tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-60722161841440592062024-02-07T19:04:33.541-05:00stand in the rainThrough my Bible in 3 YearsFranklynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15511271413533155493noreply@blogger.comBlogger3311125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6072216184144059206.post-10062319515427736952018-07-08T14:45:00.001-04:002018-07-09T13:21:04.254-04:00making much of Jesus<div style="color: #444444; font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<a data-mce-href="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/dock-of-the-bay-2-e1341663797856.jpg" href="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/dock-of-the-bay-2-e1341663797856.jpg" style="color: #743399; line-height: 1.5;"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-4740" data-mce-src="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/dock-of-the-bay-2-e1341663797856.jpg" src="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/dock-of-the-bay-2-e1341663797856.jpg" height="765" style="clear: both; color: #444444; display: block; height: auto; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px auto 12px; max-width: 100%;" title="dock of the bay 2" width="525" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><b>NOTE: </b> Stand in the Rain has come back 'round to its beginning. We have <i>finished our course with joy</i>, as we pulled no punches, left no stone unturned, and tore every hair out of our heads in an attempt <i>to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. </i>(Acts 20:24)</span><br />
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">Though we will no longer publish these daily articles, the complete three-year course (along with three other extensive Bible courses and supplemental materials) can be accessed by clicking <a href="http://lockportalliance.blogspot.com/"><b>here.</b></a></span><br />
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">So fare thee well, and until we meet again,<br /><br /><i>The LORD bless you and keep you;</i></span><br />
<i><span style="color: #cccccc;">The LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious unto you;</span></i><br />
<span style="color: #cccccc;"><i>The LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. </i>(Numbers 6:24-26)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">The Word for today:</strong><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">1 Samuel 15</strong></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">Stand in the Rain has come full circle. The journey we began on July 9. 2015 has reached its destination.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">As you will read below, we have not settled on our next project, but a week of sittin’ on the dock of a bay with fishing pole in hand might bring a bit of clarity to mind.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">We tried to tell you how wonderful He is.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">And to some degree, we did. But to a greater degree, as all men do, we fell short of the glory of God.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">We don’t know exactly what project we’re going to pursue next. But until such time as we make up our minds, this old house, neglected for a decade’s worth of scripture searching, needs a lot of fixin'; and our brains, which have been poppin’ like a popcorn popper at peak for the last 3 years, need a little rest.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">Today, at this very moment, we are literally going fishing -- which we’ve figuratively been doing for the last 1096 days in a row.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">Over the course of those days, Shelley and I watched our boys turn into men. I watched myself turn from a runner into the dreaded j-word, which I can’t bear to write. (It rhymes with logger. That’s all I’m sayin’.) Then, just weeks ago, we watched my mother die.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">But through it all, we made much of Jesus.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">I am glad to have finished this course, but I will miss the new discoveries and the friends we found and lost along the way.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">So I’m glad and sad all at once, but I welcome these mixed emotions. They remind me of when I was a boy at summer camp, when – out of all the songs we sang – my favorite was called “Now the Day is Over.”</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">The problem with my favorite song was that I only heard it once per year—at the closing campfire, where it was the last song sung on the last day of our stay.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">I loved that song like no other, but it meant that the summer was gone, somewhere behind us now. It was like reaching the last page of a story that has no equal – the very same thing that, after three years, we’ve just done…</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><span style="border: none; font-style: normal; line-height: 1.5;">Now the day is over,</span><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><span style="border: none; font-style: normal; line-height: 1.5;">Night is drawing nigh,</span><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><span style="border: none; font-style: normal; line-height: 1.5;">Shadows of the evening</span><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><span style="border: none; font-style: normal; line-height: 1.5;">Steal across the sky.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><span style="border: none; font-style: normal; line-height: 1.5;">Jesus, give the weary</span><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><span style="border: none; font-style: normal; line-height: 1.5;">Calm and sweet repose;</span><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><span style="border: none; font-style: normal; line-height: 1.5;">With Thy tend’rest blessing</span><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><span style="border: none; font-style: normal; line-height: 1.5;">May mine eyelids close.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><span style="border: none; font-style: normal; line-height: 1.5;">Grant to little children</span><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><span style="border: none; font-style: normal; line-height: 1.5;">Visions bright of Thee;</span><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><span style="border: none; font-style: normal; line-height: 1.5;">Guard the sailors tossing</span><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><span style="border: none; font-style: normal; line-height: 1.5;">On the deep, blue sea.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><span style="border: none; font-style: normal; line-height: 1.5;">Comfort those who suffer,</span><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><span style="border: none; font-style: normal; line-height: 1.5;">Watching late in pain;</span><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><span style="border: none; font-style: normal; line-height: 1.5;">Those who plan some evil</span><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><span style="border: none; font-style: normal; line-height: 1.5;">From their sin restrain.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><span style="border: none; font-style: normal; line-height: 1.5;">Through the long night watches</span><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><span style="border: none; font-style: normal; line-height: 1.5;">May Thine angels spread</span><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><span style="border: none; font-style: normal; line-height: 1.5;">Their white wings above me,</span><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><span style="border: none; font-style: normal; line-height: 1.5;">Watching round my bed.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><span style="border: none; font-style: normal; line-height: 1.5;">When the morning wakens,</span><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><span style="border: none; font-style: normal; line-height: 1.5;">Then may I arise</span><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><span style="border: none; font-style: normal; line-height: 1.5;">Pure, and fresh, and sinless</span><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><span style="border: none; font-style: normal; line-height: 1.5;">In Thy holy eyes…</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">Go then, in the fervent power of His Spirit, in mad and desperate pursuit of His heart. Go in any direction that will take you, making much of Jesus along the way.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~</span></div>
Franklynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15511271413533155493noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6072216184144059206.post-8061681418194584222018-07-07T12:58:00.000-04:002018-07-07T12:58:12.201-04:00strike a match and start anew<div style="color: #444444; font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<a data-mce-href="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/match.jpg" href="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/match.jpg" style="color: #743399; line-height: 1.5;"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-4732" data-mce-src="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/match.jpg" src="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/match.jpg" height="387" style="clear: both; color: #444444; display: block; height: auto; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px auto 12px; max-width: 100%;" title="match" width="516" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">The Word for today:</strong><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">1 Samuel 14</strong></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">The Bible opens with stark contrast, with darkness preceding the entrance of light.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">In the book of 1 Samuel, that contrast is personified. We are first introduced to the dark heart of Saul. Then David, the man after God’s own heart, bursts upon the scene.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><a data-mce-href="http://lockportalliance.blogspot.com/2015/07/the-heart-of-darkness.html" href="http://lockportalliance.blogspot.com/2018/07/the-heart-of-darkness.html" style="line-height: 1.5;" target="_blank"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">Yesterday,</strong></a> we peered into the heart of darkness. But things were about to change...</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">In all of Scripture, only King David is designated by God as<strong style="line-height: 1.5;"> "a man after My own heart"</strong> (1 Samuel 13:14; Acts 13:22).</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">Why David? Isn't he the one who had an affair with Bathsheba, then conspired to have her husband killed? Does God condone such things?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">No, God does not condone any form or shape of sin whatsoever. After this episode, David's life was ceaselessly beset with the consequences of sin. Death, treason, incest, rape, and revenge visited his family--just as the prophet Nathan, who had exposed David's sin, had foretold:<br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">Why have you despised the word of the LORD, to do what is evil in his sight?</strong></em><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house</strong></em> (2 Sam. 12:9-10).</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">David's beloved infant son fell ill. Though he fasted and begged God for the life of the child, God said No. David had prayed facedown upon the earthen floor for seven days. When he found that the child had died,<br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">he arose from the earth, and washed, and anointed himself, and changed his clothes; and he went into the house of the LORD</strong></em> (2 Samuel 12:20).</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">It may have been there in the house of the LORD that David, broken in spirit, cried out,<br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.</em><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.</em><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.</em><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.</em><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.</em><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation.</em> (Psalm 51)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">Later on, he fought a civil war against the forces led by his favorite son, Absalom, who was killed in the war's decisive battle. Soon thereafter, prematurely aged and enfeebled, he relinquished his crown just before his relatively early death.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">The Bible records that God did forgive David's sin; he did not lose his salvation (see 2 Samuel 12:13). But the evidence seems clear that God did not restore the joy of His salvation. God chose to let sin's consequences play themselves out in David's life. If He must, God will tether a wayward child to His heart with sorrow -- if there is no other way to keep the child from wandering into further danger.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">Given the evidence of his life, how can he be singled out as a man after God's own heart?<br style="line-height: 1.5;" />It seems that the answer lies in the meaning of the word 'after.'<strong style="line-height: 1.5;"> 'After' indicates direction, and not necessarily proximity. 'After' shows the direction of a heart, and not necessarily that heart's current proximity to God's standards.</strong></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">The Bible's account of King David's life shows us how things might not be as they appear to our sight. When God had chosen young David to be king, the prophet Samuel mentioned that David's older brother looked the way we think a king should look. <em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not look on his appearance, for the LORD sees not as man sees; man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart."</strong></em> (1 Sam. 16:7)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">In the Gospel of Luke, a young man took his inheritance to a far country and wasted it all on a reckless and sinful life. When he had sunk as low as a Jewish man could--feeding pigs as a hired hand--he got back up and sought after his father's forgiveness:<br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">I will arise and go to my father</strong>, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before you.</em><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">And he arose and came to his father. <b>But while he was yet at a distance</b>, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.</em> (15:18, 20)</span></div>
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<strong style="line-height: 1.5;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">The prodigal son was "yet at a distance," but the father saw the direction of his heart.</span></strong></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">Jesus Christ left his Father's house and came to a 'far country,' where<em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;"> he emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant</strong></em> (Philippians 2:7).</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">There he fell -- under the weight of a cross on his way to seek his Father's forgiveness for my sins, and for yours, for David's, and for the prodigal son's. To all who saw him, he appeared to be a broken, defeated man. He didn't look like a King. <em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">But the LORD sees not as man sees.</strong></em></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">Then Jesus fell again.<br style="line-height: 1.5;" />And then He fell again. A man after God's own heart, carrying the sin and sorrows of the world, Jesus got back up.<br style="line-height: 1.5;" />Forsaken, dead, and buried,<strong style="line-height: 1.5;"> He arose and went to His Father's house.</strong></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~</span></div>
Franklynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15511271413533155493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6072216184144059206.post-2419804903391885142018-07-06T14:04:00.001-04:002018-07-06T14:04:48.984-04:00the heart of darkness<div style="color: #444444; font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<a data-mce-href="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/saul-with-javelin.jpg" href="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/saul-with-javelin.jpg" style="color: #743399; line-height: 1.5;"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-4722" data-mce-src="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/saul-with-javelin.jpg" src="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/saul-with-javelin.jpg" height="640" style="clear: both; color: #444444; display: block; height: auto; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px auto 12px; max-width: 100%;" title="saul with javelin" width="477" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">The Word for today:</strong><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">1 Samuel 13</strong></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">The Bible opens with stark contrast, with darkness preceding the entrance of light.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">In the book of 1 Samuel, that contrast is personified. We are first introduced to the dark heart of Saul. Then David, the man after God’s own heart, bursts upon the scene.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">Saul is a complex figure for whom we develop a real sympathy. But make no mistake about it that Saul is Satan’s man.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">The Bible student will also develop some sympathy for Judas Iscariot, who is an echo of Saul, who is an echo of Satan. This should not strike us as strange when we consider David’s continuing regard and respect for Saul (even as Saul psychically disintegrated and spiritually degenerated) and Jesus’ compassion towards Judas to the bitter end.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">Just as the heart of God leans out to the lost, emotional “sympathy for the devil,” will be found in the hearts of God’s people -- who were, after all, once children of darkness themselves:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.</strong> Walk as children of light.</em> (Ephesians 5:8)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">For He rescued us from the domain of darkness,</strong> and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son</em>. (Colossians 1:13)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">But while emotional empathy springs from the heart of God, any spiritual compromise with the devil and his delegates lands the child of God in a gray irrelevance, a spiritual no man’s land from which the light of the world will neither extinguish nor shine.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">According, then, to the biblical pattern -- <em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">and the evening and the morning were the first day</em> (Genesis 1:5) – we are introduced to darkness before the light, Saul before David…</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">The unholy spirit.</strong><br style="line-height: 1.5;" />To understand the Holy Spirit it is instructive to be able to recognize his opposite:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of <strong style="line-height: 1.5;">the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.</strong></em> (Ephesians 2:1-2)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">Saul, the temporary king, was Satan's man. He is a type (a prophetic picture) of Satan, who (at God's discretion) is the temporary prince of <em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">this present darkness</em></strong> (Ephesians 6:12/RSV). Satan could offer a crown to Jesus in the wilderness, because it was his to give. (Matthew 4:8-10)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">Why does God utilize evil?</strong><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">He has to.</strong> It seems that there is no other way. Evil was the only raw material left to him in re-creation. Evil is utilized at the cross for salvation;<strong style="line-height: 1.5;"> Jesus Christ <em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">became sin for us</em> in order to defeat sin for us </strong>(2 Corinthians 5:21). This was predicted and amplified throughout scripture, from Genesis 50:20 to Romans 8:28.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">Some cosmic justice that we are not entirely privy to (1) forced (2) God to utilize evil to effect his ends. Our sin so tied God’s hands (figuratively, and literally on the cross) that <strong style="line-height: 1.5;">in order to defeat evil, God had to get Satan to swallow his own tail; evil defeated itself at the cross.</strong></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">*** </span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">Enough of the darkness. Tomorrow, the man after God’s own heart will strike a match and start anew.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~</span><br />
<span style="color: #cccccc;">(1) see Job chapter 1</span><br />
<span style="color: #cccccc;">(2) <i>Forced </i>is used here in the sense that God seems to have been constrained by his own sense of justice. Because he could not wink at evil, our forgiveness had to be purchased by the blood of his only Son.</span></div>
Franklynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15511271413533155493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6072216184144059206.post-67049669566206938262018-07-05T13:22:00.001-04:002018-07-05T13:22:52.859-04:00the government upon His shoulder -- part 3<div class="mceTemp" style="color: #444444; font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 11.8182px; line-height: 1.5;">
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<dt class="wp-caption-dt" style="-webkit-user-drag: none; color: black; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.5;"><a data-mce-href="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/jonathan-and-david.jpg" href="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/jonathan-and-david.jpg" style="color: #743399; line-height: 1.5;"><img alt="Jonathan gives David his robe, armor, and weapons I Samuel 18:3-4" class="size-full wp-image-7862" data-mce-src="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/jonathan-and-david.jpg" src="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/jonathan-and-david.jpg" height="640" style="border: 0px none; color: #444444; height: auto; line-height: 1.5; margin: 5px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px;" width="530" /></a></dt>
<dd class="wp-caption-dd" style="color: #444444; font-size: 11px; line-height: 17px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 4px 5px;">Jonathan gives David his robe, armor, and weapons I Samuel 18:3-4</dd></dl>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">The Word for today:</strong><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">1 Samuel 11-12</strong></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><a data-mce-href="http://lockportalliance.blogspot.com/2015/07/the-government-upon-his-shoulder-part-2.html" href="http://lockportalliance.blogspot.com/2015/07/the-government-upon-his-shoulder-part-3.html" style="line-height: 1.5;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">Yesterday</strong></a> we learned that Biblical government isn’t about the process, but about the Person. Thus, the only form of government which the Bible endorses is the government upon His shoulder:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">For to us a child is born,</em><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">to us a son is given,</em><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">and the government will be on his shoulders.</strong> </em>(Isaiah 9:6)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">Furthermore, we learned that there will be no peace until the Prince of Peace returns to enforce the peace:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">And he will be called</em><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,</em><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.</em><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">Of the increase of his government and peace</strong></em><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">there will be no end.</strong></em><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">He will reign on David's throne</strong></em><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">and over his kingdom,</strong></em><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">establishing and upholding it</strong></em><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">with justice and righteousness</strong></em><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">from that time on and forever.</strong></em><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">The zeal of the LORD Almighty</strong></em><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">will accomplish this.</strong> </em>(Isaiah 9:6-7)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">***</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">But what shall we do in the meantime, until the Prince of Peace returns to place the government upon his shoulders? The story of Jonathan (King Saul’s son and next-in-line to be king) and David answers that question…</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">1. Depose yourself.</strong> If you are the king of your domain, it is time to abdicate the throne.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">I recommend a literal ceremony. Make a construction paper crown and pretend your chair is the throne. Now (quoting Samuel) depose yourself with these words:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">"The LORD has torn the kingdom from you today and has given it to one better than you.”</em> (1 Samuel 15:28)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">2. <strong style="line-height: 1.5;">Then, as Jonathan did for King David, step aside for the rightful King:</strong><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">"You will be king, and I will be second to you."</em> (I Sam. 23:17)</span></div>
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<strong style="line-height: 1.5;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">3. Relinquish dominion:</span></strong></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">Jonathan stripped himself of the title and the accouterments and proclaimed David the rightful King to come:<br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">Then Jonathan and David made a covenant, because he loved him as his own soul. And Jonathan took off the robe that was on him and gave it to David, with his armor, even to his sword and his bow and his belt.</em> (1 Samuel 18:3-4)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">***</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">Other than vote and hope, there is not much any one of us can do about “the government” at large. But we can hand our own little “crowns,” -- our own little domains, our own lives –over to the King.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">There is no need to wait for Him to return. We can place the government of our hearts, hands, heads, and homes upon his shoulders right now.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~</span></div>
Franklynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15511271413533155493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6072216184144059206.post-7835986452268525402018-07-04T13:02:00.001-04:002018-07-04T13:02:27.946-04:00the government upon His shoulder -- part 2<div style="color: #444444; font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<a data-mce-href="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/government-upon-his-shoulder.jpg" href="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/government-upon-his-shoulder.jpg" style="color: #743399; line-height: 1.5;"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-4691" data-mce-src="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/government-upon-his-shoulder.jpg" src="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/government-upon-his-shoulder.jpg" height="418" style="clear: both; color: #444444; display: block; height: auto; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px auto 12px; max-width: 100%;" title="government upon his shoulder" width="482" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">The Word for today:</strong><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">1 Samuel 9, 10</strong></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;"><a data-mce-href="http://lockportalliance.blogspot.com/2015/07/the-government-upon-his-shoulder-part-1.html" href="http://lockportalliance.blogspot.com/2018/07/the-government-upon-his-shoulder-part-1.html" style="line-height: 1.5;" target="_blank">Yesterday,</a></strong> we read that Israel wanted a king:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. They said to him, "You are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have."</em> (8:4-5)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">But Israel’s real desire was less about having a king than it was about replacing God with a human ruler:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">But when they said, "Give us a king to lead us," this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the LORD. <strong style="line-height: 1.5;">And the LORD told him: "Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king.</strong> </em>(8:6-7)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">We, today in the USA, don’t clamor for a king, but for a government that will return our country to the prosperity, peace, and prominence that we see slipping away.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">Does the Bible have anything to say about government in general? About the United States in particular?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">The answer to the second question should give us pause, because the United States is a non-entity in scripture. Suffice it to say that the vortex of history is Israel; and while many nations will have tangential eschatological (end times) roles, it is unclear whether the United States is among them.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">***</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">About government in general, Scripture has much more to say. I know that parades and picnics and fireworks are calling you, so let’s cut to the chase:</span></div>
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<strong style="line-height: 1.5;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">1. The only form of government that the Bible endorses is <em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">the government upon His shoulder:</em></span></strong></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">For unto us a Child is born,</em><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">Unto us a Son is given;</em><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">And the government will be upon His shoulder.</em> (Isaiah 9:6)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">What form that government will take is not spelled out—which is precisely the point! Whether a government takes form x, y, or z doesn’t matter. None of them will work when they are placed on the shoulders of men. But on his shoulder, any one of them could work splendidly.<strong style="line-height: 1.5;"> Biblical government isn’t about the process, but about the Person.</strong></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">2. Whatever form that might take, it will be infinite and infinitely better and better!—</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">Of the<strong style="line-height: 1.5;"> increase</strong> of His government and peace</em><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">There will be no end.</em> (Isaiah 9:7)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">3. God favors none of the current governments/countries over any other. A very telling passage in this regard is found in the book of Joshua, when Joshua (representative of a governing man) encounters the preincarnate Christ. (We know it’s Him because only God accepts worship in scripture.)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked,<strong style="line-height: 1.5;"> "Are you for us or for our enemies?"</strong></em><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">"Neither," he replied, "but as commander of the army of the LORD I have now come."</strong></em><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">Then Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence, and asked him, "What message does my Lord have for his servant?"</em><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">The commander of the LORD's army replied, "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy." And Joshua did so.</em> (Joshua 5:13-15)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">“Neither,” he replied -- which means that there is no most-favored-nation status in God’s eyes. God is on His own side, because there will be no peace until the Prince of Peace –the commander of the LORD’s army—returns to enforce the peace:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">For to us a child is born,</em><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">to us a son is given,</em><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">and the government will be on his shoulders.</em><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">And he will be called</em><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,</em><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">Everlasting Father, <strong style="line-height: 1.5;">Prince of Peace.</strong></em><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">Of the increase of his government and peace</strong></em><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">there will be no end.</strong></em><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">He will reign on David's throne</strong></em><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">and over his kingdom,</strong></em><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">establishing and upholding it</strong></em><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">with justice and righteousness</strong></em><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">from that time on and forever.</strong></em><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">The zeal of the LORD Almighty</strong></em><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">will accomplish this.</strong></em> (Isaiah 9:6-7)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">***</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">But what can we do in the meantime, until the Prince of Peace returns to place the government upon his shoulders? We’ll answer that question tomorrow.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~</span></div>
Franklynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15511271413533155493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6072216184144059206.post-92201791219398748722018-07-03T11:24:00.002-04:002018-07-03T11:24:58.490-04:00the government upon His shoulder -- part 1<div style="color: #444444; font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<a data-mce-href="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Isaiah-9.6.jpg" href="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Isaiah-9.6.jpg" style="color: #743399; line-height: 1.5;"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-4687" data-mce-src="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Isaiah-9.6.jpg" src="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Isaiah-9.6.jpg" height="350" style="clear: both; color: #444444; display: block; height: auto; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px auto 12px; max-width: 100%;" title="Isaiah 9.6" width="350" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">The Word for today:</strong><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">1 Samuel 7-8</strong></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">Israel wanted a king.</strong><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. They said to him, "You are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have."</em> (8:4-5)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><i>But when they said, "Give us a king to lead us," this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the LORD. And <strong style="line-height: 1.5;">the LORD told him: "Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king."</strong></i> (8:6-7)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">They wanted a king because “Everybody else is doing it.”</strong><br style="line-height: 1.5;" />1. They wanted to be like the other nations. 2. They wanted a national judge. 3. They wanted a leader in battle. (8:20)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">But these desires contradicted God’s specific purposes:</strong><br style="line-height: 1.5;" />1. Israel was to be a holy nation, not like any other. 2. God was their ultimate Judge. 3. God fought their battles for them.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">Israel’s real desire was less about having a king than it was about replacing God with a human ruler. 1 Samuel 8:4-20 reveals that their motive actually involved a rejection of God. They exchanged an awesome and powerful ruler they could not see for one they could see—who was utterly capable of failure.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">***</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">Today is the 3rd of July, the date on which the climactic battle of Gettysburg was fought. As we anticipate picnics and parades and fireworks, many of us contemplate the questions raised in the Gettysburg Address. We still wonder ”whether this nation, conceived in liberty, can long endure;” and whether “government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">Most of all we wonder whether our nation is, indeed, “a nation under God.”</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">Israel wanted a king. We don’t clamor for a king, but for a government that will return our country to the prosperity, peace, and prominence that we see slipping away.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">Does the Bible have anything to say about government in general? About the United States in particular? We’ll delve into these questions tomorrow, on the 4th.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~</span></div>
Franklynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15511271413533155493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6072216184144059206.post-58291393413288365042018-07-02T12:47:00.001-04:002018-07-02T12:47:54.874-04:00tell it like it is<div style="color: #444444; font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<a data-mce-href="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/lie.jpg" href="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/lie.jpg" style="color: #743399; line-height: 1.5;"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-4683" data-mce-src="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/lie.jpg" src="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/lie.jpg" height="350" style="clear: both; color: #444444; display: block; height: auto; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px auto 12px; max-width: 100%;" title="lie" width="525" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">(Note:</strong> This article was first published on this date six years ago.)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">The Word for today:</strong><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">1 Samuel 5-6</strong></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">We think of prophets as persons who are visionary; they can see deep into the future and/or they can see right through the now.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">But God does not have such a highfalutin or mystical view of his prophets. In God’s eyes, the essential qualification for a prophet is an ability to tell it exactly like it is.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">We prize the ability to slickly manipulate words and their meanings. We were treated to a “Supreme” example of this ability just days ago, when the Chief Justice of the United States decreed that a certain statute is a tax except for when it isn’t a tax; and it isn’t a tax except for when it is!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">Which drew this already-classic rebuke from his dissenting colleagues:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">"That carries verbal wizardry too far, deep into the forbidden land of the sophists."</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">The prophet of God does not speak with such sophistry. Unlike one of our recent presidents -- who insisted that the correct interpretation of one of his statements depended upon the proper understanding of "what ‘is’ is" -- the prophet of God uses words to express the truth, not to evade it. The greatest of God’s prophets put it this way:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">Simply let your 'Yes' be 'Yes,' and your 'No,' 'No'; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.</em> (Matthew 5:37)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">***</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">While still a boy, Samuel heard God speak:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">And the LORD said to Samuel: "See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make the ears of everyone who hears of it tingle. At that time I will carry out against Eli everything I spoke against his family--from beginning to end. For I told him that I would judge his family forever because of the sin he knew about; his sons made themselves contemptible, and he failed to restrain them.</em> (1 Samuel 3:11-13)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">Then, even though Samuel feared to do it, he delivered God’s rebuke to Eli, who had raised him from childhood:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">He was afraid to tell Eli the vision, but Eli called him and said, "Samuel, my son."</em><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">Samuel answered, "Here I am."</em><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">"What was it he said to you?" Eli asked. "Do not hide it from me. May God deal with you, be it ever so severely, if you hide from me anything he told you."</em><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">So Samuel told him everything, hiding nothing from him.</em> (1 Samuel 3:15-18)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">This was one indication that Samuel was a genuine prophet, for false prophets usually delivered only good news.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">So, Mama, don’t let your babies grow up to be prophets. Train them instead to use words to mean whatever will advance their careers. Then they might grow up to be the next Bill Clinton! But no one will ever confuse them for Samuel or Jesus. And no one will ever confuse you for Hannah or Mary.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~</span></div>
Franklynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15511271413533155493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6072216184144059206.post-10862640851113804252018-07-01T13:54:00.000-04:002018-07-01T13:54:02.139-04:00“Where have I heard that voice before?” – part 2<div class="mceTemp" style="color: #444444; font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 11.8182px; line-height: 1.5;">
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<dt class="wp-caption-dt" style="-webkit-user-drag: none; color: black; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.5;"><a data-mce-href="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Hannah-and-Samuel.jpg" href="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Hannah-and-Samuel.jpg" style="color: #743399; line-height: 1.5;"><img alt=""Hannah Presenting Samuel to Eli"" class="size-full wp-image-7851" data-mce-src="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Hannah-and-Samuel.jpg" src="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Hannah-and-Samuel.jpg" height="700" style="border: 0px none; color: #444444; height: auto; line-height: 1.5; margin: 5px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px;" width="500" /></a></dt>
<dd class="wp-caption-dd" style="color: #444444; font-size: 11px; line-height: 17px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 4px 5px;">"Hannah Presenting Samuel to Eli"</dd></dl>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">The Word for today:</strong><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">1 Samuel 3-4</strong></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><a data-mce-href="http://lockportalliance.blogspot.com/2015/06/where-have-i-heard-that-voice-before.html" href="http://lockportalliance.blogspot.com/2018/06/where-have-i-heard-that-voice-before.html" style="line-height: 1.5;" target="_blank"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">Yesterday,</strong></a> we read Hannah’s Prayer from 1 Samuel 2. Then we read Mary’s Song from Luke 1.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">If you read them slowly and carefully, the second reading will sound like an echo of the first! More importantly, and wondrously, you will wonder -- as you read both passages --“Where have I heard that voice before?”</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">***</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">Who taught the Word of God the Word of God? Read Mary’s brief moments in Scripture and you'll be able to discern not only who taught the Savior to walk and talk, but also who taught him to fear the Lord, and to trust in God's amazing, unfathomable, tenacious grace.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">It is apparent from the song she composed that Mary memorized and skillfully weaved together many Old Testament phrases in her praises to God. Knowing Scripture by heart, leaving Bethlehem with her child in her arms as they escaped from Herod to Egypt, this new Mom was thinking of Hannah -- <span style="line-height: 1.5;">whose son Samuel, like Mary’s son Jesus, was wholly dedicated to God from the moment of his miraculous birth.</span></span></div>
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<strong style="line-height: 1.5;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Their situations were alike, their songs were alike, and so were their sons:</span></strong></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">And the boy Samuel continued to grow in stature and in favor with the LORD and with men.</em> (1 Samuel 2:26)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.</em> (Luke 2:52)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">***</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">After a long while of Bible reading, the characters take on distinctive voices. After listening for a long time, it is clear to my ear that the person whom Jesus “sounds” most like (not in tone or timbre but in attitude and essence) is Mary. And the person Mary “sounds” most like is Hannah.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">Though I’m not at all sure how heaven works, I have no doubt that Hannah, by now, has been told by many that the Son of God sounds a lot like her!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">But how was Hannah to know, way back when, that the Son of God would gather his voice, by and large, from three influencers:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">1. His Father in heaven (who has no antecedent influence), and…<br style="line-height: 1.5;" />2. His Mom in Nazareth – who had inherited her voice from…<br style="line-height: 1.5;" />3. Hannah, whose situation was so similar to Mary’s situation that Mary must have read the opening chapters of 1 Samuel over and over and over again until the voice she heard there became a part of her own.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">To some degree, it will prove to be the same for us. We will pass away, but the Word we speak will not (1). <span style="line-height: 1.5;">When we speak God's Word to our own generation, its influence just reverberates through time.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">(1) see Mathew 24:35</span></div>
Franklynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15511271413533155493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6072216184144059206.post-51616385477495491232018-06-30T15:22:00.002-04:002018-06-30T15:22:34.142-04:00Where have I heard that voice before? --part 1<div style="color: #444444; font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<a data-mce-href="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/sounds-familiar.png" href="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/sounds-familiar.png" style="color: #ff4b33; line-height: 1.5;"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-4671" data-mce-src="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/sounds-familiar.png" src="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/sounds-familiar.png" height="293" style="clear: both; color: #444444; display: block; height: auto; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px auto 12px; max-width: 100%;" title="sounds familiar" width="398" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">The Word for today:</strong><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">1 Samuel 2</strong></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">Over the next couple days, I’m going to write about the concepts of <strong style="line-height: 1.5;">voice</strong> and <strong style="line-height: 1.5;">influence.</strong></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">But first, in order to consider scriptural voices, I’m going to have to hush up and let you listen to them. Today, therefore, I'll quote two of the most remarkable passages in scripture, then steal silently away.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">First you will be reading Hannah’s Prayer from 1 Samuel 2. Then you will be reading Mary’s Song from Luke 1.</strong> If you read them slowly and carefully, the second reading will sound like an echo of the first! More importantly, and wondrously, you will wonder --as you read both passages --<strong style="line-height: 1.5;">“Where have I heard that voice before?”</strong></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">Tomorrow, I’ll bring my voice back to chime in on <em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">that.</em></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">***</span></div>
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<strong style="line-height: 1.5;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Hannah prayed and said:</span></strong></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">“My heart rejoices in the LORD;<br style="line-height: 1.5;" />in the LORD my horn is lifted high.<br style="line-height: 1.5;" />My mouth boasts over my enemies,<br style="line-height: 1.5;" />for I delight in your deliverance.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">There is no one holy like the LORD;<br style="line-height: 1.5;" />there is no one besides you;<br style="line-height: 1.5;" />there is no Rock like our God.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">Do not keep talking so proudly<br style="line-height: 1.5;" />or let your mouth speak such arrogance,<br style="line-height: 1.5;" />for the LORD is a God who knows,<br style="line-height: 1.5;" />and by him deeds are weighed.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">The bows of the warriors are broken,<br style="line-height: 1.5;" />but those who stumbled are armed with strength.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">Those who were full hire themselves out for food,<br style="line-height: 1.5;" />but those who were hungry hunger no more.<br style="line-height: 1.5;" />She who was barren has borne seven children,<br style="line-height: 1.5;" />but she who has had many sons pines away.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;">The LORD brings death and makes alive;<br style="line-height: 1.5;" />he brings down to the grave and raises up.<br style="line-height: 1.5;" />The LORD sends poverty and wealth;<br style="line-height: 1.5;" />he humbles and he exalts.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;">He raises the poor from the dust<br style="line-height: 1.5;" />and lifts the needy from the ash heap;<br style="line-height: 1.5;" />he seats them with princes<br style="line-height: 1.5;" />and has them inherit a throne of honor.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">For the foundations of the earth are the LORD's;<br style="line-height: 1.5;" />upon them he has set the world.<br style="line-height: 1.5;" />He will guard the feet of his saints,<br style="line-height: 1.5;" />but the wicked will be silenced in darkness.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">It is not by strength that one prevails;<br style="line-height: 1.5;" />those who oppose the LORD will be shattered.<br style="line-height: 1.5;" />He will thunder against them from heaven;<br style="line-height: 1.5;" />the LORD will judge the ends of the earth.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">He will give strength to his king<br style="line-height: 1.5;" />and exalt the horn of his anointed.” (1 Samuel 2:1-10)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">***</span></div>
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<strong style="line-height: 1.5;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">And Mary said:</span></strong></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;">“My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,<br style="line-height: 1.5;" />for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">From now on all generations will call me blessed,<br style="line-height: 1.5;" />for the Mighty One has done great things for me-- holy is his name.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;">His mercy extends to those who fear him,<br style="line-height: 1.5;" />from generation to generation.<br style="line-height: 1.5;" />He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;<br style="line-height: 1.5;" />he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;">He has brought down rulers from their thrones<br style="line-height: 1.5;" />but has lifted up the humble.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;">He has filled the hungry with good things<br style="line-height: 1.5;" />but has sent the rich away empty.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;">He has helped his servant Israel,<br style="line-height: 1.5;" />remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever,<br style="line-height: 1.5;" />even as he said to our fathers." (Luke 1:46-55)</span></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;">~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~</span></div>
Franklynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15511271413533155493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6072216184144059206.post-79639657544771896252018-06-29T11:23:00.000-04:002018-06-29T11:23:04.316-04:00the hinges and the Door<div style="color: #444444; font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<a data-mce-href="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/hinge-and-door.jpg" href="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/hinge-and-door.jpg" style="color: #743399; line-height: 1.5;"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-4663" data-mce-src="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/hinge-and-door.jpg" src="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/hinge-and-door.jpg" height="267" style="clear: both; color: #444444; display: block; height: auto; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px auto 12px; max-width: 100%;" title="hinge and door" width="400" /></a></div>
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<strong style="line-height: 1.5;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">The Word for today:</span></strong><br />
<strong style="line-height: 1.5;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">1 Samuel 1</span></strong></div>
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<strong style="line-height: 1.5;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Samuel.</span></strong><br />
<span style="color: #cccccc;">The only person in the Old Testament who was at one and the same time a prophet (1 Samuel 3:20) a priest (1 Samuel 7:9) and a judge (1 Samuel 7:6, 15).</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">God revealed himself to Samuel by the Word of God.</strong> God is not <em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">revealing</em> (adding to) but He is<em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;"> illuminating</em> his Word today by his Spirit, that we might come to know him.</span><br />
<span style="color: #cccccc;"><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">The LORD continued to appear at Shiloh, and there he revealed himself to Samuel through his word<strong style="line-height: 1.5;">.</strong></em> (3:21)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">From the time he was a small child, Samuel was devoted to God's service, and later in life he became a great leader, moving his people from leadership by judges to rule by a king. He anointed both Saul and David as kings.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;">Like John the Baptist, Samuel was a great transitional figure, a hinge between two ages. Like John, he identified and proclaimed <em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">the man after God's own heart.</em> (1 Sam. 13:14)</span></div>
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<strong style="line-height: 1.5;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Hinges and the Door.</span></strong></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">While Samuel and John the Baptist are hinges, connecting eras and dispensations and testaments, Jesus Christ is the ultimate transitional figure; the only mediator between God and men, life and death, heaven and hell, darkness and light, justice and mercy, truth and grace. The Door, he is the difference between what your life was and what it is. (1)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">I went through the Door from hopelessness to hope, from pointlessness to purpose.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;">You went through the Door from ________________to __________________.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /></span><span style="line-height: 1.5;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">~~~~~~~~</span></span></span><br />
<span style="line-height: 1.5;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">(1) See John 10:9 and 1 Timothy 2:5.</span></span></div>
Franklynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15511271413533155493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6072216184144059206.post-54716534997697687102018-06-28T13:48:00.001-04:002018-06-28T13:48:36.112-04:00don’t leave your best dress in the closet<div style="color: #444444; font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<a data-mce-href="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/dress-crop.jpg" href="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/dress-crop.jpg" style="color: #743399; line-height: 1.5;"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-4659" data-mce-src="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/dress-crop.jpg" src="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/dress-crop.jpg" height="697" style="clear: both; color: #444444; display: block; height: auto; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px auto 12px; max-width: 100%;" title="Wedding Dress and Veil Hanging on Coat Rack" width="467" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">The Word for today:</strong><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">Ruth 4</strong></span></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;">Every now and then we come across a Bible verse that stands for something much larger than what it seems to be saying. One of those verses is Ruth 3:3:</span></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Wash yourself therefore, and anoint yourself and put on your best clothes…</span></strong></em></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">The verse can stand as the picture of every sinner who comes to Jesus:</span></div>
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<strong style="line-height: 1.5;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">1. Wash yourself.</span></strong></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;">First we are forgiven at the cross:<em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;"> The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin</em> (1 John 1:7). But the process of salvation has just begun…</span></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<strong style="line-height: 1.5;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">2. Anoint yourself.</span></strong></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;">Then we are anointed by the Holy Spirit. <i>Anointed</i> is a biblical word which denotes the person and work of the Holy Spirit, who comes upon all believers to empower and teach them:</span></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;"><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge.</em> (1 John 2:20/ESV)</span></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;">Another version says it this way:</span></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;"><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">But you have had the Holy Spirit poured out on you by Christ, and so all of you know the truth.</em> (1 John 2:20/GNT)</span></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;">The reason you and I can understand the Bible is not because of our superior intellects. It is a direct result of the empowering Holy Spirit:</span></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;"><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also<strong style="line-height: 1.5;"> no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.</strong> And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. "For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?" <strong style="line-height: 1.5;">But we have the mind of Christ.</strong></em> (1Corinthians 2:10-16)</span></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;">As the mind of Christ develops within us, the "outside" changes too. This is expressed in the third part of Ruth 3:3:</span></div>
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<strong style="line-height: 1.5;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">3. Put on your best clothes.</span></strong></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">Galatians 3:27 tells us that we have put on Christ:</span></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.</span></em></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;">At the moment we were forgiven by the blood and empowered by the<br style="line-height: 1.5;" />Spirit, we also received the "robe" of Christ-righteousness:</span></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;"><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.</em> (2 Corinthians 5:21)</span></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;">***</span></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;">Many believers stop at #1. They consider themselves "washed," but that's about it. So they live as if they were nothing more than forgiven criminals.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;">But God has changed us all the way from the inside out. He has empowered us with His Spirit and transformed us into the image of His Son (Romans 8:29). So...</span></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Wash yourself therefore, and anoint yourself and put on your best clothes.</span></em></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;">~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~</span></div>
Franklynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15511271413533155493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6072216184144059206.post-82685831015766783352018-06-27T13:28:00.001-04:002018-06-27T13:28:32.629-04:00a preview of the Redeemer<div style="color: #444444; font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<a data-mce-href="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/ruth-and-boaz-in-field.jpg" href="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/ruth-and-boaz-in-field.jpg" style="color: #743399; line-height: 1.5;"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-4639" data-mce-src="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/ruth-and-boaz-in-field.jpg" src="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/ruth-and-boaz-in-field.jpg" height="526" style="clear: both; color: #444444; display: block; height: auto; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px auto 12px; max-width: 100%;" title="ruth-and-boaz-in-field" width="270" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">The Word for today:</strong><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">Ruth 3</strong></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">Our reading schedule gave us only two days in the book of Ruth. But we could not begin to do justice to this great romance in such a short time. Therefore we borrowed some time from our next book (1 Samuel) and extended Ruth to four days.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;">And with so much truth and beauty to convey, we developed a study guide that covers more ground than our customary single-themed articles ever could.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;"><a data-mce-href="http://lockportalliance.blogspot.com/2015/06/what-does-he-see-in-me.html" href="http://lockportalliance.blogspot.com/2018/06/what-does-he-see-in-me.html" style="line-height: 1.5;" target="_blank">Part 1</a></strong> and <strong style="line-height: 1.5;"><a data-mce-href="http://lockportalliance.blogspot.com/2015/06/handfuls-of-purpose.html" href="http://lockportalliance.blogspot.com/2018/06/handfuls-of-purpose.html" style="line-height: 1.5;" target="_blank">part 2</a></strong> are pre-requisite to today’s study.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">***</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">Boaz is a prophetic picture of Jesus Christ as our Kinsman-Redeemer.</strong> The kinsman redeemer did not act—he did not have to act—by statute of the law. He was, you see, in love…</span></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;"><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">"The LORD bless him!" Naomi said to her daughter-in-law. "He has not stopped showing his kindness to the living and the dead." She added,<strong style="line-height: 1.5;"> "That man is our close relative; he is one of our kinsman-redeemers."</strong></em> (Ruth 2:20; cf. Exodus 6:6; Isaiah 59:20; Rom 3:24; Eph 1:7)</span></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;"><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">If one of your countrymen becomes poor and sells some of his property, <strong style="line-height: 1.5;">his nearest relative is to come and redeem</strong> what his countryman has sold</em>. (Lev. 25:25)`</span></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;"><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">If an alien or a temporary resident among you becomes rich and one of your countrymen becomes poor and sells himself to the alien living among you or to a member of the alien's clan, he retains the right of redemption after he has sold himself. One of his relatives may redeem him: An uncle or a cousin or <strong style="line-height: 1.5;">any blood relative in his clan may redeem him.</strong></em> (Lev. 25:47-49)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for<strong style="line-height: 1.5;"> you were bought with a price.</strong> So glorify God in your body</em>. (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)</span></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;"><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were <strong style="line-height: 1.5;">redeemed</strong> from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.</em> (1 Pet. 1:18-19)</span></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;"><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have <strong style="line-height: 1.5;">redemption</strong>, the forgiveness of sins</em>. (Col. 1:13-14)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">***</span></div>
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<strong style="line-height: 1.5;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Christ the Kinsman-Redeemer was willing and able to pay the price for our sin.</span></strong></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">The redeemer must be a “near kinsman”…so Christ had to be <em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">“born of woman, born under the law”</em> to redeem us.<br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.</em> (Gal. 4:4-5)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">The redeemer must be “able to redeem”</strong>…he must be “good for” the price of payment:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">Which of you convicts Me of sin?</em> (John 8:46)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">***</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">Ruth enters into a new life.</strong><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">But Ruth said, "Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the LORD do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you."</em> (Ruth 1:16-17)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">It is our responsibility to claim the Kinsman-Redeemer, and His covering robe of righteousness.</strong><br style="line-height: 1.5;" />Just as Ruth claims Boaz as her kinsman-redeemer, we must claim Christ. Christ can’t claim us—just as Boaz could not claim her. If you love Christ, tell him you do!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">And he said, Who art thou? And she answered, I am Ruth thine handmaid: spread therefore thy skirt over thine handmaid; for thou art a near kinsman.</em> (3:9)</span></div>
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<strong style="line-height: 1.5;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">We can rest, for Christ will finish the work of redemption:</span></strong></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">Then said she, Sit still, my daughter, until thou know how the matter will fall: <strong style="line-height: 1.5;">for the man will not be in rest, until he have finished the thing this day.</strong></em> (3:18; cf. John 19:30)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">The kinsman who <strong style="line-height: 1.5;">will not</strong> redeem represents the law, which <strong style="line-height: 1.5;">cannot</strong> redeem us:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">Then the next of kin said, “I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I impair my own inheritance. Take my right of redemption yourself, for I cannot redeem it.”</em> (4:6)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">***</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">The Redeemer takes a bride…</strong><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">Then Boaz said to the elders and all the people, “You are witnesses this day that I have bought from the hand of Naomi all that belonged to Elimelech and all that belonged to Chilion and to Mahlon. Also Ruth the Moabitess, the widow of Mahlon, I have bought to be my wife.</em> (4:9-10)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready.</em> (Rev. 19:7; cf. Eph. 5:25)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">The Redeemer takes a Gentile bride…</strong><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise</em>. (Gal. 3:28-29; cf. Matthew 8:11; Eph. 2:11-18)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">"I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you;</em><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”</em> (Gen. 12:3)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.</em> (John 10:16)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">(The sheepfold is the Jewish people. Here Jesus told the fold that He would bring in non-Jews as well to form a new all-encompassing family, the church.)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~</span></div>
Franklynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15511271413533155493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6072216184144059206.post-42442932159484601212018-06-26T13:13:00.001-04:002018-06-26T13:13:04.502-04:00handfuls of purpose<div style="color: #444444; font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<a data-mce-href="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/ruth_gleaning-e1340716601537.png" href="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/ruth_gleaning-e1340716601537.png" style="color: #743399; line-height: 1.5;"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-4635" data-mce-src="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/ruth_gleaning-e1340716601537.png" src="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/ruth_gleaning-e1340716601537.png" height="340" style="clear: both; color: #444444; display: block; height: auto; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px auto 12px; max-width: 100%;" title="ruth_gleaning" width="525" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">The Word for today:</strong><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">Ruth 2</strong></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">And when she rose up to glean, Boaz commanded his young men, saying, "Let her glean even among the sheaves, and reproach her not: <strong style="line-height: 1.5;">And let fall also some of the handfuls on purpose</strong> for her, and leave them, that she may glean them, and rebuke her not."</em> (Ruth 2:15-16)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">In some of the darkest days in the Bible, in the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land, and a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab</em> (Ruth 1:1).</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">One of this man's sons married a local girl named Ruth. When both the man and his sons died, Ruth and her mother-in-law, Naomi, returned to Bethlehem upon hearing that the famine in the land of Judah had ended.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">There a wealthy man named Boaz falls in love (at first sight!) when he "happens" to see Ruth, who went out and began to glean in the fields behind the harvesters and, as it turned out, found herself working in a field belonging to Boaz (Ruth 2:3).</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">In the book of Ruth, the <strong style="line-height: 1.5;">Bible reader knows</strong> that Boaz told his workers to<em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;"> <strong style="line-height: 1.5;">let fall also some of the handfuls</strong> </em>(of grain)<em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;"> <strong style="line-height: 1.5;">of purpose for her</strong> </em>(2:16/KJV), so that Ruth will be able to gather enough to sustain herself and Naomi. <strong style="line-height: 1.5;">But Ruth does not know</strong> that Boaz is deliberately providing for her in this way, behind the scenes. She must have thought that the workers weren't harvesting very carefully!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">This story illustrates a concept known as God's <strong style="line-height: 1.5;">providence</strong> (1). The invisible, <strong style="line-height: 1.5;">providing</strong>, protecting hand of the LORD is behind every word and circumstance in the book of Ruth.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">Very often we, like Ruth in the fields, do not realize the<strong style="line-height: 1.5;"> provision</strong> God makes for us. We might attribute our circumstances to chance or happenstance, and fail to see the guiding and sustaining hand of God in our lives.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">The conditions of Ruth's life--the hunger, untimely death, and poverty--made it particularly difficult for her to see that <em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">all things work together for good to those who love God</em> (Rom. 8:28).</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">Later, when Boaz and Ruth are married, Ruth's fallen estate is restored, and a family -- life -- is restored to that which was dead. Once she had been<em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;"> in Adam</em> (represented in the story by her first husband.) Now she is joined to her Redeemer, Christ (represented by Boaz):</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive</em> (1 Cor. 15:22).</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">How could Ruth know, when she "happened" upon Boaz' field, that the handful of purpose would fall to us as well--for from their marriage would proceed a great-grandson, King David. Out of David's line would come the Son of Man, Jesus Christ.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">Out of that wheat field, out of that 'chance' meeting, came the Bread of Life (John 6:48), God's provision for our lives, now and forever:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">And Jesus answered them, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, <strong style="line-height: 1.5;">unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit</strong></em> (John 12:23-24).</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">Because He loves us, God decreed that the wheat should fall for us,<strong style="line-height: 1.5;"> on purpose.</strong></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<br style="line-height: 1.5;" />(1) see Genesis 22:13-14</span></div>
Franklynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15511271413533155493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6072216184144059206.post-26679001846652925922018-06-25T11:14:00.000-04:002018-06-25T11:14:01.650-04:00What does he see in me?<div style="color: #444444; font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<a data-mce-href="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/girl-in-mirror.jpg" href="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/girl-in-mirror.jpg" style="color: #743399; line-height: 1.5;"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-4632" data-mce-src="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/girl-in-mirror.jpg" src="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/girl-in-mirror.jpg" height="500" style="clear: both; color: #444444; display: block; height: auto; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px auto 12px; max-width: 100%;" title="girl in mirror" width="475" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">The Word for today:</strong><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">Ruth 1</strong></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">The book of Ruth is a literary and spiritual gem.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">It is, first of all, a love story. We would do well to transfer that phrase to the Bible itself, so let’s do it:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">The Bible is, first of all, a love story. The day the Bible student comes to that understanding is the day he begins to understand his Bible.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">Our reading schedule has given us only two days in the book of Ruth. We can’t begin do justice to this great romance in such a short time. Therefore we are going to borrow some time from our next book (1 Samuel) and extend Ruth to four days.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">With so much truth and beauty to convey, we have developed a study guide that will touch upon many more of Ruth’s important topics than four of our customary single-themed articles ever could. We trust that you will bring your heart to these matters. If you do, your mind will gladly tag along.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">***</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">Now it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled, that there was a famine in the land. And a certain man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab…</em> (Ruth 1:1)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">Out of the dark period of the judges comes the love story of redemption. It is an unwavering Biblical principle that darkness gives way to light:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">And the earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep…and God said, Let there be light… and the evening and the morning were the first day.</em> (Genesis 1:2,3,5)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">Ruth’s striking faithfulness stands in contrast to the dark backdrop of faithlessness in the days when the judges ruled.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">Time frame.</strong> (cf. Matt. 1:5-6; Joshua 6:25; Heb. 11:31)<br style="line-height: 1.5;" />Boaz is the son of Rahab, the prostitute in Joshua (and a charter member of the Hall of Fame of Faith in Hebrews 11.) Boaz and Ruth are the great-grandparents of King David.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">Bethlehem</strong> (“house of bread”) is a small, nondescript village 5 miles south of Jerusalem. But it is one of the most significant locations in the Bible:<br style="line-height: 1.5;" />Jacob’s wife Rachel died there, giving birth to Benjamin. (Gen. 35:18-19)<br style="line-height: 1.5;" />Ruth and Boaz met there and became parents in the line of the Messiah.<br style="line-height: 1.5;" />David, their great-grandson, was born there. (1 Sam. 16:1)<br style="line-height: 1.5;" />Micah the prophet predicted that the Messiah would be born there. (Micah 5:2)<br style="line-height: 1.5;" />Matthew 2 and Luke 2 record the Christmas story, when the prophecy was fulfilled.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">Salvation is a love affair…</strong><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">We love him because he first loved us</em>. (1 John 4:19)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives within me. And <strong style="line-height: 1.5;">the life I now live I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.</strong> I do not nullify the grace of God, for if justification were by the law, then Christ died in vain</em> (Gal. 2:20-21).</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">In Ruth we see a man who is a kinsman-redeemer,</strong> but he doesn’t have to act in that capacity. Another, closer kinsman had the opportunity to take action, but he turned it down. He did not care for Ruth, but Boaz loved her. That made all the difference. God did not have to redeem us. If He did not, He would still be a just and holy God. But He loved us.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">Boaz is a prophetic picture of Jesus Christ as our Kinsman-Redeemer. </strong>The kinsman redeemer did not act—he did not have to act—by statute of the law. He was, you see, in love…</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">The unsearchable heart of love… (What does He see in me?)</strong><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">Then she fell on her face and bowed herself to the ground, and said unto him, Why have I found grace in thine eyes, that thou shouldest take knowledge of me, seeing I am a stranger?</em> (2:10)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">“What does he see in me?” is the wrong question -- for the answer is not in us, but in Him:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. <strong style="line-height: 1.5;">The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession. The LORD did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the LORD loved you</strong> and kept the oath he swore to your forefathers that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.</em> (Deuteronomy 7:6-8)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~</span></div>
Franklynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15511271413533155493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6072216184144059206.post-16312282472509730652018-06-24T17:03:00.001-04:002018-06-24T17:03:33.982-04:00displaying the pearls -- part 3<div style="color: #444444; font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<a data-mce-href="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/pearl-1.jpg" href="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/pearl-1.jpg" style="color: #743399; line-height: 1.5;"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-4628" data-mce-src="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/pearl-1.jpg" src="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/pearl-1.jpg" height="377" style="clear: both; color: #444444; display: block; height: auto; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px auto 12px; max-width: 100%;" title="pearl 1" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">The Word for today:</strong><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">1 Peter 5</strong></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">“Why do you believe in Jesus?”</span></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;">Someday (if it hasn't been asked already) somebody is going to ask you that question. When they ask it, you will know whether they are sincerely wondering about your faith, or whether they are picking a fight.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;">If they are just looking for an argument, don’t waste your breath. Jesus said not to throw your pearls before swine (1). So, keep your pearls in your pocket.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;">But if the question is sincere, we should be ready to display our pearls, so to speak:</span></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;"><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.</strong></em> (1 Peter 3:15)</span></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;">A couple days ago, <a data-mce-href="http://lockportalliance.blogspot.com/2015/06/displaying-pearls-part-1.html" href="http://lockportalliance.blogspot.com/2018/06/displaying-pearls-part-1.html" style="line-height: 1.5;" target="_blank"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">in part 1</strong></a>, we used some whimsical examples to arrive at this serious conclusion:</span></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;">“Believers are often less prepared to answer questions and objections about our faith in Jesus than real estate salespeople are prepared for the objections they face. So we hope to see you tomorrow, when we’ll offer some specific ways that we can be prepared.”</span></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;">Yesterday, <a data-mce-href="http://lockportalliance.blogspot.com/2015/06/displaying-pearls-part-2.html" href="http://lockportalliance.blogspot.com/2018/06/displaying-pearls-part-2.html" style="line-height: 1.5;" target="_blank"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">in part 2</strong></a>, we <strong style="line-height: 1.5;">prepared to respond with our heads:</strong></span></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;">1. Be able to tell the Good News.<br style="line-height: 1.5;" />2. Do not leave Jesus on the cross!<br style="line-height: 1.5;" />3. Point to prophecy (pre-cross)<br style="line-height: 1.5;" />4. Point to history (post-resurrection)<br style="line-height: 1.5;" />5. Point to the differences Jesus has made in you.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">Today we bring our testimonies to a grand finale, as we reach into our hearts to…</span></div>
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<strong style="line-height: 1.5;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">6. Display your pearls.</span></strong></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">This part of your testimony is unique, known only to you, so I cannot specifically direct you. But I can leave you with a few examples of what “pearls” might look like.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;">First, an example from my own heart…</span></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;">I’m a storyteller who spent his life looking and listening for the Story that, I was certain, just had to be out there…somewhere, if only I could find it. So for the longest time I looked and listened, but nothing that I read or heard could fill my heart. Years and years of fruitless searching left me so discouraged that I began to think that maybe the Story had never been told. But I kept going until, one day, I found it hiding in plain sight, in a book that had always been there on my shelf.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;">It seems I had to read every story in the world to find the one so good it has to be true; the one so good and true that my heart is too small to contain it all.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">***</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">That's the "pearl" my life has formed. Yours, of course, will look a bit different. My pearl formed around what happened in my life, but I've heard of pearls that formed around what didn’t happen! I know a man whose relationship with God coalesced around a sentiment he'd first heard in a rock 'n roll song!--</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">”God only knows what I'd be without you.” (2)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">***</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">Finally, from the heart of Connie Jo (a Stand in the Rain reader from a state far, far away) comes a distillation of every “pearl” ever formed. In response to part 1 of this article, she wrote via Facebook:</span></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;">“It’s because I'm in LOVE with Him. That’s why I believe :)”</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">Connie’s pearl of great price is the essence of all our testimonies. So if you’ve got many pearls but you can’t decide which to display, show ‘em that one!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">And if you haven’t formed a pearl yet, you can borrow Connie’s for a while, until you’ve got one to call your own. Believe me, she won't mind, even if you never give it back.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;">~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<br style="line-height: 1.5;" />(1) Matthew 7:6<br style="line-height: 1.5;" />(2) “God Only Knows,” by Brian Wilson and Tony Asher from “Pet Sounds” by the Beach Boys, 1966.</span></div>
Franklynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15511271413533155493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6072216184144059206.post-70127338586598809012018-06-23T11:17:00.001-04:002018-06-23T11:17:47.403-04:00displaying the pearls -- part 2<div style="color: #444444; font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<a data-mce-href="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/hope-e1340464413176.jpg" href="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/hope-e1340464413176.jpg" style="color: #743399; line-height: 1.5;"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-4622" data-mce-src="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/hope-e1340464413176.jpg" src="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/hope-e1340464413176.jpg" height="350" style="clear: both; color: #444444; display: block; height: auto; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px auto 12px; max-width: 100%;" title="hope" width="525" /></a></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">The Word for today:</strong><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">1 Peter 4:7-19</strong></span></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;">“Why do you believe in Jesus?”</span></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;">Someday (if it hasn't been asked already) somebody is going to ask you that question. When they ask it, you will know whether they are sincerely wondering about your faith, or whether they are picking a fight.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;">If they are just looking for an argument, don’t waste your breath. Jesus said not to throw your pearls before swine (1). So, keep your pearls in your pocket.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;">But if the question is sincere, we should be ready to display our pearls, so to speak:</span></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;"><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.</strong></em> (1 Peter 3:15)</span></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;"><a data-mce-href="http://lockportalliance.blogspot.com/2015/06/displaying-pearls-part-1.html" href="http://lockportalliance.blogspot.com/2018/06/displaying-pearls-part-1.html" style="line-height: 1.5;" target="_blank"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">Yesterday</strong></a>, we used some whimsical examples to arrive at this serious conclusion:</span></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;">“Believers are often less prepared to answer questions and objections about our faith in Jesus than real estate salespeople are prepared for the objections they face. So we hope to see you tomorrow, when we’ll offer specific ways that we can be prepared.”</span></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;">Well, tomorrow has arrived, so let’s get prepared:</span></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">1. Be able to tell the Good News.</strong><br style="line-height: 1.5;" />The Good News (the gospel) of Jesus Christ is that God Himself died in our place in order to save us from the eternal consequences of sin.<br style="line-height: 1.5;" />We, ourselves, must understand what happened at the cross in order to express it to others. Then we should condense our understanding to a phrase which communicates the cross to a sincere seeker. In order to condense the cross, I use the title of the old song, “Jesus Paid it All.” Using that phrase, I can explain the salvation purchased at the cross by the blood of Christ. Others might prefer the phrase “Jesus took my place,” or “He got what I deserve.”</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">2. Do not leave Jesus on the cross!</strong><br style="line-height: 1.5;" />After Jesus died for our sins, God powerfully and visually proclaimed that the plan worked! The resurrection of Jesus Christ means that the cross was not just a “nice try” by a nice guy. The resurrection means that the cross was God’s great victory over evil and sin and death.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">3. Point to prophecy (pre-cross)</strong><br style="line-height: 1.5;" />The Bible clearly told the Story before it happened. So equip yourself with prophetic scriptures that you can point to. Nearly 1000 years before it happened, Psalm 22 described the cross through the Savior’s eyes. Nearly 700 years before it happened, Isaiah 53 described the cross through the eyes of those who were being saved.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">The cross happened exactly as the Bible foretold. Prophecy shows us that the cross is not only historically verified, but pre-historically verified!</span></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">4. Point to history (post-resurrection)</strong><br style="line-height: 1.5;" />While prophecy (history written before history happened) proves the cross, the resurrection is proved by its undeniable historical after-effects.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;">The radical changes wrought in the lives of a little band of previously fearful men (who had each deserted Jesus on the night he was captured and tried) can only be explained by the fact that they were men who had witnessed an astounding miracle! The resurrection that the disciples proclaimed was verified by their radically altered lives--lives that turned the entire world on its ear.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">Each of the disciples died for his fearless testimony to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Their faith swept the world and is -- to this day, far and away -- the world’s predominant influence.</span></div>
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<strong style="line-height: 1.5;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">5. Point to the differences Jesus has made in you.</span></strong></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;">It is right here that many believers tend to get moralistic. That would be a mistake. Don’t tell the sinner that you cuss less, drink less, and hardly ever chase skirts anymore. Those were your problems, not their’s.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;">Or we tend to get religious, telling about our church or our prayer or our scripture study. But those kinds of changes do not persuade the seeker. He does not notice — or need, or want -- your personal halo.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;">Instead, tell them (as 1 Peter 3:15 advises) of the new-found hope in your heart: that the future seems a little brighter; that there really is a Somewhere just over the rainbow; that you’re not alone anymore; and that you look forward to the future instead of fearing it.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;">***</span></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;">Tomorrow, in part 3, we’ll bring our testimonies to a grand finale, when we display our pearls.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;">~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<br style="line-height: 1.5;" />(1) Matthew 7:6</span></div>
Franklynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15511271413533155493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6072216184144059206.post-14896734373577921982018-06-22T13:50:00.002-04:002018-06-22T13:50:50.006-04:00displaying the pearls -- part 1<div style="color: #444444; font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<a data-mce-href="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/why-logo-e1340375617211.jpg" href="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/why-logo-e1340375617211.jpg" style="color: #743399; line-height: 1.5;"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-4615" data-mce-src="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/why-logo-1024x768.jpg" src="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/why-logo-1024x768.jpg" height="393" style="clear: both; color: #444444; display: block; height: auto; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px auto 12px; max-width: 100%;" title="why logo" width="525" /></a></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">The Word for today:</strong><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">1 Peter 3:13-4:6</strong></span></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;">“Why do you believe in Jesus?”</span></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;">Someday (if it hasn't been asked already) somebody is going to ask you that question. When they ask it, you will know whether they are sincerely wondering about your faith, or whether they are picking a fight.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;">If they are just looking for an argument, don’t waste your breath. Jesus said not to throw your pearls before swine (1). So, keep your pearls in your pocket.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;">But if the question is sincere, we should be ready to display our pearls, so to speak:</span></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;"><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">Always<strong style="line-height: 1.5;"> be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.</strong> But do this with gentleness and respect.</em> (1 Peter 3:15)</span></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;">For a brief period in my life, I sold real estate. The broker who owned the real estate company was, in his own field, a good teacher.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;">He gave us a list of the most common questions and objections we would hear from clients and customers. Then we practiced effective answers and counter-objections.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;">The broker would always play the role of the customer. He might play the customer at an open house who was more than ready to buy, then suddenly gets cold feet in the parking lot of the real estate office. In that case, we’d practice a specific routine called the “Parking Lot Bail Out Counter.” We were expected to memorize the script and be able to put it to use at a moment’s notice.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;">We had to memorize other routines as well, each of them tailored to counter another specific objection. The routines had colorful titles that made them memorable. Among them were the “Tip of the Iceberg” technique; the “Safe Island;” “No Way Jose;” “Reduce to the Ridiculous;” “The Seller Might Die;” “Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lease (Just Drop Off the Key, Lee);” “Miss Apprehension;” and “The Terminal Turnaround.”</span></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;">Funny thing was, they worked. Almost every sale I made was because the broker taught me when and how to deploy those counter-objections.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">***</span></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;">What isn’t very funny is that believers are often less prepared to answer questions and objections about our faith in Jesus than real estate salespeople are prepared for the objections they face.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;">So we hope to see you tomorrow, when we’ll offer some specific ways that we can<em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;"> be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.</em></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<br style="line-height: 1.5;" />(1) Matthew 7:6</span></div>
Franklynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15511271413533155493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6072216184144059206.post-79101841708787255112018-06-21T13:42:00.002-04:002018-06-21T13:42:12.414-04:00the best translation of the Bible<div style="color: #444444; font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">The Word for today:</strong><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">1 Peter 3:1-12</strong></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">The story is told of a little boy who is watching a ventriloquist perform. Willingly suspending his disbelief (as kids do) he imagines the dummy is alive. Moreover, he wants to bring the dummy home so they can play together.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">The boy perceives the ventriloquist to be the dummy’s father, so he waits until the performance is over, then goes backstage and asks the ventriloquist if his new friend can come over to play. The ventriloquist tries to change the subject, but the little boy keeps on asking. Hemming and hawing, the ventriloquist doesn’t know what to do.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">Then the boy walks over to the box where the dummy is laying. “I tried to ask your Dad if you can come over and play, but he wouldn’t say. So I’ll have to ask you—“</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">To which the exasperated ventriloquist finally replied to the boy, “Kid, I don’t know how else to tell you this, but <strong style="line-height: 1.5;">he just talks. He doesn’t <em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">do</em> anything.”</strong></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">***</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">So many of us are like that dummy. We talk the Bible but don’t live biblically. We usually mean well, but because our words are not consistently translated into action, our testimonies are not taken seriously. We become nothing more than verbal pests to be avoided.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">I’m guilty of that kind of pestering — of words that are not authenticated by my life. So on behalf of others like me, I propose a new motto: "Be doers of the Word and not sayers only."</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">Let’s listen as Peter proposes the same thing, exhorting wives to let their actions speak so loudly that they won’t have to say a single word!---</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">In the same way you wives must submit yourselves to your husbands, so that if any of them do not believe God's word, <strong style="line-height: 1.5;">your conduct will win them over to believe. It will not be necessary for you to say a word.</strong></em> (1 Peter 3:1)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">I, and most of us, would be far more persuasive about the power of the gospel if we were more like those wives and less like that dummy.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~</span></div>
Franklynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15511271413533155493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6072216184144059206.post-26855944283235404362018-06-20T06:03:00.001-04:002018-06-20T06:03:42.656-04:00something in the way He moves<div class="mceTemp" style="color: #444444; font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 11.8182px; line-height: 1.5;">
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<dt class="wp-caption-dt" style="-webkit-user-drag: none; color: black; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.5;"><a data-mce-href="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/John-6.37.jpeg" href="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/John-6.37.jpeg" style="color: #743399; line-height: 1.5;"><img alt="" class="size-full wp-image-4601" data-mce-src="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/John-6.37.jpeg" src="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/John-6.37.jpeg" height="480" style="border: 0px none; color: #444444; height: auto; line-height: 1.5; margin: 5px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px;" title="John 6.37" width="460" /></a></dt>
<dd class="wp-caption-dd" style="color: #444444; font-size: 11px; line-height: 17px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 4px 5px;">“All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” John 6:37</dd></dl>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">The Word for today:</strong><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">1 Peter 2:18-25</strong></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">1 Peter is written <strong style="line-height: 1.5;"><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">to God's elect, who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father.</em> </strong>(1 Peter 1:1-2)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">Which pretty much leaves you and me out of the picture, right?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">Wrong. Election is a concept that, like so many other biblical concepts, is bigger than our heads. I have never met a person or read a theologian who could wrap his head around election and free will, simultaneously.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">But somehow I know that both God’s election and man’s free will are absolutely true. Morever, the one does not contradict the other.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">I can’t explain them, or analyze them, or argue about them. But I can, from the Word of God, illustrate that they work, in the real world, in seamless tandem.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">The illustration comes from the story of Gideon in the book of Judges:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">But the LORD said to Gideon, "There are still too many men. Take them down to the water, and I will sift them for you there. If I say, 'This one shall go with you,' he shall go; but if I say, 'This one shall not go with you,' he shall not go." So Gideon took the men down to the water. There the LORD told him, "Separate those who lap the water with their tongues like a dog from those who kneel down to drink." Three hundred men lapped with their hands to their mouths. All the rest got down on their knees to drink. The LORD said to Gideon, "With the three hundred men that lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands. Let all the other men go, each to his own place."</em><br style="line-height: 1.5;" />(Judges 7:4-7)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">I'm going to point to the facts, then I'm going to leave you to find them in the passage directly above.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">If you do, you will conclude that God’s election and man’s free will are simultaneously in effect in the passage. You will never be able to "prove" this conclusion (as one proves a geometric theorem) but do not worry, for your inability to intellectually prove or defend election and free will puts you in the company of the greatest theologians who have ever lived -- for they couldn’t either.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">But more important than finding yourself in the company of theologians is that you will find yourself in the company of those <strong style="line-height: 1.5;"><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, </em></strong>to whom 1 Peter was written.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">***</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">Here then, are the facts. If you bring these facts to the story about Gideon (above), the “contradictions" will melt away…</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">God chose 300 men. (Fact)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">But how did he choose them? By letting each man use his free will. (Fact)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">So election and free will cannot be understood through debate and analysis, but in real life it works out that way. (Fact)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">You can come to Jesus if you want to: <em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">"All that the Father gives me shall come to me; and he that comes to me I will in no wise cast out</em> (1)." (Fact)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">If you don’t come to Jesus, you weren’t elected. (Fact)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">If you do come to Him (here’s the Good News) you were elected. (Fact)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">Just because we can't explain something does not mean it's not true. Just because we can't explain election and free will does not mean they are not simultaneously and absolutely true.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">Together, they are the inexplicable <em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">something</em> in the way God moves.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<br style="line-height: 1.5;" />(1) John 6:37</span></div>
Franklynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15511271413533155493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6072216184144059206.post-28946349166223665952018-06-19T13:18:00.001-04:002018-06-19T13:18:17.808-04:00the last arrow<div style="color: #444444; font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<a data-mce-href="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Last-Arrow-e1340124153167.jpg" href="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Last-Arrow-e1340124153167.jpg" style="color: #743399; line-height: 1.5;"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-4593" data-mce-src="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Last-Arrow-e1340124153167.jpg" src="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Last-Arrow-e1340124153167.jpg" height="688" style="clear: both; color: #444444; display: block; height: auto; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px auto 12px; max-width: 100%;" title="Last-Arrow" width="525" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">Stand in the Rain is down to the final 3 weeks of our 3-year schedule.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">In the days we have left, we are going to scour the archives for articles we meant to publish but never did because they were too long, or too strong, or too far gone. If we find any that touch upon our remaining books (1 Peter, Ruth, and the first half of 1 Samuel) we intend to deploy them.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">We want to leave nothing in reserve. We want to be found with Sword unsheathed and no arrow left in the quiver.</span></div>
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<strong style="line-height: 1.5;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">The Word for today:<br style="line-height: 1.5;" />1 Peter 2:4-17</span></strong></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">"Look, I lay in Zion a stone, a chosen and priceless cornerstone, and whoever believes in him will never be put to shame."<br style="line-height: 1.5;" />So you who believe see his value, but for those who do not believe, "The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone..."</em><br style="line-height: 1.5;" />(1 Peter 2:6-7)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">***</span></div>
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<strong style="line-height: 1.5;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">"Like a Rolling Stone"</span></strong></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ. </em>(Colossians 2:17)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">The Bible is one big song, or psalm. The song is held together by repeated images, technically called <strong style="line-height: 1.5;">"types," which are pictures of things to come.</strong></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">Teaching with types is the primary teaching method of the Holy Spirit. In the Bible, the movie comes out before the book! Junior- and senior-high students "watch the movie" instead of reading the book, then write a "book report," because the movie is easier to understand (and takes a lot less time). The Holy Spirit "shows the movie" first, filling the Old Testament with people, places, objects, and actions which serve to make it easier for us to understand the concepts of the New Testament, especially the concepts concerning the heart and character of God -- the heart and character which brought Him to the cross.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">'Types' can be people. </strong> Isaac, the miracle baby promised to Abraham and his wife Sarah (who was long past child-bearing age) typifies Jesus Christ, who was also supernaturally born.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">Isaac was<em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;"> the son of promise.</em> God promised Abraham that <em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed </em>(Genesis 26:4; cf. Genesis 12:3; 18:18; 22:18). This was fulfilled in Jesus Christ, a descendant of Abraham and Isaac.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">'Types' can be objects or things.</strong> The wood that Isaac carried to his own sacrifice foreshadows the cross that Jesus would carry to Golgotha.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">'Types' can be actions.</strong> God told Abraham to bring Isaac to be sacrificed. Abraham obeyed. Then God stopped him, telling Abraham that <em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">God would Himself provide the sacrifice</em>. Later, God not only provided a sacrifice but was, Himself, the sacrifice.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">Some 'types' are 'types in contrast':</strong> Ishmael was Abraham's son born to the slave-girl Hagar. In contrast to Isaac, Ishmael is "the son of the flesh." Together, these two sons depict the New Testament concept that naturally, on our own, we are slaves to sin. But supernaturally, by faith in God's Son of Promise, we are set free from sin and death (see Romans 9). Jesus Christ emphasized this concept, telling the religious Pharisee Nicodemus that <em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">"You must be born again. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit is spirit."</em></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">Types, then, foreshadow the character and work of Jesus Christ.</strong> A trick question that serves to help the Bible student understand the concept of types is--<br style="line-height: 1.5;" />In approximately what year did Passover occur?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">The Bible student reflexively thinks in terms of "B.C.," thousands of years before Christ, in the time of Moses and the Exodus. But an understanding of the typology of Scripture gives us the correct answer: the passover in Exodus is only <em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">the copy and shadow of things to come</em> (Colossians 2:17; Hebrews 8:5). Our real Passover was at the cross of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 5:7) in approximately 33 A.D. The blood on the posts and lintels of the doors in Egypt were the faint whisper, for a relatively few Hebrews, of the blood on the post and crosspiece where hung the Lamb without blemish -- the Door to eternal life for all nations, for all time (John 10:9).</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">These types echo and re-echo throughout the Bible, pointing to Jesus. Every story whispers His name. <strong style="line-height: 1.5;">The types, which are actually the Bible's most sophisticated and meaningful prophecies</strong> --<em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;"> deep calling to deep</em> -- become more emphatic, more pronounced, until the echo is overtaken by the original --<em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;"> the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world</em> -- in a dizzying timelessness.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">These repeated motifs become the refrain, the chorus, of one big song. The Bible is arranged with the types as the repetitive elements tying the whole together. The Bible is not arranged chronologically. It is not arranged thematically. The Bible is arranged symphonically.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">For the last ten years of my life, very nearly every available moment has been consumed with teaching (or preparing to teach) the Bible. I can't give any meaningful accounting of the rate of success and/or failure, for the Bible teaches the folly and danger of measuring a work of the Spirit, which I believe every Christian ministry to be.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">But one night in late June, I had my most gratifying moment. A small crew of hardcore Bible students, some of them on their second or third trip with me through the 66 books of the Bible, had gathered on a Thursday night--a night so mild, so lush and gorgeous that any "sane" person would have opted out of Bible study in order to enjoy the weather. But this crew, insane in the Spirit, were there when I started to trot through another of the types. This one happened to be the motif of the rock: starting with<em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;"> the rock that was smitten,</em> from which life-giving water flowed (Exodus); to<em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;"> the stone the builders rejected which became the capstone of the arch</em> (Psalms/1 Peter); to <em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">the rock cut out of a mountain, but not by human hands,</em> which crushed the prideful institutions of man (Daniel); to <em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">the stone of stumbling and a rock of offense</em> for unbelievers (Isaiah/Romans/1 Peter); which same stone is<em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;"> the foundation of the church</em>, upon which <em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">the wise man builds his house</em> (1 Corinthians / Matthew).</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">As I was spieling through this very abridged rock chorus, I could see in their eyes that they "got it," that they knew the Chorus and so were well on their way to learning the whole Song! They were following after <em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">the Rock of their salvation</em> (Psalm 95:1) as He rolled through scripture -- their steppingstone out of<em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;"> the valley of the shadow</em> and into<em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;"> the light of the morning, when the sun riseth, a morning without clouds, when the tender grass springeth out of the earth, through clear shining after rain</em> (Psalm 23/2 Samuel 23).</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~</span></div>
Franklynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15511271413533155493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6072216184144059206.post-57131747329163860892018-06-18T14:30:00.000-04:002018-06-18T14:30:04.681-04:00typecast<div style="color: #444444; font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<a data-mce-href="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/apostle_peter_001.jpg" href="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/apostle_peter_001.jpg" style="color: #743399; line-height: 1.5;"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-4587" data-mce-src="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/apostle_peter_001.jpg" src="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/apostle_peter_001.jpg" height="480" style="clear: both; color: #444444; display: block; height: auto; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px auto 12px; max-width: 100%;" title="apostle_peter_001" width="380" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">(<strong style="line-height: 1.5;">Note:</strong> This article was first published on this date six years ago.)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">The Word for today:</strong><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">1 Peter 1:13-2:3</strong></span></div>
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<strong style="line-height: 1.5;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Typecast…</span></strong></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">Hollywood portrays Peter as the ignorant fisherman. Wrong, as usual.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">In the first few verses of 1 Peter he handles the great doctrines of election, foreknowledge, sanctification, obedience, the blood of Christ, the Trinity, the grace of God, salvation, revelation, glory, faith, and hope.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">At least they were right about him being a fisherman…</span></div>
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<strong style="line-height: 1.5;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">But there’ll be some changes made…</span></strong></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">I like to read Peter because he is an example of how Jesus Christ rubs off on those who spend their time with him.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">When we first encountered Peter in the gospels, he was impetuous, but in his epistles he is patient. The transforming power of the gospel had wrought this change in his life.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">No brag, just fact…</strong><br style="line-height: 1.5;" />Over the weekend we buried my 97-year-old Mother. My family, many of whom I now see at funerals only, were back in their hometown for the first time since we buried my nephew over 5 years ago.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">I did not set out to ingratiate or endear myself to anyone, but Shelley was asked -- by more than a few -- if I had undergone a lobotomy! That was their hard-edged way of telling her that they noticed a positive change in me. What’s better yet is that even those who do not believe in Jesus gave him credit for my “lobotomy.” They all knew that He’s the one I’ve been hanging out with since they saw me last.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">I hope you don’t think I’m bragging about either Peter or myself. I just wanted you to know that some will continue to label you with a label that has long since worn off. You will always be typecast by some, especially by those who don’t want to see -- in anyone’s life -- the latent image of God come into sharper focus.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">But don’t fret about them, because it is also true that if your changes proceed over years, you will be surprised by how many take notice, and even attribute the changes to a Jesus whom they do not believe in!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">***</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">Maybe, just maybe, when they come back for my funeral, their hearts will change towards Him. So I hope that all of them will be born again (but not for a long, long time!)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~</span></div>
Franklynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15511271413533155493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6072216184144059206.post-89699882748441500412018-06-17T13:15:00.002-04:002018-06-17T13:15:44.917-04:00the fellowship of his sufferings<div style="color: #444444; font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<a data-mce-href="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/suffering21.jpg" href="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/suffering21.jpg" style="color: #743399; line-height: 1.5;"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-4579" data-mce-src="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/suffering21.jpg" src="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/suffering21.jpg" height="356" style="clear: both; color: #444444; display: block; height: auto; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px auto 12px; max-width: 100%;" title="suffering2" width="525" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">The Word for today:</strong><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">1 Peter 1:1-12</strong></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials,</strong> that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.</em><br style="line-height: 1.5;" />(1 Peter 1:6-7)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">1 Peter is all about suffering. Why does God allow it? What is its purpose? How should we deal with it?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">But for most of us (if we are honest with ourselves) the first question would be “What is suffering?”</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">That’s because we are not a suffering or persecuted church. We think it extraordinary if someone serves, or gives, or prays, or loves sacrificially. So most of us are hard-pressed to name one Christian of our acquaintance who suffers for the sake of the gospel of Jesus Christ.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">Therefore, since we have a lot to learn about this subject, let’s dive in. Let’s first of all see how suffering connects us to Jesus Christ.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">When we suffer for Christ, Jesus is also suffering through us, through his church.</strong> Recall that when Jesus appeared to Saul on the road to Damascus, he said,<em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;"> "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?"</em><br style="line-height: 1.5;" />(Acts 9:4)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">Saul thought he was persecuting Christians. He was shocked to learn that he was actually persecuting Jesus Christ.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">This is what Peter wrote about our suffering:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. <strong style="line-height: 1.5;">But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, </strong>so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.</em><br style="line-height: 1.5;" />(1 Peter 4:12-13)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">If the gospel is to go forward, someone has to suffer. When a child is born, a woman must travail in pain. Just so, there will be more people born again when more believers are willing to travail.</strong> That concept brings sense to these otherwise puzzling verses:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">I am glad when I suffer for you in my body, for <strong style="line-height: 1.5;">I am completing what remains of Christ's sufferings for his body, the church.</strong></em><br style="line-height: 1.5;" />(Colossians 1:24/NLT)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith;<strong style="line-height: 1.5;"> that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings,</strong> being conformed to His death.</em> (Philippians 3:8-10/NKJV)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~</span></div>
Franklynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15511271413533155493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6072216184144059206.post-51244874032215800992018-06-16T10:26:00.000-04:002018-06-16T10:26:00.726-04:00our ultimate Judge<div style="color: #444444; font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<a data-mce-href="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/judgment-e1339860550262.jpg" href="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/judgment-e1339860550262.jpg" style="color: #743399; line-height: 1.5;"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-4572" data-mce-src="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/judgment-821x1024.jpg" src="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/judgment-821x1024.jpg" height="798" style="clear: both; color: #444444; display: block; height: auto; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px auto 12px; max-width: 100%;" title="judgment" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">The Word for today:</strong><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">Judges 21</strong></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">As we look back over the book of the Judges, we look forward to the ultimate Judge whom their stories anticipate…</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">The LORD as Judge</strong>--the Judges delivered the Israelites from their enemies and decided disputes, but behind them stood the ultimate Judge, Jesus Christ:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">Let <strong style="line-height: 1.5;">the Lord, the Judge,</strong> decide the dispute this day.</em> (Judges 11:27)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">Moreover, <strong style="line-height: 1.5;">the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son,</strong> that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him.</em> (John 5:22)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">There are different kinds of judgment in the Bible:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">1. Judgment against unbelievers —<strong style="line-height: 1.5;"> “Great White Throne” Judgment.</strong> (Revelation 20:11-15)<br style="line-height: 1.5;" />At the great white throne, those who have not by faith accepted Jesus’ death as sacrifice for their sin will bear the penalty for their own sin. Not one is perfect, and the just penalty for sin is severe—eternal death (see Romans 3:23). Remember that eternal death in the Bible is not cessation of existence, but eternal separation from God.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">2. Judgment for believers — <strong style="line-height: 1.5;">“Judgment Seat of Christ.”</strong> (2 Corinthians 5:10)<br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><b>Believers will not be judged for their sin, because Jesus was judged in our stead.</b> Once we have accepted Jesus’ sacrifice for our sin, God no longer holds that against us—our slates have been wiped clean.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">Believers will be awarded to the degree in which we have served him. Everything we have done will be ”revealed by fire.” Those deeds of faith with lasting value (“gold, silver, and other costly stones”) will come out of the fire glowing more brilliantly than before. But those things without lasting value (“wood, hay, and straw”) will leave behind only a pile of ashes. Thus God will determine each believer’s reward:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If any man builds on this foundation</strong> using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work.<b> If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.</b></em> (1 Corinthians 3:11-14)</span></div>
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Franklynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15511271413533155493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6072216184144059206.post-64640463928214564472018-06-15T12:14:00.001-04:002018-06-15T12:14:15.684-04:00the iniquity of the Americans<div style="color: #444444; font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<a data-mce-href="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Judgment.png" href="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Judgment.png" style="color: #743399; line-height: 1.5;"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-4567" data-mce-src="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Judgment.png" src="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Judgment.png" height="256" style="clear: both; color: #444444; display: block; height: auto; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px auto 12px; max-width: 100%;" title="Judgment" width="269" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">The Word for today:</strong><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">Judges 20</strong></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">The Judges delivered the Israelites from their enemies and decided disputes, but behind them stood the ultimate Judge:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">Let the Lord, the Judge, decide the dispute this day.</strong></em> (Judges 11:27)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">Everything -- the good, the bad, the ugly -- must pass before Him in review. He waves it on, lets it continue on for another day, or He does not.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">But sometimes it can seem like nobody’s minding the store anymore. That is because the Judge is patient and methodical; his judgment is never in haste or in the heat of the moment:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.</strong></em><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">But the day of the Lord will come</strong> like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.</em><br style="line-height: 1.5;" />(2 Peter 3:9-10)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">Thus it can seem, in the span of a single human lifetime, that the Judge has vacated the bench. Nothing could be further from the truth. Listen as the Judge explains his timetable concerning the Amorites (the people in possession of Canaan at the time) to Abraham:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">“Know of a surety that your descendants shall be sojourners in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years;</em><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great possessions.</em><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">And you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age.</em><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">But in the fourth generation they shall come here again:<strong style="line-height: 1.5;"> for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete."</strong></em> (Genesis 15:13-16)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">What God is telling Abraham is that he will judge both the Amorites (possessors of the Promised Land) and Egypt, but not in Abraham’s time. Abraham will “go to his fathers and be buried” before God will move against these lands in judgment.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">400 years later, the iniquity of the Amorites was full. Have you ever met an Amorite? Ever met anybody from Sodom? The Roman Empire? The Third Reich? He put His chosen, the children of Israel, out of the land 3 times--enslavement in Egypt, exile to Babylon, then world-wide dispersal after not one stone was left upon another in 70 AD. And He judged His own Son, when He <em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">became sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.</em> (2 Corinthians 5:21)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">Just so, when the iniquity of the Americans is full, no longer will His sword be stayed.</span></div>
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Franklynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15511271413533155493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6072216184144059206.post-3482619510744643092018-06-14T13:48:00.001-04:002018-06-14T13:48:49.493-04:00never in the majority, and seldom silent<div style="color: #444444; font-family: georgia, "bitstream charter", serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<a data-mce-href="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/concubine-crop.jpg" href="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/concubine-crop.jpg" style="color: #743399; line-height: 1.5;"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-4563" data-mce-src="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/concubine-crop.jpg" src="http://jesusistheword.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/concubine-crop.jpg" height="224" style="clear: both; color: #444444; display: block; height: auto; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px auto 12px; max-width: 100%;" title="concubine-crop" width="506" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">(<strong style="line-height: 1.5;">Note:</strong> This article was first published on this date six years ago.)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">The Word for today:</strong><br style="line-height: 1.5;" /><strong style="line-height: 1.5;">Judges 19</strong></span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">When her husband opened the door to leave, he found her there. She was lying face down, with her hands on the threshold. He said, "Get up! Let's go!" But there was no answer. So he put her body on his donkey and took her home. When he got home, he took a knife and cut his concubine's body into twelve pieces. Then he sent one piece to each tribe of Israel. Everyone who saw it said, "Such a horrible crime has not been committed since Israel left Egypt. Shouldn't we speak up and do something about this?"</em><br style="line-height: 1.5;" />(Judges 19:27-30)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">One can’t help thinking, as one reads through the grisly account of the Levite’s concubine in Judges chapter 19, of how contemporary it all sounds. It is a chapter filled with homosexual lust, rape, dismembered body parts, and vengeance.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">In just the past couple of days, we have been treated to accounts of cannibalism (Miami), dismemberment (Canada), homosexual lust (Penn State), and rape (any town on any given day.)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">We’re told that things have always been this way. But I do not believe it. In my lifetime, I do not recall evil of such frequency and such depravity.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">I most closely equate our generation with the last line of the chapter:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;">Everyone who saw it said, <strong style="line-height: 1.5;">"Such a horrible crime has not been committed since Israel left Egypt. Shouldn't we speak up and do something about this?" </strong> </em>(Judges 19:30/NLT)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><br style="line-height: 1.5;" />***</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">“Shouldn't we speak up and do something about this?"</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">Yes, we should do something about this. We can pray and vote and keep on hoping for the best, but as an sold song said, “Wishin’ and hopin’ and plannin’ and prayin’” doesn’t always get things done.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">So while we’re praying and voting, let’s not forget the first part of the verse:</span></div>
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<em style="border: none; line-height: 1.5;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">"Shouldn’t we speak up?"</span></em></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">It’s time to leave the anonymity of the voting booth and the safety of the prayer closet. It’s time to get loud and to stick our faces into the fray.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">It’s time to renounce our memberships in the Silent Majority and be counted with the Obnoxious Few who will stand up in public against these mounting tides.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;">It’s time to stop hiding behind our polite American “Christianity” and start giving voice to the Spirit of the biblical Christ within us. He was never in the majority, and He was seldom silent.</span></div>
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Franklynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15511271413533155493noreply@blogger.com0