We praise God for what He has done, for what He is doing and what He will do and that praise is putting us into agreement with His word! Remember this... Jesus never loses. Never!
There is a line in one of my favorite movies that says, "Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get."
Life may very well be like a box of chocolates but God knows what is in each piece.
The prophet Jeremiah said, “Thy words were found and I did eat them and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart.” Jeremiah 15:16
God’s word is the source of our joy if we belong to Him. That is one of the hallmarks of true followers of Christ. The book of James tells us that even demons believe and tremble at the mention of His name and many of us don't even do that and yet we claim the name of “Christian.”
God has secrets that He wants to reveal to us and that is part of the joy of our pursuit of Him. Deuteronomy 29:29 “The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.”
I know. I know some people are going to just freak out and scream, “GRACE!’ But hear me out. It’s true we are saved by grace not by work. We no longer must observe all of the dietary, Levitical, ritual laws but are to live the moral law. As believers we should be law abiding citizens. So add some common sense to your criticism please. And realize we are saved not by good works but for good works Ephesians 2:8-10
If we aren’t enjoying that pursuit it could be that our motivation is not based on our relationship with Him but rather to do it out of a sense of duty. That is not to say it doesn’t take discipline because it surely does but it is a discipline born out of our love for Him because He first loved us.
What a blessing it is to realize that He wants to be known! The Father is looking for those who are looking for Him. And He will reveal His secrets but not to casual readers.
In John chapter 4 Jesus has an encounter with a Samaritan woman. He didn’t do a miracle per se, He just told her everything she’d ever done. See we think we can hide and we can’t We think we can manipulate His word and many do.
When Jesus was talking to the Samaritan woman He told her, You worship what you do not know, We know what we worship for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming and now is when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth; for the Father is looking for such to worship Him. John 4:22-23
Righteousness guards him whose way is blameless,
But wickedness overthrows the sinner.
Remember the name Jehovah Tsidkeneu The Lord Our Righteouseness?
It is Jesus who guards those who belong to Him. When we belong to Him, we are safely in His great big, safe hands. John 10:27-28 "My sheep hear My voice and I know them and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life and no one can snatch them out of My hand."
We have to remember that salvation is instant. It happens the moment we give Jesus our life. But sanctification is a lifelong pursuit. We will mess up along the way. That's when we need Jesus to use the believer's bar of soap: I John 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
In a word, yes! Yes the Lord Jesus is indeed in the book of Proverbs. My husband and I took a little trip in the paths of righteousness today.
Jesus promised His sheep that He would lead us in those paths and so He did.
Notice that one of His names is Jehovah Tsidkeneu, the Lord Our Righteousness. As we were reading this morning
in Proverbs 10 we noticed how many times “righteous” or “righteousness” is mentioned.
Turns out there are 14 verses in one chapter! So we decided since we know His name to place it in those verses and
see where we landed. Here is some of what we found.
Proverbs 10:2 Treasures of wickedness profit nothing, but righteousness, (Jesus) delivers from death.
(Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.)
Proverbs 10:3 The Lord will not allow the righteous soul to famish but He casts away the desire of the wicked.
(Matthew 5:6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness (Jesus) for they shall be filled.
Proverbs 10:6 Blessings are on the head of the righteous. But violence covers the mouth of the wicked.
(Try reading it this way: Blessings are on the head of Jesus but violence covers the mouth of the wicked.
And think about the Seed war in Genesis 3. Jesus crushes Satan’s head but Satan only bruises Jesus’ heel.
Jesus wore a crown of thorns on His head so that I can take my thoughts captive!)
10:7 The memory of the righteous (read it this way: the memory of Jesus): is blessed but the name of the wicked
will rot. (John 1:1 Jesus is the Word. His name is above every name! Demons believe and tremble at the mention of
His name. Sin has no more power to rule our lives if we follow Him. We hide the Word in our heart and He gives us
victory!)
10:11 The mouth of the righteous, (the mouth of Jesus); is a well of life but violence covers the mouth of the wicked
. Jesus is the Bread of life, Light of the Word. Living water. The inspired Word made flesh to dwell among us.
Emmanuel. Also an interesting side note is that the word “covers” in this verse comes from a root word that means
to fill the hollow (empty) places. An empty mind is a place that is highly susceptible to demonic activity.
10:16 The labor of the righteous,( Jesus) leads to life, the wages of the wicked to sin. (John 15:5 Apart from Him
we can’t do anything for God.)
Proverbs 10:20 The tongue of the righteous is choice silver; the heart of the wicked is worth little. (The tongue of
Jesus… silver in the Bible always represents redemption. Jesus’ name. And there is no other name by which men
can be saved Acts 4:12)
Proverbs 10:21 The lips of the righteous (Jesus) feed many, but fools die for lack of wisdom. (self-explanatory the
caution is that if there is no spiritual appetite it should absolutely be a red light. We should ask Jesus why not and
also seek Him to see if in fact we are saved. A spiritual appetite is a signature of a healthy Christian. Not a perfect
one, but a healthy one. Because none of us are perfect!)
Proverbs 10:24 The fear of the wicked will come upon him and the desire of the righteous (Jesus) will be granted.
(At the name of Jesus every knee will indeed bow. (Philippians 2:10 Jesus can never be defeated. He has won! Life
conquered death! The tomb is empty! Because He lives we too can live. But as many as received Him, to them He
gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name John 1:12)
10:25 When the whirlwind passes by, the wicked is no more, but the righteous, (Jesus) has an everlasting foundation
. (Ephesians 4:14-15 we don’t have to be tossed by everything we hear, if we listen to Jesus and grow. God gives us
His word, teachers and pastors, sisters and brothers. We are a community of believers!)
10:28 The hope of the righteous will be gladness, but the expectation of the wicked will perish. (We who follow
Jesus wear His armor and part of that armor is the helmet. (1 Thessalonians 5:8 But let us who are of the day be
sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation. Christians should be the
most hopeful and joyful people on the planet!)
10:31 The lips of the righteous (Jesus) know what is acceptable, but the mouth of the wicked what is perverse.
(Again, He is the Word, if we want to live right, we must renew our minds. Sin will keep us from our Bible and
our Bible will keep us from falling into sin. If you miss a day don’t let Satan lie to you and tell you Jesus doesn’t
love you any more because you were unfaithful. That is a lie from the pit of hell! When we mess up we should
immediately repent and confess our sin, get back on our feet and walk on. We will mess up but Jesus doesn’t beat
us up. He loves us and knows we are weak and loves us so much anyway, but too much to leave us in a lifestyle of
unrepentant sin. Brothers and sisters this is why it is so important to renew our minds every day! It is how The Lord
our Righteousness speaks to us!
Abraham is listed in the hall of faith in Hebrews. He believed in God and it was counted as righteousness. It's true we are saved by grace through faith. We don't do anything to earn God's favor or our salvation through Christ. It's a gift we can't possibly earn. Think about this. If someone wants to give a gift do we not have to respond? If we hold our arms tightly to my sides that gift will never be received.
All of these people in Hebrews 11 responded to God's voice.
Father I pray now for the one reading this. Please be very real to them and call them into a personal relationship with You.
In David Guzik's commentary on Proverbs chapter 6, he quotes Spurgeon. It touched my heart and made me smile. I hope that it will encourage you too.
"This Bible is a wonderful talking book; there is a great mass of blessed talk in this precious volume. It has told me a great many of my faults; It would tell you yours if you would let it. It has told me much to comfort me, ad it has much to tell you if you will but incline your ear to it. It is a book that is wonderfully communicative it knows all about you, all the ins and outs of where you are and where you ought to be, it can tell you everything."
GOD’S
RICHES
AT
CHRIST’S
EXPENSE
Ephesians 2:8-10 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
As we ponder the word, "grace" may we always keep "God" in the beginning and "expense" at the end because grace starts with God in the beginning and it does in fact end with the sacrificial blood of Christ.
If we keep God first in our thinking, first in our praying and first in our doing, it may help us have the right kind of godly fear. My pastor said something about the fear of God that greatly helped my understanding of it. He said, "Part of fearing God is being unwilling to offend Him." I never want to offend Him because I love Him and He loves me.
To be honest with you I came to Christ because I was afraid of going to hell. It is a valid reason. Jesus spoke often about hell being a place of torment. I stayed in that kind of fear for a long time and now realize that the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom.
God loves us so very much! He doesn't love us because of anything that we could ever do to earn it. His word starts with these words. "In the beginning God " May we remember God at the beginning of each day, so that we can walk in His riches throughout the day and keep in mind the great price of that grace so that we don't cheapen it in our thoughts or deeds.
May we all be saturated with the awareness of His presence today.
Our most precious commodity is our heart. We can't live without that special muscle that beats in our chest its true but that isn't what I am talking about right now. We are complex beings. We are spirit, we live in a body and we have a soul.
Psalms 119:9-11
9.How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your word.10. With my whole heart I have sought You; Oh, let me not wander from Your commandments! 11. Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You.
This is important because the word of God is living and powerful and it is that part of us that connects us to Him. (See Hebrews 4:12 Proverbs 16:2-3)
Our spirit, that eternal part of us was always designed to connect with the Lord. Jesus is always looking for us, longing for us. (See Proverbs 20:27 and John 4:23)
Our soul is that part of us that makes up our will. It is the realm of the flesh and it is that part of us that has to be redeemed. It is that part of us that is most often governed our appetites and all that goes with it. Think of that old Frank Sinatra song, "I did it my way," and you can catch the drift. Think about Eve in the garden of Eden. We can clearly see Satan's strategy. He first cast doubt, then he lied, than appealed to her sight and senses.
Our heart is the inner man. It is the place where emotions and feelings reside and decisions are made. It is the place where ideas are and why we must renew every day so that we are not conformed to the world's way of thinking. We are the called out ones. Because we think differently, we walk differently and even talk differently. We aren't perfect we are works in progress.
Hebrews 4:12
12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Proverbs 16:2-3 2. All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the spirits, 3.Commit your works to the LORD and your thoughts will be established.
Proverbs 20:27 The spirit of a man is the lamp of the LORD, searching all the inner depths of his heart.
Proverbs 4:23
Guard your heart diligently for out of it spring the issues of life
John 4:23 But the hour is coming and now is , when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.
27
When life doesn't make sense there is a Person we can go to. Our heavenly Father is totally honest, trust-worthy and He wants to be known.
I have gotten a lot of really bad advice from well meaning people saying things like, "Just trust your heart," or "Follow your heart" or things like that. The problem is that feelings change and Satan will use anything he can to cause you to be unstable. But God never changes. Satan says, " I will, I will I will." (see Isaiah 14:13)
Jesus says, "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done."(Matthew 6:10)
It only stands to reason if Jesus being God had to go off my himself to pray and He was sinless that we as sinners must also spend time alone with God and we too must ask for guidance and strength. Prayer is a two way street. We pray and then we listen as He speaks His Word.
The first time I remember hearing from the Lord as during a time of prayer and meditation. I had been memorizing Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. Acknowledge Him in all your ways and He will direct your paths.
I had been studying the meaning of words just to make sure I understood the meaning and then I prayed. This is that prayer: "Lord I do not feel spiritual right know, but I acknowledge that you are with me right now."
I was standing at my kitchen window and in my mind's eye the window changed into a road map. The Lord spoke to my mind, "Do you see the thick roads? Those are your major decisions and you are faithful to inquire about those. Do you see the thin roads? Those are your little decisions. If you will acknowledge me in them I will direct those also."
Call me crazy if you like. I know Jesus is real and that He wants to have fellowship with us. There is a phrase my sister used to sing and it resonates with me. "You ask me how I know He lives, He lives within my heart."
Christianity is not about doing religious things it is about having a relationship with Jesus!
In John 13 we read about Jesus washing the disciple's feet. Can you just imagine the scene. The disciples had been talking about who was the greatest in the kingdom of God.(See Luke 22:14-30) Jesus takes off His outer garment and girds Himself with a towel. He pours water into a basin and begins to wash their dirty feet.
Peter doesn't want to let Jesus wash his feet. It's a pretty humbling thing if you think about it. We really don't know what Peter was thinking or feeling but we do know this: Peter had preached the good news and cast out demons and still needed to have Jesus wash his feet. Peter had walked on water and still needed Jesus to wash his feet. Peter had healed the sick and he still needed Jesus to wash his feet.
That's intimacy with Jesus. Every day we mess up. Believers are not perfect, we aren't sinless we just sin less. And when we do we hate it. We use the Christian's bar of soap: 1 John 1:9
John 13:8-10
8 Peter said to Him, “You shall never wash my feet!”
Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.”
9 Simon Peter said to Him, “Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head!”
10 Jesus said to him, “He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you.”
1 John 1:9
9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.
Lately this thought of praying through proverbs has come to my mind. Each day I read a chapter that corresponds to the day of the month. That works really well because even if I miss a day I can pick up the next. Because God's word is alive and powerful and sharper than any double edged sword and His mercies are new every morning. I do this in concert with reading through the Bible chronologically. Its so much fun to see How the Bible fits together. The other thing is that our church is praying through some verses this year in anticipation of seeing God move. One of those passages is Jeremiah 9:23-24 which I am trying to memorize.
It's interesting because in the practice of memorizing it kind of causes you to think about the word and that is where the fun begins.
So keeping this thought in mind I read Proverbs 17:3 which reads The refining post for silver and the furnace for gold, But the Lord tests the hearts.
**That made me think about silver because silver in the Bible represents redemption and that means Jesus! Judas was given 30 pieces of silver. It was the price of a slave. Jesus paid for me so that I am no longer a slave to sin. Also when silver is refined it is heated up until the refiner can see his own reflection. We want Jesus to be seen in us don't we?
**Gold is associated with kings. One of the gifts the wise man gave to baby Jesus was gold. Gold is pliable. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednigo were in the firey furnace because they would not compromise and worship the way Nebuchadnezzer demanded. Jesus was that fouth man in the fire! Gold also made me think of old movies where I have seen men bite into a gold coin. They did this to test the metal because pure gold is soft.
**Testing the heart. God is not a big bully doing mean things. He isn't up in heaven giving us a whole bunch of rules to follow. He wants us to have peace. He knows whether or not we will pass the test. He tests us to show us where our loyalties really are. Sometimes we fail. It's part of the process. Just like when we are in school we have tests. It is a way to measure what we know and don't know. Did you think that God didn't know that Adam and Eve would fail? He did know! Jesus was always plan a. God wants children not robots.
Proverbs 17:24 Wisdom is in the sight of him who has understanding but the eyes of a fool are on the ends of the earth.
** This made me think of Proverbs 9:10 The fear of the Lord is wisdom and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.
**That brought this thought: Proverbs 20:27 The spirit of a man is the lamp of the Lord searching all the inner depths of his heart.
**That made me think of John 14:23 Where Jesus says, " If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word and My Father will love him and We will make our home with him."
Proverbs 17:27 He who has knowledge spares his words and a man of understanding has a calm spirit.
**So this makes me see that I need help in this area. The Lord knows I am a wordy person. I have always been a chatter box and love to share information. So please pray for me as I seek to follow Him.
I am just a little nobody with average intellect, who loves Jesus and wants to follow Him with every fiber of my being and I want you to walk with me as I walk with Him.
These days that we are living in are crazy for sure but what is more sure is that God is still on the throne. Jesus warned us that coming deception would be a really big deal before He returns.
Maybe this will help someone today. That is my prayer!
Proverbs 12:12 The wicked covet the catch of evil men,
But the root of the righteous yields fruit.
It takes a long time for an apple tree to grow and bear fruit. It has to grow a really good root system. That's kind of like spiritual life. Some people have big instant transformation. Everyone has joy even if it takes a while for that to become consistent. But the other things like peace and faithfulness and goodness, sometimes those take longer. It did for me. Think of being born again as the seed of the Word. If you claim the name of Christ but you don't have any spiritual appetite, you may not be saved. You could be in deception. As with natural life, so with spiritual. I am beating this drum because somebody reading this needs to consider very carefully why there is no hunger.
Jeremiah 9:23-24
23 Thus says the Lord:
“Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom,
Let not the mighty man glory in his might,
Nor let the rich man glory in his riches;
24 But let him who glories glory in this,
That he understands and knows Me,
That I am the Lord, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth.
For in these I delight,” says the Lord.
15 Proverbs 12:15-16
The way of a fool is right in his own eyes,
But he who heeds counsel is wise.
16 A fool’s wrath is known at once,
But a prudent man covers shame.
Recently I was the subject in a conversation. The question was asked, "Why is she so happy?" That brought a smile to my face because that wasn't always the case!
I have been a Christian for many years, but I didn't always have joy. In fact all of my life I have been an emotionally driven person who really struggles with impulse control. Most of my Christian life I was what is known as a cherry-picker. I was not taught how to properly read and study the Bible. But that doesn't mean I didn't truly have a love for it!
I was born-again as a teenager and a young one at that! I didn't have a lot of repenting to do because I hadn't really experienced much of life yet but when I gave Jesus my life and He entered my heart something did happen. The biggest change was that I was hungry for the Word. That is something that happens to everyone who is truly born-again.
But there were other changes too. I was involved in choir, theater and dance. Almost immediately I lost I interest in my dancing career. I was convicted because of skimpy costumes and provocative movements.
Because of my habit of cherry-picking I misapplied scripture many times. I am sure in my immaturity I wounded many people. If you are one of them I apologize! Also cherry-picking didn't bring me victory over being a moody, impulsive, blab and grab person.
This year I am entering my third year of reading through the Bible and attending a church that teaches chapter by chapter, verse by verse expositional teaching and I am learning so much!
So how can I be happy when there is so much chaos in the world?
I don't process my feelings with just anyone. Yes, I cry and get angry and frustrated. But I don't keep that anger and sorrow. Jesus never intends for us to hold on to those things and by venting to others it only puts my pain and burden onto them and that's not a good thing either. I give it to Jesus and my prayer partners. And reading through the Bible every day helps to give us the mind of Christ.
There have been times in my life where I got distracted and didn't follow Jesus as I am now. I know this, had I died I still would have gone to heaven absolutely I know that. But I also know that even believers can be ashamed at His appearing. That is another story for another day.
I understand what it means to be filled with the Spirit! I understand that some folks think I am crazy and that that is not my burden to worry about! Do I still struggle sometimes with my feelings and impulses? Do I struggle with being a control freak? Oh you bet I know I don't have to be governed by those things any more. I mess up every day and when I do I repent, confess, get up and get back on that horse! If being a Christian was easy we wouldn't need His armor!
Today I can have joy because I know Who I belong to!
I can have joy because I am a child of the King and can never be unadopted.
My question for you is can you call Jesus "Father"?
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It's a New Year with new challenges. So here is an idea to help with scripture memorization.
Write the passage on an index card and on the back side write only the first letter each word to prompt you.
Remember if you memorize scripture nobody can take it from you also the Holy Spirit cannot bring to your memory something that you have no memory of! He needs something to work with!
