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kjv@Acts:27:1-25 @ @ RandyP comments: I can't help but think of the secretary of Paul here alongside recording these events. Paul is is certainly convinced "that it shall be even as it was told" him, but, what about this man? How would you like to sit down with this man at the table and see/hear/experience him recount this story? And the many other unwritten stories he could tell?

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:14:23 @ @ RandyP comments: What is not of faith is sin. Almost too bad this major universal truth is tagged on to a line considering the observance of foods and days; it gets over looked. Too many people consider sin the breaking of the one of the ten commandments. The reprobate mind reduces and compartmentalizes down to the un-approachable minimum. The scale of sin is much broader than we observe bringing every living breath and action into doubt. To know this scale of sin and it's human inescapably is to know why Jesus had to die one for all to it.

kjv@Psalms: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:129 @ @ RandyP comments: Who is saying this? Israel. Makes me wonder how many of these other psalms were as the voice of Israel and perhaps not so much the voice of any one individual. If so, the thing of immediate interest is that it was not the forces from without that took Israel down, but, the forces within.

kjv@Proverbs:3 @ @ RandyP comments: The way of the Lord often is instruction and correction and persistent study and work. The way evil/lust quiet enticing. A young man's resistance can be warn down if not fully guarded. This is true in both a carnal and a spiritual sense.

kjv@Proverbs:15 @ @ RandyP comments: kjv@Proverbs:15:33 seems best to summarize all the individual proverbs we've now read best. Everything comes down to this - humility before honor, reverence is the allowance to become tutored by.

kjv@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: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@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@Isaiah:5 @ @ RandyP comments: From Israel the Lord expected judgment. He found the opposite oppression. Right was wrong and wrong right, dark light, evil good. Reward was given for wickedness and house joined to house making large estates for certain well to do individuals. They were drunkards and wise/prudent in their own eyes, harps and pipes playing a much different song, the works of the Lord forgotten. We see that there was a hedge around them once, protection from the pest, the briers, the heat of the sun. The hedge was brought down to flush out the nation's wickedness.

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: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@Isaiah:59 @ @ RandyP comments: This is a massive description of sin and how things are seen from the Lord's vantage point. Let us remember that this is not just the Heathen Gentiles that He is talking about, this is also the Religious Hebrew to whom this is addressed.He looked down and saw no man remember. This is why He has had to do what He has done. This is why He seems as distant as He does. This is why there will be a day of His vengeance. Not because He is a big meanie, because this massive and profound iniquity (of which we are barely aware) cannot any longer be allowed.

kjv@Jeremiah:22 @ @ RandyP comments: The kings of Judah surely had their part in this coming judgment. There was a long pronounce track record of God pleading to them through His prophets. They were warned, they chose not to listen. They were commanded to execute judgment on behalf of the people and would not. They enslaved them for their own gain and ended up loosing everything. To the end that later, when other nations looked upon the wreckage they would know that this was not typical downfall of just any nation, this was God's people that had deserted their God.

kjv@Jeremiah:33 @ @ RandyP comments: The Branch of Righteousness (Christians take to mean Jesus) grows unto David (comes down dwells among us in the flesh) executes judgment/righteousness in the land (some would take to mean an earthly rule but could mean a spiritual rule as well) Judah will be saved (again could mean spiritually) and Jerusalem dwell safely (spiritually secure in the knowledge and spirit of the risen Christ) David shall never want a man on his throne (because Jesus has moved the Davidic throne to the eternal kingdom, the right hand side of God the father, the God/Man rightfully sits on it forever more) neither shall there be needed any sacrifice or offering (for the God/Man on the throne has become unto us our final sacrifice, the complete atonement that the Father provides for us all). If this is not so, I see no other way that this covenant has not been broken or ceased for over two thousand years. Do you?

kjv@Jeremiah:39 @ @ RandyP comments: What do all these men of Judah think now? Was Jeremiah the source of their downfall? Or were they? Or was he the lone prophet willing to stand forth and warn the peoples? Did Jeremiah hoot and howler and brashly reply I told you so? Many of these men did not live to be able to hear nor think at all. The ones that did live had too many problems of their own to be thinking of such. And as for Jeremiah, perhaps the saddest and most broken of them all... a call out to the far distant king of Ethiopia next on Nebuchadrezzar's list.

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@Ezekiel:13 @ @ RandyP comments: There is the common thought that the Lord is always for peace; if you speak toward or prophecy of peace you may be speaking for the Lord. There are seasons to each and everything and this time in particular was not a time for peace. They were falsely speaking from their own spirit giving the people hope and desires therefore confirmed this hope; all of it false. The few righteous were cast down for speaking truth, the wicked up lifted in the void. The measures of security (gaps/hedges/wall) were cheated and poorly repaired. Questionable methods were adopted by prophets and prophetesses to support their work being not supported by God. All of this was to be exposed to the people in the judgment. We too will see the prophets of our day in correct light upon ours.

kjv@Ezekiel:20 @ @ RandyP comments: The choice is not only to do whatever we will do but is whether to pollute the name of our Lord in the midst of the godless or not. Israel never really chose not to pollute, from the start there was always momentum. It was only by the merciful longsuffering of God that they were not given completely over. Notice how easy it was to pass down the rebellion of the fathers from generation to generation and how much near impossible to pass down the righteousness. The lure and pressures and ease were far too enticing.

kjv@Ezekiel:24 @ @ RandyP comments: Their eyes/desires are upon one thing. And when that one thing is taken away suddenly it's stare then shifted upon their sons and daughters and their own iniquity certain. Why must it come to this? I am asked why a person must fall to such depths before they see way to the Lord? It is implied that there is something wrong with a Lord that is only the Lord of the fallen. Rather, there is something wrong with the heart of a man that can not see the Lord while in his strength and youthful prowess/splendor, that his sinful and proud and arrogant nature must be ground down and disrupted, laid bare upon a table of self desperation before seeing light. The Lord of the fallen indeed if to be Lord of such souls at all.

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@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:7 @ @ RandyP comments: Such a vision is troubling for all of us but yet we must keep the matter in heart. It is a terrifying time for the people of this world. The turmoil and suffering of the past world wars are pale in comparison. It is not just the exhibition of the wickedness of man but, the brutal demonic nature of spiritual principalities in full view. For Daniel, having the big picture brought down to human perspective through the use of descriptive symbols and characters is astonishing. Though difficult to know exactly who each character is and what the details mean, we all sense the general motion.

kjv@Hosea:1 @ @ RandyP comments: We are going back now to the time where Israel and Judah were two nations, just before Israel was put down. Hosea is a contemporary of Isaiah. He paints a vivid picture of the spiritual adultery of the nation that had gone whoring after other gods and could not stay faithful even though the Lord loved her dearly.

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@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: 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@Jonah:1 @ @ RandyP comments: These mariners certainly had seen many of tempest before enough to fear for their lives. Something about this tempest though told them that it was being caused by someone on this ship. Today we might be amused at simplicity and superstition of these seafarers, but, when it comes down to the facts they were precisely right.

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 @ @ RandyP comments: The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. It all comes down to Him. No greater picture can be formed in our minds than that of Him with all might and power along with the heavenly host coming to receive His young adoring beatiful bride. His name Faithful and True, the event THE MARRIAGE SUPPER OF THE LAMB, the title on His vesture KING OF KINGS and LORD OF LORDS. Say what you will about His lovely bride dressed in the righteousness of the saints, the day is more about His love and what He was willing to do for her, the dowry He had to pay, the lengths and distances He had to go, the patience and endurance to bring this day about. She could do no better than to accept His hand, believe with all her heart and excitement His vow, offer herself to Him completely and without reserve, become as one to Him forevermore devoted. He has won her heart completely over. Are we agreed - It is not all that hard to understand the spirit of prophecy when you understand the testimony of Jesus in this great light?

kjv@Genesis:8 @ @ RandyP comments: Our understanding of what wickedness means and what it means to God surely differ. We severely reduce it down to bite size pieces that we think we have some control over. Now that wickedness has been drowned away does it not come right back? Later, when it is legalized and sacrificed away does it not come right back? This isn't God making a series of experiments as to what might rid us of these tendencies, this is God speaking directly to us saying 'this is what is wrong and this is how serious it all is'. You can't solve this or justify it away, you can't swim your way passed this. And He can't help you by the one vessel He has made available unless you are willing enter it.

kjv@Genesis:9:5-6 @ @ RandyP comments: It is very common throughout civilizations that when a beast takes a man's life that the beast is put down. It is feared that once a beast has a taste for human blood, it will return for more. There is a common wives tale that once a man has crossed the line and struck his wife he will back for more. It is not always true, but true in enough situations that at least in the case of murder there is reason to expect more murder. If there is enough logical concern of human nature justifying capital punishment on civil terms (not just for discouragement to others), add to that it is God's express judgment as well, then just and thorough courts have every right/obligation to insist upon capital punishment for the murderous few.

kjv@Genesis:19 @ @ RandyP comments: A whole range of human reactions come forth from this catastrophic event. There is no telling how you or I would react given such frantic and out of control a situation. We tend to judge Lot and his wife and his daughters and son's in law by a story line only we now are privy to see. No doubt each and every one of them could have reacted better, but, this is what happens to us when situations explode and judgments are laid down.

kjv@Genesis:25:34 @ @ RandyP comments: It seems to me that the birthright would have meant more to Esau had his father's love meant more to him. We don't know the full details of their relationship, but, for all intensive purposes it was boiled down to one's love of hunting and one's love for venison; not much to stand on. There is also the possibility that he knew or it had been discussed in the family of God's revelation to Rebecca. Then Esau would have grown to despise the birthright because he knew sooner or later it would be taken from him. I am not sure that birth right would have made any difference to the revelation or whether this was just the way that the individuals were interpreting it.

kjv@Exodus:14:31 @ @ RandyP comments: The emphasis of the word fear is not only on the sheer terror of this event but also on the reverence toward the controller of of such uncontrollable elements. That this happened in the manner that it happened for the people who were in this moment could only have been the hand of God. For us who now read of this event there is intellectual wiggle room and physical detachment from these occurrences that these many witnesses were not privy to. It is interesting to see how in the coming hours/days how this fear/reverence too wore down; a testament to the tendencies of the self justifying human reprobate will.