kjv@Psalms:68:31 @ @ RandyP comments: Ethiopia after the time of Christ does become a stronghold of Christianity perhaps like no other including Rome. The Eastern Orthodox church has been of prime importance and at times has extended itself into even India and China.
kjv@Psalms:71 @ @ RandyP comments: We are reading this as it appears in the order of the book of Psalms and not in the chronological order of his Davids life. It will be interesting in the next devotion to see where David is at in his life when he pens this. We know by I reading thus far of Samuel Kings and Chronicles that there was a good part of his life in exile being hunted by Saul or later his son. These may be some of the enemies which he writes of so frequently of. It can be the spiritual enemies while he is on the throne as well.
kjv@Romans:4 @ @ RandyP comments: This law of faith not only separates us from our Jewish brothers but also our Muslim; it is our dividing point in many respects. Their reward is essentially boiled down to "God owes them" because of their obedient works. They do what He commands them and He is obliged/indebted to pay them back. God is committed thus only to their blood seed or proselytized seed. It is our belief that God owes no man no thing, that what He does give us is freely given of His own supreme grace through and for the establishment of His own son Jesus Christ's reign and lordship. We have the entirety of the Bible including the accounts of Abraham and David to confirm this Law of Faith. It's reward is available to all peoples who like Abraham hope beyond hope in imputation and God's providential grace. The story of Abraham thus becomes a prophecy of God sacrificing His son in substitution for reasons of His own love and grace and not because of indebtedness to some percieved goodness we may or may not of performed. The difference is huge!
kjv@Psalms:74 @ @ RandyP comments: Asaph writes about the enemy burning and destroying in the various local sanctuaries most likely in the times before the building of the temple. He was a contemporary of David's from my understanding. Though I don't know which specific time he is witnessing, there certainly were times when Israel had fallen back into its malaise and God allowed desecrations like these to re-awaken congregations. Where might we see this in our faith and church histories today?
kjv@Romans:5 @ @ RandyP comments: Remember where to find this chapter. Memorize it and it's key versus or at the very least understand it fully. This is one of the gems of all human literature; one of several found in Romans.
kjv@Romans:7 @ @ RandyP comments: In Christ our previous husband (the Law) is dead; we've seen our inescapable sin nature, we know the will to do right is there but not how to perform it, we sense the war raging against the law of our minds. Now we are married to a new husband, a husband that has raised from the death dictated by the Law and brought us into a completely new and living hope.
kjv@Psalms:80 @ @ RandyP comments: Just as the shepherd's flock in the previous chapter, the picture of the vine has been used in many places in the Bible, used by our savior in fact, and is a good way of describing what has happened and what will happen to Israel. This account suggests that it was brought out of Egypt, land cleared aside and planted. The vine elsewhere is also pruned and trimmed by a husbandman to produce it's greatest fruit and gentile believers are being grafted into it. It may feel to them like they are being ransacked but, in the bigger picture they are being seasoned and groomed into something grand.
kjv@Psalms:81 @ @ RandyP comments: Other gods, the plague of Israel. Why was it so easy for them to slip back into this? After all the reproofs, the bondage and countless turning back. It would be wise for us to consider this answer. It may not be as simple as finding the right god and sticking to it. It could be that we use gods to serve us which the false gods are very willing to do. It could be that we feel better being fulfilled and exalted than being brought low and humbled. It could be that we believe the here and now and not the future, that our hearts are never satisfied, that we are driven by lust and fear. There are processes and separations being used by the Lord to make us what we will one day be. It is easier though for us to think that we are now what we will be. Such are our presumptuous sins. Such is the shame of what this life should have been.
kjv@Romans:14:23 @ @ RandyP comments: What is not of faith is sin. Almost too bad this major universal truth is tagged on to a line considering the observance of foods and days; it gets over looked. Too many people consider sin the breaking of the one of the ten commandments. The reprobate mind reduces and compartmentalizes down to the un-approachable minimum. The scale of sin is much broader than we observe bringing every living breath and action into doubt. To know this scale of sin and it's human inescapably is to know why Jesus had to die one for all to it.
kjv@Psalms:110 @ @ RandyP comments: David has a Lord. David's Lord has a Lord. How can the Jew explain this? This intermediary Lord is a priest after the order of Melchizedek. He is waiting at His Lord's side until that Lord puts their enemies under this Lord's foot stool, Surely this Lord is not a human lord or king yet to be born for He sits there now and has sat there at least from the time of David. Compare this with kjv@Psalms:2
kjv@Romans:16 @ @ RandyP comments: A long but partial list no doubt of the people Paul has marked out as being good brethren, people he would encourage us to hang out with and emulate. A leader would be wise to make public mention of these role models frequently. There are people to mark out to avoid as well, people that appear to be goodly but serve their own belly. Maybe it is not as important to us individually to mark them out, but, as leaders of a ministry or congregation it certainly is. Be sure to address this fault with them first personally as is proper but, if nothing yet changes avoid them. In any event they must be cut off from their position in the services of the church. A leader would be wise like Paul to search this list out system wide especially in the areas where food or money or barter-able services might be changing hands.
kjv@Psalms:113 @ @ RandyP comments: The Lord God's Son not only was high above doing these great and countless things, He humbled Himself to become part of these experiences as well, to the effect that now He is by no means a stranger to the human feelings and human nuances and human temptations that we experience within these great foundations and frameworks. He has been both here and there. Having returned back to His position alongside the Father, having completed the necessities for our redemption, He waits at the right hand as the Father puts His enemies beneath His footstool so that He the Son can return in His much deserved glory. Who is like unto our Lord God?
kjv@1Corinthians:1 @ @ RandyP comments: Notice here that Paul has not yet concluded his discussion of the Church's division. This is not him getting side tracked. He is using the explanation of worldly knowledge verses spiritual knowledge as part of a larger address of what ails the church.
kjv@Psalms:125 @ @ RandyP comments: We tend to personalize/individualize these verses. The trust spoken of is in the larger scale of His overall plan and His actions upon entire bodies such as the church and nations. The righteous and upright are plural and a force of His moving and shaping. From that we individually are more justly effected.
kjv@Psalms:130 @ @ RandyP comments: Twice he repeats "more than they that watch for the morning; so there must be importance to it. The morning is the time of work, the hunting and gathering needed to sustain. A man forced to rest by darkness is eager for the morning dawn. The believer's soul waits for a similar spiritual dawn and in the Word hopes. The dawn deals with righteous judgment of iniquity, a purging, which no man would escape unless by the forgiveness and mercy of God. Individuals will then stand in the light, Israel will stand also.
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:137 @ @ RandyP comments: It must be humbling when ones captors request to hear one of your hymns as if to rub your face in the fact that they are taking you back to their land to make you slaves. It drives home the fact that you've let a good thing go. Had they listened to God, had they returned their hearts from their false gods, had they obeyed it may not have come to this. But it has, and there naturally is bitterness towards these captors. Really though God's mercy from kjv@Psalms:123 is still at work in a reproving fashion. We should not be so hardened as to allow it to come to this.
kjv@1Corinthians:9 @ @ RandyP comments: Seems that there is always a fuss over money, be it tithes or church salaries or building funds or pastor's portions etc. It comes to the point where the gospel is hindered by all the fuss. Some concern is rightly placed. Most concern is nothing more than serving the master of mammon more than the master of grace. Paul was well within his rights to eat of the grain he had milled, but, made a personal decision as an apostle not to partake of his portion simply because it would surely become an offense to weaker less mature believers. Not all ministers are in that same position nor should they be expected to be either.
kjv@1Corinthians:11:16-34 @ @ RandyP comments: Interesting tid bits that should not be overlooked. There are divisions today just as there were back then. We are to look at divisions as a means to observe who is approved, they will stand out all the more. Also, the churches are judged within so that they will not be judged without; if so what happens when they are unwilling to accept judgment? Also, there seems to be a connection between the misuse of the Holy Communion and sickness even fatal sickness.
kjv@1Corinthians:14:21-40 @ @ RandyP comments: All things are to be done decently and in order, everything done to the edifying. Notice that even if a word of knowledge were to come to you sitting that there is a time and a patience and an order. The earlier church I sense was a much more organic and participatory fellowship than we would allow for today. Perhaps we should lighten up on the reigns a bit!
kjv@Proverbs:2 @ @ RandyP comments: Chapter marks are a more recent development added to the Bible for purposes of easier reference. Sometimes they get in the way of the more fluid reading that the writer intended. It is interesting way to read these proverbs to remove these chapter partitions and read larger chunks of instruction. kjv@PLAIN:Proverbs:1-8
kjv@1Corinthians:16:3 @ @ RandyP comments: I may have mentioned before that the long distance transfer of monies was dangerous business back in this day. Not only did the actual envoy have to be fully trusted, I assume that diversions and disguises and stealth's had to be planned to avoid being robbed. Larger volumes of money may have to be sent out by multiple and less obvious means. A charitable Christian church was no doubt a target for thieves and a good place for them to plant conspiring informants. Paul's public announcement may itself be a ruse. This is my hunch and not a revelation. Would it be wrong if he did?
kjv@1Corinthians:16 @ @ RandyP comments: If the church in Jerusalem was in urgent need of this gifting it was likely that they were going to have to be patient. Things were moving at the pace of the old world and various considerations were having to be made. Amongst all this wonderful doctrine and teaching the real world remains. I think that it is a refreshing to see that they were working through issues much like we have to today.
kjv@Proverbs:15:14 @ @ RandyP comments: What does it mean to have understanding? It means to know to seek after knowledge. If we purse an issue thinking that we know everything about it from the start, this is not understanding. If we pursue thinking that simply by the strength of our own determination exerting force we will bend the issue to our favor, this is not understanding. Seeking knowledge means first seeking the fear of the Lord, humbling ourselves and our cause to His presence, listening for direction and knowing that it may well include correction and faithful obedience, this is understanding.
kjv@Proverbs:15 @ @ RandyP comments: kjv@Proverbs:15:33 seems best to summarize all the individual proverbs we've now read best. Everything comes down to this - humility before honor, reverence is the allowance to become tutored by.
kjv@2Corinthians:6 @ @ RandyP comments: The unequal yoke in context seems to apply to the burden of Christian work and ministry not so much marriage. While unequal marriages might hinder the work, so too might other gods, so might cultural/political/ecumenical alliances and causes etc..; I think of the Lutheran and Roman Catholic Churches' yoke to the Nazi and Fascist party's in WWII. Paul speaks of marriages elsewhere to unbelievers and does not make so definite a conclusion. This context would also change our perception of the 'temple of the living God' phrase as well.
kjv@2Corinthians:6 @ @ RandyP comments: The Church can also get yoked to unbelievers via following secular polls and surveys, by secular liberal intellectualism, cowardice, false association, etc.. It appears to be an accumulative marriage that is by cohabitation and commingling; by common law so to say.
kjv@2Corinthians:7 @ @ RandyP comments: It is plain to see the thought and care that Paul put into the charge he had been given over his church plants. Even in the face of severe tribulations word of them gave him great comfort and he was always thinking toward their edification.
kjv@Proverbs:31 @ @ RandyP comments: The virtuous wife parable is not so much as list of what she is doing as it is the attitude in which she is doing it and who she is doing it for. It is the attitude of being a tangible blessing to all. Caution must be given not to extend oneself to the harm of the marriage, that in all things she honors and exalts her husband.
kjv@Songs:1 @ @ RandyP comments: geneva@Songs:1 compares the female character as the church longing for her groom.
kjv@2Corinthians:12 @ @ RandyP comments: An uncleanness/fornication/lasciviousness is sweeping through this church. Instead of being repentant and chaste they are seemingly becoming accusatory and slanderous of Paul. He had sent Titus but, it is quickly becoming an issue that he will have to address himself to answer his accusers. Sin has this manner where it puffs itself up, justifies itself by attacking/diminishing the person that represents righteousness.
kjv@Galatians:2 @ @ RandyP comments: There is no doubt that the doctrine of Grace is hard to understand down to it's deepest core, even by those of the early church and by Apostles that should have known better. The mind naturally wants to flip it around to do works towards justification. Our works fall short each and every time, even our best works. They are certainly not payment for sin and reconciliation. Christ's death would be in vain otherwise.
kjv@Galatians:2:14 @ @ RandyP comments: Peter received correction. Had he been the first Pope and had the Pope been given immutable divine interpretation as supposed by Roman Catholic doctrine, he would not have needed correction. Paul would have shamefully exceeded his lesser authority. Their doctrine follows from a possible misinterpretation on the proclamation Jesus made that on 'this Rock' He would build His church. Rock more likely meaning the divinely revealed faith and not just Cephas 'the rock' personally kjv@Matthew:16:17-20 (literally - You are 'piece of rock' and upon this 'massive Rock' (which flesh and blood have not revealed) I build my church).
kjv@Isaiah:7 @ @ RandyP comments: This is a very detailed prophecy. In 65 tears Ephraim/Israel shall be no more and not long after both Ephraim and Judah shall be without a king being first under the hand of Assyria. The fruitful land shall be over taken with flys and bees and become briers and thorns suitable only for cattle. Heads and beards and feet will be shaven in utter humiliation. During this era of captivity the messiah will born, His name, her virginity, His diet and distaste for evil all are revealed. Each and every piece of this prophecy has been completely fulfilled within a 675 year time span.
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@Philippians:1 @ @ RandyP comments: Christ is being preached, by Paul's life and by his death, by others responding to Paul's absence some in contention some in love, by the churches outreach and operation even under extreme persecution. Some would think that they have the upper hand but, who has the upper hand over God? Is this not how He said it would be? Is this not a necessary part of our sanctification to share in His sufferings? Is He not sovereign and in complete control? Has any one or anything snuck up on Him that he had mistakenly underestimated or poorly considered? Of course not, for Christ is preached!
kjv@Colossians:4:15 @ @ RandyP comments: Church is where ever people regularly meet. Often we get too wrapped in buildings and architecture and pipe organs and stain glass. A house, a park, a drive-in theater, a school, a rodeo grandstand, a prison cafeteria all work just as well if not better. It is not the type of place that is important but the types of hearts that gather.
kjv@1Thessalonians:1 @ @ RandyP comments: People do notice. There is not a particular individual mentioned here. The congregation is likely acting together as one, they are working and laboring doing things as a body that are being observed and talked about. One thing that stands out is that they are not doing what everybody else is doing, in this case having turned from idols. For this they suffered affliction yet withstood the pressure with patience and hope. Such things stand out and are talked about distances beyond our personal knowing and causing the gospel to be spread. Where can we stand out in our churches today?
kjv@1Thessalonians:2 @ @ RandyP comments: We see the effort and attitude that the Apostles team took on to plant the Church of Thessalonica; the burden that they had, the focus, the care and diligence. Peter's team may have had a similar framework as described in kjv@2Peter:1:5-8.
kjv@1Thessalonians:3 @ @ RandyP comments: It is hard to know how people will react to pressure. You work hard to establish something. You may have to step aside knowing that the work is not yet completed but progressing forward. You hope and pray and send envoys to check in now and then, but, it is a nerve racking ordeal no doubt. The pressure these early churches were under was considerable. The forces (even Satanic) specifically following the team of Paul extreme. The hindrance mentioned may not have been so much upon the team being able to travel there as much as what their arriving might have brought. Were they ready? Was the lack in their faith something to do in the armament of believers against the Satanic warfare being experienced?
kjv@1Thessalonians:4 @ @ RandyP comments: It is clearly evident that this church is operating in a good amount of love. Paul exhorts them to love all the more and gives them a picture of what that is to look like working quietly and honestly with their own hands, abstaining from the prevalent idolatrous fornications and lusts.
kjv@Isaiah:57 @ @ RandyP comments: The plan is not for God to have to contend much longer. The time that He will is of His choosing. All paths cannot lead to eternal blessing and not all souls will be unconditionally accepted. This moment is but an opportunity to turn oneself around. He has now accomplished all that His righteousness/mercy has required Him. He will perform that which He has promised. He will dwell eternally only with those of humble and contrite hearts, revive their spirit and once and for all heal them. For the others it will be a raging murky sea of their own consequence apart from Him. How much clearer can the choice be?
kjv@Jeremiah:4 @ @ RandyP comments: I see two possible explanations as to why the language very similar to kjv@Genesis:1 would be used here. 1a: This coming judgment will so severe as to symbolically set Israel/Judah back to the beginning as if none of this covenant had ever been. kjv@1b: It will be so devastating as to appear as dark and chaotic as earths infancy. 2: Gap theory suggests a gap between kjv@Genesis:1:1 and kjv@Genesis:1:2 where this type of judgment actually occurred to a pre-Adamic human or angelic race on earth; that what we read is not an account of creation but of a earth's first restoration. Both explanations may not be exclusive as well.
kjv@Jeremiah:5 @ @ RandyP comments: Remember that the Lord is declaring this in advance. He had offered to them the possibility once again to escape, but, knew in this case that they would not. If He knew they wouldn't accept these terms why would He even offer them? By having this declared, by having this written for the sake of the remnant, they in the future will know these things to be true and thus the Lord to be greatly feared.
kjv@Jeremiah:6 @ @ RandyP comments: The Word of the Lord to them is a reproach and their ears will hear nothing of it. How then should this be dealt with by Yahweh? Does the people's 'god of unconditional compassion' have to just sit back and take it? Many today continue this notion of God's unconditional compassion not knowing what compassion even is nor knowing what an extremely compromised position a righteous God is placed under by such faulty/selfish definition. Rather, God's unconditional compassion is in that no matter what one has done/no matter how badly one may have sinned and acted, Jesus Christ died and raised for the purchase providing means for your return. Should you choose to return/repent/compromise yourself and thus receive this unconditional grace He will unconditionally pardon and accept you into His everlasting kingdom. God's great compromise is in the giving of His Son. If you are unwilling to accept that alone for your salvation, what more can/would He do?
kjv@2Thessalonians:3 @ @ RandyP comments: Who is it disrupting this church? Men who do not work but that are expecting to eat, to be fed from other's labor. How many are there of these men in our church today? How have we responded to them? Have we admonished them? Have we set them out? We think of our modern church as an open invitation to the Gospel not realizing that to them we have presented an open invitation for us to feed and shelter them and allow them to cause divisions amongst us playing upon our compassionate (but blind) intentions. This is true in a physical daily living sense as well as in a spiritual ministerial/evangelical sense. One must work to eat and eat of his own hands.
kjv@1Timothy:1 @ @ RandyP comments: This letter is a interesting change of focus from Paul's previous. Those letters were written church congregations and regions of churches. This is personal letter to one of Paul's dearest team members, a man that he has taken on somewhat as his protégé. We are afforded a look into a much more personal and professional part of the Apostle's outlook. Much like two artisans/composers comparing insights/notes, the elder to the younger.
kjv@1Timothy:1 @ @ RandyP comments: Matters of the Law today as in their day have stirred divisions and confusion in the Church. The Law is of course good when understood in it's rightful/lawful context. The Law brings us to the knowledge of Christ. It is a hired nanny who brings us by the hand from distances where we were to the very doorsteps of the master. It is not the master, the Lord is the master and His grace is the primary curriculum. Paul himself testifies to this fact. The Law is a yoke, a bond, a sentence, the sting of death. We would not have know sin except for the Law. It shows us how we are, how futile our situation is against our sin, the need for the Christ and His complete redemption. (see kjv@Romans:5-6)
kjv@1Timothy:2 @ @ RandyP comments: Hard as it is to understand, Paul's restrictions upon women teaching were not because of some hatred or prejudice he had upon women. We see from his letters that many women loved him and that they held important positions in his ministry team. Paul honestly expresses his reasoning, a fact that cannot be denied, Eve was the one deceived not Adam. How that further plays out in the daughters of Eve is not so clear but, it must be considered. To inflame one's self, to jump hastily to the womans defense can be just as much a proof of what Paul is cautious of as it is proof against. One must also consider the types of women drawn to a woman pastor, who might see her position for something she does not intend, and what the make up of the church then becomes. The verse actually does not forbid women from teaching per se, it forbids a teaching that gives an feminist impression or that could be percieved to be in conjunction/tainted with usurping authority over men.
kjv@1Timothy:5 @ @ RandyP comments: The full time charge of the church is for those with absolutely no other means. They are to be given shelter and provision and daily tasks to do for the church as is proper. The church produces outreach to others as well in attempting to connect them to the resources of their own families, the community, redevelopment or retraining, fostering marriage/match making within the fellowship. There are many to take advantage of the church and few wise enough to commingle compassion with prudence. The church is forced off task and those most needy are neglected. If the church is to act this way then so should we as individuals as well.
kjv@1Timothy:6 @ @ RandyP comments: This epistle has been written to encourage and develop a younger pastor on Paul's team. It is interesting how the letter dives into the more daily essentials of being a pastor and an example of Christs to the fellowship and community as a whole. The functions of a church, the how to's of keeping the church activities focused and not distracted, it's investment in the truly needy, it's absence from vain arguments and partiality, the qualifications of elders and deacons, what to look for in people that may intend to take advantage of the church's compassion, etc... all these things good for us to know as well; pastor's or not.
kjv@Jeremiah:18 @ @ RandyP comments: Instead of turning to the Lord they intend to take it out on Jeremiah. This is how the evil imaginations of the heart work. Will the message go away? Will God not raise up a hundred more prophets just like him? What can be hoped to be gained if this is indeed the word from God? This is the problem, there is no word of God so thinks the heart. The word of God is whatever we want it to be. God is intending to judge them, they are intending to judge God.
kjv@Jeremiah:20 @ @ RandyP comments: Jeremiah is imprisoned for message at the east gate by the chief priest Pashur. He imprisons himself at the same time in a fit of depression. Every word that he had spoken in this prophecy is later proved to be right but, that is not of console to the prophet. I would imagine that even in these times the Lord brings people alongside to comfort, but, what really can be said? It is a tough time for all of Judah especially those in the right. The name given Pashur - Magormissabib suggests moved by fear all around.
kjv@Jeremiah:21 @ @ RandyP comments: Pashur inquires of Jeremiah, perhaps while Jeremiah was imprisoned by Pashur, perhaps later we are not told. Either way it has to be an odd situation for both men. The answer given Pashur is much the same but now with detail as to the king's demise.
kjv@Jeremiah:25 @ @ RandyP comments: Many would place the first world war in the early nineteenth century A.D., a major reshuffling of the power structures of the world. What is described here is perhaps the first world shift in the fifth B.C.. What had begun in a smaller scale in the 6th included Israel but, not Judah nor Eygypt etc... No nation now was allowed by the Lord not to drink from this cup. It was not a war of powerful alliances but of fracturing splits and singular domination. We see here God's greater vision, we have been focused too narrowly on Israel/Judah (false prophets, kings,etc..) and not on the entirety of mankind. The cup is prepared and filled in Jerusalem, but, is shared on all the nations. Babylon is used to begin the drunken slug-fest but, it too fractures soon after and is forced to drink as well by the much inferior Medes. The void is later filled by the Persians and then the Greeks.
kjv@Jeremiah:27 @ @ RandyP comments: Much of what the prophet has said has begun to come to pass. The evidence should be clear. Yet the other prophets are saying what has been taken away thus far will be taken back and the temple restored by their word. The Lord is flushing these false prophets out. The king must be aware of the Lord's doings here; those nations that will place themselves under the yoke Nebuchadnezzar will be spared, those who rebel or think otherwise will be consumed. Willing humility, acceptance of reproof, subjection to the counter intuitive is what will save the nation in the long run.
kjv@Jeremiah:28 @ @ RandyP comments: One must ask themselves "do I speak for the Lord"? We all intend well. It would have seemed good for this all to end within two years. Good for the people, but, what about for the Lord. Is it that the Lord is only concerned for our good and not for His own? His good was being served in a thorough purging of our rebellious hearts, a rooting out of the spoiled figs and tainted prophets. Sure the people were put to shame and humbled, but, isn't that better than being stiff necked and hard hearted? If you intend to speak for the Lord you better well know what He would have you to say.
kjv@Titus:1 @ @ RandyP comments: Having been reading through Jeremiah of late it is plain to see that not much has changed over these hundreds of years with the zealous Jew (they profess to know, in works deny, unto every good work reprobate). Structure and backbone are being developed in the early church with a focus on Elders and Deacons, in part to be able to withstand the pressures of these self serving gainsayers.
kjv@Hebrews:5:7-10 @ @ RandyP comments: Christ learned obedience by what He suffered and thus was made a perfect high priest. We similarly learn our obedience by what we suffer for Him. One might say "wait... I am not suppose to suffer... I believe in Christ... He suffered for me". Christ obeyed the Father in suffering for us. He suffered what we could not and even would not for we were not capable of obeying to that extent. Yet we are supposed to obey in our own measure and often the only way to learn to obey is to suffer. In this case we suffer for/because of Him; for the stance we take/defend in Him.
kjv@Lamentations:2:14 @ @ RandyP comments: tsk@Lamentations:2:14 Here are numerous reminders that the Lord had exposed the false prophets to them on several occasions and yet they still listened to the others. False prophets did not end during this captivity nor did they end in the time of the early church. They remain and flourish today. They are exposed over and over and yet do we listen to them. It is in part because the true prophet discovers our inequity, in part because we are self justified and vain, in part because our image of God does not allow for Him to do this.
kjv@Ezekiel:1 @ @ RandyP comments: How do you describe such a sight in human words? I am sure that the author is trying the best he can, but, the amount of detail that it is taking almost confuses the picture.
kjv@Ezekiel:10 @ @ RandyP comments: I am sure that the author went to painstaking detail to accurately describe the details so that we would understand and picture the sight. I can not. What I do get is that as odd and foreign as this all seems to be, the actual glory of the Lord still stands out and is supremely discernible. On it's own it would have been terrifying to see this four faced creature and hear the thundering rush of it's wings. In the presence of the glorious light of the Lord curiosity replaces fear along with wonder and praise to it's creator.
kjv@Ezekiel:21 @ @ RandyP comments: Many read or else hear about these passages in the Bible and come to the determination that the God of Israel is mean spirited. For these years of judgment they fail to say the ions of longsuffering and mercy. Others would point to the ineffectiveness of God's plan not being able to turn the hearts of even such a small nation as Israel avoiding to consider that His plan is yet hundreds of years from being fulfilled. People under estimate the power the sin nature has over us and just how patient and steady God has had to remain over it to gain our redemption from it. If there is any mean spiritedness to observe, it is in the people who claim that God is over reacting, over sensitive, over bearing.
kjv@Hebrews:12 @ @ RandyP comments: Those of us in the American church body should be concerned about the lack of chastisement. Where is it? We face certain opposition and the opposition seems to be growing. Opposition is not chastisement. In other places our missionaries face difficulty and persecution. Persecution is not necessarily chastisement either. Chastisement involves correction. Is it that we have nothing to be corrected of? Is it that we have been corrected and so now remain? Or could it be that our hearts have become hardened, that the accomplishments of the past have sent us sideways into pride, unawares or worse unconcerned, unable to discern where our needed chastisement might be found? Has our ear to it become deaf?
kjv@Hebrews:13 @ @ RandyP comments: Mentioned more than once is the idea of remembering/submitting/saluting those that have rule over us. These rulers by context are sensed to be leaders in the church. The author speaks in tones of a absolute necessity. Who are these leaders today? and why are we not doing so?
kjv@Ezekiel:24:18 @ @ RandyP comments: The prophet is human too. His wife dies the same day. Tragedy upon tragedy with work still to be done.
kjv@Ezekiel:26 @ @ RandyP comments: With the judgments on these other nations, the Lord is producing a ripple effect even to the Isles to whom these nations had commerce. On the one hand I am thinking what if these nations hadn't acted out of the 'old hatred' would God's word have rang out? On the other hand I know that the Lord knew full well which heart they were going to react out of and was secure in His plans. The fact is however, that the word moves outward and forward in ways that no brilliant king nor strategist can consider, nor can we; effect upon effect, twist after human twist, sympathy or rebellion or not. His word does not return to Him void but accomplishes what He purposes.
kjv@Ezekiel:27 @ @ RandyP comments: In the normal course of history many merchant hubs have risen and faded. A new and better port is built, an in defensible harbor is replaced by a defensible one, trade routes eventually move to more direct routes and highways, their cities slowly bypassed. That is just it, there is identifiable economic/strategic process and time. This was not the case with Tyrus. There is definite reason that the kings and merchants of the world are awe shocked and terrored. If the mighty hub of Tyrus can be so easily be destroyed in one sudden swoop, being thus prophesied and as a result re-fortified by them united, then they themselves stand no chance.
kjv@James:4 @ @ RandyP comments: The mention of friendship with this world along with lust to envy is used to describe our spirit. All of the things we want and have not, all the things we ask but do not receive, the strivings and wars, they have their roots in this combination. It appears to be within our power because if we are to come to Christ we must put aside these things. But, putting this aside involves humility and affliction, mourning and cleansing, which are the opposite of our envy and destructive to our friendship with this world. This mention may be just as much for the body of believers as for the individual.
kjv@Ezekiel:29 @ @ RandyP comments: Egypt was not spared from judgment in fact they were given over as wages to Nebuchadrezzar for the siege on Tyrus earlier. They would be dispersed forty years then regathered as a much less imposing nation. This lasting humility was purposeful so as to rebuke Israel as well for relying upon Egypt for it's protection instead of God.
kjv@1Peter:1 @ @ RandyP comments: I marvel that Peter can say as much so plainly to the common and intellectual both in one chapter as most men would take in volumes of books. We often think as Paul and John as the writers and Peter as the doer. If you were to go back over what he has just said and how much he just said floods of tears would suddenly flow. These are not the words of human genius, they are the words of a man who has lived this faith face to face with his Lord. He speaks of tremendous desire in the end to see Him again, to be willing to endure this present tribulation to see Him return in the glory that he himself has briefly seen in a transfiguration moment, and his love for those of 'like precious faith' who not having seen as he yet believe. If we were barely able to model our approach to life and faith similar to this man we would be all the better off.
kjv@1Peter:4 @ @ RandyP comments: You can see just how much the subject of trials and suffering for Christ play into Peter's theology. He sees it as the necessary cleansing and separating agent in the believers life, thus the will of God. This leads him to conclude that the end judgment begins with the house of God and works outward. Essentially, it is suffering in Christ that shapes us and our reaction to and obedience in that we are judged by. It is the measure of just how faithful we believe Him to be.
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@1Peter:5:1 @ @ RandyP comments: Peter's motivation by now should be clear. It should be our motivation as well. Peter considers himself a witness of Christs suffering and a partaker in the glory to be revealed. Peter is this in the truest sense perhaps like no other having been there with Him. Thanks in great part to His testimony/obedience we are/can be this as well. The sufferings of Christ are so crucial to our proclamation because they point to the hands of those for whom He willingly suffered for. The glory to be revealed is equally crucial because it tells us that this was no ordinary man that suffered these things on our behalf, it was the very son of God, the promised one of Israel, the name above all names, Jesus Christ and Savior the King of all kings. Those that are thus inspired and motivated will be partakers of both the sufferings of and later the Glory of.
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@2Peter:3:15-16 @ @ RandyP comments: It has been the doctrine of some cults (even the universal church at times) that the unlearned masses must be kept from the holy scrip based on the possible misinterpretation and destruction it might cause them identified by this passage. The context however of this passage in light of kjv@2Peter:2 is more properly of those who once knew of the Gospel/Grace of Christ but chose not to continue, turned to oppress and afflict and teach falsely after their own increased unrighteousness and gain. Paul's writings in particular are targeted by these cherry picking wicked souls as points of fierce contention, points of apparent contradiction, points to slander and attack. Peter here stands up for Paul in uncompromising fashion and therefore endorses the distribution of his works. The general masses are greatly helped rather by the availability of unfiltered scripture, their trust in leadership deeply enhanced in the things that are not easily understood by the things that are. Those who are going to fall away are going to fall away any way. Disputes and factions may arise amongst us over certain points as we try to become learned, but, even that is used to challenge and stir and put essential truths into our remembrance. Challenge does not mean destruction, challenge means hunger and thirst and utter trust in the most certain hope of an eventual divinely revealed answer.
kjv@2Peter:3 @ @ RandyP comments: The mass distribution/reading of the Holy Scriptures to the unlearned is also our church's only security besides the Holy Spirit that those proclaiming themselves as being 'the learned' are in fact 'The Learned'. Otherwise the door is opened wide for those wicked apostates to whom this passage and context alerts us to. We see this very thing occur through out the history of our church. To get to the essentials of falsehood one must bypass the essentials of truth. Truth number one = Scripture!
kjv@Daniel:3 @ @ RandyP comments: What is it about the appearance of the fourth figure that made even such a godless man come to the conclusion that it was the Son of Man? Apparently the Son of Man is not such a foreign concept to other religions and cultures. Apparently there is something universally identifiable about Him. We are not told what physical features were evident. We are not told whether others drew the same conclusion. We do know that such a conclusion would be humbling to man that sought for the masses to worship himself. It must have convincing enough at least for a time for him to make the second decree. Could he have spun this to his own political advantage?
kjv@Daniel:7 @ @ RandyP comments: Such a vision is troubling for all of us but yet we must keep the matter in heart. It is a terrifying time for the people of this world. The turmoil and suffering of the past world wars are pale in comparison. It is not just the exhibition of the wickedness of man but, the brutal demonic nature of spiritual principalities in full view. For Daniel, having the big picture brought down to human perspective through the use of descriptive symbols and characters is astonishing. Though difficult to know exactly who each character is and what the details mean, we all sense the general motion.
kjv@Daniel:10:21 @ @ RandyP comments: The scripture of truth. Could refer to two things and perhaps both. The scripture as written thus far by Moses. The eternal plan as written and agreed upon from before creation by the Trinity. The Lord has always made it a point to reference scripture directly.
kjv@Hosea:2:16 @ @ RandyP comments: The symbolism of husband and wife has been used to depict our spiritual nature by several authors in many places in the bible. Here, if I read this right is an interesting insight of a wife that sees her God as Baali or master when she should see him as Ishi husband. His love then is the key difference. A master can master with or without love, impose his rule over her. A husband loves and gives himself for her, he builds her up and protects her. Her perception and response is much different given the two.
kjv@Revelation:2:1-7 @ @ RandyP comments: The all important first love. The church of Ephesus is doing a whole lot right. They contend for the faith as Jude would exhort, resist evil and suffer for Christ's name sake as Peter. Their first love no doubt was for Him as a person and for each other as His friends. For as much as they are doing right, they still need to obey the great commandment kjv@Mark:12:30-31.
kjv@Revelation:2:8-11 @ @ RandyP comments: Nothing said about what the church in Smyrna is doing right or wrong, only what they have been and what some will be suffering for Christ's namesake. Be thou faithful unto death He exhorts.
kjv@Revelation:2:12-17 @ @ RandyP comments: In Pergamos we see a likeness to the two previous churches, faithfulness under severe persecution and having to deal with apostates amongst the brethren. This church however had not been as successful holding out the apostates and is in need of repentance in this same regard. We could say in effect that they need to return to their first love as their first love would not have mixed and commingled these blots and dead relics.
kjv@Revelation:2:18-29 @ @ RandyP comments: The church of Thyatira is battling a particular prophetess with much satanic influence. Effectually, they are consenting to her crafts by suffering her a place in their community/congregation. The Lord is dealing with her in His own way. He is asking them to beware and resist her and those that are bedding with her (consenting/allowing to her doctrine) by holding fast to the faith.
kjv@Revelation:2 @ @ RandyP comments: These churches are no doubt real churches dealing with real matters in real time. These churches are also symbolic of the things our churches today must face and overcome. To them that hear, to them that overcome, is our part now as much as it was theirs. Aware and alert, active and knowledgeable and courageous we must hold fast to our first love living our faith forward into the matters of a church body.
kjv@Revelation:2 @ @ RandyP comments: There are those that for for the sake of their own individual faith have deserted the corporate faith of the church body. Our Lord does not address the church of Randy in this revelation which should be an indication of what kind of church the church of Randy is; it is not. Notice that our Lord did not say 'oh members of the church of Thyatira, run away, split, your church is corrupt, it is getting too hard for you to grow and be productive'. Instead it says 'hold fast/overcome'. Why is the church so important? Ask the Lord.
kjv@Hosea:10 @ @ RandyP comments: Pictures of vines producing fruit, wheat producing flour, flour producing bread, leaven falsely puffing the bread up, sea's producing their own foam, night and day, light and darkness, faithful brides and harlots, sheep and goats, wheat and tares; such picture-grams fill the volumes of scripture. Over and over, situation after situation, pictures of nations and empires, of tents and temples, of times and eras, of deserts and fruitful places; how do they not mean what they mean? How do they lend themselves to mis-interpretation? God surely knows the heart of man, that two men will look at the same object and dispute over what it is. One man will pick it apart with small words, the other piece it together with larger pictures. God knows the limitations of human language and the deceitfulness of hearts. His word is constructed in such a way that the only doubt that can be left is the doubt of a rebellious self justifying reprobate.
kjv@Revelation:3:1-6 @ @ RandyP comments: Works? What works? I thought that everything was strictly by grace? The church at Sardis is of great concern. Individuals remain that have not left or deserted and they shall be rewarded, they are exhorted strengthen that which remains, but, what about the rest of them? Believers in the Lord Jesus Christ will be saved by grace however we that hear are exhorted to overcome. Our faith is planted in circumstances that necessitate immediate growth and action, from which our faith only grows stronger. If there are not these works and actions the local church body itself dies away. Avoiding and/or ignoring the work that must be done because of some personal tantrum is spiritually immature.
kjv@Revelation:3:7-13 @ @ RandyP comments: Philadelphia on the other hand is a church that will be kept from the hour of temptation that the earth will suffer. They are being opposed by a temple of Satan hiding under the cover of some Jews yet have exhibited strength, kept His word (of patience), and not denied His name. Notice how none of these churches have it easy, but, some hold fast, hold true, gain the Lord's strength and overcome.
kjv@Revelation:3:14-22 @ @ RandyP comments: Laodicean, the lukewarm church, what a terrible thing to be. Many consider this church to be the closest to our modern American church. Some even suggest the the churches listed here in Revelations mark out specific church ages and that we are in the last age. The things that most identifies this church is that it is affluent and coasting not receiving much persecution but not extending itself outward into any situations that it might receive any reproof or chastisement. It is the polite to everybody, let's not stir anything up, we got it too good church.
kjv@Revelation:4 @ @ RandyP comments: If you have ever been blessed with revelation you know that your attention to detail is un-human. The things that you remember are remembered because there is divine meaning planted in each and every little thing, they are sealed in your memory because they are meant to be sealed. There is no doubt coming out that you are granted occasion to be a part of something foreign and miraculous and you want to go back into it without letting the moment get away from you. You try to get back into it for days, but, eventually realize that it has ended. It may be the only revelation you ever again receive or it may be years until another. Part of you however searches for it again in your dreams, in strange little occurrences, in voices you think that you might of heard. John here receives perhaps the greatest and most complete revelations ever recorded. The imagery and symbolism and threads tied to other bible prophets and covenant history that God uses is utterly mind blowing. John must have been exhausted afterward beyond human strength.
kjv@Amos:1:9 @ @ RandyP comments: The third reason for the four judgments this one against Tyrus an area of Palestine who like Gaza delivered all their Jewish captives to Edom thus breaking a long established brother like covenant.
kjv@Amos:5:26 @ @ RandyP comments: The Ammorite god of fire Moloch has had influence upon this nation for a long time. Solomon had even built a temple to it during his decline. Chuin is probably the Phoenician god Saturn to whom human sacrifices were being made. The mention of the star I will have to look into. I do not know when the traditional Star of David came into use, but, is curious if the two would be similar.
kjv@Revelation:6 @ @ RandyP comments: From our limited perspective it would be quiet logical to wonder why anyone would want to become worthy in order to open up such judgments upon mankind. Our perspective limits the nature and effects of our sin. Becoming worthy meant dying to take these natures and effects away. Our perspective limits the fact that for ions these judgments have been held off to one seven year period. Till now we have tasted enough judgment to see the need to repent but, little of the judgment that sin actually deserves. If God's mercy is not enough to turn us, if His occasional and limited judgments upon us are not enough, if His word and testimony are not enough, if His grace and provision is not enough, if the love shown in the giving of His own Son is not enough, even for having the threat of these predetermined judgments opened, what then is there that would be enough? At some point can it not be said that the remainder of mankind will not turn? Thus is the truest nature of sin exposed; it will not let go and it limits everything down to it's own justifications. Why not then this judgment? If seen from the perspective of the heavenly host looking down on this, one would have to ask why hasn't this judgment come already.
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@Revelation:7 @ @ RandyP comments: There are those 144k of the tribes of Israel that are sealed and on earth. There are are a innumerable number present at the throne from all nations and tongues washed in the Blood before the opening of this seal. Somewhere in this time frame many gather that either the dead in Christ or the actual living church has been raptured. When exactly is debated. Most assume that the dead in Christ are already with Christ.
kjv@Revelation:9:4 @ @ RandyP comments: We know from earlier that the foreheads of 144k have been sealed. Now we see that those 144k are spared from this terrible plague. What about the Gentile Church? It is for this reason and more that many believe that the Church has left the storyline completely having been raptured (they have not specifically been mentioned since chapter 3), they are a part of the numerous host surrounding the throne. There may be new tribulation believers haven seen these occurrences first hand of course.
kjv@Micah:3 @ @ RandyP comments: Historically we know of a near four hundred year absence of the prophetic spirit in all of Israel up to the time immediately before Christ's advent; these words did indeed come to pass. The night that followed was largely because of leaders leading for personal reward, priests teaching for hire, prophets divining for money, and an insistence that God was at peace when the opposite was discernibly and expressibly true.
kjv@Micah:5 @ @ RandyP comments: We have a Messianic prophecy here. Someone whose goings forth are from old (2000 years ago?) and from everlasting (deity), once born in Bethlehem (human) becoming Ruler (to the ends of earth). When? The key to understanding seems to be the time frame of Assyria. Assyria did not hold Judah in Jesus' time, Rome did. Assyria in the end times will again attempt to control but, will this time be beaten back once and for all by none other than the triumphantly returned Christ Jesus.
kjv@Micah:6 @ @ RandyP comments: Three things that the LORD requires: 1. To do justly 2. To love mercy 3. To walk humbly with God. It is the Lords' contention that none of these things have been or are being done. You might say that you have done enough good works. Have you done justly? You might say that you are a loving person. Have you loved mercy? You might say that you've tried when you could to walk a good walk. Have you walked humbly with God?
kjv@Nahum:1 @ @ RandyP comments: The name of the country changes. The time changes. The name of the prophet changes. The problem with false gods and false imaginations remains the same. One might ask, really what can the Lord be so mad about? Gods other than Him. One might say, well this is Assyria, what are they going to know about some Hebrew God? Nineveh knows all about Jehovah (see: Jonah)(they have already turned to Jehovah at least once). There is not much by now that any nation should not know about Jehovah. Do you think that Jehovah would be so angered and jealous if they had not had plenty of knowledge and opportunity?
kjv@Nahum:2 @ @ RandyP comments: We get the picture of a fearless and brutal people used by the Lord at one time to empty the excellency His people Israel and Judah. Now their turn has come, a complete reversal of their fortunes. Empty void and waste, stripped of her young and old lions, not worthy of being looked back on is the end of Assyria.
kjv@Nahum:3 @ @ RandyP comments: The mistress of witchcrafts, she sells nations, she sells families/tribes. Imagine how laughable the notion would be to them for a conquered nation's prophet to blabber about such a complete and thorough judgment. The threat that this man's God would expose them with skirts above their heads to the other nations, after all they have had their will with everyone that has opposed them.
kjv@Revelation:13:7 @ @ RandyP comments: Are the saints the not yet raptured Church? To make war with the saints suggests that the saints are no longer dispersed or that they are dispersed but banded into target-able formations. To be overcome as the Church however rubs against a whole lot of scripture, namely kjv@1John:2:14 kjv@1John:4:4 kjv@1John:5:4 kjv@John:14:16 kjv@2Peter:2:19 kjv@2Peter:2:20 kjv@1Corinthians:3:16 kjv@Hebrews:1:14
kjv@Revelation:13:7 @ @ RandyP comments: The point I am trying to make is that if the Church and these saints are one in the same, then it is the Church that is overcome. In order for the Church to be overcome then the Holy Spirit has to be overcome or He has to leave us to our own. Scripture suggests that neither can happen! To be overcome is to be put back into bondage to. The Church being put back into bondage after the blood and resurrection of Christ? After the forever indwelling of the Comforter? Even for a short time - Where is the sense? If instead these are new believers after the Church has been raptured, they are by virtue of this peculiar time frame merely transitional (Spirit-less/Church-less) believers still awaiting the Spirit with patience and faith.
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@Zechariah:3 @ @ RandyP comments: The Angel of the Lord and Satan stand near Joshua the high priest. The Angel intends to change the filthy clothes of the priest (cleansing) and alter his mitre (position of authority). The Branch (Messiah) will remove the iniquity of the land in one day. Satan not only knows the plan but, is powerless to stop it. (some details as to the stone tsk@Zechariah:3:9)
kjv@Zechariah:4 @ @ RandyP comments: The work of restoring the Temple has begun and will be finished the Angel assures, but, not by human might or power. Two anointed ones stand by the Lord at that time, we presume to be the King Zerubbabel and the Priest Joshua. The Lord will work through these two to get this done. Christ now is our king and He is our high priest. We are to abide in Him, His strength, His power. We are the temple He works like clay and anoints with His Holy Spirit to restore and set apart. He shall be brought forth as the corner stone with shoutings crying 'Grace, grace unto it'.
kjv@Zechariah:6 @ @ RandyP comments: The restoration of the temple in Zechariah's day is a shadow of the Temple to be built in Christ's glorious day. In that time four spirits (horses similar to those described in Revelations) will be sent to and fro to accomplish the final judgments. Christ the Branch will once and for all take His rightful throne. In remembrance of this foreshadowing, the crowns given to the priest Joshua are to be kept in the restored temple.
kjv@Zechariah:9 @ @ RandyP comments: The Christ King will not only be King of Judah but of all the earth. When He comes He will come with salvation already in His hands, already achieved having once been lowly and riding a colt, having spoken peace to the heathen, now thundering to defend and save His flock, to devour and subdue His enemies. How great His goodness How great His beauty
kjv@Zechariah:12 @ @ RandyP comments: Jerusalem is a cup of trembling to all around it. Seeing what the Lord has done makes it as a burdensome stone. Seeing what the Lord has done makes them fearful in themselves. Those that burden themselves with it are cut in pieces. From this point of world view, imagine how astonished they will be when the Lord puts it all back together, when Judah and Ephraim and the house of David again for no humanly reason becomes His power and might. In the midst of a spirit of grace and supplication there will be a mourning in Jerusalem for the one, the only Son, they had pierced.
kjv@Revelation:20 @ @ RandyP comments: What is this life here and now? It is a book being written. In it are the stories of our lives, the spiritual fruit that the Lord was able to produce in us by our abiding. If not abiding then no fruit. If not His works (the works He had predestined that we walk in) than no works at all. It is said that all paths lead to God. Here all paths are recorded in the book of life and lead to His judgment, wheat from tare, sheep from impostor. When Jesus declared that one must be born again of spirit and water, these then are the names written favorably in the book of life. Their rebirth in Him has produced works and fruit some one hundred fold.
kjv@Revelation:22 @ @ RandyP comments: It is interesting to compare kjv@Revelation:1 where we started this journey with kjv@Revelation:22 where we end. A lot will take place in a very short amount of time. But, when will it take place? We don't know. Here in this chapter Jesus repeated 'I come quickly' 'I come shortly' 'the time is at hand'. In human terms it can be argued that it has been a long time. Did Jesus lie? How long is long? How short is short? How soon is soon? Isn't it better to think that if it means that we have been given time then we would be use this time as wisely as possible? From an eternal viewpoint, is not any amount of time here but brief? In terms of relativity, can not this have happened, be happening, and be yet to happen all at the same time? So much to ponder!
kjv@Matthew:1:1-17 @ @ RandyP comments: The human ancestry of Jesus is not as dry a reading as one might expect. It flies by in 16 quick verses, but, the personal histories of these individual lives cover an amazing 42 generations. You can imagine someone someday reading over your descendent's genealogy and skipping over your name as dry and inconsequential. What is important here is the lives, the lifetimes, passions and interests and occurrences, successes and set backs, wishes and desires, health and sickness, riches and poverty, sin and righteousness, freedom and captivity. Much like our lives, these people had the hope that despite everything that this life or at least the lives of our offspring was leading to something good. In these peoples case it lead from a promise to a patriarch to a fulfillment of that promise the living Messiah.
kjv@Genesis:4 @ @ RandyP comments: Did you notice that Abel and Cain were offering sacrifices, but, men did not call on the name of the Lord until Enos? What men? Were there others? Remember that incest at this time was not forbidden, logically it was the only way for these people to reproduce. Notice that sisters of Cain and Abel and Seth are not recorded, there may have been many (perhaps in modern terms 7 to 1 or more). Seeing how quickly Cain's numbers grew, Abel's could have been just as quick, along with Seth's. Given the either of these brothers could have had any number of other unrecorded brothers the human race could have grown quite quickly. Only later when incest was not needed and began producing genetic flaws was it legalized against.
kjv@Genesis:6:9 @ @ RandyP comments: If this put in the context of a mixed super race, it could read that Noah was both morally just and of pure/untainted human bloodline.
kjv@Genesis:9:5-6 @ @ RandyP comments: It is very common throughout civilizations that when a beast takes a man's life that the beast is put down. It is feared that once a beast has a taste for human blood, it will return for more. There is a common wives tale that once a man has crossed the line and struck his wife he will back for more. It is not always true, but true in enough situations that at least in the case of murder there is reason to expect more murder. If there is enough logical concern of human nature justifying capital punishment on civil terms (not just for discouragement to others), add to that it is God's express judgment as well, then just and thorough courts have every right/obligation to insist upon capital punishment for the murderous few.
kjv@Genesis:11 @ @ RandyP comments: The imagination of men is one suspect thing, the collective imagination of all men together is quite another. The tower symbolized a collective imagination that God was not going to allow, not even for the sake of human unity, not if the unity meant this. Most likely there are religious impurities written all over the designs of this tower. By succeeding in this, man would have had the back bone to succeed at most anything that he collectively set his corrupt imagination to. We have our collective imaginations at work even today.
kjv@Genesis:19 @ @ RandyP comments: A whole range of human reactions come forth from this catastrophic event. There is no telling how you or I would react given such frantic and out of control a situation. We tend to judge Lot and his wife and his daughters and son's in law by a story line only we now are privy to see. No doubt each and every one of them could have reacted better, but, this is what happens to us when situations explode and judgments are laid down.
kjv@Genesis:21 @ @ RandyP comments: I know that everything works according to God's purpose in the end here, but, I find it interesting that Sarah's poor decision of giving her servant Hagar to Abraham in the first place and then her poor (perhaps jealous/threatened/guilty) reaction afterwards is driving the story forward. The Lord needs to place a separation between the two lads (covenants) and uses this humanness as the vehicle. In a spiritual sense we need to keep the covenant of grace separated from our own efforts to force by our own hand the same covenant to happen. It may take the Lord working through some our humanness to get us to see this as well.
kjv@Genesis:24:15 @ @ RandyP comments: By my count, Bethuel would be Abraham's nephew(?) and Rebekah Bethuel's daughter.
kjv@Genesis:25:34 @ @ RandyP comments: It seems to me that the birthright would have meant more to Esau had his father's love meant more to him. We don't know the full details of their relationship, but, for all intensive purposes it was boiled down to one's love of hunting and one's love for venison; not much to stand on. There is also the possibility that he knew or it had been discussed in the family of God's revelation to Rebecca. Then Esau would have grown to despise the birthright because he knew sooner or later it would be taken from him. I am not sure that birth right would have made any difference to the revelation or whether this was just the way that the individuals were interpreting it.
kjv@Genesis:25:34 @ @ RandyP comments: We have a spiritual birth right similar to what is discussed in this passage. Any number of us at any number of times have sold our rights for mere morsels of common bread and drink thus in effect despising our birth right. What is the intellectual make up of this? Could it be our narrow perception of our Father's love and wealth? What this birthright means? Could it be our own appetites? Is it that we feel that in the long run we have no right or that our right is somehow ordained to be given another? Some would say in this case 'didn't God make it so?' to which I reply 'didn't God foresee?'. In Jesus we not only have the opportunity to be born again but, also to be born into an inheritance of saints. Where does this heavenly birthright stand with you today?
kjv@Genesis:26 @ @ RandyP comments: We are not told what religious background Isaac is journeying amongst, but, see that it believes in the sanctity of marriage and that God curses certain behaviors/situation and blesses others. They are spiritually alert enough to see that they blessing is on Isaac as it was with Abraham. They first fear the extent to which he is being blessed and send him out only later to have a greater tolerance for him. Famine can be a scary thing as well. Through the blessing of the Lord however, famine can be a time of great investment and return. With a hundred fold crop during a famine ya you'd have to say it was God's blessing.
kjv@Genesis:29:31 @ @ RandyP comments: Having children wasn't going to change Leah's situation with Jacob. She may of thought so, may have wished so, may have prayed for it to be so; for one reason or another it was just this way. Though the Lord had granted her children, they may have been more for her own good than for her marriage; that is one way to look at it. Perhaps the Lord wanted Jacob to change his heart, but, the decision was still all his; that is another take. Maybe this growing conflict between sisters is a sign of the internal tension amongst the tribes latter on. Either way, the Lord was moving on to begin his establishment of the twelve tribes starting with Leah's four sons. There may be design and will for each of us individually, but, there is also the overall plan/will as well. She may have come to this honest and sober conclusion by the time she had Judah. To have children in order to save a marriage is a huge burden for children to have to bare.
kjv@Genesis:30 @ @ RandyP comments: Some fun at the Jacob household huh? In the context of a single chapter I am sure our lives would sound pretty crazy as well. This home however? This is reality television material here! Seriously, life is what it is. God has to work in it and on it and through it and around it and somehow by the end make it work to His purposes. I am just glad it is Him that does it. I'm just saying!
kjv@Genesis:38 @ @ RandyP comments: The tradition in this culture favored the continuation of ones seed by providing a young widow one of her deceased husband's brothers to care for and continue his line. We see this in other places as well. This woman's husband was slain by the Lord. His brother willing refused the tradition for unknown reasons and died as well. Appearances may seem be pointing to this woman so that Judah when another son was of age held his son off from her, she took matters into her own hand. The whole story seems to be a horrid mess, one event triggering an avalanche of reactions and impulses. The Lord's work is like working in a house of cards.
kjv@Matthew:5:31-32 @ @ RandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Matthew:5:31-32 BUT I SAY UNTO - The common understanding again falls short. The purpose of a writ of divorce isn't only to protect the wife, it is to curb the effectual adultery that would result. If either spouse is unchaste then adultery is made. If both spouses are being chaste but have grown tired and loveless therewith adultery will be made should either take a new partner. We are not released from an eternal vow just because we want it to be unless the defilement of the vow by the one has forced the God fearing decision of the other. We are seeing the weakness of the Law in that it is interpreted and implemented by the human heart that is already deeply influenced by sin. The human heart at it's sincere best is searching from the inside out to see what God may have meant by the commandment. The faith of Jesus is looking from the outside in, knowing as the Father would know, looking in on the injured and entrapped heart knowing it's faulty logic and reprobate reasoning.
kjv@Exodus:9 @ @ RandyP comments: It concerns me how we might perceive how that the Lord hardens Pharaoh's heart. Is the condition of the heart caused by the Lord or was it known that he would react in this way? Was Pharaoh created or coerced to be so? One almost gets the impression that with each plague that the heart relaxes and then hardens again. How much harder successively can the heart get? Other than the bricks and straw Pharaoh has not really lashed out, he simply has resolved not to let them go. I do believe that the choice of heart has been Pharaohs all along. The Lord knows his heart well enough to know how he will react and knows just how far He will be able to go in showing the rest of the world mighty works without immediately tipping Pharaoh's hardness over. It is a testament to just how hard and oblivious the human heart can be.
kjv@Exodus:10:7 @ @ RandyP comments: I think of some of the people that I have come across whose lives are utterly destroyed at yet seemingly they are oblivious to it. The mind/heart has a shrewd way of justifying itself even in the midst of desolation. Men that have lost absolutely every thing to drugs and alcohol living drink to drink behind a dumpster thinking that they are somehow better off this way, that it is everyone else that has the problem. God's mighty works are not simply finding ways to show off but, illustrations of just how far the human heart will go to avoid/disobey Him and His call.
kjv@Exodus:14:31 @ @ RandyP comments: The emphasis of the word fear is not only on the sheer terror of this event but also on the reverence toward the controller of of such uncontrollable elements. That this happened in the manner that it happened for the people who were in this moment could only have been the hand of God. For us who now read of this event there is intellectual wiggle room and physical detachment from these occurrences that these many witnesses were not privy to. It is interesting to see how in the coming hours/days how this fear/reverence too wore down; a testament to the tendencies of the self justifying human reprobate will.
kjv@Exodus:15 @ @ RandyP comments: In this the Song of Moses it is easy to see the overwhelming jubilation and sense of God being able to do absolutely anything for the Israelites. In the very same chapter however we see that there yet remains a work that the Lord will have to do on them. Having the knowledge and the experience and the faith exhibited in this jubilation is one thing, having the heart to change from one's sinful nature and the heart to submit to His authority and obey quite another. The fact that it will take another 1500+ years before Christ arrives testifies to the gravity of the sin nature we possess to be exposed. We will see many a revival (many in recollection of this singular event) and we will see many similar jubilations, but, the weight of sin will in every case quickly blanket the spiritual exhilaration with grieving and bondage. Thus the need for Christ.
kjv@Matthew:11:25-30 @ @ RandyP comments: Who does the Son reveal His Father to? Those who come to the Son toiling and heavy ladden in the convicting burdens of sin. Once relieved of such burden, having taken on His yoke humbly and with meekness, shouldering a sample of His burden, then one comes to know the Father. Such immense time released revelation is only by exchanging our burden for His Son's and carrying His Son's burden forward. It is not any other way around. The so called wise and prudent systematically avoid to see this.
kjv@Matthew:13:19 @ @ RandyP comments: This understanding is not a matter left to human intelligence, it is plain and evident to persons of all IQ's/literacy/backgrounds. Satan is not omnipresent so he utilizes man's sheep like pack and conforming nature. He will twist and distort ones intentions and honest curiosity, even God's own words to produce doubt and apparent contradiction to foster rejection and rebellion. It is not understood because the heart has fattened and calloused against it. A mans own peers become the fowls of the air as much as any demon.
kjv@Matthew:13:23 @ @ RandyP comments: For the few strong that remain all of this process works to produce fruit in them 30 60 100 fold; supernatural returns. Fruit like this would not be possible if it were not for the entire process the necessitated it and brought it about. We should not consider it odd that these many things go into producing spiritual fruit. It is producers like these that the Lord wants with Him in His Kingdom. These souls are basically the humble and meek He spoke of in the Beatitudes that His light and Spirit have shown through, His redemption has fashioned, branches abiding in His vine, created unto good works; they are the blessed.
kjv@Matthew:13:24-30 @ @ RandyP comments: This is not to say that the Devil has created his own humans and planted them amongst God's. This is better explained by whom the God created human becomes moral agent of/to. The Kingdom of Heaven becomes firmly planted into one and the false kingdom of heaven becomes established in the other. The differences nearly indistinguishable until the fruit from each is bore out.
kjv@Matthew:18:7 @ @ RandyP comments: Recently, we have heard of the influences of a faithless wicked generation being at the root of a failed exorcism and now a world from which offenses/entrapments toward humble child like servants must/do come. The forces and momentums Jesus fights against are considerably larger than just you and I. We must also be aware of their effect and influence as well. They exist even amongst our own ranks!
kjv@Matthew:19:1-12 @ @ RandyP comments: What would Jesus know about marriage fidelity? Funny you should ask. Who is Jesus married to (future tense)? The Church Israel/Gentile. Has She been faithful? Is She unblemished? Has there not been cause for a writ of divorcement? Continuously. Why then has He not? What is it in Her that He sees in Her future and is willing to go to His grave for? What God has joined together... let no man put asunder. The principal is true as a church. It is true as a couple. Is Christ righteous in not serving us His papers? Is He merciful in this? Shouldn't we likewise be?
kjv@Matthew:21:12 @ @ RandyP comments: There is the physical temple and there is a temple of individual men's hearts. Where a man's heart is there will be his treasure. There are men who treasure making money from the religious needs of many. There are men who treasure peace that do not confront them. There are men who treasure their position in the church that allow for even profit from such allowance. There are men who treasure the way things just the way they are, the way things have long time been. There are those who treasure their own ideals of the temple and not the ill image it projects to those it mistreats. These are the types of men who would be displeased by Jesus' message carried out in the temple for they do not treasure Him. When we look as individuals upon a collective temple such as this we look upon men's collective hearts. The object is not to avoid coming to the collective temple, it is to call upon all men's hearts by a higher calling; to call upon all men to come observe the most holy heart of our Lord and Savior; to meet with Him by His grace then and there. And if need be, shake a few tables of our own.
RecentComments @ kjv@Proverbs:1:3 @ RandyP comments: To take/accept the chastisement/correction of circumspect intelligence, of moral and legal rightness/equity, of human/divine verdicts/decrees, of evenness/straightness
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