kjv@Psalms:49 @ @ RandyP comments: Can you redeem your brother? The question is important. You might think that you can save yourself by your own good works. That may be all that you wish to think about. Well what about that brother? What about that man on the street? What about that sister that has made a series of bad choices? Are your good works going to save them? Redeem them from the grave? Or is your religion just about you?
kjv@Acts:26 @ @ RandyP comments: It is important to remember as you consider your salvation and the salvation of others that God isn't just turning you/them from their own personal sins, He is turning you/them from the power of Satan. It does little good to deal within the micro and to still leave you within the cords of deceit and destruction in the macro.
kjv@Acts:26 @ @ RandyP comments: Liberty? Paul would not have appealed to Caesar if Festus had not insisted on sending him back to Jerusalem where he would have been either ambushed or sentenced to death. How duplicitous can Festus be?
kjv@Psalms:50 @ @ RandyP comments: It is truly inspiring to hear the psalmist describe our God, to consider His ways even for as little as we can comprehend. It is addictive! There is literally nothing that is not His making nor possession. Along with the excitement and trust there is also a fear and a urgency for us to pay our vows.
kjv@Psalms:51 @ @ RandyP comments: This is clearly one of the most substantial passages of the Bible. If we only understood it to it's deepest and truest meaning. Behold thous desirest truth in my inward parts; create in me a clean heart; restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; then will I teach transgressors thy ways.... We better memorize this one!
kjv@Psalms:52 @ @ RandyP comments: I will wait on Thy name (see: strkjv@Psalms:123:2)
kjv@Psalms:53 @ @ RandyP comments: If a person who says that there is no God can not do good, is corrupt and works iniquity, can't the same be said of a system or form of government which is the same only bigger?
kjv@Psalms:54 @ @ RandyP comments: Mentioned here are "those that uphold" David's soul in the same sentence as God being David's helper. Shall we assume that amongst other things God is using certain people in David's life to comfort and sustain David's will and judgment? As we are often prone to gathering the wrong people around us, it would be wise to not only pray for the right people to enter and surround us, but to seek out and nurture these necessary relationships well ahead of our time of need, and for His hands to guide them in these times of our crises?
kjv@Psalms:55 @ @ RandyP comments: In this case, David's enemy was a one time confidant, someone his equal that he had trusted in the affairs of the kingdom. This may not be the same type of enemy that we would have, does not have the same political effect, but, we feel the similarity just the same. The context must remain the extreme positions that these two men held and the severity of one man turning to injure the reputation of the other, the king. By the time David prays for a destruction, he is speaking in the plural.
kjv@Psalms:56 @ @ RandyP comments: As much as we want our troubles and prayers to sound like David's, very few if any of us have lived the life and done the things towards justice that he speaks of hear. There is a reason he is pursued by his enemies daily and heavily. He can say that his cause is just and that theirs is unjust, that they are wicked or filled with iniquity because they are. Though we picture ourselves in the David role with our own circumstances, chances are more mathematically probable that we are in the enemies role; if not by direct pursuit then by tolerance and detachment.
kjv@Psalms:57 @ @ RandyP comments: David is willing to arise early in the morning, with psaltry and harp sing God's prasies publicly amongst the nations. What are we willing to do to express our praise?
kjv@Psalms:58 @ @ RandyP comments: This psalm is probably not sung all that much in today's congregation because we have little understanding of who the wicked are and just what a burden they are placing upon the poor and needy and the upright defending them. No we are much more tolerant these days seeking for everybody just to get along. A psalm like this leaves a bitter taste in the mouth of many a congregation because it is too judgmental. THe righteous however will rejoice when they see that God indeed judges the earth righteously.
kjv@Psalms:59 @ @ RandyP comments: David is surely praying these things for himself about his enemies, but, no doubt that the audience in Jerusalem that would be singing these would identify with similar outside pressures as well. The heathen are identified here in the role of the dog. The danger would be identifying the dog without identifying with the essential limitations and desperation of the upright and the defence and strength of God and His mercy. Otherwise it is just bigotry hatred and prejudice.
kjv@Psalms:60 @ @ RandyP comments: The tone has now changed from "I" to "us". God's displeasure, is contrasted with His holiness. The petition is for His help for the help of man is vain.
kjv@Psalms:61 @ @ RandyP comments: One can sense that there is part of David that is the king spoken of in the second person. Then there is that part of David that is the broken and contrite petitioning child of God. For the king God will do this and that. The other part, the child will praise and perform his vows to God.
kjv@Psalms:62 @ @ RandyP comments: Salvation is not only a word for the future day of judgement, it is a word for the day here and now. Too much surrounds us in a day not to be aware of and in need of His salvation. He is strength. He is refuge. Mischief, inward cursing, oppression, lies, vanity, robbery are but a few of the things that either do or could affect us each and every hour. He is our defense, salvation, and our rock. We shall not be moved.
kjv@Psalms:63 @ @ RandyP comments: David thirsts and longs to see God's power and glory. So what does he do? He praises with reason, he blesses and raises his hands. He is satisfied and joyful. He remembers and meditates, rejoices, follows hard.
kjv@Psalms:64 @ @ RandyP comments: These enemies plagued David. The battle field was political but, the warfare was spiritual. We may see them merely as personal conflicts but,Satan knew the prophecies and importance God was placing on lineage. He had plenty a willing minions to combat what God was doing. We could also see Jesus surveying His situation similarly in a much larger battle. We would see such if we were engaged in this fight as well.
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:66 @ @ RandyP comments: Affliction serves the purpose of purging and cleansing in the life of believers. It is not a bad thing other wise we'd likely go back to the way we were before. This way we've not only learned to depend solely on God, been removed from our selfish and ill advised motives, seen the hand and operation of God, but, also have some investment into the process. The praise and prayer offered becomes real and sincere, organic and experiential instead of merely academic.
kjv@Romans:2 @ @ RandyP comments: No one is above judgement. Our only salvation in judgment is in Jesus Christ. In the previous chapter we've read of the ways of the reprobate. It would be natural for us to be judgmental of others given this impressive list. The problem with that is in the many things for which we ourselves will be judged, things perhaps more hidden than for example overt homosexuality. Persons on both sides of the line draw their own conclusions and judgements. A wall builds up between us with sinners on both sides. God's long suffering and forbearance has been shown to us all. It is time for us on both sides to think in terms of the spirit verses the letter of the law. Let us set aside any sin that would so easily beset us.
kjv@Psalms:68:29 @ @ RandyP comments: The temple has not been built yet at the time David is seeing this happen.
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:68 @ @ RandyP comments: David now speaks of God's enemies. The righteous have much to be glad for. When we look beyond our own fox holes to see the progress He has made toward the final objective; When we look as David does here into the future of the nations and peoples that will be on board along with us by the end; even the tribes of Israel; it all is too wonderful not to be extremely encouraged and filled with praise. All of this out of the fountain of Israel.
kjv@Psalms:69 @ @ RandyP comments: This passage has a very important description of David made by himself. One being that he is a sinner like all the rest; he knows, God knows; he asks God to hear his repentance. Many use his honest and contrite observance in ashes and sackcloth as opportunity to defame him even in bar room song. He is being reproached by the enemy because of his stance for God, he is misunderstood and deserted by his friends and family as well. He sees the poor and widowed in a sense as being inflicted by God and his God given duty to stand in the gap against those who seek to devour the poor and widowed for their own gain. Though it all could be overwhelming he knows that His strength and refuge is and will always remain in God.
kjv@Psalms:70 @ @ RandyP comments: The king for all his glory considers himself to be poor and needy. He recognizes that there others as well that truly seek God going through similar tribulation and advises them to rejoice and magnify God.
kjv@Romans:3 @ @ RandyP comments: There is the Law given by Moses, the full purpose of which is to expose all men as sinners. All have sinned, not one is righteous. That is the best that the Law can do for no man is justified by the Law. The Law is not done a way with now days, it fully fulfills it's purpose of convicting souls. Then there is the Law of Faith, this is where salvation out of the judgement is found. Only by faith in the sacrifice, resurrection and Lordship of Jesus Christ, the God/Man person and completed work of Jesus do we escape the judgement of the Law. The two Laws work together, one against the non-believer, the other for the believer in Christ Jew or Gentile alike. Once on board in the faith the two laws cannot be commingled without bringing back the judgement present in the Mosaic Law. The Law of Faith is perhaps better described as Grace.
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@Psalms:72 @ @ RandyP comments: This obviously is a messianic psalm speaking of the Messiah's earthly reign from sea to sea for as long as the sun and moon endure and beyond. No other king could fill these shoes. This will be fufilled after His second coming and great judgment. There will be a millenial reign and then the reign of His new heaven and new earth according to other prophetic texts.
kjv@Psalms:73 @ @ RandyP comments: It was not until he went into the temple that he realized their end. On the surface it often looks like the advantages of disobedience far out weigh the advantages of godliness. For how long though. In the temple like moments each of us should realize God is God, that God indeed has his judgment and that their day will come, that God will punish wickedness and reward godliness, that things stand as they do now to serve His overall purpose. There is none to desire here on heaven/earth beside thee!
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@Psalms:75 @ @ RandyP comments: When it is all said and done we will look back, notice the old things dissolved, the many horns silenced but one. We will know then what a grand work the Lord has done. We can sense that even today if open to it and know that we are going through a separation process where the dregs are settling to the bottom and the good wine poured off into its vessels of honor. There is plenty to praise Him for already!
kjv@Psalms:76 @ @ RandyP comments: In Judah God is known for the miraculous protection provided. Many a enemy has risen against her and against most incredible odds Judah has seen the Lord deliver. There is no tactical reason or military advantage they possessed for them to be victorious; other than God's hand. God's judgment is for the meek. There is then a sense of reverence and obligation to the Lord that must be paid. That He has done this for Judah is equally important for modern Christians as well as we have been grafted into this heritage too.
kjv@Psalms:77 @ @ RandyP comments: To realize what our spiritual infirmity is and what effect it has upon us is crucial. It makes us to doubt. It makes us to invent attributes to God that are clearly not in His nature. These attributes are concocted to place Him off into the distance. Somehow I fear as well for the doubters that are just as likely to look for God only in the earth shaking bolts from the sky. The more we know of His true attributes the more likely we are to see Him in each and everything in this life with manifold ways. Look for these ways today!
kjv@Psalms:107 @ @ RandyP comments: Oh that men would give thanks/praise mentioned 5 times. Must be important hey!
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:79 @ @ RandyP comments: It is one thing for Judah to be corrected by the Lord and for Him to use neighboring nations as His instruments. It is quiet another for those nations to puff up, to think that it was by their hand, that the God of Jacob is silent, that they are somehow better. Their ill intentions may have been used by God but, that does mean that they are excused for intending and coming against His anointed. We know that as the hearts of Judah is turned back to God and their prayers are cried out that God will once again move in their favor for His covenant and His own name sake.
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@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:83 @ @ RandyP comments: Even in that day there was a substantial and unified conspiracy against the presence of Israel. On one level it appears to be political but, from this author's vantage point it appears to be a spiritual warfare. Given that the promised Messiah was to come from Judah, given that all nations would one day worship in a New Jerusalem, given that God's name would dwell in Zion, given that all nations would blessed that bless Israel, the Devil I am sure makes it his object to tear at Israel. After nearly two thousand years of dispersed absence we are back to the same thing. It takes on political consequence but, have no doubt that it is spiritual in nature.
kjv@Psalms:84 @ @ RandyP comments: It is often calculated that a compassionate God is not a God of judgement. Here we see a soul longing/fainting for the courts of the Lord. What is it that makes His courts desirable? Judgement is what is most needed in order for true compassion to stand out and take hold. It is because judgement is missing that our position is as it is. We have delegated judgment to ourselves but fail to pursue it. We do what is right in our own eyes and the world becomes a hateful desperate place because of it. Better is a day in His courts than a thousand with the wicked indeed!
kjv@Psalms:84 @ @ RandyP comments: Judgment/Compassion. Have you ever worked for a company that was failing miserably? The employees/customers were pulling it apart at the seems? When a new manager comes in the first thing for him/her to do is to right the ship, and to do this he/she must pronounce judgment. The judgment is even handed; "it is my way or the highway". As hard as these transformations are, I cannot tell you the relief these judgments have especially to the loyal and invested and badly abused workers. To see a company go from a delinquent detention center to a fully functioning productive enterprise is perhaps the best compassion available. This is more like God's judgments; they are only harsh to those who deserve them.
kjv@Psalms:85 @ @ RandyP comments: I wonder how much of the anger of God read about here is His anger and how much is either our sense of shame or rebelliousness. We often transfer the blame or misinterpret the real situation; which may make Him all the more angry. We have to be careful not to present ourselves as being ready for being turned if only God were not still so mad. If God is angry there will be good cause. If He is still distant then perhaps we are not fully ready to be turned and revived. With God, mercy and truth are always met together, it is never a point that we wish He would return to.
kjv@Psalms:86 @ @ RandyP comments: An interesting thought here that the heart would be in need of being united as if scattered or dispersed. It is fairly evident in the case of a corporate body like a congregation that the collective hearts are prone to this. It very well could be the case in the individual as well. To be united to fear His name might imply that the opposite of this fear may be caused by the scattered heart. God is highly praised in this in that He works towards the obedient man and against the those violent who have not set "Thee" before them.
kjv@Psalms:100 @ @ RandyP comments: TSK has some good notes on what we should know tsk@Psalms:100:3
kjv@Psalms:101 @ @ RandyP comments: David was a king and a politician. Can you imagine a king or politician now days saying something like this? or publishing it in a song book? In the kings house especially there is such an importance to setting the mood and timber of those serving and surrounding the throne. Not every ruler is strong enough to to do this as it creates many enemies but, it certainly has great advantage.
kjv@Psalms:102 @ @ RandyP comments: David frequently considers not only his own mortality but God's eternity. Here he includes our universe as well. The earth and heavens were made to perish and be replaced. The children of His servants shall continue and their seed be established. By sequence, it tells me that our final dwelling is somewhere beyond this present universe.
kjv@Psalms:103 @ @ RandyP comments: This is my favorite psalm, the first that I attempted to memorize as a young Christian. It explains the Lord's doings in a way that I can understand and is compact/concise. It is perfect for meditation as well.
kjv@Psalms:104 @ @ RandyP comments: An illustrative way to to look at the creation all around us to find God behind and within it all. Interesting that such a lengthy section dwells on water often used to poetically to symbolize judgement. That the earth would be refreshed by it, that the birds and fouls and beasts would gather round it's springs, that the raging floods of it would be later rebuked and contained, that it would nourish and grow the grasses and trees essential to all all life.
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:105 @ @ RandyP comments: All this He did for the purpose that they might observe His statutes and keep His law. We might say well they didn't really do that, at least not for long. Is that to say that God was wrong or had failed? That God could have found a better way? Or is that to say that it was and is the right way? That by us failing to do this by our own means serves to draw us toward His son the true fulfillment of statute and law? Surely God's doings each and every one are perfect and without failing.
kjv@Psalms:106 @ @ RandyP comments: They sacrificed sons and daughters to devils. If the notion is true that all paths lead to God, we would have to say no they sacrificed unto other forms of the same God. Then why would God be so angry and show His displeasure in so many ways? One must ask where do other forms of gods come from? How do they develop the forms of influence that they do and sway so many well intended people? Would they of sacrificed if they had known that behind these gods were literal devils? How is it that despite all these God given miracles and large wondrous mercies that they would still sacrifice to devils and learn of others idolatrous works?
kjv@Psalms:107 @ @ RandyP comments: Then they cried unto the Lord. Over and over we see men working themselves into desperate situations. Most of their own making, some as a consequence of the stormy waters where they conduct their business. God brings them low, they cry out, God does merciful acts to deliver them. To observe this is to understand the lovingkindness of the LORD. Where then do we stand today? What can we do? Well just as frequent is the refrain "Oh that men would praise the LORD...."
kjv@Psalms:108 @ @ RandyP comments: Vain is the help of man. It is said "I get by with a little help from my friends". There is certainly a time and place for this type of help. There is a time and place for a much greater help though as well. I can not think of what I would do facing those times had I not had my faith and God going forth in front of me. Friends can surely be comforting as well as discomforting. They can think that they are saying the right things and they can speak before thinking too. We take that for what it is. But there are times when sheer valor is required, we need our foundation set upon the Rock; that would be most all the time now it seems.
kjv@Romans:15:21-33 @ @ RandyP comments: Finally Paul will make a visit to Rome on a trip that will eventually take him into Spain. His work never ends. He mentions that the saints in Jerusalem have provided spiritual blessing to the Gentiles in Macedonia and Achaia and in response these Gentiles are contributing to the saints physical needs in Jerusalem which at this time were dire. By going into Judea to perform this gift Paul is placing himself in great danger in several ways. In that day before money wires and bank transfers I imagine a great deal of care and secrecy/diversion was required to safely do transfers like this. Having a well known and greatly despised envoy do this was even more risky.
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: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@Psalms:111 @ @ RandyP comments: The works of the Lord are sought out by them that have pleasure therein. Have you sought these works out today? Where would we look for them? In the testimonies of those in your congregation? On the edges of those areas where the congregation is reaching out, pushing forward into the darkness? On the streets where the battle lines have been drawn? Not just good works but God's works. Are we seeing this in our own daily walks? If not perhaps we should be purposely looking Better yet... asking!
kjv@Psalms:112 @ @ RandyP comments: God can use one upright man can effect an entire generation of upright people. He frequently does. What makes this upright man? He greatly delights in the commandments. What kind of things does he do? We have glimpses here but, it is more to do with how he goes about the things that he does. This description is very similar to the description of Job's uprightness, as in distributing to the poor. It doesn't say that evil tidings will not come, it says the he will not be afraid of them, his heart is fixed trusting in the Lord.
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@Psalms:114 @ @ RandyP comments: The sea parted for Israel. The Jordan river became dry land for them to cross. As a foreign nation watching on from a distance, one would have to ask why such a mighty god would do these things for Israel and not us? Later, after our foreign nation had infiltrated and commingled our gods and idols into Israel, one would have to ask why is this god Jehovah so jealous over Israelite people and not us? What are these many legends being retold about their time in the desert? Surely, Israel is being used as an injection point for His inoculation needle. The surrounding area festers, it fevers, it changes, the remainder of the body takes sudden and frequent notice. The body collectively resists, the body swells against, it is whipped into a frenzy, but, in the process of fighting against the injection the body takes on and spreads the antibody unknowingly, receiving and carrying about that which the Doctor behind the needle had fully intended from the start. 'Tremble, thou earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob'.
kjv@Psalms:115 @ @ RandyP comments: They that make these idols are like unto them and so are those that would trust in them. So what idols have we made today? What idols have we trusted in today? What preconceptions? What false notions? What religious forms and identities have we taken on that are similarly vacant? Where have we imagined a vain thing? Where have we placed anything other above our God? The people of Israel had done it; even after their tremendous experiences with God. Time and time again it was their down fall. What is it that makes us think that today this is no longer a factor in our lives? That we've gotten it all figured out? That we are somehow different from them? Perhaps this false illusion is one of our many idols.
kjv@Psalms:116 @ @ RandyP comments: Amongst the vows to pay: will walk before the Lord in the land of the living; will take cup of salvation and call upon Lord; offer sacrifice of thanksgiving and call upon name of Lord; will pay vows unto in presence of all His people, in courts of Lord house, in midst of Jerusalem. The what where and when are given for a good starting point to a strong relationship and walk with the Lord.
kjv@Psalms:117 @ @ RandyP comments: It is highly unlikely that the nations of this age would gather to do such a simple and straightforward thing; even in an ecumenical/universal God sense. It should be a sign of the times and our hearts that we can't even gather to do that.
kjv@Psalms:118 @ @ RandyP comments: It is common to think of righteousness as something personal that you build up with good works. Here we find righteousness as a entry way that has been opened which one person, the subject of this psalm walks into. Who is this person that does not die but declares the works of His Lord? If we think of Jesus as the one the nations and wicked have come against like bees, if we think of Him as the head cornerstone they've refused, Him that will execute the judgement against these haters, the sacrifice bound to the alter, then we see how that entry way has been made. Now then by this gate the righteous plural can enter in as well. His mercy does endure for ever!
kjv@Psalms:119:1-48 @ @ RandyP comments: From the very core of his heart outward the psalmist is asking God to perform a thorough work. By God placing his eyes/his heart/his understanding on the righteousness of His judgments, guiding his path with precept and statute and command, by blessing and standing for him as he stands against those that rage against truth, man is transformed in God's way. This petition reaches all areas of his walk.
kjv@Psalms:119:49-104 @ @ RandyP comments: A righteous God does not judge unrighteously. He does not do anything just because of the person asking it. The righteous God is not a respecter of the person but of the statute, of the law, of the principal involved. To be on the right of judgement is to be on the right side of the precept. To be on the right side of the precept one must know and act in accordance which takes study and meditation and daily observance of, to hate and refrain and stand against the opposite. This puts one at odds with those lawless and wicked and often requires the righteous God's re-enforcement.
kjv@1Corinthians:4 @ @ RandyP comments: How is it that a steward is found faithful? In the apostle's case it was in the style of life that he had given himself over to. It was a rough life, much of the luxury that is part of our life were absent in theirs. Much of the danger and persecution that we shy away from they stood toe to toe against. They were made spectacles. A faithful steward today must expect similar. kjv@Psalms:119 speaks of faithful afflictions meant to stir us up from God.
kjv@Psalms:119:105-176 @ @ RandyP comments: One of the things we miss the most in our doctrine nowadays is the concept of just how right each and everything God has said or done or decided or judged or testified of has been. We get caught up in the love and grace without understanding what it is that defines that love, defines that grace, makes it so immense and great: His righteousness. In the law, the statutes, the precepts, the testimonies these things can be searched out, can have their proper effect helping us to grasp His defining nature. We know now that in our faith that the Grace supersedes the moral code, that the spirit of it exceeds the letter, but, the Law still can be our schoolmaster not only teaching where we fall short but where God's righteousness stands out.
kjv@Psalms:124 @ @ RandyP comments: Logistically and strategically Israel should not have existed to the extent it did. They were a people that was not a people beforehand. They grew and flourished like no other. Their numbers would not have kept them whole if not for the Lord. It should be obvious that His hand was upon them. When it was not they quickly realized it.
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:126 @ @ RandyP comments: Notice here that the weeping are not just holding still, they are planting; and that even in captivity. It is too easy just to give up, leave, clam up, wait, go a defeated direction. Those that don't plant during these times are missing out on a joyful harvest.
kjv@1Corinthians:7:14 @ @ RandyP comments: Their salvation still requires belief and repentance just as the rest of us. This sanctification he is speaking of is of a setting apart. There are varying levels of sanctification. The unbeliever and the household are being blessed tangibly because of the blessing of God toward the believer and the children are raised in a better and more wholesome environment. It still would be better however that they all believe.
kjv@Psalms:128 @ @ RandyP comments: I am seeing this as a blessing of God to the individual believer and it revolves around being to eat the fruit of your own hands. There is a blessing of sustaining and protection and multiplication here allowing one to plant and to be able to see and partake of the return. If your hands have not planted there probably wouldn't be all that much to eat but, then none of us really plant as much as we eat. We know that there is a multiplication at work even for us. The man who fears God will plant. Wife and children will be a blessing, grand children and peace upon Israel. What I am considering is a general blessing, for not everyone will see this. Some brothers will die valiantly for us in war, Jerusalem may not even be occupied or obedient, enemies may at once amass along the borders of Israel. But, in a spiritual sense, in a general sense, in a sense we may not have even considered God will bless every man that fears him.
kjv@Psalms:129 @ @ RandyP comments: Who is saying this? Israel. Makes me wonder how many of these other psalms were as the voice of Israel and perhaps not so much the voice of any one individual. If so, the thing of immediate interest is that it was not the forces from without that took Israel down, but, the forces within.
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: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: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:133 @ @ RandyP comments: Brethren in unity is like sanctification oil to Aaron kjv@Leviticus:8:12. How good and pleasant must it have been for Aaron. How sanctifying it must be for us. Like in a dry land where rain does not come from May through October it is like a welcome and needed dew.
kjv@Psalms:134 @ @ RandyP comments: Even the Gentiles like a wild branch grafted into the true tree are to be blessed out of Zion. Pray for Israel and Zion.
kjv@Psalms:135 @ @ RandyP comments: He did (and does) what most pleases Himself. He did (and does) big big things. Certain things must bring Him great joy. Our drawing toward other false gods and idols does not please Him so He does against that which doesn't please Him as well. It is very much an insult that we would leave Him for a lifeless speechless deaf figment of our vain imagination just to serve ourselves.
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@Psalms:138 @ @ RandyP comments: What a beautiful picture, a high God looking upon the lowly, considering the proud afar off. He operates towards them with both merciful loving-kindness and righteous truth. His oath and message is above His name.
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@Psalms:139 @ @ RandyP comments: David here knows what we all should know. He knows that God's works and God's knowledge is too wonderful for him, His works just toward David uncountable like the sands of the sea. David realizes that even his body parts (fingers toes eyebrows etc...) were written before even being formed. Light and darkness are the same to Him, that there is no where David/we could hide that He would not be present.
kjv@Psalms:139:23-24 @ @ RandyP comments: David has just spoken of those that speak against and take His name in vain, of a perfect hatred held against them as enemies. Here he wants to know that there is not any similar wicked way in him. Otherwise he would be a hypocrite and wicked to boot. Could there be a wicked way that God would disapprove of in our lives yet here today?
kjv@Psalms:140 @ @ RandyP comments: Here is an interesting look at what we should know from Psalms kjv@STRING:Psalms+AND+know . A similar link regarding the wicked kjv@STRING:Psalms+AND+wicked . What do we know about them currently and what should we know.
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@Psalms:142 @ @ RandyP comments: Consider that over and over again the man has called out to pour from his soul his desperate troubles. The Lord hears and the Lord delivers and yet they come up again and again. Where is the righteousness in that? It is in the life long process that molds the man into what he spiritually needs to be, not just for this life but the life to come; it is in the inspiration ignited in others to aspire to the same. Snares have been privily laid by others, harm is meant, there is only one refuge and it is not in mankind. He complains of these others and their harmful intents but not the process and not the master that by this shapes the man into a vessel of honor.
kjv@Psalms:143 @ @ RandyP comments: In all this trouble the important things come to light and for these things we become thirsty and are driven. We are caused to hear of His loving kindness in the morning, caused to know wherein we should walk. We are taught to do His will and quickened with true spiritual life. During these times remember the peaceful days of old. Meditate on all His works, muse on the works of His hands. Know that for His righteousness' sake He shall bring your soul out of trouble.
kjv@Psalms:144 @ @ RandyP comments: The hand of strange children mentioned twice. The hand of our Lord. The future of our daughters and sons. David is willing to fight and willing to be taught to fight all the better. The Lord is His goodness, fortress, high tower and strength. But what about these strange children, is it David causing the fight with this attitude or is it the pesky perseverance of these strange children that pursue to overtake him? Is it the principals for which He stands for? Few if any have ever stood for what is right and not been attacked.
kjv@Psalms:145 @ @ RandyP comments: This is one of those psalms to remember when you need a boost. We all have times that we are so narrowly focused on our daily affairs that we loose sight of the bigger picture. We get caught wondering what He will do for us when we should observe what He has done for all. Let us fill our heart with praise and our eyes with wonder.
kjv@Psalms:146 @ @ RandyP comments: Thankfully the Lord is not the cotton candy non-judgmental nebulous be whatever you want Him to be god many imagine. His judgments are not just against but for. His judgment produces actions which come to the aid of those needing action the most.
kjv@Psalms:147:15 @ @ RandyP comments: We often put the concept of God spreading His word solely into the hands of man, limiting His word to the places man can get to and the time frame it would take for man to be able to get there and the reaction the man or men would receive. God's word is not limited by any such thing; it moves swiftly. He can use man's willingness to spread just as He can use the frozen ice.
kjv@Psalms:148 @ @ RandyP comments: There is a place where even inanimate objects can praise the Lord, in our eyes and hearts. They praise Him just by being, by the place that they fulfill amongst all creation. Animate creatures as well, though they may not intellectually know they experience which is just as good as knowing. Humans may well place too much on knowing and too little on simply connecting and being part of the praise all around.
kjv@Psalms:149 @ @ RandyP comments: In the new covenant we think of the two-edged sword as God's written word and the bringing forth of His agape to all peoples as our mission. We Gentiles might not have this honor today had it not been for the establishment early on of Israel and it's place in the history of our ancestors who often received it's vengeance and punishments. This tiny nation inflamed us. By standing allied against it yet being strongly defeated we saw it's God Jehovah. It's Jehovah eventually led us to His Son our Lord. Now we reach back to Israel with His agape and His word to complete the circle.
kjv@Psalms:150 @ @ RandyP comments: kjv@Psalms:37:4 Delight thyself also in the LORD... What more could one's heart desire? I'm ready. Join me?
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@2Corinthians:1 @ @ RandyP comments: Whether Paul's team was afflicted or comforted, it was for our comfort and salvation. Both abounded with his team, sufferings and comfort because they abound in Christ. They were afflicted even to the point of death. They considered themselves dead and only by the deliverance of God did they continue. Our consolation is effectual in all sufferings but particularly in the same sufferings which they suffered.
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@Proverbs:30:4 @ @ RandyP comments: I would be curious to know who he meant as son if he didn't mean Immanuel. David also had a sense of God's son in this era as well kjv@Psalms:2:7.
kjv@Galatians:1 @ @ RandyP comments: The opposition in Corinth seemed to focus their attack directly on Paul. The difference here in Galatia seems to be the infiltration of another form of doctrine which seems to center itself against the doctrine of grace. One seemed to be rooted in a very liberal grace outwardly that allowed for perversions and divisions, this one seems to be inward toward the vehicle of salvation.
kjv@Isaiah:12:2 @ @ RandyP comments: By the time all is said and done how true these words will be. How well we will realize and affirm "He has become my salvation".
kjv@Ephesians:5 @ @ RandyP comments: There are those who follow after the darkness of this world in it's many components. There is us who have been called out of darkness into the light, to be light, light that manifests. Ways listed to do this include separating ourselves from that darkness, not partaking in their darkness, walking circumspectly, speaking joyfully to one another in psalms and songs etc, giving proper structure and definition to marriages. Walk in love as did Christ.
kjv@Isaiah:29:1 @ @ RandyP comments: Ariel = Jerusalem, City of David
kjv@Philippians:2:12 @ @ RandyP comments: There is the eternal salvation direct from our confession and repentance acknowledging Jesus Christ as Lord, the salvation that because of His sacrifice was purchased and imputed to us. There is also the salvation having the knowledge of Jesus Christ that we are fruitful with as applied toward our daily circumstances and situations; this is the type of salvation that we work out. One can be saved in the one sense but yet be a poor worker of the salvation that effects daily life, even by the things in this same chapter Paul speaks to, contention and strife and isolation from the broader body etc..
kjv@Colossians:4:12-13 @ @ RandyP comments: Some are given the burden of prayer. It does not say what other positions or responsibilities this person may of held. To be saluted as a warrior of prayer and acknowledged for a particular burden for some specific congregations is illustrative of how Paul's team operated.
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:2 @ @ RandyP comments: We know from past writings that Paul was aware of when the Lord had closed or opened a door for the ministry. Given the level of public opposition, affliction and persecution etc.. it makes me wonder what a closed door looks like. Here we see Satan hindering. How does that look different enough to know the difference between the two?
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:4:5 @ @ RandyP comments: concupiscence is a forbidden lustful longing
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@1Thessalonians:4:13-18 @ @ RandyP comments: There are differing theories that can be scripturally supported regarding the dead in Christ. The most common would suggests that this passage is speaking of the body being at sleep but the spirit being fully awake and present with the Lord. This would allow for Paul's 'being absent from this body means being present with the Lord' comment as well as Jesus' 'this day you will be with me in paradise' statement as well as others (beggar and rich man etc..). Others suggest this is a literal sleep (like Lazarus), that time is imperceivable in eternity, that from our side this sleep is for a while, from eternity it would be instantaneous. There are other plausible explanations as well. Either way, the Lord has matters well in hand, and the soul is at a state of grace and peace.
kjv@Isaiah:56 @ @ RandyP comments: The call goes out to all peoples not just Israel. Israel has gotten itself into big trouble at this point because it has forgotten the Sabbaths. They have proven and illustrated over and over the nature of all men having had difficulties laying maintaining the Law and fulfilling their end of the covenants. If not them then certainly not the Gentiles. For them this Sabbath will become this 'Servant' (the promise to and mercies of David) described previously t(he salvation to come, the righteousness to be revealed). His watchmen Israel for a time will be blind, but, they too will come from their own drunk fest around to this gracious feast at the table of a greater covenant.
kjv@Isaiah:60 @ @ RandyP comments: It is amazing how differently Jerusalem will be viewed and treated in the age to come. How many centuries has it been hated and trampled. Yet it is the sign of His covenant. When He finally glorifies it it will be truly glorified. Other peoples will bring from their treasure to make it the delight of nations.
kjv@Isaiah:62 @ @ RandyP comments: It may seem odd that there is such a focus on singular objects, Jerusalem and Zion in the age to come. Surely the focus will be on the Lord, but, the tangible proof of that focus will be these symbolic things. That the Lord has done this, that it is now viewed by others as He had said it would is the proof of His commitment. That we would come to do this in this manner is then proof of ours.
kjv@1Thessalonians:5:18 @ @ RandyP comments: So what is the will of God concerning us? What is it that He is grooming in us no matter what our situation? Intelligence? Superior charm and tolerance? Personal mastery and the ability to channel His energy to achieve our many goals? No, thanks!
kjv@1Thessalonians:5:18 @ @ RandyP comments: kjv@1Thessalonians:4:3 suggests that the will is to sanctify us. Could these two seemingly different concepts go hand in hand? kjv@STRING:will+of+God
kjv@1Thessalonians:5:23 @ @ RandyP comments: kjv@1Thessalonians:4:3 sanctify to abstain from fornication was previously mentioned at least in the Thessalonian's case. sanctif
kjv@2Thessalonians:1 @ @ RandyP comments: The work of Christ here is explained as being two fold: using the tribulation of others to grow and stir us, using the persecution of others as the mark against them in the day of judgment. We should not be discouraged by tribulations which to us is a righteous token of His judgment, a sharing in the same things He Himself suffered.
kjv@2Thessalonians:2 @ @ RandyP comments: There are purposes to His plan beyond the simplicities of our daily life and struggles. There is the revealing of the Wicked One who must be outed before the Lord's return.
kjv@2Thessalonians:2 @ @ RandyP comments: For those who say that the Bible does not teach about Hell and a Satan, one would have to remove 2Thessalonians from the Bible to make that conclusion. While they were at it they would have to remove the very words of Jesus Christ and the remainder of the Old and New testaments as well.
kjv@Jeremiah:2 @ @ RandyP comments: We have it that Israel had crossed the line quiet some time ago. The Lord requests that they look back to a time very early on 'the love of their espousals' that He seems to view fondly. If we look back we see that even in that time Israel didn't seem so faithfully betrothed. Yet the Lord has waited. He has been more than patient. If that was a fond time for Him just imagine how bad things must have been now at this critical point.
kjv@Jeremiah:3 @ @ RandyP comments: Signs of sin of the nation Israel here are refusing to be ashamed, adulterous idolatry, dealing treacherously, seeking salvation from hills and mountains, perverting ways, not obeying voice of Lord. In their division with Judah, which may have been rightful in and of its self, they had moved the their center of worship from Jerusalem to the two high places within their own borders to avoid having to go into Judah to worship. Which was a massive transgression. They were also fighting apparently over the possession of the Ark of the Covenant. The cure? Return from backsliding, acknowledge your transgression against the Lord and the scattering of your ways to strangers.
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@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:33 @ @ RandyP comments: The Branch of Righteousness (Christians take to mean Jesus) grows unto David (comes down dwells among us in the flesh) executes judgment/righteousness in the land (some would take to mean an earthly rule but could mean a spiritual rule as well) Judah will be saved (again could mean spiritually) and Jerusalem dwell safely (spiritually secure in the knowledge and spirit of the risen Christ) David shall never want a man on his throne (because Jesus has moved the Davidic throne to the eternal kingdom, the right hand side of God the father, the God/Man rightfully sits on it forever more) neither shall there be needed any sacrifice or offering (for the God/Man on the throne has become unto us our final sacrifice, the complete atonement that the Father provides for us all). If this is not so, I see no other way that this covenant has not been broken or ceased for over two thousand years. Do you?
kjv@Jeremiah:38 @ @ RandyP comments: We can sense how others perceived Jeremiah. He was a traitor bent on the surrender of Jerusalem to the Chaldeans. He was causing division within the ranks and was using religious sounding speech to dishearten the masses. Left at liberty, he would use highly visual grandstanding techniques such as wooden yokes and ancient vessels to invoke dissent. The word was out on him. Imprisoned, Jeremiah would of course not be stopped, but, at least perhaps contained; his where-abouts known.
kjv@Hebrews:1 @ @ RandyP comments: The Son is even above the angels. They minister unto His needs. All things including angels were created to be His inheritance. They minister for us the heirs of salvation.
kjv@Hebrews:2 @ @ RandyP comments: The writer is purposely using several references to the Psalms as his grounding points. To the Hebrew reader these would have been very familiar quotes but, driven in a new and fuller context.
kjv@Hebrews:6 @ @ RandyP comments: The belief is that Jesus arose to the right hand side of God the Father. The hope is that we will see and be with them there; that we too will enter because of Him. This hope is our anchor, it is our strong consolation, we take refuge in it, it enters within the veil. Along with this belief and hope there are evidences that accompany this salvation, living works, works that He does upon us, works of obedience that lead us toward His perfect obedience with a similar obedience of our own. Many of these works that we obey Him in are toward the saints and the brethren. Some, having tasted of this goodness, have still yet removed themselves from this obedience, from this hope, their living works having become dead works deceive them into a complete apostasy. They become as briers and thorns whose only use is to be burned.
kjv@Jeremiah:52 @ @ RandyP comments: Lest we forget, the very symbol of Israels former glory the Temple is completely gutted and burned. The picture of judgment is complete. The few people that remained in Jerusalem were gathered and executed in stages.
kjv@Lamentations:1 @ @ RandyP comments: Harsh as this captivity sounds, we have to remember that it had been foretold long before even by Moses. It was part of a covenant promising good if they had kept His command and evil if they did not. They did chose repeatedly to do not. God warned and reminded them of the covenant repeatedly; they still did not. He showed them occasional glimpses of both blessing and curse; they did not. Jerusalem appears now as a broken harlot. Where are her many lovers now?
kjv@Lamentations:3 @ @ RandyP comments: It is interesting now that we know more about Jeremiah how similar his lamentation is to Davids psalm. Both were in positions that you would think would be well respected and that people would gather alongside to support and comfort. Both seem almost alone. The things that the Lord had them do set much of which was on the peoples behalf set them apart and made them targets. No singular enemy mentioned but an overwhelming mass of momentum and continuum labeled as godlessness/wickedness. The prophets comfort is instead the recollection that not a thing happens that God does not set forth; the goodness God intends for us all for a long moment can appear as an evil until our hearts are completely turned. If not for these times how would our heart know? During these times how would our heart not know?
kjv@Lamentations:4 @ @ RandyP comments: From this distance we may loose the scope of context a contemporary of Jeremiah may have sensed. One thing we now we might miss is just how impossible this all may have seemed. All of the eyes of the other nations looking on this would have known how unbreachable the defenses of Jerusalem would have been and yet they were utterly destroyed; and if Jerusalem then surely theirs. It was known to them as well that Jerusalem was the Lord's and that the Lord had not let iniquity go unpunished even/especially amongst His own. Predicted now is the fall of great Babylon, an even greater impossibility. Surely there would be the sense that if this is to happen that all of this can only be of the Lord.
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@James:2 @ @ RandyP comments: There is an eternal salvation and justification accomplished on our behalf strictly by the work of Jesus Christ our savior at the cross of Calvary. No other work can replace that. What James means by works leading to justification here is similar to what the author of Hebrews meant by 'the evidence of things unseen/substance of things hoped for' ( kjv@Hebrews:11 ), the effect faith has in producing corresponding action. It is difficult for one man to justify that another man has faith if their is no tangible evidence outwardly of said faith. It should be just as difficult for us ourselves to justify our reasoning for believing in Christ if we yet disallow His natural effect upon us causing us to act forward in a new and living way. If our faith leads us to no more than what faith in any other god would lead us to do or not do, what justification would we have for such faith? The question then must be asked 'how much does Christ's redemptive work on the cross mean to us personally'? 'To what extent does it/will it effect us'? Jesus called it 'abiding in' and Peter called it 'being neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of Christ'.
kjv@Ezekiel:22 @ @ RandyP comments: We know by reading how God feels about Israel. We know how Israel feels about God. There is a broad gulf between them. How do the people of the heathen nations feel? What have they observed? Are they not as disgusted with Israel as God is? When the dispersed of Israel in numbers take refuge amongst them recounting the terrible blood and carnage in Jerusalem do they not take notice and see it as a warning?
kjv@Ezekiel:23 @ @ RandyP comments: The Holy Spirit by these writings has gone to great lengths to have us understand what exactly is going on here. There should be no uncertainty as to what God wants us to know about this judgment. Multiple accounts, multiple graphical pictures, all similar in detail. The two sisters here are Israel (Samaria) and Judah (Jerusalem). Their adultery is religious and then political/economic and likely physical as well. They are depicted as doting upon their lovers. God is depicted turning their lovers against them, it will be the same foreigners they've doted on that will brutishly destroy them. Judah is especially coppable having watched Israel go through this beforehand and having had extended opportunity to repent. The question is why is it God is having Ezekiel go over and over again on these details, is it for our behalf?
kjv@Ezekiel:25 @ @ RandyP comments: "They will know that I am the Lord". Ammon, Philistia, Edom..... Would the Lord have declared this if it were not going to be overwhelmingly true? If He was over stating it, perhaps less they were to become vaguely aware or momentarily recognize or have suspicion that this is the Lord's work, it would not be the same as 'thou will know'. By the tone of these pronouncements I think we can deduce that the Lord has long been in contact with these people and has produce tangible works within them, warning them at least in how best to view Jerusalem's captivity. They remain caught up in a 'old hatred' knowing how the Lord felt yet continuing, bringing upon themselves a judgment more final than even Judah's.
kjv@Ezekiel:40 @ @ RandyP comments: What is the importance of these details to us today? That God has a great many (if not all) details planned out; that He is trying to tell us something needed to be known. Consider that this temple fell and was desecrated just as the first and yet it is not a mistake that God gave it such detail and foresight; it is all part of a much greater plan/dialog. Often physical things and events described in the Bible are shadows/pictures/blue prints of things occurring in the spiritual world put into a language we could more readily understand. I have heard men like Dr. Vernen Mc Gee attempt to show how the Temple, the things of it, the predetermined rituals spell out a spiritual description of salvation and atonement; things like the 'holy of holys' that only the high priest was able to enter after being cleansed once a year. North gates, south gates, having to go in one gate and out another, tables and hooks, borders of pomegranate and palms, etc..., they all have their meaning in a spiritual sense. The thing for now to know is that Jesus is the complete fulfillment of all of these descriptive types. To go back and rediscover what each of these types means is to study what Jesus was able to accomplish and who we are in Him; for us each detail measured out precisely.
kjv@Ezekiel:43 @ @ RandyP comments: Further study off site is suggesting that Ezekiel's Temple would be the Third or Millennial Temple. I still don't quite understand. If there is a temple built at Tribulation and it is desecrated that would be the third. This chapter suggests that this will be the final temple, that His feet will never again leave. Is the same temple simply restored in the Millennium or the same design used; is the third essentially the fourth? Is there not a new and final temple in the new Heaven and Earth's new Jerusalem post Millennium? Confused!
kjv@Ezekiel:43 @ @ RandyP comments: The Law and ritual return in this temple as do the sacrifices. If this is in the Millennium or later salvation and the remission of sins have already been achieved once and for all by the blood of Jesus and the order of high priest is now after Melchizedek and not Levi. These offerings then would either be symbolic and memorial or else a covering for sins that the sacrifice of Jesus does not atone for. The former makes greater sense to me.
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@Ezekiel:47 @ @ RandyP comments: There is a new and quite large river that will flow from Jerusalem to the sea. Healing waters, water purer than any other will be its claim to fame. It will heal the other waters that come in to it.
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:9 @ @ RandyP comments: The math if we understand one day to be one year correctly is exact, 490 years from the year of this vision to Christ's baptism, 434 from Ezra's rebuilding of the temple. Christ the Messiah is in Jerusalem but is cut off (not for himself but for our sins) and then shortly (AD70) the city and temple are destroyed. There is an unrevealed number of years of desolation (current) followed by a confirmation (or tribulation) of seven years. I am told that many Jews of the time by this prophecy expected the Messiah on this same schedule and by some Jews expectation even today He is nearly 2000 years late. When the veil is lifted they will understand their confusion as to Jesus (1 Messiah appearing twice lamb and ruler instead of 2 at once).
kjv@Hosea:7:7 @ @ RandyP comments: Where are the men that can see aright, that can discern the times and legislate the course? They have been devoured. Did not even David in his Psalms sense that the wicked were out for as much? Well they've done it. Is this not true in our day and time as well?
kjv@Hosea:11 @ @ RandyP comments: Hosea has spoken almost exclusively about judgments on Israel as a whole and namely the component areas of Ephraim/Samaria with little mention of Judah which for now remains mostly faithful. He is a prophet for this region. Comprised of 10 of the tribes, Ephraim itself being 3, their first and foremost transgression is that their worship of Jehovah was moved to two unsanctioned high towers in their own land so that they wouldn't have to cross into Judah to get to Jerusalem. Worship of Jehovah quickly morphed into worship of Baalim. Their jealousy toward the seat of David (corrupt as many descendant kings were) and resultant hatred was the beginning of the end for themselves.
kjv@Amos:4 @ @ RandyP comments: All of this and yet 'ye have not returned to me'. Sure there is the attempt at worship, the attempt at sacrifice, but, this religion is hollow and puffed and idolatrous. Bethel was one of the two temples of the golden calf. Gilgal (there were a couple) was either a religious landmark of the 12 stones by the Jordan or a school of prophets. They are called kine of Bashan (cows from east of the Jordan) and the calf that they worship at supposedly symbolic of Jehovah as a replacement for having to go into Jerusalem. Nothing God has done to this point has worked. They are told to prepare to meet their God.
kjv@Micah:1 @ @ RandyP comments: We are back into the time of Isaiah looking at primarily Judah. There is a consistency amongst the prophets as to why it's judgment, idolatry and graven images. Here Micah points to a similarity between Samaria (the north country) and Jerusalem. One wouldn't expect to see the same idols and images in Jerusalem that would be seen in filthy Samaria, but, in this time one does. If Samaria is judged then why shouldn't Jerusalem? Samaria's incurable wound has come to the gates of Jerusalem. The many cities addressed here are all in Judah near to Jerusalem, some having historic interest.
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@Habakkuk:3 @ @ RandyP comments: The prophet concludes with a song. In context it comes to mean that we may not know everything about what the Lord is doing. We may think that He is doing nothing at all or that He is letting evil overcome good. If however we could see the Lord in all of His larger than life actions, the directions He comes from, the foundations He shakes at, the tireless march that He is on, His goings forth for the salvation of His people; then certainly our view of things here and now would be much different. The song is summed up kjv@Habakkuk:3:17-19.
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@Zechariah:14 @ @ RandyP comments: This passage moves quickly through a series of end day events regarding plagues and judgement and even an apparent geologic reshaping of the Judean landscape. I believe this time immediately after the war on Jerusalem to be millennial because not everyone is yet on board fully, there are still those in rebellion who choose not to attend the yearly re-enactment of the Feast of Tabernacles done on behalf of the seated Holy King with specific reference to a band of non-conformist out of Egypt.
kjv@Revelation:21:8 @ @ RandyP comments: There are those that say that the Bible does not teach of Hell. Or that God's love is unconditional, that He will not allow even the more deserving souls to be lost. There is the hope amongst some that having seen all of this, having better understanding of the sin nature, having seen God face to face, having understood His will and process, that even these would have the needed change of heart and gladly accept their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Perhaps for the intellectual atheist or agnostic. Perhaps for those deceived all this time by others. For some perhaps so, but, what about the remainder? What about those who blame God? Those who yet cling to their universalism or false god? Those who cannot forgive themselves or refuse release from their lusts and cravings?
kjv@Matthew:2:3 @ @ RandyP comments: All Jerusalem? The Persians had (as recently as 40+/- years) invaded and temporarily held Jerusalem. This visit of the magi may have been seen in the city as a plot to regain the city. It is an interesting way to create a public buzz around the messianic arrival.
kjv@Genesis:8:3 @ @ RandyP comments: Where did all the water come from and where did it go? The answer lays under your feet in the sub terrain aquifers. How did it drain so fast? Look at your canyons and salt plate washouts.
kjv@Genesis:9 @ @ RandyP comments: The faith of a righteous man can help to deliver his children, but, those same children still have to make the decision to receive salvation each one themselves. We see too often the case where the righteous are followed by rebellious even evil sons, some for a spell, just as many continue to their own ruin. It is not the fault typically of the righteous (though there are always things that could have been parented better) it is rather a frequent tendency of one's self image to take a completely opposite course than the parent. We see it with the rich and successful, the powerful, the popular, the learned, the influential, the benevolent, why not then the righteous?
kjv@Genesis:14 @ @ RandyP comments: It is often said in the modern classroom that religion is the number one cause of war. And in that they mean to imply specifically Judeo-Christian religion. Massive wars were waged long before our religion had any influence to do such, massive wars have been waged despite, massive wars have been waged on our religion, massive wars have been waged alongside our religion, but, few wars have been waged by our religion. This war in particular is a case where war was waged and our religious figure after the fact went in to deliver a relative out of his captivity. Abraham strongly disallowed himself from any personal gain that may have rightfully been his as victor. The number one cause of war is mankind's sinful nature; a nature that even pressures and penetrates religion.
kjv@Genesis:17 @ @ RandyP comments: The token of the remembrance of this everlasting covenant was quite simple, male circumcision. Even Ishmael, who would later leave and become his own great people received this token in his flesh. The covenant itself is based entirely upon God's grace, the token is secondary and a fleshly symbol of a remembrance towards His grace. Mankind would still yet require a circumcision of heart to receive their savior/salvation; again entirely by God's grace. The descendent's of Ishmael should be made aware of this as well.
kjv@Matthew:5:13-16 @ @ rpritts comments: Believers in Jesus 'are' this by no work of their own therefore they should continue to 'be' this. Should we abide in this (His completed work and grace) we will by nature produce worshipful works to His glory and praise, good works preordained that we should walk in. Should we step outside of that by again striving for selfish favor or personal salvation, though we 'are' salt our salt loses it's savor, though still light our light becomes hid. This is not a permanent situation if we repent and get back on course, it is a permanent situation only if we insist on trying to produce our own works towards salvation/favor.
kjv@Exodus:14:15 @ @ RandyP comments: I am sure that the Lord is always encouraging of prayer and communication. Crying out may not always be appropriate however. David for instance often cries out in his Psalms but, his desperation often leads him to the conclusion that God is truly great and a mighty deliverer in times of need. How often do we cry out however with desperation alone, seeking for answers that we are not prepared to follow, directions we are not observant to go, pleading for self strength without having established ourselves within His. We can not be too hard on these Israelites for they are experiencing God many of them for the first time. We should be harder on ourselves for having had their experience plus our own plus that of others and still yet crying out for the sake of crying out. Is there not reason to be communicating with God on a totally different level?
kjv@Matthew:12:38-45 @ @ RandyP comments: We tend today to see the gospel as pertaining to individuals and salvation, which in part it is. Jesus is shown here as also seeing the gospel in terms of groups and cities and generations. Just as a man can be inhabited/possessed/re-inhabited so can collective movements and generations. Individuals think and act and behave within groups. Unclean spirits think and act and behave in similar conjunction. In Jesus' time He saw a perfect storm of the two mounting against Him. Though He could be convincing to some individuals one on one at this time, it would not be until His death and resurrection that the true forces driving individuals within masses could be dealt with.
kjv@Psalms:60 @ Psalms:60 @ RandyP comments: By the time of son Solomon's reign, God had used David as an instrument of bringing Israel from the pits of "hard things" to a nation with all enemies subjected to it. It was a time like never before and never again for Israel. David from the start believed in God's promise and God's ability. These neighboring nations were to be overcome by God's hand if only there be a leader such as David faithful and fully expectant. It is a hard lesson to learn when we go about electing our own way and our own man, going about by our own resource as they had done in the reign of Saul. Israel was taught in hardship that it really didn't have it's own resource and had little ability to stand against such hardened external/internal foes. It is also taught by prosperous times that God can bring about a great many essentials outside of their normal resource to surround faithful leaders such as David. Battles begun being won for the cherished nation that by their own strength would have undoubtedly been lost (or not even pursued) largely by the faith and petition of a God fearing/seeking man. God surely teaches by the hard times and by the prosperous times; the message either way is much the same. This lesson unfortunitely would have to be relearned every few short generations.
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