kjv@Psalms:55 @ @ RandyP comments: In this case, David's enemy was a one time confidant, someone his equal that he had trusted in the affairs of the kingdom. This may not be the same type of enemy that we would have, does not have the same political effect, but, we feel the similarity just the same. The context must remain the extreme positions that these two men held and the severity of one man turning to injure the reputation of the other, the king. By the time David prays for a destruction, he is speaking in the plural.
kjv@Psalms:64 @ @ RandyP comments: These enemies plagued David. The battle field was political but, the warfare was spiritual. We may see them merely as personal conflicts but,Satan knew the prophecies and importance God was placing on lineage. He had plenty a willing minions to combat what God was doing. We could also see Jesus surveying His situation similarly in a much larger battle. We would see such if we were engaged in this fight as well.
kjv@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:65 @ @ RandyP comments: God has a general grace given to all, even His enemies, that can be explained as simply as the sun and rain that falls upon all of us. In so many ways he moves over and upon each of our lives providing and blessing in ways we barely realize. We have a more specific grace as well in which He has chosen and caused many to approach. The psalmists speaks in natural terms that we all can picture and understand but he is speaking in spiritual terms as well.
kjv@Romans:2 @ @ RandyP comments: No one is above judgement. Our only salvation in judgment is in Jesus Christ. In the previous chapter we've read of the ways of the reprobate. It would be natural for us to be judgmental of others given this impressive list. The problem with that is in the many things for which we ourselves will be judged, things perhaps more hidden than for example overt homosexuality. Persons on both sides of the line draw their own conclusions and judgements. A wall builds up between us with sinners on both sides. God's long suffering and forbearance has been shown to us all. It is time for us on both sides to think in terms of the spirit verses the letter of the law. Let us set aside any sin that would so easily beset us.
kjv@Psalms:71 @ @ RandyP comments: We are reading this as it appears in the order of the book of Psalms and not in the chronological order of his Davids life. It will be interesting in the next devotion to see where David is at in his life when he pens this. We know by I reading thus far of Samuel Kings and Chronicles that there was a good part of his life in exile being hunted by Saul or later his son. These may be some of the enemies which he writes of so frequently of. It can be the spiritual enemies while he is on the throne as well.
kjv@Psalms:74 @ @ RandyP comments: Asaph writes about the enemy burning and destroying in the various local sanctuaries most likely in the times before the building of the temple. He was a contemporary of David's from my understanding. Though I don't know which specific time he is witnessing, there certainly were times when Israel had fallen back into its malaise and God allowed desecrations like these to re-awaken congregations. Where might we see this in our faith and church histories today?
kjv@Psalms:76 @ @ RandyP comments: In Judah God is known for the miraculous protection provided. Many a enemy has risen against her and against most incredible odds Judah has seen the Lord deliver. There is no tactical reason or military advantage they possessed for them to be victorious; other than God's hand. God's judgment is for the meek. There is then a sense of reverence and obligation to the Lord that must be paid. That He has done this for Judah is equally important for modern Christians as well as we have been grafted into this heritage too.
kjv@Psalms:77 @ @ RandyP comments: To realize what our spiritual infirmity is and what effect it has upon us is crucial. It makes us to doubt. It makes us to invent attributes to God that are clearly not in His nature. These attributes are concocted to place Him off into the distance. Somehow I fear as well for the doubters that are just as likely to look for God only in the earth shaking bolts from the sky. The more we know of His true attributes the more likely we are to see Him in each and everything in this life with manifold ways. Look for these ways today!
kjv@Psalms:82 @ @ RandyP comments: The poor and the needy are a constant theme in our reading. There are a great many reasons one might be poor and needy or fatherless and afflicted. I have known people that I have tried to help that even with my extra resources that just don't know any other way. In some respects it seems as if this exhortation is more about working to keep the wicked off their backs. By accepting the persons of the wicked, by not realizing who they are and what they are doing and calling them out we are dealing unjustly with poor and needy. An entire and large sub economy is built around serving the poor either as false recipients or providers that have little to do with actually helping the poor. The system grows exponentially but the truly needy are ill served. Our good intentions are used by the wicked to serve their darker purposes.
kjv@Psalms:83 @ @ RandyP comments: Even in that day there was a substantial and unified conspiracy against the presence of Israel. On one level it appears to be political but, from this author's vantage point it appears to be a spiritual warfare. Given that the promised Messiah was to come from Judah, given that all nations would one day worship in a New Jerusalem, given that God's name would dwell in Zion, given that all nations would blessed that bless Israel, the Devil I am sure makes it his object to tear at Israel. After nearly two thousand years of dispersed absence we are back to the same thing. It takes on political consequence but, have no doubt that it is spiritual in nature.
kjv@Romans:8:19-39 @ @ RandyP comments: This chapter being one of the most quoted in the Bible is often being picked apart into bite size pieces instead of being taken in as a whole. In bites we can make it say all sorts of nice comfy things. As a whole we should see it as an intense spiritual battle over the souls of men. Being saved by hope, helped even still in our infirmities, being drafted into the allied ranks, being counted as sheep for the slaughter, Paul is persuaded that nothing can separate believers from the love of God, that all these trench level struggles and persecutions work for together for the good. No matter what this war can throw against us our Supreme Commander is there.
kjv@Psalms:85 @ @ RandyP comments: I wonder how much of the anger of God read about here is His anger and how much is either our sense of shame or rebelliousness. We often transfer the blame or misinterpret the real situation; which may make Him all the more angry. We have to be careful not to present ourselves as being ready for being turned if only God were not still so mad. If God is angry there will be good cause. If He is still distant then perhaps we are not fully ready to be turned and revived. With God, mercy and truth are always met together, it is never a point that we wish He would return to.
kjv@Psalms:86 @ @ RandyP comments: An interesting thought here that the heart would be in need of being united as if scattered or dispersed. It is fairly evident in the case of a corporate body like a congregation that the collective hearts are prone to this. It very well could be the case in the individual as well. To be united to fear His name might imply that the opposite of this fear may be caused by the scattered heart. God is highly praised in this in that He works towards the obedient man and against the those violent who have not set "Thee" before them.
kjv@Romans:15:1-20 @ @ RandyP comments: "And not to please ourselves". It is so easy even in the course of ministry to do the things we do for the sake of the ministry and not so much for the sake of the person whose infirmities we intend to bear. The person becomes another notch in our belt, a mark to our tally. Perhaps one of the greatest successes of Paul's ministry, his outreach to the Gentiles, was due to his attention to the individual person. This is why we hear of so many people coming to his aid and joining beside his ministry later. Paul encourages us that we are more than capable of doing the same.
kjv@Psalms:107 @ @ RandyP comments: Then they cried unto the Lord. Over and over we see men working themselves into desperate situations. Most of their own making, some as a consequence of the stormy waters where they conduct their business. God brings them low, they cry out, God does merciful acts to deliver them. To observe this is to understand the lovingkindness of the LORD. Where then do we stand today? What can we do? Well just as frequent is the refrain "Oh that men would praise the LORD...."
kjv@Romans:15:21-33 @ @ RandyP comments: Finally Paul will make a visit to Rome on a trip that will eventually take him into Spain. His work never ends. He mentions that the saints in Jerusalem have provided spiritual blessing to the Gentiles in Macedonia and Achaia and in response these Gentiles are contributing to the saints physical needs in Jerusalem which at this time were dire. By going into Judea to perform this gift Paul is placing himself in great danger in several ways. In that day before money wires and bank transfers I imagine a great deal of care and secrecy/diversion was required to safely do transfers like this. Having a well known and greatly despised envoy do this was even more risky.
kjv@Psalms:109 @ @ RandyP comments: This world is filled with the truly poor and needy. There are countries we can think of that are in a constant oppressive state, countries where it's own refugees are congregated in camps just across it's borders, some for years and decades. We pray for them of course but, what to pray? There are people in the name of the Lord that are standing up for these people but they are lied against, falsely detained, immobilized. We pray for them but, what? There are those that are at the root of this. What shall we pray for them? David must have been square in the middle of some of these skirmishes. Is it wrong for him to pray this? Wrong to sing about this in the congregation? Will the wicked man ever change his ways once he has tasted blood in the waters?
kjv@Romans:16 @ @ RandyP comments: A long but partial list no doubt of the people Paul has marked out as being good brethren, people he would encourage us to hang out with and emulate. A leader would be wise to make public mention of these role models frequently. There are people to mark out to avoid as well, people that appear to be goodly but serve their own belly. Maybe it is not as important to us individually to mark them out, but, as leaders of a ministry or congregation it certainly is. Be sure to address this fault with them first personally as is proper but, if nothing yet changes avoid them. In any event they must be cut off from their position in the services of the church. A leader would be wise like Paul to search this list out system wide especially in the areas where food or money or barter-able services might be changing hands.
kjv@Psalms:113 @ @ RandyP comments: The Lord God's Son not only was high above doing these great and countless things, He humbled Himself to become part of these experiences as well, to the effect that now He is by no means a stranger to the human feelings and human nuances and human temptations that we experience within these great foundations and frameworks. He has been both here and there. Having returned back to His position alongside the Father, having completed the necessities for our redemption, He waits at the right hand as the Father puts His enemies beneath His footstool so that He the Son can return in His much deserved glory. Who is like unto our Lord God?
kjv@1Corinthians:1 @ @ RandyP comments: Notice here that Paul has not yet concluded his discussion of the Church's division. This is not him getting side tracked. He is using the explanation of worldly knowledge verses spiritual knowledge as part of a larger address of what ails the church.
kjv@1Corinthians:2 @ @ RandyP comments: The spirit of a man alone knows the secrets held within a man. How is it that we think that knowing God would be any different? To know of God one must inquire of His Spirit, search through that which is spiritually discerned, compare spiritual to spiritual. The Spirit searches all things. This is where the natural man fails to understand.
kjv@1Corinthians:3 @ @ RandyP comments: Paul continues to address the divisions in Corinth. He could have just said to stop it, but, instead used the opportunity to teach important doctrines. The carnal mind has not been escaped to this point as there are envying and strife. Thinking oneself to be wise, glorying in certain men over others when all are doing their work for the Lord are caused by spiritual immaturity. We are taught to look at a much larger picture of what God is doing and how other men and ourselves fit into that.
kjv@1Corinthians:5 @ @ RandyP comments: We see that sin is not only what an individual does but how the congregation reacts to it. In the Law, the precept was given not only to the fornicator not to do it it but, to the citizens to revile and punish it. Their reaction either furthers lawfulness or furthers lawlessness in the community. In this new covenant they weren't to go to the extent of stoning the fornicator in the square but they were to strictly warn him and should he continue reject him from their fellowship. This assembly mistakenly gloried in their pious tolerance of this man and his acts.
kjv@1Corinthians:6 @ @ RandyP comments: Just as this divides itself over it's leadership, just as this assembly tolerates fortification, just as they tolerate civil matters between themselves to be brought before a secular court, this body joins itself as if in marriage to these grievous forms of unrighteousness. The leaven mentioned in the previous chapter has raised up into a spiritual adultery of congregational proportions; and this among fellow believers. Surely not all have done individually these sinful things, but, the congregation is effected as a whole none the less. Tolerance and passiveness in this case is a sin just as pungent.
kjv@Psalms:125 @ @ RandyP comments: We tend to personalize/individualize these verses. The trust spoken of is in the larger scale of His overall plan and His actions upon entire bodies such as the church and nations. The righteous and upright are plural and a force of His moving and shaping. From that we individually are more justly effected.
kjv@1Corinthians:7:1-24 @ @ RandyP comments: These are general rules for marriage but, the principals involved are far reaching. Principal one: you are not your own, you are the others'. Principal two: don't hold back yourselves from one another except by mutual consent for spiritual matters. Principal three: stay engaged/invested in the marriage even if your spouse is a unbeliever if they are consenting.
kjv@Psalms:128 @ @ RandyP comments: I am seeing this as a blessing of God to the individual believer and it revolves around being to eat the fruit of your own hands. There is a blessing of sustaining and protection and multiplication here allowing one to plant and to be able to see and partake of the return. If your hands have not planted there probably wouldn't be all that much to eat but, then none of us really plant as much as we eat. We know that there is a multiplication at work even for us. The man who fears God will plant. Wife and children will be a blessing, grand children and peace upon Israel. What I am considering is a general blessing, for not everyone will see this. Some brothers will die valiantly for us in war, Jerusalem may not even be occupied or obedient, enemies may at once amass along the borders of Israel. But, in a spiritual sense, in a general sense, in a sense we may not have even considered God will bless every man that fears him.
kjv@Psalms:129 @ @ RandyP comments: Who is saying this? Israel. Makes me wonder how many of these other psalms were as the voice of Israel and perhaps not so much the voice of any one individual. If so, the thing of immediate interest is that it was not the forces from without that took Israel down, but, the forces within.
kjv@Psalms:130 @ @ RandyP comments: Twice he repeats "more than they that watch for the morning; so there must be importance to it. The morning is the time of work, the hunting and gathering needed to sustain. A man forced to rest by darkness is eager for the morning dawn. The believer's soul waits for a similar spiritual dawn and in the Word hopes. The dawn deals with righteous judgment of iniquity, a purging, which no man would escape unless by the forgiveness and mercy of God. Individuals will then stand in the light, Israel will stand also.
kjv@Psalms:131 @ @ RandyP comments: When the heart is haughty and the eyes lofty the soul takes upon itself a great deal, increasingly large matters it really has no business in. I think of the political campaigns we are suffering these months ahead of elections. Presented are entire shopping lists of big and grandiose ideas/programs that each and everyone of us knows will never once be addressed. So why are we making concern over them, why to the near exclusion of the things that we would be able to address? This same type issue is true in our individual hearts as well. Oh yes, grand dreams and visions, miraculous intentions, marvelous causes, big and frequent squawks and chatter. It hardly ever results in any more than that. For some though, a new found calm and quietness, a weaning from the demanding tantrums of a suckling child, a trust and obedience to a more modest constantly maturing godly nature.
kjv@Psalms:141 @ @ RandyP comments: This constant talk about the wicked and of his own travail concerns me. Surely this not just any typical man nor situation nor prayer. The psalmist is being oppressed and surrounded for reasons not common to most of us in our personal daily lives. My concern is that we look at our common worldly difficulties in the light he looks at here, which is an intense spiritual warfare set against him as anointed king of anointed Israel being in the direct and announced blood line of the coming Savior. There may be a similarity to the persecution of the apostles and saints and martyrs, but to having ourselves a bad hair day?
kjv@Psalms:142 @ @ RandyP comments: Consider that over and over again the man has called out to pour from his soul his desperate troubles. The Lord hears and the Lord delivers and yet they come up again and again. Where is the righteousness in that? It is in the life long process that molds the man into what he spiritually needs to be, not just for this life but the life to come; it is in the inspiration ignited in others to aspire to the same. Snares have been privily laid by others, harm is meant, there is only one refuge and it is not in mankind. He complains of these others and their harmful intents but not the process and not the master that by this shapes the man into a vessel of honor.
kjv@Psalms:143 @ @ RandyP comments: In all this trouble the important things come to light and for these things we become thirsty and are driven. We are caused to hear of His loving kindness in the morning, caused to know wherein we should walk. We are taught to do His will and quickened with true spiritual life. During these times remember the peaceful days of old. Meditate on all His works, muse on the works of His hands. Know that for His righteousness' sake He shall bring your soul out of trouble.
kjv@1Corinthians:11:1-15 @ @ RandyP comments: There will always be a tension between the sexes that the mischievousness can manipulate into near frenzy. The fact is that Paul could have said anything about male female relations, gone any direction with it and still have been sharply criticized. In the culture to which Paul was specifically addressing certain customs took on profound spiritual meaning. Their assembly was being torn on both sides by the debate over these roles as related to public worship. The debate inflamed them to the point that meaningful worship and assembly ceased. Our culture is plagued by much the same debate and sadly to much the same end. What then is the principal to follow? Subjection for the sake of worship. Do not let your liberty inflame the conscience of a weaker believer or your worship get in the way of everyone else's. And remember if allowed into worship that God is not the author of chaos.
kjv@Psalms:148 @ @ RandyP comments: There is a place where even inanimate objects can praise the Lord, in our eyes and hearts. They praise Him just by being, by the place that they fulfill amongst all creation. Animate creatures as well, though they may not intellectually know they experience which is just as good as knowing. Humans may well place too much on knowing and too little on simply connecting and being part of the praise all around.
kjv@Psalms:149 @ @ RandyP comments: In the new covenant we think of the two-edged sword as God's written word and the bringing forth of His agape to all peoples as our mission. We Gentiles might not have this honor today had it not been for the establishment early on of Israel and it's place in the history of our ancestors who often received it's vengeance and punishments. This tiny nation inflamed us. By standing allied against it yet being strongly defeated we saw it's God Jehovah. It's Jehovah eventually led us to His Son our Lord. Now we reach back to Israel with His agape and His word to complete the circle.
kjv@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@1Corinthians:14:1-20 @ @ RandyP comments: The building/edification of the congregation is the key to spiritual gifts. If they do not build others of what use are they in the assembly. Tongues publicly require interpretation and prophecy clear spiritual revelation.
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:7 @ @ RandyP comments: The wise son and Israel are taught in the same breath. There is a practical street sense to this and a loftier spiritual sense nationally. Spiritual warfare can produce the same enticing fascinations. Because of the nature of the content addressed here it may be better understood this wise son must be at least an adolescent.
kjv@Proverbs:9 @ @ RandyP comments: Simple mindedness can be thought of as open mindedness; it can be both good and bad. An open mind can lead to the acceptance of the possibility of wisdom all ready being prepared beforehand there for the taking, for the shedding of and separation from foolishness. It can also lead to nothing more than an attitude permitting oneself to scorn the notion of true wisdom and an investigation into stolen and secret sensual pleasures. One way leads to life the other to hell. Ones focus should not be on having an open mind just for the sake of having an open mind and being able to self justify any and everything, one should have an open mind for the sake of seeking absolute truth for it will catch up with us sooner than later. Perhaps having a clear mind should be a better objective.
kjv@Proverbs:12 @ @ RandyP comments: Like all scripture the proverbs take some digging into. Meaning may not be immediately obvious especially when two proverbs take the same point from two different directions. In a sense many of these appear as generalities when taken individually. But if taken as spring boards toward a greater reverence/fear of the Lord, the sum brings true wisdom/understanding; somethings that the casual reader will not spend time to consider.
kjv@Proverbs:14:4 @ @ RandyP comments: Perhaps we should examine ourselves and ask what is my strong oxen and how do I take better care of it. Is it my education? Is it my field knowledge? Is it my professional acquaintances and associations? Is it my car? My tools? My skill? My courage?
kjv@Proverbs:14:6 @ @ RandyP comments: There are some that pride themselves in their scientific and analytical technique but, that gets them nowhere further toward an answer if they are still are at the core scoffers/scorners at heart. They can talk circles around most of us lesser educated but, really what do their words actually say that this simple proverb does not?
kjv@1Corinthians:16:3 @ @ RandyP comments: I may have mentioned before that the long distance transfer of monies was dangerous business back in this day. Not only did the actual envoy have to be fully trusted, I assume that diversions and disguises and stealth's had to be planned to avoid being robbed. Larger volumes of money may have to be sent out by multiple and less obvious means. A charitable Christian church was no doubt a target for thieves and a good place for them to plant conspiring informants. Paul's public announcement may itself be a ruse. This is my hunch and not a revelation. Would it be wrong if he did?
kjv@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@2Corinthians:1 @ @ RandyP comments: Whether Paul's team was afflicted or comforted, it was for our comfort and salvation. Both abounded with his team, sufferings and comfort because they abound in Christ. They were afflicted even to the point of death. They considered themselves dead and only by the deliverance of God did they continue. Our consolation is effectual in all sufferings but particularly in the same sufferings which they suffered.
kjv@Proverbs:21 @ @ RandyP comments: I have typically viewed these proverbs as being directed toward individuals for personal consideration and use. But then I see the wicked, the workers of iniquity, plural, collective. How is it that we are to overcome their masses individually if we the upright are not affiliated collectively like they? For us to do justice/judgement large scale, mercy/charity, be prosperous but not greedy, be generous and not selfish, doesn't their have to be a strong element of collaboration and community?
kjv@Proverbs:26:4-5 @ @ RandyP comments: The application of reproof appears to be situational or conditional. For instance, if you snap back at him in like manner you are as big a fool as he. If you rebuff him at his conceit without a conceit of your own you may show where he is unwise.
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@2Corinthians:6 @ @ RandyP comments: The Church can also get yoked to unbelievers via following secular polls and surveys, by secular liberal intellectualism, cowardice, false association, etc.. It appears to be an accumulative marriage that is by cohabitation and commingling; by common law so to say.
kjv@2Corinthians:8 @ @ RandyP comments: The ministry to the saints should be a ministry assumed by all believers. There is an expectation of equality where by my surplus at this time supplies to your needs and your surplus at another time will supply mine. Even during the difficult times, there are wonderful examples of believers squeezing extra out resources to others. We should not only commit to such causes but follow through on our commitments. In this we prove our love for the brethren. Sometimes we just expect God to take care of it not realizing that this is often how God takes care of it.
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:2 @ @ RandyP comments: For us the vanity becomes an emptiness and a travail. It is both discernible and tangible, intelligence and wisdom clearly detect it. We try to fill it with this and with that and the other but nothing seems to fill/overcome it. Even that which seems to be full it is vanquished by the consequences death. It is meant that it should not be filled in any other way than by subjection to the Resurrection of Jesus Christ; be born of true spiritual/eternal incorruptible seed.
kjv@Ecclesiastes:3 @ @ RandyP comments: Peter kjv@2Peter:1:4 described this world as a corruption that is in this world because of lust. Corruption can mean death and decay as it does for the sons of the lusting to be wise Adam/Eve. The thought of this death makes us to lust for all that we might have and make out of this short time which brings us to a corruption of all that is good and intended; lust upon lust and it's many other corruptions. What God has done by putting us through this is to be looked at in terms of forever that men should fear Him; a tremendously good and righteous work of making us righteous within the righteousness of His Son; raising us up from this corruption much as His Son a new spiritual creature. From this nothing can be put to nor taken away.
kjv@2Corinthians: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: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@Galatians:5 @ @ RandyP comments: For Paul to say be not entangled in the yoke of bondage means that it is quiet possible to if not likely. It is something that we must guard ourselves from. In this case it centers around our perception of what justifies us in the end, the Law or Grace. In other ways it seems to be in resembling too closely the ways of this world or reverting back into our fleshly appetites and habits. The works of the flesh are manifest as are the fruits of the Spirit.
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: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@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@Ephesians:6 @ @ RandyP comments: The amour of the Lord is not occasional attire; it is not 'Parade Dress'. Each item points to spiritual necessity not option. Spiritual warfare does not stop on those days that we wish not to play. These are the days which we need it most.
kjv@Isaiah:33:1 @ @ RandyP comments: There are those that can take advantage of others even in desperate times. Tragedy, catastrophe, evacuation, desperation always brings out those treacherous scheming thieves to prey upon the unfortunate and transitional souls.
kjv@Philippians:2:12 @ @ RandyP comments: There is the eternal salvation direct from our confession and repentance acknowledging Jesus Christ as Lord, the salvation that because of His sacrifice was purchased and imputed to us. There is also the salvation having the knowledge of Jesus Christ that we are fruitful with as applied toward our daily circumstances and situations; this is the type of salvation that we work out. One can be saved in the one sense but yet be a poor worker of the salvation that effects daily life, even by the things in this same chapter Paul speaks to, contention and strife and isolation from the broader body etc..
kjv@Colossians:4:3 @ @ RandyP comments: The Lord makes evangelical opportunities to speak for those that are watching for them. For most of us that means the daily one on one talks. For some that means the larger event or location based individual or team efforts. The fact that Paul asks us to pray for these means that the Lord does seek these types of prayers.
kjv@Colossians:4:16 @ @ RandyP comments: There are other epistles that Paul wrote. Perhaps several. Perhaps daily. Paul was not attempting to write for inclusion into some soon to be published New Testament collection. He was not seeking to dominate the other writers with his massive content. He was addressing the needs of the people and congregations that he was placed directly over (Romans possibly being the exception - perhaps planted by acquaintances that he had discipled). His letters were treasured enough that people kept hold of them. By the time the Testament was canonized several years after his death there were enough of these verifiable copies still circulated for them to be included into what we hold today as scripture. Many of these other letters, though I am sure were treasured have either been lost or cannot be accurately verified as there were many plagiarizers of his name and authority even yet today.
kjv@1Thessalonians:1 @ @ RandyP comments: People do notice. There is not a particular individual mentioned here. The congregation is likely acting together as one, they are working and laboring doing things as a body that are being observed and talked about. One thing that stands out is that they are not doing what everybody else is doing, in this case having turned from idols. For this they suffered affliction yet withstood the pressure with patience and hope. Such things stand out and are talked about distances beyond our personal knowing and causing the gospel to be spread. Where can we stand out in our churches today?
kjv@Isaiah:55 @ @ RandyP comments: The covenant He makes with us Gentile tribes is the same that He made with David. It is without price and satisfy like no other. He has chosen and glorified a nation that was not a nation so that the others will take notice and turn from the wicked and foolish ways. His ways are like nothing we would intellectualize and His word will accomplish that which He purposed without fail. Joy and peace and great blessing will be the end result.
kjv@Isaiah:57 @ @ RandyP comments: Idolatry, sorcery, adultery go hand in hand, they are part of the same mind set. These are spiritual sins that play out in physical ways. The participants know first hand the emptiness of this way but yet continue due to their despising God. They seem to know God and are aware of His holding His peace for this time, therefore purposely taunt it to His face. The symbolisms pictured here of stones and posts ointments etc.. would have direct meaning to them being specific to elements their religion.
kjv@1Thessalonians:5:18 @ @ RandyP comments: So what is the will of God concerning us? What is it that He is grooming in us no matter what our situation? Intelligence? Superior charm and tolerance? Personal mastery and the ability to channel His energy to achieve our many goals? No, thanks!
kjv@Jeremiah:2 @ @ RandyP comments: The language of these pictures paint an indelible image that cannot be erased nor altered no matter what translation. Withered vines and broken cisterns, insolent camels and wild asses, brides in harlots attire, butchers stained in blood declaring themselves innocent. These things cannot be mis-interpreted into being something better or good about the state of Israel/Judah. The Lord is extremely upset there can be no doubt.
kjv@Jeremiah:4 @ @ RandyP comments: I see two possible explanations as to why the language very similar to kjv@Genesis:1 would be used here. 1a: This coming judgment will so severe as to symbolically set Israel/Judah back to the beginning as if none of this covenant had ever been. kjv@1b: It will be so devastating as to appear as dark and chaotic as earths infancy. 2: Gap theory suggests a gap between kjv@Genesis:1:1 and kjv@Genesis:1:2 where this type of judgment actually occurred to a pre-Adamic human or angelic race on earth; that what we read is not an account of creation but of a earth's first restoration. Both explanations may not be exclusive as well.
kjv@Jeremiah:5 @ @ RandyP comments: The emphasis is on the fact that both Israel and Judah believe themselves to be all of this, that the Lord supposedly is with them and yet there is not a man to be found that executes His judgments; no one fighting for His cause. They have become rich and that is their own proof. The Lord had stricken them and they have not grieved, consumed them and still they have not received correction. Certainly we as a nation must be concerned of this too, but, therein we see the difficulty; individuals may believe, even majorities of individuals, the course of nations however are not necessarily stirred by well intentioned individuals.
kjv@2Thessalonians:3 @ @ RandyP comments: Who is it disrupting this church? Men who do not work but that are expecting to eat, to be fed from other's labor. How many are there of these men in our church today? How have we responded to them? Have we admonished them? Have we set them out? We think of our modern church as an open invitation to the Gospel not realizing that to them we have presented an open invitation for us to feed and shelter them and allow them to cause divisions amongst us playing upon our compassionate (but blind) intentions. This is true in a physical daily living sense as well as in a spiritual ministerial/evangelical sense. One must work to eat and eat of his own hands.
kjv@1Timothy:1 @ @ RandyP comments: Matters of the Law today as in their day have stirred divisions and confusion in the Church. The Law is of course good when understood in it's rightful/lawful context. The Law brings us to the knowledge of Christ. It is a hired nanny who brings us by the hand from distances where we were to the very doorsteps of the master. It is not the master, the Lord is the master and His grace is the primary curriculum. Paul himself testifies to this fact. The Law is a yoke, a bond, a sentence, the sting of death. We would not have know sin except for the Law. It shows us how we are, how futile our situation is against our sin, the need for the Christ and His complete redemption. (see kjv@Romans:5-6)
kjv@1Timothy:2 @ @ RandyP comments: Hard as it is to understand, Paul's restrictions upon women teaching were not because of some hatred or prejudice he had upon women. We see from his letters that many women loved him and that they held important positions in his ministry team. Paul honestly expresses his reasoning, a fact that cannot be denied, Eve was the one deceived not Adam. How that further plays out in the daughters of Eve is not so clear but, it must be considered. To inflame one's self, to jump hastily to the womans defense can be just as much a proof of what Paul is cautious of as it is proof against. One must also consider the types of women drawn to a woman pastor, who might see her position for something she does not intend, and what the make up of the church then becomes. The verse actually does not forbid women from teaching per se, it forbids a teaching that gives an feminist impression or that could be percieved to be in conjunction/tainted with usurping authority over men.
kjv@Jeremiah:9:3-5 @ @ RandyP comments: Could any of us say today that we have been valiant for the truth on earth? God makes Himself and His will known to man at great expense to Himself and yet may continues not to know Him? He perpetuates the testimony and revelations of His Son throughout all time at great expense to His valiant ones and we see it as irrelevant and unapproachable? We proceed from evil to evil never satisfied with the evil just committed? Never filled full of our evil to the point of drawing back from the table and declaring that is enough for me, I can take it no more? Asking our neighbor and or brother as if they would know truth and be valiant for truth any better?
kjv@Jeremiah:10 @ @ RandyP comments: Is it not in God to have feelings as well? We go about as if we are the only ones that feel violated and forgotten and grieved and spoiled. Is it that He is unaffected by what we say and do or is it that it just doesn't matter to us? Is it even in our way to direct our own steps? We demand of Him to be righteous enough not to be affected by these things that we do, to be above it all, but not of Him to be righteous enough to actually do something about all of this.
kjv@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@1Timothy:5 @ @ RandyP comments: The full time charge of the church is for those with absolutely no other means. They are to be given shelter and provision and daily tasks to do for the church as is proper. The church produces outreach to others as well in attempting to connect them to the resources of their own families, the community, redevelopment or retraining, fostering marriage/match making within the fellowship. There are many to take advantage of the church and few wise enough to commingle compassion with prudence. The church is forced off task and those most needy are neglected. If the church is to act this way then so should we as individuals as well.
kjv@1Timothy:6 @ @ RandyP comments: This epistle has been written to encourage and develop a younger pastor on Paul's team. It is interesting how the letter dives into the more daily essentials of being a pastor and an example of Christs to the fellowship and community as a whole. The functions of a church, the how to's of keeping the church activities focused and not distracted, it's investment in the truly needy, it's absence from vain arguments and partiality, the qualifications of elders and deacons, what to look for in people that may intend to take advantage of the church's compassion, etc... all these things good for us to know as well; pastor's or not.
kjv@Jeremiah:17:9-10 @ @ RandyP comments: Whose heart is deceitful above all things? Did He qualify or pin point certain hearts? Move this forward to the time Jesus Himself stood upon this earth with a crowd gathered round Him. Was their any in the gathering not of a deceitful heart? Those that wanted Him killed in God's name? Those who followed just for the free fish? The hypocritical zealots? Even the disciples arguing over who will be the greatest? Whose heart is deceitful above all things? The heart...Our hearts!
kjv@Jeremiah:21 @ @ RandyP comments: Pashur inquires of Jeremiah, perhaps while Jeremiah was imprisoned by Pashur, perhaps later we are not told. Either way it has to be an odd situation for both men. The answer given Pashur is much the same but now with detail as to the king's demise.
kjv@Jeremiah:33 @ @ RandyP comments: The Branch of Righteousness (Christians take to mean Jesus) grows unto David (comes down dwells among us in the flesh) executes judgment/righteousness in the land (some would take to mean an earthly rule but could mean a spiritual rule as well) Judah will be saved (again could mean spiritually) and Jerusalem dwell safely (spiritually secure in the knowledge and spirit of the risen Christ) David shall never want a man on his throne (because Jesus has moved the Davidic throne to the eternal kingdom, the right hand side of God the father, the God/Man rightfully sits on it forever more) neither shall there be needed any sacrifice or offering (for the God/Man on the throne has become unto us our final sacrifice, the complete atonement that the Father provides for us all). If this is not so, I see no other way that this covenant has not been broken or ceased for over two thousand years. Do you?
kjv@Jeremiah:38 @ @ RandyP comments: We can sense how others perceived Jeremiah. He was a traitor bent on the surrender of Jerusalem to the Chaldeans. He was causing division within the ranks and was using religious sounding speech to dishearten the masses. Left at liberty, he would use highly visual grandstanding techniques such as wooden yokes and ancient vessels to invoke dissent. The word was out on him. Imprisoned, Jeremiah would of course not be stopped, but, at least perhaps contained; his where-abouts known.
kjv@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:9 @ @ RandyP comments: The pattern is complete. What was done for the remission of sins in the Mosaic Law through the sprinkling of blood was a shadow we would latter recognize when Christ came to actually fulfill the greater covenant. His sacrifice is once and for all however.
kjv@Ezekiel:4 @ @ RandyP comments: Think of the strange public methods that have been employed to broadcast the impending judgment. Here Ezekiel is to lie on one side on a tile 390 days continuously and 40 days on the side eating only the rations given at the start and bread cooked on dung. Jeremiah was breaking ancient pots and such. Wasn't it Isaiah walking naked for three years? Certainly not just anyone could get the message out by doing this, these men must have been fully established as prophets before hand in order to have impact. With the state of things the way they are this well may have the best of all options. It is rarely the convincing intellectual dialog and reasoning we think of that is called for. Knowing that God is perfect in all His ways, it makes me wonder what methods He might have for us today?
kjv@Ezekiel:10 @ @ RandyP comments: I am sure that the author went to painstaking detail to accurately describe the details so that we would understand and picture the sight. I can not. What I do get is that as odd and foreign as this all seems to be, the actual glory of the Lord still stands out and is supremely discernible. On it's own it would have been terrifying to see this four faced creature and hear the thundering rush of it's wings. In the presence of the glorious light of the Lord curiosity replaces fear along with wonder and praise to it's creator.
kjv@Ezekiel:12 @ @ RandyP comments: Again, a visual message given to the rebellious house. They may not listen but, it will not be said that they were not shown. They will ask questions but, will not consider. The words will not be prolonged any longer, the time has come.
kjv@Ezekiel:14 @ @ RandyP comments: Three righteous men of the ages are given as repeated examples. The righteousness of these men can only save themselves; not even their immediate sons and daughters can be saved unless by their own individual righteousness. So too, only you yourself is saved if so be, your family and friends will have to be saved themselves by their own righteousness. Any righteousness any of us would have is found solely in the righteousness of Christ Jesus and on the personal confession of that alone will any individual be delivered.
kjv@Ezekiel:15 @ @ RandyP comments: From one fire into another, from time to time as individuals we may feel this so, this though is speaking of an entire nation. How would it not be known that the Lord has set His face against them? Few of us have ever felt this type of judgment upon us. In our own lives we may think it or even make it be so. Often we perceive His instruction/correction falsely as so but, rather that is His love. Some moments we may feel as if persecution suffered in His name is so but, rather that is simply sharing in His sufferings. When the Lord however sets His face against an entire people it no doubt will be known by those people. These are not moments where the possibility will be debated or interpreted.
kjv@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:27 @ @ RandyP comments: In the normal course of history many merchant hubs have risen and faded. A new and better port is built, an in defensible harbor is replaced by a defensible one, trade routes eventually move to more direct routes and highways, their cities slowly bypassed. That is just it, there is identifiable economic/strategic process and time. This was not the case with Tyrus. There is definite reason that the kings and merchants of the world are awe shocked and terrored. If the mighty hub of Tyrus can be so easily be destroyed in one sudden swoop, being thus prophesied and as a result re-fortified by them united, then they themselves stand no chance.
kjv@Ezekiel:28 @ @ RandyP comments: If one gets a running start at this amazing chapter we get the sense that the king of Tyrus may have been the Devil himself. If we start here direct we get the sense that the king is being used to illustrate how the situation of his fall is similar in details to the situation surrounding the fall of the covering cherub Lucifer. Whether the two are the same or separate the details given of Lucifer are bountiful perhaps like no other passage in the Bible.
kjv@James:4 @ @ RandyP comments: The mention of friendship with this world along with lust to envy is used to describe our spirit. All of the things we want and have not, all the things we ask but do not receive, the strivings and wars, they have their roots in this combination. It appears to be within our power because if we are to come to Christ we must put aside these things. But, putting this aside involves humility and affliction, mourning and cleansing, which are the opposite of our envy and destructive to our friendship with this world. This mention may be just as much for the body of believers as for the individual.
kjv@Ezekiel:33 @ @ RandyP comments: The way of the Lord unequal? I doubt that anything He could choose to say or do would be perceived as fair. It has nothing to do with His fairness and everything to do with our perception of who we want Him to be. For those that do not want Him to be at all absolutely everything about even the notion of Him is defiled. To those that want him to be their good luck charm and means to prosperity anything other than that which He would do is unnecessary and labeled as the work of the devil.
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@1Peter:1 @ @ RandyP comments: I marvel that Peter can say as much so plainly to the common and intellectual both in one chapter as most men would take in volumes of books. We often think as Paul and John as the writers and Peter as the doer. If you were to go back over what he has just said and how much he just said floods of tears would suddenly flow. These are not the words of human genius, they are the words of a man who has lived this faith face to face with his Lord. He speaks of tremendous desire in the end to see Him again, to be willing to endure this present tribulation to see Him return in the glory that he himself has briefly seen in a transfiguration moment, and his love for those of 'like precious faith' who not having seen as he yet believe. If we were barely able to model our approach to life and faith similar to this man we would be all the better off.
kjv@Ezekiel:34 @ @ RandyP comments: The flock here is identified as Israel. The Lord had set shepherds over them; they fed themselves on the flock instead. Some were driven away, some lost, some diseased, many scattered. Their good pasture was trampled and their good water muddied. These shepherds are no doubt spiritual and civic leaders. The answer is that the Lord himself becomes the shepherd; He is the Good Shepherd. In the end, when His glory is come, He will set David over them (David is not the Shepherd himself). There is a shame of the heathen that they bare (perhaps that the heathen recognize this Shepherd before they do).
kjv@Ezekiel:35 @ @ RandyP comments: The descendants of Esau from the Seir mountains, the Edomites are to be judged. Esau and Jacob had reconciled, but, his seed had renewed the quarrel and become frequent enemies of Israel shedding their blood. They had supposed that both lands Judah and Israel would one day be their own and had taken strength in the desolation of Israel. I am unsure of the time frame for this judgment as it seems to be when the whole earth rejoices (which may refer to the Millennium?). The Geneva notes call the people mentioned Idumeans, I'm not sure if there is a link.
kjv@Ezekiel:40 @ @ RandyP comments: What is the importance of these details to us today? That God has a great many (if not all) details planned out; that He is trying to tell us something needed to be known. Consider that this temple fell and was desecrated just as the first and yet it is not a mistake that God gave it such detail and foresight; it is all part of a much greater plan/dialog. Often physical things and events described in the Bible are shadows/pictures/blue prints of things occurring in the spiritual world put into a language we could more readily understand. I have heard men like Dr. Vernen Mc Gee attempt to show how the Temple, the things of it, the predetermined rituals spell out a spiritual description of salvation and atonement; things like the 'holy of holys' that only the high priest was able to enter after being cleansed once a year. North gates, south gates, having to go in one gate and out another, tables and hooks, borders of pomegranate and palms, etc..., they all have their meaning in a spiritual sense. The thing for now to know is that Jesus is the complete fulfillment of all of these descriptive types. To go back and rediscover what each of these types means is to study what Jesus was able to accomplish and who we are in Him; for us each detail measured out precisely.
kjv@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@Ezekiel:43 @ @ RandyP comments: The Law and ritual return in this temple as do the sacrifices. If this is in the Millennium or later salvation and the remission of sins have already been achieved once and for all by the blood of Jesus and the order of high priest is now after Melchizedek and not Levi. These offerings then would either be symbolic and memorial or else a covering for sins that the sacrifice of Jesus does not atone for. The former makes greater sense to me.
kjv@Ezekiel:45 @ @ RandyP comments: A large parcel of land is sectioned off for the the ministers of the temple as a sanctuary for their homes. The home of particular interest is the home of the prince. Weights and measures are corrected by the princes under the prince to make right the tithes and gifts and commerce. Sacrifices are being made for errors, there remain sin offerings, reconciliation is mentioned twice. New moons and Sabbaths are ordained, there is a monthly cleansing performed for the alter and for the priests. All of this specifically detailed as for the children of Israel.
kjv@2Peter:3:15-16 @ @ RandyP comments: It has been the doctrine of some cults (even the universal church at times) that the unlearned masses must be kept from the holy scrip based on the possible misinterpretation and destruction it might cause them identified by this passage. The context however of this passage in light of kjv@2Peter:2 is more properly of those who once knew of the Gospel/Grace of Christ but chose not to continue, turned to oppress and afflict and teach falsely after their own increased unrighteousness and gain. Paul's writings in particular are targeted by these cherry picking wicked souls as points of fierce contention, points of apparent contradiction, points to slander and attack. Peter here stands up for Paul in uncompromising fashion and therefore endorses the distribution of his works. The general masses are greatly helped rather by the availability of unfiltered scripture, their trust in leadership deeply enhanced in the things that are not easily understood by the things that are. Those who are going to fall away are going to fall away any way. Disputes and factions may arise amongst us over certain points as we try to become learned, but, even that is used to challenge and stir and put essential truths into our remembrance. Challenge does not mean destruction, challenge means hunger and thirst and utter trust in the most certain hope of an eventual divinely revealed answer.
kjv@Ezekiel:48 @ @ RandyP comments: We have commented before as to how several cults believe that Israel has been stricken from from the Lord's redemption plan because of their apostasy and that they (the cult followers) are now its spiritual replacement. If so, then explain this chapter. Does there not have to be the original blood lines?
kjv@Daniel:1 @ @ RandyP comments: The Lord is always moving ahead with His plans. As a nation Judah has now fallen into Chaldean hands but through the obedience of four young souls He plans to move Israel forward through the seventy year captivity. He has gifted these four with the skill, the knowledge, the situation and the opportunity needed. They won't be the only ones that He builds up and moves into place.
kjv@1John:2 @ @ RandyP comments: To abide in Him is to love and to walk as He walked. This does not come naturally. The special anointing that we receive as repentant believers teaches us of all new and necessary spiritual things. We are taught by abiding in Him, abiding is our school. We love as He, we learn. We walk as He, we learn. How then can we love unless we abide in Him? His love is not just any love, His walk not like any either. This love and walk we are unfamiliar with even to the point of being at enmity with it. It is only by His unction that we are able to do it. Some then by not abiding have come out from us and have become our opposite, the antichrists.
kjv@Daniel:4 @ @ RandyP comments: A thought about free choice... Nebuchadnezzar had twelve months to consider the interpretation of his dream. For some the dream alone would be enough to alter/soften their hearts, or so we would hope, but, is that actually true? Daniel as much as said some sort of lessening would be possible. It was not ever said though that this chastisement would ever be avoidable, that the choice was totally his. It could be that over the course of twelve months Nebuchadnezzar did everything that he thought would hold this off only to realize that he was still under it's shadow. He may have hardened in the end. Therefore it is evidenced that as much as Nebuchadnezzar may have thought that he had changed, he had not actually changed; the pride was still deep within him. Our circumstances may be similar, God may be trying to remove a destructive trait or element from our heart. We may try (and be given time) to extract that ill on our own, but, until it is given into God's hands it is never really removed; it simply lays hidden producing further atrophy/paralysis. Where then is free choice? It is in accepting the way things must be. It is all things given into His hands.
kjv@1John:4 @ @ RandyP comments: If I were to ask nearly any non-believer 'what is God?' the near unanimous reply would be "God is love". If I were to ask then 'what is love?' I would receive a multitude of varying replies mostly having something to do with tolerance for their sins. The question then to ask is 'doesn't that mean that love is whatever one wants/needs it to be?' or better 'that God is whomever we want/need Him to be?'. What kind of god can we ourselves make up? Is your wife whomever you wish her to be? Is your son? Is there any other working relationship that you know of that is determined by what you wish it to be? Are we not individual? Do we not have structure and backbone, interests and opinions and needs of our own that you yourself have to accept navigate and familiarize your self with? Isn't that the beauty of relationships? Why should it be any different with God? We love God because he first loved us. It was not our minute and varying personal perceptions of God with which He loved us, it was His gigantic eternal design for present and future, a love that would redeem us from our sins and set us aright into eternity. It was not our selfish 'I need you to be this' love or 'do this now for me or else' love or 'if you even exist' love for His love came before our love. What then is love? God is love? What is God? Creator and perfecter and possessor of our souls in whom no darkness dwells and in that He is absolute love.
kjv@Daniel: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@Daniel:8:25 @ @ RandyP comments: 'By peace he shall destroy many'. For many peace is the ultimate. Even for many religious God is all about peace. I am not sure whether this antichrist ever brings actual peace, but, the promise of peace would certainly be enough to motivate the masses. Peace while deceit prospers? Peace while the temple is desecrated? Peace while the Persians and Medes are being subjected? Peace while he stands up against the Prince of princes? This does not sound anything like real peace, it sounds like deception and domination. That is what these people think peace is however.
kjv@Daniel:10:13 @ @ RandyP comments: This is an insight perhaps like seen no where else in the Old Testament. Spiritual warfare 21 days with the prince of Persia, Michael coming in to assist the Lord. What else is going on around us that we are unaware of?
kjv@Daniel:10 @ @ RandyP comments: Given the trembling and reverence given this figure, the language used regarding Him, the worship even to unconsciousness and dumbfoundedness (forbidden of towards even angels), I see little doubt that this is none other than The Lord Christ Himself that Daniel falls before.
kjv@2John:1 @ @ RandyP comments: It really wouldn't surprise me if there weren't a great number of these letters written to various individuals by all of the Apostles. What is surprising is that this one was still able to be verified years later when the New Testament was canonized. This great lady must have been extremely well known, must have cherished this and taken such good care of it. She must have shown it to some influential people as well. I can see her eyes light up when she would begin to recount receiving it.
kjv@Daniel:12 @ @ RandyP comments: I know many people that have had much opportunity for productive spiritual fruit fall from the limb because of their insistence in figuring all of these prophetic clues together. It almost becomes a destructive addiction. If our commandment is to love one another as God loves us, certainly there must be a balance between the mental pursuit of knowing and the spiritual pursuit of simply acting based upon trust. Knowing how to comfort a friend is just as important as knowing 3 1/2 years for this and this king was... Some times sealed means sealed. Not to diminish the importance of prophecy mind you, but, to elevate the importance of being amongst the living and being fruitful in the knowledge of Christ.
kjv@3John:1 @ @ RandyP comments: We should know that not everyone in the fold is for the fold. John may have written some of these smaller letters in part to gather intel and to make sure that the things/persons that he had sent were being received and used. He has taken the time to develop networks of 'wellbeloved' and so should we. We should be participants in this network that our true spiritual leaders are maintaining as well. Who knows, maybe one of these letters will be arriving at our desk one day.
kjv@Hosea: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:2:16 @ @ RandyP comments: The symbolism of husband and wife has been used to depict our spiritual nature by several authors in many places in the bible. Here, if I read this right is an interesting insight of a wife that sees her God as Baali or master when she should see him as Ishi husband. His love then is the key difference. A master can master with or without love, impose his rule over her. A husband loves and gives himself for her, he builds her up and protects her. Her perception and response is much different given the two.
kjv@Jude:1 @ @ RandyP comments: Compare this with 2Peter. In kjv@2Petter:1:5-8 contenders for the like precious faith begin by adding to their faith virtue (valor towards excellence) knowledge (revealed, spiritual) temperance (against similar brute knowledge) patience (persistence) godliness (living forward, spiritual obedience) brotherly kindness (striving for the unity of the Spirit) and charity (Agape love).
kjv@Revelation:2:18-29 @ @ RandyP comments: The church of Thyatira is battling a particular prophetess with much satanic influence. Effectually, they are consenting to her crafts by suffering her a place in their community/congregation. The Lord is dealing with her in His own way. He is asking them to beware and resist her and those that are bedding with her (consenting/allowing to her doctrine) by holding fast to the faith.
kjv@Revelation:2 @ @ RandyP comments: There are those that for for the sake of their own individual faith have deserted the corporate faith of the church body. Our Lord does not address the church of Randy in this revelation which should be an indication of what kind of church the church of Randy is; it is not. Notice that our Lord did not say 'oh members of the church of Thyatira, run away, split, your church is corrupt, it is getting too hard for you to grow and be productive'. Instead it says 'hold fast/overcome'. Why is the church so important? Ask the Lord.
kjv@Hosea: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@Hosea:12 @ @ RandyP comments: For being so long ago it is interesting how the temperaments and histories of the individual patriarchs of the tribes still hold true. To help us to understand the essence of these tribal and national matters in his day Hosea goes back close to a thousand years to their beginning roots.
kjv@Revelation:3:1-6 @ @ RandyP comments: Works? What works? I thought that everything was strictly by grace? The church at Sardis is of great concern. Individuals remain that have not left or deserted and they shall be rewarded, they are exhorted strengthen that which remains, but, what about the rest of them? Believers in the Lord Jesus Christ will be saved by grace however we that hear are exhorted to overcome. Our faith is planted in circumstances that necessitate immediate growth and action, from which our faith only grows stronger. If there are not these works and actions the local church body itself dies away. Avoiding and/or ignoring the work that must be done because of some personal tantrum is spiritually immature.
kjv@Revelation:3:14-22 @ @ RandyP comments: Laodicean, the lukewarm church, what a terrible thing to be. Many consider this church to be the closest to our modern American church. Some even suggest the the churches listed here in Revelations mark out specific church ages and that we are in the last age. The things that most identifies this church is that it is affluent and coasting not receiving much persecution but not extending itself outward into any situations that it might receive any reproof or chastisement. It is the polite to everybody, let's not stir anything up, we got it too good church.
kjv@Revelation:4:1 @ @ RandyP comments: Must be. So many consider this book as what could be if we don't straighten ourselves up, that the power to hold this off is in our hands. All of scripture suggests different. As bad and as wrong as all that follows seems to be, it is right and part of the course God has mandated. His faithfulness is contrasted by man's deprived nature given every opportunity to repent and by the spiritual war of Satanic powers and principalities that have been hidden all about us till this time. It is the time that His chosen people come awake, their eyes opened to His Messiah, His covenant to their fathers Abraham Issac and Jacob towards them finally realized.
kjv@Revelation:4 @ @ RandyP comments: If you have ever been blessed with revelation you know that your attention to detail is un-human. The things that you remember are remembered because there is divine meaning planted in each and every little thing, they are sealed in your memory because they are meant to be sealed. There is no doubt coming out that you are granted occasion to be a part of something foreign and miraculous and you want to go back into it without letting the moment get away from you. You try to get back into it for days, but, eventually realize that it has ended. It may be the only revelation you ever again receive or it may be years until another. Part of you however searches for it again in your dreams, in strange little occurrences, in voices you think that you might of heard. John here receives perhaps the greatest and most complete revelations ever recorded. The imagery and symbolism and threads tied to other bible prophets and covenant history that God uses is utterly mind blowing. John must have been exhausted afterward beyond human strength.
kjv@Amos:2 @ @ RandyP comments: With all of these external reasons given we finally get to Israel and Judah, all the more reason for judgment. Judah for despising the Law, not carrying out the commandments, and walking in the lies of their fathers. Israel for their callous treatment of the righteous/poor/meek, their sexual perversion and spiritual profanity. Both have witnessed God's work against other nations but disregarded that fact that their puffiness as 'the chosen' against God is all the worse.
kjv@Amos:5 @ @ RandyP comments: Many today think of their sins as personal things that have little or no effect on others such as the just, the poor, the oppressed, the needy. This passage speaks of such transgressions causing a nation's judgment as a whole to become as soft porous wormwood and it's righteousness to be left off. The stark evidences can be found in how the just are more and more rebuked, abhorred and afflicted (to the point the just are better off personally to keep silent). The results are a form of personal prosperity and social suave that comes quickly to an end having no bases of support (earlier described as being lead away by fish hooks). The nation as a whole is judged not only by it's failed condition, but, by God. Doesn't sound all that personal to me.
kjv@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@Revelation:6 @ @ RandyP comments: We must also not leave off that this judgment not only has to do with us and our sin nature, but, also towards ending the spiritual war against Satan.
kjv@2John:1 @ @ RandyP comments: It really wouldn't surprise me if there weren't a great number of these letters written to various individuals by all of the Apostles. What is surprising is that this one was still able to be verified years later when the New Testament was canonized. This great lady must have been extremely well known, must have cherished this and taken such good care of it. She must have shown it to some influential people as well. I can see her eyes light up when she would begin to recount receiving it.
kjv@Revelation:7 @ @ RandyP comments: There are those 144k of the tribes of Israel that are sealed and on earth. There are are a innumerable number present at the throne from all nations and tongues washed in the Blood before the opening of this seal. Somewhere in this time frame many gather that either the dead in Christ or the actual living church has been raptured. When exactly is debated. Most assume that the dead in Christ are already with Christ.
kjv@Revelation:8 @ @ RandyP comments: The prayers of the saints; thy kingdom come... thy will be done... on earth as it is in heaven... thine is the power and the glory. Special pause is given to acknowledge that this is precisely what the saints have prayed for all along. To get to the answer of those prayers from here this judgment must first take place. Perhaps we didn't fully realize the depths of sin's nature or the fierceness of the spiritual war all around. Perhaps we thought God could just change this thing and that, otherwise everything else is cool. There are however some drastic changes that have to occur beginning with the elimination of evil; an evil that runs deep. Remember God is light and Him there is no darkness. How then can He dwell amongst us if there is yet evil in our midst? Evil must be judged and use of these natural forces should make it clear to the inhabitants that this is none other than THE JUDGEMENT so clearly prophesied.
kjv@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@2John:1 @ @ RandyP comments: It really wouldn't surprise me if there weren't a great number of these letters written to various individuals by all of the Apostles. What is surprising is that this one was still able to be verified years later when the New Testament was canonized. This great lady must have been extremely well known, must have cherished this and taken such good care of it. She must have shown it to some influential people as well. I can see her eyes light up when she would begin to recount receiving it.
kjv@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@Haggai:2 @ @ RandyP comments: Every generation seems to have it's spiritual project; much larger than any one person. They must learn to rely on the Lord and clarify the will and resolve towards spiritual matters. It is never a side project, something to work on when other successes have left you the time. Things are constantly needing to be rebuilt or repaired or restored or re-established. Battles are to be fought and won and obstacles spiritually overcome. Often specific men are called upon to lead such efforts, but surely it is a group process. God is willing to shake the heavens to make such projects work.
kjv@Revelation:16 @ @ RandyP comments: By this stage now, men are not going to turn away. For them God is to blame and is openly blasphemed. To them it is better to endure the suffering than have a change of heart. The Antichrist is now performing miracles to hold their hopes/souls in his own pocket. Tossed into the equation is the righteousness of God for doing this as it relates to the previous treatment of His saints and martyrs.
kjv@Zechariah:3 @ @ RandyP comments: The Angel of the Lord and Satan stand near Joshua the high priest. The Angel intends to change the filthy clothes of the priest (cleansing) and alter his mitre (position of authority). The Branch (Messiah) will remove the iniquity of the land in one day. Satan not only knows the plan but, is powerless to stop it. (some details as to the stone tsk@Zechariah:3:9)
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:6 @ @ RandyP comments: For those who have difficulty discerning the relationship of the Father God to the Son God, perhaps it is better understood them as Trunk and Branch. Human words have deficiencies, but, individually they can be viewed as Tree, more importantly they are collectively Tree. It is perhaps easier to discern Tree seeing them both together. This is not the first time Christ has been identified as the Branch.
kjv@Revelation:18 @ @ RandyP comments: It might be easy to think of this Babylon as a terrible foe or enemy and nothing more. Why would God allow such a thing? Well, think of it then as a magnet to which all wickedness is eventually drawn. As all nations have been deceived, to see all it's power pinpointed to one point, to see that point become the hold of every devil and foul spirit and unclean bird, to see all this drawn together and put down in one hour would be indeed be shocking to the deceived but now enlightened merchants and kings of these nations. So, if one asks what purpose, what purpose does this all serve, one can reply every good and righteous purpose of God. The nations are freed from it's wicked pull.
kjv@Zechariah:7 @ @ RandyP comments: The command seemed simple enough, to execute true judgment, show mercy, oppress not. To do these things as an individual is one thing; as a nation quite another. When the Lord cried out they would not hear. Now that they are crying out the Lord seems to not hear. What was so hard about the command? The answer may be within. Now they fast in the fifth month these many years, but, is it to the Lord they fast or to themselves? They send men to inquire of the prophet, but, is it for the truth or to bend God's ear? Why should He listen if they do not listen? Why should He do for them when they intend to do plenty for themselves only as well? Worship is not about doing better for yourself. It is not about bending His will around yours. It is not Him plucking you out of the pit that you've dug yourself so that you can run along to dig yet another. Worship is about Him, it is about what you most value, what you are most willing to serve. One cannot perform the command without the deepest reverence and worship towards Him who wants you first to listen. And to best do that one must do this worship as a nation. That is what is so hard.
kjv@Zechariah:8 @ @ RandyP comments: If you could imagine a place and a time when every man speaks truth to his neighbor, truth and peace are executed at the gates, evil intent and false oath are far removed; God imagines much the same. Ten men of ten different languages come to the Jew and say let us together go speedily to worship your God in His city; that day friends will come. The seed shall be prosperous and the vine give her fruit, the ground her increase and the heavens their dew. The Lord shall cause this. How? How will He cause this? This causation is what we are experiencing now. It takes all of this to get us to there!
kjv@Zechariah:10 @ @ RandyP comments: Idols don't speak, men hear what they want to here from them and over the years they have heard plenty, all of it vanity. The signs are plain for all to see, but, what the diviners take from it is a lie, they see what they want to see, all of it vanity. Men are troubled because there is no shepherd or so they think, they comfort each other in vain. These were the shepherds they thought missing and the Lord's anger was kindled against them. Shepherds must stand for what is true, often a most difficult and sacrificial task. Instead, as a whole they lead the flock away and so the Lord dispersed them. Faithful leaders need to add to their faith virtue (Valor/Excellence), knowledge (revealed), temperance (physical/spiritual), patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, and charity (agape) in order to be fruitful in the knowledge of Christ kjv@2Peter:1:5-8 . There are leaders amongst us today that need much of the same. We have one Shepherd but several pastors.
kjv@Revelation:20 @ @ RandyP comments: What is this life here and now? It is a book being written. In it are the stories of our lives, the spiritual fruit that the Lord was able to produce in us by our abiding. If not abiding then no fruit. If not His works (the works He had predestined that we walk in) than no works at all. It is said that all paths lead to God. Here all paths are recorded in the book of life and lead to His judgment, wheat from tare, sheep from impostor. When Jesus declared that one must be born again of spirit and water, these then are the names written favorably in the book of life. Their rebirth in Him has produced works and fruit some one hundred fold.
kjv@Revelation:21:8 @ @ RandyP comments: There are those that say that the Bible does not teach of Hell. Or that God's love is unconditional, that He will not allow even the more deserving souls to be lost. There is the hope amongst some that having seen all of this, having better understanding of the sin nature, having seen God face to face, having understood His will and process, that even these would have the needed change of heart and gladly accept their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Perhaps for the intellectual atheist or agnostic. Perhaps for those deceived all this time by others. For some perhaps so, but, what about the remainder? What about those who blame God? Those who yet cling to their universalism or false god? Those who cannot forgive themselves or refuse release from their lusts and cravings?
kjv@Revelation:21:8 @ @ RandyP comments: Is Hell really that hard to understand? If your family was moving from it's remote frontier outpost to a new thriving city and you refused to go, what would you have left? If your ship was abandoned and left to sink and you refused to go, what would you have left. If your leprosy was cured by a shot and a new healthy location and you refused...you get the idea! We tend to think of God when we think of Hell in terms of "how could He" instead of "why did we not". If it is the course of creation to proceed from A (a temporal/carnal existence) to B (a transitional/spiritual existence being set apart and prepared) to C (a new and spiritual living eternal existence far removed from the corruption of sin/death) and we stick to our guns and stay at A, what happens to us when A and B are no more? Are no longer supported? Are removed from available options? What happens to the seed that refuses to sprout?
kjv@Malachi:3 @ @ RandyP comments: Throughout this book we have been shown how religion gets twisted. The Lord says that that they are doing this, but they say how are we doing that. Their own self perception and self justification has over stepped the bounds of how God sees it. No doubt they want to be religious, but, not in the manner the Lord wants them to be. One way perhaps to demonstrate this is in our tithes. God says that 'you are robbing me'. We say 'you are God, what do you need with money'. Clearly the principal is not the money, it is in to whom the money belongs. It is a simple test of ownership and a test of willing obedience. In this and so many other areas we have justified our way passed the actual principal.
kjv@Genesis:1 @ @ RandyP comments: Of the many details about creation given in this first chapter, perhaps the most peculiar is the division between verse strkjv@Genesis:1:1 'in the beginning' and verse strkjv@Genesis:1:2 'and the earth was'. To me the key word is 'was' which I suggest more properly should be translated 'became' as used in other text. Notice Heaven and Earth created in the beginning strkjv@Genesis:1:1. Notice Heaven and Earth not being divided till strkjv@Genesis:1:9. What happened that they were in the beginning but not divided until the third day? Many would say that they were created without form and void, the native language can just as easily say they became uninhabitable being a place suffering judgment.
kjv@Genesis:1 @ @ RandyP comments: Another peculiarity we should not let escape our attention is that while there is a division between light and dark strkjv@Genesis:1:3-5 called Night and Day, the actual objects visually determining those observances for earth were not until kjv@Genesis:1:14-19 after even vegetation. Light and darkness till then were from a different source and that source was sufficient for massive plant life. In kjv@Revelation:21:23 we see a similar occurrence in the new earth.
kjv@Matthew:1:1-17 @ @ RandyP comments: The bloodline of Jesus is of course important to scholars in confirming the qualifications of Jesus determined by existing prophecy. In the gospels we have two bloodlines written in case we were to misinterpret or loose the one. Both are valid to authenticate Jesus, Mary's perhaps slightly more as it is actual blood Jesus would have.
kjv@Matthew:1:1-17 @ @ RandyP comments: The human ancestry of Jesus is not as dry a reading as one might expect. It flies by in 16 quick verses, but, the personal histories of these individual lives cover an amazing 42 generations. You can imagine someone someday reading over your descendent's genealogy and skipping over your name as dry and inconsequential. What is important here is the lives, the lifetimes, passions and interests and occurrences, successes and set backs, wishes and desires, health and sickness, riches and poverty, sin and righteousness, freedom and captivity. Much like our lives, these people had the hope that despite everything that this life or at least the lives of our offspring was leading to something good. In these peoples case it lead from a promise to a patriarch to a fulfillment of that promise the living Messiah.
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:3:15 @ @ RandyP comments: This is seen as the very first prophecy of what God will do future tense. Eve may have concluded that this would be fulfilled in her first born. It was not actually fulfilled until Jesus.
kjv@Genesis:3 @ @ RandyP comments: Many liberal interpretations have been made of this story as to what the forbidden fruit might have been. The fruit however is not the import object here however, it is the transgression. The fruit could have been anything, the fact is that they were told not to do it, the transgression that they did it anyway. Some see the freedom of choice given Adam/Eve as broad as their own, and hold the freedom of choice as essential to sin. The fact is that because of the sin of these two all of mankind has been cursed and quarantined, the choice not to sin removed, not one man escaped. This is why the prophecy of a particular seed of Eve against the seed of the serpent.
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:6:4 @ @ RandyP comments: There are concerns that the sons of God mentioned here may have been fallen angels; an intra species race. It would lend a different understanding to why the flood would be immediately necessary if true. Others see these giants to be plain men of unusual stature and influence.
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:9:22-24 @ @ RandyP comments: The language or translation seems to be holding something back here. If Ham only saw (caught a glimps), why does it say Noah knew what the younger son had done to him? There was some type of violation or deeper shame committed to warrant the severe curse that followed. In seeing it may be in how he saw and in telling it may be in how/what he told his brothers. Or else it may be something worse.
kjv@Genesis:10:1 @ @ RandyP comments: We see another situation where incest was not forbidden but, required to continue the race. Eventually the genetic components of the seed would become more and more damaged to the point where soon it's produce would be disgusting and the act would be forbidden.
kjv@Genesis:10 @ @ RandyP comments: Great names, great cities, eventually great nations and kingdoms; it doesn't take long to repopulate the earth. Many of these names we will see in several other places in the Bible. Most will become enemies of Israel. Some are even spoken of in the end times.
kjv@Genesis:18 @ @ RandyP comments: Perhaps our ears can't hear it but there is a cry to a city. Perhaps some cry more than others, but, cry none the less. There is justice and judgment and the effect of such. From that effect a noise calls out from the streets and alleys and market places to the heavens above. What does the cry sound like in your city? There are people within the city whom believe the Lord and it is woven in to them as righteousness. For the righteousness they believe certain in God they perform judgment and justice with an equal hand; standing the gap between the oppressed and the wicked. It is for these people few though they may be perhaps that a city is saved from outright ruin. There are also the men who please the Lord by engaging Him with petitions for the righteous. Though He will always do what is right, He loves to hear His people petition Him so.
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: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:22 @ @ RandyP comments: It might be thought that all men are tested in this severe of a way. No other man has received a covenant from God the size of Abraham's however. Should we expect that any other man's test would be so large? Abraham's belief in the promise of God that in Isaac the covenant will continue is what was being tested, that God will provide. While certain religions focus upon what Abraham was willing to sacrifice, the deed that would have been done, the supposed earning of grace, we as Christians focus on what God alone eventually sacrificed/provided, we focus on the prophecy that by His hand alone did come true. It remains a covenant totally comprised of His grace; the Lord used Abraham's willingness in this case to sketch out plainly to us that it was nothing other than this grace.
kjv@Matthew:4:1-11 @ @ RandyP comments: Tempted - as in tested, examined. Of - as in by, from. Was there a chance that Jesus would not pass the test? Think of this as you examining a mirror. Is their any chance that it will not pass the test of being a mirror? Not if it is a mirror. Can you entice the mirror to be something else? An orange? By examining the mirror, you are testing your understanding of what a mirror should be, evaluating by your understanding if this is indeed a mirror. Satan is testing his understanding of Jesus just as we would. Literally, does the text say that He was being examined by God? Or by the Devil?
kjv@Genesis:24 @ @ RandyP comments: The angel had prepared the servants way to prosper at this task. The blood line was to remain pure. I take it (way) to mean that he prepared Rebekah and her family's heart. The servant put a test before the angel so that he would know when he found the right woman. I have known people to put other tests out in their own prayers and dealings; I think that we need to be careful. Remember that Isaac was to become the continuation of the covenant with Abraham, this wife was to birth a great many seeds of the covenant. There is a righteousness there that may not be there if we place a similar test on which job shall we take or what city. Often our tests favor preconceived notions of what we would most like the answer to be and the situations leading to them born out of our dissatisfaction or restlessness. I am not saying that tests such as these are not good in certain cases, I am saying one must truly search out their intentions and honesty before making demands upon the righteous will of God.
kjv@Genesis:25:17 @ @ RandyP comments: Is this being gathered unto ones peoples a saying? or a biblical truth of death? I don't know kjv@STRING:gathered+unto+his and kjv@STRING:gathered+unto+thy . If so, would Ishmael's people be Abraham? The Egyptians? Who? Most likely, at least in the end, people of the same regenerate or non-regenerate spiritual heart. The fuller interpretation is that physically it simply means that they ended up in the same spot 'dust to dust' as all the loved ones who have gone before him. Spiritually however, added to 'giving up the ghost' it means dead in body (dust), the ghost yeilded, spiritually gathered to their just reward.
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@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:29:31 @ @ RandyP comments: Having children wasn't going to change Leah's situation with Jacob. She may of thought so, may have wished so, may have prayed for it to be so; for one reason or another it was just this way. Though the Lord had granted her children, they may have been more for her own good than for her marriage; that is one way to look at it. Perhaps the Lord wanted Jacob to change his heart, but, the decision was still all his; that is another take. Maybe this growing conflict between sisters is a sign of the internal tension amongst the tribes latter on. Either way, the Lord was moving on to begin his establishment of the twelve tribes starting with Leah's four sons. There may be design and will for each of us individually, but, there is also the overall plan/will as well. She may have come to this honest and sober conclusion by the time she had Judah. To have children in order to save a marriage is a huge burden for children to have to bare.
kjv@Genesis:35:1-4 @ @ RandyP comments: Jacob takes on the role of a proper spiritual father. He leads all of his children, as old as some may be, as a whole. He insists that they put away their strange gods, to be spiritually pure, to be circumspect in their dress and adornments. He became inclusive of them participating in the spiritual projects and worship that he himself was driven to accomplish. He set the tone and pace and they indeed followed along.
kjv@Genesis:35:10 @ @ RandyP comments: His name is being changed from Jacob (supplanter) to Israel (he will rule as God). It not only marks a change in the present perception but, in the goal or direction spiritually for him to follow. Name changes were more common in that day and notated the turning over of a new leaf.
kjv@Matthew:5:13-16 @ @ rpritts comments: Believers in Jesus 'are' this by no work of their own therefore they should continue to 'be' this. Should we abide in this (His completed work and grace) we will by nature produce worshipful works to His glory and praise, good works preordained that we should walk in. Should we step outside of that by again striving for selfish favor or personal salvation, though we 'are' salt our salt loses it's savor, though still light our light becomes hid. This is not a permanent situation if we repent and get back on course, it is a permanent situation only if we insist on trying to produce our own works towards salvation/favor.
kjv@Genesis:38 @ @ RandyP comments: The tradition in this culture favored the continuation of ones seed by providing a young widow one of her deceased husband's brothers to care for and continue his line. We see this in other places as well. This woman's husband was slain by the Lord. His brother willing refused the tradition for unknown reasons and died as well. Appearances may seem be pointing to this woman so that Judah when another son was of age held his son off from her, she took matters into her own hand. The whole story seems to be a horrid mess, one event triggering an avalanche of reactions and impulses. The Lord's work is like working in a house of cards.
kjv@Matthew:5:29-30 @ @ RandyP comments: Neither the eye nor the hand have the will/resource to commit adultery; it is only the heart that can entrap/offend. Removing a limb will not remove the will/imagination of the heart it would only restrict the will from receiving the visual input or accomplishing the physical task (a slight improvement), the heart would still have it's invention (perhaps more so). The understanding is in the value of reaching heaven which is even more than life or limb and the necessity of fighting the lusts of the heart straight on.
kjv@Matthew:5:31-32 @ @ RandyP comments: mFaithOfJesus kjv@Matthew:5:31-32 BUT I SAY UNTO - The common understanding again falls short. The purpose of a writ of divorce isn't only to protect the wife, it is to curb the effectual adultery that would result. If either spouse is unchaste then adultery is made. If both spouses are being chaste but have grown tired and loveless therewith adultery will be made should either take a new partner. We are not released from an eternal vow just because we want it to be unless the defilement of the vow by the one has forced the God fearing decision of the other. We are seeing the weakness of the Law in that it is interpreted and implemented by the human heart that is already deeply influenced by sin. The human heart at it's sincere best is searching from the inside out to see what God may have meant by the commandment. The faith of Jesus is looking from the outside in, knowing as the Father would know, looking in on the injured and entrapped heart knowing it's faulty logic and reprobate reasoning.
kjv@Genesis:42 @ @ RandyP comments: I have often puzzled over the allowance of Joseph to treat his brothers in this somewhat mean and deceitful manner. Jacob was a trickster in his day and now he is being tricked himself. Not to say that I would have reacted any better (probably worse) given the situation, but, wouldn't you like to hear him discuss his thought process now after the fact?
kjv@Exodus:5:20-23 @ @ RandyP comments: So the first approach did not work, in fact things got worse. The people blame Moses and Moses blames the Lord. It was actually a pretty lame approach to begin with, but, one has to realize that you don't just go up to a pharaoh and ask him to let my people go. Things have to be proven, leaders have to be tested, effort and sacrifice invested, God has to be depended upon.
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:8:19 @ @ RandyP comments: The same may be true in our own witnessing. A hardened heart is rarely convinced by rational conclusions. If signs and wonders are not enough, if the heart has given it's word and then turned on it, it now has much more than it's own image to rescue and maintain, it now must bend the situation developing by it's own will. His own magicians he must feel are weak and deserters, under the spell of others. Everyone else is wrong but him. Have you seen it?
kjv@Exodus:13:9 @ @ RandyP comments: Think of what the perception of God was before these acts. He was mostly full of promises. He had accomplished some necessary judgments (flood, Sodom), talked now and then to direct an individual. This is the first though that He had revealed with a mighty hand a entire people; first He had used one people to show forth His power to all other people and thereby spread the prophesy of the coming Christ. Now He will be right on top of these chosen people for a time to show us His precise nature.
kjv@Exodus:13 @ @ RandyP comments: It should be known by the way the Lord ritualized this event that He did not intend to continue doing this specific type of massive deliverance again, not for the Israelites, not for any other nation or tribe; it was a once and for all proclamation of the deliverance in Christ to come. There are not other Christs therefore there are not other pictures of His complete deliverance given for the nations. God will show smaller more general deliverances hereafter but those are pictures of more daily deliverances after the all in all deliverance of Christ is received and followed. He always did these fortellings leading up to Christ through Israel so that the nations would not confuse these accounts with any other god. This exodus account will be retold and reminded many times more throughout scripture.
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.
kjv@Exodus:15 @ @ RandyP comments: In this the Song of Moses it is easy to see the overwhelming jubilation and sense of God being able to do absolutely anything for the Israelites. In the very same chapter however we see that there yet remains a work that the Lord will have to do on them. Having the knowledge and the experience and the faith exhibited in this jubilation is one thing, having the heart to change from one's sinful nature and the heart to submit to His authority and obey quite another. The fact that it will take another 1500+ years before Christ arrives testifies to the gravity of the sin nature we possess to be exposed. We will see many a revival (many in recollection of this singular event) and we will see many similar jubilations, but, the weight of sin will in every case quickly blanket the spiritual exhilaration with grieving and bondage. Thus the need for Christ.
kjv@Exodus:17 @ @ RandyP comments: There is a danger when a single individual is used as mightily as Moses that the people follow the person and not the Lord. The odder turn is that they don't seem to follow the Lord unless there be a mighty leader. The truest statement is possibly that they don't generally follow the Lord period and the individual is only complained and plotted against. In the wilderness they could not provide for themselves, that was the point. But, did they come to depend on their own contact and relationship withe the Lord or did they depend upon another's. Today, we are much the same depending the faith and workings of our leaders rather than our personal faith and the Lord's bountiful resources.
kjv@Exodus:19 @ @ RandyP comments: I don't think we have been told that there were priest be fore this. These were probably the priests Israel had before in the captivity. Moses must confuse their physical proximity to God on the mountain (which had been forbidden) with their spiritual proximity which is always encouraged. This third day must had been a fearful day.
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:13:23 @ @ RandyP comments: For the few strong that remain all of this process works to produce fruit in them 30 60 100 fold; supernatural returns. Fruit like this would not be possible if it were not for the entire process the necessitated it and brought it about. We should not consider it odd that these many things go into producing spiritual fruit. It is producers like these that the Lord wants with Him in His Kingdom. These souls are basically the humble and meek He spoke of in the Beatitudes that His light and Spirit have shown through, His redemption has fashioned, branches abiding in His vine, created unto good works; they are the blessed.
kjv@Matthew:13:23 @ @ RandyP comments: The Lord sows a very particular seed expecting later a very particular fruit, a fruit worthy of the kingdom from which it was born, worthy of acceptance into the kingdom to which it is harvested. It is a supernatural fruit that comes forth in supernatural numbers; the fruit itself that bares more of this particular seed. The process it takes to produce from seed to root to a plant to fruit is deliberate and unavoidable as sunshine. Understanding this parable is to understand such spiritual process. Is this the fruit that I am producing?
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.
kjv@Matthew:18:1 @ @ RandyP comments: The subject 'greatest' is often brought up and is often tied to child like qualities. Not child like as in play, but, child like as in service/respect to others. Perhaps one can be playful and imaginative in service, but, certainly not the other way around serving child play/imagination.
kjv@Matthew:21:12 @ @ RandyP comments: There is the physical temple and there is a temple of individual men's hearts. Where a man's heart is there will be his treasure. There are men who treasure making money from the religious needs of many. There are men who treasure peace that do not confront them. There are men who treasure their position in the church that allow for even profit from such allowance. There are men who treasure the way things just the way they are, the way things have long time been. There are those who treasure their own ideals of the temple and not the ill image it projects to those it mistreats. These are the types of men who would be displeased by Jesus' message carried out in the temple for they do not treasure Him. When we look as individuals upon a collective temple such as this we look upon men's collective hearts. The object is not to avoid coming to the collective temple, it is to call upon all men's hearts by a higher calling; to call upon all men to come observe the most holy heart of our Lord and Savior; to meet with Him by His grace then and there. And if need be, shake a few tables of our own.
RecentComments @ kjv@James:2:21 @ RandyP comments: Justification can be thought of on two scales, one being made right with God overall (this is by faith and faith alone), the second as proof one to another of our pre-existing overall faith (the faith that I have can be proven to you by the works that this faith has executed on/through me). If faith has not produced demonstrable works, one must wonder if that having been made right with God actually exists. For, the "made right with God" faith will unalterably cause corresponding demonstrable proofs. The larger scale justification is all important first and foremost, each of us must be made right with God by the imputation of Jesus' own righteousness covering over us. This is the justification Paul largely speaks to us of. The smaller scale justification then (and only then) is inevitable should this first condition be met. This is the obvious point James here in chapter 2 furthers.
So many unbelievers today look at Christian faith as a dead thing. One response is that they (unbelievers) want that to be. The opposing response might be that perhaps on an observable scale it indeed is dead is if we (Christians) have not the works to counter their disbelief with. Dead in this inference is to mean unprovable or yet to have tangible effect, not necessarily that the faith in some smaller but saving form does not exist.
RecentComments @ kjv@James:2:21 @ RandyP comments: Justification can be thought of on two scales, one being made right with God overall (this is by faith and faith alone), the second as proof one to another of our pre-existing overall faith (the faith that I have can be proven to you by the works that this faith has executed on/through me). If faith has not produced demonstrable works, one must wonder if that having been made right with God actually exists. For, the "made right with God" faith will unalterably cause corresponding demonstrable proofs. The larger scale is all important firt and foremost, each of us being made right with God. This is the justification Paul largely speaks to us of. The smaller scale justification then (and only then) is inevitable should the first condition be met. This is the obvious point James furthers. So many unbelievers today look at Christian faith as a dead thing. One response is that they (unbelievers) want that to be. The opposing response might be that perhaps on an observable scale it indeed is dead is if we (Christians) have not the works to counter their disbelief with. Dead in this inference is to mean questionable as to whether the first scale has actually been met.
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