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Archive for June, 2011

Psalm 113 – Part 4

30 Jun

This is a week of praising the Lord.  A reminder that you cannot think of God too much.  You can’t praise Him too much. 

Give Him thanks all day long and glorify His name.

Psalm 113:7-8 – 7 He raises the poor from the dust
   and lifts the needy from the ash heap;
8 he seats them with princes,
   with the princes of their people.

I write a lot about chasing after the world and the riches of this life a lot.  That is what I feel the Lord wants me to hit on a lot, because it has never been so widespread and affected so many before in one generation.  This generation as a whole in America is either chasing after it or spending their time either complaining that they aren’t allowed to get it or they want it and just dream about it.  All three cases are warned about throughout the Bible.

Don’t get me wrong though.  The Lord likes us to have our needs met.  He likes blessing us with comforts.  The Lord takes delight in the above scriptures.

What’s the difference?

The difference is where our heart is.

It’s kind of like your children.  You want them to do well and live comfortably, but do you want them to become so involved in their careers that they never made contact with you?  Do you want them choosing the almighty dollar over your love?

I’m reminded after the athlete that does well.  The television camera gets on him and what is the first they say?  Just being a Christian and seeing them giving my Lord the glory for their success makes my spirit jump with joy.  Then on the flip side, it can be as bad as Ali.  Stating he is the greatest and no credit is given to anyone.

The Lord wants to provide you with the blessings, but first and foremost He wants to give your love and devotion first.

Matthew 6:31-33 –31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

The Lord cares about us more than we can possibly imagine.  He certainly isn’t going to allow anyone to give their total devotion to Him and not have that individual taken care of in the big scheme of things.

Serve Him and Praise Him all throughout the day.

 

Psalm 113 – Part 3

29 Jun

All week long we are concentrating on praising the Lord.  The more we concentrate the more habit forming it becomes.  Isn’t it that way with all of our habits?  We are creatures of habit and change is difficult.

My wife married a pretty spoiled boy who had a mother who did almost all the chores around him.  Those habits are definitely ones you don’t break overnight.  Most bad habits come pretty easy.

We need to start good habits.  If you’re not praying before meals, then start making a new habit.  If you’re not praying before going to bed at night, make it a point to every night.  Pretty soon you’re doing it all day long in little spurts. 

Those become times of PRAISE.

Psalm 113:4-6 –  4 The LORD is exalted over all the nations,
   his glory above the heavens.
5 Who is like the LORD our God,
   the One who sits enthroned on high,
6 who stoops down to look
   on the heavens and the earth?

Who is like our God? 

No one!

He is the Creator of everything.  That doesn’t just include things or creatures, but emotions, all the rules of law (scientific, justice, etc.) everything and its function.

That’s beyond understanding, but still awe inspiring.

God looks down at the Heavens and Earth.  He made it all.

Yet most people have no time for Him in this country.

That’s a spiritual problem.  One we need to break.  In ourselves and the best we can for those around us.

Praise the Lord!   

It never goes unnoticed.  I believe there is a record of everything and these will be the records you will be the most happy to see.

 

Psalm 113 – Part 2

28 Jun

We are doing a week of nothing but concentrating on praising the Lord.  Not just His holy name but praising also just praising our God, our Lord, our Savior.

I’ve said it before in prior posts.  What kind of a relationship do you have with anyone if you put NO time into it?  Be honest, you don’t have one at all.

Take that serious and realize we don’t want to stand in front of our Lord with no relationship.  We don’t want others that proclaim His name to stand in front of Him with no relationship.  We need to encourage each other to stay in tuned with Him daily and walk with our Lord.

Psalm 113:3 – 3 From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets,
   the name of the LORD is to be praised.

That’s everybody.

It is pure and simple that everybody needs to serve and praise the Lord.  Not a Lord, not a Lord that has been sincerely made up, not a Lord different than the one of that has a Son name Jesus, who has paid they way of redemption for all that accept Him as Lord.

I, right now could make up some weird philosophy and sincerely put it together and the world would tell you to respect it.  Especially if it was politically correct and doesn’t step on others people’s toes or acknowledged it was the only way.  That should worry you.  It also should make everyone aware that anyone could have or can do that.  Just because someone sincerely chooses to accept and serve that doesn’t make it truth. 

We all need to seek the truth, not just what tickles our fancy.

The Lord wants praise from everyone under the sun.  That’s’ everyone.

 

Psalm 113 – Part 1

27 Jun

The Lord has put on my heart that we need to focus on praising Him.  This week we will read a couple of verses from Psalm 113 each day and focus on praising our Lord.

Psalm 113:1- 1 Praise the LORD.

   Praise, O servants of the LORD,
   praise the name of the LORD.

We’ve gotten too busy in America.  It doesn’t even matter what we’re doing.  It can be work, activities, or straight leisure.  We’ve gotten too busy.

Psalm 113:2-2 Let the name of the LORD be praised,
   both now and forevermore.

What do you give a God who has everything? 

Let’s start with the one thing we we’re created for.  Praising Him and having fellowship with Him.  All with our free will. 

Ah yes, we’ve been through a sinful fall and the choice of seeking and serving God after that is huge.  He absolutely loves it.  Look at the history of the world after the fall.  It’s not hard to see that the narrow road is not the one being chosen by most humans.

Matthew 7:13-14- 13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

You can’t out give God.  You can’t give Him too much of your time or your heart, which is the very thing He wants more than anything.

 

We Seek To Worship Because That’s How Were Made

24 Jun

Psalm 135:15-18 –  15 The idols of the nations are silver and gold, made by the hands of men.  16 They have mouths, but cannot speak, eyes, but they cannot see; 17 they have ears, but cannot hear, nor is there breath in their mouths.  18 Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them.

Why would a man worship an idol?  Why would he worship a stone?  Why would he worship a piece of wood?

Yet people of done it since the fall.  The reason is because we are made to worship.  Some worship others around them or they worship themselves.

Here we have a God that is one million times plus greater than we are and yet people will choose to worship something created that isn’t even made as wonderful as we are.

Make no mistake most people are seeking something to worship.  We may have a lot of wealthy arrogant atheists getting out their message but most of the world is still in the process of searching for something.

Look at Russia.  They were suppressed and atheism was nationally taught.  As soon as missionaries were allowed to go in (actually from all religions) they were very ready to accept something to worship.

We’re made to worship.  So let’s quit chasing after other God’s and our own selfish wants and seek with all our heart our Creator God and King!  Choose the Son Jesus and choose life.

 

Psalm 19:1

23 Jun

Psalm 19:1 – 1 The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

Just a scripture to reflect on the obvious and yet man would rather take the position that the universe happened on its own out of nothing.

Absurd!

Just another reminder that man will go to any length to make it where God is not to get glory and try to convince others that He shouldn’t get any.  It’s not science, it’s evil.

 

They Were Warned Already What Would Happen

22 Jun

Genesis 3:1-2 – 1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”

Confirmation from Eve’s own lips.  If they ate from the tree in the middle of the garden or even touched it they will surely die.  No confusion here.  She heard God’s words completely correct.

So what happened?

Genesis 3:3 –  4 “You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

She listened to Satan and bought the lie.  Why did she buy the lie?  Because she wanted what it offered which is the same thing Satan wanted and why he fell.

She bought the lie that you can be like God.  It wasn’t good enough that she was ruling the earth with Adam and God was their God.  No she wanted to be like God.

That was the reason she grabbed and ate the fruit.  No tricks.  Probably regret.  Satan was telling her what she was longing for and she bought in.

Satan is still selling the same lie to many different religions in this world.  You can be like God.

To say that we can be Gods is to say that Satan in the form of the serpent was telling the truth.  I think
most of us who read the Bible can make it out that Satan wasn’t telling the truth to Eve.  He tricked her and when she got Adam to come along, it allowed Satan to take the reins of this world.

How much does Jesus believe that Satan is a truthful person?

John 8:44 – 44 You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he
lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

The devil is peddling every known lie he can to keep us from the Father.  Our only protection to know
if it is a doctrine of demons or the true Word is to know the Bible.  Take time to know His Word, because in these last days, more apostasy is being dealt through the Church then anytime during our lifetime.

 

Be Patient, Do Good, Stay The Course

21 Jun

Psalm 37:7 – 7 Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him; do not fret when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes.

Many people will sit back and see what’s going on around them.  They see that people who aren’t
doing things the way they should be succeeding.

Then the voices start talking to them.  Hey, do what’s best for you.  Look out for number one.  You have the world at your finger tips and you should be at the top.  Pride.  Wealth.  Worldly Success they all can be yours.

There’s one problem with all that.  One, the devil is the one selling that.  Two, Jesus is warning constantly that it’s not about the world, but about God.

The scripture says you can’t serve two masters.

Luke 16:13 – 13 “No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.”

In the world today, the argument is you can serve two masters.  Or worse one really chases money or success and still thinks he is serving God.

I don’t believe God has any desire for us to live anyway but blessed, but the question I want to pose to everyone is what or whom is your master?

The answer is:  Where your heart is, that is your Lord!  Something is going to be your number one and that is going to be where your concentration is.  How are you geared?

We need to stay the course.  We need to make Jesus number one.  Our families need to be centered around Him, not things, not activities, not even each other without Him.

So when you see someone playing the worldly game and the worldly riches are coming in, and all the toys appear to be really neat, just remember that our Lord reminds us that God and our devotion to Him is
ultimately matters.

Satan wants you to believe you can have you can make your own cake and eat it too, just listen to him.

However, the only way that works is if we completely serve God and then he’ll give us the all the cake we need.  Now and forevermore.  He knows what are needs are as He is the One who created us.

Stay the course.  Don’t chase after the world, but after Jesus and God.

 

No Hell???

20 Jun

There is some popular teaching lately that there is no hell or the Lord would never send anyone there.
I got news for you.  Hell is for those who don’t repent and accept the free gift of salvation that God himself provided.  To say it doesn’t exist is to say one doesn’t believe in the Word of God.

Warnings!  Stern warnings are throughout the whole Bible from our loving Lord.

We as humans warn each other.  Don’t jump off that cliff, the fall will kill you.  Now what if someone looked at someone else and said, “Oh, if I jumped off that cliff God would never allow
that to happen to me.”

Actually God wants you not to put him to that kind of test and two doesn’t want you to jump off the cliff or there is a bad result waiting.

Don’t touch a power line with a metal rod.  Don’t jump in a fire.  Don’t go out in the middle of 20 below
weather without warm clothing.

Warnings!  The Bible is full of LOVING warnings.

Hell is defined as a place of torment.  A lake of fire.

Luke 16:22-24-    22 “The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s
side. The rich man also died and was buried. 23 In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. 24 So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and
send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’

2 Peter 2:4 – 4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them into gloomy dungeons to be held for judgment;

Revelation 20:11-15 – 11 Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. 12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. 13 The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done. 14 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. 15 If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

There is no benefit to man on preaching against hell.  The only thing preaching against hell does is
makes someone more secure that nothing will happen if they do whatever they want on this world.

The Lord is loving and does not want anyone to have to suffer Hell.  But the law stands and justice will happen for those who reject Him.  No one has to.  The free gift of salvation is for ALL to accept.  If you
haven’t accepted Jesus, I pray that you do so now.  I have a page to walk you through on the right hand side of the blog.

 

Quote – C. S. Lewis

19 Jun

Pride gets nopleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next
man.
C. S. Lewis

This is a hard one to understand unless you get around it
and see it happening first hand.  Our natural
instinct is to want blessings, however, the fall has caused the appetite of man
not be able to be fulfilled.

Why?

Man is trying to quench his wants rather than his needs.  He’s trying to do it without God.

Since there is never enough to satisfy in this world without
God and Jesus being number one, pride steps in and the want is never quenched.

Matthew 6:28-35- 28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and
your heavenly Father knows that you need them.

33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things
will be given to you as well.