By God's Grace!

Psalm 130; 1 John 1:8-9; Eph 2:8; KJV; 5th Sunday of Lent; Although we are sinners; we have been saved by God's grace.

 

Condemnation And Justification

 

1st Sunday in Lent; Romans 5:12-19 KJV; Through Adam came sin and death. Through faith in Jesus Christ we have received justification.

Wisdom Promotes Peace

Proverbs 15:21; James 3:17-18; KJV; There are consequences for our words and actions whether good or bad.

Love Does No Harm

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.

Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

                                                                       (1 Cor 13:1-7 KJV)

The New International Version and the New King James Version of the Bible both translate charity as love.  Love is charitable because it puts the other's needs before our own desires. It will reconcile us when things might otherwise divide us. Real love does no harm to others as it considers not just what the consequences for oneself might be; but, what the consequences of our words or actions might be upon others. Love and charity care about others. 

When Jesus hung on that cross for us he did it out of love for us. He knowingly and willingly suffered and died so that we might live in the presence of God for all of eternity. He bore our sins on that cross for us and the consequence of that loving act for us is that we are forgiven our sins and reconciled to God our Father. We, who have sinned against God and one another so many times that we cannot count them are forgiven by faith alone in Jesus' life giving sacrifice.

"We love him, because he first loved us." (1 John 4:19) We love others because he loves us all so much!

God's Peace - Pr. J.

Wisdom From The Beginning

The Lord possessed wisdom before anything was created; without it
not a thing would have been made that was made. 

The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old.

I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was.

                                                                                       (Prov 8:22-23 KJV)

Wisdom tells us that she existed from the very beginning. She is very, very old. Sometimes, it seems as though wisdom may have been evicted from the earth. Sometimes, it seems like along with wisdom went common sense! But, then again, common sense would probably mean what is the common or prevalent wisdom of the day so that would make common sense alive today; but, not necessarily wise. 

Personally, I prefer the wisdom of old. The wisdom of today somehow seems like a lot of exaggeration and even lies; stories to encourage one to do what one pleases for themselves without thought to the way that the Lord's wisdom would have us go; without thought to the consequences of not following in that way.

Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight! (Isa 5:21)

The Lord's wisdom existed from the very beginning. It existed before any of creation. That wisdom is probably worth listening to.

God's Peace - Pr. J

Sweet And Bitter

And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire: And he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth, And cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth: and when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices. 

And the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again, and said, Go and take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel which standeth upon the sea and upon the earth. And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey. And I took the little book out of the angel's hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter. And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.

                                                                  (Rev 10:1-3, 8-11 KJV)

Prophecy is often a "bitter pill" to swallow. We don't like to hear that we need to make changes in our lives. We usually don't care to hear that there are consequences to everything we do. Sometimes, those consequences are good. Sometimes, they are not. A lot depends on whom or what we choose to serve.

John is told by this mighty angel eat the little scroll. He eats. The scroll tastes as sweet as honey; but, it turned his stomach sour. He has swallowed the words and it is sweet to taste; yet, bitter to stomach. It sounds good and it is good; but, with the words that were delivered to John on the scroll will come many anxious and troubling times. Events and times that will be very difficult to stomach.

John must go out and prophesy with the words that he has swallowed about peoples, nations, languages and kings. It may well be that to those who believe in the Son of God and anxiously wait for the mystery of God to be accomplished that the word is sweet; yet, a very "bitter pill" to those who reject the Lord. It will not be easy for John. With the sweet word of the Lord will come much persecution from the world to all who love Him.

May God help us to hear the word and receive it no matter what kind of changes it asks us to make in our lives.

God's Peace - Pr. J

Only God Knows; Listen To Him

As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child: even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all. (Eccl 11:5 KJV)

I make a lot of mistakes. I am human. I am not God. None of us are. He knows all things. We do not. Therefore, it behooves us to take the time to listen to Him so that we can know the way in which we are to go. We ought to study His Word; get to know His Word so that we don't fall so far off of the path that we damage ourselves and the people around us. 

There are times when we choose the wrong way with the faulty thinking that it will not hurt us or if it does, it will only hurt ourselves and no one else. We end up suffering the consequences for not listening to the all knowing God. 

The only way we can know in which direction we should be going and that is to listen to what the Spirit of God; the Spirit of Christ, would tell us. "Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." (John 14:6 KJV) Unless you've got some place better to be than with God, then it would be very wise to listen to Jesus. Only he knows the way. He is the way. Listen to him!

God's Peace - Pr. J