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Lord, may all who thus seek thee find the joy of your salvation. May we join the mighty throng in singing How Great Thou Art! Yet, we are weak and fragile Lord, and we stand in need of thy shelter and protection from the coming storms in our lives. Be with us forever, we pray! Be our mighty rock and my fortress as we offer you our lives forevermore.
Response to Deuteronomy 11:1-12:32
The Power of Love Deuteronomy 11
Matthew 22:37-40 "Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
List of verses on "Love thy neighbor"
(Leviticus 19:18, Deuteronomy 6:5/10:12/11:1.13.22.27, Zechariah 3:7, Matthew 7:12/19:19/22:37-40, Mark 12:31, Luke 6:27-36/10:27, John 17:23, Romans 12:9-20/13:8-10, I Corinthians 8:9/9:19-23/13:1-13, Galatians 5:13-15, Ephesians 4:3/5:2, Colossians 3:14, I Thessalonians 4:9-10/5:8, I Timothy 1:5-8, Hebrews 5:12, James 2:8-9, I Peter 1:22-23/2:15-17, I John 1:5/3:10-24/4:7-21.
Who has time to name off all the references to these commandments in the Bible. I have done an exhaustive search and had to stop halfway through my list before finding all correlating verses. There are certainly more verses regarding that simple phrase "Love God + Love Man." Unfortunately, too many of the writers of the early church made the same mistake as Judaism and imagined the verses only referred to the brethren. The same mistake has been made by many Muslims. And, yet, when the prophets utter the words of salvation and redemption, they struggle not to include all of mankind. Indeed, as one reads the words of these passages, it becomes extremely clear that the command reflects our relations with all mankind. Without this understanding, there can never be peace among men. Without that purity in worship and deed, the man of God succombs to temptations of all sorts of disires of the flesh and never finds true peace with God.
We too can consider God's discipline, his majesty, his mighty hand and outstretched arm, his signs, the destruction of the enemy bringing lasting ruin as he covered them in the water of the Red Sea, how he destroyed self righteousness, and established his Kingdom. Yet, we see not only His power displayed through Moses as he dealt with Egypt and prepared the Israelites to cross over the Jordan, but also His power displayed through Jesus Christ as he dealt with sin and death and is preparing all men to cross over that threshold into the Kingdom of God Himself.
And yet, each of us must experience the milk and honey of true faith as we come into the Kingdom. We must provide that milk of love and the sweetness of hope and of joy and of peace as we welcome new believers into the fold. If we ever ere from that purity of faith and lose our fellowman, we must seek their forgiveness as we serve to honor our Father. Even when we speak of sin, we must have the courage to honor him by speaking with meekness and love. We must possess the courage to encourage. This is not new age or weak teaching, this appears throughout scripture to be the will and command of God.
If we will choose to follow this decree, we will find peace in our world. If we serve one another in love, our financial dispairity will disappear. Men and women will find the opportunity and the will to work and to take care of one another. Families will stay together and be bound together in honor and love. Wars will cease. Men will gather together to sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs as brethren honor their Father in heaven - One God, One Family, One Unit. And God will greatly grant all the desires of our hearts. This has all been made possible by God through his offering and the willing participation of Jesus Christ.
Therefore, fill your hearts and minds with these virtues of love, joy, and peace. They are not effeminate, they are divine. Truly, through love, we find our breastplate of righteousness. Through peace, we carry a sword of valor. Through wisdom, we don a helmet towards salvation. Through honor, we find unity and blessing from Dad.
Zechariah 2:10-11; "'Shout and be glad, O Daughter of Zion. For I am coming, and I will live among you,' declares the Lord. 'Many nations will be joined with the Lord in that day and will become my people. I will live among you and you will know that the Lord Almighty has sent me to you.'"
Zechariah 3 "Then he showed me Joshua (A variant of Jeshua) the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan (the accuser/adversary) standing at his right side to accuse him. The Lord said to Satan, 'The Lord rebuke you, Satan! The Lord, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you! Is not this man a burning stick snatched from the fire?' (right out of hell on earth?)
Now Joshua was dressed in filthy clothes as he stood before the angel. The angel said to those who were standing before him, 'Take off his filthy clothes.' Then he said to Joshua, 'See, I have taken away your sin, and I will put rich garments on you.' Then I said, 'Put a clean turban on his head.' So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him, while the angel of the Lord stood by.
The angel of the Lord gave this charge to Joshua: 'This is what the Lord Almighty says: 'If you will walk in my ways and keep my requirements, then you will govern my house and have charge of my courts, and I will give you a place among these standing here.'
'Listen, O high priest Joshua and your associates seated before you, who are men symbolic of things to come: I am going to bring my servant, the Branch. See, the stone I have set in front of Joshua! There are seven eyes (facets) on that one stone, and I will engrave an inscription on it,' says the Lord Almighty, 'and I will remove the sin of this land in a single day.
'In that day each of you will invite his neighbor to sit under his vine and fig tree,' declares the Lord Almighty."
We've Got to Come Together Deuteronomy 12:1-32
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgfsTAk0oP4
It is worthwhile to compare our religions. I would highly recommend schools allow a realistic understanding of the various faiths of the world and set them up in comparison. As I have commented on Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy, I have reflected how God spoke to Moses regarding many of the religious cultures which had developed from that first mention of worship in Genesis 4. Cain became jealous of God's apparent acceptance of Abel's sacrifice and disregard for his own. Thus, the jealousy over religious practice and who is greatest in the Kingdom of God began. God attemtpted to thwart the coming crisis in Genesis 4:6-7 "Then the Lord said to Cain, "Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it." Cain disregarded the advice of God and took matters into his own hands:
Genesis 4:8-11; "Now Cain said to his brother Abel, 'Let's go out to the field.' And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him. Then the Lord said to Cain, 'Where is your brother Abel?'
'I don't know,' he replied. 'Am I my brother's keeper?'
The Lord said, 'What have you done? Listen! Your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground. Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand.'"
So, how can we know what is right so that we might be accepted? I suggest we compare the Bible to our other Holy Books. Forgetting for a moment that it stems from the Torah and is strongly Hebrew, it is difficult to imagine that it is not a collection of some of the oldest history available to man. For that reason alone, this book should be a mainstay of educating our children in the history of man. As an item of social studies, the Bible again, proves an invaluable tool as it is so strongly associated with well over half of the worlds populations. Any curriculum of history or social studies should as a necessity include a study of the Bible, the Koran, and the Bagavad Gita. As this represents a major portion of literature, perhaps speech class would also be a good venue as students could display their own culture and association within our blended societies.
The fact of the matter is, religion represents the history of man from earliest times. The knowledge of religions representation among us would serve to educate, rather than confuse the masses. Why do our religions reflect one another so closely and what has God said about how he would like to be honored.
Again, the Bible seems most clear and perhaps most beneficial to the masses as it calls for love and peace which we all have come to understand this is an absolute necessity for the survival of mankind. Therefore, perhaps we could easily move from the second command we have been considering (Love Man) and spend some time on Loving God.
According to the Bible, He chose to reveal his plan for redemption and salvation of the human race through Jesus Christ. In preparation, He spoke through the law and the prophets of the Jewish race as He brought them out of the historic culture of ancient Egypt and educated them amongst the cultures of ancient Arabia. He bestowed upon them a blessing, not based on their own righteousness, so that they could become a blessing both by their written word, their historical symbolism, the powerful display through their divine relationship, and through their omen of the promised child of redemption. They were blessed to be a blessing and to provide an answer for all of us of how God wished to be honored.
Genesis 18:17-19 Then the Lord said, "Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do? Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him. For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just, so that the Lord will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him."
Deuteronomy 12 prepares symbolism as God speaks through Moses to all of humanity regarding this first commandment. Tear down the high places and remove the graven images. No longer imagine me to be a God of rain or thunder, of fertility or your beast of burden. I am so much more than any part of my creation. I no longer desire that you worship apart from one another, but to join as one around my table. I have chosen this people to unite all men. I grant them the priviledge to name a place of which I shall call my own. In that place I shall call all men unto me. It is here I shall unite my people. It is in this place of worship I shall accept your worship and your vows, your sacrifices and your offerings. It will be in this place your men shall join in celebration and this shall be my representation on earth. Worship together. Sing praises together. Through this people and in this place, all men shall come to know me. I am the Lord and there is no other.
Live your lives and enjoy your families, but remember me and come together to celebrate with my children before me. You are not to do as we do here today, as everyone worships as he sees fit. The worship practices of man have gotten completely out of hand to the point some have even sacrificed their children. Therefore, I desire your worship as one body in one place. Your worship shall bring glory to my name, for I am the Lord your God and there is no other. When you come before me, present yourselves holy and blameless. But as you enjoy life together and eat of the bounty of my creation, share with one another regardless of purity. Yet honor my blessing to you by committing the lifeblood (speak of morality on earth, but eternal life is mine) back to the earth from whence it came in praise and thanksgiving. Do not partake in the lifeblood of any beast of creation. (The Spirit shall return to the Creator)
Eventually, David would choose Zion as His holy hill. Jerusalem would become the Holy city. The God of Israel would be revered by the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks, the Romans. The city became a Christian city - yet would eventually fall into Muslim hands. As World War II ended, it became a holy city of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Eventually this God of the Israelites spoken of in the Bible will be understood and honored throughout the world as Savior and Lord as all nations as their people pilgramage to God's Holy Hill. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OM8dWbYgJeI&feature=related
Isaiah 45:18-24 For this is what the Lord says - he who created the heavens, he is God; he who fashioned and made the earth, he founded it; he did not create it to be empty, but formed it to be inhabited - he says: "I am the Lord, and there is no other. I have not spoken in secret, from somewhere in a land of darkness; I have not said to Jacob's descendants, 'Seek me in vain.' I, the Lord, speak the truth; I declare what is right. "Gather together and come; assemble, you fugitives from the nations. Ignorant are those who carry about idols of wood, who pray to gods that cannot save. Declare what is to be, present it - let them take counsel together. Who foretold this long ago, who declared it from the distant past? Was it not I, the Lord? And there is no God apart from me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none but me.
"Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other. By myself I have sworn, my mouth has uttered in all integrity a word that will not be revoked: Before me every knee will bow; by me every tongue will swear. They will say of me, 'In the Lord alone are righteousness and strength.' "All who have raged against him will come to him and be put to shame."
Wisdom 5:1-2 "Then shall the just one with great assurance confront his oppressors who set at nought his labors. Seeing this, they shall be shaken with dreadful fear, and amazed at the unlooked for salvation."
Response to Luke 8:22-39
Be Still and Know Luke 8:22-25 (Matthew 8:23-27, Mark 4:36-41)
On March 26th, we reflected on the growing reputation of Jesus in response to John's question of Luke 20: "'Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?' "
Luke 4:32 "They were amazed at his teaching, because his message had authority. Luke 4:36;" All the people were amazed and said to each other, "What is this teaching? With authority and power he gives orders to evil spirits and they come out!" Luke 5:15; "Yet the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses. Luke 5:26; "Everyone was amazed and gave praise to God. They were filled with awe and said, "We have seen remarkable things today." Luke 7:16; "They were all filled with awe and praised God. "A great prophet has appeared among us," they said. "God has come to help his people.". And yet, Luke 5:21; "The Pharisees and the teachers of the law began thinking to themselves, "Who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone?"
Add to this the response of His own apostles as they witnessed His power even over wind and sea. Luke 8:25 states: "In fear and amazement they asked one another, "Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him."
As we face our own stormy seas, Jesus question from the same verse is still given to us today: "Where is your faith?" Listen as God speaks into our storm:
Psalm 46:6-10 "Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall; he lifts his voice, the earth melts. The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Come and see the works of the Lord, the desolations he has brought on the earth. He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth; he breaks the bow and shatters the spear, he burns the shields with fire. "Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxx-c4dII7c
The Reality of d'evil Luke 8:26-39
If you are like me, passages like this one are difficult as we are not accustomed to witnessing demon possession. However, there are some among us that would have no problem believing in such evil as it is very present in their lives. I would not be surprised if I have even dealt with them in my own family and within myself. We just don't recognize them as such. The reality of our afflictions are with us everyday. They are a part of what makes us who we are.
Are these ghosts? Are they escapees from Hell? If that is the case, the power of Hell is immediately diminished as as it cannot hold evil. What does the very existence of these spirits have to say about the power of God? All these questions are beyond our understanding at present. What we do know is that they are real and that they abide under the authority of God.
Many within our world not only believe such a dimension exists, but invite such a dimension into their lives. This again becomes a matter of free will. Knowledge and history show that possessions can be passed down generational lines. They may take the form of possession, addiction, and very likely, mental, physical, and spiritual disease. The field of psychology should be very aware of their presence and take into account the spiritual dimension and power available through faith and prayer.
For this very reason, sorcery and witchcraft are spoken against within the Bible. The very temptation of Eve shows that the power of evil available to man has been around since the beginning of our era of history - which the Hebrew calendar claims was 5770 years ago. What came before requires the guesswork and theories of our imaginations while we remain in the flesh.
Deuteronomy 32:16-41 "They made him jealous with their foreign gods and angered him with their detestable idols. They sacrificed to demons, which are not God - gods they had not known, gods that recently appeared, gods your fathers did not fear. You deserted the Rock, who fathered you; you forgot the God who gave you birth. The Lord saw this and rejected them because he was angered by his sons and daughters. 'I will hide my face from them,' he said, 'and see what their end will be; for they are a perverse generation, children who are unfaithful. They made me jealous by what is no god and angered me with their worthless idols. I will make them envious by those who are not a people; I will make them angry by a nation that has no understanding. For a fire has been kindled by my wrath, one that burns to the realm of death below. It will devour the earth and its harvests and set afire the foundations of the mountains. "I will heap calamities upon them and spend my arrows against them. I will send wasting famine against them, consuming pestilence and deadly plague; I will send against them the fangs of wild beasts, the venom of vipers that glide in the dust. In the street the sword will make them childless; in their homes terror will reign. Young men and young women will perish, infants and gray-haired men. I said I would scatter them and blot out their memory from mankind, but I dreaded the taunt of the enemy, lest the adversary misunderstand and say, 'Our hand has triumphed; the Lord has not done all this.' "They are a nation without sense, there is no discernment in them.
If only they were wise and would understand this and discern what their end will be! How could one man chase a thousand, or two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, unless the Lord had given them up? For their rock is not like our Rock, as even our enemies concede. Their vine comes from the vine of Sodom and from the fields of Gomorrah. Their grapes are filled with poison, and their clusters with bitterness. Their wine is the venom of serpents, the deadly poison of cobras. "Have I not kept this in reserve and sealed it in my vaults? It is mine to avenge; I will repay. In due time their foot will slip; their day of disaster is near and their doom rushes upon them." The Lord will judge his people and have compassion on his servants when he sees their strength is gone and no one is left, slave or free. He will say: "Now where are their gods, the rock they took refuge in, the gods who ate the fat of their sacrifices and drank the wine of their drink offerings? Let them rise up to help you! Let them give you shelter! "See now that I myself am He! There is no god besides me. I put to death and I bring to life, I have wounded and I will heal, and no one can deliver out of my hand. I lift my hand to heaven and declare: As surely as I live forever, when I sharpen my flashing sword and my hand grasps it in judgment, I will take vengeance on my adversaries and repay those who hate me.
Perhaps man has more of a power within creation than He ever imagined. God created the heavens and the earth with the fruit of His Spirit, yet man wanted to know of good and evil and was given the power to create demons of faith and they are very real. We can choose to continue to grant them power, or we can release them back to the power and authority of God Almighty in repentance seeking forgiveness and choose to know only good.
http://www.keyway.ca/htm2003/20030210.htm "Gadara was one of the Decapolis, or 'Ten Cities,' Gadara can be found across the Yarmuk river valley opposite the sea of Galilee to the southeast, yet the land of the Gerasenes borders the sea of Galilee on the east side of the Jordan.
As mentioned, this passage shows the weakness of evil spirits in the face of the power of God. Being unclean spirits, it is worthy to note that although they begged not to be cast into the abyss, they entered swine and together rushed headlong into the abyss - and their destruction. The human being, thus cleansed, stood holy and clean before God Almighty who once again showed that he was mighty to save. He was found clean of body and soul, clothed anew and sitting at the feet of the master. Yet, they responded to the holiness of God with a similar reaction to Peter when He realized who this man was. "All the people of the region of the Gerasenes (center of Greek culture) asked Jesus to leave them, because they were overcome with fear."
This man, now clean was not allowed to remain at the feet of Jesus, nor follow Him to distant lands. He was sent to his own culture and people to be a witness to the power and love and mercy of the One True God who had released him from his earthly demons.
Response to Psalm 70:1-5
So, what are your demons? What manifestations have you allowed to cloud your view of this God of Love? Are you held in bondage to fornication, impurity, greed, gluttony, covetousness, idolotry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, carousing, envy, drunkenness, adultery, lying, murder, dishonor, lust, anger, malice, filthy language, homosexuality, extra-marital sex, pornography, slander, swindling, judgment...?
Pray the words of this prayer and ask God to release you of these demons as you seek to know the Truth that He will make available to you.
Lord, deliver me! Lord, make haste to help me. Take away my shame and confusion from the demons that cloud my mind. Send them to the abyss in dishonor as they have kept my heart from you. Shame them for believing they could ever separate me from your love for eternity.
Lord, may all who thus seek thee find this joy of your salvation. May we join the mighty throng in singing How Great Thou Art! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQeAJYC-1Sk
Yet, I am weak and fragile Lord, and I stand in need of thy shelter and protection from the coming storms in my life. Be with me forever, I pray! Be my mighty rock and my fortress as I offer you my life forevermore.
Response to Proverbs 12:4
The first three verses of Proverbs 12 spoke of the man. This verse turns toward the woman, but does not leave the virtue of righteousness. She who stands firmly beside her Husband before God is a crowning jewel within the community bringing respect both to herself and her husband. Yet a loose woman is a disappointment and a concern for all.
Again, choose righteousness and faith. It will bless your life on earth until that day that our Father calls us home.
Until tommorow
Rick
Monday, March 29, 2010
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