Daily Devotional - 1472 - The Locust and the Darkness

Daily Devotional – 1472 – The Locust and the Darkness 

Some thoughts for today by Papa “J”

The lazy countrymen of our nation should observe the ANT, it is the smallest of insects in some cases and yet among insects the wisest. The ant does not need a leader or an overseer and yet it has enough food for the winter because it knows when to harvest. Proverbs 6:6-8.

Comments and Challenges

While living in Hawaii in 1965 there was an experience worth talking about as it relates to the days in which we live. We had applied for Navy housing when we first arrived on the Island of Oahu but needed to move into off base housing and wait. This was a very nice private home in the small town of Eva Beach. After a year we got word that housing was available, so we gave notice to the owner that we would be moving out.

On the last day of our stay in this home I was required to turn the water off from the public water supply near the street. I opened the cover and heard a noise that told my mind, “Do not stick your hand in that hole!” Okay, I obeyed the voice of my mind, but a neighbor who I did not get along with was watching and he responded with. “What the problem?” I explained that I did not like the sound in the hole.

He came over and looked into the hole and heard the noise and with words under his breath reached in and shut the water off. When he withdrew his hand it was covered with red fire ants. He simply brushed them off and back into the hole, but his hand and wrist was full of red bite marks. He grinned and gave me the feeling that I was a wimp!  (Now Please: Use your thinking cap!)

Joel 1:1-12 - The word of the Lord that came to Joel the son of Pethuel. Hear this, you elders, and give ear, all you inhabitants of the land! Has anything like this happened in your days, Or even in the days of your fathers? Tell your children about it, Let your children tell their children, and their children another generation.

 

What the chewing locust left, the swarming locust has eaten; what the swarming locust left, the crawling locust has eaten; and what the crawling locust left, the consuming locust has eaten. Awake, you drunkards, and weep; And wail, all you drinkers of wine, Because of the new wine, for it has been cut off from your mouth.

 

For a nation has come up against My land, Strong, and without number; his teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he has the fangs of a fierce lion. He has lain waste My vine, And ruined My fig tree; He has stripped it bare and thrown it away; Its branches are made white. Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.

 

The grain offering and the drink offering have been cut off from the house of the Lord; The priests mourn, who minister to the Lord.  The field is wasted, the land mourns; for the grain is ruined, the new wine is dried up, the oil fails. Be ashamed, you farmers, wail, you vinedressers, for the wheat and the barley; because the harvest of the field has perished.

 

The vine has dried up, and the fig tree has withered; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree-- All the trees of the field are withered; Surely joy has withered away from the sons of men.

The pestilence of our nation’s day of judgment is NOT FUTURE, it is a very present invasion, from the small insect to the roaring lion whose fangs are digging in deeply into our national heritage and into our freedoms. We live today with mockers of our past histories; they mock at those who preserved our freedoms and heritage by celebrating “falsely” at the anniversaries of Freedom’s account of victory. 

The mockers (who are leaders) all come together from “all the nations involved” to stand before the tombs of great men. They give wonderful speeches of peace and safety, while their troops swarm the country side of some nation. They are aggressive as the three breeds of chewing, swarming and crawling locust. (But note there are four breeds).

All of this is done while we cannot agree with other. While other leaders give speeches that are like that dark hole of uncertainty. The loud hum of “I can see you! Leave me alone or if you care too, reach in; but I do bite and I will continue to nip at you and poison you with my counterfeit agenda of peace and safety”.

If I were a betting man I would say that the odds of “FIVE for ONE” is more like “SIX to NONE” in that such a gamble to FREE the FIVE for ONE  is not a gamble at all, but another swarm of locust, the CONSUMING LOCUST that intends to dine on our remaining freedoms. The fields of bravery are nearly bare and the crop of the future is still being aborted.

Thursday’s Blog – Change is in the wind

Thursday’s Blog – Change is in the wind

“I did not know this, did you”? Just the other day we were dining out at the local restaurant and it was one of those buffet style places. Two wall clocks were having a meal; their hands were busy stuffing their faces at the table across from us and one said to the other, “This meal is so good; I’m going back four seconds!”

Bible Challenges and Comments

I believe it was Ronald Reagan who said “Freedom is only one generation from extinction”. There is no problem with that statement, I believe it and so should YOU. Again and again people all across this nation have warned and lamented over the nation’s dangerous path here of late. Daily we receive mailings from para-political and para-church organizations saying things like “Take our survey and side with us; give a donation and we will get the nation back on track”.

All of these vehicles of operation are cut from the same mold; all are organized under a tax code that exempts them from paying taxes and allows for those who support their cause, a tax break at the end of the filing year. Now I am not knowledgeable in these matters so I do not want to dig to deeply here and find out that my ladder is not long enough to get out of the hole, so here is the rub.

None of the para-political organizations ask for prayer and only some of the para-church one’s do. Should we expect this from the political side of life? “SHAME ON YOU”, if you said yes since our founding fathers would disagree. Our nation was founded by men who prayerfully gave their lives for the freedom that we are flushing down the drain. Okay, moving on to the para-church entities. The first priority of these organizations is normally focused on one national blight and not the whole. Then their following priorities are to obtain more money in order to keep their ministries afloat, prayer is secondary almost always.

Now it would sound as if I am against giving donations (it could be that I am), however why should anyone give money to another person or organization that fails the test of “faith in God”? So, what might this sort of faith in God look like? Matthew 27:29; John 19:2 and John 19:5. Jesus is the Author of Faith; Hebrews 12:2. First we must know that any crown is a crown of “faithful” suffering. 1 Corinthians 9:24-27; 2 Timothy 4:6-8 or James 1:12. Notice what the apostle Peter says in 1 Peter 5:1-11, a crown of glory that does not fade away. Do not expect to wear any of the crowns offered to us saints if you are not willing to suffer.

There is much to say about the crowns (rewards) that we can receive, but it is more and more obvious to me that our nation is failing because “We the People” (Those in the secular or political camps) are just as unwilling as those in “We are God’s People” (Those in the spiritual or godly camps) to submit to the will of God and that would be as you may have read earlier in 2 Tim 4.

“For I am already being poured out as a drink offering and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, “I have kept the FAITH”. Finally, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the LORD, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day; and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing”.

So not only pray for the nation, but ask God to help you engage the enemy through prayer and do not fight with the devil with money, he will laugh at you all the while he spends it on his priorities. Let Michael the archangel contend with the devil while you pray for God to heal all of nations sins Jude 1:9.

The Devotional - 1471 - Living in Darkness is a personal choice

Daily Devotional – 1471 – Living in Darkness

Some thoughts for today by Papa “J”

There are only TWO paths of life and YOU and I are on ONE of those PATHS. Also we might notice that we cannot swap back and forth from path to path and if you allow your heart to look where your path is taking you, you will see the direction, Proverbs 4:18-19.

Comments and Challenges

The concluding statement of Proverbs 4:19 is that if you are on the path of darkness then you do not know what it is that is causing you to stumble in the way of wickedness. This is important to think about so bear with me a bit while I put some substance on the thought of darkness and wicked behavior.

I mentioned this some time ago and maybe you will recall; while in firefighter training we were required to crawl (scurry) on our stomach through a long narrow tube. We were in total darkness inside the tube. When it came to be my turn I began to make my way and the trip seemed endless. As I scurried along someone said, “Jesse you can stop now, you have completed the exercise and if you open your eyes you will see that you are done.” I had crawled some fifteen feet further then required.

The point is this; it is one thing to know that you are in darkness, but if you are in the darkness with your eyes closed, then how great is the deception? It is overwhelming since you do not know enough to open your eyes and see the light. So there is security in the wisdom of God, but most people see the Living Word of God as just another book written by man and not by God.

Here are some inspiring words written by the apostle John in his Gospel; John 1:1-4 – In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend (capture) it.

So hopefully we might open the eyes of our being and capture the Light of the world who is Jesus Christ the Son of the Living God, or else we can remain like the world around us crawling and grouping around in the darkness. And do you not notice the many people who call out daily to you saying; just open your eyes and see the LIGHT. That is the True LIGHT which gives light to EVERY man (one) who comes into the world.

Daily Devotional – 1470 – Covet, how easy it is!

Daily Devotional – 1470 – Covet, how easy it is! 

Some thoughts for today by Papa “J”

Americans are a people group who covets; we are only six percent of the world’s population, but we covet or have over 52 percent of the world’s graven images and materialistic toys. The tenth commandment “You shall not covet!” I wonder if God will need the other nine commandments at the Great White Throne Judgment Day for this; the United States of America?

Comments and Challenges

I can just picture the apostle Paul using the Ten Commandments as a check list to monitor the purity of his heart before God.

1.     You shall not have other gods before Me:  Yes LORD you are my God.

2.     You shall not make for yourself any carved idol: Yes LORD you are the only God.

3.     You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain: Yes LORD I love your Name.

4.     Remember the Sabbath Day and keep it Holy: Yes LORD I bless the Sabbath day and keep it Holy.

5.     Honor your Father and your Mother: Yes, yes I do honor both my parents. Thank you for my parents LORD.

6.     You shall not kill: Yes LORD, I have come close, even giving my consent; but I have killed no one.

7.     You shall not commit adultery: Yes, LORD I have not committed adultery.

8.     You shall not steal: Yes, LORD I do not steal

9.     You shall not bear false witness against thy neighbor: Yes, LORD I do not lie.

At this point the apostle Paul is feeling really good about his personal holiness and even if your personal holiness compares to Paul’s standing before God, or even think you do remember that before The ONLY God, the HOLY God and the God of ALL Justice and Mercy, there is one more Commandment. But first let me say that the FULL context of the Ten Commandments can be found in Exodus 20:1-17 or in Deuteronomy 5:6-21

10. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife; and you shall not desire your neighbor’s house, his field, his manservant, his maidservant, his ox, his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.

“What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known “COVETOUSNESS” unless the law had said, “you shall not COVET.” But sin, taking opportunity by the (that) commandment, produced (revealed) in ME all manner of EVIL desire. For apart from the law sin was dead. Romans 7:7-8.

I thought of stopping here but in continuing to read in Romans Seven. I thought of all nations and people groups under the sun and of the fall of mankind and the curse of God on all of Creation. I said in my heart, woe is me I must continue. 

Like the apostle Paul we MUST be able to see the other law that works within our body’s members. The law that WARS against the law of God in our mind; just as Paul is able to understand, we should seek to understand too. “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body destined to die?”

And the ONLY answer is; “I give God thanks – through Jesus Christ our LORD who died for my SIN and rose again. In Jesus Christ we are JUSTIFIED, in Him we share in HIS Righteousness and Holiness and in Him we are raised up to eternal life, therefore in Him we serve the law of God correctly, but with our human “flesh” we serve the law of sin. Romans 7:9-25.