Comments - bible RecentComments

kjv@Psalms:65 @ @ RandyP comments: God has a general grace given to all, even His enemies, that can be explained as simply as the sun and rain that falls upon all of us. In so many ways he moves over and upon each of our lives providing and blessing in ways we barely realize. We have a more specific grace as well in which He has chosen and caused many to approach. The psalmists speaks in natural terms that we all can picture and understand but he is speaking in spiritual terms as well.

kjv@Psalms:78 @ @ RandyP comments: By Asaph. The condition of man's heart, even the heart of God's chosen/faithful, is reviewed. Rebellious, if by them than how much more are we? After all that God had done, after all that God had made them into, after all that God had done both peaceably and violently to correct them, they sinned still and did not believe Him for His wondrous works. They forgot, refused, tempted and provoked, believed not nor trusted, lusted, kept not His commandment/testimony, were not steadfast in His covenant. By denying Christ Jesus to this day, what would make us to think that this is any different today, that somehow now they've got it right, have evolved to a higher more trustworthy plain? Gentiles are just the same though they haven't been exposed to this measure. We know from scripture however that they will one day come to the fullness of their covenant with God in the Lord Jesus.

kjv@Psalms:132 @ @ RandyP comments: If His people shall keep His covenant and testimony...all of this. His covenant? That He has chosen Israel, He will dwell in Zion; that from the fruit of David: Jesus He will set His throne; that His priests will be clothed in righteousness and salvation and His people will shout for joy. How will this be when it has not been so for a long time? "Let" may be the key word.

kjv@Psalms:136 @ @ RandyP comments: In each and everything His mercy is a constant. Even when He is slaying a king our smiting a people He is kind. How could that be? Field of vision! We are also told that in God mercy and truth have met together. In establishing Israel He established the microscope for us of all ages to clearly view all human nature and established the bloodline for our redeemer to come through. We are told of the wickedness of these kings and the hardness of the heart of this pharaoh and the blood guilt of Canaan to the extent that the land was spitting them out. We are told of a people that were not a people becoming God's chosen, established for the good of all mankind and through which His greatest gift/mercy/grace would come.

kjv@Ephesians:1:3-6 @ @ RandyP comments: We know at the very least that this predestination means that anybody/all that were going to be received into the eternal life to come was going to have to come to it through the adoption of Christ. Whether this means I or you specifically were chosen/singled out beforehand is not suggested by the language here but, may be quiet possible. The later may but a debatable point, not the former. Let us start off by what we know.

kjv@Ephesians:1:11-12 @ @ RandyP comments: If this were to mean singled out beforehand, it could just as well mean that those specifically who first believed (early church, disciples) were singled out and not necessarily the rest of us who believed because of their testimony. Jesus for instance chose Peter at the shoreline and may have chosen him before even creation. This is not to disregard the predestination of all but to confirm at least this much.

kjv@Isaiah:55 @ @ RandyP comments: The covenant He makes with us Gentile tribes is the same that He made with David. It is without price and satisfy like no other. He has chosen and glorified a nation that was not a nation so that the others will take notice and turn from the wicked and foolish ways. His ways are like nothing we would intellectualize and His word will accomplish that which He purposed without fail. Joy and peace and great blessing will be the end result.

kjv@Isaiah:58 @ @ RandyP comments: The fast and the Sabbath are mentioned together in one passage. We see illustrated how easily the fast can be contorted into something lesser that it is not. The true fulfillment of the fast is much more wide spread than we most often allow. Can the same be said of the Sabbath then being that they are placed within the same prophetic declaration? Is this the fast He has chosen? Is this the Sabbath He chosen?

kjv@Jeremiah:1 @ @ RandyP comments: At least in Jeremiah's case he was chosen out before he was even formed in the womb. In this case chosen to be a prophet. And he became a prophet at a very early age with great impact and miraculous confirmations. How much further amongst us does this extend? We are not told directly here. Are we chosen before the womb? This argument is used pro and con in the abortion debate. The suggestion that a mother's rights trump God's (even if not pre-selected in every conception, merely rather on the possibility) should cause alarm. Only the hardened soul can completely wipe this fact off the board without at least some resemblance of consideration. Then there is the consideration that even if not chosen, even if not chosen to be a prophet or great historical figure, God saw fit for that conception to occur.

kjv@Hebrews:10:1-23 @ @ RandyP comments: Nowadays, minus the temple, there is no way for Jews to perform their sacrifices. I am sure that they have used some of these same scriptural quotes to justify their position, that the sacrifices weren't really needed in the first place. The problem for them still would be that there is no remission of sins without the sprinkling of blood. The Christian followers have not ceased from the sprinkling of blood, it is that the blood now is the blood of God's chosen one, the sacrifice He Himself provided as with Abraham, Jesus Christ. His sacrifice is once and for all and complete.

kjv@Hosea:5 @ @ RandyP comments: The offense is toward God. The lying, the killing, the adultery; the treachery of priests and murderous revolter's, pacts with foreign kings. One might think that the offense is against the nation, or toward the good people of the land, towards what could have been, towards those slain or persecuted. This is God's nation, His law, His chosen people, His temple; the offense is toward Him. To take this offense and not own up to it is a greater offense than any.

kjv@Hosea:9 @ @ RandyP comments: It seems that critics are consumed with the translations of small words. A translation of few corrupted and the entire text is called into question. The message of the Bible however in such large grandiose pictures that the changing of words here would have to be repeated throughout and still would not change the picture. The picture here is that chosen Israel has gone very wrong, and is left to receive the punishing end of a firm covenant. Is there not the picture of God's love? Is there not the picture of His blessings upon them? Is there not the picture of them chasing after gods other then Him? Is there not the picture of His patience and efforts for their return? How many words would have to be changed in how many places to alter this picture? Being confident of this picture we are all the more confident in the fitting of the other pictures in the collection that God's word so vividly paints, such as the picture of Christ.

kjv@Revelation:4:1 @ @ RandyP comments: Must be. So many consider this book as what could be if we don't straighten ourselves up, that the power to hold this off is in our hands. All of scripture suggests different. As bad and as wrong as all that follows seems to be, it is right and part of the course God has mandated. His faithfulness is contrasted by man's deprived nature given every opportunity to repent and by the spiritual war of Satanic powers and principalities that have been hidden all about us till this time. It is the time that His chosen people come awake, their eyes opened to His Messiah, His covenant to their fathers Abraham Issac and Jacob towards them finally realized.

kjv@Amos:2 @ @ RandyP comments: With all of these external reasons given we finally get to Israel and Judah, all the more reason for judgment. Judah for despising the Law, not carrying out the commandments, and walking in the lies of their fathers. Israel for their callous treatment of the righteous/poor/meek, their sexual perversion and spiritual profanity. Both have witnessed God's work against other nations but disregarded that fact that their puffiness as 'the chosen' against God is all the worse.

kjv@Amos:8 @ @ RandyP comments: A famine from the word of God. You would think that the word of God is exactly what they need, that the word of the prophets would increase or that the initial scrolls would be uncovered or something. The problem is that they've had the word all along and have chosen not to do anything with it. It is often true that you never really hunger or thirst for something until it is taken away. You don't realize how much you needed it until it is no longer there.

kjv@Zephaniah:2 @ @ RandyP comments: There are many nations involved here. Their transgression namely having reproached the chosen for the sake of magnifying themselves. The chosen certainly were not blameless and deserving of reproach, but, it was for the Lord to reproach not them. Reproach in order to magnify is a different thing however. We see people practice it in our lives all the time. I know of men who speak of the Church in the same way. It is not that they have any desire for the Church to correct itself, it is that by moving the church out of the way they themselves look all the better. This is done even by Christians to the greater Church at large.

kjv@Malachi:1 @ @ RandyP comments: After this many years and this much history, it can still come back to the Lords consideration of Jacob and Esau. Something about Esau He hated and his descendants alike. Jacob He loved even though it has been a constant struggle. The descendants argue with the Lord at almost every turn when He says that they are doing this or that. Then there are the gentiles who the Lord wants to look on Him honorably, but, the religious inconsistencies of His chosen alter that perception. If Esau be this way and Jacob be another why does the Lord even continue with them? I believe the answer would be the same no matter who He choose, it is a matter of the truest nature of sin, the spirit of man is at complete enmity with God in all cases. In fact, the best results obtainable may be from Jacob's seed. Remember that is not from these people that the Lord will be praised it is from the actions of Lord upon these people, His incarnation and redemptive plan. The gentiles may be the first to see and bring Him honor, but, the lines of the two brothers will someday wonder what it is that the gentiles see and begin to wonder and look into it themselves.

kjv@Malachi:1 @ @ RandyP comments: The love and hate of the Lord for the two brothers and their seed may have nothing to do with their personalities or what they might be able to do, but, who He has chosen to be incarnate amongst. His love for Jacob certainly has not been any easier of a road for Him. His greater love is for all people, He seeks all of their hearts, He has died for all of them - Jacob, Esau, and Gentile alike. His particular love for either of these two has more to do with the division of pathway He chose to pursue His greater plan.

kjv@Genesis:20 @ @ RandyP comments: Remember that Sarah is an older women now and yet her beauty is still much desirable by kings. The king knows that he acted out of the integrity of his heart, the Lord knows it as well and warns him, but, the whole thing has the appearance of a threat and the functionality of a curse. How many other things might there be in our lives that are ways of warning us about grave danger that are likely perceived as threats? The Lord is protecting His chosen man as well who fears the unrighteousness of others, fears for his life the possible consequences of the obvious beauty of his wife. This event must have taken place over the amount of time for it to become noticeable that the kings maidservants were not birthing.

kjv@Exodus:12 @ @ RandyP comments: This is the first plague where the people of Israel had to participate. Everything up to now they sat back and watched. Their action is to be reenacted yearly as a remembrance to all future generations and is very specific as the symbolism is exact and points to the coming Messiah. kjv@1Corinthians:5:7 describes Christ as our passover. He in every way fulfills the role of the lamb sacrificed (before the congregation) and the lamb's blood protecting/covering the chosen from a death otherwise meant for all. His death brings about our immediate release and exodus from the bondage of sin. Now the proofing of the believer begins.

kjv@Exodus:13:9 @ @ RandyP comments: Think of what the perception of God was before these acts. He was mostly full of promises. He had accomplished some necessary judgments (flood, Sodom), talked now and then to direct an individual. This is the first though that He had revealed with a mighty hand a entire people; first He had used one people to show forth His power to all other people and thereby spread the prophesy of the coming Christ. Now He will be right on top of these chosen people for a time to show us His precise nature.