kjv@Psalms:50 @ @ RandyP comments: It is truly inspiring to hear the psalmist describe our God, to consider His ways even for as little as we can comprehend. It is addictive! There is literally nothing that is not His making nor possession. Along with the excitement and trust there is also a fear and a urgency for us to pay our vows.
kjv@Psalms:55 @ @ RandyP comments: In this case, David's enemy was a one time confidant, someone his equal that he had trusted in the affairs of the kingdom. This may not be the same type of enemy that we would have, does not have the same political effect, but, we feel the similarity just the same. The context must remain the extreme positions that these two men held and the severity of one man turning to injure the reputation of the other, the king. By the time David prays for a destruction, he is speaking in the plural.
kjv@Psalms:56 @ @ RandyP comments: As much as we want our troubles and prayers to sound like David's, very few if any of us have lived the life and done the things towards justice that he speaks of hear. There is a reason he is pursued by his enemies daily and heavily. He can say that his cause is just and that theirs is unjust, that they are wicked or filled with iniquity because they are. Though we picture ourselves in the David role with our own circumstances, chances are more mathematically probable that we are in the enemies role; if not by direct pursuit then by tolerance and detachment.
kjv@Psalms:65 @ @ RandyP comments: God has a general grace given to all, even His enemies, that can be explained as simply as the sun and rain that falls upon all of us. In so many ways he moves over and upon each of our lives providing and blessing in ways we barely realize. We have a more specific grace as well in which He has chosen and caused many to approach. The psalmists speaks in natural terms that we all can picture and understand but he is speaking in spiritual terms as well.
kjv@Psalms:68 @ @ RandyP comments: David now speaks of God's enemies. The righteous have much to be glad for. When we look beyond our own fox holes to see the progress He has made toward the final objective; When we look as David does here into the future of the nations and peoples that will be on board along with us by the end; even the tribes of Israel; it all is too wonderful not to be extremely encouraged and filled with praise. All of this out of the fountain of Israel.
kjv@Psalms:72 @ @ RandyP comments: This obviously is a messianic psalm speaking of the Messiah's earthly reign from sea to sea for as long as the sun and moon endure and beyond. No other king could fill these shoes. This will be fufilled after His second coming and great judgment. There will be a millenial reign and then the reign of His new heaven and new earth according to other prophetic texts.
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: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@Romans:6 @ @ RandyP comments: Baptized into His death. How many of us realize that? That we may be free of sin... Let not sin therefore reign. There was a time when we had no choice, we were servants of the flesh. Being crucified with Christ now there is a second choice; and it does not appear that it is automatic that we will make the right choice in this new freedom. There are only two choices presented however. The other choice is to be servants of righteousness. We may think that that there is a third choice to do whatever we determine ourselves but that is the same as serving the flesh. This is the test of our faith, whether is strong enough to serve righteousness single mindedly and whether it is real enough to know that it is not automatic.
kjv@Psalms:78 @ @ RandyP comments: By Asaph. The condition of man's heart, even the heart of God's chosen/faithful, is reviewed. Rebellious, if by them than how much more are we? After all that God had done, after all that God had made them into, after all that God had done both peaceably and violently to correct them, they sinned still and did not believe Him for His wondrous works. They forgot, refused, tempted and provoked, believed not nor trusted, lusted, kept not His commandment/testimony, were not steadfast in His covenant. By denying Christ Jesus to this day, what would make us to think that this is any different today, that somehow now they've got it right, have evolved to a higher more trustworthy plain? Gentiles are just the same though they haven't been exposed to this measure. We know from scripture however that they will one day come to the fullness of their covenant with God in the Lord Jesus.
kjv@Psalms:79 @ @ RandyP comments: It is one thing for Judah to be corrected by the Lord and for Him to use neighboring nations as His instruments. It is quiet another for those nations to puff up, to think that it was by their hand, that the God of Jacob is silent, that they are somehow better. Their ill intentions may have been used by God but, that does mean that they are excused for intending and coming against His anointed. We know that as the hearts of Judah is turned back to God and their prayers are cried out that God will once again move in their favor for His covenant and His own name sake.
kjv@Psalms:81 @ @ RandyP comments: Other gods, the plague of Israel. Why was it so easy for them to slip back into this? After all the reproofs, the bondage and countless turning back. It would be wise for us to consider this answer. It may not be as simple as finding the right god and sticking to it. It could be that we use gods to serve us which the false gods are very willing to do. It could be that we feel better being fulfilled and exalted than being brought low and humbled. It could be that we believe the here and now and not the future, that our hearts are never satisfied, that we are driven by lust and fear. There are processes and separations being used by the Lord to make us what we will one day be. It is easier though for us to think that we are now what we will be. Such are our presumptuous sins. Such is the shame of what this life should have been.
kjv@Romans:8:1-18 @ @ RandyP comments: The importance of separating flesh from spirit cannot be stressed enough. It is just as separating death from life. We have grown comfortable in our flesh; it is all that we have ever known. We may have had a particular problem so we think with a part of the flesh such as addiction or anger, so we look to religion to rectify that one fleshly weakness. The problem is that all the flesh is corrupt and in no way can please God. Good Intentions? Certainly. Good deeds? In part. Atonement with God? Only by crucifying the flesh, being quickened in our mortal flesh, walking in the spirit. Without strict abiding in Jesus Christ none of this is remotely possible by our own hand.
kjv@Psalms:83 @ @ RandyP comments: Even in that day there was a substantial and unified conspiracy against the presence of Israel. On one level it appears to be political but, from this author's vantage point it appears to be a spiritual warfare. Given that the promised Messiah was to come from Judah, given that all nations would one day worship in a New Jerusalem, given that God's name would dwell in Zion, given that all nations would blessed that bless Israel, the Devil I am sure makes it his object to tear at Israel. After nearly two thousand years of dispersed absence we are back to the same thing. It takes on political consequence but, have no doubt that it is spiritual in nature.
kjv@Psalms:84 @ @ RandyP comments: It is often calculated that a compassionate God is not a God of judgement. Here we see a soul longing/fainting for the courts of the Lord. What is it that makes His courts desirable? Judgement is what is most needed in order for true compassion to stand out and take hold. It is because judgement is missing that our position is as it is. We have delegated judgment to ourselves but fail to pursue it. We do what is right in our own eyes and the world becomes a hateful desperate place because of it. Better is a day in His courts than a thousand with the wicked indeed!
kjv@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@Romans:13 @ @ RandyP comments: kjv@Romans:12-13 pair up nicely as a practical explanation of the daily Christian walk. These things take place because of our daily sacrifice and presentation to the Lord. They are a result of faith living forth and not being forced by mere religion.
kjv@Romans:14:23 @ @ RandyP comments: What is not of faith is sin. Almost too bad this major universal truth is tagged on to a line considering the observance of foods and days; it gets over looked. Too many people consider sin the breaking of the one of the ten commandments. The reprobate mind reduces and compartmentalizes down to the un-approachable minimum. The scale of sin is much broader than we observe bringing every living breath and action into doubt. To know this scale of sin and it's human inescapably is to know why Jesus had to die one for all to it.
kjv@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@Psalms:108 @ @ RandyP comments: Vain is the help of man. It is said "I get by with a little help from my friends". There is certainly a time and place for this type of help. There is a time and place for a much greater help though as well. I can not think of what I would do facing those times had I not had my faith and God going forth in front of me. Friends can surely be comforting as well as discomforting. They can think that they are saying the right things and they can speak before thinking too. We take that for what it is. But there are times when sheer valor is required, we need our foundation set upon the Rock; that would be most all the time now it seems.
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@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:112 @ @ RandyP comments: God can use one upright man can effect an entire generation of upright people. He frequently does. What makes this upright man? He greatly delights in the commandments. What kind of things does he do? We have glimpses here but, it is more to do with how he goes about the things that he does. This description is very similar to the description of Job's uprightness, as in distributing to the poor. It doesn't say that evil tidings will not come, it says the he will not be afraid of them, his heart is fixed trusting in the Lord.
kjv@Psalms:114 @ @ RandyP comments: The sea parted for Israel. The Jordan river became dry land for them to cross. As a foreign nation watching on from a distance, one would have to ask why such a mighty god would do these things for Israel and not us? Later, after our foreign nation had infiltrated and commingled our gods and idols into Israel, one would have to ask why is this god Jehovah so jealous over Israelite people and not us? What are these many legends being retold about their time in the desert? Surely, Israel is being used as an injection point for His inoculation needle. The surrounding area festers, it fevers, it changes, the remainder of the body takes sudden and frequent notice. The body collectively resists, the body swells against, it is whipped into a frenzy, but, in the process of fighting against the injection the body takes on and spreads the antibody unknowingly, receiving and carrying about that which the Doctor behind the needle had fully intended from the start. 'Tremble, thou earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob'.
kjv@Psalms:115 @ @ RandyP comments: They that make these idols are like unto them and so are those that would trust in them. So what idols have we made today? What idols have we trusted in today? What preconceptions? What false notions? What religious forms and identities have we taken on that are similarly vacant? Where have we imagined a vain thing? Where have we placed anything other above our God? The people of Israel had done it; even after their tremendous experiences with God. Time and time again it was their down fall. What is it that makes us think that today this is no longer a factor in our lives? That we've gotten it all figured out? That we are somehow different from them? Perhaps this false illusion is one of our many idols.
kjv@Psalms:116 @ @ RandyP comments: Amongst the vows to pay: will walk before the Lord in the land of the living; will take cup of salvation and call upon Lord; offer sacrifice of thanksgiving and call upon name of Lord; will pay vows unto in presence of all His people, in courts of Lord house, in midst of Jerusalem. The what where and when are given for a good starting point to a strong relationship and walk with the Lord.
kjv@Psalms:119:49-104 @ @ RandyP comments: A righteous God does not judge unrighteously. He does not do anything just because of the person asking it. The righteous God is not a respecter of the person but of the statute, of the law, of the principal involved. To be on the right of judgement is to be on the right side of the precept. To be on the right side of the precept one must know and act in accordance which takes study and meditation and daily observance of, to hate and refrain and stand against the opposite. This puts one at odds with those lawless and wicked and often requires the righteous God's re-enforcement.
kjv@1Corinthians:4 @ @ RandyP comments: How is it that a steward is found faithful? In the apostle's case it was in the style of life that he had given himself over to. It was a rough life, much of the luxury that is part of our life were absent in theirs. Much of the danger and persecution that we shy away from they stood toe to toe against. They were made spectacles. A faithful steward today must expect similar. kjv@Psalms:119 speaks of faithful afflictions meant to stir us up from God.
kjv@Psalms:119:105-176 @ @ RandyP comments: One of the things we miss the most in our doctrine nowadays is the concept of just how right each and everything God has said or done or decided or judged or testified of has been. We get caught up in the love and grace without understanding what it is that defines that love, defines that grace, makes it so immense and great: His righteousness. In the law, the statutes, the precepts, the testimonies these things can be searched out, can have their proper effect helping us to grasp His defining nature. We know now that in our faith that the Grace supersedes the moral code, that the spirit of it exceeds the letter, but, the Law still can be our schoolmaster not only teaching where we fall short but where God's righteousness stands out.
kjv@1Corinthians: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:7:14 @ @ RandyP comments: Their salvation still requires belief and repentance just as the rest of us. This sanctification he is speaking of is of a setting apart. There are varying levels of sanctification. The unbeliever and the household are being blessed tangibly because of the blessing of God toward the believer and the children are raised in a better and more wholesome environment. It still would be better however that they all believe.
kjv@Psalms: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: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@1Corinthians:7:25-40 @ @ RandyP comments: What would a personal opinion be doing in the Bible? It shows me an example of applying principal. There are areas in our lives where we will find no direct scriptural answer or command. I don't think that God sought for each and every area to be commanded. There are several areas however we will find where it is best to apply principal. We are allowed to see how an apostle would reason such an area forward by principal. Yes it is his opinion and we have to take it as such, but, principals are born out great truths that have been meditated and applied in different areas that have similarity to the issue presently considered. Most people don't spend enough time even meditating these God given truths enough during to day to know how that they might relate to the question at hand.
kjv@Psalms:137 @ @ RandyP comments: It must be humbling when ones captors request to hear one of your hymns as if to rub your face in the fact that they are taking you back to their land to make you slaves. It drives home the fact that you've let a good thing go. Had they listened to God, had they returned their hearts from their false gods, had they obeyed it may not have come to this. But it has, and there naturally is bitterness towards these captors. Really though God's mercy from kjv@Psalms:123 is still at work in a reproving fashion. We should not be so hardened as to allow it to come to this.
kjv@1Corinthians:9 @ @ RandyP comments: Seems that there is always a fuss over money, be it tithes or church salaries or building funds or pastor's portions etc. It comes to the point where the gospel is hindered by all the fuss. Some concern is rightly placed. Most concern is nothing more than serving the master of mammon more than the master of grace. Paul was well within his rights to eat of the grain he had milled, but, made a personal decision as an apostle not to partake of his portion simply because it would surely become an offense to weaker less mature believers. Not all ministers are in that same position nor should they be expected to be either.
kjv@Psalms:139:23-24 @ @ RandyP comments: David has just spoken of those that speak against and take His name in vain, of a perfect hatred held against them as enemies. Here he wants to know that there is not any similar wicked way in him. Otherwise he would be a hypocrite and wicked to boot. Could there be a wicked way that God would disapprove of in our lives yet here today?
kjv@1Corinthians:10:1-13 @ @ RandyP comments: Ensamples they are, written for our admonition. Let's look at just the pure mathematics of probability. It is immensely more probable that we are beset by one of these traits than not. Idolaters, fornicators, tempters of Christ, murmurers, each trait more diverse and profound than first glance; and there are more. If one today thinks he stands he should take heed lest he fall. God knows this and is faithful. He has made a means to escape and bear it!
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@Psalms:144 @ @ RandyP comments: The hand of strange children mentioned twice. The hand of our Lord. The future of our daughters and sons. David is willing to fight and willing to be taught to fight all the better. The Lord is His goodness, fortress, high tower and strength. But what about these strange children, is it David causing the fight with this attitude or is it the pesky perseverance of these strange children that pursue to overtake him? Is it the principals for which He stands for? Few if any have ever stood for what is right and not been attacked.
kjv@Psalms:147:15 @ @ RandyP comments: We often put the concept of God spreading His word solely into the hands of man, limiting His word to the places man can get to and the time frame it would take for man to be able to get there and the reaction the man or men would receive. God's word is not limited by any such thing; it moves swiftly. He can use man's willingness to spread just as He can use the frozen ice.
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@1Corinthians:11:16-34 @ @ RandyP comments: There is concern over the way this congregation views and implements it's Holy Communion. This is not to be a drunken party nor a food line, it is a solemn partaking symbolically of the flesh and blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Anything other, anything reason less becomes a curse or judgement.
kjv@Proverbs:3 @ @ RandyP comments: In many of the proverbs I notice that the child or the son is receiving the teaching and lives it forth through a process of correction and refinement. There is a personal reward continuously in that. The reward from others seems sometimes to come later as a man, sometimes much later. So often our youth are looking for the reward of others here and now to make their personal reward; correction is not part of the equation at all.
kjv@Proverbs: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:12:17 @ @ RandyP comments: Speaking truth is associated with being a trust worthy witness; a witness that sheweth forth righteousness. Whose righteousness? God's
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:13:1 @ @ RandyP comments: Instruction often comes in the form of rebuke/reproof. Being willing to listen to it is the key to being wise. The rebuke/reproof has to wise of course otherwise it is mean cruel for it's own sake. Parents for instance need to be as wise or wiser than their own fatherly instruction, which many times means being wise enough to listen to our Father's rebuke as well.
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:15:20 @ @ RandyP comments: A father would be most pleased if a son would deeply respect and have a warm open connection to his mom. It wouldn't matter as much to the father about the son's relationship with him; that would just be the cream on the cake. Should the son not have this connection to his mom neither father nor mom would be pleased especially the father.
kjv@Proverbs:15:22 @ @ RandyP comments: The problem is that few of us have ever taken the effort of developing and maintaining a circle of wise counselors. It is a purposeful and extensive investment long before an issue ever arises. Knowing who to trust, who most sees things as they really are, having previous experience with them in smaller issues. Men seem to hold off seeking counsel until times where a circle of counsel cannot be mustered soon enough. Women tend to seek the wrong counsel, counsel that will tell you whatever they think you want to hear instead of counsel that is honest and fearless enough to tell you where you are wrong.
kjv@Proverbs:16:9 @ @ RandyP comments: If the preparations of the heart are the Lord's kjv@Proverbs:16:1, if his goings forth are from the Lord and his way cannot be understood outside of the Lord kjv@Proverbs:20:24 and if it is only the counsel of the Lord that will stand kjv@Proverbs:19:21, what do we have other than to choose which of His steps to take? In light of kjv@Romans:1:18-24 God prepared hearts to follow after Him, He gave them a choice, as much as He prepared they still chose contrary, their steps now are directed (that choice leads to these steps) yet His counsel must stand - they are condemned for transgressing the preparation laid into their hearts.
kjv@Proverbs:17 @ @ RandyP comments: kjv@STRING:Proverbs:17+AND+fool Look at how many times a fool is mentioned in this chapter. kjv@STRING:Proverbs+AND+fool makes for an interesting study as is kjv@STRING:Proverbs+AND+righteous
kjv@2Corinthians:2 @ @ RandyP comments: God causes us to triumph in Christ. He causes doors to open of the Lord and makes manifest the savour of His knowledge. To some that means life, to others death, to us sufficiency to speak forth. At times it requires strict obedience to those placed above us and at times it allows for forgiveness by proxy. There is great sorrow of heart and great joy as well, but, there is always thanks to God in all things.
kjv@2Corinthians:3 @ @ RandyP comments: You will recall that there was a glory that shone from Moses after he had received the commandments that the people dared not look upon. The glory began fading and Moses began wearing a veil so as not to show the diminishing. Paul is saying that this was symbolic of the fading glory of the Law, it wasn't meant to remain as 'the' exceeding glory, it was meant to become a schoolmaster, as the sting of death. Liberty in Christ is 'the' exceeding glory, it cannot fade, the veil has been lifted. The Jews have yet to be awakened to this fact until the time of the Gentiles be complete.
kjv@2Corinthians:4 @ @ RandyP comments: Is Paul saying that only the Apostles are called to this stringent a life? That we should just sit back and bask in the glory that has been revealed in their work and sacrifice? Surely we are not Apostles, but, we are disciples, we are followers, we are partakers of the divine nature. If this is what Christ suffered, if this is what the Apostles suffered, then we too should be willing/expecting to suffer the same. It is in this manner after all the life and glory of Christ is revealed.
kjv@Proverbs:23 @ @ RandyP comments: Dainties...deceitful meat...desirous. Not everything is as it seems. Not everything is as it is presented. People put the best spin on things. People have their way of making even the worst look the best. Their is a price that they have had to pay; no need paying it alongside with them or for them.
kjv@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: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: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@Ecclesiastes:8:8 @ @ RandyP comments: How many have I seen that have fearfully fought to retain the spirit upon their death bed only to drag themselves only further into fear and pain. It is a fearful thing to all but to those prepared to meet their maker it is a much anticipated moment and a short step into His arms.
kjv@Ecclesiastes:10-11 @ @ RandyP comments: In his proverbial style Solomon shares his wisdom on sowing, on avoiding folly, on the poor, and on folly in the upright standing out like a stinking perfume. This section almost seems to break the previous train of thought that all is vanity. All is not vanity if the Lord blesses what is being done.
kjv@2Corinthians:12:12 @ @ RandyP comments: Are we to take this that there are signs/wonders/deeds that only an apostle can do? Almost like an confirmation of apostleship? WHat signs and wonders would these be?
kjv@2Corinthians:13 @ @ RandyP comments: There is a fine line between edification and destruction when addressing situations like this. The sense that Paul has is that his accusers are attempting to rattle him, make him say something or do something that would turn out to their advantage. By challenging him to prove himself as an Apostle their hope is to make him over react or be over bearing enough to push people away, show that he is operating from his own pride and sense of possession. There is also the chance that he may shy away and underplay the situation as well. We, much like Paul, must be prayerful, direct and and Spirit led in these situations too.
kjv@Isaiah:1 @ @ RandyP comments: BookOfIsaiah gives us a good background to Isaiah. We find ourselves in great rebellion, the LORD seeking to correct but, no correction being taken. If not for a remnant the nation would have already been destroyed.
kjv@Isaiah:2 @ @ RandyP comments: The day of the LORD is a terrible day especially for the lofty of men. Peace activists quote the "swords into plowshares" but, do not realize the terrible fierceness with which He does that, how the earth is shaken and men crawl into caves and cracks in the rock.
kjv@Isaiah:5 @ @ RandyP comments: From Israel the Lord expected judgment. He found the opposite oppression. Right was wrong and wrong right, dark light, evil good. Reward was given for wickedness and house joined to house making large estates for certain well to do individuals. They were drunkards and wise/prudent in their own eyes, harps and pipes playing a much different song, the works of the Lord forgotten. We see that there was a hedge around them once, protection from the pest, the briers, the heat of the sun. The hedge was brought down to flush out the nation's wickedness.
kjv@Isaiah:7 @ @ RandyP comments: This is a very detailed prophecy. In 65 tears Ephraim/Israel shall be no more and not long after both Ephraim and Judah shall be without a king being first under the hand of Assyria. The fruitful land shall be over taken with flys and bees and become briers and thorns suitable only for cattle. Heads and beards and feet will be shaven in utter humiliation. During this era of captivity the messiah will born, His name, her virginity, His diet and distaste for evil all are revealed. Each and every piece of this prophecy has been completely fulfilled within a 675 year time span.
kjv@Isaiah:9 @ @ RandyP comments: How important to know that His anger is not turned but His hand is still extended. Israel/Judah/Manasseh have long strayed from any resemblance of covenant partnership with God; they have become exactly what covenant had told them not to be. The Lord has been more than long suffering towards them and is now prepared to do what He said would be done. This does not mean that it is all over though, that it all was a big mistake and that He is moving on without them; it means that they will serve His purpose just the same. For the present time it is to our benefit that this be, until the fulfillment of this Gentile age.
kjv@Galatians:4 @ @ RandyP comments: Notice the passion with which Paul speaks of/to the Galatians as he extols the difference between the two covenants, how they are not to be inter-mingled.
kjv@Isaiah:17 @ @ RandyP comments: The judgement continues throughout the region; Israel, Moab, and now Syria and beyond. The impact was devastating to all. History confirms that the Babylonian Empire was brutal and massive. It was not by accident nor their own doing however, but God's used their violent possessive treacherous nature to achieve His righteous purposes. Everyone had to take notice and the prophecies of Isaiah had to have been known/searched by many I would think.
kjv@Isaiah:19 @ @ RandyP comments: Let's not forget that the Lord has created all nations. The God of Israel is known by these nations mentioned after frequent encounters. Now He is making Himself obvious. Egypt to this day has a strong Christian presence.
kjv@Isaiah:22 @ @ RandyP comments: The Lord does not do anything this serious without serious reason. He does not do without first making known the consequence and the transgression. There is a iniquity deep at heart. It is an iniquity that is of the type that cannot be purged even with this serious action except by death. Notice that they will be purged however. God has not given them up.
kjv@Isaiah:24 @ @ RandyP comments: This is an unimaginable time. To see everything broken down and laid to waste. To fear the next thing whatever it is to happen. To know what is was before and have none of that. All because of sin, the breaking of the eternal covenant, going about our lives completely void. This time may be a revelation of our inward selves, our spiritual habitat, our relationship with our creator; desolate, wasted, rotting and decayed.
kjv@Isaiah:25 @ @ RandyP comments: I can't help but think that we have minimized sin to such a point where these actions of God seem extreme instead of thinking of them as faithful and true. That He would have to do all of this and to this extent should tell us everything that we need to know about this sin nature. By the time that we are delivered through and out of this present truth there is a tremendous new life. Death will be gone, tears wiped away, rebuke shall be lifted, a feast partaken of.
kjv@Isaiah:26 @ @ RandyP comments: It is by the grace of God that we have everything that we have today. What if that is taken back or diminished? It would seem like a cruel punishment to those who think that it was all by their hand would it not? To those that knew that it was all by His grace it would seem well within His rights, deliberate and purposeful, even transformative almost like child birth.
kjv@Ephesians:5 @ @ RandyP comments: There are those who follow after the darkness of this world in it's many components. There is us who have been called out of darkness into the light, to be light, light that manifests. Ways listed to do this include separating ourselves from that darkness, not partaking in their darkness, walking circumspectly, speaking joyfully to one another in psalms and songs etc, giving proper structure and definition to marriages. Walk in love as did Christ.
kjv@Isaiah: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:1 @ @ RandyP comments: Christ is being preached, by Paul's life and by his death, by others responding to Paul's absence some in contention some in love, by the churches outreach and operation even under extreme persecution. Some would think that they have the upper hand but, who has the upper hand over God? Is this not how He said it would be? Is this not a necessary part of our sanctification to share in His sufferings? Is He not sovereign and in complete control? Has any one or anything snuck up on Him that he had mistakenly underestimated or poorly considered? Of course not, for Christ is preached!
kjv@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@Philippians:2 @ @ RandyP comments: Paul has returned Epaphroditus to the brethren in Philippi to cheer this congregation up. Paul is also about to send Timothy his prize student to strengthen them. In his letters Paul seems to make everything even general matters as a teaching opportunity. We also see that Paul could only trust certain people for certain types of missions. Paul not only thought of who needed help but who it was that he was sending.
kjv@Isaiah:38 @ @ RandyP comments: The king was suffering from some disease causing the skin to boil. Indications are that it was making him to be bitter towards God. Hezekiah had been a good godly king, the right man for the times at hand in Judah, but, not even that keeps one from suffering deadly illness, the curse of Adam. We cannot say that bitterness caused this cancer. We cannot say that the illness was intended to bring to light a hidden bitterness that then could be dealt with. We can not say that Hezekiah's illness was intended to stir the faith of the others around him. For then we would have to say the same about anyone of us. Though these things may have resulted, we can say that God dealt with everything that happened with the good of His plan and love for His servant in mind. The same would have been true if Hezekiah would have been called back into the Lord's rest.
kjv@Isaiah:39 @ @ RandyP comments: The text doesn't exactly say that because he showed them all that God was going to send them back to take all. The taking was because of the national sins of Judah and the prophecies of the previous chapters. Hezekiah was shown that there would at least be peace during his remaining fifteen or fewer years on earth. Why he would show them all his treasures for simply expressing concern about his prior health is to me a puzzle.
kjv@Isaiah:48-49 @ @ RandyP comments: Babylon did not gain it's strength by it's own greatness or doings. Their surge was as unpredicted and irrational as any other peaceable nation of that time. The fact that the Lord made it happen testifies to His power, not theirs. They were the 'Grand Lady' of the region. He made them into a war like empire perhaps like no other in history not for their own glory (He would quickly take that away) but to reproof Judah and alert the known world His displeasure with sin/the inability of man fulfilling the Law/the coming of His Messiah/His unmovable commitment His covenant to Jacob.
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@1Thessalonians:2 @ @ RandyP comments: We know from past writings that Paul was aware of when the Lord had closed or opened a door for the ministry. Given the level of public opposition, affliction and persecution etc.. it makes me wonder what a closed door looks like. Here we see Satan hindering. How does that look different enough to know the difference between the two?
kjv@1Thessalonians:4:13-18 @ @ RandyP comments: There are differing theories that can be scripturally supported regarding the dead in Christ. The most common would suggests that this passage is speaking of the body being at sleep but the spirit being fully awake and present with the Lord. This would allow for Paul's 'being absent from this body means being present with the Lord' comment as well as Jesus' 'this day you will be with me in paradise' statement as well as others (beggar and rich man etc..). Others suggest this is a literal sleep (like Lazarus), that time is imperceivable in eternity, that from our side this sleep is for a while, from eternity it would be instantaneous. There are other plausible explanations as well. Either way, the Lord has matters well in hand, and the soul is at a state of grace and peace.
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:58:4 @ @ RandyP comments: What an interesting statement. Fasting to make ones voice heard on high instead of fasting to hear the 'Voice on High'. Fasting for strife and debate? Much caution should be made to fast for the right intents.
kjv@Isaiah:60 @ @ RandyP comments: It is amazing how differently Jerusalem will be viewed and treated in the age to come. How many centuries has it been hated and trampled. Yet it is the sign of His covenant. When He finally glorifies it it will be truly glorified. Other peoples will bring from their treasure to make it the delight of nations.
kjv@2Thessalonians:2 @ @ RandyP comments: For those who say that the Bible does not teach about Hell and a Satan, one would have to remove 2Thessalonians from the Bible to make that conclusion. While they were at it they would have to remove the very words of Jesus Christ and the remainder of the Old and New testaments as well.
kjv@Jeremiah:1:16 @ @ RandyP comments: Idolatry and worshiping works of ones own hands seem to go together. Now days, it can be said that we no longer have other gods by name, that we don't see idolatry like this anymore. Rather, where there is the worship of the work of ones own hands there is likely idolatry. Logic today has been twisted, that we all could worship the same God just in different ways. We know however how Jehovah looks upon this twisted belief, it being another god just as vile as Baal or Malack. This is part of what makes Jehovah so despised amongst these so called worshipers. These are not the worshipers of Jehovah. How can they be the worshipers of the one true God?
kjv@Jeremiah:5 @ @ RandyP comments: Remember that the Lord is declaring this in advance. He had offered to them the possibility once again to escape, but, knew in this case that they would not. If He knew they wouldn't accept these terms why would He even offer them? By having this declared, by having this written for the sake of the remnant, they in the future will know these things to be true and thus the Lord to be greatly feared.
kjv@Jeremiah:6 @ @ RandyP comments: The Word of the Lord to them is a reproach and their ears will hear nothing of it. How then should this be dealt with by Yahweh? Does the people's 'god of unconditional compassion' have to just sit back and take it? Many today continue this notion of God's unconditional compassion not knowing what compassion even is nor knowing what an extremely compromised position a righteous God is placed under by such faulty/selfish definition. Rather, God's unconditional compassion is in that no matter what one has done/no matter how badly one may have sinned and acted, Jesus Christ died and raised for the purchase providing means for your return. Should you choose to return/repent/compromise yourself and thus receive this unconditional grace He will unconditionally pardon and accept you into His everlasting kingdom. God's great compromise is in the giving of His Son. If you are unwilling to accept that alone for your salvation, what more can/would He do?
kjv@1Timothy:1 @ @ RandyP comments: This letter is a interesting change of focus from Paul's previous. Those letters were written church congregations and regions of churches. This is personal letter to one of Paul's dearest team members, a man that he has taken on somewhat as his protégé. We are afforded a look into a much more personal and professional part of the Apostle's outlook. Much like two artisans/composers comparing insights/notes, the elder to the younger.
kjv@Jeremiah:7 @ @ RandyP comments: If one could imagine taking the temple called by Yahweh's name with all of it's history and using it to worship Baal, sending prophets and no one listening; how angered the Lord must be. When a religion becomes a place and not a person, worship a happening and not a lifestyle, judgment for everything except what is to be judged, this is what you have. Where are the priests? Where are the great orators of truth? Where is the resistance or reactionaries? Does a religion that sacrifices it's live children really have that much to offer other than in your face God rebellion?
kjv@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@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:18 @ @ RandyP comments: Instead of turning to the Lord they intend to take it out on Jeremiah. This is how the evil imaginations of the heart work. Will the message go away? Will God not raise up a hundred more prophets just like him? What can be hoped to be gained if this is indeed the word from God? This is the problem, there is no word of God so thinks the heart. The word of God is whatever we want it to be. God is intending to judge them, they are intending to judge God.
kjv@Jeremiah:19 @ @ RandyP comments: The sight of Jeremiah breaking the ancient potters vessel at the east gate should burn in the hearts of Judah even to this day. The words he then proclaimed echoed true. Unfortunately, they still did not listen, whatever they had thought to gain from worshiping Baal was more convincing than loosing it all, being captive, and becoming so desperate as to eat their own children. Was it really?
kjv@Jeremiah:27 @ @ RandyP comments: Much of what the prophet has said has begun to come to pass. The evidence should be clear. Yet the other prophets are saying what has been taken away thus far will be taken back and the temple restored by their word. The Lord is flushing these false prophets out. The king must be aware of the Lord's doings here; those nations that will place themselves under the yoke Nebuchadnezzar will be spared, those who rebel or think otherwise will be consumed. Willing humility, acceptance of reproof, subjection to the counter intuitive is what will save the nation in the long run.
kjv@Jeremiah:28 @ @ RandyP comments: One must ask themselves "do I speak for the Lord"? We all intend well. It would have seemed good for this all to end within two years. Good for the people, but, what about for the Lord. Is it that the Lord is only concerned for our good and not for His own? His good was being served in a thorough purging of our rebellious hearts, a rooting out of the spoiled figs and tainted prophets. Sure the people were put to shame and humbled, but, isn't that better than being stiff necked and hard hearted? If you intend to speak for the Lord you better well know what He would have you to say.
kjv@Jeremiah:30 @ @ RandyP comments: Interesting that Jacob is mentioned here with all he was put in subjection to. We know how Jacob was finally made to prevail; not against his masters but with and for his masters to the miraculous deliverance of his own people. When is this to come? Has this all ready come about? Or is this something yet in the making?
kjv@Jeremiah: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:36 @ @ RandyP comments: One might ask "why does the Word of God need to be written"? "Can't He just speak it into our hearts"? Jehoiakim knew the things written in Baruch's scroll. It testified against him recording a long history of the king's rebellion and transgression. The king's advisers knew well how he would react for they had the scribe and prophet to hide away. The Lord undoubtedly knew as well, just as He knows today. The heart hears what the heart wants to hear, it reasons as would serve it's own desires the best. Nothing is beyond the scope of the deceitful heart. The written word is as much to testify against the fleshly heart as it is to convince it. Today we have the testimony of several thousands of years and several other Jeremiahs in written form. Is the heart then any different today?
kjv@Jeremiah:37 @ @ RandyP comments: Have you ever had someone do everything they could against you only to later come back to you for advice? Jeremiah asks the obvious "why do you come to me, where are all your prophets, why not ask them"? Did Zedekiah really think that Jeremiah for the sake of some possible friendship or for the chance of being released would have anything other to say than what had already been said?
kjv@Jeremiah:38 @ @ RandyP comments: In the end, the Lord has still given the king a choice. He can surrender himself without a fight and live or he can fight and die and his household be mercilessly brutalized. We like to think that freedom of choice always involves something more than that. Look at Jeremiah the prophet of God. What choices did he have remaining? He had done just as God had said; where is his safe out? What makes us think that somewhere there is a better outcome? That we can negotiate or force our way into some dreamy personal victory or acceptable compromise? Most often, the only choices we have are the choices left to us.
kjv@Hebrews:2 @ @ RandyP comments: We can look at Christ's death selfishly in terms of dying for our sins or we can look at it as Him destroying him that had power over death/to deliver those in bondage to death/to be a merciful and faithful high priest/to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. Which is the more accurate picture? Which has the most power over your life?
kjv@Jeremiah:44 @ @ RandyP comments: We see how the mind will always justify itself. Their argument is that because they stopped their offerings to the queen of heaven these things have befallen them. When did they stop making these offerings? Haven't they made them all along? Even to others gods as well?
kjv@Jeremiah:46 @ @ RandyP comments: Egypt is in a bad spot. Not only are they being cursed for harboring the adulterous remnant of Judah (who were told not to go into Egypt or they would be a curse) they are judged by all the gods and idols of their own making. Surely the Lord has not kept this secret from them, we have some evidences of His dealings with them from this and other prophets. Other nations should be warned of this as well. When they see what and why this has happened to Egypt they should realize that this could be them as well.
kjv@Hebrews:4 @ @ RandyP comments: It sounds contradictory that we must labor to enter into our rest. We can assuredly enter into that rest today but, today is not that day of rest. Today we know Jesus Christ to be our rest and we enter into that rest laboring for Him until His work for us here in this day is done. The rest for us today is the peace and assurance and hopefulness of that day and His high priesthood. The rest for us in that day will be to be there with Him, to be like Him, to partake of all the grace and goodness that He has stored and readied for us. Our rest is in His completed work. His two-edged sword, penetrating as it is, is used to bring us through to there.
kjv@Hebrews:5:7-10 @ @ RandyP comments: Christ learned obedience by what He suffered and thus was made a perfect high priest. We similarly learn our obedience by what we suffer for Him. One might say "wait... I am not suppose to suffer... I believe in Christ... He suffered for me". Christ obeyed the Father in suffering for us. He suffered what we could not and even would not for we were not capable of obeying to that extent. Yet we are supposed to obey in our own measure and often the only way to learn to obey is to suffer. In this case we suffer for/because of Him; for the stance we take/defend in Him.
kjv@Hebrews:6 @ @ RandyP comments: The belief is that Jesus arose to the right hand side of God the Father. The hope is that we will see and be with them there; that we too will enter because of Him. This hope is our anchor, it is our strong consolation, we take refuge in it, it enters within the veil. Along with this belief and hope there are evidences that accompany this salvation, living works, works that He does upon us, works of obedience that lead us toward His perfect obedience with a similar obedience of our own. Many of these works that we obey Him in are toward the saints and the brethren. Some, having tasted of this goodness, have still yet removed themselves from this obedience, from this hope, their living works having become dead works deceive them into a complete apostasy. They become as briers and thorns whose only use is to be burned.
kjv@Jeremiah:51 @ @ RandyP comments: The righteousness of Judah had nothing to do with their own righteousness but, of the Lord's choice, His covenant with them. His righteousness made their righteousness and this form of righteousness is much much different. In the same fashion, Judah's escape from their captivity to Babylon was not in their own hands, their Lord was going to use the Medes to break their bonds. It cannot then be said that it was the hand of Judah, nor even the hands of the Medes (not with the impossible impenetrable odds that the Medes were up against); only by the hand of God. The Lord has used Judah in this same fashion to break many a nation since and continues to use them today; a nation the rarely was a nation with an army the rarely was an army.
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@Lamentations:4 @ @ RandyP comments: The other thing we might be missing as to the real time context is just how complete and desperate the destruction is all around Jeremiah. What he is seeing at ground zero is simply unfathomable. He speaks of the destruction of Sodom to have been merciful compared to this.
kjv@Lamentations:5 @ @ RandyP comments: He questions why it is that this must last so long, but, you will remember it was part of the promise, they had their chance to avoid it. You might also remember recently we read that not all were yet convinced that the God of Abraham was the means of proceeding forward from this, many females were blaming Jeremiah's God for not allowing them to provide drink offerings to their imaginary Queen of Heaven. The question might better be how long will it take them to get past their continuing iniquities?
kjv@Ezekiel:1 @ @ RandyP comments: How do you describe such a sight in human words? I am sure that the author is trying the best he can, but, the amount of detail that it is taking almost confuses the picture.
kjv@Ezekiel:2 @ @ RandyP comments: The fear of the Lord often takes second place to what we fear might be said or done by other people like us. Perhaps Ezekiel is shown these mysterious heavenly things so as to reduce his fear toward other men. This along with the Lord's own words not to be afraid of them.
kjv@Ezekiel:4 @ @ RandyP comments: Think of the strange public methods that have been employed to broadcast the impending judgment. Here Ezekiel is to lie on one side on a tile 390 days continuously and 40 days on the side eating only the rations given at the start and bread cooked on dung. Jeremiah was breaking ancient pots and such. Wasn't it Isaiah walking naked for three years? Certainly not just anyone could get the message out by doing this, these men must have been fully established as prophets before hand in order to have impact. With the state of things the way they are this well may have the best of all options. It is rarely the convincing intellectual dialog and reasoning we think of that is called for. Knowing that God is perfect in all His ways, it makes me wonder what methods He might have for us today?
kjv@Hebrews:10:24-39 @ @ RandyP comments: There are times in all Christians lives where they miss the mark, where they become drowsy or sloppy or unfruitful even counter productive. There are times even when we shake our fist and blame God (as in the death of our young child). We have all encountered times when we wondered if this draw back passage wasn't written for us. Self condemnation can be a tremendously discouraging thing. I would imagine however, if it is still in your heart to get back to the things of God, if there is still the will to repent and rejoin the body in fully restored standing, if the love of God is still wanted and sought after, then you definitely have not crossed this final point yet. This is written for the man where there is none of crushing sorrow, confussion and desire that remains, he has completely given himself over to his own condemnation, forever sealed in the hardness of his own heart.
'The LORD has forsaken earth, and seeth not'. If so then we are most likely to continue this same evil. In our homes? In our schools? In our court rooms? In the way we personally try to hide our faith from our neighbors and coworkers? Morality surely cannot be legislated but to rest silent in the lie that 'God has forsaken/does not see' is a worse evil. Would our foreheads be marked or unmarked today if such a judgment was to again occur in our community/nation?
kjv@Ezekiel: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:13 @ @ RandyP comments: There is the common thought that the Lord is always for peace; if you speak toward or prophecy of peace you may be speaking for the Lord. There are seasons to each and everything and this time in particular was not a time for peace. They were falsely speaking from their own spirit giving the people hope and desires therefore confirmed this hope; all of it false. The few righteous were cast down for speaking truth, the wicked up lifted in the void. The measures of security (gaps/hedges/wall) were cheated and poorly repaired. Questionable methods were adopted by prophets and prophetesses to support their work being not supported by God. All of this was to be exposed to the people in the judgment. We too will see the prophets of our day in correct light upon ours.
kjv@Ezekiel:15 @ @ RandyP comments: From one fire into another, from time to time as individuals we may feel this so, this though is speaking of an entire nation. How would it not be known that the Lord has set His face against them? Few of us have ever felt this type of judgment upon us. In our own lives we may think it or even make it be so. Often we perceive His instruction/correction falsely as so but, rather that is His love. Some moments we may feel as if persecution suffered in His name is so but, rather that is simply sharing in His sufferings. When the Lord however sets His face against an entire people it no doubt will be known by those people. These are not moments where the possibility will be debated or interpreted.
kjv@Ezekiel:17 @ @ RandyP comments: When the Lord says that the other trees of the field should know, we then should fully know that the Lord expects that by this action against the nation of Israel that the other nations involved will know what is occurring by His hand. They would know of the covenant between the king of Judah and Babylon that God was for, the breaking of the covenant by the making of a covenant with Egypt which God was firmly against, and the confirmation of God's wrath by the resultant slaughter of the kings and princes of the house of Judah captive in Babylon. When the Lord speaks/acts it is not for Judah's ears/eyes alone.
kjv@Ezekiel:18 @ @ RandyP comments: He hath no pleasure in the death.. Several times here it is illustrated what the righteous man would be doing and what the wicked do as well. These are not new things, they have been known all along. Yet so many choose the wrong path. There appears to be a decision, one can make themselves a knew person by choosing to do right. So why then do people not choose? Elsewhere we learn that this answer has to do with the sinful nature of man, a nature only curable by the sacrifice and resurrection of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ; imposing moral law upon this nature only illustrates its depravity all the more. Did great numbers turn to the living God by in the time of this prophecy? Certainly not.
kjv@Hebrews:13 @ @ RandyP comments: Mentioned more than once is the idea of remembering/submitting/saluting those that have rule over us. These rulers by context are sensed to be leaders in the church. The author speaks in tones of a absolute necessity. Who are these leaders today? and why are we not doing so?
kjv@James:1 @ @ RandyP comments: The crown of life is given to those who endure temptation. Temptation will come and come again and again. Temptation comes when drawn/enticed away by our own lust. It may sneak in unnoticed. It may stand tall being fully justified and felt well deserved, but it does come. Endure doesn't give us the sense that we have immediately conquered, it gives us the sense that we may have stumbled and must now battle against and clean up the lasting consequences. To continue in such temptations is defeat, to endure to resist and grow and to strengthen by God's power and grace.
kjv@James:3 @ @ RandyP comments: The bulk of passage speaks of the power of the tongue and that it is impossible for both blessing and cursing to come from the same source. In context this is tied to leadership (be not many masters) and to righteous peacemakers. It is obvious to see the workings of the tongue in our own small scale circles, less likely that we are even watching it in the larger scope of our diplomats and peace envoys and national/world leaders. The statements here are just as true if not more so for the fiery tongues in the United Nations as it is on the Gaza streets. For us to know this is to radically alter our world view.
kjv@Ezekiel:22 @ @ RandyP comments: We know by reading how God feels about Israel. We know how Israel feels about God. There is a broad gulf between them. How do the people of the heathen nations feel? What have they observed? Are they not as disgusted with Israel as God is? When the dispersed of Israel in numbers take refuge amongst them recounting the terrible blood and carnage in Jerusalem do they not take notice and see it as a warning?
kjv@Ezekiel:22:30 @ @ RandyP comments: God had His prophets at this time. He had also we find out searched for a leader to make up a hedge but found none. Later He would find Ezra and Nehemiah but, this may illustrate to us a important difference in temperance or skill set or anointing between a prophet and a leader, that it is rare for one man to be both. Moses and David both prophesied (mostly Messianic) though not in the sense of a Elijah or Issiah, Ezekiel or Jeremiah. I can not think of a prophet that was made to rule.
kjv@Ezekiel:24 @ @ RandyP comments: Their eyes/desires are upon one thing. And when that one thing is taken away suddenly it's stare then shifted upon their sons and daughters and their own iniquity certain. Why must it come to this? I am asked why a person must fall to such depths before they see way to the Lord? It is implied that there is something wrong with a Lord that is only the Lord of the fallen. Rather, there is something wrong with the heart of a man that can not see the Lord while in his strength and youthful prowess/splendor, that his sinful and proud and arrogant nature must be ground down and disrupted, laid bare upon a table of self desperation before seeing light. The Lord of the fallen indeed if to be Lord of such souls at all.
kjv@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: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:39 @ @ RandyP comments: Seven years of burning nothing but weapons for fuel. A gathering of many birds and creeping things to eat on the carcasses. Seven months of flagging and burying the dead. A national effort by every citizen to cleanse the land. This would be an effective way of making yourself known again to your people. It would certainly lift the veil from their eyes. Imagine being in Israel at this time. Given the odds of the battle this sight would only be by the hand of God.
kjv@Ezekiel:40 @ @ RandyP comments: The chapter reads much faster than the vision would have played out. Imagine the time involved making these measurements 6 cubits at a time. In order to remember all this detail, Ezekiel must have been writing it down as each transpired.
kjv@Ezekiel:40 @ @ RandyP comments: 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 @ @ RandyP comments: Though addressing church elders initially, the message here applies to each of us. Humbling ourselves, casting our cares, subjecting ourselves to one another, being sober and diligent to resist the Devil, suffering willingly to the ends of perfection. Peter, I feel, is driving the point home that these worthy things are brought about by the constant feeding the flock and taking oversight.
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:44 @ @ RandyP comments: I find this an extremely challenging section of prophecy. The consequences of interpretation shape deep doctrinal foundations. The reader must study and ponder this deeply and come to their own conclusions; which is a very good thing. We are challenged by scripture every day. We are stirred. We are unsettled. We are encouraged to examine and re-examine. Nothing but Christ at times seem fully settled. This is what makes faith in the Bible real and living and dynamic; the constant challenge. Thereby we grow, we are shaped, we are moved. Some seek the answers that are readily available and figure if it is not readily there it is not there at all. Others however seek deeper into the broad context and the doctrinal consequence to shed light upon that which is not readily answered. Just because I am presently confused over this passage does not mean that the answer is not there, it means that I am being challenged. My curiosity is thus thrilled to explore it much further.
kjv@Ezekiel: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@Ezekiel:46 @ @ RandyP comments: Concerning the prince, burnt and peace offerings are being prepared for him therefore he is not a priest. He is required to make offerings and sacrifices, he must not be covered by the blood of Christ. He is gifting possessions to sons born to him and servants that work for him as inheritances. Who then could this be? My guess as of now... it is most likely that this prince would be David. That is if this temple is the final temple.
kjv@Daniel:2 @ @ RandyP comments: They sought the mercies of God concerning this secret. Perhaps they would have rather thought that the king was losing his marbles and hastily making a way for them out wit the king for their freedom. The mercies of God in this case were much different. God was intending to share a revelation with the king and establish these Hebrew boys in the kings eye. The four's action saved not only themselves but, the other soothsayers and magicians as well.
kjv@Daniel:3 @ @ RandyP comments: It is hard for us to imagine the heart of a king that would be driven to do this, either put in the furnace those that don't worship him or latter cut up those that don't speak amiss towards Jehovah. I guess from a tactile sense a king must test the heart of his people. In another sense he must puff himself up beyond mere mortal to remain in solid control. It amazes me however that the masses blindly go along with it and carry their power to his feet. I know that this is a different culture, I know that their system of beliefs go different directions, yet the same basic mentality flourishes today. The people hold the power but, for the sake of something undetermined that they presume to gain, they bow to such a conceded and arrogant man.
kjv@Daniel:3 @ @ RandyP comments: What is it about the appearance of the fourth figure that made even such a godless man come to the conclusion that it was the Son of Man? Apparently the Son of Man is not such a foreign concept to other religions and cultures. Apparently there is something universally identifiable about Him. We are not told what physical features were evident. We are not told whether others drew the same conclusion. We do know that such a conclusion would be humbling to man that sought for the masses to worship himself. It must have convincing enough at least for a time for him to make the second decree. Could he have spun this to his own political advantage?
kjv@1John:3 @ @ RandyP comments: Cain is purposely used as the counter example. This key information steers the understanding of this passage a direction it otherwise would not go. The context becomes the inseparable fusion of love and righteousness, it's perceived source/manner and the resultant actions occurring from. Two men make the same effort to worship the living God, the means of which produce two opposite ends. The same can be said of two men that worship, one finding the ability to love unfeigned, the other finding the ability to hate and inflict judgment.
kjv@1John:4 @ @ RandyP comments: If I were to ask nearly any non-believer 'what is God?' the near unanimous reply would be "God is love". If I were to ask then 'what is love?' I would receive a multitude of varying replies mostly having something to do with tolerance for their sins. The question then to ask is 'doesn't that mean that love is whatever one wants/needs it to be?' or better 'that God is whomever we want/need Him to be?'. What kind of god can we ourselves make up? Is your wife whomever you wish her to be? Is your son? Is there any other working relationship that you know of that is determined by what you wish it to be? Are we not individual? Do we not have structure and backbone, interests and opinions and needs of our own that you yourself have to accept navigate and familiarize your self with? Isn't that the beauty of relationships? Why should it be any different with God? We love God because he first loved us. It was not our minute and varying personal perceptions of God with which He loved us, it was His gigantic eternal design for present and future, a love that would redeem us from our sins and set us aright into eternity. It was not our selfish 'I need you to be this' love or 'do this now for me or else' love or 'if you even exist' love for His love came before our love. What then is love? God is love? What is God? Creator and perfecter and possessor of our souls in whom no darkness dwells and in that He is absolute love.
kjv@Daniel:5 @ @ RandyP comments: The kingdoms of men are ruled by God and He appoints them to whomever He will. Would He appoint a tyrant? If it served His purposes. Would He appoint a socialist or a mad man? If it furthered His will. He would? He has and He will. What then about His righteousness, is He not then an unrighteous God by appointing an unrighteous king? This God is righteous, mankind is presently unrighteous, His design is to lead us from our unrighteousness into His righteousness. If a good shepherd commands his flock to move forward and they move not, is it not right for the shepherd to send his dog? If it takes appointing certain men exhibiting the worst of our collective unrighteousness to show and move us off of our unrighteousness when we otherwise would not listen, is that not in itself utterly righteous?
kjv@1John:5 @ @ RandyP comments: The idols spoken of here can be as simple as a Jesus other than the one testified of by the Father. A Jesus that isn't God made flesh. A Jesus who is not His only begotten Son. A Jesus who is not His beloved. A Jesus who is one of many ways acceptable to the Father. Any other Jesus makes this Jesus a liar. Try this translation: "keep yourselves from the Jesus that makes this Jesus a liar".
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@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:5 @ @ RandyP comments: You can imagine Judah as it looks out to see what is happening to Israel. One would hope that the sight of such would sober them up but, it does the opposite. There is wickedness in the midst, and man's wickedness takes the opportunity to expand in disaster where man's righteousness tends to hide. The Lord withdraws Himself as is best until they can acknowledge their offense.
kjv@Hosea:5 @ @ RandyP comments: The offense is toward God. The lying, the killing, the adultery; the treachery of priests and murderous revolter's, pacts with foreign kings. One might think that the offense is against the nation, or toward the good people of the land, towards what could have been, towards those slain or persecuted. This is God's nation, His law, His chosen people, His temple; the offense is toward Him. To take this offense and not own up to it is a greater offense than any.
kjv@Jude:1 @ @ RandyP comments: Contending for the faith once delivered begins with praying in the Holy Ghost, keeping oneself in God's love, looking for His mercy unto eternity, having compassion for some, making the difference, saving some with fear, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. The fact that we would have to contend with others supposedly within our own faith means that it is not an easy list of things to do. We are warned that these apostates have crept in unaware and that there is a certain advantage and admiration inherent for them to do so. They are defined as dreamers defiling the flesh, despising dominion, speaking evil of dignities. They preach out of what they know naturally.
kjv@Revelation:2:1-7 @ @ RandyP comments: The all important first love. The church of Ephesus is doing a whole lot right. They contend for the faith as Jude would exhort, resist evil and suffer for Christ's name sake as Peter. Their first love no doubt was for Him as a person and for each other as His friends. For as much as they are doing right, they still need to obey the great commandment kjv@Mark:12:30-31.
kjv@Revelation:2:8-11 @ @ RandyP comments: Nothing said about what the church in Smyrna is doing right or wrong, only what they have been and what some will be suffering for Christ's namesake. Be thou faithful unto death He exhorts.
kjv@Revelation:2 @ @ 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@Revelation:4:1 @ @ RandyP comments: Must be. So many consider this book as what could be if we don't straighten ourselves up, that the power to hold this off is in our hands. All of scripture suggests different. As bad and as wrong as all that follows seems to be, it is right and part of the course God has mandated. His faithfulness is contrasted by man's deprived nature given every opportunity to repent and by the spiritual war of Satanic powers and principalities that have been hidden all about us till this time. It is the time that His chosen people come awake, their eyes opened to His Messiah, His covenant to their fathers Abraham Issac and Jacob towards them finally realized.
kjv@Amos:1:6 @ @ RandyP comments: The second reason for the four judgments, this one against the area of the Philistines once held by Israel . They have taken all their Jewish captives and delivered them to Edom (descendants of Esau).
kjv@Amos:1:9 @ @ RandyP comments: The third reason for the four judgments this one against Tyrus an area of Palestine who like Gaza delivered all their Jewish captives to Edom thus breaking a long established brother like covenant.
kjv@Amos:1 @ @ RandyP comments: Edom and Ammon are at the center of these reasons so far with assistance from Damascus Gaza and Tyrus. These are all kin to Israel rooted deep with the patriarchs, but, have long been enemies and sore spots to Israel. They have taken their hostility way too far (as kin folk often do) and violated common brotherly/tribal/national sensibility.
kjv@Amos:5 @ @ RandyP comments: Many today think of their sins as personal things that have little or no effect on others such as the just, the poor, the oppressed, the needy. This passage speaks of such transgressions causing a nation's judgment as a whole to become as soft porous wormwood and it's righteousness to be left off. The stark evidences can be found in how the just are more and more rebuked, abhorred and afflicted (to the point the just are better off personally to keep silent). The results are a form of personal prosperity and social suave that comes quickly to an end having no bases of support (earlier described as being lead away by fish hooks). The nation as a whole is judged not only by it's failed condition, but, by God. Doesn't sound all that personal to me.
kjv@Amos:6 @ @ RandyP comments: For some Israelites here, the conditions don't seem to be all that bad; beds of ivory, bowels of wine, music upon their porches. One might say that their gods have blessed them well. What gods? Like their gods, is this not all by their selfish imaginations? Is this not all by their deliberate stiff handed taking? Today we package it as assertiveness, as going out and getting what you desire, as the eye of the tiger, virility and fertility. These are the same pictures that many other gods portray, they are symbols of a darker wisdom. Yes, it brings some prosperity, but, it destroys many others, it is at other's expense. And for what? A moment on a roof top looking down on all the soiled masses. Oh my what a view.
kjv@Revelation:6 @ @ RandyP comments: From our limited perspective it would be quiet logical to wonder why anyone would want to become worthy in order to open up such judgments upon mankind. Our perspective limits the nature and effects of our sin. Becoming worthy meant dying to take these natures and effects away. Our perspective limits the fact that for ions these judgments have been held off to one seven year period. Till now we have tasted enough judgment to see the need to repent but, little of the judgment that sin actually deserves. If God's mercy is not enough to turn us, if His occasional and limited judgments upon us are not enough, if His word and testimony are not enough, if His grace and provision is not enough, if the love shown in the giving of His own Son is not enough, even for having the threat of these predetermined judgments opened, what then is there that would be enough? At some point can it not be said that the remainder of mankind will not turn? Thus is the truest nature of sin exposed; it will not let go and it limits everything down to it's own justifications. Why not then this judgment? If seen from the perspective of the heavenly host looking down on this, one would have to ask why hasn't this judgment come already.
kjv@2John:1 @ @ RandyP comments: It really wouldn't surprise me if there weren't a great number of these letters written to various individuals by all of the Apostles. What is surprising is that this one was still able to be verified years later when the New Testament was canonized. This great lady must have been extremely well known, must have cherished this and taken such good care of it. She must have shown it to some influential people as well. I can see her eyes light up when she would begin to recount receiving it.
kjv@Amos:7 @ @ RandyP comments: The Lord repenting does not mean the same as believers repenting from sin. The suggestion would be then that the Lord somehow was going to do something evil and was talked out of it. The truth is simply that the Lord changed His mind. It may for instance not have been His plan to begin with and that He was using this discussion as a teachable moment (what if I). I remember as a father proposing different forms of discipline with my children to get them to think about their wrong (what if I take away television privileges for a week?). Another way of thinking it is that the Lord had options, out of these options he was going to do this (and would have been within His rights to do so) but, chose rather to do that.
kjv@Amos:8 @ @ RandyP comments: A famine from the word of God. You would think that the word of God is exactly what they need, that the word of the prophets would increase or that the initial scrolls would be uncovered or something. The problem is that they've had the word all along and have chosen not to do anything with it. It is often true that you never really hunger or thirst for something until it is taken away. You don't realize how much you needed it until it is no longer there.
kjv@Revelation:8 @ @ RandyP comments: The prayers of the saints; thy kingdom come... thy will be done... on earth as it is in heaven... thine is the power and the glory. Special pause is given to acknowledge that this is precisely what the saints have prayed for all along. To get to the answer of those prayers from here this judgment must first take place. Perhaps we didn't fully realize the depths of sin's nature or the fierceness of the spiritual war all around. Perhaps we thought God could just change this thing and that, otherwise everything else is cool. There are however some drastic changes that have to occur beginning with the elimination of evil; an evil that runs deep. Remember God is light and Him there is no darkness. How then can He dwell amongst us if there is yet evil in our midst? Evil must be judged and use of these natural forces should make it clear to the inhabitants that this is none other than THE JUDGEMENT so clearly prophesied.
kjv@Jonah:2 @ @ RandyP comments: We know that Jonah had intended to resist the will of God by not going to Nineveh. How Jonah came of mind that God would still be willing to help him even the belly of this judgment, I don't know. We should take it that even in our own lives when we think that we have blown any chance with God, God still has His chance with us. If we are honest and repentant, if we are like minded in faith, it is never to late for God to do a wonderful miraculous work.
kjv@Jonah:3 @ @ RandyP comments: Jonah had let his fear of what the Assyrians might say or do cloud his judgment as to what God needed him to do. He may have also been prejudice as to who was worthy of his prophetic gifts and who was not. It is apparent that God had been working long and hard in Nineveh to the point where when Jonah finally did speak to them they were willing and receptive to the message.
kjv@Micah:2 @ @ RandyP comments: You may recall that property was divided amongst the early Hebrews by blood line and passed by inheritance. By the Law, property was a spiritually/morally a civic right. Even when a family member got into debt or trouble and the property was taken from him, 49 year Sabbaths existed for him/his descendent's to be restored back to it. Property according to Micah now is being stolen by violence and oppression. Because of the drunkenness of idolatry, little is being done against this violence and oppression, institutions are far too corrupted. People have taken to listening to the prophets of falsehood. How similar this sounds to today!
kjv@Revelation:10 @ @ RandyP comments: John is kept from revealing too much. There is an importance to mentioning vaguely what he was about to record, but, being told not to reveal it any further. Instead he is given a book to eat that will make him to prophesy that which is required by others to be known. We must consider that not everything is for us to know outright, though to a few it may have been shown. Somethings are to be searched for like hidden treasure, other things to be merely trusted. This may in part be because of our best interest, more fully it may also be because of who else would be reading this.
kjv@Micah:4 @ @ RandyP comments: An interesting mix of what is and what will be. It is almost a here is what one it will be one day therefore suffer this proposition. Given everything, they certainly deserve what is now, probably deserved it long before this. Given everything that will be, no one - not Israel nor the Gentile nations deserve that, it is only by God's mercy and grace making for truly thankful hearts no doubt.
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:13:7 @ @ RandyP comments: Are the saints the not yet raptured Church? To make war with the saints suggests that the saints are no longer dispersed or that they are dispersed but banded into target-able formations. To be overcome as the Church however rubs against a whole lot of scripture, namely kjv@1John:2:14 kjv@1John:4:4 kjv@1John:5:4 kjv@John:14:16 kjv@2Peter:2:19 kjv@2Peter:2:20 kjv@1Corinthians:3:16 kjv@Hebrews:1:14
kjv@Revelation:13:7 @ @ RandyP comments: The point I am trying to make is that if the Church and these saints are one in the same, then it is the Church that is overcome. In order for the Church to be overcome then the Holy Spirit has to be overcome or He has to leave us to our own. Scripture suggests that neither can happen! To be overcome is to be put back into bondage to. The Church being put back into bondage after the blood and resurrection of Christ? After the forever indwelling of the Comforter? Even for a short time - Where is the sense? If instead these are new believers after the Church has been raptured, they are by virtue of this peculiar time frame merely transitional (Spirit-less/Church-less) believers still awaiting the Spirit with patience and faith.
kjv@Habakkuk:1 @ @ RandyP comments: In the midst of the prophet's many questions/complaints to God it is revealed that the Chaldean's are next to take Judah. If you knew anything about the Chaldean's you too would wonder why a people as filthy wicked as they would be used of this God to rule over His people. We have a tendency to look at the people in charge in a similar light. What did they do to deserve being this? How is it God put them there instead of me? Are they not bitter and hasty and scornful, all the things told to me not to be? Doesn't God require judgment and dignity? Why then is He silent in this matter? Habakkuk ponders.
kjv@Habakkuk:2 @ @ RandyP comments: So this is where Paul twice and the author of Hebrews once get "the just shall live by faith". Now we have the original context. Given our tendency to box God into the corners of what we think He should and should not be doing, given our blindness to everything except what is immediately before us, given our own personal track record and what we ourselves are being chastised over, we if seeking through this to become just should live by faith. kjv@Romans:1:17 kjv@Galatians:3:11 kjv@Hebrews:10:38
kjv@Habakkuk:3 @ @ RandyP comments: The prophet concludes with a song. In context it comes to mean that we may not know everything about what the Lord is doing. We may think that He is doing nothing at all or that He is letting evil overcome good. If however we could see the Lord in all of His larger than life actions, the directions He comes from, the foundations He shakes at, the tireless march that He is on, His goings forth for the salvation of His people; then certainly our view of things here and now would be much different. The song is summed up kjv@Habakkuk:3:17-19.
kjv@Revelation:14:12 @ @ RandyP comments: Nearly the same thing is said kjv@Revelation:13:10. First in regards to the captivity of those who lead the peoples captive to the beast. Here in regards to the eternal smoke and torment from the pit of those who worshiped the beast and received his mark. The patience is in holding true throughout for as long as it takes.
kjv@Zephaniah:1:12 @ @ RandyP comments: Those that say things like this are typically hiding behind something that they know they shouldn't be doing. These men are settled on the dregs of wine called lees. In order to do this they have to say and believe that. To them, God is simply not engaged or attached. What does God care about little old man? It makes perfect sense to a man awash in the bottom of a keg.
kjv@Zephaniah:2 @ @ RandyP comments: There are many nations involved here. Their transgression namely having reproached the chosen for the sake of magnifying themselves. The chosen certainly were not blameless and deserving of reproach, but, it was for the Lord to reproach not them. Reproach in order to magnify is a different thing however. We see people practice it in our lives all the time. I know of men who speak of the Church in the same way. It is not that they have any desire for the Church to correct itself, it is that by moving the church out of the way they themselves look all the better. This is done even by Christians to the greater Church at large.
kjv@Haggai: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:16:15 @ @ RandyP comments: This is not the first time the Lord has described Himself as such. It should be taken literally that to these people at least He will be believed and perceived to be a thief stealing away all that they have left and hold dear. Coming suddenly from nowhere and without warning as some interpret it cannot be scripturally supported when it has taken this many years to develop, judgment has so precisely and frequently measured out, and men know that it is such but will not repent. No their decision was made and their fate sealed when they took the mark of the beast to begin with. This is a matter of their utter shame and His absolute Glory.
kjv@Revelation:17:18 @ @ RandyP comments: This is very revealing, a power/principality that rules over the kings of earth. It is put into their hearts, it is God's will (just as He has given them over kjv@Romans:1 ) to follow. They will follow wholly to make war against the Lamb. She is identified as a city with seven hills (often thought of as Rome). The seventh and eight king of which are the beast. She is presented in continuous present tense as old as Babylon and young as the martyrs of the Lamb.
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@Revelation:18 @ @ RandyP comments: It is interesting to see the draw of this Babylon over men tied to trade and commerce. Many are made rich in the supply chain of her delicacies. The power that she has over them in great part is the power of them trying to make a living under her economic systems. That and their sheer reprobacy toward God. Heaven, the apostles, the prophets should well rejoice for her destruction for they are avenged on her sudden fall.
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:9 @ @ RandyP comments: Perhaps the Jews of Jesus' day forgot the lowly part of this Messianic prophecy. Maybe they thought that He would first be the lightning. The lowliness was to gain the larger Salvation needed however, without which He could not ever be the Lightning. Because of their rejection of Him, their sentence of Him upon their cross, the Divine seal of His resurrection, He was able to speak peace to the heathen. With all of this fully in hand then He could then return to them and be for them the Lightning; the Keeper of the Covenant; the eternal King of Heaven and Earth. Perhaps the Jews of this day now should consider.
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@Zechariah:12 @ @ RandyP comments: Jerusalem is a cup of trembling to all around it. Seeing what the Lord has done makes it as a burdensome stone. Seeing what the Lord has done makes them fearful in themselves. Those that burden themselves with it are cut in pieces. From this point of world view, imagine how astonished they will be when the Lord puts it all back together, when Judah and Ephraim and the house of David again for no humanly reason becomes His power and might. In the midst of a spirit of grace and supplication there will be a mourning in Jerusalem for the one, the only Son, they had pierced.
kjv@Zechariah:13 @ @ RandyP comments: The question may come to mind that if the Lord can cut off the names of idols and lying prophets in that coming day why doesn't He just do it now? The answer may lay in the object of a process we are being brought through to be able to identify and desire this ourselves as well. It is one thing for Him to cut off when no one knows what He is doing and why He is doing it and many possibly be angry or taken back by it, it is another to have everyone on board and aware and even participants along with Him in cutting it off. We are told here of parents willingly striking their wicked prophet son through. We are told here of a refining fire. In effect, what good does it do for the Lord to cut something off if it grows right back again? If it means cutting off more people than already need be cut off? If it can serve a better purpose temporarily being allowed?
kjv@Revelation:21 @ @ RandyP comments: The glorious new heavens and new earth. Jesus said that He goes to prepare a new place for us. It took Him six days to prepare the place that we are at. He has been over 2000 years preparing the place upcoming. It is a place obviously much different than this place, for one thing it is a place where the internal beauty of man's cleansed and purified heart unites as one to commune with its Lord and maker. In another way, it is a place where there is no more death, no more fear of death, no more pain, no more sorrow. It is a place too good to be true from a God too good for it not to be true. Today then, it is a faith, a hope, a truth unseen that guides us through the darkness of this day, an evidence of the long time goodness and intents of our Savior.
kjv@Malachi:2 @ @ RandyP comments: One can almost sense what religion has become to them; an alter to shed their tears upon. I suppose that tears are well and fine but, what about the wholesomeness of their offering? If all one does is cry and complain and petition and yet goes about their lives in the same sinful way, making dirty offerings with dirty hearts and hands, what good is this religion? The two parts make one whole. It is not just emoting your fears about what concerns come against you, it is how the strength of the Lord is always sufficient. It is not just this sacrifice you made or that offering you gave, it is about the sacrifice that He made and you wholehearted submission and faithfulness to living in it. One without the other is a means of dealing treacherously with self and master. When religion is only a crying alter, the alter becomes more and more a place where everyones evil is declared as good. This treacherous form of religion wearies the Lord. The fear is best placed in His judgment and not just His pity.
kjv@Revelation:22 @ @ RandyP comments: It is interesting to compare kjv@Revelation:1 where we started this journey with kjv@Revelation:22 where we end. A lot will take place in a very short amount of time. But, when will it take place? We don't know. Here in this chapter Jesus repeated 'I come quickly' 'I come shortly' 'the time is at hand'. In human terms it can be argued that it has been a long time. Did Jesus lie? How long is long? How short is short? How soon is soon? Isn't it better to think that if it means that we have been given time then we would be use this time as wisely as possible? From an eternal viewpoint, is not any amount of time here but brief? In terms of relativity, can not this have happened, be happening, and be yet to happen all at the same time? So much to ponder!
kjv@Genesis:2 @ @ RandyP comments: There must be purpose to the delay of Eve's creation. We do not know how long of a delay, but, it was long enough for Adam know the need for a help mate. The other beasts were created male and female from the start and reproduced after their own kind, Adam was no doubt observant of such. Eve is taken out of Adam by a rib which makes her creation unlike any other. She was not taken directly from the dust.
kjv@Genesis:8 @ @ RandyP comments: Our understanding of what wickedness means and what it means to God surely differ. We severely reduce it down to bite size pieces that we think we have some control over. Now that wickedness has been drowned away does it not come right back? Later, when it is legalized and sacrificed away does it not come right back? This isn't God making a series of experiments as to what might rid us of these tendencies, this is God speaking directly to us saying 'this is what is wrong and this is how serious it all is'. You can't solve this or justify it away, you can't swim your way passed this. And He can't help you by the one vessel He has made available unless you are willing enter it.
kjv@Genesis:9:5-6 @ @ RandyP comments: It is very common throughout civilizations that when a beast takes a man's life that the beast is put down. It is feared that once a beast has a taste for human blood, it will return for more. There is a common wives tale that once a man has crossed the line and struck his wife he will back for more. It is not always true, but true in enough situations that at least in the case of murder there is reason to expect more murder. If there is enough logical concern of human nature justifying capital punishment on civil terms (not just for discouragement to others), add to that it is God's express judgment as well, then just and thorough courts have every right/obligation to insist upon capital punishment for the murderous few.
kjv@Genesis:9 @ @ RandyP comments: The faith of a righteous man can help to deliver his children, but, those same children still have to make the decision to receive salvation each one themselves. We see too often the case where the righteous are followed by rebellious even evil sons, some for a spell, just as many continue to their own ruin. It is not the fault typically of the righteous (though there are always things that could have been parented better) it is rather a frequent tendency of one's self image to take a completely opposite course than the parent. We see it with the rich and successful, the powerful, the popular, the learned, the influential, the benevolent, why not then the righteous?
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:11:2 @ @ RandyP comments: They, the race at that time (either majority or all) journeyed in an attempt to remain one people to a place in the valley of Babylon where they could make one large city. It does not seem to be opposed at first by God until He saw what they were trying to build in it's midst.
kjv@Genesis:11 @ @ RandyP comments: The imagination of men is one suspect thing, the collective imagination of all men together is quite another. The tower symbolized a collective imagination that God was not going to allow, not even for the sake of human unity, not if the unity meant this. Most likely there are religious impurities written all over the designs of this tower. By succeeding in this, man would have had the back bone to succeed at most anything that he collectively set his corrupt imagination to. We have our collective imaginations at work even today.
kjv@Genesis:12 @ @ RandyP comments: This is the beginning of what we call the Abrahamic Covenant. It is a covenant based totally upon God's grace; the land will be a gift, the seed will be a gift. The Lord leads Abraham away from his kin to show him this land. The seed will not begin to come for another 20 some years and the land not for another 450+ years. In the mean time Abraham and Sarah stumble trying to make it happen on their own.
kjv@Genesis:13 @ @ RandyP comments: Lot choose his land selfishly and yet unknowingly his choice was the same as the Lord had already made. We often make the same seemingly obvious choices based upon appearances also. The wide open fertile land is not always the best choice just as the wide open door of opportunity. This choice turned out to be a big problem for Lot.
kjv@Genesis:18 @ @ RandyP comments: Is there anything too hard for the Lord? Of course not. Is there anything that He will not do? Yes, sin. Did Abraham or Sarah ask this blessing of Him? Did they ask Him to spare a city for sake of the righteous? No and yes. There are times we can ask Him to do something for us that as long as it doesn't ask Him to sin and is in agreement with His further plan that He'll gladly do. There are things that we ask that are intended to bend His will, demote Him as servant to our whim and pleasure, things based out of fear or pride or foolishness or ignorance that He certainly will/can not be part of. There are times where His grace alone must be sufficient. There are times when He intends to do for us great things that we don't even need to ask.
kjv@Genesis:20 @ @ RandyP comments: Remember that Sarah is an older women now and yet her beauty is still much desirable by kings. The king knows that he acted out of the integrity of his heart, the Lord knows it as well and warns him, but, the whole thing has the appearance of a threat and the functionality of a curse. How many other things might there be in our lives that are ways of warning us about grave danger that are likely perceived as threats? The Lord is protecting His chosen man as well who fears the unrighteousness of others, fears for his life the possible consequences of the obvious beauty of his wife. This event must have taken place over the amount of time for it to become noticeable that the kings maidservants were not birthing.
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: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:25:34 @ @ 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: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:30 @ @ RandyP comments: Some fun at the Jacob household huh? In the context of a single chapter I am sure our lives would sound pretty crazy as well. This home however? This is reality television material here! Seriously, life is what it is. God has to work in it and on it and through it and around it and somehow by the end make it work to His purposes. I am just glad it is Him that does it. I'm just saying!
kjv@Genesis:31 @ @ RandyP comments: In our day, we would have legal documents written and the weight of our legal system available to enforce such an agreement (whatever weight that be). In Jacob's day what was there beside a heap of rocks, an oath between men of questionable pasts, and a suggested threat of God's judgment? The Lord had made Himself clear to both men to this regard. It seems to me that this pact was an exercise of manly oneupmanship cloaked in necessary compromise. Maybe I am seeing it wrong!
kjv@Genesis:34 @ @ RandyP comments: It may be tempting to want to fit in with others. There is always the enticement of being as one and sharing the purse as one together. It is not ever God's will. We are to be peaceable but set apart, peacemakers but abhor evil, engaged but not compromised. These men portray a noble desire of commune, it is easy to lose sight that these are the same men that just raped a sister; now they want the rest of our daughters. I am not sure that the use of deceit (by a token of God's covenant) is sanctioned or warranted but, the end result is similar.
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:36 @ @ RandyP comments: The Lord had promised to make Esau a mighty people. He did; Edom. The history between these two brother states is as long and combative as any brother to brother family relationship. Edom would be asked to do something and they would simply refuse because it was Israel etc... The list here goes through several generations.
kjv@Genesis:39 @ @ RandyP comments: The Lord's favor is always good even though it may not at present be observed as so. How other people react can cause the recipient trouble. Not only has his jealous brother sold him into slavery, his masters wife has sold him into prison. Joseph takes it all in stride believing in the Lord, thankful for the favor. Again he receives the Lord's favor in prison but, notice that the favor does not deliver him immediately from prison. Where His favor is leading us may be a lengthy process start to finish and involve tests of courage, obedience, and or patience. It is tremendous favor none the less.
kjv@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:43 @ @ RandyP comments: Others have suggested that Joseph is testing his brothers hearts to see where they stand. After all of these years would they still be of the heart that led to selling a brother into slavery and faking his death? Had they learned anything? Had they changed? We saw that there was remembrance of the event and suspicion that this current problem may be the pay back. We are seeing some effort today by them to do what is right even in the midsts of some oddities beyond their control.
kjv@Genesis:44:29 @ @ RandyP comments: This would be the first Joseph heard of how the brothers covered up his enslavement by faking his death. Surely a difficult moment for him here.
kjv@Genesis:44 @ @ RandyP comments: The truth is now pouring out from Judah's mouth. He is expressing concern for his dad, concern for his youngest brother, and a willingness to take the place of Benjamin for any wrong the brothers may have done. Nearly everything is here except an outright confession of the past treatment of Joseph.
kjv@Genesis:45:5 @ @ RandyP comments: This is a solid offer of forgiveness to pattern our own after. First, it does not seek anything further from them to make it or keep it happening. Second, it is based upon God's intentions and not either of the two parties involved. Third, it is concerned for reaction of the guilty towards their own selves.
kjv@Genesis:46:34 @ @ RandyP comments: Joseph is having them make a cultural shift here, because of the sentiments of Egyptians against shepherds they are to call themselves cattlemen. They most like had been both before this.
kjv@Matthew:6:25-34 @ @ RandyP comments: The 'therefore' here seem to point back to the singleness of eye and one master service preciously discussed. The key verse appears to be the 'seek ye first'. If you seek the food and raiment first then the worry for it becomes your master. It is not that you don't need these things for the Father knows that you have need of these things. It is not that the birds do go about the task of seeking out a field in which to eat, it is that it doesn't worry them. Serving two masters makes us to hate the one (most likely our Father) should the worry consume us.
kjv@Exodus:5:3 @ @ RandyP comments: The Hebrews are in somewhat of a predicament. When asked who God is as of yet they really don't have the experience of God to describe who He is or what He has done; most everything He has promised to them remains future tense. How would you convincingly describe God to another at this stage in your faith. Instead, Moses and Aaron appear to the ruler as rebel rousers leading their people to idleness and fantasy. This test is as much for the Hebrews sake as it is for Pharaoh.
kjv@Exodus:6:9 @ @ RandyP comments: Does God work miracles in an instant? He certainly can. Does it ever take longer? It certainly can. If you are in the market for a good healthy miracle, perhaps you should consider this Exodus passage. Sometimes miracles are purposely a lengthy process. Hearts are stirred, personalities tested, set backs are encountered, belief is pressured to it's core. In the end it is no less of a miracle, in fact it may now be more so. Delay does not mean that it will not happen, it may just mean that it will not happen by the means one first expects.
kjv@Exodus:7 @ @ RandyP comments: Pharaoh's heart was going to harden more and more. Most would consider that a hard heart would cause this mission to fail, but, in this case God is using it to make a bigger statement. A hard heart in other words can serve the Lord's purposes. Is the Lord making his heart hard directly? Or, is the heart reacting as it wills?
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:11 @ @ RandyP comments: Think about now how far we've come. From Moses being embarrassed and chided even amongst his own people, thinking that he had done the Lord wrong, to a spot where everyone but Pharaoh sees what is going on. Remember that Israel has done nothing of it's own. It is not by their good works nor even a pressing faith that this is done; they have not been called by a proven obedience. This has been done solely by God to fulfill a promise made to Jacob/Joseph centuries ago. Moses has played a role as has Aaron but not even they knew what to do or how much that it was going to take. Not one of these works could anyone have done themselves.
kjv@Exodus:14:15 @ @ RandyP comments: I am sure that the Lord is always encouraging of prayer and communication. Crying out may not always be appropriate however. David for instance often cries out in his Psalms but, his desperation often leads him to the conclusion that God is truly great and a mighty deliverer in times of need. How often do we cry out however with desperation alone, seeking for answers that we are not prepared to follow, directions we are not observant to go, pleading for self strength without having established ourselves within His. We can not be too hard on these Israelites for they are experiencing God many of them for the first time. We should be harder on ourselves for having had their experience plus our own plus that of others and still yet crying out for the sake of crying out. Is there not reason to be communicating with God on a totally different level?
kjv@Exodus:14:18 @ @ RandyP comments: Honor at another man's expense is typically not a good thing. Honor if by the hardness of ones own heart after being given every opportunity to do otherwise and after having given one's oath not to pursue this any further... that is honor above and beyond, especially when it is the course of two nations and not just single men. The men that will die along with him have made their choices long ago to blindly and courageously serve regardless of Pharaoh's right and wrong. They by their personal honor/allegiance will die by their Pharaoh's utter dishonor. Make your choices wisely my friends!
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:16:9 @ @ RandyP comments: How many of our prayers are not prayers at all but, murmurings? A couple? A few? Some? A lot? A whole lot? God hears hears our words. He knows what we need before we ask it. Often, He has to sift through all the complaints about what He hasn't done or needs to be doing. Often He has to see past the complaints about others we are making in prayer form. So do we not pray to Him at all? No. We pray to Him in a manner worthy of His Holiness. Prayers where we focus on who He is and what He is doing big picture and where we fit in His big picture and where He fits in ours. He will answer either way, the difference is that the exchange has benefited our appreciation and attitude all the more.
kjv@Exodus:18 @ @ RandyP comments: The Lord instructs us Himself one to one. He instructs through the counsel of others as well. Moses had taken too much upon himself. Not only was it bad for his health and endurance it was bad for the people he was trying to lead. Notice that the Lord did not tell him this, the Lord used his father in law. The Lord did not object. Perhaps Moses had been praying for an answer but was too busy/distracted to listen for it. Perhaps the Lord had told him but, he did not receive it for some reason. Maybe the Lord choose this method from the beginning to develop Moses in the areas of friendship and counsel that he needed developed himself. Regardless, the point for us to take is the importance of counsel, of grooming trust relationships, of allowing opportunity to receive, of being able to compare and line up with the known word of God and correctly decide. Not just any counsel mind you, not just the advice we want to hear, the right godly counsel.
kjv@Matthew:11:25-30 @ @ RandyP comments: Who does the Son reveal His Father to? Those who come to the Son toiling and heavy ladden in the convicting burdens of sin. Once relieved of such burden, having taken on His yoke humbly and with meekness, shouldering a sample of His burden, then one comes to know the Father. Such immense time released revelation is only by exchanging our burden for His Son's and carrying His Son's burden forward. It is not any other way around. The so called wise and prudent systematically avoid to see this.
kjv@Matthew:12:46 @ @ RandyP comments: Makes one wonder what they wanted to talk to Him about.
kjv@Matthew:13:22 @ @ RandyP comments: A believer that overcomes the first two elements must also contend with the cares of this world. It may not matter what others believe or think or behave, the believer is settled and assured in this part of his faith. However, the real issues of life and family and citizen present a constant drain on his time and energies causing anxiety and fatigue and over extension. The productive fruit of his life gets chocked out without him barely realizing it. I speak from experience.
kjv@Matthew: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:13:37 @ @ RandyP comments: filter:NT-GOSPEL Son of man speaks largely of His betrayal cruxifiction and return.
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.
RecentComments @ kjv@Proverbs:1:2 @ RandyP comments: The first of several statements as to why the proverbs of Solomon, son of David, King of Israel are important. Just as important as the ability to see skill/wit is the ability to see chastiement/correction; the two go hand in hand. The skillful are not simply skillful because they have avoided making foolish mistakes, they are so because they have learned well from the mistakes they have made. We live in an era where young men and women are so deathly afraid putting themselves out there where they might make mistakes because they are so adverse to being corrected. Ask any skillful person you can think of, they will consider that they are skillful where so many others are not precisely because they have come to peace with the constant need for correction. Everybody wants to be skillful, few have the heart to be corrected. Correction is not pleasant at the time, but certainly the skills gained from correction are.
RecentComments @ kjv@Proverbs:1:2 @ RandyP comments: Of all the words your ears sort through each day, which of these words are words of meaning? Listening for these words is a skill we rarely try to develop. Is a word meaningful because it validates us or our position? Is a word valid because it drips with raw unfiltered emotion? Is it meaningful because that is what everyone else in our peer circle also is saying? At time meaningful words might be exactly opposite of how we first take them. It might be the advice that we chose first to avoid that ends up pulling us out of our hole and carrying us forward.
RecentComments @ kjv@Proverbs:1:3 @ RandyP comments: To take/accept the chastisement/correction of circumspect intelligence, of moral and legal rightness/equity, of human/divine verdicts/decrees, of evenness/straightness
![[pBiblx2]](/img/pbiblx2_logo3.png){kind=logo}