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:5 @ @ RandyP comments: Remember where to find this chapter. Memorize it and it's key versus or at the very least understand it fully. This is one of the gems of all human literature; one of several found in Romans.
kjv@Psalms:81 @ @ RandyP comments: Other gods, the plague of Israel. Why was it so easy for them to slip back into this? After all the reproofs, the bondage and countless turning back. It would be wise for us to consider this answer. It may not be as simple as finding the right god and sticking to it. It could be that we use gods to serve us which the false gods are very willing to do. It could be that we feel better being fulfilled and exalted than being brought low and humbled. It could be that we believe the here and now and not the future, that our hearts are never satisfied, that we are driven by lust and fear. There are processes and separations being used by the Lord to make us what we will one day be. It is easier though for us to think that we are now what we will be. Such are our presumptuous sins. Such is the shame of what this life should have been.
kjv@Psalms:102 @ @ RandyP comments: David frequently considers not only his own mortality but God's eternity. Here he includes our universe as well. The earth and heavens were made to perish and be replaced. The children of His servants shall continue and their seed be established. By sequence, it tells me that our final dwelling is somewhere beyond this present universe.
kjv@Psalms: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:118 @ @ RandyP comments: It is common to think of righteousness as something personal that you build up with good works. Here we find righteousness as a entry way that has been opened which one person, the subject of this psalm walks into. Who is this person that does not die but declares the works of His Lord? If we think of Jesus as the one the nations and wicked have come against like bees, if we think of Him as the head cornerstone they've refused, Him that will execute the judgement against these haters, the sacrifice bound to the alter, then we see how that entry way has been made. Now then by this gate the righteous plural can enter in as well. His mercy does endure for ever!
kjv@Psalms:119:105-176 @ @ 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: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@1Corinthians:8 @ @ RandyP comments: The principal is that knowledge is likely to puff us up. The example illustration is eating food offered to idols. The knowledge may be correct that the offering to idols means nothing, but so is the knowledge that some believers will be offended by it (right or wrong). Instead of puffing up about it and insisting to be right, bend towards the matters of another's conscience. What other areas can we apply this principal to?
kjv@Psalms:139 @ @ RandyP comments: David here knows what we all should know. He knows that God's works and God's knowledge is too wonderful for him, His works just toward David uncountable like the sands of the sea. David realizes that even his body parts (fingers toes eyebrows etc...) were written before even being formed. Light and darkness are the same to Him, that there is no where David/we could hide that He would not be present.
kjv@Proverbs:3 @ @ RandyP comments: In many of the proverbs I notice that the child or the son is receiving the teaching and lives it forth through a process of correction and refinement. There is a personal reward continuously in that. The reward from others seems sometimes to come later as a man, sometimes much later. So often our youth are looking for the reward of others here and now to make their personal reward; correction is not part of the equation at all.
kjv@Proverbs:11:21 @ @ RandyP comments: It is not that the righteous will not go through trials, it is that they will be delivered through/by them. NT writers consider these trial and tribulations as a edifying process of refinement.
kjv@2Corinthians:6 @ @ RandyP comments: The unequal yoke in context seems to apply to the burden of Christian work and ministry not so much marriage. While unequal marriages might hinder the work, so too might other gods, so might cultural/political/ecumenical alliances and causes etc..; I think of the Lutheran and Roman Catholic Churches' yoke to the Nazi and Fascist party's in WWII. Paul speaks of marriages elsewhere to unbelievers and does not make so definite a conclusion. This context would also change our perception of the 'temple of the living God' phrase as well.
kjv@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@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:13 @ @ RandyP comments: There is a fine line between edification and destruction when addressing situations like this. The sense that Paul has is that his accusers are attempting to rattle him, make him say something or do something that would turn out to their advantage. By challenging him to prove himself as an Apostle their hope is to make him over react or be over bearing enough to push people away, show that he is operating from his own pride and sense of possession. There is also the chance that he may shy away and underplay the situation as well. We, much like Paul, must be prayerful, direct and and Spirit led in these situations too.
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@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:48 @ @ RandyP comments: Knowing the heart of man and His servant Israel, the Lord knew how we would bend the truth of this thing, that we would claim we knew it, that our own hands or our own gods brought this thing to pass. The Lord therefore declared it long before it happened, declared a new thing that could not be known any other way and performed it with intricate precision. This is how He has to operate given our blind and corrupted nature. It may seem terrible that Judah must suffer the furnace of affliction in double measure. It seems odd that this would be the only way left to refine them and prove His love/covenant. But, it seems odd that we would refuse to see things in the light of truth, follow His commandments and directions, not pollute His name with our rebellious and self serving whims.
kjv@Isaiah:60 @ @ RandyP comments: It is amazing how differently Jerusalem will be viewed and treated in the age to come. How many centuries has it been hated and trampled. Yet it is the sign of His covenant. When He finally glorifies it it will be truly glorified. Other peoples will bring from their treasure to make it the delight of nations.
kjv@Isaiah:61 @ @ RandyP comments: We wee the nations serving Israel and the Israelites being special priests to them. There is a definite order and social/religious structure in this new kingdom.
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:11:3-5 @ @ RandyP comments: It all sounded well and fine at the time. God promises all of this and all they had to do is simply obey. They did not though in that day nor did they in Jeremiah's. No where along the way did they, they could not. This is the nature of sin. Despite all the good intentions from both parties the sin nature will not do that which is in the best interest. It always works against that thinking that it alone is in the right/has it's best interest at heart. It may not always be a conscious decision as well but, more as an impulse of the flesh that is intellectually justified after the fact. The purpose of God's dealings are to prove to us this nature so that the necessity and redemption of His Son's blood may be depended upon.
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@1Timothy:6:10 @ @ RandyP comments: It is too bad that the whole verse isn't quoted the many times others quote this. The further context gives the quote much greater definition. We should get in a habit of this as well.
kjv@Jeremiah:30 @ @ RandyP comments: Interesting that Jacob is mentioned here with all he was put in subjection to. We know how Jacob was finally made to prevail; not against his masters but with and for his masters to the miraculous deliverance of his own people. When is this to come? Has this all ready come about? Or is this something yet in the making?
kjv@Jeremiah:32 @ @ RandyP comments: I find it hard to believe the claims of some cults that the Jews are apostate beyond repair and that they themselves are now the true Jews. What has the Lord drawn them through? When were they scattered? When did their fathers do only wrong? They may be saved in the knowledge of Jesus Christ but, undoubtedly, they are not the Israel/Judah spoken of here. The Lord will put His fear into their (the Jews) heart that they will not leave Him anymore.
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:52 @ @ RandyP comments: What does this completion of judgment mean in the grand scheme of spiritual things? Does it mean the the experiment is over? Israel is finished and we move on to plan B? Does it mean that God has learned from His mistakes and will start up in a different fashion again? Or does it mean that there is something vital for all of mankind to understand? Something of our depraved sinful nature that even with promises, even with miraculous deliverance and provision, even with tremendous blessing and tremendous cursing and every sort of intention revival and effort, none of this has any effect upon the true core nature of man's deceptive heart. The heart does not obey because it cannot. The heart cannot be spiritual because it is not. All that we intend and invent and contrive is but utter vanity. What is blind cannot see. In this unfamiliar light we sense that only by His grace and by His election are we separated from this wretchedness.
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:8 @ @ RandyP comments: How easy is it for us to judge the actions of God without seeing what it is that He sees. We are rarely afforded the opportunity to see what is occurring amongst us in secret. We judge things by our own decency and by how we imagine our fellow man to be. In this case the very temple has been invaded by the wicked. The holy things are such an attraction to the unholy, like a open light to a miller moth. We find it hard to imagine such abominations but, then again we look closer and closer and we see that there is almost no end to what the heart of the unholy will think of and do. This is what God sees. This is why His anger is raised. And then to see how the rest of us blindly react to His doings?
kjv@Ezekiel:11:19 @ @ RandyP comments: Some of Israel (not all) was regathered at the end of the seventy years. The Temple was rebuilt and put back into service but, the hearts of Israel barely changed. They awaited an even more horrific judgment that Jesus himself would prophecy. In Jesus Christ a new spirit is given and hearts were changed but, Israel not regathered awaiting a final gathering yet to come in the end of the age of Gentiles. We see that every word of this prophecy is accurate, the time-line however not as direct as we might read.
kjv@Hebrews:11:1-19 @ @ RandyP comments: Faith is most commonly defined as something we believe or hope for. Here it is better defined as something that totally moves us and shapes the course of things to come, a leaving of ourselves to commit/pursue the greater promises laid before us. Faith is a both a destination and the road/process of getting there. It is it's own country.
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@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: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: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: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@Ezekiel:33 @ @ RandyP comments: A person could do right for all of their lives, trust in this track record and yet fail at one point and that record be stained as if no right ever happened. Likewise, a person could do wrong for life and at one point finally do what is right and wipe his wrong clean. How can this logically be? The only way these two opposites can prove true is if the righteousness relied upon is not the righteousness of the individual but the righteousness imputed from an intermediary. One man trusts in the righteousness of Jesus though everything that he has done up to now is sinful, another trusts that he has done nothing but right and in that opinion alone he is terribly wrong for the righteousness of true righteousness has not been imputed. Righteousness apart from our Lord's righteousness is no righteousness at all.
kjv@Ezekiel:43 @ @ RandyP comments: Further study off site is suggesting that Ezekiel's Temple would be the Third or Millennial Temple. I still don't quite understand. If there is a temple built at Tribulation and it is desecrated that would be the third. This chapter suggests that this will be the final temple, that His feet will never again leave. Is the same temple simply restored in the Millennium or the same design used; is the third essentially the fourth? Is there not a new and final temple in the new Heaven and Earth's new Jerusalem post Millennium? Confused!
kjv@Ezekiel:44 @ @ RandyP comments: Only the Levitical order of Zadok is re-installed, the rest bare their own shame. The daily service and requirements seems to be much the same as before the difference being this time that it is all carried out to the tee. This is performed for the children of Israel. There still appears to be strangers and uncircumcised that will not be allowed into this temple. If this is the third or final temple it must suggest a continued segregation of Israelite worship from Gentile.
kjv@Ezekiel:44 @ @ RandyP comments: I find this an extremely challenging section of prophecy. The consequences of interpretation shape deep doctrinal foundations. The reader must study and ponder this deeply and come to their own conclusions; which is a very good thing. We are challenged by scripture every day. We are stirred. We are unsettled. We are encouraged to examine and re-examine. Nothing but Christ at times seem fully settled. This is what makes faith in the Bible real and living and dynamic; the constant challenge. Thereby we grow, we are shaped, we are moved. Some seek the answers that are readily available and figure if it is not readily there it is not there at all. Others however seek deeper into the broad context and the doctrinal consequence to shed light upon that which is not readily answered. Just because I am presently confused over this passage does not mean that the answer is not there, it means that I am being challenged. My curiosity is thus thrilled to explore it much further.
kjv@Ezekiel:46 @ @ RandyP comments: Concerning the prince, burnt and peace offerings are being prepared for him therefore he is not a priest. He is required to make offerings and sacrifices, he must not be covered by the blood of Christ. He is gifting possessions to sons born to him and servants that work for him as inheritances. Who then could this be? My guess as of now... it is most likely that this prince would be David. That is if this temple is the final temple.
kjv@1John:3 @ @ RandyP comments: Cain is purposely used as the counter example. This key information steers the understanding of this passage a direction it otherwise would not go. The context becomes the inseparable fusion of love and righteousness, it's perceived source/manner and the resultant actions occurring from. Two men make the same effort to worship the living God, the means of which produce two opposite ends. The same can be said of two men that worship, one finding the ability to love unfeigned, the other finding the ability to hate and inflict judgment.
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@1John:5 @ @ RandyP comments: I find the rhythm in the end odd. Such a metered and descriptive examination of godly love throughout the passage, to end in such an abrupt change of cadence 'keep yourself from idols' (out!). Is the transition from love to idols as so abrupt however? Are they not essentially the same thing? All that he has spoken of love and heavenly wittiness and sinlessness and divine providence, can they not be wrapped up in the few words of keeping yourself from idols? Where then do our idols exists?
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@Hosea:10 @ @ RandyP comments: Pictures of vines producing fruit, wheat producing flour, flour producing bread, leaven falsely puffing the bread up, sea's producing their own foam, night and day, light and darkness, faithful brides and harlots, sheep and goats, wheat and tares; such picture-grams fill the volumes of scripture. Over and over, situation after situation, pictures of nations and empires, of tents and temples, of times and eras, of deserts and fruitful places; how do they not mean what they mean? How do they lend themselves to mis-interpretation? God surely knows the heart of man, that two men will look at the same object and dispute over what it is. One man will pick it apart with small words, the other piece it together with larger pictures. God knows the limitations of human language and the deceitfulness of hearts. His word is constructed in such a way that the only doubt that can be left is the doubt of a rebellious self justifying reprobate.
kjv@Revelation: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@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@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:12 @ @ RandyP comments: The perception of time seems to warp in this passage as the child is caught up and placed on the throne (a definite reference to the ascension of Christ nearly two millennium ago) and Satan coming after the woman with floods of water. Somewhere between there and here Satan his minions are overcome by the Blood of the Lamb, tossed from heaven by Michael. The woman is hidden in the wilderness for three and a half years.
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:4 @ @ RandyP comments: The work of restoring the Temple has begun and will be finished the Angel assures, but, not by human might or power. Two anointed ones stand by the Lord at that time, we presume to be the King Zerubbabel and the Priest Joshua. The Lord will work through these two to get this done. Christ now is our king and He is our high priest. We are to abide in Him, His strength, His power. We are the temple He works like clay and anoints with His Holy Spirit to restore and set apart. He shall be brought forth as the corner stone with shoutings crying 'Grace, grace unto it'.
kjv@Zechariah:6 @ @ RandyP comments: The restoration of the temple in Zechariah's day is a shadow of the Temple to be built in Christ's glorious day. In that time four spirits (horses similar to those described in Revelations) will be sent to and fro to accomplish the final judgments. Christ the Branch will once and for all take His rightful throne. In remembrance of this foreshadowing, the crowns given to the priest Joshua are to be kept in the restored temple.
kjv@Zechariah:13 @ @ RandyP comments: The question may come to mind that if the Lord can cut off the names of idols and lying prophets in that coming day why doesn't He just do it now? The answer may lay in the object of a process we are being brought through to be able to identify and desire this ourselves as well. It is one thing for Him to cut off when no one knows what He is doing and why He is doing it and many possibly be angry or taken back by it, it is another to have everyone on board and aware and even participants along with Him in cutting it off. We are told here of parents willingly striking their wicked prophet son through. We are told here of a refining fire. In effect, what good does it do for the Lord to cut something off if it grows right back again? If it means cutting off more people than already need be cut off? If it can serve a better purpose temporarily being allowed?
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: A great many things are given and allowed in the garden. One simple thing is not. It is the one thing that often occupies our mind. People are to some extent defined by what they can't have, by what is forbidden just as they are defined by the fear of death. Not only is there what is forbidden, there is what is threatened, and there is someone readily willing to deceive.
kjv@Genesis:6:3 @ @ RandyP comments: There are two ways of interrupting this 120 year limit; that individual men will generally live no longer than 125 years or that mankind as it was known in that day specifically only had 120 years left before the flood. As a few men have out lived this if it is a mandated limit and many have lived far less, I believe it to be a time frame for the flood. We should count the years to find out.
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:35:29 @ @ RandyP comments: Sometimes the story line moves on without you even before your death. Less frequently to that, it may even come back to you for a final mention. Isaac was a great enough patriarch to have had both. How he had spent this time was no doubt important for himself, hopeful peacefully and content and richly blessed, important to those closest to him. God's written record allows him that privacy yet pays him the respect at his end.
kjv@Genesis:39 @ @ RandyP comments: The Lord's favor is always good even though it may not at present be observed as so. How other people react can cause the recipient trouble. Not only has his jealous brother sold him into slavery, his masters wife has sold him into prison. Joseph takes it all in stride believing in the Lord, thankful for the favor. Again he receives the Lord's favor in prison but, notice that the favor does not deliver him immediately from prison. Where His favor is leading us may be a lengthy process start to finish and involve tests of courage, obedience, and or patience. It is tremendous favor none the less.
kjv@Exodus:10:7 @ @ RandyP comments: I think of some of the people that I have come across whose lives are utterly destroyed at yet seemingly they are oblivious to it. The mind/heart has a shrewd way of justifying itself even in the midst of desolation. Men that have lost absolutely every thing to drugs and alcohol living drink to drink behind a dumpster thinking that they are somehow better off this way, that it is everyone else that has the problem. God's mighty works are not simply finding ways to show off but, illustrations of just how far the human heart will go to avoid/disobey Him and His call.
kjv@Exodus:12 @ @ RandyP comments: This is the first plague where the people of Israel had to participate. Everything up to now they sat back and watched. Their action is to be reenacted yearly as a remembrance to all future generations and is very specific as the symbolism is exact and points to the coming Messiah. kjv@1Corinthians:5:7 describes Christ as our passover. He in every way fulfills the role of the lamb sacrificed (before the congregation) and the lamb's blood protecting/covering the chosen from a death otherwise meant for all. His death brings about our immediate release and exodus from the bondage of sin. Now the proofing of the believer begins.
kjv@Exodus:16:4 @ @ RandyP comments: Have you ever wondered if the dry spell that you are going through now is a time where God is seeing whether you will obey His command or not? There may be a section of time in advance where your expectations are not met when you begin to murmur. And maybe you think you are murmuring at somebody (a boss or a spouse a pastor) but, really you are murmuring of God. The problem may be in your expectations. Then there is a second phase where God in His wisdom has provided an answer for you. Again it may not be what you expected; instead it is an intermediary answer as in this case to see if you will perform the steps mandated in the frame of heart that is needed. Again the problem comes with one's expectation. When following the deliverance of God one must expect that our own expectations and His may differ grossly. His offering may not be the final answer all at once, it may be a series of processes that lead us to His ultimate answer. In our own personal wilderness experience, not only do we need learn to trust/depend on Him, to be thankful for anything when do or do not have, but, also to obey what He has impressed upon us to obey.
kjv@Matthew:13:24-30 @ @ RandyP comments: This parable is to be placed beside the parable of the sower for direct comparison, one extends the other. The first is a look at the process of the individual believer and what he must overcome. The second is a picture of the field (world) of all. The enemy has come in and planted a false believer with every appearance of the true believer except in final fruit. To remove the false believer at this time would also uproot the true believer, so the two are left to grow together. Both parables work together to draw a broader and deeper picture. The Disciples will shortly ask Jesus to explain this further.
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