Tuesday, December 23,
2014, 9:04 p.m. – The Lord Jesus put in mind the song, “Blessed Are You.” Speak, Lord, your words to my heart. I read Psalm 37:1-24 (ESV).
No Worry
Fret
not yourself because of evildoers;
be not envious of wrongdoers!
For
they will soon fade like the grass
and wither like the green herb. ~ vv.
1-2
Until the Lord Jesus comes to judge this earth and the
people on this earth and to take his bride to be with him, evil will reign on
the earth because of sinful humans. People will lie, cheat, steal, manipulate,
plot evil, murder, hate, rape, molest, take advantage of those weaker than
them, envy, commit adultery, gossip, slander, rebel against authority, and speak
evil against one another, etc. And, many of these evildoers will seem to
prosper, be successful in business, be popular and well liked, and will seem to
“get away with murder” over and over again and never get caught. As a result,
we may cry out for justice.
Yet, we are not to let this get to us and to weigh us down
with worry. Surely we should grieve over such sin, and we should pray for
sinners to come to repentance, and for the church to be revived, and for our
nations to turn to God in faith and in surrender to his will for their lives. Yet,
we should not let this advancement of evil and the seeming slowness of God’s
intervention to undo us. We must always keep in mind that God is absolutely
sovereign over all things, and that he has all things under his command and
control. Nothing can happen but what he allows it and he allows it for a
purpose. As well, God will give us all we need to endure and to be victorious
over any evil attacks against us.
Especially we should not envy those who do evil, wishing we
had the success or popularity or possessions they have, thinking that will make
us happy or that we are deserving of such, so why should they have it and not
us. One day those who continue to do evil will perish from the earth and will be
no more. All that they worked hard to achieve will also vanish like smoke. So,
it is better to have little in the way of earthly possessions and fame and to
have the peace and joy of knowing Christ and of walking in his ways. Amen!
Trust and Rest
Trust
in the Lord, and do good;
dwell in the land and befriend
faithfulness.
Delight
yourself in the Lord,
and he will give you the desires of your
heart.
Commit
your way to the Lord;
trust
in him, and he will act.
He
will bring forth your righteousness as the light,
and your justice as the noonday.
Be
still before the Lord and wait patiently for him;
fret not yourself over the one who prospers
in his way,
over the man who carries out evil devices! ~
vv. 3-7
We need to get our eyes off of worrying over our
circumstances, and we need to fix our eyes on Jesus. This does not mean we
should bury our heads in the sand and that we should close our minds off to
what is going on in the world around us and/or that we should live in monasteries
the rest of our lives. I believe God wants us to be aware of what is going on
in the world around us so that we do not fall prey to deception, so we know how
to pray, and so we can confront error, lies and deceptions, exposing them, and then
tell about and follow after what is true, so that we help others to not fall
for the lies, too. Yet, we need to see the world through God’s eyes, from his
perspective, and in the correct frame of mind.
We should place our absolute trust in God, which means
trusting him to do what is best for us, believing in his sovereignty, relying
upon his love and grace, and having confidence in his wisdom, his judgment and
in his perfect timing. And, we should continue to do the good we were created
in Christ Jesus to do, and which God prepared in advance for us to do (See:
Eph. 2:10), without fear of what humans may do to us. We should find our
delight (enjoyment and pleasure) in the Lord instead of in worldly and sinful
things. We do this by forsaking what we know is displeasing to God and that
which leads us back into sin. And, we do this by yielding control of our lives
to him, by abiding in him and in his word daily, by listening to what his word
teaches us, and then by obeying what his word says.
Wicked Schemes
The
wicked plots against the righteous
and gnashes his teeth at him,
but
the Lord laughs at the wicked,
for he sees that his day is coming.
The
wicked draw the sword and bend their bows
to bring down the poor and needy,
to slay those whose way is upright;
their
sword shall enter their own heart,
and their bows shall be broken. ~ vv. 12-15
Some of what the wicked do is obvious, but much of it is
not. Some of what we may think is obvious is really deception and trickery.
This is why we need to see the world through God’s eyes, from his perspective,
and in the correct frame of mind. We cannot trust our government leaders and
even many of our church leaders to tell us the truth. We cannot trust the media
to tell us the truth, because they are controlled by “the beast,” basically. We
live in an age of deception so we can’t take much of anything at face value and
trust that because it looks real that it is real. Most anything can be faked
these days.
So, what do we do? I believe with all my heart that we need
to test everything we hear, read and see before God in prayer and in his word,
and also to do diligent research outside of main stream media to listen to what
others are seeing and saying about what is really going on in the world, but to
even take that to the Lord in prayer and to pray for much discernment. I used
to buy into what I saw and heard, and I used to follow a particular political
party, because I thought they were the “good guys.” I believed what I was
taught in history class in school, too. I didn’t think to question any of it. I
was wrong.
Then, one day God began to open my eyes to see the lies I
was believing, and he began opening my eyes to see what is truly going on in
the world and in our nation. I don’t have this all down pat, but I don’t just
believe it now just because someone says it or because it appears to be real. I
believe our government leaders here in America are plotting the downfall of
America, that they are taking great strides to tear this nation apart at the
seams, that they create chaos so that they can bring order out of chaos, and
that this is all leading up to the rule of the beast (the New World Order).
And, I believe they are targeting Christians, and that soon Christians in America
are going to experience serious persecution.
I also believe that many of our church leaders here in
America are wolves in sheep’s clothing, and that they are here for the purpose
to destroy the church from within via deception, lies, manipulations and trickery.
The most serious way in which they are destroying the church from within, I
believe, is through the dilution of the gospel of Jesus Christ. They remove most
all discussion about sin, repentance, hell, judgment and obedience from their
gospel presentations, and they make salvation out to be merely a free ticket
into heaven. They teach that God requires nothing of us at all, that he is
pleased with us no matter what we do, and that he cannot even see when we sin,
so he never gets upset with us, and thus we can continue in sin and still have
our ticket into heaven. We are good to go! Not! (Read 1 Jn. 1-5)
Firm Steps
The
steps of a man are established by the Lord,
when he delights in his way;
though
he fall, he shall not be cast headlong,
for the Lord upholds his hand. ~ vv.
23-24
We read in the New Testament that we are to find out what
pleases the Lord, and that we are to do what pleases him. We read about the
things we are to forsake and to put off, and the kinds of things we are to do
and to put on. Basically, when we come to faith in Christ, we die with Christ
to sin and self, we are transformed in heart and mind of the Spirit of God, and
we are given new lives in Christ to be lived in his righteousness and holiness.
The Christian life is thus a life that no longer walks according to the sinful
flesh, but walks according to the Spirit, daily putting off the things that
hinder our walks with Christ, and daily following our Lord Jesus Christ in
submission and surrender to his will for our lives. (See: Ro. 6-8; 2 Co. 5:15;
Gal. 2:20; Eph. 4:17-24; Tit. 2:11-14; & 1 Pet. 2:24-25)
It is not a perfect life, but it is a life committed to
following our Lord in submission to the cross and in surrender to his will. If
we walk in the ways of the Lord, even if we fall, the Lord is there to lift us
up again and to put us on solid footing so that we can continue to walk by
faith in the power of his Spirit.
This walk of faith involves much joy, peace and spiritual
blessings from the Lord, but along with that also comes times of hardship, persecution
and rejection. When we are persecuted, though, we must leave vengeance in God’s
hands, and we must love, pray for, bless and do good to those who mistreat us. We
must forgive as God forgave us. In this way we are walking in obedience to our
Lord in loving others as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us. And thus we
are blessed!
Blessed Are You /
An Original Work / August 29, 2012
Based off Luke 6:20-49 NIV 1984
“Blessed are you;
Blessed are you who are poor
For God’s kingdom is yours.
Blessed are you;
Blessed are you who are hungry,
You’ll be satisfied.
Blessed are you;
Blessed are you who weep now,
For you will laugh with joy.
Blessed are you;
Blessed are you when men hate
And reject you because of Christ.”
“Rejoice in that;
Rejoice in that day and
Leap for joy; great your reward.
But I tell you;
But I tell you to love those
Who hate you; do them good.
Pray for those who;
Pray for those who treat you wrong
And say kind things of them.
Do to others;
Do to others as you would have
Them do; have them do to you.”
“If you love those;
If you love those who love you,
What praise is there for you?
Because Christ is;
Because Christ is kind,
Be merciful, just like He is.
Forgive others;
Forgive others their offense
Against you; be ye kind.
Hear My words and;
Hear My words and put them
Into practice, then you’ll be fulfilled.”
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