoo email is breaking down.

It is already late in the day, so I believe this should be short so hang on to your hat and let us see what the LORD can do in a short period of time.

I like those prison epistles of the apostle Paul and the epistle to Philippi is one of them so we will take a look.

Most of us who read these devotionals have never felt the pain and despair of being locked up in prison cell or even imprisoned in the local jail for a day or weekend. I used to go and bail out my father every Friday, when I was a teenager in Florida. It was a joke really; on Friday’s he would go out and get a snoot full of beer and the wait for the local police to pick him up for being drunk.

After bringing him to the station they would place him in the cell for an overnight stay. Then the three officers on duty in the station would move the mailing table into the cell with my dad and in the cell they would play poker into the wee hours of the morning. Around 5:30 my mom would get the call that my dad was in jail again and to send someone to pick him up. My mom would wake me up and down to the station I would go. After collecting his belongings, he and I would walk home as if we were just out for a morning walk.

Now that story does not have a happy ending, my dad died in July of 2003; as far as I know, he did not know the LORD Jesus Christ as his “Personal Savior” I am looking at the eulogy that I presented on his day of burial, sometimes stuff just seems to choke you up since comments made can be so foolish when you know what to say and don’t say it. Like in my discourse I said: “Once I fell asleep in the shower; so I used that as an excuse to join the U.S. Navy; my dad was in the Second World War in the U.S. Army. I say that just to say… this is how far apart we were throughout our lives together”.

We never hide our battle scars well, but it is not the battle scars of war that I am projecting here; it is those scars of being raised in a family where there is no HOLY BIBLE, these scars are exposed and translated into the lives of every one of the future generations. The Holy Bible says to the third and fourth generations. See Deuteronomy 5:6-16.

So what has all of this to do with the incarceration of the apostle Paul and Philippi?

His life was centered around the Holy Bible as a Jew first, but his religion as a Pharisee was aimed at works involving the Law of God and not at faith in God, after his conversion to Christ circa 33/34AD inherited a new family. This family’s character is reveal by the apostle Paul as he writes to them in his epistle to the Philippians.

I wish that I had time to write out the whole epistle, it is full of personal encouragement and testimony of the love that the apostle has for the children of God. I do challenge you to take the time to read the epistle today. Philippians is only four short chapters. You see; most of my family is unsaved, only I am the one who left that family of unbelief in God and turned to Jesus. Now I am also full of encouragement; so I encourage you to join us by believing in Jesus Christ and be adopted into God’s family.

Well there is little else to say, except Romans 8:31-39, this works for me and it will work for you too, all you need to do is believe.

The Devotional -099- Oh! Just the thought of it is JOY!

A Thought for the Day – 099 – Oh! Just the thought of it is JOY!

 

Proverbs 29:1 – Which would you prefer; to be corrected by another human, or be corrected by the Living God? My preference… the Living God since He alone is Just and fully Righteous. While I may harden my heart in the matter (my choice)! His unselfish love is the only forgiveness that can restore my soul for His Namesake (Psalm 23). Don’t be naïve and be destroyed without remedy. Jesus says; “Let not your heart be troubled: you believe in God, believe also in Me”.

 

Comments and challenges

We have talked a little about Justification and Sanctification so this morning let’s talk a little about Glorification! It is that time in the future when this physical body will be laid to rest in the grave (or) if we are alive when God calls home His church, more popularly known as the rapture; or as scripture reveals in the epistle’s of the apostle Paul; that we all shall not die (or sleep) as he says, but that we shall be changed – in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed, 1 Corinthians 15:51-52 and 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. The apostle also calls this a hidden mystery.

Now he does not say that the mystery is hidden from the church (this would be you and me) and we need to remember this because it is a dividing line in major church doctrines across this land. The apostle is saying that the words he is communicating to you and me (the True Church of Jesus Christ); are not to be considered mysterious, these words are plainly revealing that in the Old Testament, which include over ninety percent of the information in the four gospels that the translation of the saints of God off of the earth will happen at God the Father’s appointed time in the future.

We will let scripture back this up, I like scripture don’t you? Scripture does not lie; it is the absolute Truth of God to everyone who believes. Acts 1:4-8 in these few verses, Jesus promises that the Holy Spirit will come to the Church on earth and individually fill the existing believers – verse 5; then in verse 6 his disciples wanted additional information about the future kingdom authority coming to earth. In verses 6 and 7 Jesus; the King of kings plainly says that this information belongs to God the father, even Jesus as King of kings was not privy to this information.

Now this is important point in glorification; our ministry on earth is to receive the power of the Holy Spirit of God and be a witness of the death and resurrection of Jesus. We are called for this purpose just as the disciples were called way back in AD 33/ 37. We are to be witnesses of Jesus, even to the end of the earth. Now the scripture also reveals that the earth will someday have a; God planned ending. If you believe in some kind of evolutionary process, then you do not believe in God the Father; Acts 1:4-8.

God the Father HAS CONTROL of His Creation; NOT man. Any human that concludes that ANY evolutionary process is true is rejecting the gospel of God. That is: if he or she is involved in a New Testament church; any pulpit commentary becomes false teaching and stands on the doorstep of the abyss. Revelation 20:11-15. Now you may say… “WAIT JUST A DOGGONE MINUTE” these are the works of UNBELIEVERS” well true, but let me ask you a question. “If God has control over Creation (including the death and resurrection of His Son) and you being a primary part of creation, do not believe that God created you according to His Plan and Purpose; who is going to win that argument?” So I say to the others: Beware do not be deceived by the philosophies of unprincipled men. Colossians 2:8.

We cannot choose what we want to believe, we must believe the whole “good news” it begins with Acts 1:4-8 and other related passages and the good news continues through the death of Jesus Christ for the “sin of the world”. In the Person of Jesus Christ all of the fullness of God dwells; He is the One God revealed to mankind during His ministry on earth for the purpose of defeating, Satan, Sin and Death Colossians 2:9-10. Why? It is simple really! Note: Matthew 28:1-20 if Jesus were not God manifested in human flesh, He would not have Risen from the grave.

This sacrificial death was agreed to in eternity, before the creation of the heavens and the earth, speaking to Israel through the prophet Isaiah, God says in Isaiah 46:8-12 (Please read it) God the Father promises salvation to come to Israel, this was around 700 BC, well are you saying that this is a long time. Not to God! The apostle Peter says plainly that a thousand years to God is as one day, (2 Peter 3:8) so God’s plan and purpose for the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ at that moment in time was less than a day away on God’s prophetic calendar. More tomorrow! On God’s time table, Jesus died and rose again less than two days ago, so for Him the Rapture of the church could be sooner than you are willing to admit or prepare for. I am ready; “Oh glorious day, glorious day, Jesus is coming to earth again… what if it were today? Are you ready!