Psalms149
– 150

Verse 149:1 has a common start with the two Psalms:

Praise the Eternal!
Write new songs; sing them to Him with all your might!
    Gather with His faithful followers in joyful praise;

 

“Praise the Eternal!” It’s really that simple, praise God.
We get caught up in the day to day life and often forget this. Often the
suffering or problems make our prayers and time with God a litany of complaints.
We just need to settle down in whatever condition we are in and praise Him
first. It’s not like He does not know our problems or strife!

The other thing is don’t internalize your problems. Get as
many praying for them as possible. Two things happen with this, there is a
power in more and the stories on the other end will be great. Apparently
everyone at Sugarloaf knows my story since my picture with tubes was on the big
screen. When I pulled through the praise of thanks was huge!!

Verse 150:2 is key to just letting God know:

Praise Him for His powerful acts, redeeming
His people.

    Praise Him for His greatness that surpasses our
time and understanding.

 

This becomes easier
to understand raising children, things go much easier when they show love and
are not defiant. I am sure they could say the same on the other side too!! With
God we need to let Him know we understand the greatness of His power. He IS the
creator of everything. It’s not like He does not know this, but He appreciates
knowing you acknowledge that, like us as parents.

Verse 150:6 ends
with a serious thought:

No one should be left out;

    Let every man and every beast—
    every creature that has the breath of the Lord—praise
the Eternal!
Praise the Eternal!

 

This image was shown when driving home yesterday. We
passed a field with new born lambs in it and they were romping around with joy.
They were letting God know they were happy with their new existence. We finish
this book, the longest in the Bible, of praises learning it’s all creation that
needs to praise God and not just mankind. So when you see a puppy or new born
having fun, know it’s all in praise to God!! 

Ester
6 – 10

Haman’s decree and his evil plot is not being undone. Verse
6:6 shows the arrogance of Haman:

So Haman entered the king’s
chambers. He waited for the king to speak first.
 
King Ahasuerus: Haman,
I want to ask you something. What do you believe is the proper manner in
which to honor a man who has pleased me?
 
Then Haman thought to himself,
“There is no one the king wishes to honor more than me.”

 

Haman went ahead and told the king what HE would want. To
his shock the king was honoring the man Haman hated, Mordecai. So now Haman not
only had to honor him, but had to lead the procession he thought should be for
himself. So Haman was humiliated in his mind and left right after the
procession honoring Mordecai.

As the story unfolds from the procession, Haman is rushed
off to dinner with the king and queen, again thinking it was to honor him.
Verse 7:3 opens with the queen trying to save her cousin and herself:

If you favor me, my king, and if it
pleases you, spare my life. That’s all I’m asking for—that my
people and I be spared. That is my wish.

 

I assume the king was taken back since she was not known to
be a Jew until that time. Also, the king was shown that Haman had made the
order and therefore his fate was sealed. He was scurried off and killed in the
same manner he was planning for Mordecai.

As you finish the story notice a couple of things. First,
the king was tied to the order that Haman had given, he could not repeal it.
That sounds like today when the president makes an “executive order” that must
be followed and congress claims they cannot do anything to stop it. The king
needed to have another law made that counteracted the current law. Thus we see
why so many laws become necessary as a society progresses. The tax law is so
complex because loopholes were made and then closed and more were found. A
simple law has become huge.

Second, the queen had an opportunity to show mercy and she
did not. She continued to allow the Jews to kill their opponents into the next
day. Reading this story with the “Jesus Prism” it seems brutal since
forgiveness and grace is missing. Instead the Jews kill all those who are about
to kill them and when it was over, they got permission to kill even more. In
the end almost 76,000 people were killed. I wonder how many were true enemies
of the Israelites and how many were just following orders?

Today, we are told to turn the other cheek and if it means
death in the name of Jesus then so be. So while this story shows how God takes
a story and in the end we see how it was put into play to protect the people.

Deuteronomy
27 – 30

Verse 27:9 opened up a question:

Keep silent, and listen, Israel!
Today you’ve become the Eternal’s very own people, and He’s become your God;

 

I though Abraham was told this from the very start? The
story of Abraham brings Isaac to sacrifice in Genesis 22 talks about his
children getting His blessings. So why does Moses say they are God’s very own
people at that time? They were from Adam, so why did he say this? Was he just
reaffirming God’s covenant with the people?

Verse 27:15 starts the curses for not following God:

A curse on anyone who carves or casts
an idol, something so horrifying to the Eternal, and secretly worships what
human craftsmen have made!

 

This starts the list of curses and initially I thought it
would loosely follow the Ten Commandments, but by verse 18 it slightly diverges
to specifics that do not directly match just one of the commandments. I notice
there is a bunch of sexual sins which include incest and bestiality, but NOT
homosexuality. Interesting!

In chapter 28 he explains the blessings one will receive if
they continue to follow and verse 28:13 holds the key for them:

He will make you the head, not the
tail; you’ll always be on top and never on the bottom—if you’ll just listen to
the commands I’m giving you today from the Eternal your God, and obey them
carefully.

 

Everyone seems to think the Law is some impossible thing to
follow and therefore with that mentality they fail. God did not make the Law
for the people to fail; no He made the standard to which he expects his
followers to live. It has built into it simple redemption methods in order to
remain Holy before God if you slip yet the people still “fell off the wagon”
and lost the blessings. The people were not set up to fail, but rather gave up
and failed. Today there is no way to be holy before God, but a simple confession
based on the sacrifice of Jesus and we are redeemed. Don’t let Satan fool you
otherwise and keep on the straight and narrow path!

Verse 29:4 is one that is repeated often and brings a smile
to my face:

But to this day, He hasn’t given
you a mind that understands or eyes that see or ears that hear.

 

“Open up your eyes to see and your ears to hear” was a
canned prayer Pastor Michael Martin use to open every service with, so when I
see it in scripture I think back to our early days at Suwanee United Methodist
church up on the hill.

One final note on Verse 29:13 that contradicts a previous
statement from Moses:

 He’ll establish
you as His people; and He’ll become your God, just as He told you He would, and
just as He promised your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

 

God promised they would have a home flowing in milk
and honey. God did not give it to them until many generations later. So maybe
Moses was right since their moving into the Promised Land completed God’s
promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

3 John

Verse 5 shows us the love we should have for our fellow
travelers:

My friend, you demonstrate your
faithfulness in all the things you do for the brothers and sisters; even when
they are strangers to you, you treat them as family.

 

I often wonder if this is God’s idea that we open our homes
to travelers or missionaries. With hotels and hostels this has really become a
thing of the past across the world. The few times I have traveled on mission
trips we usually occupied church floors. At 12 Stone they have us open our
doors to interns so they can live someplace during their training. In
reflecting on this two things are missing in the dynamic these days, people are
not traveling locally unless it’s disaster relief and the way we move across
the world has changed making these kind of stops unnecessary.

What would John suggest today?

Verse 9 calls out an individual for his actions:

I wrote some things specifically to
the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to be the one up front, rejects us.

 

Diotrephes does not feel we should be opening our doors to
our fellow travelers in Jesus’ name. Again the hotel has changed things immensely,
but assume they had inn’s then also so maybe not. Verse 10 John mentions how he
will handle the situation:

If I come, you can be sure that I
will call him out and draw attention to his actions. He assails us with lies
and deceit. As if that were not enough, he does not welcome the traveling
missionaries into his home. Instead, he hinders any who do so and expels
them from the church.

 

Funny how many churches today get this way with internal squabbling.
Pride ends up making people thinking they “know” the will of God and therefore
start doing things their own way. They interpret a section of scripture to work
for their own desires and things fall apart. I have seen this a few times with
teachers who have been good yet they end up getting pushed aside because of
personalities and “elder” who feel they know what is right. Be aware of this
not only with others, BUT WITH YOURSELF!!

Verse 12 ends on a positive note:

 Demetrius
has a good reputation with everyone we know. The truth stands on
his side, and we add our unreserved recommendation to the long list of
accounts on his behalf. You can rest assured that we are telling the truth.

 

I believe too often we end our discussions with a
negative and that leaves the recipient depressed. John ends his with a word of
encouragement and gives them an example of one doing things right. The key here
is stop focusing on the negative and look at the upside of things in this world
… otherwise you will go nuts!

Acts25 – 26

Verses 25:15 & 16 open with Paul case being put before
King Agrippa:

¹⁵ When I
was in Jerusalem, I got an earful about him from the chief priests and Jewish
elders. They wanted me simply to decide against him,¹⁶ but
I informed them that we Romans don’t work that way. We don’t condemn a person
accused of a crime unless the accusers present their case in person so the
accused has ample opportunity to defend himself against the charge. 

 

The last few chapters of Acts really focus on the Jews in
Jerusalem and their rejection of Paul. We learn from this how Paul is
forthright in the face of death. Can you say the same? If it was a choice
between death would you continue to profess Jesus? This is what we can learn
from Paul and the other apostles, they all chose death over a lie.

Verse 26:24 has Festus interrupting and mocking Paul:

Festus (interrupting): ²⁴ You’ve
gone crazy, Paul! You’ve read one book too many and have gone insane!

 

This is the key, you will be called crazy. Think about it,
Paul HAD recent experience and people who witnessed Jesus’ story, today we have
this book. Sure we have stories of great things, but often they are explained
away from Jesus, so be ready for the attacks on your faith.

I debate creationism and evolutionism with science types
often. I am called more than crazy by most, yet keep plugging away at them.
Often I think I should shake the dust off my feet and move on, but I hope just
one will realize the fallacy of many of the foundational beliefs in evolution.
Maybe I should start working on a book;-)

We end this reading with nothing new happening, other
than Paul telling his story to another government official.

Revelations
11
– 17

Again so much to cover and so little space, I suggest
checking out TheFuelProject’s Revelation’s playlist stating at number 18 to
reference today’s thought:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyLZuCy3KqU&list=PL0f6_epwixV5fGUp87rwkvafcI8gwS9Im&index=21

Verse 11:1 tells us the main signal to herald the “End Times”:

Then I received a measuring rod. It
resembled a staff, and I was commanded to take measurements.
 
A Voice: Get up, and
measure the temple of God, the altar, and those who worship in it.

This tells us without a doubt the Temple is in Jerusalem.
Today the Muslim Dome of the Rock sits on the temple site, so there needs to be
some major changes before this day will come. Also, notice the shift from the
church, to Israel and now to Jerusalem. Though most of the tribulations affect
the entire earth, the final segment becomes a battle in heaven and in Jerusalem
known as Jacob’s Trouble. Also, notice the time frame as you read, it’s 3.5
years and is mentioned in months and days. So when this starts the period of
the end is short.

Verse 12:7 shows this battle is not only on the earth:

A battle broke out in heaven.
Michael, along with his heavenly messengers, clashed against the dragon. The
dragon and his messengers returned the fight, ⁸ but
they did not prevail and were defeated. As a result, there was
no place left for them in heaven.
 

This is not the previous dragon, Abaddon, but rather
specifically Satan. The text does differentiate between the two, so I believe
they are two separate entities.

Verse 13:1 gives us imagery that is from Old Testament visions
of Isiah and Daniel:

I saw a beast with ten horns and
seven heads rising out of the blackness of the sea. On its
horns hung ten crowns, and on its heads were inscribed blasphemous names.

 

The beast is a mix of the first three “superpowers” that
have already ruled the earth and the final one which today could be explained
as the One World Government with ten unique districts across the world. From
Daniel we see one of the horns taking power and it is assumed this will come
from the Middle East since Islam is the only way an army of 200 million could
be compiled today.

Verse 13:17 also implies “chipping”:

Those who do not carry this mark,
that is, those who do not have the name of the first beast
or the number representing its name inscribed on them, are not
allowed to sell their wares or buy in the market.

 

Today with identity
theft, this is a very real possibility and may be sooner than later. But I
expect it AFTER the temple is built in Israel.

This is a study
that could go on, but read through and you will see the future. I hope like
Jonah, those with “The End Is Near” placards will be disappointed and God’s
wrath will be postponed by repentance. Notice the bowls and the problems that
follow, also we mix up how much of this is imagery and how much may be real.
Please also consider the two messengers as prophets “like” Moses, Elijah or
Enoch and not the actual reincarnation of them.

Song of Songs
5 – 6

This is a short one today since I did not get a whole bunch
out of the reading other than a few questions.

Verse 5:7 was kind of odd:

The watchmen found me
        as they made their rounds in
the city.
    They beat me, they left bruises on my skin,
        and they took away my veil,
those watchmen on the walls.

 

Why would they beat a woman walking within the walls? Are
they not there to protect the people within the walls and not abuse them.
Interesting a rape was not mentioned since a random beating usually includes
sexual assault. I have wondered why this happened and why it was mentioned out
of the blue.

Verses 6:8 & 9 shows this is Solomon and makes one
wonder if he is so eloquent because of a bunch of practice:

⁸     There
may be 60 queens and 80 concubines—
        there may be more virgins than
can be counted—
⁹     But my dove, my perfect love is
the only one for me,

        the only daughter of her
mother,
        the pure and favored child
to the one who bore her.

 

I would have a tough time believing his if I was her, since
he basically has 140 lovers already. What makes her above the rest or is it
because he has not “had” her yet? I assume also, this is Pharaoh’s daughter and she has the “spirit” of Semiramis
driving both of them. As we know she was Solomon’s downfall and was the start
of his drift to the occult.

For a quick
refresher, Semiramis was Nimrod’s wife and the Queen of Babylon. She has been
claimed to be the way evil slipped into the nation and how it became so
perverse. Also, her “spirit” has been seen in figures like Jezebel throughout
history, so you can study her influence. Now one could also just say men are
weak and think with their “dicks”. Once they are on that downward slope, Satan
can rule their lives.

Either way I am
not so enamored with this book.

Ester
1 – 5

Verse 2:12 stands out because of how most men of power
without God’s guidance would not wait:

Before going in to the king, each
young woman went through 12 months of beauty treatments, as the harem’s rules
prescribed. For the first 6 months the women were treated with the
palace’s finest myrrh oil, and that was followed by 6 months in
perfume and other women’s cosmetics.

 

Leading up to this the Queen refused to do as the king
demanded and was to be replaced by a better example of a queen. Understandably,
she did not want to be displayed like a pony for an inebriated group of men. But
the king and his advisors believed this would set the wrong tone for women in
the kingdom, so she had to be replaced as an example to show this kind of
defiance would not be tolerated. One of the women chosen was an Israelite named
Ester.

Imagine this happening today!

Verse 3:5 was the start of the problems for the people of
Israel:

 Haman was
furious when he saw that Mordecai refused to bow and pay him the respect he
was due.

 

Haman made a decree and tricked the king into signing it and
thus starts the drama for the king and Ester. Mordecai was her uncle so he was
able to remain in limited contact with her and was informed of the kings order,
which was not to be carried out for some time.

Verse 4:16 has now Queen Ester in a position to influence
the king:

 “In
preparation for my audience with the king, do this: gather together
all the Jews in Susa, and fast and pray for me. Intercede
for me. For three days and nights, abstain from all food and drink. My
maids and I will join you in this time. And after the three days, I
will go in to the king and plead my people’s case, even though
it means breaking the law. And if I die, then I die!”

 

Prayer and seeing God work in the background is truly
amazing. We see God working in so many ways in life and here is a story about
how a young orphaned girl, becomes the queen and saves Israel. We see this time
and time again in each story in the Bible, where someone unexpected becomes the
instrument of hope for the people of Israel, from Joseph, the sold into slavery
brother, to Jesus, a unexpected person from a remote village in Israel, we see
God work wonder so His glory is shown.

Well the story of
Ester is unfolding and we will see how the second dinner with Haman with
the next reading.

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Deuteronomy
21
– 26

Talk about jumping around with various laws, this is more
like just a brain dump before entering the Promised Land. First there are
details about murder and how to handle certain conditions, then it shifts to
captives and marrying one, then divorce, then what to do with your rebellious son
and so on. So if this “thought” seems disjoint, it could be the subject matter.

Verse 21:21 talks about what to do with a “stubborn and rebellious”
son:

Then all the people of the city
will stone him to death. You must expel the wicked from your own community. Everyone
else in Israel will hear about it and fear the consequences of such
rebellion.

 

I think of how many children with be killed today and wonder
if that was a big problem then. No matter how messed up families are today, I
can’t imagine anyone giving up their own flesh and blood to a law like this. I
also wonder if this was more to scare the son into being good and not
necessarily ever actually followed through on.

Verse 22:22 falls into a question on a story in the new
testament:

If it’s discovered that a man has
been having sexual relations with a married woman, both the man and the woman
must be put to death. Expel the wicked from Israel this way.

 

John 8:1-11 has the story of the adulterous woman brought to
Jesus, everyone was prepared to stone her yet Jesus stopped it. Was it because
he “wrote” in the sand, “where is the man”? Since Jewish law said stone the
both, why was just the woman brought to Jesus? This is why Jesus has come to make
the law pure and to have people understand the hypocrisy of what they had
warped Gods Commandments into.

Verse 23:1 had me ask “why”:

Moses: No emasculated
man, either by crushing or severing his male organs, may come and worship the
Eternal.

 

Why should a man be excluded from worshiping God if he
has lost his manly parts? As one digs into the law we tend to pick and choose
what we like. Sure modern Christians often get into a tizzy about homosexuality,
yet are asked to forgive their pastor who cheated on his wife. We cherry pick
the law to what fits our agenda and that was what Jesus was there to stop, the Pharisees
did this and now many Christian preachers are falling into the same trap. Stop
the legalism and just follow Jesus’ acts. He did not kill anyone for being gay
or committing adultery, nor did he suggest we should. But rather gave a model
to follow of servitude and caring for all.  

+

2 John

Verse 5 is boiling down Jesus’ teachings into the basics:

So now, dear lady, I am asking you
to live by the command that we love one another. I’m not writing to you some
new commandment; it’s one we received in the beginning from our Lord.

 

If you consider all the other commandments, this one is the
basis for all the others and if obeyed the others would not be needed. God
developed the perfect law in the Ten Commandments, but it was all rooted in
love. If you love your neighbor, you would not covet his stuff, sleep with his
wife or murder him. So consider love first before you act.

Verse 7 caught my eye for the use of “Christ” in the actual
text:

The corrupt world
is filled with liars and frauds who deny the reality that Jesus the Anointed
has come into the world as a man of flesh and blood. These
people are deceivers and anti-Christs.

 

It caught my eye because of the use of Christ since that is
one of those words that have not been used in the actual text in this
translation. But it works here since there is not a real good English
translation. Also, note it’s plural. Revelations implies there is ONE
anti-Christ but also implies that leading up to the end there will be many “deceivers”
who are “anti-Christs” leading into the end times. We must understand that this
idea is validated in scriptures here.

Verse 10 clarifies this idea:

If any person comes to you with a
teaching that does not align with the true message of Jesus, do not
welcome that person into your house or greet him as you would a true
brother. 

 

We need to be on-guard for false teachers (AKA
anti-Christs) and know what is in the Bible. Hence why we need to study outside
the Sunday service! Today we can be tricked into thinking something is from
Jesus yet it is not, like “money being the root of all evil” or “all things
work together for good”. Notice the subtitle differences between these and the
actual verses. This is what you need to be aware of since one could easily
drift when things go south or they are in the poor house because they were not
wise with their money. Know scripture and find a teacher who is true to it!!

Acts
23 – 24

Verse 23:2 opens with Paul getting hit for speaking the
truth:

Ananias the high priest signaled
those standing near Paul to hit him on the mouth.

 

Paul was just stating his case and got blindsided by the
opposition. Image if this happened in government today. Hold it, based on the
countless YouTube videos it already does in various countries and courts today.
Paul is getting under the skin of the established system of Judaism as most
Christians since they were upending their meal ticket.

I imagine this would happen today if Jesus returned. Many of
the mega-church preachers will have a problem with change in their system since
they have become so comfortable. I would hope they would not be blinded, but
history has shown that when Jesus stood before those who preached His coming,
they rejected that He was the One. So a legalistic church that preys on people’s
faith to make more money would most likely reject Jesus turning their tables
over. So be ready and aware of His return and don’t reject it.

Verse 24:14 has Paul defending his position (and his life):

 But I can
make this confession: I believe everything established by the Law and written
in the Prophets, and I worship the God of our ancestors according to the Way,
which they call a heretical sect.

 

Supposedly all this hubbub is over Paul believing in reincarnation
which the Sadducees flatly rejected yet the Pharisees accept. But this is
the fodder to which they are trying to suppress the message Jesus brought. Paul
makes sure that they understand this is not over anything of real meaning or
consequence based on the charges, but rather the importance of the overall
message.

Verse 24:27 has Paul sitting in jail because he will not
bribe his way out:

As a favor to the Jews, he did
nothing to resolve the case and left Paul in prison for two years. Then Felix
completed his assignment as governor, and Porcius Festus succeeded him.

 

Imagine sitting in jail for two years without hope for
a trial! All you need to do is break the law and give the judge some money to
let you free. What would you do? What would Jesus do? I think you know the
answer since Jesus could have easily been freed and spared from the cross by
just rejecting everything he taught.

Revelations
5 – 10

First for those following the outline … oops. I did Rev 1-4
when it should have been 1-6 so today’s 7-11 is changed to 5-10 and next week
will be 11-17 and then back on track.

Verse 5:6 has the only one capable of opening the seals come
on the scene:

I looked, and between the throne
and the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders stood a
Lamb who appeared to have been slaughtered. The Lamb had seven horns and seven
eyes (the eyes are the seven Spirits of God sent out over all the earth).

 

In the previous verse one of the 24 elders has John looking
for a lion to which he sees a lamb. This is one of the keys showing that Jesus
is not who anyone expected. He did eventually win over evil with a humble act
of being the sacrificial lamb for all mankind.

With the first seal broken we see the first horseman in
verse 6:2:

Then I looked, and what a sight!
There was a white horse carrying a rider with a bow. He wore a wreath and came
riding like a conqueror, intent on complete victory.

 

Couple things we need to look at before diving in here is
Matthew 24:1-10 where Jesus explains what is to come and notice how they
correspond to the first 4 horseman. Now the first one is the most difficult to
understand since many say it’s Jesus, while others say it’s the Antichrist
since later in Rev 19:12 it shows Jesus’ return on a white horse.

I think the best explanation is neither, but rather the rise
in false religions. This we are seeing today, even so much as the Christian
religion is being perverted to have it related to stuff and not the “Way”. Today
it even gets divided into New Age mumbo-jumbo and humanism from science. We see
the next 3 also being explained in Matthew 24 with the rise of war, economic
collapse, famine and eventually the forth horseman in verse 6:8 is death:

I looked; and behold, there was a
pale green horse! Its rider’s name was Death, and Hades accompanied him.
Together they were granted authority over one-fourth of the earth to kill with
weapons, with famine, with disease, and with wild animals that roamed the
earth.

 

Having turned a pale green once this is how my family
described me when I had my cardiac arrest. I was dead for the most part, but
came back. The “pale green” horseman represents death and the look of death. I
believe this was much clearer to the people of their time since their dealing
with dead were not boxes of ashes or a made up corpse to look alive. No they had
a greyish green corpse, so they would understand the analogy.

The next lists of problems are the 7 trumpets. We see most
are natural disasters from volcanoes, earthquakes, storms, meteors, “red tides”
and much more. Verse 9:3 has the fifth trumpets plague:

 From the
smoke, locusts appeared and swarmed upon the earth. They were
given power, like the power of scorpions on the earth.

 

These will torment mankind, but not kill them. As you
can see this is a very cursory explanation of the seals and trumpets, but we
see many happening today and we can now understand what the other ones imply
with natural events that once were unexplained. Now some like this plague or
terror have a very difficult to understand the imagery. This may represent not
actual locust, but rather demons or a spirit level terror.

Song of Songs
3 – 4

Verse 3:5 is a warning to young women:

 (to the young women of
Jerusalem) Heed my warning:

        By the gazelles and deer of the
field,
    I charge you not to excite your love until it is ready.
        Don’t stir a fire in
your heart too soon, until it is ready to be satisfied.

 

This is a simple
warning not to get caught in romance too early. We look at relationships today
and try to apply these same warnings today and often not consider the ages.
Most women then became wives in their early teens where today the “accepted”
age range is between 19 and 30. We tend to freak out at marriages younger than
16 and usually have the guy arrested. At the same time women are tending to
become active at a younger age so this warning needs to be listened to for
today.

Verse 4:5 needs to
be addressed since it talks about boobs:

Your breasts are like two fawns,
        twin gazelles grazing in a
meadow of lilies.

 

I read this and still don’t understand why it was included
in the Bible. Considering Jewish tradition made it such that a young man could
not read this Song until they were 30 tells me there is a reason. Maybe this is
a personal love song that was never meant to be shared with others. I read this
and roll my eyes more than anything else. I guess I have been jaded over the
years.

Verse 4:12 has me wondering:

You are a locked garden, my sister,
my bride, open only to me;

        a spring closed up tight, a
sealed fountain.

 

Often people read this and they assume it condones
incest. In reality it is showing the intimate relationship between a husband
and wife, they become “blood” relations. It’s no different than the “church”
calling each other “sister” and “brother” at church. There is no “blood”
relationship except through that of Jesus.

Psalms
143
– 145

Verse 143:3 is often used incorrectly:

My adversary has pressed in, drawn
closer, threatened my life;
    he’s crushed me, driven me underground.
    He’s forced me to live in the dark;
    it’s as if I joined those who died a
long time ago.
 

We have to remember that our adversaries are often just
short attacks and not searching for us. David on the other hand was hiding in
caves to get away from King Saul who was hunting him. Often we try to apply
this to a mess we got ourselves into, like the current debt crisis. Think about
it, I didn’t have to have multiple credit cards that gave me access to over
$200,000 or buy the property I did without a job. It was not the “evil banks”
that did this to me, but rather me knowing I was not in a proper financial
place to cover the debt. Fortunately, it all has worked out very positively,
but it was not because the bank’s paid but rather my investments worked out
since we dug in to ensure they were paid.

Verse 144:4 appears to be stolen:

Humans are like a passing breath;
    their time on earth is like a shadow
that passes over us during the day and soon is gone.

 

I think of words Shakespeare
wrote in Macbeth that start “Out, out brief candle” that basically says the
same thing, we are just here for a flash when compared to time itself. Heck if
the earth is billions of years old or 10,000 years our short time on this
planet really signifies nothing. That is if you look at purely in numbers, but
our legacy should be counted in souls saved. Don’t take the “what does it
matter” mindset, but rather think of an eternity of torment or joy and would
you want that for yourself or others? If no than your life has meaning for the
people you connect with.

Verse 145:9 shows
me David got God:

But the Eternal’s goodness is
not exclusive—it is offered freely to all.
    His mercy extends to all His creation.

 

The problem with being part of “the Chosen People” one could
easily get this “exclusive club” mentality. God is not just the God of Israel,
but rather of all creation. God is there for all and not just a select club. No
you ask then why is Jesus the “ONLY” path when there are so many other
religions. Well the easiest way to look at it is consider a club with a membership.
You cannot enter unless you join, but unlike most clubs this membership costs
nothing. There is nothing you need to do to join other than accept Jesus as
savior, believe his story and confess you have fallen short. This club is for
ALL and not just Israel.

Nehemiah10
– 13

Verse 10:30 starts laying down the guidelines for marriage,
again:

Our daughters will not be married
to the sons of any of our foreign neighbors. We will not allow our sons to
marry their daughters.

 

Many times this is used to show how God is racist and is not
tolerant of other cultures. First since HE made those cultures and different
peoples, this is not really an issue. The real key is God does not want the
nation to be corrupt. He knows if the other nations practices creep in, that
will cause His people to adopt those customs resulting in a drift from God. So
God wants His people to remain faithful, not necessarily genetically pure.

Verse 12:45 shows a tight coupling with David and his
lineage:

Just as David and his son Solomon
instructed them to do, they served God and purified the people with the help of
the singers and gatekeepers.

 

If we look at the kings of Israel, we see David and Solomon
as flawed as they were are held as the head of the ruling class of Israel. This
is critical to understand that from this family eventually comes the perfect
ruler in Jesus. So when you read about David and Solomon then say yes but they
failed by doing this or that. When held to the standard of history and God, we
all fail except for Jesus.

Verses 13:26 & 27 continues using Solomon as an example
but applies it to then:

²⁶ This is
the very thing that caused King Solomon’s downfall. In all the world, there was
no king like him. God loved him dearly and made him king over all
Israel. Yet these foreign wives led Solomon into sin. ²⁷ Now
we discover that you have embraced the same wicked ways, betraying our God by
marrying these foreign women.

 

For some reason we thing that if we go with our hearts
we can eventually change someone to our ways. God knows otherwise and nature
shows it. If water is let go on a hill it will follow “the path of least
resistance” and take the easy path. Nowhere in the Bible does following God
follow the easy path. Jesus makes it clear by saying we enter by the narrow
gate and not the wide one. So when God gives us the warning, He knows we will
tend to take the easiest path which is not following Him. That is when we fail
and lose connection with God. 

Deuteronomy
16
– 20

For those following the study guide note they stopped at
chapter 24, so I am going to adjust the readings a bit through the end of the
study 16-20, 21-25, 26-31. Verse 17:1 talks about the sacrifice and how we
respond to it:

Moses: Don’t sacrifice
an ox or a sheep to the Eternal your God if it has any defect or problem. He
would be deeply offended by such an offering!

 

Today we don’t raise sheep or ox for the most, but we do
earn money. When the offering plate is passed do you give pocket change or is
the first check you write after payday your tithe? This is the analogy today
that God may use and how we should look at this. Sure we can justify it by
seeing how grandiose the church is so they don’t need the money. That should
not limit our giving. If you somehow believe the church is the wrong place to “tithe”
then do it elsewhere. Honestly the “tithe” is for making sure those who work
only for God can survive. If you don’t like the way your church is spending the
money, then maybe you need to look at where you attend or become active in the
operation. Either way, GIVE and make sure it’s your first.

Verse 17:17 is part of God’s warning about declaring a king:

This king must not have many wives. If
he takes foreign wives in marriage alliances, they could turn his
heart away from the Lord and lead him to worship foreign gods. And
the king must not accumulate great quantities of silver and gold for himself.

 

In reading this chapter you see that God essentially prophesizes
what would happen in the future. We see that David and Solomon failed in this
verse. David married too many and could not quench his lust resulting in the
murder of Bathsheba’s husband. Solomon married many including foreign wives
like the Pharaoh’s daughter. This eventually did exactly what God said having
Solomon produce The Lesser Key of Solomon which is widely used by Luciferian
cults.

Verses 18:21 & 22 talks about recognizing prophets:

²¹ Now you
may be wondering, “How will we recognize something He hasn’t commanded a
prophet to say?” ²² If a prophet speaks in the
Eternal One’s name, but the words turn out not to be true or the prediction
doesn’t happen, then He wasn’t actually speaking. That prophet arrogantly spoke
in the Lord’s name, but he didn’t really have a message from Him. And so you
don’t need to be afraid of what the prophet said.

 

Today we have people trying to “prophesize” about
everything. The only time I can say something like this was true was a guy came
into the shop, looked like Jay Leno, and said he saw an illuminated cross and
that we would be blessed. Well months later our shop was used as a backdrop for
a Michael O’Brian video. When the final product was done it closed with the TV’s
in our window turning on to an illuminated cross. Was this guy lucky or was
this a prophecy proven true? I believe the latter.

Verse 20:18 is another warning that was eventually lived out
by the people:

If you don’t, they’ll teach you to
do all the horrible things they do for their gods, and you’ll sin against Him.

 

The people allowed many in these nations to survive
and they polluted the nation for a period. We read things like this and think
God is a maniacal ruler with a twisted blood lust, yet He was just wanting to
ensure His people remained pure and true. Sometimes I read things like this and
wonder if God told Moses what would happen and Moses injected what He thought
God wanted to be done to ensure this did not happen. I think much of the law
was produced off the Ten Commandments for this same reason, the people kept
asking what about when this happens or that. Each explanation required another
as we see in ALL legal systems today, the law may not remain simple and just
but must keep addressing unique circumstances.

1 John
5

Verse 5:3 boils down the Bible into a simple action:

You see, to love God means that we
keep His commands, and His commands don’t weigh us down.

 

This becomes delicate balance between what are “His commands”
and what are overly burdensome rules in the Hebraic Law. Many look at the first
5 books of the Bible as “His commands” while others consider “love” as the key
since that is what Jesus said. Many, like myself, believe the Ten Commandments
are “His commands” and therefore those as what we keep. If you think about it,
the Ten Commandments are actually a perfect law which requires nothing else.
Also it is the only part of the Bible that was inscribed by God’s own hand,
whereas everything else was “inspired” text.

Verse 5:18 is one of those verses I wish I could say is 100%
true:

We all know that everyone fathered
by God will not make sin a way of life because God protects His
children from the evil one, and the evil one can’t touch them. 

 

This would be wonderful, we accept Jesus as our savior and
we are free from sin. Those who have been Christians for some time know
phrases, like “backsliding”, that describe what happens on our walk. Sometimes
we go way off track and blow up lives and marriages because the “evil one” has
taken a foothold in our lives. Porn and lascivious living seems to be the most
common detractors of those of faith. Today it’s dangerous to venture into our
own offices with the internet. The amount of popup and spam one gets on porn
and get rich quick schemes is mindboggling.

Because of this it’s critical to dive into the Bible and
prayer daily!! I can personally say when I drift my life drifts also; when I
remain focused things tend to be clear. I am not saying being in tune with
Christ is the Easy Button, but rather the ups and downs become understandable.
You see how trials build our faith and develop character necessary for life.
Heck, this is still happening 40 years after being saved and I expect it will
continue to my grave. There is nothing in the Bible that says otherwise, no
matter what “Creflo Dollar” says.

John ends with verse 5:21 and a warning that we need to heed
today:

My little children, keep away from
idols.

 

In today’s world we don’t have obvious pagan idols like
golden cows or statues of Baal, but ours are sports cars, homes and material
stuff. We idolize the actors and musicians wanting to be like them no matter
how raunchy they may get. There are a litany of teen “sweet hearts” that as
they grow older become tramps. So as parents we say look at this nice girl and
then reject them as they change, that sends mixed signals to our children.

Also, as adults we get wrapped up in the material things of
life. It becomes “keeping up with the Jones” and not diving into God’s word.
The computer and internet that was supposed to make life simpler has made the
family meal a joke as dad is answering work emails, mom is chatting with
friends and the kids are lost in their PDA’s such that no one talks. We have
lost the personal touch and now worship that iThing.

Ironically through all this the ancient symbols like
the Asherah pole pop up in our local parks without question. I look at Suwanee
Town Center and see three of them with 4 balls supporting them in the park,
intersecting the ovals which resemble an owl. Sure it’s appears benign, but I
often wonder if there are underlying demonic attachments there. Simple symbols
and idols are now considered art and although not worship provides a demonic
undertone in society we ignore. See this warning is more critical that we
actually realize!!

Acts
21 – 22

 Verse 21:13 has Paul seeming almost prideful, but is more
living by example and not by words:

Paul: ¹³ Please,
you’re breaking my heart with your tears! I know exactly what I’m doing.
I’m fully prepared to be bound, and more—to die for the name of Jesus, the
King.

 

Paul is nearing the end of his ministry which he gets to
enjoy the blessings of God and retire to play golf in Boca. No he is preparing
to suffer and die as Jesus did. The Bible says more about Christians suffering
in the name of Jesus and being blessed in heaven than praying in His name to
get stuff here on earth. I think we need to be prepared for a rough road
especially as the “end times” are approaching. As we study Revelations we will
see the “rapture” is a false doctrine and we will suffer here on earth. Paul is
preparing us for the tough times ahead.

Verse 22:4 has Paul appealing to the angry mob:

 I
encountered a movement known as the Way, and I considered it a threat
to our religion, so I persecuted it violently. I put both men and women in
chains, had them imprisoned, and would have killed them— 

 

During this appeal he is giving “his story” on how he
actually pursued people like him and tried to show the people that they were
wrong. Unfortunately, they did not have the same experience he had on the road
to Damascus. Because in verse 22:21 he mentioned “outsiders” and this had a
response in Verse 22:22 of anger:

²² They were
listening quietly up until he mentioned the outsiders.
 
Crowd (shouting): Away
with him! Such a man can’t be allowed to remain here. Kill him! He must die!

 

Suddenly this group of “chosen people” found out Jesus was
for everyone and not just them and it ticked them off. I thank God for opening
the door for everyone and not just the Jews. It still required faith and
belief, but it’s not a works system or other method to reach God. That is the
beauty of our faith, it’s free and has nothing to do with us.

Through this battle Paul is trying to save his skin by
making sure they realize he is a citizen of Rome and therefore could not be
flogged or killed without legal justification. The chapter ends with 22:30
where he is brought before the priests:

He still needed to conduct an
investigation to uncover the Jews’ accusations against Paul. So the next day,
he removed the ties on Paul and called a meeting with the chief priests and
council of elders. He brought Paul in and had him stand before the group.

 

As they use to say on TV, “stay tuned” and find out
Paul’s fate. “Same bat time, same bat channel” … at least I hope to regain
consistency as we settle in after our move.

Revelations
1 – 4

Before we dig into Revelations and the “end time” prophecies
let me suggest a playlist on YouTube from TheFuelProject channel about
Revelations. It by far has been the clearest explanation I have found and explains
many of confusing images John used. The first thing we need to understand is we
have always been in time of tribulation and it is increasing. In the USA we see
it only as oppression against our faith whereas the rest of the world is
exterminating people of faith. Today the most persecuted peoples of the world
are Christians, bet you didn’t know that!

Verse 1:8 makes it clear the position of The Eternal:

Lord God: ⁸ I
am the Alpha and the Omega, [the very beginning and the very end,] the One
who is, the One who was, and the One who is coming: the All Powerful.

 

God makes it clear who is in control, who is the One. We
need to take this to heart and understand the signs are happening today and one
needs to open reading Matthew 24 and the “Olivet Discourse” to understand what
must happen before Jesus returns. One can take this over history and say see,
nothing has changed for history, but things are going to get worse and we need
to understand God is in control and this is something that will purify our
faith.

Verse 2:7 makes it clear that faith through tribulation is
key:

“Let the person who is able to
hear, listen to and follow what the Spirit proclaims to all
the churches. I will allow the one who conquers through faithfulness
even unto death to eat from the tree of life found in God’s lush
paradise.”

 

Nowhere in the Bible does God claim being of faith will be easy
without trials. Look throughout this book and we never see everything easy.
Each story in the Bible has trials before God uses the people for His purpose.
It’s not that God wants us to suffer but rather suffering helps strengthen our
faith in God.

The next few chapters are focused on warnings to the
churches and we see the most common ways people and the church drifts from
faith. From wealth, to pressure, to lust we see each church suffering in one
way or another. Often we see all this throughout our personal lives, we are not
immune and need to remain diligent. Verse 2:25 is simple and clear stating “Just
keep on task, and keep the faith until I return.”

Verse 3:16 is something we all need to focus on:

 So because
you are lukewarm, neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.

 

When you think about this how many of us fall into that
trap. We are “Christians” but we only live our faith on Sundays between the
hours of 11 and 1. Outside people could not tell our faith other than maybe a “fish
sticker” on our bumper. We need to be “hot” for Jesus and live the way He would
desire. Sure it’s not going to be easy, but it will bring the best reward as
His approval. Remember the only apostle of Jesus that was not killed for their
faith was John who wrote this. They did try to kill him and when he would not
die they exiled him to the island of Patmos.

Verse 4:10 is one of those “numbers” verses:

 the
twenty-four elders fell prostrate before the One seated on the throne,
worshiped the One who lives throughout all the ages, cast their golden wreaths
before the throne, and chanted to Him.

 

The image John must have is amazing and he is stretching the
language available to him to explain what he sees. Here is talking about the 24
elders and we can easily see the significance with this number when you
consider the old and new covenants. Each had 12 “patriarchs” who are now represented
in the “throne room” with Jesus and God. We see numbers thrown about
Revelations and it becomes difficult to follow, but honestly don’t try to over
complicate these or read too much into it. I feel as obscure as many are they
will become clear as the time approaches.

Please note in studying Revelations you should bounce
back to other end time prophecies throughout the Bible to more clearly
understand what is being said here. It’s difficult and painful but worth the
effort for clarity in the long run.

Song of Songs
1 – 2

 Verse 1:3 shows the general “love poem” of this book:

The pleasant aroma of your
fragrance rises in the air;
        your name is like precious perfume
poured out:
    This is why young women adore you.

 

I do like this since it’s much more eloquent than Jeff
Foxworthy’s “I wanna beer and see something naked” mentality. Unfortunately
with Solomon I take this with a grain of salt considering how many wives and
concubines he had. Who was he writing this to? The one he could not “have” or
someone who was not allowed per God’s orders? Was this written to the daughter
of Pharaoh, the one who eventually led him astray to the point he wrote “The
Lesser Key of Solomon”? I note that this book is the foundation of conjuring
demons in satanic cults. I have to wonder the mindset of him when he was
writing this book.

Verse 1:13 shows this to be a two way poem between the two
lovers:

My love is close to my
heart,

        like a sachet of myrrh tucked
between my breasts.

 

I wonder if this was a joint collaboration or what Solomon
wished would be said. To the women who read this book is this something you
would write your love? This is why I wonder if a woman wrote this or it was
what Solomon wished was written. Also, since we are getting a woman’s opinion,
is this beautiful to your gender?

This is where the English language gets hung up since this “love”
is often misconstrued with the “love” of a brother and “love” for God. We are told
to love one and other, to which The Youngblood’s misconstrue into having sex with
everyone and somehow say “it’s Biblical”. You see the things we need to watch
for when reading an interpreted language. Hence why I love Bible Gateway and giving
us the ability to cross references almost all the translations available.

Verse 2:2 is something that talks about the world:

Him: Like a lily among
thorns, that is what she is;
        my dear is a
captivating beauty among the young women.

 

We are all lilies among thorns these days in trying to
show the love of Jesus. We need to focus on that since it becomes difficult to
maintain ones faith when we are constantly being pricked and poked by the
thorns in this world. But have faith that God is here to protect us from these
disturbances over our lives. Doesn’t mean it will not hurt, but that we will be
able to understand the love of God.

�

Psalms140
– 142

Verse 140:1 has David asking God for protection:

Save me, O Eternal One, from the
evil men who seek my life.
    Shield me from this band of violent
men.

 

We all tend to think everyone is against us. And somehow
believe that if things are not going our way then some outside force must be
stopping it. Today I sit in a new home without work and wondering if we made
the right move. The job I thought I was a “shoe-in” for never transpired and I
find this market is not as deep as I was hoping. Is there some great force working
against me or did I just mess up? Neither actually! God has me where he wants
me to be doing what I need to be doing which isn’t what I expected.

Now David DID have people trying to destroy him, from his
trusted king, Saul, to the many enemies to the nation of Israel. In HIS
instance he had a “band of violent men” pursuing him. We on the other hand may
have instances of evil “violent men” pursuing us, but in most cases it’s a
short period of maybe an instance of greed and envy. Sure we need protection from
the thief, robber, assaulter or other criminal but to compare this to David’s
live is not the same.

Verse 141:3 is something we all need to consider:

Guard my mouth, O Eternal One;
    control what I say.

    Keep a careful watch on every word I speak.

 

I love statements like this because it reminds me of one of
my major problems, speaking too quickly without thinking. How many times have
we said “I wish I hadn’t said that” to ourselves? We really need to dig down to
the root of the problem and control our thoughts. We need to watch what we say
and think since that tends to steer our lives. It’s like the rider who watches
the crash in front of him and ends up riding right into it. Stop loose thoughts
and talk for a reason.

Verse 142:1 start with David begging for favor:

I call out loudly to the Eternal
One;
    I lift my voice to the Eternal begging for His favor.

 

This again is easy to try to apply for our lives but
when you consider David wrote this hiding in a cave that may have been the one
Saul poo’ed in while David hid. He was in a difficult time and could really use
help. Did God answer David and swoop down? No he suffered in a cave and was pursued
for some time. He learned to lean on God through the good AND the bad while not
blaming Him for the bad. That is the key here!!

Nehemiah5 – 9

Verse 5:2 opens with the people complaining about taxes:

Jews Without Land: ² Our
families are large, and we need food so that along with our children, we will
not starve. Let us have grain!

 

Nehemiah as a governor was assumed to be as strict and
unyielding as other ones. The problem was they would collect taxes for Persia
since they are occupying the land and then collect more to enjoy. The extra
taxes were burdensome for the people and made it so they could not eat or
survive. Nehemiah on the other hand lived well on what he was allowed from the
king and did not desire more.

I read stuff like this and wonder how our nation would be today
if everyone were like this. Right now governments are over taxing the nation
and businesses seem to be squeezing us for the rest of the money. Consider
mobile communications where almost everyone now has a cell phone. Now data
plans are limited and cost way more than before because of bandwidth
limitations. But almost everyone has to have one including many homeless. It’s
a sad state when the people believe they require phones before shelter.

Verse 8:5 shows the people’s respect over the Word of God:

Standing above the people so they
could see and hear him, Ezra opened the book of the law. As he
opened the book, everyone stood.

 

At Shadowbrook the youth took this verse to heart and during
the service when they would open with the scripture reading they would stand.
This became an agent for change in the church, unfortunately not for the good.
It apparently made some uncomfortable that they were standing during the
reading so instead of honoring God as they did in Nehemiah’s time they ceased
the opening reading of scripture. It was a subtle change but disheartening when
you consider the factors leading up to it. Now this may have been done for
other reason, but as a “layperson” it appeared to be because of the youth.

Verse 9:28 is part of chapter 9’s review of the Israelites
history:

As soon as they were at peace, they began
to wander and abandoned You
        and did evil things, so You
abandoned them to their enemies.
    Thus, once more, You allowed them to
be conquered.
        Somehow Your mercy is
inexhaustible.
    Once more You listened to them when they cried to You
in heaven for help.
        Over and over and over You
intervened and saved Your people.

 

The thing that stood out to me was how human nature seems to
never change. When things start going well God is most often forgotten. Sure
initially the blessings will be thanked, but as time goes on and the
distractions of prosperity continue the worship of God ceases. Then corrupt
ideas creep in and eventually society breaks away from God and drifts to chaos.
We are seeing it today in our nation, the difference is science has done away
with “gods” and replaced them with self. So now we worship self and take
advantage of “The Secret” for selfish desires and not the good of mankind.

The irony of today’s reading is I see much of our nation
reflected in Israel of this time. We have become separated from God and our
leaders are squeezing every last dime from us to continue their lavish
lifestyles. The only thing history really teaches us is that it repeats.

Deuteronomy 13– 15

 Verses 13:1 – 3 got me thinking this morning:

Moses: ^1-2 Suppose someone who claims to be a prophet, or to have inspired dreams, stands up and
tells all of you that some unusual, significant sign or wonder is
going to happen, and also says, “I’m here to let you know about some other gods
you should be worshiping.” What if the thing that person has predicted actually
happens? ³ Don’t listen to what that prophet or
dreamer says! The Eternal your God is testing you to see whether you really do
love Him completely, with your whole heart and soul.

 

When we think about people prophesizing we often forget to
look at the source. The most common one is the “horoscope” where somehow “they”
figure us out based on our date of birth and what “stars” we are aligned with.
Yes sometimes they may seem correct, but don’t fall into the trap since the
source is evil and not from God. They key is verse 4 and don’t even drift to
“sample” these things. Avoid them so not to be seduced into their lies.

Verse 14:11 is part of the food laws:

You can eat any clean bird.

 

These laws are simple and very difficult to truly
understand. These tend to get ignored by the Christian faith because they are a
Jewish thing, but we need to think about them. First Peter’s vision shows us
that anything blessed by God is good to eat and we should not get hung up on
the “sins” of food. At the same time we need to look at the purpose of the
laws. It was not to make it so we had to eat boring food but rather ensure we
ate what was best for our bodies as designed.

Verse 15:1 starts a dialogue about debt that is critical
today:

Moses: At the end of every seventh
year, cancel all debts.

 

Imagine this happening today? Ironically most of the
“bankers” on top of this credit mess we are in today are Jewish and do not
follow this law except for I guess the “foreigners” exemption that allows one
to ignore the forgiveness of debts. But imagine if this was true across the
board and your revolving credit card would be clear after 7 years!! I assume if
you ran it up and waited for 7 years to expire people would not loan to you
anymore. But at the same time verses like 15:10 ensure we give generously to
the poor.

Verse 15:19 along with all of chapter 15 is actually
critical to the Christian faith:

If the firstborn of any animal in
your herd or flock is a male, set it apart or consecrate it for the Eternal
your God. Don’t put the firstborn of any ox to work, and don’t shear your
firstborn sheep. These animals already belong to the Eternal One, so
their labor and products belong to Him too.

 

When you think about it God followed this to the
letter with Jesus. God obeyed his law and gave his first born as a sacrifice
for the world. God in a true example does exactly what he asks of us. Also when
you consider forgiveness of sin, like debt, it is given to all who believe.
When you ponder this chapter you can see many analogies that are critical to
the Christian faith.

Well I am hoping to be up and running by this weekend but have been unable to upload my thoughts without it …

Sorry but have been on the road having an adventure. One cool story of Gods protection is I lost a fan belt on my cross country trip … Only 13 miles from a store that had it in stock! Considering how many desolate places that could have happened on this journey that was awesome. Also kept me from attempting a 1000 mile solo leg in a day;)

So God did look out for me along the way. I must “sing” praises to God and Thank Him!

For those who follow this blog you know I recently died and was brought back. The most common comment is “He must have bigger things planned for you.”

What if I was thrown back for asking too many silly questions?

1 John 3 – 4

Verse 3:11 says it all:

The central truth—the one you have heard since the beginning of your faith—is that we must love one another. 

Please note they are not talking like the 60’s movement where “loving” meant sex. I think of the Youngblood’s song that said “everybody get together, try to love one another, right now.” The problem with English over the Greek is we can misconstrue the word into “love” into romantic love over compassionate caring for another person. Eros vs Agape is lost in English. But when you boil it down it’s true. If everyone loved each other the way Jesus loved the Church, we would not need to worry following the Ten Commandments.

Verse 4:1 is something we need to take to heart:

My loved ones, I warn you: do not trust every spirit. Instead, examine them carefully to determine if they come from God, because the corrupt world is filled with the voices of many false prophets. 

With the internet today we get overloaded with hoaxes, like the Derbyshire Fairy, that we need to be vigilant on what we believe. It’s not different with people professing Jesus, we need to examine their information. Some are right on while others miss the mark. Prosperity preaching takes advantage of people’s lives to exploit the troubles for profit. Honestly, God may or may not bless you in the way you expected. Either way it’s never going to be easy. Israel had to fight for the Promised Land or almost any story in the Bible. Difficult helps us lean into God so we learn to trust Him during the difficult times.

How did I drift away from using “discernment” in any message you hear to make sure it is not meant to “tickle your ears”.

Verse 4:20 gives us a real world example of love and God:

If someone claims, “I love God,” but hates his brother or sister, then he is a liar. Anyone who does not love a brother or sister, whom he has seen, cannot possibly love God, whom he has never seen.

This is one of the most difficult things new Christians have to deal with since loving something unseen is difficult. The great thing is as you grow and experience God this love grows and develops. You suddenly understand that although unseen, God is with you all the time. Once you learn this and understand loving God does not mean the “Easy Button” has been pushed, you see His glory. Now this example you see how difficult it is since often siblings are the most difficult to love. The key is to learn it’s not always a warm “lovey” feeling, but rather caring through it all.

Acts 19 – 20

Verse 19:2 is a dialogue between John the Baptist’s disciples and Paul:

Paul: ² Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?

John’s Disciples: We’ve never heard about the Holy Spirit.

 

Now as you read they experienced something I still have yet to truly witness, but once they did “they spoke in tongues and prophesied.” (v19:6) I often read and hear of accounts like this and wonder if I “got it” since it wasn’t how I imagined it was with these men. Unfortunately in reading stories like this we can second guess ourselves over and over again. I think of a time I was arguing with some friends and they suddenly felt pity for me since they believed I was unsaved.  I wasn’t flopping around like a fish or babbling in an unknown language so therefore I was wrong. I know many others who have had the same experience at “charismatic” churches. Are they right since this was the early churches documented response or are they judgmental and missing the actual truth?

If you compare the book of Acts to Revelations, which we will start soon, you will notice a mirror image. Acts is from Jerusalem and the Jewish people to the world where Revelations is from the world to Jerusalem and the Jewish people. For those of us who are not Jewish, we get a great ride!! Now that the grace God gave us.

Verse 19:11 is simple but profound:

Meanwhile, God did amazing miracles through Paul.

Just a handkerchief that touched Paul healed people, amazing. Again I ponder back to the words Jesus spoke when He said we “will do even greater things” like raise the dead!! As I continue to talk about my “event” back in May I get a stronger understanding that I was part of a miracle. I should not have survived based on the time down, so again thank you God!!

Verse 20:10 is my story from Paul’s view:

Paul joins us downstairs, bends over, and takes Eutychus in his arms.

Paul: It’s OK. He’s alive again.

 

That’s about the way it was for me. I was dead, getting cold and turning grey yet the EMT’s never gave up and brought me back after 50 minutes. I was put into an induced coma for 3 days and when I came to I was cracking smart ass jokes. No one expected that except for my prayer warriors. Scriptures like these come to life literally for me. 

Malachi 1 – 4

Verse 1:8 focuses on our giving:

When you offer blind animals for sacrifice, isn’t that evil? And when you present sick and lame animals, isn’t that evil? Try bringing these useless animals to your foreign governor when you need his favor; will he grant your request and lift up your face to his to dignify you? Of course not.

The offering plate comes by and we dig up the scraps that our in our wallet. If it’s a choice between a 10 or a 100 the 10 gets dropped. We all do this in one way or another, most of the time subconsciously. Now I don’t want to fall into a “Prosperity Gospel” trap and say you give and shall receive, but rather just GIVE. We are not to hoard and worship our wealth, but rather be free in giving and experiencing that joy.

Verse 1:13 expands on this more:

and when you sigh contemptuously and say, “Don’t you see how boring all these required rituals are?” You bring stolen or dirty gifts—your own lame and sick animals or animals you found torn apart by beasts in the wilderness—to the offering. Should I accept what you present?

We don’t understand the freedom given by giving. Don’t make it about a ritual of passing the plate, but rather have fun!! See how a BIG TIME lights up the eyes of a worker and that they understand God’s love along with it.

Verse 3:1 talks about a “messenger”:

Eternal One: Pay attention! I am sending My messenger,
        and he will clear the road ahead for Me.
    The Lord you seek will suddenly arrive at His temple.
        And the Messenger of God’s covenant, your soul’s delight,
    Watch, because He, too, is coming.

Who is this messenger? Verses 4:5 & 6 may have insight for us:

⁵ Keep watch. I am sending Elijah the prophet to you before the arrival of the great and terrible day of the Eternal One, ⁶ and he will return parents’ hearts to their children and children’s hearts to their parents, or else I will come and strike the land of promise with a curse of annihilation.

Is God sending Elijah or someone “like” Elijah? The people of Israel were expecting Elijah to return and therefore did not recognize John the Baptist as he stood before them. If we look at timing and God’s message we can see how many of these prophecies have come true. Hold on your seats because the next series in this weekly read is Revelations and is going to show us some difficult truths.

Ecclesiastes 11 –12

Verses 11:1 & 2 are very good advice to all:

Teacher: Don’t be afraid to release your bread upon the waters,
        for in due time you will find it.
²     Divide your portion—put seven here, maybe eight there—
        for you can never be sure when or where disaster will strike.

I get two insights here, first is don’t grasp to your stuff like there is no tomorrow. Be free with giving stuff away because it always seems to come back in one way or another, even if it’s just the joy of giving. The second is how you handle your possessions. In the world of stocks the standard idiom is “don’t put your eggs in one basket.” This is rooted in verse 2 since if the stock crashes you will be protected if you are “diversified”  and hopefully the whole market is not tumbling down.

Verse 11:8 is a great reminder:

If a person lives many years, then he should learn to enjoy each and every one; but he should not forget the dark days ahead, for there will be plenty of them. All that is to come—whether bright days or dark—is fleeting. 

Good times and bad times are temporary for the most part. The key is how you handle each period. If we let the “dark days” get us down, often when things get better we cannot enjoy them because of a cynical disposition. So don’t fret the bad times, they will get better.

Verse 12:10 brought a smile to my face:

 The teacher also searched for just the right words to bring hope and encouragement, and he wrote honestly about truth and the realities of life.

Think about it, this comes from a man who wrote in verse 1:1 “everything is a great vanity” or “everything is meaningless” in other translations. I don’t know why but it’s funny to end one of the more depressing books of the Bible with these words.

Verses 12:12 & 13 really explains the God thing in a nutshell:

¹² So be warned, my child, of anything else that might be said! There is no end to writing books, and excessive study only exhausts the body. ¹³ And, when all is said and done, here is the last word: worship in reverence the one True God, and keep His commands, for this is what God expects of every person.

This often makes me reflect on why do I do this blog and study. The trap I get into too much study and take no action. I will look at the words and read them, not live them. Sure I may be able to debate creationism with the most ardent evolutionist but what does it matter if they cannot see the light. I often get lost in the technicalities of this and that and forget to keep it simple!! Verse 13 really sums it all up, just worship God and follow His commandments. Now the debate is what the commandments are. Is it Exodus 20 or the first 5 books? I think the Ten Commandments are the key, you follow them with all your heart and that really is all you need to do.

Before you say easy, look carefully. Jesus said looking at another woman with lust is a sin. Is that taking the adultery commandment and “one upping” it? NO! Jesus was clarifying the “do not covet” verse. The giving everything is not a commandment to give over 10% but rather making sure you do not make money your idol.

Psalms 137 – 139

Verse 137:4 shows the sorrow of the people in exile:

How could we sing a song about the Eternal
    in a land so foreign, while still tormented, brokenhearted, homesick?
    Please don’t make us sing this song.

This Psalm is sad since it shows the misery of the people in exile. We have a difficult time imagining this since travel is so easy, but imagine if you got kicked out of the USA and had to live in a nation that worshiped demons. If you study Satan’s roots in the world they all stem from Babylon!

Verse 138:3 is comforting:

On the day I needed You, I called, and You responded
    and infused my soul with strength.

This Psalm is comforting where David lets us know God is always with us. All we need to do is call on him. I will say from past experience that often God’s answer is not what we want, but what is right. I think of Bruce Almighty, where Bruce is given the job of God and just grants everyone’s prayers. Riots ensue since thousands won the lottery which meant the millions were diluted to a few hundred for each winner. Sure everyone got what they desired, but it was not what they wanted. Anyway I am drifting, this Psalm tells us that God is there for US!!

Now Psalm 139 shows us the intimacy of God that He cares about your every detail. I could go through this verse by verse but want to focus on verses 139:23 & 24:

²³ Explore me, O God, and know the real me. Dig deeply and discover who I am.
    Put me to the test and watch how I handle the strain.
²⁴ Examine me to see if there is an evil bone in me,
    and guide me down Your path forever.

Would you really want this? Doesn’t matter, God knows it anyway. Imagine if God dug deep into your every thought, you dark corners and exposed them for the entire world to examine. I will get intimate here but imagine the pain if you were imagining another woman while having “relations” with your wife and that was exposed to your wife. That is why though is so critical to examine, your body tends to follow your mind and sure adultery did not happen but if that though became real the marriage could easily fail.

God will train you for facing evil; you just need to understand all of your inner thoughts are already exposed. The key is pray for God to correct your mind BEFORE the body follows. The most common scenario of failed marriages is thinking about others, looking at others and finally playing with others. JUST DON’T DO IT!!!

Nehemiah 1 – 4

Verse 1:5 is something we say often:

Notice me—Eternal One, God of heaven, great and awesome God. You are the keeper of the covenant and loyally love those who love You and follow Your commands.

How many times do we feel God is ignoring us? How often do we feel alone in this world? We seem to forget one of God’s attributes is He is “omnipresent” being He is everywhere all the time. This means God is always with us!! Most of the time we think God is not noticing us He is actually training us for one reason or another. Think about most of the stories in the Bible, God seems to ignore the “hero” only to have their training be the factor.

Think of Joseph the youngest of Jacob’s 12 sons, who were the heads of the tribes of Israel. He was cast into a pit and then sold for slavery, to Joseph God must have forgotten him. Yet as we study that story we see how God humbles Joseph and trains him for his ultimate role of saving the nation of Israel from famine. So when you are down and out remember this story and have faith the “other side” of silence will be blesses (assuming you remain faithful). Often we “blow up” and lose our way, don’t do that!

Verse 4:1 shows how some can attempt to derail God’s blessing:

When word of our progress in rebuilding the wall reached Sanballat, he became enraged. His anger spilled over into mockery of the Jews,

This was manifested in “ridicule and abuse” towards those rebuilding the temple. When we think about this story we see God needs to do a bunch of background work with different kings and leaders. Each time His temple is delayed but is never thwarted, only delayed.

Verse 4:23 is the result of how they had to construct the fortifications:

We all slept in our clothes—my kinsmen, my servants, and the guards I commanded. And we never set our weapons down, even when we went to get water.

Imagine having to work and rest with one hand on the trigger at all times? Think about the stress of laying a wall knowing there was someone out there ready to attack you. I know today we all believe we are not safe, but in reality how many have been victims of violence? “An armed society is a polite society” is a fallacy we live by since in reality a society that follows Jesus and loves one and other is a truly “polite society” without the need for a gun.

Now don’t take this as an anti-gun message, but rather an anti-violence message. We need to return to God’s Ten Commandments with Jesus’ focus on love. When you think about it a society that follows those is a truly “polite society”! If you really become a student of those ten statements, you will understand how revolutionary they were and still are. No wonder people don’t want them in our governments!

Deuteronomy 10 – 12

Verse 10:20 is a simple key to living for God:

So fear the Eternal your God; serve Him, and be devoted to Him. Show your loyalty by swearing oaths only in His name. 

Don’t drift, don’t wane and don’t chase other distractions, focus only on Him. It’s a very simple and easy to understand directive yet is so difficult to follow. Think about how much the people of Israel drifted after being release from Israel, so imagine how difficult it is after 3500 years without an event like parting of the Red Sea to remember. On a positive note we have a personal “coach” in the Holy Spirit who tend to help us stay focused.

Verse 11:26 keeps simplicity going:

Look, you’ve got two choices: you can be blessed, or you can be cursed.

One often looks at life as a bunch of peaks and valleys with “blessing” and “curses”. You really have two options, follow God and live the “blessed” life or don’t and miss out. Now one of the fallacies we tend to get trapped in is “blessed” means “easy”. Often “blessing” are harder than “curses” since we are fighting the flesh. How many times have you been in fellowship with God only to have your dreams crushed?

I know I have a few times, but as with most things I learn sometimes decades later that God was working with me and training me for the “blessings” in the future. Think about wealth, everyone wants the “easy” win or “blessing” to get fixed without thinking that once that happens it only means you will just drift back unless you really “learn” your lessons.

Verse 13:15 got me thinking if “legalism” took over the “Law”:

However, if you just want to have meat for a meal, if the Eternal your God has blessed you and you can afford it, you can do that in your own towns. Slaughter the animals and eat them there. It’s not a sacred meal, so people don’t need to be ritually pure to eat it, and it can be a gazelle or a deer.

Does this mean pork is ok for food but not for sacrifices? I believe not since the gazelle and deer meet other qualifications. Also, we know now science shows why God protest us from unclean food because toxins are moved out to the flesh. These “unclean” animals are the garbage processors for the world, so let them do their job! Now we know it’s not a sin to eat pork based on Peter’s vision, but understand it’s not the “best” food for us.

This verse is saying don’t get hung up on rituals for your food!

1 John 1 – 2

Verse 1:2 is something that is difficult for most to understand:

and He showed us real life, eternal life. We have seen it all, and we can’t keep what we witnessed quiet—we have to share it with you. We are inviting you to experience eternal life through the One who was with the Father and came down to us.

John is inviting us to experience something he has 2000+ years ago, for most this is impossible to imagine. How can a man who lived that long ago change anything today? I cannot explain it, but He does!! The key to loving Jesus is not just embracing the story but to dive in an experience Jesus today. That alone is life changing!!

Verse 1:9 is not considered an “E-Ticket” for us:

But if we own up to our sins, God shows that He is faithful and just by forgiving us of our sins and purifying us from the pollution of all the bad things we have done.

For those who have no idea what an “E-Ticket” is Disney use to have tickets to ride their rides, each book had A-E tickets. The A tickets got you in the “It’s A Small World” or other BORING rides and the E-Ticket got you into SPACE MOUNTAIN. So the “E-Ticket” got the more exciting ride.

In our lives the world tends to make us think that sinning is the “exciting” ride we are missing. We tend to think living as a Christian limits our fun in this world. What happens is we embrace the world and exploit this verse. I did it for years, thinking I can sin on Saturday and confess on Sunday for a right relationship with God. Oops!! God does not want us to drift back and forth between the world and Him. This is to protect us from when we mess up, not purposefully go out to sin.

Verse 2:15 is the warning:

Don’t fall in love with this corrupt world or worship the things it can offer. Those who love its corrupt ways don’t have the Father’s love living within them. 

Evil will do anything it can to separate us from a right relationship with God. We can easily become the “prodigal son” and end up in a pig sty. God, like his father, will welcome us back, but never wants us going that direction in the first place. So keep your “eye on the ball” to focus on knocking it out of the park and not “hitting a foul”!! We follow our eye and when it takes us away from God, we lose our direction.

Acts 17 – 18

Verse 17:6 shows the constant attack Paul was under:

 Seeing this movement growing, the unconvinced Jewish people became protective and angry. They found some ruffians hanging out in the marketplaces and convinced them to help start a riot. Soon a mob formed, and the whole city was seething with tension. The mob was going street by street, looking for Paul and Silas—who were nowhere to be found. Frustrated, when the mob came to the house of a man named Jason, now known as a believer, they grabbed him and some other believers they found there and dragged them to the city officials.

Mob: These people—they’re political agitators turning the world upside down! They’ve come here to our fine city,

We tend to look at this as Satan trying to disrupt Jesus’ movement. Also, people tend to dislike change and will fight it always. Doesn’t matter if it’s a new way of looking to God or a new traffic signal at your local intersection, people don’t like change. Through the years I have learned to “go with the flow” which includes a change in plans this week and a cross country move starting in a few day. So while I fight it I also have learned to accept change and go with the flow.

Verse 17:23 discusses and interesting point:

 I have stopped again and again to examine carefully the religious statues and inscriptions that fill your city. On one such altar, I read this inscription: “TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.” I am not here to tell you about a strange foreign deity, but about this One whom you already worship, though without full knowledge.

In reality when you parse God into lesser gods of thunder, love, etc. you are worshiping aspects of God, but not the one true God. Now some would say the “lesser gods” are actually demonic entities that are trying to remove worship from God, but many could be just subdividing God into pieces they like. Either way it is wrong and misguided. We need to understand salvation through Jesus is the one true way and is easy to understand once you break your current paradigm.

Verse 18:25 is something we must all be aware of:

He was partially instructed in the way of the Lord, and he added to his native eloquence a burning enthusiasm to teach about Jesus. He taught accurately what he knew; but he had only understood part of the good news, specifically the ritual cleansing through baptism preached by John, the forerunner of Jesus.

They key to learning the Gospel of Jesus is to receive it, but also to diligently study it. With Apollos he had “burning enthusiasm” to teach but had not learn enough to completely teach the message. A responsibility of elders in a church is to ensure the complete message of Jesus is being taught. The preachers who teach say prosperity without talking about all the suffering is missing the point of Jesus. The message is not “worship Jesus and get rich”, but rather “worship Jesus for help through all the trials and successes”, basically “real life” here in this world. Diluted messages can kill ones faith more than anything else when riches or healing don’t immediately follow!!

NOTE – The one thing to think of with Jesus as the path vs all other religions … Jesus offers a gift, where others require work and money to gain salvation. Think about it … why would God exclude so many?

Zechariah 8 – 14

Verse 8:16 is a simple command which people have a difficult time following:

 Here are the things you must do: Speak truth to each other. Pursue justice in your courts. Render decisions that reflect truth and bring peace to the community.

Simple but once envy creeps in things change. The all for one and one for all drops the second part when self-ambition pollutes one purpose for community. I know this sounds like a fluffy socialist mantra, but having ambition, working hard and being rewarded is different from doing “whatever it takes.”

Verse 9:9 is the “Donkey Prophecy”:

 Cry out with joy, O daughter of Zion!
        Shout jubilantly, O daughter of Jerusalem!
    Look—your King is coming;
        He is righteous and able to save.
    He comes seated humbly on a donkey,
        on a colt, a foal of a donkey.

Those who do not believe Jesus is the Messiah will claim this was “orchestrated” to fulfill prophecy. Jesus knew scriptures and knew of this so the claim he set this up could have been partially true, but he could not have “set up” the crowd. Also, have you ever tried to ride a young donkey? I watched a friends son do it and get kicked off, so to ride an unbroken beast is not “normal” or easy to do.

When you think about how kings entered the conquered cities, it was always with pageantry on their trusty steed. A donkey shows how humble Jesus was and how He came to serve, not destroy.

Verses like 11:16 make me wonder how much of this has happened and how much is in our future:

 because I am going to raise up in this land a new breed of shepherd: one who does not care for the perishing, search for the young, heal the injured, or feed the hungry. This new shepherd will feast on the fat from his own flock, tearing their hoofs from their flesh.

This is like an “anti-Christ” or opposite of what the king who road in on a donkey would do. In this time the analogy of the “shepherd” is used and easily understood. If it wasn’t for TV I believe this analogy would be lost today since I can’t name a time I actually saw a shepherd. Now the flocks are fenced in and dogs round the livestock up. If we were to do this today the analogy of a “coach” may be used. The coach is there to train and lead their team into victory. His job is to ensure the wellbeing of his team so they can be healthy to win. We don’t get the shepherd thing since our society is so distant from agriculture.

Now we may not experience shepherds ever but can understand the requirement to tend to the flock. The shepherd described in this verse is opposite what most shepherds would do. Hence this is the “anti-shepherd” and since Jesus is the ultimate shepherd, this one described in the “anti-Christ”.

Want to touch on verse 14:4 before ending:

When that day comes, His feet will stand securely on the Mount of Olives, which sits east of Jerusalem. The mountain will quake under His weight and split in two, divided by a wide valley that runs east to west. Half of the mountain will retreat to the north, the other half to the south.

I like looking at the OT and pulling prophecies of Jesus. I wonder if there is a connection to this verse and Jesus’ ascending into heaven there.

Ecclesiastes 9 – 10

Verse 9:2 starts the depressing thought of “why”:

Everyone shares a common destiny—the righteous and the wicked, the good [and the bad],the clean and the unclean, those who sacrifice and those who neglect the sacrifices. The good and the faithful are treated no differently than the sinner. Those who take an oath are treated no differently than those afraid to commit. Such a great injustice! 

Verse 3 sums it’s all up in the end “we die”. Solomon is saying what does it matter how we live, we all die. The promise in Jesus is we will have life everlasting. Also, when you think about conservation of energy, we have to live on!! But that is not the key since our life is here and now. We are not here for ourselves but rather God.

Verse 9:7 and on gives instruction on what we should do:

So here is what you should do: go and enjoy your meals, drink your wine and love every minute of it because God is already pleased with what you do.

It goes on and the key is to enjoy life!! We all die and to live outside the grace of God is no fun. I have been in a major “retrospective” of my life since my death and the current joy our family is experiencing. All the stress and fretting over things throughout my life has been meaningless. If I would have just settled into God’s grace and have faith through the rough spots, life may not have been easier but rather bearable.

Verse 9:11 has an interesting point to consider:

 I turned and witnessed something else under the sun: the race does not always go to the swift, the battle is not always won by the strong, bread does not always fill the table of the wise, wealth does not always accrue to the skillful, and favor is not always granted to the knowledgeable; but time and misfortune happen to them all. 

Some times “shit happens” that is beyond our control. Sure it may suck, but as I said through retrospective thought I have seen God work wonders with my misteaks. This does not mean don’t prepare and train, but rather don’t be “crushed” when you break down and coast to a stop 100 feet from the finish.

Verse 10:10 talks about that “training”:

If a tool is dull and no one sharpens its edge, the work will be harder;
        the advantage of wisdom is this: it brings success.

It is key to hook into a group of likeminded believers and train each other. I became my best running when I was being pushed and trained by others who were better, it’s the same with the spirit. We need to make sure we keep each other sharp and mentor as we as be mentored. We don’t want to have all the answers since life’s answers come from trials! So learn from others who have been there. I use to say I would rather learn from your mistakes than make them myself. So be disciplined to train, read, study and sharpen each other for furthering our world.

I am reading Ann Bandini’s book Prayer Strategy during my trip for an interview. This book is very enlightening and is showing me the importance of prayer!

So with that I ask for other to lift up a prayer of intercession the interview has a positive outcome with a position for me!!

Psalms 134 – 136

Verse 134:1 talks about our praise:

Lift up your hands toward His sanctuary,
    and praise the Eternal.

So often life takes over our relationship with God and we forget to praise Him. We need to refocus our priorities and know God loves us and needs our worship. This is not because He is vain, but rather He knows how it connects us with Him and helps our relationship. If you’re not lifting your hands up to Jesus for what He did for you on the cross then maybe you need to reassess your attention to that. We should be jumping for joy that God has made a path that requires nothing more than belief in our Lord, Jesus.

 

Verse 135:14 gets me concerned:

For the Eternal will judge His people,
    He will show compassion to those who serve Him.

The fact God judges the world is spooky, but when you read this it makes one wonder if following God is safe. This implies His judgment is spared for “His people” and not the world. I know this can easily be shown in other places that God will judge the world and has done so before. The “flood” was because the people of the world had drifted way away from Him. We need to understand we are held to a higher standard, but also are covered by the grace of Jesus.

Verses 136:1 & 2 start a repetitive Psalm:

¹ Let your heart overflow with praise to the Eternal, for He is good,
    for His faithful love lasts forever.
² Praise the True God who reigns over all other gods,
    for His faithful love lasts forever.

As you read “for His faithful love lasts forever” ends each verse. This is something we tend to not see in life many times. We become myopic in our perception of how we are being treated. Heck I can parse my life and show you how many times that seemed to be horrible times God rejected me and His love was not forever when years later I see the blessing it really was. Sometimes WE think WE know what is right and assume if WE don’t get that, it’s because “His faithful love” lapsed. Reality is God loves each of us and wants the best for YOU, just have faith it’s the right path!!

Ezra 6 – 10

Verse 6:2 shows the problem with ancient business:

A scroll was found of a decree by King Cyrus in the fortress at Ecbatana, the summer residence of the Babylonian and Persian kings, in the province of Media.

This king makes a decree, this king changes his mind and they have a difficult time finding the documents. This shows how history is so hard to construct and build for others to understand even within one generation. Right now I am debating that Jesus is a myth and never walked the earth. It’s amazing how someone can take all the religious texts and rejects them as not “historical” as they are proven so time and time again. Also, there are three “non-Christian sources that reference Jesus with only one being considered a possible fraud. They are rejected also by this movement. After looking at this book it amazes me we get any history at all. Heck stories from the 20^th century are being twisted for agendas even today.

Verse 7:21 is the next king charge to Ezra with his job:

To the treasurers in the provinces west of the Euphrates: I, King Artaxerxes, command you to obey Ezra, the priest and teacher of the law of the True God of heaven, and give whatever he needs to support the temple sacrifices for 2 years— 

As I read this I understand what Ezra is doing and how he is to help with the people of Israel. From this point I got lost with the story since it appears the people were living with and marrying foreigners which caused problems and chapter 10 has the nation cleaning itself out.

The problem with this and why God decreed not marrying out of faith (note – it’s ok to marry foreign people as long as they convert) is the people tend to drift from their faith. Israel had drifted quickly away from God shortly after rebuilding the temple. But the story was not clear if they were cleaning their past or repairing recent events.

Deuteronomy 7 – 9

Verse 7:1 has Moses telling the people about what is before them:

Moses: As the Eternal, your True God, is bringing you into the land where you’re going to live when you cross the Jordan, He’ll drive out many nations ahead of you—Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites—seven nations that are bigger and stronger than you are. 

The people did not believe this before yet Moses reiterates what is before them. It’s not going to be easy, but nothing is without God. We somehow thing evoking God is like pressing the “Easy Button” to get our wishes. Sometimes visions take decades and not a few hours. This one was delayed for 40 years and is not any easier. They must go against seven nations of greater power. They just need faith in God. Sometimes we need to take action and do hard work before the promise of God is on us. Don’t expect it to be easy.

Verse 7:15 talks about their health:

The Eternal will keep every illness away from you. He won’t afflict you with any of those horrible diseases you saw in Egypt—He’ll put them instead on those who hate you!

Often we think God magically protected them from illness when most of the time it was their diet. If you followed God’s laws you were in great health because you were eating the best foods for you, not because it was a sin to eat pork. It was just not as healthy as eating beef since what pigs eats goes to their flesh directly with little digestion. Like during the “Black Death” of the Middle Ages, the Jews were more healthy because of their diet and cleaning laws.

Verse 8:14 talks about pride and self-absorption:

then don’t become proud and puffed up and forget Him. He brought you out of the land of Egypt where you were slaves; 

The problem with “blessings” from God is often the become distractions and take us away from God. We get wrapped up in the things we have and sometimes think we had something to do with it. No we need to ensure “stuff” never comes from our hard work, but God’s blessing. Once we think it’s about us, our pride will eventually erode our relationship with God to the point of ignoring Him. Take the warnings to heart since they happen time and time again, just look at how the USA is going from humble beginnings to prideful self-destruction.

1 Peter 4 – 5

Verse 4:3 is a portrayal of many Christians today:

You have already wasted enough time living like those outsiders in the society around you: losing yourselves in sex, in addictions and desires, in drinking and lawless idolatry, in giving your time and allegiance to things that are not godly.

Society has over taken our faith in many cases and things that are “acceptable” to the world are accepted in church. Heck who are we to judge anyway! This is dangerous in two aspects, first if the “church” takes this to heart then it becomes legalistic. On the other if we personally do not take this and live by it we harm our “witness”. It’s not about legalism, but rather living as Christians and not as the world. Think about sex today, it’s ok for “losing” yourself in it.

Addictions to drugs, drinking, gambling, sex, porn and whatever are rampant in society. The 1960’s mantra of “if it feels good do it” has eroded the fabric of society and now were a reaping the benefits! Drinking to excess is the problem, not a drink or two after dinner, so don’t get caught in the legalism. At the same time if someone is an alcoholic, don’t drink around them, honor their “sin”. Finally idolatry is different today, we no longer worship gods but rather stuff. Unfortunately many of these items are demonically layered and many are just distractions. Either way if we starting putting a car or a house before God we have problems!!

Verse 4:11 should provide inspiration:

If you’re called upon to talk, speak as though God put the words in your mouth; if you’re called upon to serve others, serve as though you had the strength of God behind you. In these ways, God may be glorified in all you do through Jesus the Anointed, to whom belongs glory and power, now and forever. Amen.

We need to understand the power of our Lord, God, is backing us up! When we act we need to believe that and understand timidity is not necessary with God. Go and do in his name without hesitation, knowing that He has your back. In the USA today Christians have been mocked for just thinking Jesus is real and tend to hid in the church. We need to GO OUT into the world with faith that Jesus and the Eternal is behind us!!

Verse 5:3 is a key to leading people in and to faith:

Don’t lead them as if you were a dictator, but lead your flock by example;

We cannot “force” people into faith but rather show them what God has done in our lives. Often I wonder if we failed this with our children since we figured the example was right. What we failed to do was explain and show how this was “good” in God’s eyes. We need to GO DO, but also teach. Often you will just be considered a good person without words of faith in Jesus!!

Acts 15 – 16

Verse 15:9 is Peter’s conclusion to the need for new believers to be circumcised:

In cleansing their hearts by faith, God has made no distinction between them and us.

One of the problems with reading the Old Testament without reading the New Testament fully is we tend to get hung up on the Law. Suddenly something that breaks us from the Law is requiring us to perform by the Law. I see this most in churches when it comes to the tithe, we no longer stone people for infractions but still require the tithe. The key Peter needs to show people that legalism is not required and just live by the Holy Spirit and love. The only part of the “law” that we really need is the Ten Commandments, with them and Jesus nothing else is needed. Technically, if you love God and love others as yourself, that covers the law per Jesus himself.

Peter is just trying to protect the church from the legalistic mumbo jumbo that hurt the Jewish people. The Ten Commandments came from God and the Law was because of the questions from the people. It was initially to help clarify and became a legalistic mess for the leaders. This is what Jesus came to stop and what Peter is trying to stop in the church. If we get into most churches there are “legalistic” underpinnings, like no drinking of any alcohol, which crept into the government with “Blue Laws” that restricted the sale of booze on Sundays.

Verse 20 has four keys that I question:

We should instead write a letter, instructing them to abstain from four things: first, things associated with idol worship; second, sexual immorality; third, food killed by strangling; and fourth, blood. 

The first two I get, the third I don’t really understand where the fourth I kind of understand. It looks to me like they are trying to move from the law and let some of the food laws creep back in. Believe me I think the food laws are important, but should not be doctrine but rather a guide for healthy living. It’s not a sin to eat porky!! So why did Peter have 3 and 4 here?

Verse 16:19 shows one of the problems with acting on the Holy Spirit:

But when her owners realized she would be worthless now as a fortune-teller, they grabbed Paul and Silas, dragged them into the open market area, and presented them to the authorities.

Paul’s first miracle was to cast a demon out of a fortune teller, whose master got upset. Paul followed God and it got him beat and jailed. From there another miracle happened that literally shook the earth and freed them. This is a great story and should be looked at on many levels but the one I want to look at is the fortune teller. This is a benign person today that many go to for fun, you see them around. But we must realize, evil is associated with this when they are real. They call on demons to get personal info on you and use it to gain your trust, from there logic predicts the future and you get sucked away from God. That IS the problem with this act.

Zechariah 1 – 7

Verse 1:6 talks about God’s words versus man:

Didn’t My words and My rules that I dictated through My servants the prophets outlive your rebellious ancestors? That’s why they repented eventually and realized, “The Eternal, Commander of heavenly armies, has done to us exactly what He decided He would do if we behaved this way. His punishments match our evil thoughts and acts.”

Notice every one of the figures in the Bible except Elijah and Enoch. Now one could argue both died, but that is not recorded in the Bible and although Jesus was raised He first died. Enough for the technical mumbo jumbo, the point is God’s words have survived since written. How many authors can claim this feet? Sure some texts have survived, but how many are studied daily by so many across the world? There is a power in what is written that makes sense to the reader.

Verse 3:1 had me want to “study” the term “Accuser”:

Then the heavenly messenger showed me a fourth vision: Joshua, the high priest, was standing in front of the Eternal’s Special Messenger who was presiding over a heavenly council meeting. Standing to Joshua’s right was the one called the Accuser. He was ready to argue that Joshua was unworthy to serve as high priest.

Many translations have the “Accuser” as “Satan” and was footnoted that way which made me wonder how the word “Satan” came to be. Satan was derived from the Hebrew word שָּׂטָן (satan in phonetic spelling using our alphabet) meaning adversary. So Satan became a “transliteration” of a Hebrew word to a proper name, like Christ from the Greek word “Christos”.  So while Satan is the proper name for the devil in English, that was not translated from text. Again a technically useless fact since today we know evil as Satan. “A rose by any other name is just as sweet” from Romeo and Juliet reminds us not to get hung up on the name of evil, just know it is evil.

Verse 5:9 makes me think about the “stork” that delivers babies:

Then in this vision, I looked up and saw two women moving forward with wings resembling the wings of storks. With the power of the wind in their wings, they lifted the basket up to a place somewhere far away, between heaven and earth.

Notice “women” and “baskets” can easily give one the mental image of a stork delivering a baby. This may be using an analogy that people of the time may understand or since the stork is an “unclean” bird it shows the people they are evil. The stork is viewed in nature as a very loyal bird returning to its nest for life therefore great images for mothers. Also, Norse and Roman myths have storks being a symbol of fertility. Greeks had a myth of them stealing babies. The stork could seem benign but have evil undertones and there to “demonize” our world though childbirth.

I know that last statement was off in the conspiracy wonderland, but often things like this are true and get dismissed since they seem false. Even still they provide a foundation for demonic influences to creep into our world if left unchecked.

Ecclesiastes 7 – 8

Verse 7:7 had me reflecting on today:

Oppression can turn the wise into fools,
        and a bribe can damage the noblest heart.

Today slavery is not chains and whips in the USA, but rather the oppression of debt. This can be seen at all levels of society and even those who we “believe” are well off are slaves to debt. It’s a rare family that is not a salve to debt. My goal in life is to break those chains and then help others. The first key is to realize the oppression and how it makes us foolish. Sure we may be able to “afford” the payments, but that can change in an instant.

At the same time debt is today’s oppressor, money has become the corruption that can “damage” our relationship with God. The reason Jesus said it’s difficult for a rich man to get into heaven is not because money is evil, it’s that lust for money removes us from God.

Verse 7:8 talks to me in the way I live:

Having the last word is better than having the first,
        and patience will benefit you more than pride.

Patience is a virtue that many ignore. We always need to speak our minds and if you listen to most conversations the people are talking to each other and not with each other. This is amplified in watching 6 to 10 year old children where often they will be talking about completely different things. We need to listen, think and then respond. Often the response is not the right words when it is not thought out. Questions for understanding are necessary.

The key here is pride. We think somehow our opinion is IMPORTANT and MUST tell it to anyone who will listen, present company included!! Heck I write this blog for the most part unchallenged thinking my thoughts are somehow important, when in reality it only helps me filter through and understand God’s Word.

Verse 8:11 talks about swift punishment:

When the penalty for a crime is not carried out quickly, then people start scheming to commit their own crimes. 

The problem we have gotten into is some innocent have been judged unfairly and even put to death. Because of this the people tend to err on the side of them, therefore trials and justice has become lengthy and complex. The result is criminals realize if they are “good” they can commit crimes without fear of retribution. Identity theft is the crime that is rampant and not pursued since it’s so difficult.

Now before I go there is a bunch of great stuff that I did not touch on, so in rapid fire. Verse 7:9 talks about how we need to be slow to anger and not let it make us fools. Verse 7:16 focuses on being humble and understanding we should not be full of ourselves. Verse 7:20 talks about how everyone sins, not just the criminals. Verse 8:8  is the theme to Solomon’s writings, we cannot control the wind or God. Sit down, shut up, buckle up and HOLD ON … life begins!!

Psalms 131 – 133

Verse 131:1 focuses on one of my “pet peeves” that is addressed frequently in the Bible:

O Eternal One, my heart is not occupied with proud thoughts;
    my eyes do not look down on others;
I don’t even begin to get involved in matters too big, matters of faith, state, business,
    or the many things that defy my ability to understand them.

Pride is one of those emotions that is not addressed in the Ten Commandments, but is very much a problem in man’s heart. Pride takes our focus off God and somehow we think it’s about us. Personally I get slammed every time I get full of myself and lose my attention from God. Ironically, racing motorcycles “getting slammed” had physical ramifications, so I was humbled painfully. We need to keep the focus on God and not think we are the reason for our success.

This “if it’s to be, it’s up to me” mantra is good for action, but it needs to be “God and me” and not just “me”. We cannot just pray and sit, we need to pray, listen and take action. We learn that sometimes we did not hear right and need to adjust things, but if you are following God these mistakes tend to be easier to rectify. Again as we have successful ventures we can easily shift the focus away from God, since the “world” is giving us the “at-a-boy” and not God. Key is be humble and don’t believe the lie God is not involved in our daily lives.

Verse 132:11 talks about David’s linage:

The Eternal made His own promise, sworn in truth to David,
    an oath which He cannot, will not break:
“I will continue your dynasty, David;
    one of your descendants will sit on your throne.

There was a period between the kings of Israel and Jesus where this was not true since Israel was occupied. Jesus fulfilled this promise once and for all. Think about all the kings of Israel since Jesus and since there are none it should be obvious that Jesus is the one. God has made a promise and kept it with the people of Israel and the world, we just need to embrace it.

Verse 133:1 talks about peace:

How good and pleasant it is
    when brothers and sisters live together in peace!

We tend to dream about world peace, yet family squabbles are frequent. It’s funny how we can be most pleasant to someone we don’t know, yet someone we love gets verbally abused without hesitation. I have seen this recently in our family dynamic which is very sad and disturbing. We need to learn peace within our family so we can live it truly in the world. The family works much better when we learn to work together and not against, imagine if that dynamic could then be moved into the world. Then peace would get a chance!!

Ezra 1 – 5

Ezra is Ezra-Nehemiah in the Jewish texts, but was split in the canonization of the Christian Bible. As with Chronicles, this is primarily a history of the Jewish people. Verse 1:2 opens with God’s influence on the occupying king:

The Eternal One, the God of heaven, has decided to give me all the kingdoms of the world to rule as my own. In return for this, He has told me to build Him a new house in Jerusalem of Judah

We occasionally see God influencing those outside the Jewish faith, but mostly to punish them and not to build them up like Cyrus has. This book has the temple being rebuilt for the second time with King Cyrus’ blessing. This undertaking is wholly done by the Israelites and those who wish to help must prove their lineage. Also, during this period King Cyrus returned all the vessels taken by Nebuchadnezzar when the temple was destroyed.

We read through this and see Zerubbabel in the mix and that always sparks a desperate search. A long time ago I was watching a sermon by Joel Osteen on rebuilding the temple. I had been reading the scripture referenced so it caught my ear. The sermon’s focus was “beginning again” to rebuild our broken lives into prosperity. The problem was a few verses he was quoting were non-existent in the version I was reading and I have not found them since. So when reading this I wonder if I’ll find the scripture that was misquoted or just interpreted a different way.

This highlights the danger of what people do, me included, when “cherry picking” verses. Unless you understand the context often the meaning can be twisted. I do this often when some words catch my eye and have meaning to me on some level, I use them to highlight that. From time to time I find that I was using scripture out of context to tell a story I wanted to tell and not the intent. This is why I read the Bible in full as much as possible. First, it allows me to understand the context. Second, it shows me how this book is “living” since I pull out something new each time I read it.

Verse 5:5 is Israel’s response to the new king who ordered construction to stop:

 But the True God protected the Jewish elders. The Persians did not intend to stop the laborers until Darius received a letter concerning the situation and sent his written reply.

The new king’s orders did not supersede King Cyrus’ orders, especially since they were inspired by God. The people knew this would be a mistake and continued the construction process against the new order to stop. It’s a conflict we face from time to time when the earthly authority conflicts with God’s laws. Take abortion, that conflicts with God’s will yet it’s the law of the land. So what should Christian’s do about this? Bomb clinics or just not have abortions? We cannot harm others in following God, yet somehow stories like this can be twisted to justify just that. The key again is knowing the Bible inside and out before following someone who may have an ungodly agenda.

Deuteronomy 4 – 6

Verse 4:2 makes me think of two things:

Don’t add anything to what I command you, and don’t take away anything from it; just follow the commands of the Eternal your God that I’m giving you now.

First how John said the same basic thing in Revelations and people use that against each translation of the Bible. We need to understand that in all the translational studies I have done over time I have only found one or two lines in translations that have raised my eyebrows. This is written twice and technically there are vast differences in each translation of the Bible with many books kept or removed. Think of the Gnostic Gospels and how they have been deleted completely from most translation. Anyway my point is these words here and later in John are directed at their specific writings.

Second is how the people are to “follow” the commands and not that they are all sins. That is one of the key points of Peter’s vision; it was not that eating was a sin but rather not blessing the food. Jesus came to end the legalism where the system was in place to judge and not help.

Verse 4:16 makes me question how we worship God:

so don’t ever become so corrupt that you carve an idol representing Him for yourselves in any shape, whether in the form of a man or a woman, 

Have we made the “cross” and idol? I read this and the Ten Commandments (which are repeated in Chapter 5) and wonder if we are worshiping idols, specifically the cross, that represent Jesus. These words are specific and we are not to carve anything in the form of an idol. When looking at chapter 5 think about the actual 10 statements, most Christians consider verse 7 to be one and verses 8 – 10 to be another. Jewish people actually combine 7-10 and have the first one “I led you out of Egypt where you were slaves”. I believe this since God wants us to be free from slavery and that is where the USA was unique. Unfortunately we have become slaves to the debt system made in this nation.

Verse 6:7 is something myself and most fathers miss with our children:

 Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you’re sitting together in your home and when you’re walking together down the road. Make them the last thing you talk about before you go to bed and the first thing you talk about the next morning. 

As Christians we tend to let the “Sunday School” system teach our children and never emphasize it in our homes. Unfortunately the nation’s parents are doing the same with the school system that has attempted to take over raising our children. Think about the “women’s movement” and how the whole idea initially was to ensure they did not have to rely on the “man of the house” when they left them for another woman. The result is our children are raised by a “select” group of people who are only invested in getting your child through their class.

The point is we have shifted the hard part of parenting to the “system” while just doing the easy stuff. The problem we had as parents is we though the example was what was needed and not the teaching that went along. So I believe things got missed, a “work ethic” became a curse to them since we did not have great family vacations all the time. The “system” corrupted our example and we did not explain the why’s to our kids. Don’t miss talking about God with your children on a daily basis.

1 Peter 1 – 3

Verse 1:7 is not one people like to hear:

Suffering tests your faith which is more valuable than gold (remember that gold, although it is perishable, is tested by fire) so that if it is found genuine, you can receive praise, honor, and glory when Jesus the Anointed, our Liberating King, is revealed at last.

We don’t want to suffer, we don’t want to hear about suffering and we sure has heck don’t want to think the salvation found in Jesus means we need to suffer. No, suffering is part of life no matter your “faith” and will continue throughout. We need to understand that suffering will build strength and will eventually allow the grace of Jesus to shine through. Think about how people respond to suffering, is it misery or is it “matter of fact”?

The key isn’t that we suffer it’s how we deal with it and how we show it. Do we lean into God or ourselves? Do we whine and complain or do we shrug it off? Do we learn or do we forget? We need to remember that Jesus suffered immensely for our backsides!

Verse 2:1 is simple but key:

So get rid of hatefulness and deception, of insincerity and jealousy and slander. 

If you look at much of the problems in this world and they stem off not following the Ten Commandments. Lying, not loving one and other, coveting, lust and other “thought crimes” lead to crimes against others. We need to really understand that those ten simple statements mean more than the whole of the rest of the law. If societies took just those ten to heart, most of the other laws they create would not be required.

Verses 3:3 & 4 focus on our inside and not the exterior:

³ Don’t focus on decorating your exterior by doing your hair or putting on fancy jewelry or wearing fashionable clothes; ⁴ let your adornment be what’s inside—the real you, the lasting beauty of a gracious and quiet spirit, in which God delights. 

This is a tough one for me since I think primping up is a waste of time, but being in shape is good. This turns back into the food laws for me, we have these bodies as vessels for God’s use and therefore need to keep them in tip top health. I have recently learned less than an hour a day will keep you going. So what’s the difference? One is honoring people’s fashion while the other is honoring God. Not to say one can go overboard and make their bodies the idol, but the key is eat right and stay active so when God calls you to action you can jump. Once your focus goes away from honoring God, that is the problem.

Acts 13 – 14

Verse 13:2 is one of those events I wonder about how it “went down”:

 Once they were engaged in a time of worship and fasting when the Holy Spirit spoke to them, “Commission Barnabas and Saul to a project I have called them to accomplish.”

When things like this are written it sounds like the group suddenly had the consensus of what should be done. Did everyone have the same though or did someone say “Commission Barnabas and Saul” and it sounded right to the group? Things like this often get interpreted by us as an event we have not experienced. We expect some mystical and magical event when it is really just that thought that popped into your head. I would love to say I had a clear booming voice talking to me but through my chatter I get a prompt that I seem to need to follow. Nothing more, just a thought that is out of the blue that it’s clear the source.

Verse 13:9 is where Saul becomes Paul:

Saul, who is also known as Paul, was suddenly full of the Holy Spirit. He stared directly into Elymas’s face.

I find it odd that prior to this point this man is referred to as Saul, but after this point he is now referred to as Paul. There are a few other points were his story is being told and when referring to events prior to now he is Saul. It was not like many who just get new names; Paul was known as Saul and Paul prior.

Verse 13:39 is a key verse when thinking about how we need to respond to the Law:

Through Jesus, everyone who believes is set free from all sins—sins which the law of Moses could not release you from.

Now we are taught we are free from the Law, yet we need to tithe. You quickly see the conflict that many get with how we need to respond to the Law. I believe the Law is twofold, one is rules to honor God and the other is guides for a better life. If we tithe and save we see time and time again that money does not have a hold on those who obey and they appear to be blessed. When in reality they just spend less than they make and have reserves to handle rough times. Food laws are the same, those who follow tend to be healthier not because God blesses them but because they are eating the best food for them.

Verse 14:19 shows how evil is like a pit-bull:

Then unbelieving Jews came from Antioch and Iconium and incited the crowds against the Lord’s emissaries. The crowds turned on Paul, stoned him, dragged him out of the city, and left him there, thinking he was dead. 

Those who are against God are driven to fight and argue. I see this every time I mention that evolution has flaws and the data could also point to creation. The gates of hell open when I say this and the attacks from “enlightened” scientists flow with venomous vitriol against my comment. God wants everyone to join his family as does Satan, the difference is love of others and love of self. Those driven by self will crush those in their way where those drive by others will stop and care for those who need it. Hence why unbelieving Jews would follow and torment Barnabas and Paul.