kjv@Psalms:50 @ @ RandyP comments: It is truly inspiring to hear the psalmist describe our God, to consider His ways even for as little as we can comprehend. It is addictive! There is literally nothing that is not His making nor possession. Along with the excitement and trust there is also a fear and a urgency for us to pay our vows.
kjv@Psalms:51 @ @ RandyP comments: This is clearly one of the most substantial passages of the Bible. If we only understood it to it's deepest and truest meaning. Behold thous desirest truth in my inward parts; create in me a clean heart; restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; then will I teach transgressors thy ways.... We better memorize this one!
kjv@Romans:1 @ @ RandyP comments: This passage is often used in the debate over homosexuality and gay marriage. You'll notice though that that the list of reprobate tendencies is longer than just that. Though sexual preference is mentioned prominently, it is mentioned in the context of why God gave them over to this along with the list of things equally abhorrent. To continue in any of these behaviors, to attempt to reason that any are anything less than what they are, to seek out those that are similarly minded, is to continue in the defiant and reprobate nature Paul calls to attention. To judge one ill behavior while performing another is out right hypocrisy. We must all beware.
kjv@Psalms:77 @ @ RandyP comments: To realize what our spiritual infirmity is and what effect it has upon us is crucial. It makes us to doubt. It makes us to invent attributes to God that are clearly not in His nature. These attributes are concocted to place Him off into the distance. Somehow I fear as well for the doubters that are just as likely to look for God only in the earth shaking bolts from the sky. The more we know of His true attributes the more likely we are to see Him in each and everything in this life with manifold ways. Look for these ways today!
kjv@Psalms: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:104 @ @ RandyP comments: An illustrative way to to look at the creation all around us to find God behind and within it all. Interesting that such a lengthy section dwells on water often used to poetically to symbolize judgement. That the earth would be refreshed by it, that the birds and fouls and beasts would gather round it's springs, that the raging floods of it would be later rebuked and contained, that it would nourish and grow the grasses and trees essential to all all life.
kjv@Psalms:106 @ @ RandyP comments: They sacrificed sons and daughters to devils. If the notion is true that all paths lead to God, we would have to say no they sacrificed unto other forms of the same God. Then why would God be so angry and show His displeasure in so many ways? One must ask where do other forms of gods come from? How do they develop the forms of influence that they do and sway so many well intended people? Would they of sacrificed if they had known that behind these gods were literal devils? How is it that despite all these God given miracles and large wondrous mercies that they would still sacrifice to devils and learn of others idolatrous works?
kjv@Psalms: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: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@1Corinthians:7:14 @ @ RandyP comments: Their salvation still requires belief and repentance just as the rest of us. This sanctification he is speaking of is of a setting apart. There are varying levels of sanctification. The unbeliever and the household are being blessed tangibly because of the blessing of God toward the believer and the children are raised in a better and more wholesome environment. It still would be better however that they all believe.
kjv@Psalms: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@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@Galatians:1 @ @ RandyP comments: The opposition in Corinth seemed to focus their attack directly on Paul. The difference here in Galatia seems to be the infiltration of another form of doctrine which seems to center itself against the doctrine of grace. One seemed to be rooted in a very liberal grace outwardly that allowed for perversions and divisions, this one seems to be inward toward the vehicle of salvation.
kjv@Isaiah:9:21 @ @ RandyP comments: Manasseh, once the land of the tribes on the other side of the Jordan, now the land of Gilead.
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@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@Ephesians:2 @ @ RandyP comments: I sense that Paul is describing the larger body of believers; us, all, ye, we, both, together, strangers, foreigners, household, temple. The Holy Spirit inhabits a body of believers. He may work on/in us individually but, always for the benefit of the body. We often reverse this foundational truth, blaming/accusing the body, separating ourselves from it, criticizing/judging what is the work and dwelling place of the Holy Spirit.
kjv@Ephesians:3 @ @ RandyP comments: Unsearchable riches, mysteries, things abundantly above all that we ask or think; this is our Lord and His Father. You ask me what kind of things. How could I know if they are unsearchable mysteries? You would say then they don't exist. Do things only exist that you can comprehend? Are they only believable if they can be comprehended? In a sense I can know the unknowable things by the things that can be known. In another, I don't really even know fully the things that I do know. All this does not mean that things are unbelievable, they are simply unknowable. Anything beyond that requires revelation.
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@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: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@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:13 @ @ RandyP comments: The antidote for national pride is national shame. In shame the false reasonings and consequences cannot be ignored. The base of wicked's power is broken up and the people are forced into a moment of thinking for themselves. People will reflect upon the words of these many prophets. How can transgression be explained away when the case against them is so well presented beforehand?
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@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: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@Lamentations:3 @ @ RandyP comments: It is interesting now that we know more about Jeremiah how similar his lamentation is to Davids psalm. Both were in positions that you would think would be well respected and that people would gather alongside to support and comfort. Both seem almost alone. The things that the Lord had them do set much of which was on the peoples behalf set them apart and made them targets. No singular enemy mentioned but an overwhelming mass of momentum and continuum labeled as godlessness/wickedness. The prophets comfort is instead the recollection that not a thing happens that God does not set forth; the goodness God intends for us all for a long moment can appear as an evil until our hearts are completely turned. If not for these times how would our heart know? During these times how would our heart not know?
'The LORD has forsaken earth, and seeth not'. If so then we are most likely to continue this same evil. In our homes? In our schools? In our court rooms? In the way we personally try to hide our faith from our neighbors and coworkers? Morality surely cannot be legislated but to rest silent in the lie that 'God has forsaken/does not see' is a worse evil. Would our foreheads be marked or unmarked today if such a judgment was to again occur in our community/nation?
kjv@Ezekiel:14:9 @ @ RandyP comments: Does this mean that God lies? That He deceives? Think of it this way, if He created the mental faculties to believe the truth when they heard it couldn't it also be said that these faculties could also be used to believe their own vain imaginations rather than the truth? If God made certain things to be more enticing than others to guide man along the straight and narrow, cannot that gravity toward be corrupted and converted to something else? If that which is meant for good can be used for harm, if that which locks men's hearts into good instead can lock them into falsehood, cannot it not be said then that God in this sense has made it so?
kjv@James:2 @ @ RandyP comments: There is an eternal salvation and justification accomplished on our behalf strictly by the work of Jesus Christ our savior at the cross of Calvary. No other work can replace that. What James means by works leading to justification here is similar to what the author of Hebrews meant by 'the evidence of things unseen/substance of things hoped for' ( kjv@Hebrews:11 ), the effect faith has in producing corresponding action. It is difficult for one man to justify that another man has faith if their is no tangible evidence outwardly of said faith. It should be just as difficult for us ourselves to justify our reasoning for believing in Christ if we yet disallow His natural effect upon us causing us to act forward in a new and living way. If our faith leads us to no more than what faith in any other god would lead us to do or not do, what justification would we have for such faith? The question then must be asked 'how much does Christ's redemptive work on the cross mean to us personally'? 'To what extent does it/will it effect us'? Jesus called it 'abiding in' and Peter called it 'being neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of Christ'.
kjv@Ezekiel:22:30 @ @ RandyP comments: God had His prophets at this time. He had also we find out searched for a leader to make up a hedge but found none. Later He would find Ezra and Nehemiah but, this may illustrate to us a important difference in temperance or skill set or anointing between a prophet and a leader, that it is rare for one man to be both. Moses and David both prophesied (mostly Messianic) though not in the sense of a Elijah or Issiah, Ezekiel or Jeremiah. I can not think of a prophet that was made to rule.
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:32 @ @ RandyP comments: The picture I find interesting is that with all of these fallen nations laid into the pit, their swords (weapons of war) are laid behind their heads (as if their iniquity was detached and behind them) yet their iniquity remains in their bones. We might think of iniquity as this gun or this bomb or this weapon of mass destruction. What is truly evil is the heart that devised it, the intent of that heart towards it's use. When the weapon is removed it does not remove the heart the remains devising and intending.
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@1Peter:5:1 @ @ RandyP comments: Peter's motivation by now should be clear. It should be our motivation as well. Peter considers himself a witness of Christs suffering and a partaker in the glory to be revealed. Peter is this in the truest sense perhaps like no other having been there with Him. Thanks in great part to His testimony/obedience we are/can be this as well. The sufferings of Christ are so crucial to our proclamation because they point to the hands of those for whom He willingly suffered for. The glory to be revealed is equally crucial because it tells us that this was no ordinary man that suffered these things on our behalf, it was the very son of God, the promised one of Israel, the name above all names, Jesus Christ and Savior the King of all kings. Those that are thus inspired and motivated will be partakers of both the sufferings of and later the Glory of.
kjv@2Peter:3 @ @ RandyP comments: The mass distribution/reading of the Holy Scriptures to the unlearned is also our church's only security besides the Holy Spirit that those proclaiming themselves as being 'the learned' are in fact 'The Learned'. Otherwise the door is opened wide for those wicked apostates to whom this passage and context alerts us to. We see this very thing occur through out the history of our church. To get to the essentials of falsehood one must bypass the essentials of truth. Truth number one = Scripture!
kjv@Daniel:3 @ @ RandyP comments: It is hard for us to imagine the heart of a king that would be driven to do this, either put in the furnace those that don't worship him or latter cut up those that don't speak amiss towards Jehovah. I guess from a tactile sense a king must test the heart of his people. In another sense he must puff himself up beyond mere mortal to remain in solid control. It amazes me however that the masses blindly go along with it and carry their power to his feet. I know that this is a different culture, I know that their system of beliefs go different directions, yet the same basic mentality flourishes today. The people hold the power but, for the sake of something undetermined that they presume to gain, they bow to such a conceded and arrogant man.
kjv@Hosea:11 @ @ RandyP comments: Hosea has spoken almost exclusively about judgments on Israel as a whole and namely the component areas of Ephraim/Samaria with little mention of Judah which for now remains mostly faithful. He is a prophet for this region. Comprised of 10 of the tribes, Ephraim itself being 3, their first and foremost transgression is that their worship of Jehovah was moved to two unsanctioned high towers in their own land so that they wouldn't have to cross into Judah to get to Jerusalem. Worship of Jehovah quickly morphed into worship of Baalim. Their jealousy toward the seat of David (corrupt as many descendant kings were) and resultant hatred was the beginning of the end for themselves.
kjv@Amos:1:3 @ @ RandyP comments: The first reason for the four judgments, this against Damascus for their threshing of their threshing of the Gilead region where the two and a half tribes settled on the other side of the Jordan, Gad Reuben and Manasseh.
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: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@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: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@Jonah:4 @ @ RandyP comments: Jonah explains his reasoning for going to Tarshish, to change God's mind. Did he change God's mind or did Nineveh's repentance? Jonah is asked repeatedly 'doest thou well to be angry'? In the case of the gourd Jonah believes himself so. The Lord points out the difference of a anger/pity over a gourd and a great city of 120k lost gentile souls.
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@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@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@Revelation:13:4 @ @ RandyP comments: The thought of warring against the beast is there it seems but, the futility of doing so is obvious. Can you imagine the United States for instance backing off from a war due to it's inferiority? Worse yet, could you imagine the strength of the USA standing firmly behind such a leader?
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@Revelation:15 @ @ RandyP comments: His judgments are made manifest. How can these be known as being from anyone/anything other? None of these things before this could be analyzed honestly and be said to result from nature gone bad or coincidence or misfortune; especially when He has made it known so far in advance. Instead, I would say that the people are fully aware of where these judgments are coming from but, are all the more angry that this God would be judging them. These times are flushing out those who no matter what the situation proves to be, no matter what evidences are on the table, will not allow themselves to be part of nor worship Jehovah God or Son Jesus Christ. God is proven then to be fully justified to discontinue His grace and presence amongst these rebel tares. These vials are brief tastes of that absence, not even this will change many hearts.
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@Zechariah:14 @ @ RandyP comments: This passage moves quickly through a series of end day events regarding plagues and judgement and even an apparent geologic reshaping of the Judean landscape. I believe this time immediately after the war on Jerusalem to be millennial because not everyone is yet on board fully, there are still those in rebellion who choose not to attend the yearly re-enactment of the Feast of Tabernacles done on behalf of the seated Holy King with specific reference to a band of non-conformist out of Egypt.
kjv@Malachi:2 @ @ RandyP comments: One can almost sense what religion has become to them; an alter to shed their tears upon. I suppose that tears are well and fine but, what about the wholesomeness of their offering? If all one does is cry and complain and petition and yet goes about their lives in the same sinful way, making dirty offerings with dirty hearts and hands, what good is this religion? The two parts make one whole. It is not just emoting your fears about what concerns come against you, it is how the strength of the Lord is always sufficient. It is not just this sacrifice you made or that offering you gave, it is about the sacrifice that He made and you wholehearted submission and faithfulness to living in it. One without the other is a means of dealing treacherously with self and master. When religion is only a crying alter, the alter becomes more and more a place where everyones evil is declared as good. This treacherous form of religion wearies the Lord. The fear is best placed in His judgment and not just His pity.
kjv@Genesis:3:1-5 @ @ RandyP comments: The deception is a subtle twist of words over the meaning/extent of death. If the serpent had said that she'd die spiritually first, be exiled from the garden, live her and her generations in toil and turmoil, suffer famine and war and horrid transgressions from one another, and die a slow degenerating sometimes cancerous death, the deception would not have been as inviting. What is at question here is whether God would stand behind what He said and follow through; if so why? The why gets us into areas far beyond the thoughts of man.
kjv@Genesis:21 @ @ RandyP comments: I know that everything works according to God's purpose in the end here, but, I find it interesting that Sarah's poor decision of giving her servant Hagar to Abraham in the first place and then her poor (perhaps jealous/threatened/guilty) reaction afterwards is driving the story forward. The Lord needs to place a separation between the two lads (covenants) and uses this humanness as the vehicle. In a spiritual sense we need to keep the covenant of grace separated from our own efforts to force by our own hand the same covenant to happen. It may take the Lord working through some our humanness to get us to see this as well.
kjv@Genesis:25 @ @ RandyP comments: Two nations... The elder shall serve the younger. Rebecca knew this from the Lord, but did Isaac? Isaac's love and preference for Esau is based on the taste of his venison. Did Isaac's love necessitate Jacob and Rebecca into having to commit trickery behind the father's back?
kjv@Genesis:25:34 @ @ RandyP comments: We have a spiritual birth right similar to what is discussed in this passage. Any number of us at any number of times have sold our rights for mere morsels of common bread and drink thus in effect despising our birth right. What is the intellectual make up of this? Could it be our narrow perception of our Father's love and wealth? What this birthright means? Could it be our own appetites? Is it that we feel that in the long run we have no right or that our right is somehow ordained to be given another? Some would say in this case 'didn't God make it so?' to which I reply 'didn't God foresee?'. In Jesus we not only have the opportunity to be born again but, also to be born into an inheritance of saints. Where does this heavenly birthright stand with you today?
kjv@Genesis:26 @ @ RandyP comments: We are not told what religious background Isaac is journeying amongst, but, see that it believes in the sanctity of marriage and that God curses certain behaviors/situation and blesses others. They are spiritually alert enough to see that they blessing is on Isaac as it was with Abraham. They first fear the extent to which he is being blessed and send him out only later to have a greater tolerance for him. Famine can be a scary thing as well. Through the blessing of the Lord however, famine can be a time of great investment and return. With a hundred fold crop during a famine ya you'd have to say it was God's blessing.
kjv@Genesis:28 @ @ RandyP comments: It may seem that the Lord is talking and revealing things directly to these patriarchs every day. You think about it though in terms of a 100 to 120 year lifetime there are just a few notable occasions, and those moments set the course for the remainder of years. The Lord's direction seems to occur almost despite the decisions and reactions of the involved parties. These are good people no dout, don't get me wrong, but, they end up doing some odd even at times deceptive things. No wonder the outsiders are fearful. Is there someone you know that you are somewhat fearful of because they are a loose cannon, but, somehow they seem doubly blessed?
kjv@Genesis:30 @ @ RandyP comments: Some fun at the Jacob household huh? In the context of a single chapter I am sure our lives would sound pretty crazy as well. This home however? This is reality television material here! Seriously, life is what it is. God has to work in it and on it and through it and around it and somehow by the end make it work to His purposes. I am just glad it is Him that does it. I'm just saying!
kjv@Genesis:41:51-52 @ @ RandyP comments: Joseph possess two attitudes beneficial to his relationship with God from which he names his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. His first attitude is that He has made him to forget his toil and fathers house. It is not that he has forgotten it whole it is that it has a positive influence on him. Instead of blaming God or that he is entitled to this time, he praises God that all of these experiences have lead him to this moment; he would not be this had he not been through that. And surely the desire to be reunited with his kin (particularly Jacob and Benjamin) is still there but contained in the knowledge that it will be by God's hand in God's time. The second attitude is that God has made him fruitful in the land of his affliction. He is not sugar coating the fact that he has been afflicted, he is acknowledging that God has brought him through affliction into fruitfulness.
kjv@Exodus:6:3 @ @ RandyP comments: Two forms of God's name are used here El Shadday the God Almighty and Jehovah the national form so reverent that it was not verbally pronounced. At this point these names are known by the Hebrews in terms of how He had spoken to their fore fathers and the future promise He had made; His more tangible connection to them was just now beginning to be brought forth.
kjv@Exodus:6:9 @ @ RandyP comments: Just as the people have little working field knowledge of Jehovah they have little knowledge of Moses. All that they know is that the ambition of Moses has made their bondage much more harsh. When we today read this we kind of know how the story is going to progress and we see the peoples hearts as immature and disbelieving. Stepping into their shoes though one can see that from their immediate vantage point that they are absolutely right. The key then for us to learn is that of vantage point. While something may appear to us to be a certainty in one direction, they actually could be opposite and with good reason; it is all a matter of vantage point.
kjv@Exodus:10:7 @ @ RandyP comments: I think of some of the people that I have come across whose lives are utterly destroyed at yet seemingly they are oblivious to it. The mind/heart has a shrewd way of justifying itself even in the midst of desolation. Men that have lost absolutely every thing to drugs and alcohol living drink to drink behind a dumpster thinking that they are somehow better off this way, that it is everyone else that has the problem. God's mighty works are not simply finding ways to show off but, illustrations of just how far the human heart will go to avoid/disobey Him and His call.
kjv@Matthew:12:38-45 @ @ RandyP comments: We tend today to see the gospel as pertaining to individuals and salvation, which in part it is. Jesus is shown here as also seeing the gospel in terms of groups and cities and generations. Just as a man can be inhabited/possessed/re-inhabited so can collective movements and generations. Individuals think and act and behave within groups. Unclean spirits think and act and behave in similar conjunction. In Jesus' time He saw a perfect storm of the two mounting against Him. Though He could be convincing to some individuals one on one at this time, it would not be until His death and resurrection that the true forces driving individuals within masses could be dealt with.
kjv@Matthew:13:22 @ @ RandyP comments: A believer that overcomes the first two elements must also contend with the cares of this world. It may not matter what others believe or think or behave, the believer is settled and assured in this part of his faith. However, the real issues of life and family and citizen present a constant drain on his time and energies causing anxiety and fatigue and over extension. The productive fruit of his life gets chocked out without him barely realizing it. I speak from experience.
kjv@Matthew:14:1-12 @ @ RandyP comments: This passage almost reads backwards. At some point earlier the disciples of the Baptist told Jesus and His disciples the outcome of John's imprisonment - beheading. The crew is aware of the circumstances therein. What is happening now that Herod Antipas is associating Jesus with as a haunting of John. We do not know how this becomes known (perhaps one of Herod's servants) but, it does.
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