The Devotional - Tuesday's Blog

The Devotional - 1499 - To Fear the LORD is to Trust Him

The Devotional – 1499 – To Fear the LORD is to Trust Him.

Proverbs 29:25 – The FEAR of man brings a SNARE, but whoever trusts in the LORD; SHALL be SAFE. (The word safe, also means secure, or literally to be set above the snare).

Comments and Challenges:

How much do we rely on the Living Word of God to retain our daily VICTORY over fear? Should I say “VERY LITTLE” since we fail to see that “fear” distorts “truth”, the LORD Jesus expresses His concern for this subject of fear and worry and its effects on the persons who fear. Matthew 23:23-24 – Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone. Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!

Over the past few weeks we have looked somewhat intently at God’s Will for the heavens and the earth. What is His Will? His Will is for us to know and understand in our soul that the Law of the LORD is PERFECT and that it has the power to “convert and restore the soul” back to Him to whom it belongs. That His testimonies of creation and His lovingkindness to all generations are provided to you and me in order to make us wise in the things of God; rather than the things of the world.

Also that the “statutes” of Him are so wonderful that not a star will fall from the universe nor will a sparrow drop to the ground without God’s knowledge or approval. This should rejoice our hearts at all times, even in the times of uncertainty. His commandments are “PURE” what blessing this is to the torment of a day, while we hear from man “trust me” the overriding purity of God’s commandments give encouragement and light to our weary human eyes.

Then in our text this morning we see that if our fear is directed at the details of living life, it becomes and overwhelming fear or snare; but whoever TRUSTS or FEARS the LORD is secure. Secure and safe because the JUDGMENTS of the LORD are TRUE, these are RIGHTEOUS for all those who abide in the Living Word of God.

So do not be as the religious crowds of today who, like the scribes and Pharisees of the past replaced “faith” in God, for “works” in religion. Justice, mercy and faith in God are truly, easier for the soul to digest and more pleasing to God than a camel load of tithing. In our trust in God we are reminded that there is the approved and the disapproved worker in the kingdom of God and His Christ. Seek always God’s approval. 2 Timothy 2:14-19.

The Devotional – 1485 – The judgments of God do not change

The Devotional – 1485 – The judgments of God do not change

Psalm 119:65-72 – You have dealt well with Your servant, O Lord, according to Your word. Teach me good judgment and knowledge, for I believe Your commandments. Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep Your word. You are good, and do good; Teach me Your statutes. The proud have forged a lie against me, but I will keep Your precepts with my whole heart. Their heart is as fat as grease, but I delight in Your law. It is good for me that I have been afflicted, That I may learn Your statutes. The law of Your mouth is better to me than thousands of coins of gold and silver.

 

Comments and Challenges

Can anyone understand the timing of events in one’s life; certainly the future does not belong to us personally. Yet if not careful, we can be overly protective of the future to the point of being in a total frenzy when plans go out the window. One thing that I would like to believe that I have learned is that God’s timing of the past, the present and the future are always backed by eternity and that eternity is His Plan. In other words if your plans do not include eternity you will often live in a moment by moment frenzy as your hard worked for plans fly out the window. God’s Word, if you care to look into it is always on time.

Notice what the psalmist says in this section: “You have dealt with Your servant, O LORD, according to Your word”. For some today that verse speaks directly to the soul to provide comfort and peace. For others the verse speaks directly to the soul to challenge and encourage; for others to gain instruction in righteous living. As it is said many times; scripture has only one interpretation; yet when God is speaking to us through His Word there will always be many applications.

A few verses later the psalmist says: “Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep Your word. You are good and do good; teach me Your statutes.” When our future plans go out the window of time and dissipate we must seek to see eternity in the background. If we fail to do this, there will be a host of proud people who are ready to smear you with words like; “you should have this, or you could have done that” it is not that they mean intentional harm, but they are harmers none the less.

In the moment we must seek to keep the statutes and precepts of God’s Word with our “whole” heart. King David says in Psalm 19:8 that the keeping of God’s statutes rejoices the heart. If we allow our self to listen to those that “forge the lie” of the world around us, we will develop a heart like the proud “fat as grease” (acting insensible). The world reacts to all problems with greasy flesh. Yet as the apostle John clearly says

We must continually seek to walk in the Light of God’s word since we face dangers all day long – walking in the Word of God is the ONLY way for His children. 1 John 4:12-16 – No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.

The Devotional - 851 - (Revisited) Thursday's Blog

The Devotional – A look at the Book #851(revisited)

Thoughts from Papa “J”

Just a small warning for those of us who may be traveling and staying in hotels or motels during the nation’s birthday celebration. Also there will be no devotional on the Fourth; in the meantime have a blest weekend… see you Monday if the LORD tarries.

Good Morning

As much as I have tried to stay away from the current events surrounding our world these days (and I have tried!) I always seem to be reminded of the failures of social out-workings of government groups, corporate communities and other entities that seek to cover the human problem of sin without the wisdom God offers from His Holy Word. 1 Peter 4:8 and Proverbs 10:12

Hopefully you notice the vain conversations that take place in various sources of the media, or as some would say the information highway. While driving Wednesday I was listening to a New England public radio station. There were a number of topics, all secular and all offering solutions to life without offering HOPE. To boot, the radio station was striving for donations and membership.

One such subject was “tipping the hotel staff”. If you do not tip and you stay frequently at the same hotel or motel you can expect to be subject to the depravity of the staff, from the clerk behind the desk all the way to the cleaning person who fluffs up your pillow and turns down the covers for your next evenings rest. These all have pass keys to get into your private life, while you are away for the day.

I do not want to go into those immoral actions, but use your imagination (or not; since the devil hangs out in your imagination). But whatever you can think of is done by the people who are to be servers of peace, safety and welfare. The person providing these stories and information was a successful person in the hotel business.

He had a solution: His solution was for you the customer to protect yourself by paying off the staff by properly tipping his employees. You would think that at the very least he might fire them! Bah Humbug! This kind of protection has been around a long time and paying off does not always pay off since people who thought they paid still ended up with cement shoes, or deadly diseases.

If one could listen to all of the conversations that go on daily, the roar of vane communication falling from the lips of so called informed people would be loud. Loud enough that a deaf person from birth could hear, and that deaf person would no doubt say. “Gee! I am so glad to be deaf since what I am hearing is shear or absolute nonsense.

I believe that Solomon in the book of Ecclesiastes covers this subject of secular humanism very well and true the world around us has operated this way throughout the course of time and it will not change. However, could it be that the Church of Jesus Christ is up to bat and that as a team we are down by one run at the bottom of the ninth inning with two outs, two strikes and a rookie at the plate?

Notice Revelation 2 and 3: Revelation 2:2; 2:9; 2:13; 2:19; 3:1; 3:8 and 3:15. God knows our works and He states in every section of these two chapters that there is something we can do better. All of which is centered within the neighborhoods of where we live in the world around us today. Secular solutions are prominent today and could this be because many churches are ashamed to give answers of HOPE. Romans 1:16-17 and Romans 5:5

The Devotional – 1483 – The judgments of God do not change

The Devotional – 1483 – The judgments of God do not change

Psalm 119:49-56 – Remember the word to Your servant, upon which You have caused me to hope. This is my comfort in my affliction, for Your word has given me life. The proud have me in great derision, yet I do not turn aside from Your law. I remembered Your judgments of old, O Lord, And have comforted myself. Indignation has taken hold of me because of the wicked, who forsake Your law. Your statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage. I remember Your name in the night, O Lord, And I keep Your law. This has become mine, because I kept Your precepts.

 

Comments and Challenges

I have rapidly walked through Psalm 119 so far, but as I do there are these thoughts that say, “Do it again” and what I mean by this is that the eight verse divisions of this Psalm are excellent platforms to initiate nearly every study or moment of meditation in the Word of God. The psalmists challenge to remember and hope in the Word are not primarily for God but for his own self to be stirred up the power of the Holy Spirit and his soul to recall to mind the riches of God’s everlasting Word.

If we have quenched or grieved the Holy Spirit and leave the grace of being in fellowship with God the harm of this can be unrecoverable as the apostle John indicates in 2 John 1:5. We have the responsibility to look to ourselves, that we do not lose those things (spiritual rewards) we have worked for in the past, but that we (you) may receive a full reward. To be deceived by the deceiver is to allow someone else to teach you where or when you should be teaching yourself.

When confined to a regiment of unprincipled ethics we could fall victim to those beliefs. Affliction from unbelieving men and woman can and often does lead us to believe that their ways may help in some fashion. This leading of a way is caused by one thing and that is a lack of study and meditation in the Living Word of God. We may say that we are not confined, but eight hours or more a day in the work place is a confinement, also three or four hours within that family of unbelievers is a confinement.

Being deceived by the crowd that surrounds us is always a temptation, while the law of God is at work in our conscience the world is at large. The apostle John in 1 John 2:15-17 says that we should not love the world as the world loves its own; this love is sensual and does not know the Father. Being full of the lust of the flesh and eyes it is the pride of human life; therefore it will never attain to the Father’s love and it will remain worldly. But whoever does the will of God abides forever. “So I will continue to keep the Word of Thy law forever” – Psalm 119:44.

Nearly; if not all of the verses of Psalm 119 are directed at the Word, Statutes, Commandments, Judgments, Precepts, Laws and testimonies of God. If we are to have sanctifying victory (day to day living as saints of God) we must be willing to abide is the Living Word of God. And do you not know that Jesus Christ is the Living Word of God, in the flesh of His past and now in the glorified power of His resurrection? Note John 15:1-27 and He is RISEN AND ALIVE INDEED – Luke 24:28-35.

Many readers leave me notes on “facebook” I know that I seldom respond; but to each of you I say thank you and to God be the glory.