A Jewish Lady and a Bible

“And it came to pass, when David and his men were come to Ziklag on the third day, that the Amalekites had invaded the south, and Ziklag, and smitten Ziklag, and burned it with fire” (I Samuel 30:1).

As David’s exterior world collapsed, he returned to his interior, rebuilt his primary identity, recovered his base. David had escaped Saul, duped the Philistines, now endangered by his own men, and God brought David back to Himself and reliance upon Him.

What do you do when your world collapses? You return to your interior, the interior of where God lives. God allows trouble to bring you to where we belong. We are united and in planted in Christ. Allow God to work. Allow His discipline to take hold.

Christ is capable of living the Christian life, for the obvious and simple reason that He is the Christian life. Allow the grace of God to work in your bad situations and good situations.  As David faced much we are grateful that the Christ who lives in us is more than able to face anything and conquer

“The Israelite’s did as they were told; some gathered much, some little” (Exodus 16:17).

What would happen if you and I would read more of the Bible on a daily basis? I believe it would change the way we think, talk, and walk. We get into so many ruts in life that sometimes we need to get into the “rut of reading more” and allowing the Spirit of God to shape us into His people.

America needs more Christians who would read, digest, and depend upon the Author to imprint His Word upon the hearts and minds of His people. It would literally change us from the inside out. It would turn our lives upside down and right side up.

The Bible read for significant minutes will become the Essential Everyday Life Commentary upon what we feel, do, and live. Try it and find out how God will speak to each of us on His level. See the wonder of life in His Word and find yourself walking more in His presence. Gather much and you will receive more. Gather little and you will receive more.

“My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother” (Proverbs 1:8). The culture will try to dictate what you are to believe and how to behave. The culture changes but the culture should not change us. We are to go into the culture and choose to confront the culture with the gospel. It is the job of the father and mother to teach their children the right way, which is God’s way. The father and mother choose to be the professors in the home, using the Word of God as their main text book, and with total dependence upon the Holy Spirit. When parents live with an agenda that says, “Me and no other” will rule and reign in my child’s life, they are setting themselves up for a fall, and their children. We are to live in the fear of God and not by our own set of fears. When we live with God’s total control over any thing that takes place in our children’s lives, then we can know God’s power. The culture entices but God’s leadership through the parents can be much stronger when children are taught with truth and love.

“And he said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day” (Luke 24:26).

The hearts of the two disciples have been overwhelmed with sadness, but now their minds have been opened by the Scriptures…and now they are ready for their eyes to be opened to the Savior.

Only the Spirit of God can open the eyes and hearts to the Christ of God. He alone is the One who illuminates the Scriptures to our hearts. He is the Teacher who stands alongside to give us what we need for the hour.

Frankly we don’t believe God’s Word because we do not depend upon the Spirit of God to open parts of the Word of God to us. There has to be a cross before there is a crown. There has to be a cross before there is a kingdom. Jesus wore the crown of thorns before He wore the golden diadem. And He will explain Himself to us if we will open the golden book of Scripture.

The cross was a doorway into eternal glory for the Son of God and for all who will believe in Him! Oh my friend allow the Resurrected Word to explain the written Word. The Fulfiller of Scripture will explain the prophecies of Scripture. Oh He is the great I Am; the Passover Lamb Whose blood protects His people from the angel of death and the wrath of God.

Father please open our eyes that we may believe. Help us to open the Book before the world opens our eyes. You are the Living One and we are dependent upon You. Thank you for Your written Word that is explained by You. We are thankful to be instructed in righteousness. In your name! Amen.

“God sacrificed Jesus on the altar of the world to clear that world of sin. Having faith in Him sets us clear” (Rom. 3:25 MSG).   One Sunday President Calvin Coolidge, a man of few words, attended church. Upon his return from the service he was asked what the sermon was about. He responded, “sin.”   “Well, what did the preacher say about it?”   “He said he’s against it,” replied Coolidge. No Christian can live with sin – day in and day out, year in and year out, without even the slightest change or attempt to stop – and remain a Christian! Christianity without any change in behavior over the long haul is synthetic Christianity – it is a false assurance. We either go to God in repentance and turn away from our sin, or we give over to sin. Here is the truth of the matter, we need to be afraid of sin. We have to treat it more deadly than a rattlesnake. That means we never dally with it. You play with fire, you will get burnt. You mess with a snake, you get bit. You dabble in sin, you slide down the slippery slope that separates from God. There is NOTHING more dangerous than accepting and excusing sin…that has the power to cast into hell. As we walk through life we need to follow the Appalachian warning about river trails: NEVER stop watching for rattlers! We have got to be alert and be on our guard. Sin can creep up when we least expect it. When it does we need to do as Barney Fife says, “Nip it in the bud.” We need to root it out even before it is a half-formed thought, before it is said…before it is done. Don’t touch sin with a ten-foot pole. And if you do, deal with it immediately. Stay close to Christ. Stay in God’s Word. Read it. Meditate upon it. Eat it. Memorize it. Pray it through.

“Let Down. Look Up.”

“Then the disciples took him by night, and let him down by the wall in a basket” (Acts 9:25).

The greatest day of Paul’s life, beside his salvation, was the day he realized that God’s plan for him was far better than his plan for his own life.

The chance of being let down by someone or something is 1 in 1.

Paul wanted to preach to his own people, the Jews, and went to them but they rejected him because of his new found message of grace in Christ Jesus. He had to be let down in a basket through a window over a wall to escape the bounty which was upon his head.

Paul wanted to go to the Jews but God said, “My plan is for you to go to the Gentiles, Paul.”

‘But my heart–‘protested Paul.

‘To the Gentiles, Paul,’ answered the Lord.

‘But my background—‘
‘To the Gentiles, Paul.’

‘But my training–‘
‘To the Gentiles, Paul.’

‘But, Lord–‘
‘To the Gentiles, Paul.’

‘But–‘
‘To the Gentiles, Paul.’

‘OK, Lord.’

Some of you will make this decision today. You’ll finally choose to say, ‘OK, Lord.’ And when you do, you’ll at last will find rest in your soul.