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kjv@Psalms:82 @ @ RandyP comments: The poor and the needy are a constant theme in our reading. There are a great many reasons one might be poor and needy or fatherless and afflicted. I have known people that I have tried to help that even with my extra resources that just don't know any other way. In some respects it seems as if this exhortation is more about working to keep the wicked off their backs. By accepting the persons of the wicked, by not realizing who they are and what they are doing and calling them out we are dealing unjustly with poor and needy. An entire and large sub economy is built around serving the poor either as false recipients or providers that have little to do with actually helping the poor. The system grows exponentially but the truly needy are ill served. Our good intentions are used by the wicked to serve their darker purposes.

kjv@Psalms:109 @ @ RandyP comments: This world is filled with the truly poor and needy. There are countries we can think of that are in a constant oppressive state, countries where it's own refugees are congregated in camps just across it's borders, some for years and decades. We pray for them of course but, what to pray? There are people in the name of the Lord that are standing up for these people but they are lied against, falsely detained, immobilized. We pray for them but, what? There are those that are at the root of this. What shall we pray for them? David must have been square in the middle of some of these skirmishes. Is it wrong for him to pray this? Wrong to sing about this in the congregation? Will the wicked man ever change his ways once he has tasted blood in the waters?

kjv@Psalms:131 @ @ RandyP comments: When the heart is haughty and the eyes lofty the soul takes upon itself a great deal, increasingly large matters it really has no business in. I think of the political campaigns we are suffering these months ahead of elections. Presented are entire shopping lists of big and grandiose ideas/programs that each and everyone of us knows will never once be addressed. So why are we making concern over them, why to the near exclusion of the things that we would be able to address? This same type issue is true in our individual hearts as well. Oh yes, grand dreams and visions, miraculous intentions, marvelous causes, big and frequent squawks and chatter. It hardly ever results in any more than that. For some though, a new found calm and quietness, a weaning from the demanding tantrums of a suckling child, a trust and obedience to a more modest constantly maturing godly nature.

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@Psalms:141 @ @ RandyP comments: This constant talk about the wicked and of his own travail concerns me. Surely this not just any typical man nor situation nor prayer. The psalmist is being oppressed and surrounded for reasons not common to most of us in our personal daily lives. My concern is that we look at our common worldly difficulties in the light he looks at here, which is an intense spiritual warfare set against him as anointed king of anointed Israel being in the direct and announced blood line of the coming Savior. There may be a similarity to the persecution of the apostles and saints and martyrs, but to having ourselves a bad hair day?

kjv@2Corinthians:5 @ @ RandyP comments: There is a constant debate over works and faith. If because of faith you no longer live to yourself what do you now do? Some would say nothing for Christ did it all, grace not works. Others would counter you do what He would do, you work His work having given us the ministry of reconciliation, not for the salvation which is by grace but for the reward as His ambassadors.

kjv@2Timothy:1 @ @ RandyP comments: Timothy appears to be suffering some type of affliction leading toward possible discouragement. There is a constant resistance towards the gospel, the greater the accomplishments the greater the push back. No doubt Timothy's ministry is having an impact judged by the resistance it is receiving. Paul is encouraging Timothy not to hold back or shy away from what his ministry is facing, the Lord has not left him high and dry. What good is it to do all of this good and yet give it up because of some resistance? The Lord Himself suffered such, it is a sign of righteousness.

kjv@1Peter:5 @ @ RandyP comments: Though addressing church elders initially, the message here applies to each of us. Humbling ourselves, casting our cares, subjecting ourselves to one another, being sober and diligent to resist the Devil, suffering willingly to the ends of perfection. Peter, I feel, is driving the point home that these worthy things are brought about by the constant feeding the flock and taking oversight.

kjv@Ezekiel:44 @ @ RandyP comments: I find this an extremely challenging section of prophecy. The consequences of interpretation shape deep doctrinal foundations. The reader must study and ponder this deeply and come to their own conclusions; which is a very good thing. We are challenged by scripture every day. We are stirred. We are unsettled. We are encouraged to examine and re-examine. Nothing but Christ at times seem fully settled. This is what makes faith in the Bible real and living and dynamic; the constant challenge. Thereby we grow, we are shaped, we are moved. Some seek the answers that are readily available and figure if it is not readily there it is not there at all. Others however seek deeper into the broad context and the doctrinal consequence to shed light upon that which is not readily answered. Just because I am presently confused over this passage does not mean that the answer is not there, it means that I am being challenged. My curiosity is thus thrilled to explore it much further.

kjv@Haggai:2 @ @ RandyP comments: Every generation seems to have it's spiritual project; much larger than any one person. They must learn to rely on the Lord and clarify the will and resolve towards spiritual matters. It is never a side project, something to work on when other successes have left you the time. Things are constantly needing to be rebuilt or repaired or restored or re-established. Battles are to be fought and won and obstacles spiritually overcome. Often specific men are called upon to lead such efforts, but surely it is a group process. God is willing to shake the heavens to make such projects work.

kjv@Zechariah:1:6 @ @ RandyP comments: Would the Lord be unfair if He dealt with us according to the way we dealt with Him or each other? Would He be wrong? Would we be wrong if we expected Him to stay out of our business when our business so much effected His? What business is not His? In a sense the Lord has dealt with us according to our dealings. In another He has constantly risen above it with His patience and his reproof and mercy. He has spoken through His prophets when need be. But, who has listened?

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@Matthew:13:22 @ @ RandyP comments: A believer that overcomes the first two elements must also contend with the cares of this world. It may not matter what others believe or think or behave, the believer is settled and assured in this part of his faith. However, the real issues of life and family and citizen present a constant drain on his time and energies causing anxiety and fatigue and over extension. The productive fruit of his life gets chocked out without him barely realizing it. I speak from experience.

RecentComments @ kjv@Proverbs:1:2 @ RandyP comments: The first of several statements as to why the proverbs of Solomon, son of David, King of Israel are important. Just as important as the ability to see skill/wit is the ability to see chastiement/correction; the two go hand in hand. The skillful are not simply skillful because they have avoided making foolish mistakes, they are so because they have learned well from the mistakes they have made. We live in an era where young men and women are so deathly afraid putting themselves out there where they might make mistakes because they are so adverse to being corrected. Ask any skillful person you can think of, they will consider that they are skillful where so many others are not precisely because they have come to peace with the constant need for correction. Everybody wants to be skillful, few have the heart to be corrected. Correction is not pleasant at the time, but certainly the skills gained from correction are.