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: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: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@Acts:28:16-31 @ @ RandyP comments: Paul must of had some respect from these Roman Jews to have gathered such a meeting at his invite. What began as an opportunity to clear the air concerning what they may or may not have heard about him became a opportunity to evangelize. Th meeting lasted several hours.
kjv@Romans:1:5 @ @ RandyP comments: Why have we received grace? For obedience. Why have we received apostleship? For obedience. Obedience to what? The faith! Many would associate "the faith" with whatever they are willing to believe. Paul gives the impression that "the faith" is fixed and set by Jesus for us all to obey. Where do we obey? Among all nations. Why do we obey? For His name!
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@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@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@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@Romans:5:13-14 @ @ RandyP comments: The Law spoken of here is clearly the Mosaic Law. Without/before the Law sin was not imputed and yet all people died showing proof of a Adamic curse. One does not have to sin in the same form as Adam (freely choosing to eat from the tree of knowledge of good/evil) because his descendants are cut off from the tree of life. This condition causes all the descendants to unavoidably sin, the option of choice in this instance is totally removed. Our options now are in how we will sin. Now that the Law is imputed we fully know that our condition is one of sin as well as our available options. Though we seek to do godly right we can not do so knowing only what is right in our own eyes. In this sense Jesus has become the light in our darkness.
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: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: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:8:1-18 @ @ RandyP comments: The importance of separating flesh from spirit cannot be stressed enough. It is just as separating death from life. We have grown comfortable in our flesh; it is all that we have ever known. We may have had a particular problem so we think with a part of the flesh such as addiction or anger, so we look to religion to rectify that one fleshly weakness. The problem is that all the flesh is corrupt and in no way can please God. Good Intentions? Certainly. Good deeds? In part. Atonement with God? Only by crucifying the flesh, being quickened in our mortal flesh, walking in the spirit. Without strict abiding in Jesus Christ none of this is remotely possible by our own hand.
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: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@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: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: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: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@1Corinthians:3 @ @ RandyP comments: Paul continues to address the divisions in Corinth. He could have just said to stop it, but, instead used the opportunity to teach important doctrines. The carnal mind has not been escaped to this point as there are envying and strife. Thinking oneself to be wise, glorying in certain men over others when all are doing their work for the Lord are caused by spiritual immaturity. We are taught to look at a much larger picture of what God is doing and how other men and ourselves fit into that.
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@1Corinthians:6 @ @ RandyP comments: Just as this divides itself over it's leadership, just as this assembly tolerates fortification, just as they tolerate civil matters between themselves to be brought before a secular court, this body joins itself as if in marriage to these grievous forms of unrighteousness. The leaven mentioned in the previous chapter has raised up into a spiritual adultery of congregational proportions; and this among fellow believers. Surely not all have done individually these sinful things, but, the congregation is effected as a whole none the less. Tolerance and passiveness in this case is a sin just as pungent.
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: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@1Corinthians:7:25-40 @ @ RandyP comments: What would a personal opinion be doing in the Bible? It shows me an example of applying principal. There are areas in our lives where we will find no direct scriptural answer or command. I don't think that God sought for each and every area to be commanded. There are several areas however we will find where it is best to apply principal. We are allowed to see how an apostle would reason such an area forward by principal. Yes it is his opinion and we have to take it as such, but, principals are born out great truths that have been meditated and applied in different areas that have similarity to the issue presently considered. Most people don't spend enough time even meditating these God given truths enough during to day to know how that they might relate to the question at hand.
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: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: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: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@1Corinthians:11:1-15 @ @ RandyP comments: There will always be a tension between the sexes that the mischievousness can manipulate into near frenzy. The fact is that Paul could have said anything about male female relations, gone any direction with it and still have been sharply criticized. In the culture to which Paul was specifically addressing certain customs took on profound spiritual meaning. Their assembly was being torn on both sides by the debate over these roles as related to public worship. The debate inflamed them to the point that meaningful worship and assembly ceased. Our culture is plagued by much the same debate and sadly to much the same end. What then is the principal to follow? Subjection for the sake of worship. Do not let your liberty inflame the conscience of a weaker believer or your worship get in the way of everyone else's. And remember if allowed into worship that God is not the author of chaos.
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@Proverbs:9 @ @ RandyP comments: Simple mindedness can be thought of as open mindedness; it can be both good and bad. An open mind can lead to the acceptance of the possibility of wisdom all ready being prepared beforehand there for the taking, for the shedding of and separation from foolishness. It can also lead to nothing more than an attitude permitting oneself to scorn the notion of true wisdom and an investigation into stolen and secret sensual pleasures. One way leads to life the other to hell. Ones focus should not be on having an open mind just for the sake of having an open mind and being able to self justify any and everything, one should have an open mind for the sake of seeking absolute truth for it will catch up with us sooner than later. Perhaps having a clear mind should be a better objective.
kjv@Proverbs:10:24 @ @ RandyP comments: Interesting that the comparison here is between fear and desire. The wicked do not desire the inevitable and they fear that it will inevitably come. What do they have to fear? The judgment of their misplaced desires. The righteous desire the inevitable and their desire is inevitably granted. What is it they desire? Judgment leading to fuller communion with God.
kjv@1Corinthians:15:1-32 @ @ RandyP comments: Without any doubt the central core of the Gospel is that Christ died for our sins according to scriptures, buried and raised the third day according to scriptures, witnessed by many and ascended to where all things have been put under subjection to Him and He to the Father. It is not just that He did it, it is that the scriptures all along said that He was going to do it. Of this core in particular the resurrection can not be separated without voiding the remainder.
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:15:20 @ @ RandyP comments: A father would be most pleased if a son would deeply respect and have a warm open connection to his mom. It wouldn't matter as much to the father about the son's relationship with him; that would just be the cream on the cake. Should the son not have this connection to his mom neither father nor mom would be pleased especially the father.
kjv@Proverbs:15:22 @ @ RandyP comments: The problem is that few of us have ever taken the effort of developing and maintaining a circle of wise counselors. It is a purposeful and extensive investment long before an issue ever arises. Knowing who to trust, who most sees things as they really are, having previous experience with them in smaller issues. Men seem to hold off seeking counsel until times where a circle of counsel cannot be mustered soon enough. Women tend to seek the wrong counsel, counsel that will tell you whatever they think you want to hear instead of counsel that is honest and fearless enough to tell you where you are wrong.
kjv@Proverbs:16:9 @ @ RandyP comments: If the preparations of the heart are the Lord's kjv@Proverbs:16:1, if his goings forth are from the Lord and his way cannot be understood outside of the Lord kjv@Proverbs:20:24 and if it is only the counsel of the Lord that will stand kjv@Proverbs:19:21, what do we have other than to choose which of His steps to take? In light of kjv@Romans:1:18-24 God prepared hearts to follow after Him, He gave them a choice, as much as He prepared they still chose contrary, their steps now are directed (that choice leads to these steps) yet His counsel must stand - they are condemned for transgressing the preparation laid into their hearts.
kjv@2Corinthians:3 @ @ RandyP comments: You will recall that there was a glory that shone from Moses after he had received the commandments that the people dared not look upon. The glory began fading and Moses began wearing a veil so as not to show the diminishing. Paul is saying that this was symbolic of the fading glory of the Law, it wasn't meant to remain as 'the' exceeding glory, it was meant to become a schoolmaster, as the sting of death. Liberty in Christ is 'the' exceeding glory, it cannot fade, the veil has been lifted. The Jews have yet to be awakened to this fact until the time of the Gentiles be complete.
kjv@Proverbs:21 @ @ RandyP comments: I have typically viewed these proverbs as being directed toward individuals for personal consideration and use. But then I see the wicked, the workers of iniquity, plural, collective. How is it that we are to overcome their masses individually if we the upright are not affiliated collectively like they? For us to do justice/judgement large scale, mercy/charity, be prosperous but not greedy, be generous and not selfish, doesn't their have to be a strong element of collaboration and community?
kjv@Proverbs:22:7 @ @ RandyP comments: This is not to say that it shouldn't be this way. The majority of the poor are poor for the reasons explained here in the proverbs. They do not rule themselves so how should it be expected to rule well over others. The borrower rightfully owes the lender all that he has agreed to return else he would be a thief. It could be said that much of our nation's problem is not that we are overly compassionate but, that we are ruled by the poor and by debt that we have no intention of paying back. Debt and severe covetness have become our vision of entitlement and we blame the rich and the lender for our deepening woes.
kjv@Proverbs:23 @ @ RandyP comments: Dainties...deceitful meat...desirous. Not everything is as it seems. Not everything is as it is presented. People put the best spin on things. People have their way of making even the worst look the best. Their is a price that they have had to pay; no need paying it alongside with them or for them.
kjv@Ecclesiastes:1 @ @ RandyP comments: Just days ago we had read kjv@1Corinthians:15 that the righteousness of God in putting us through this corruption was to break us down, have us die to ourselves that we might germinate to a spiritual plant/being (be born again). Here it says similarly the travail God has given the sons of men to be exercised with. From the observation from heaven it is a unnecessary and righteous thing and from our sense it is a grievous and sorrowful thing. This is because of the weight with which we invest ourselves into making something carnal out of this present corruption. We do not see the things under heaven as they were before nor the things as they will be. All is vanity, but, God submitted us to this vanity because of a much greater righteous hope kjv@Romans:8:20-23.
kjv@Ecclesiastes:3 @ @ RandyP comments: Peter kjv@2Peter:1:4 described this world as a corruption that is in this world because of lust. Corruption can mean death and decay as it does for the sons of the lusting to be wise Adam/Eve. The thought of this death makes us to lust for all that we might have and make out of this short time which brings us to a corruption of all that is good and intended; lust upon lust and it's many other corruptions. What God has done by putting us through this is to be looked at in terms of forever that men should fear Him; a tremendously good and righteous work of making us righteous within the righteousness of His Son; raising us up from this corruption much as His Son a new spiritual creature. From this nothing can be put to nor taken away.
kjv@2Corinthians:9 @ @ RandyP comments: Professed subjection to is demonstrated by liberal distribution of. The Corinthians had made a promise. It was good for them to have made the promise but, now they are more than a year behind on their promise and their good example has been used to convince others. God had supplied them both for their need and surplus and yet their gift was still not yet presentable. What kind of subjection is that? Are we given to the same subjection?
kjv@Ecclesiastes:4 @ @ RandyP comments: If not for God in the heavens this life get odder and more vain with each and every consideration. From the foolish king down to the poor peasant the emptiness piles up. To think that that this how an agnostic and atheist thinks; this is his religion. Meaning is simply what ever gets us through. And if another man comes and steals our meaning then that is just too bad, perhaps it shouldn't have had meaning to us in the first place. If that meaning gets sick and she dies then I have only to know that my time will come as well; I have only the ground to look to past present and future, that is my meaning. And if I am unlucky enough not to find meaning then perhaps I am the luckiest of all.
kjv@Ecclesiastes:8:8 @ @ RandyP comments: How many have I seen that have fearfully fought to retain the spirit upon their death bed only to drag themselves only further into fear and pain. It is a fearful thing to all but to those prepared to meet their maker it is a much anticipated moment and a short step into His arms.
kjv@Ecclesiastes:9 @ @ RandyP comments: One event happens to us all and after that there is no more work and no more remberance of us in this realm. All that we have done for ourselves is occupy our time. Left at that it would appear to be vanity. Christ however did not come here in vain nor did He die in vain nor is this the end He intends. Live joyfully with thy wife, do all these good and wise things but, most of all live for Him.
kjv@2Corinthians:11:1-15 @ @ RandyP comments: The fact that Paul has been addressing these things throughout this letter must mean that somebody(s) were accusing Him him of such. Other Jesus's are what we still face today. Selling another Jesus often involves placing doubt upon character of the saints of the true Jesus. Paul is attacked even today by numerous groups presuming to have a clearer definition of Jesus. It is not the same Jesus however.
kjv@Ecclesiastes:12 @ @ RandyP comments: Upon our deaths nothing more can be said or done. That in which we put ourselves to on this earth will cease and no longer be remembered. We have the option of spending this remaining time doing for ourselves or we can follow after our Lord and Shepherd to His final pastier. Fear God, and keep His commandments: for that is the whole duty of man. The end of all things is vanity if not for God.
kjv@2Corinthians:11:16-33 @ @ RandyP comments: You would think that a messenger of love and truth would be well accepted as people need a good bit of love and truth. You would think that people would be thankful for a man willing to suffer such things to bring us such truth and not complain that he was too soft or too hard or too.... We would like to think that if we are anything as believers that we are much like this man. Most likely though it is overwhelmingly possible that we are like the many that inflicted such upon him or looked away and that the people that we have put in charge of putting us in rememberence of these truths are not this type of man who has for a long time suffered our whims.
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@Songs:5:16 @ @ RandyP comments: There are internet reports that the Moslim's believe lovely here to be a reference to Muhammad. They translate the Hebrew muhammadim as Pbuh (Muhammad). Strong's does not us muhammadim it uses machmâd and I am not sure of the correlation. Even so, 956bc usage of the word does not necessarily suggest that the word is accurately translated into 700ad counter-evangelical doctrine. It could have meant "lovely".
kjv@Isaiah:1 @ @ RandyP comments: BookOfIsaiah gives us a good background to Isaiah. We find ourselves in great rebellion, the LORD seeking to correct but, no correction being taken. If not for a remnant the nation would have already been destroyed.
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:6 @ @ RandyP comments: The prophet did not have to be told that he was dirty, he knew by looking into glory, seeing the Lord on His throne, His long train filling the temple, angels and seraphim singing all around. The guilt/shame was sensed in His lips. The words going out, the appetite going in, the gestures of affection are all in the lips. It would be wise for us to consider his physical awareness of sin as we consider ours in light of the Lords full glory.
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@Isaiah:9 @ @ RandyP comments: How important to know that His anger is not turned but His hand is still extended. Israel/Judah/Manasseh have long strayed from any resemblance of covenant partnership with God; they have become exactly what covenant had told them not to be. The Lord has been more than long suffering towards them and is now prepared to do what He said would be done. This does not mean that it is all over though, that it all was a big mistake and that He is moving on without them; it means that they will serve His purpose just the same. For the present time it is to our benefit that this be, until the fulfillment of this Gentile age.
kjv@Isaiah:9 @ @ RandyP comments: Should now we Gentiles glory that we have done better than Israel in obeying the Lord? No, no man shall glory except in Christ kjv@1Corinthians:1:27-31
kjv@Galatians:4:15 @ @ RandyP comments: It appears that Paul's infirmity at this time may have been in his eyes or eye sight. Remember that his eyes at one time had been blinded and scaled over by the light of the Lord's glory.
kjv@Isaiah:14 @ @ RandyP comments: Removed from the context of the passage the section on Lucifer can be looked at as a description of the Devil; which may or may not be the author's intent. In context, we might think of it as a description of the king of Babylon who had similarities to the Devil and may have been heavily under his influence. The remainder of the prophecy in context namely the desolation of the city of Babylon has for a long time been fulfilled; the city ruin only recently haven been located by aerial satellite in Iraq. Plans are being made by some to rebuild it. It is mentioned again in latter day prophecy.
kjv@Galatians:6:11 @ @ RandyP comments: I have heard theories that Paul may have been crippled or have a deformity in arm or hand. We have already summized that he could well have problems with his eye sight. We also know that he was beaten and stoned near to death on several occasions and therefore be severely damaged. The Galatians here would have been deeply moved by whatever this sentence points to; he does bear the marks of Christ.
kjv@Isaiah:16 @ @ RandyP comments: The thought of invading troops walking freely through our streets is something we as Americans have not had to face. The long dreaded enemy of the Moabites, the lords of the occupation, doing as they pleased to whatever or whomever they pleased is one thing, but, to have it told to you three years in advance and to be told why another. You would know that you had done wrong!
kjv@Isaiah:17 @ @ RandyP comments: The judgement continues throughout the region; Israel, Moab, and now Syria and beyond. The impact was devastating to all. History confirms that the Babylonian Empire was brutal and massive. It was not by accident nor their own doing however, but God's used their violent possessive treacherous nature to achieve His righteous purposes. Everyone had to take notice and the prophecies of Isaiah had to have been known/searched by many I would think.
kjv@Ephesians:1:3-6 @ @ RandyP comments: We know at the very least that this predestination means that anybody/all that were going to be received into the eternal life to come was going to have to come to it through the adoption of Christ. Whether this means I or you specifically were chosen/singled out beforehand is not suggested by the language here but, may be quiet possible. The later may but a debatable point, not the former. Let us start off by what we know.
kjv@Ephesians:1:11-12 @ @ RandyP comments: If this were to mean singled out beforehand, it could just as well mean that those specifically who first believed (early church, disciples) were singled out and not necessarily the rest of us who believed because of their testimony. Jesus for instance chose Peter at the shoreline and may have chosen him before even creation. This is not to disregard the predestination of all but to confirm at least this much.
kjv@Isaiah:24 @ @ RandyP comments: This is an unimaginable time. To see everything broken down and laid to waste. To fear the next thing whatever it is to happen. To know what is was before and have none of that. All because of sin, the breaking of the eternal covenant, going about our lives completely void. This time may be a revelation of our inward selves, our spiritual habitat, our relationship with our creator; desolate, wasted, rotting and decayed.
kjv@Isaiah:25 @ @ RandyP comments: I can't help but think that we have minimized sin to such a point where these actions of God seem extreme instead of thinking of them as faithful and true. That He would have to do all of this and to this extent should tell us everything that we need to know about this sin nature. By the time that we are delivered through and out of this present truth there is a tremendous new life. Death will be gone, tears wiped away, rebuke shall be lifted, a feast partaken of.
kjv@Isaiah:26 @ @ RandyP comments: It is by the grace of God that we have everything that we have today. What if that is taken back or diminished? It would seem like a cruel punishment to those who think that it was all by their hand would it not? To those that knew that it was all by His grace it would seem well within His rights, deliberate and purposeful, even transformative almost like child birth.
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 @ @ RandyP comments: The Lord does not just do these things without purpose and results. The path of men digs itself into deep ruts unaware. As if those ruts become their treasured possession, they are not about to give them up. They have rationalized, fully justified, become comfortable in their rebellion. Hearts harden, the foreign becomes normal and nothing by God short of this seems to penetrate and steer the peoples where God intends. As far as they are concerned they are doing everything right. It is sad for them that they have to go through this but, informative to us; this is after all our sin nature as well.
kjv@Isaiah:30 @ @ RandyP comments: Like a child it would be quiet normal for a child to run from it's scolding parent. This people is attempting to run to Egypt, they wont however run away from the Lord there. Often in the Bible we see a top down view of the people from the king's rebellious heart down. Here we are seeing the heart of the people out on the streets asking to have the Holy One of Israel removed from their midst. The end of this judgment, the reward as described, does not appear to have come even now or is just now coming to Israel; it may even be for the millennial kingdom.
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@Isaiah:34 @ @ RandyP comments: Edom is included in this list of destructions. It shall be to them as if the skies have fallen.
kjv@Isaiah:37 @ @ RandyP comments: We tend to imagine the worst. If this enemy was strong enough to do this or that to the others than what chance do I have. The other nations stuck to their flase gods; God was using Assyria to clean their house. Judah had their false gods but, there was also a remnant of those committed to Jehovah; God was using Assyria as a means of cleansing and correction. What a tremendous testimony especially being that the Assyrian defeat was prophicied. God also used a false messenger from Ethiopia. All things work for God's purposes, the more open, the harder we look for that common thread, the sooner we will see the events and circumstances in our lives in their truer light.
kjv@Isaiah:38 @ @ RandyP comments: The king was suffering from some disease causing the skin to boil. Indications are that it was making him to be bitter towards God. Hezekiah had been a good godly king, the right man for the times at hand in Judah, but, not even that keeps one from suffering deadly illness, the curse of Adam. We cannot say that bitterness caused this cancer. We cannot say that the illness was intended to bring to light a hidden bitterness that then could be dealt with. We can not say that Hezekiah's illness was intended to stir the faith of the others around him. For then we would have to say the same about anyone of us. Though these things may have resulted, we can say that God dealt with everything that happened with the good of His plan and love for His servant in mind. The same would have been true if Hezekiah would have been called back into the Lord's rest.
kjv@Philippians:3 @ @ RandyP comments: Pressing toward the mark, not that we have already attained perfection; having no other confidence but in Christ, the fellowship of His death and sufferings that we may know the power of His resurection. How different this sacrifice/pursuit is from mere religion.
kjv@Isaiah:41 @ @ RandyP comments: You can imagine a tyranical king thinking that his mighty hand had done all this. How does he explain the fact that wonders have occurred even where his feet have not gone? that there is a momentum and wave far beyond his? Surely he will not admit that he has been played like a pawn just as all the rest. These things even are by God.
kjv@Colossians:4:16 @ @ RandyP comments: There are other epistles that Paul wrote. Perhaps several. Perhaps daily. Paul was not attempting to write for inclusion into some soon to be published New Testament collection. He was not seeking to dominate the other writers with his massive content. He was addressing the needs of the people and congregations that he was placed directly over (Romans possibly being the exception - perhaps planted by acquaintances that he had discipled). His letters were treasured enough that people kept hold of them. By the time the Testament was canonized several years after his death there were enough of these verifiable copies still circulated for them to be included into what we hold today as scripture. Many of these other letters, though I am sure were treasured have either been lost or cannot be accurately verified as there were many plagiarizers of his name and authority even yet today.
kjv@Isaiah:52 @ @ RandyP comments: The confidence of the couple chapters can be found in this: that there will be a 'Servant'. He shall deal prudently, exalted, extolled, be very high. His visage will have been marred more than any other man. The nations have been told of Him and soon shall see and consider and know that all that was told them was true. All eyes will be astonished. For the eyes of Zion's daughters will be opened and Zion itself returned. Who is this marred man? What is it that He will return to dothat we have been told about Him that will astonish us when we see it come true?
kjv@Isaiah:54 @ @ RandyP comments: The effect of the 'Servant's' redemptive work is glorious. The life to follow extreme. For now we have this eternal hope. It guides us and feeds us and inspires us. Soon it will be our reality. Instead of a flood of destruction it will be to us a flood of supreme love and good will.
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@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:57 @ @ RandyP comments: Idolatry, sorcery, adultery go hand in hand, they are part of the same mind set. These are spiritual sins that play out in physical ways. The participants know first hand the emptiness of this way but yet continue due to their despising God. They seem to know God and are aware of His holding His peace for this time, therefore purposely taunt it to His face. The symbolisms pictured here of stones and posts ointments etc.. would have direct meaning to them being specific to elements their religion.
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@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:1:16 @ @ RandyP comments: Idolatry and worshiping works of ones own hands seem to go together. Now days, it can be said that we no longer have other gods by name, that we don't see idolatry like this anymore. Rather, where there is the worship of the work of ones own hands there is likely idolatry. Logic today has been twisted, that we all could worship the same God just in different ways. We know however how Jehovah looks upon this twisted belief, it being another god just as vile as Baal or Malack. This is part of what makes Jehovah so despised amongst these so called worshipers. These are not the worshipers of Jehovah. How can they be the worshipers of the one true God?
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:5 @ @ RandyP comments: The emphasis is on the fact that both Israel and Judah believe themselves to be all of this, that the Lord supposedly is with them and yet there is not a man to be found that executes His judgments; no one fighting for His cause. They have become rich and that is their own proof. The Lord had stricken them and they have not grieved, consumed them and still they have not received correction. Certainly we as a nation must be concerned of this too, but, therein we see the difficulty; individuals may believe, even majorities of individuals, the course of nations however are not necessarily stirred by well intentioned individuals.
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: 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@Jeremiah:7 @ @ RandyP comments: If one could imagine taking the temple called by Yahweh's name with all of it's history and using it to worship Baal, sending prophets and no one listening; how angered the Lord must be. When a religion becomes a place and not a person, worship a happening and not a lifestyle, judgment for everything except what is to be judged, this is what you have. Where are the priests? Where are the great orators of truth? Where is the resistance or reactionaries? Does a religion that sacrifices it's live children really have that much to offer other than in your face God rebellion?
kjv@Jeremiah:8 @ @ RandyP comments: How could one say after having seen these things come to pass that they were not from the Lord when He told them before hand what exactly He was going to do and why? This did happen as it was foretold and we have a considerable amount of historical proof. We do know how they reacted and what their religion became after this up to the time of Jesus on earth; that they saw it as exactly this as well. Even that however was not enough. So then, how can we say today even that the Lord did not do this and that this was not why?
kjv@Jeremiah:9:3-5 @ @ RandyP comments: Could any of us say today that we have been valiant for the truth on earth? God makes Himself and His will known to man at great expense to Himself and yet may continues not to know Him? He perpetuates the testimony and revelations of His Son throughout all time at great expense to His valiant ones and we see it as irrelevant and unapproachable? We proceed from evil to evil never satisfied with the evil just committed? Never filled full of our evil to the point of drawing back from the table and declaring that is enough for me, I can take it no more? Asking our neighbor and or brother as if they would know truth and be valiant for truth any better?
kjv@Jeremiah:10 @ @ RandyP comments: Is it not in God to have feelings as well? We go about as if we are the only ones that feel violated and forgotten and grieved and spoiled. Is it that He is unaffected by what we say and do or is it that it just doesn't matter to us? Is it even in our way to direct our own steps? We demand of Him to be righteous enough not to be affected by these things that we do, to be above it all, but not of Him to be righteous enough to actually do something about all of this.
kjv@1Timothy:3:10 @ @ RandyP comments: One is proven blameless and found to be of good report before being considered for the position of deacon; not afterward or by the process of. The job isn't up to anyone who thinks that he might be a good candidate, it is up to the few that have proven themselves to be in very substantial and difficult ways. The powers of deacon and bishop are too tempting otherwise for those who simply seek to obtain that power for their own glory.
kjv@Jeremiah:12 @ @ RandyP comments: The Lord promises that He will do all this but, it will not be without purpose, they will be brought back into their inheritance for one more test. Should they not pass that final test, He will utterly pluck the nation out of the land. He did just that. For nearly two thousand years Israel had been plucked/scattered and destroyed. Even the land itself largely became a desolate place. So when He had said 'But if they will not obey...' we could have guessed what their response was when they came back from this first testing was going to be.
kjv@Jeremiah:15 @ @ RandyP comments: Remember again why this has come about. This is not just the Lord being mean. He has given them plenty of opportunity which they have in no way ceased. There is idolatry in the temple, there is a lack of any judgment toward the needy and oppressed, they have hired themselves their own prophets, there is insolence and hardness of heart towards God and they will not turn from it. He has proven Himself to be patient for their return yet they have not. How does one deal with such a people to turn them without such stunning and obvious force?
kjv@Jeremiah:16:5 @ @ RandyP comments: It is not that the Lord would have to perform this evil, He would have to simply remove His good. Think of how much good He has over our lives and what it would mean if those particular things were no longer there. Think about Judah then which has received these things in double measure.
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: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@Jeremiah:29 @ @ RandyP comments: I am just as confused here as the people must have been. Multiple messages coming from multiple places? Who is right and who is wrong? Do we listen to Jeremiah or Shemaiah who wants Jeremiah killed? Remember, we are reading the story line clinically detached; we know who is right in the end. They did not have such luxury. Would you vote for seventy years of peaceful subjection (running the risk of deep foreign integration) or a few years of radical revolt and resistance? Which prophets are true and which are false? Aren't they all about the same from ground level? Again, luckily we know the story.
kjv@Jeremiah:35 @ @ RandyP comments: We are given an example of proof that it is within the heart of man to keep some form of covenant, that it is a matter of choice. This example was a very difficult and sacrificial choice. The right choice is always rewarded. Judah long ago had made their choice. God could have carried out their chastisement long ago, but, He has been careful to let us know that He has gone more than the extra mile towards them before executing this. It has given us plenty of opportunity to realize that this is not only the way it must be, it is also done for their ultimate good. We should see the certainty of our own depravity and the need for the Lordship of His Son and the redemption provided by the gracious gift of His Son's own blood.
kjv@Titus:1:15 @ @ RandyP comments: This is the type of opposition I most often run against. They set out only to disprove my position, not that they have any better position of their own, to them all positions are faulty. To them the fact that I would have a position suggests a flaw within me, regardless of what it is. So is it that I need to argue my position better? Or is it that I need to argue their defilement in this particular mindset better?
kjv@Titus:2 @ @ RandyP comments: We have here a solid model of how/what the congregation should be exhorted by Titus and the elders that he is putting into order. The message should be uniform and authoritative. How to behave presently/what to look forward to/what to believe. If we were to do just this we would be all the better off.
kjv@Jeremiah:36 @ @ RandyP comments: One might ask "why does the Word of God need to be written"? "Can't He just speak it into our hearts"? Jehoiakim knew the things written in Baruch's scroll. It testified against him recording a long history of the king's rebellion and transgression. The king's advisers knew well how he would react for they had the scribe and prophet to hide away. The Lord undoubtedly knew as well, just as He knows today. The heart hears what the heart wants to hear, it reasons as would serve it's own desires the best. Nothing is beyond the scope of the deceitful heart. The written word is as much to testify against the fleshly heart as it is to convince it. Today we have the testimony of several thousands of years and several other Jeremiahs in written form. Is the heart then any different today?
kjv@Jeremiah:37 @ @ RandyP comments: Have you ever had someone do everything they could against you only to later come back to you for advice? Jeremiah asks the obvious "why do you come to me, where are all your prophets, why not ask them"? Did Zedekiah really think that Jeremiah for the sake of some possible friendship or for the chance of being released would have anything other to say than what had already been said?
kjv@Jeremiah:38 @ @ RandyP comments: In the end, the Lord has still given the king a choice. He can surrender himself without a fight and live or he can fight and die and his household be mercilessly brutalized. We like to think that freedom of choice always involves something more than that. Look at Jeremiah the prophet of God. What choices did he have remaining? He had done just as God had said; where is his safe out? What makes us think that somewhere there is a better outcome? That we can negotiate or force our way into some dreamy personal victory or acceptable compromise? Most often, the only choices we have are the choices left to us.
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@Jeremiah:43 @ @ RandyP comments: The lesson I guess has not been learned yet. The leaders are lead by fear, not by fear of the Lord. Everything Jeremiah has said has panned out and yet he is despised like this. This time he offers them calm and peace and they will have none of that. What else can be said?
kjv@Jeremiah:44 @ @ RandyP comments: We see how the mind will always justify itself. Their argument is that because they stopped their offerings to the queen of heaven these things have befallen them. When did they stop making these offerings? Haven't they made them all along? Even to others gods as well?
kjv@Jeremiah:44 @ @ RandyP comments: Suggested here in this text is a goddess largely worshiped by the women. We sense that men were typically excluded. Many of the male gods now have fallen yet the complete destruction of a nation has not rooted this one out; it has only strengthened it in the void. We are again looking down on this from a clinical view as readers knowing beginning/context and end. They are living it in real time without the top down insight. They are left to decide by observing the mounting evidence around them. The idolatrous mind certainly sees the evidence in a much different fashion. For those of you lead by your heart this should be a warning; the heart may be 180 degrees off.
kjv@Jeremiah:46 @ @ RandyP comments: Egypt is in a bad spot. Not only are they being cursed for harboring the adulterous remnant of Judah (who were told not to go into Egypt or they would be a curse) they are judged by all the gods and idols of their own making. Surely the Lord has not kept this secret from them, we have some evidences of His dealings with them from this and other prophets. Other nations should be warned of this as well. When they see what and why this has happened to Egypt they should realize that this could be them as well.
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@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: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@Lamentations:4 @ @ RandyP comments: The other thing we might be missing as to the real time context is just how complete and desperate the destruction is all around Jeremiah. What he is seeing at ground zero is simply unfathomable. He speaks of the destruction of Sodom to have been merciful compared to this.
kjv@Ezekiel:4 @ @ RandyP comments: Think of the strange public methods that have been employed to broadcast the impending judgment. Here Ezekiel is to lie on one side on a tile 390 days continuously and 40 days on the side eating only the rations given at the start and bread cooked on dung. Jeremiah was breaking ancient pots and such. Wasn't it Isaiah walking naked for three years? Certainly not just anyone could get the message out by doing this, these men must have been fully established as prophets before hand in order to have impact. With the state of things the way they are this well may have the best of all options. It is rarely the convincing intellectual dialog and reasoning we think of that is called for. Knowing that God is perfect in all His ways, it makes me wonder what methods He might have for us today?
kjv@Hebrews:10:1-23 @ @ RandyP comments: Nowadays, minus the temple, there is no way for Jews to perform their sacrifices. I am sure that they have used some of these same scriptural quotes to justify their position, that the sacrifices weren't really needed in the first place. The problem for them still would be that there is no remission of sins without the sprinkling of blood. The Christian followers have not ceased from the sprinkling of blood, it is that the blood now is the blood of God's chosen one, the sacrifice He Himself provided as with Abraham, Jesus Christ. His sacrifice is once and for all and complete.
kjv@Hebrews:10:24-39 @ @ RandyP comments: There are times in all Christians lives where they miss the mark, where they become drowsy or sloppy or unfruitful even counter productive. There are times even when we shake our fist and blame God (as in the death of our young child). We have all encountered times when we wondered if this draw back passage wasn't written for us. Self condemnation can be a tremendously discouraging thing. I would imagine however, if it is still in your heart to get back to the things of God, if there is still the will to repent and rejoin the body in fully restored standing, if the love of God is still wanted and sought after, then you definitely have not crossed this final point yet. This is written for the man where there is none of crushing sorrow, confussion and desire that remains, he has completely given himself over to his own condemnation, forever sealed in the hardness of his own heart.
kjv@Ezekiel:7 @ @ RandyP comments: In times such as these the people are more than willing to seek/hear from prophets, too bad they have rejected the words of the prophet before all of this. Even in these time of seeking they are more likely to seek a prophet more to their suiting. In addition to these tendencies, the priests and ancient counsels have been long absent. The Law and texts which would confirm the true prophet are effectively silent because of those that were in trusted with them having chased after other gods and religions. The prophet is left largely alone in his foreknowledge.
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:14 @ @ RandyP comments: Three righteous men of the ages are given as repeated examples. The righteousness of these men can only save themselves; not even their immediate sons and daughters can be saved unless by their own individual righteousness. So too, only you yourself is saved if so be, your family and friends will have to be saved themselves by their own righteousness. Any righteousness any of us would have is found solely in the righteousness of Christ Jesus and on the personal confession of that alone will any individual be delivered.
kjv@Ezekiel:15 @ @ RandyP comments: From one fire into another, from time to time as individuals we may feel this so, this though is speaking of an entire nation. How would it not be known that the Lord has set His face against them? Few of us have ever felt this type of judgment upon us. In our own lives we may think it or even make it be so. Often we perceive His instruction/correction falsely as so but, rather that is His love. Some moments we may feel as if persecution suffered in His name is so but, rather that is simply sharing in His sufferings. When the Lord however sets His face against an entire people it no doubt will be known by those people. These are not moments where the possibility will be debated or interpreted.
kjv@Ezekiel:16 @ @ RandyP comments: They then remember not the days of Israel's youth, an abandoned un-suckled bloody fetus mercifully adopted and raised by the Lord into world wide prominence and splendor. They today forget His covenant will be fulfilled and established forever when His anger is pacified. In between is a time of incredible whorish lewdness beyond what any other sister nation can claim. His anger, as with all things, is pacified in Christ Jesus; they have yet to see how this need be so.
kjv@Ezekiel:16 @ @ RandyP comments: By the Lords account, this whoredom is not just a certain era of Israel, it goes deep into it's very youth and forward into a time yet to come when His anger is pacified and the covenant is forever established. The sisters of Israel have been shown and continue to see the Lord's anger against Israel. How is it then that neither Israel nor her sisters see the way to the Lord through the witnessing of His anger?
kjv@Ezekiel:18 @ @ RandyP comments: He hath no pleasure in the death.. Several times here it is illustrated what the righteous man would be doing and what the wicked do as well. These are not new things, they have been known all along. Yet so many choose the wrong path. There appears to be a decision, one can make themselves a knew person by choosing to do right. So why then do people not choose? Elsewhere we learn that this answer has to do with the sinful nature of man, a nature only curable by the sacrifice and resurrection of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ; imposing moral law upon this nature only illustrates its depravity all the more. Did great numbers turn to the living God by in the time of this prophecy? Certainly not.
kjv@Hebrews:11 @ @ RandyP comments: I have often look at this definition of faith as if it was me looking out into life's vastness and seeing the evidences of what I hope; if I looked hard enough and sincere enough I would see actual proof. Suddenly I have considered that it may well be intended to be the reverse. If I truly believe, the activities of my life will naturally become living proof that I believe; my faith will become evident. I have faith despite the appearance here of things, I live forward out of trust. Like Abraham, others can discern that I believe by the manner I proceed in trust and obedience, what I am willing to sacrifice, how and where I am willing to sojourn, what spiritual promises I am willing wait long past my physical death patiently for and how such waiting guides me. Faith is not a collection of scientific insight, it is a substance born of hope.
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@James:1 @ @ RandyP comments: The crown of life is given to those who endure temptation. Temptation will come and come again and again. Temptation comes when drawn/enticed away by our own lust. It may sneak in unnoticed. It may stand tall being fully justified and felt well deserved, but it does come. Endure doesn't give us the sense that we have immediately conquered, it gives us the sense that we may have stumbled and must now battle against and clean up the lasting consequences. To continue in such temptations is defeat, to endure to resist and grow and to strengthen by God's power and grace.
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: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@Ezekiel:28 @ @ RandyP comments: If one gets a running start at this amazing chapter we get the sense that the king of Tyrus may have been the Devil himself. If we start here direct we get the sense that the king is being used to illustrate how the situation of his fall is similar in details to the situation surrounding the fall of the covering cherub Lucifer. Whether the two are the same or separate the details given of Lucifer are bountiful perhaps like no other passage in the Bible.
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@1Peter:2 @ @ RandyP comments: Peter sketches out what it looks like to live outwardly in faith. Essentially it is to live as Christ who had committed Himself entirely to Him (The Father) that judges righteously, not reviling nor threatening, baring the sins of others. Having then this picture of Christ's submission to the Father, we likewise behave in all of our outward dealings not reviling nor threatening, baring the sins of others. Listed are some examples of that kind of living.
kjv@Ezekiel:37 @ @ RandyP comments: Some of the dispersed have been regathered here since 1947 + 1968. Many are still left to come. Judah and Israel are again solidified as one. The things not yet achieved is the revelation of the true Shepherd, the cleansing of their hearts, the installment of David as His king. Whether the raising of the bones is literal or symbolic, it would have to be at least in the case of David. These things are moving ahead quickly.
kjv@1Peter:4 @ @ RandyP comments: So should we go out a stir up some suffering? The gospel is preached that men dead to Christ might be judged as men of the flesh. They are this to begin with, their reaction once presented condemns them all the more. One does not have to go out purposely to stir things up, the Gospel of Christ does this by itself. By presenting the Gospel in it's truest form man's very nature is stirred against Him/Us.
kjv@Ezekiel:40 @ @ RandyP comments: The chapter reads much faster than the vision would have played out. Imagine the time involved making these measurements 6 cubits at a time. In order to remember all this detail, Ezekiel must have been writing it down as each transpired.
kjv@Ezekiel:40 @ @ RandyP comments: Having been around friends that are architects and structural engineers, I can sense the amount of thought and design that must have gone into this temple. The attention to scope and field and depth, semblance and symmetry and proportion, utility and aesthetic. I would imagine that Ezekiel is seeing this pristine and uninhabited. I would imagine the architect is seeing this with the flow of people in and out, the reverence and perception that He is attempting to evoke. I have seen the complexity of blue prints and schematics, I cant imagine trying to build this from a written description.
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:42 @ @ RandyP comments: It may be that having seen the original temple that Ezekiel's contemporaries would have known how this Temple would have differed from the first. Perhaps they are following along in their mind right and left and forward as Ezekiel's vision goes. Many men today would be able to study comparisons of the two even the third yet to come, but it would be interpretive, their best guess. index:WEBLINKS temple has some videos and maps of the Temples in the bible search - images and bible - video sections.
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@Ezekiel:46 @ @ RandyP comments: Are we seeing that there will be possessions exchanged and given and inherited in the future? Are we seeing that there will be class distinctions between royalty and servants? We have seen mention previously of money and measurements of commerce.
kjv@Ezekiel:47 @ @ RandyP comments: I am not familiar with very may of these geographic points listed. From the ones I do it appears that if it reaches as far as Damascus that Israel will have gained considerable size.
kjv@Ezekiel:48 @ @ RandyP comments: The original blood lines will have to be re-established in order to do this. I doubt if this could be done right now with total accuracy. Much of the blood lines have been co-mingled or defiled and the proofs of the lines have been blurred. I would think that authentic right would have to be told to us by the Lord.
kjv@Ezekiel:48 @ @ RandyP comments: We have commented before as to how several cults believe that Israel has been stricken from from the Lord's redemption plan because of their apostasy and that they (the cult followers) are now its spiritual replacement. If so, then explain this chapter. Does there not have to be the original blood lines?
kjv@Daniel:2 @ @ RandyP comments: They sought the mercies of God concerning this secret. Perhaps they would have rather thought that the king was losing his marbles and hastily making a way for them out wit the king for their freedom. The mercies of God in this case were much different. God was intending to share a revelation with the king and establish these Hebrew boys in the kings eye. The four's action saved not only themselves but, the other soothsayers and magicians as well.
kjv@1John:2 @ @ RandyP comments: To abide in Him is to love and to walk as He walked. This does not come naturally. The special anointing that we receive as repentant believers teaches us of all new and necessary spiritual things. We are taught by abiding in Him, abiding is our school. We love as He, we learn. We walk as He, we learn. How then can we love unless we abide in Him? His love is not just any love, His walk not like any either. This love and walk we are unfamiliar with even to the point of being at enmity with it. It is only by His unction that we are able to do it. Some then by not abiding have come out from us and have become our opposite, the antichrists.
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:4 @ @ RandyP comments: I sense a subtle transition in this testimony of Nebuchadnezzar from a belief in the mighty God of gods and the spirits of holy gods (polytheism) to 'Him' the blessed 'Most High' Him that liveth in dominion forever 'King of Heaven'. There is not enough said here to say that he became monotheistic but, his respect for one particular God certainly heightened. Without doubt his worship of self was tangibly altered to have published this account.
kjv@Daniel:4 @ @ RandyP comments: A thought about free choice... Nebuchadnezzar had twelve months to consider the interpretation of his dream. For some the dream alone would be enough to alter/soften their hearts, or so we would hope, but, is that actually true? Daniel as much as said some sort of lessening would be possible. It was not ever said though that this chastisement would ever be avoidable, that the choice was totally his. It could be that over the course of twelve months Nebuchadnezzar did everything that he thought would hold this off only to realize that he was still under it's shadow. He may have hardened in the end. Therefore it is evidenced that as much as Nebuchadnezzar may have thought that he had changed, he had not actually changed; the pride was still deep within him. Our circumstances may be similar, God may be trying to remove a destructive trait or element from our heart. We may try (and be given time) to extract that ill on our own, but, until it is given into God's hands it is never really removed; it simply lays hidden producing further atrophy/paralysis. Where then is free choice? It is in accepting the way things must be. It is all things given into His hands.
kjv@1John:3 @ @ RandyP comments: There is so much said here that entire books can be (and have been) written. For the moment it should be enough to consider that these things are all expansions of the core doctrine that John presented in kjv@1John:1 , namely that God is light and in Him is no darkness. If we are in God, so too there can be no darkness in us. Knowing the 'how' this is possible is knowing the 'what' Jesus accomplished in His death and resurrection and the 'who' He is. The working of this knowledge produces unfeigned love in us for the brethren, which is the proof positive of possessing this knowledge. It can be produced in no other way.
kjv@1John:4 @ @ RandyP comments: If I were to ask nearly any non-believer 'what is God?' the near unanimous reply would be "God is love". If I were to ask then 'what is love?' I would receive a multitude of varying replies mostly having something to do with tolerance for their sins. The question then to ask is 'doesn't that mean that love is whatever one wants/needs it to be?' or better 'that God is whomever we want/need Him to be?'. What kind of god can we ourselves make up? Is your wife whomever you wish her to be? Is your son? Is there any other working relationship that you know of that is determined by what you wish it to be? Are we not individual? Do we not have structure and backbone, interests and opinions and needs of our own that you yourself have to accept navigate and familiarize your self with? Isn't that the beauty of relationships? Why should it be any different with God? We love God because he first loved us. It was not our minute and varying personal perceptions of God with which He loved us, it was His gigantic eternal design for present and future, a love that would redeem us from our sins and set us aright into eternity. It was not our selfish 'I need you to be this' love or 'do this now for me or else' love or 'if you even exist' love for His love came before our love. What then is love? God is love? What is God? Creator and perfecter and possessor of our souls in whom no darkness dwells and in that He is absolute love.
kjv@Daniel:5 @ @ RandyP comments: I am surprised that Belshazzar still adorned Daniel in the scarlet after his own judgment and the judgment of his kingdom was so pronounced. I suppose after seeing just a hand writing on a wall and Daniel being the only one to interrupt and settle the doubt, one would have to believe it.
kjv@Daniel:7 @ @ RandyP comments: There is not a mention of rapture in this vision that I can see. These saints appear to be on earth the entire time. For a measured time they are worn down and overcome by the fourth beast. With an eye toward harmony with other scriptures we must find a way to explain these saints with the saints that are raptured. One way would be to say that these saints became believers because of or after the rapture. Include these with the Messianic Jews who will have their veil lifted and you have quite a number.
kjv@Daniel:10:12 @ @ RandyP comments: Daniel had done two things right in order for his prayers to be answered, he sought/set his heart to understand, he chastened himself before God. From that point (even though at times it may not have seemed to him like it) his prayers were heard. Now the Lord comes.
kjv@Daniel:10:21 @ @ RandyP comments: Many have interpreted Michael as being the protecting angel over Israel. Michael was commander of the angelic forces that cast out the dragon from heaven kjv@Revelation:12:7 . We believe Michael to be present in the end times defeating the terrible invasion from the north. Michael is firmly holding with the Lord.
kjv@Daniel:10:21 @ @ RandyP comments: I have heard it said that Michael tends to come in judgment, Gabriel tends to come with announcements and peace. I need to look into this further.
kjv@2John:1 @ @ RandyP comments: It really wouldn't surprise me if there weren't a great number of these letters written to various individuals by all of the Apostles. What is surprising is that this one was still able to be verified years later when the New Testament was canonized. This great lady must have been extremely well known, must have cherished this and taken such good care of it. She must have shown it to some influential people as well. I can see her eyes light up when she would begin to recount receiving it.
kjv@Daniel:12 @ @ RandyP comments: I feel presently that I am not equipped to explain this kjv@Daniel:10-12 passage. There are a great many scholars that have looked into this much more deeply who disagree one to another. I started to add further reading resources as starting points, but, don't want to outright endorse any of these particular views. Like with much of bible prophecy, I believe that every single word is true and that when it is all fulfilled we will everyone say 'boy Daniel sure nailed that'. Until it is all fulfilled however, I marvel at the detail, I marvel at how it could explain this and that, I marvel at the angels and the means of communication they use. I seek to understand these things and I dig deeper and deeper into them.
kjv@Daniel:12 @ @ RandyP comments: I know many people that have had much opportunity for productive spiritual fruit fall from the limb because of their insistence in figuring all of these prophetic clues together. It almost becomes a destructive addiction. If our commandment is to love one another as God loves us, certainly there must be a balance between the mental pursuit of knowing and the spiritual pursuit of simply acting based upon trust. Knowing how to comfort a friend is just as important as knowing 3 1/2 years for this and this king was... Some times sealed means sealed. Not to diminish the importance of prophecy mind you, but, to elevate the importance of being amongst the living and being fruitful in the knowledge of Christ.
kjv@3John:1 @ @ RandyP comments: We should know that not everyone in the fold is for the fold. John may have written some of these smaller letters in part to gather intel and to make sure that the things/persons that he had sent were being received and used. He has taken the time to develop networks of 'wellbeloved' and so should we. We should be participants in this network that our true spiritual leaders are maintaining as well. Who knows, maybe one of these letters will be arriving at our desk one day.
kjv@Hosea:4 @ @ RandyP comments: No truth, no mercy, no knowledge. Swearing, lying, killing, stealing, adultery. The Apostle John had said that God is light and in Him is no darkness. How can Israel be in Him and yet have this obvious darkness? His plan is for them to be removed from their darkness. First, they must be made to realize and understand their darkness. How does one that doesn't listen, that thinks opposite come to realize? Something is done to get her attention.
kjv@Hosea:5 @ @ RandyP comments: The offense is toward God. The lying, the killing, the adultery; the treachery of priests and murderous revolter's, pacts with foreign kings. One might think that the offense is against the nation, or toward the good people of the land, towards what could have been, towards those slain or persecuted. This is God's nation, His law, His chosen people, His temple; the offense is toward Him. To take this offense and not own up to it is a greater offense than any.
kjv@Hosea:6 @ @ RandyP comments: Then shall we know, if we follow on... It is not only in the realization and acknowledgement, it is in what we follow after that. Many a man has been brought to realize, brought to acknowledge their sin, few however have then followed after what is right.
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@Jude:1 @ @ RandyP comments: Contending for the faith once delivered begins with praying in the Holy Ghost, keeping oneself in God's love, looking for His mercy unto eternity, having compassion for some, making the difference, saving some with fear, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. The fact that we would have to contend with others supposedly within our own faith means that it is not an easy list of things to do. We are warned that these apostates have crept in unaware and that there is a certain advantage and admiration inherent for them to do so. They are defined as dreamers defiling the flesh, despising dominion, speaking evil of dignities. They preach out of what they know naturally.
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 @ @ 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:8 @ @ RandyP comments: From the mouth of several prophets we have heard these details. As readers we may be thinking 'why am I reading this? Haven't I read this over and over?'. Don't you think it interesting though that the Lord spent so much effort for us to repeatedly His message to them in as many ways as possible, His patience towards them throughout it all, His prophecy of what will happen to them should they continue. What does this tell us today? That they were just deaf and stupid or that we are likely to be the same way?
kjv@Hosea:9 @ @ RandyP comments: It seems that critics are consumed with the translations of small words. A translation of few corrupted and the entire text is called into question. The message of the Bible however in such large grandiose pictures that the changing of words here would have to be repeated throughout and still would not change the picture. The picture here is that chosen Israel has gone very wrong, and is left to receive the punishing end of a firm covenant. Is there not the picture of God's love? Is there not the picture of His blessings upon them? Is there not the picture of them chasing after gods other then Him? Is there not the picture of His patience and efforts for their return? How many words would have to be changed in how many places to alter this picture? Being confident of this picture we are all the more confident in the fitting of the other pictures in the collection that God's word so vividly paints, such as the picture of Christ.
kjv@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@Hosea:13 @ @ RandyP comments: I get the sense that Ephraim was the dominate coalition driving Israel (he exalted himself). Samaria was just plain rebellious (she rebelled against her God). Still we see throughout the desire of God to have them return. He sets about them as a lion/leopard/bear to devour in their faithless idolatry but as a king in their faithful regathering. In Him is their help/ransom.
kjv@Hosea:14 @ @ RandyP comments: We tend as readers to read these things clinically from the top down knowing how the Lord feels about them. Imagine these things down looking up from the street view. Who is this Hosea? Why does he say the things that he does? Does he not love his nation Israel? What wrong has Israel done and who have they harmed? Sure there are idols but then where is the God who delivered us from out of Egypt? Why does He not deliver us now? You see how deceitful hearts work; they work the same today as yesterday. When it comes to blessings everyone is all for it, when it comes to correction there is nothing to be corrected for/by. As if God needed correcting, we pray to God for Him to change His mind. Who then shall be wise to these matters?
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@Joel:1 @ @ RandyP comments: Joel was a prophet for Judah at the time of Isaiah and Amos and king Uzziah. The region faces a terrible plague like few ever seen, it sounds like a plague upon a plague. Not many of us have experienced a plague or drought, what little I know I've been told from grandparent survivors and some study of the 1930's dust bowl. They are times of great soul searching, there is nothing to do but pray and wait them out. People are changed however. They become thankful for the simple things, frugal and thrifty and inventive beyond end, engaged with family and neighbors and community. They set the table of viewpoint for generations to come. They also become much closer to God. They are reminders of how much/deeply we need God's mercies in so many ways, how much we miss them when they are partially withheld.
kjv@Revelation:4:1 @ @ RandyP comments: Must be. So many consider this book as what could be if we don't straighten ourselves up, that the power to hold this off is in our hands. All of scripture suggests different. As bad and as wrong as all that follows seems to be, it is right and part of the course God has mandated. His faithfulness is contrasted by man's deprived nature given every opportunity to repent and by the spiritual war of Satanic powers and principalities that have been hidden all about us till this time. It is the time that His chosen people come awake, their eyes opened to His Messiah, His covenant to their fathers Abraham Issac and Jacob towards them finally realized.
kjv@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:1:6 @ @ RandyP comments: The second reason for the four judgments, this one against the area of the Philistines once held by Israel . They have taken all their Jewish captives and delivered them to Edom (descendants of Esau).
kjv@Amos:1 @ @ RandyP comments: Edom and Ammon are at the center of these reasons so far with assistance from Damascus Gaza and Tyrus. These are all kin to Israel rooted deep with the patriarchs, but, have long been enemies and sore spots to Israel. They have taken their hostility way too far (as kin folk often do) and violated common brotherly/tribal/national sensibility.
kjv@Amos:2 @ @ RandyP comments: With all of these external reasons given we finally get to Israel and Judah, all the more reason for judgment. Judah for despising the Law, not carrying out the commandments, and walking in the lies of their fathers. Israel for their callous treatment of the righteous/poor/meek, their sexual perversion and spiritual profanity. Both have witnessed God's work against other nations but disregarded that fact that their puffiness as 'the chosen' against God is all the worse.
kjv@Amos: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@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@Amos:5 @ @ RandyP comments: Many today think of their sins as personal things that have little or no effect on others such as the just, the poor, the oppressed, the needy. This passage speaks of such transgressions causing a nation's judgment as a whole to become as soft porous wormwood and it's righteousness to be left off. The stark evidences can be found in how the just are more and more rebuked, abhorred and afflicted (to the point the just are better off personally to keep silent). The results are a form of personal prosperity and social suave that comes quickly to an end having no bases of support (earlier described as being lead away by fish hooks). The nation as a whole is judged not only by it's failed condition, but, by God. Doesn't sound all that personal to me.
kjv@Amos:6 @ @ RandyP comments: For some Israelites here, the conditions don't seem to be all that bad; beds of ivory, bowels of wine, music upon their porches. One might say that their gods have blessed them well. What gods? Like their gods, is this not all by their selfish imaginations? Is this not all by their deliberate stiff handed taking? Today we package it as assertiveness, as going out and getting what you desire, as the eye of the tiger, virility and fertility. These are the same pictures that many other gods portray, they are symbols of a darker wisdom. Yes, it brings some prosperity, but, it destroys many others, it is at other's expense. And for what? A moment on a roof top looking down on all the soiled masses. Oh my what a view.
kjv@Revelation:6 @ @ RandyP comments: Six of the seals from the book are now open. Remember that the only one worthy of opening these was the Lamb our Lord, no other could have done this but, a great many wanted it to be done. Having been sealed means that each of these were predetermined yet held off until the right to do so had been claimed. Even when He was proved worthy upon resurrection He then had held off until certain numbers had been fulfilled and the go ahead was given by the Father. Each unsealed judgment alone would be devastating. Together or in sequence they become a time like the earth has never known.
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@2John:1 @ @ RandyP comments: It really wouldn't surprise me if there weren't a great number of these letters written to various individuals by all of the Apostles. What is surprising is that this one was still able to be verified years later when the New Testament was canonized. This great lady must have been extremely well known, must have cherished this and taken such good care of it. She must have shown it to some influential people as well. I can see her eyes light up when she would begin to recount receiving it.
kjv@Amos:7 @ @ RandyP comments: The Lord repenting does not mean the same as believers repenting from sin. The suggestion would be then that the Lord somehow was going to do something evil and was talked out of it. The truth is simply that the Lord changed His mind. It may for instance not have been His plan to begin with and that He was using this discussion as a teachable moment (what if I). I remember as a father proposing different forms of discipline with my children to get them to think about their wrong (what if I take away television privileges for a week?). Another way of thinking it is that the Lord had options, out of these options he was going to do this (and would have been within His rights to do so) but, chose rather to do that.
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@Amos:9:7 @ @ RandyP comments: Other countries have been delivered in similar fashion to Israel. There should be a familiarity even a brotherhood between them having common histories.
kjv@Obadiah:1 @ @ RandyP comments: As you have done so shall it be done to thee. Edom was deceived in two ways, by its pride thinking that it was above the destruction that Judah was facing, by nations that they thought were confederates. They joined in with these nations against Judah even to where the survivors fleeing out of Judah were being caught up and killed or made captive. The descendent's of Esau were meant to be brotherly. Instead they were fooled into that which they should not have done; an unpardonable brutality. They were to cut off and suffer in the same manner.
kjv@Revelation:8 @ @ RandyP comments: The prayers of the saints; thy kingdom come... thy will be done... on earth as it is in heaven... thine is the power and the glory. Special pause is given to acknowledge that this is precisely what the saints have prayed for all along. To get to the answer of those prayers from here this judgment must first take place. Perhaps we didn't fully realize the depths of sin's nature or the fierceness of the spiritual war all around. Perhaps we thought God could just change this thing and that, otherwise everything else is cool. There are however some drastic changes that have to occur beginning with the elimination of evil; an evil that runs deep. Remember God is light and Him there is no darkness. How then can He dwell amongst us if there is yet evil in our midst? Evil must be judged and use of these natural forces should make it clear to the inhabitants that this is none other than THE JUDGEMENT so clearly prophesied.
kjv@Jonah:1:2 @ @ RandyP comments: The imperial city of Nineveh, royal seat of then Assyria is in modern day northern Iraq near Mosel on the Tigris river. It's ruins have only recently been found.
kjv@Jonah:1:3 @ @ RandyP comments: Tarshish is estimated to be a far west sea port perhaps in Spain or northern Africa. Though we don't know for certain where it was we know that it couldn't have been farther nor harder for for Jonah to get to. Jonah was going well out of his way in disobeying God.
kjv@Jonah:1 @ @ RandyP comments: The fish here may or may not have been a whale. People dispute this story often because of the uncertainty of this fish. But we are told that this fish was prepared by the Lord. It may have been been prepared as in being placed into the same locale, prepared as is being able to swallow without chewing, prepared as in having an air pocket provided if Jonah is alive inside this belly and not dead, prepared as in being something completely out of the ordinary beyond our experience or consideration.
kjv@Jonah:2 @ @ RandyP comments: We know that Jonah had intended to resist the will of God by not going to Nineveh. How Jonah came of mind that God would still be willing to help him even the belly of this judgment, I don't know. We should take it that even in our own lives when we think that we have blown any chance with God, God still has His chance with us. If we are honest and repentant, if we are like minded in faith, it is never to late for God to do a wonderful miraculous work.
kjv@Jonah:3 @ @ RandyP comments: Jonah had let his fear of what the Assyrians might say or do cloud his judgment as to what God needed him to do. He may have also been prejudice as to who was worthy of his prophetic gifts and who was not. It is apparent that God had been working long and hard in Nineveh to the point where when Jonah finally did speak to them they were willing and receptive to the message.
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:2 @ @ RandyP comments: You may recall that property was divided amongst the early Hebrews by blood line and passed by inheritance. By the Law, property was a spiritually/morally a civic right. Even when a family member got into debt or trouble and the property was taken from him, 49 year Sabbaths existed for him/his descendent's to be restored back to it. Property according to Micah now is being stolen by violence and oppression. Because of the drunkenness of idolatry, little is being done against this violence and oppression, institutions are far too corrupted. People have taken to listening to the prophets of falsehood. How similar this sounds to today!
kjv@Revelation:10 @ @ RandyP comments: Six angels have opened their seals, the seventh is mentioned in yet future tense. It is almost as if we are at a pause, as if the focus has briefly changed from the prophetic time-line to the current tense restriction and enablement specific to the John the prophet. John himself and by his writings has gone on to prophesy before many people and nations and kings (and continues to today).
kjv@Revelation:10 @ @ RandyP comments: John is kept from revealing too much. There is an importance to mentioning vaguely what he was about to record, but, being told not to reveal it any further. Instead he is given a book to eat that will make him to prophesy that which is required by others to be known. We must consider that not everything is for us to know outright, though to a few it may have been shown. Somethings are to be searched for like hidden treasure, other things to be merely trusted. This may in part be because of our best interest, more fully it may also be because of who else would be reading this.
kjv@Revelation:11:18 @ @ RandyP comments: It is a time for judgment and reward. How do the nations respond? They are angry. It doesn't say repentant notice, doesn't say sorry, doesn't say softening or contemplative. Such horrific events they have witnessed, so many catastrophes. Yet they see these matters in the opposite. To them it is not their anger and hatred and transgression that destroys the earth, it is God's.
kjv@Micah:4:5 @ @ RandyP comments: This does not say that the gentile nations will be allowed their own gods to walk in or that other gods exist. There will be but one God Jehovah. It instead marks an important relationship between the people of Israel to the name Jehovah, a peculiar bond that they will always have. As special as that name will be to all the peoples, it will still mean more given their history to the Hebrews. As is rightfully so!
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@2John:1 @ @ RandyP comments: It really wouldn't surprise me if there weren't a great number of these letters written to various individuals by all of the Apostles. What is surprising is that this one was still able to be verified years later when the New Testament was canonized. This great lady must have been extremely well known, must have cherished this and taken such good care of it. She must have shown it to some influential people as well. I can see her eyes light up when she would begin to recount receiving it.
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@Micah:7 @ @ RandyP comments: What God will do for those who will bear His indignation: 1. plead my cause 2. execute judgment for me 3. bring me forth to the light 4. pardon iniquity 5. pass by the transgression 6. retain not his anger 7. turn again 8. have compassion 9. subdue our iniquities 10.cast all sins into the depths 11. perform the truth to Jacob 12. mercy to Abraham
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: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:13:10 @ @ RandyP comments: A great many men (most of them well meaning) will be guilty of leading their own people into captivity; these men will not escape this captivity themselves. A great many men will kill by the sword either for themselves or for their kin or for their nation or for pure survival and necessity; these men shall not escape either. As short as the time left is, there is a time appointed for this be completely fulfilled. Here is a clue to what it will mean for those latter day saints to have faith and patience.
kjv@Habakkuk:1 @ @ RandyP comments: In the midst of the prophet's many questions/complaints to God it is revealed that the Chaldean's are next to take Judah. If you knew anything about the Chaldean's you too would wonder why a people as filthy wicked as they would be used of this God to rule over His people. We have a tendency to look at the people in charge in a similar light. What did they do to deserve being this? How is it God put them there instead of me? Are they not bitter and hasty and scornful, all the things told to me not to be? Doesn't God require judgment and dignity? Why then is He silent in this matter? Habakkuk ponders.
kjv@Habakkuk:2 @ @ RandyP comments: So this is where Paul twice and the author of Hebrews once get "the just shall live by faith". Now we have the original context. Given our tendency to box God into the corners of what we think He should and should not be doing, given our blindness to everything except what is immediately before us, given our own personal track record and what we ourselves are being chastised over, we if seeking through this to become just should live by faith. kjv@Romans:1:17 kjv@Galatians:3:11 kjv@Hebrews:10:38
kjv@Revelation:14:12 @ @ RandyP comments: The faith of Jesus (as opposed to the faith in Jesus) is presented as an object to be kept just as a commandment. It is not our faith, it is His. He gives us His commandment to keep. He gives us His faith to keep. We could have faith in His faith. We can keep believing in His faith but, ultimately it is His faith that we are to keep. One might say "well I don't have enough faith" to which we ask "does not Jesus?"..."Keep His faith then". I have my faith and He has His. Which should I keep? Keep His!
kjv@Zephaniah:1:12 @ @ RandyP comments: Those that say things like this are typically hiding behind something that they know they shouldn't be doing. These men are settled on the dregs of wine called lees. In order to do this they have to say and believe that. To them, God is simply not engaged or attached. What does God care about little old man? It makes perfect sense to a man awash in the bottom of a keg.
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@Haggai:1 @ @ RandyP comments: The consideration of time frame is important dict:easton Haggai . The time is of Ezra and Nehemiah and the rebuilding of the Temple has stalled out two decades. The people have tried to resume their lives outside of captivity but it is as if despite their energetic effort things are falling short or they are loosing ground. The Lord has wanted to bless them but the His hand has been held back because of the lack of progress on the Temple project. What had been dedicated to the Temple is being used in their own roof tops. Spiritual matters should always come first and goods and time dedicated should remain clearly purposed. Without such perspective we can work twice as hard for half the return.
kjv@Haggai:2 @ @ RandyP comments: Every generation seems to have it's spiritual project; much larger than any one person. They must learn to rely on the Lord and clarify the will and resolve towards spiritual matters. It is never a side project, something to work on when other successes have left you the time. Things are constantly needing to be rebuilt or repaired or restored or re-established. Battles are to be fought and won and obstacles spiritually overcome. Often specific men are called upon to lead such efforts, but surely it is a group process. God is willing to shake the heavens to make such projects work.
kjv@Revelation:16 @ @ RandyP comments: By this stage now, men are not going to turn away. For them God is to blame and is openly blasphemed. To them it is better to endure the suffering than have a change of heart. The Antichrist is now performing miracles to hold their hopes/souls in his own pocket. Tossed into the equation is the righteousness of God for doing this as it relates to the previous treatment of His saints and martyrs.
kjv@Revelation:16:15 @ @ RandyP comments: This is not the first time the Lord has described Himself as such. It should be taken literally that to these people at least He will be believed and perceived to be a thief stealing away all that they have left and hold dear. Coming suddenly from nowhere and without warning as some interpret it cannot be scripturally supported when it has taken this many years to develop, judgment has so precisely and frequently measured out, and men know that it is such but will not repent. No their decision was made and their fate sealed when they took the mark of the beast to begin with. This is a matter of their utter shame and His absolute Glory.
kjv@Zechariah:1 @ @ RandyP comments: The Lord was displeased with Israel/Judah and He used the Gentile nations to correct them. But the gentile nations He used displeased Him as well and He will use them against each other to correct them. We have the sense that He has sent forth watchers to keep close eye on the dealings of these nations. He knows all; it is for the remainder of the heavenly host and for us that these things are being observed.
kjv@Zechariah:2:8-10 @ @ RandyP comments: It must be the Angel of the Lord that the Lord of Hosts has sent and that will dwell with the daughters of Zion in the final gathering. This is a future prophecy, it did not occur previously as many of the daughters have not yet separated nor returned yet.
kjv@Zechariah:6 @ @ RandyP comments: For those who have difficulty discerning the relationship of the Father God to the Son God, perhaps it is better understood them as Trunk and Branch. Human words have deficiencies, but, individually they can be viewed as Tree, more importantly they are collectively Tree. It is perhaps easier to discern Tree seeing them both together. This is not the first time Christ has been identified as the Branch.
kjv@Revelation:18 @ @ RandyP comments: It might be easy to think of this Babylon as a terrible foe or enemy and nothing more. Why would God allow such a thing? Well, think of it then as a magnet to which all wickedness is eventually drawn. As all nations have been deceived, to see all it's power pinpointed to one point, to see that point become the hold of every devil and foul spirit and unclean bird, to see all this drawn together and put down in one hour would be indeed be shocking to the deceived but now enlightened merchants and kings of these nations. So, if one asks what purpose, what purpose does this all serve, one can reply every good and righteous purpose of God. The nations are freed from it's wicked pull.
kjv@Revelation:19:6 @ @ ![[pBiblx2]](/img/menu.png)