CHAPTER: PSALM 119-144 TSADHE
Righteous God gives upright standards verse 137
Righteous are YOU – O LORD – and upright areYOUR judgments
Righteous God gives righteous and faithful standards verse 138
YOUR testimonies that YOU have commanded are righteous and very faithful
Righteous God is disregarded by psalmist’s enemies verse 139
My zeal hath consumed me
BECAUSE mine enemies have forgotten YOUR words
Righteous God gives pure standards verse 140
YOUR word is very pure – THEREFORE YOUR servant loves it
Righteous God has faithful servant verse 141
I am small and despised – yet do not I forget YOUR precepts
Righteous God only gives the TRUTH verse 142
YOUR righteousness is an everlasting righteousness
and YOUR law is the truth
Righteous God has servants that delight in HIS Word verse 143
Trouble and anguish have taken hold on me
yet YOUR commandments are my delights
Righteous God has servants who want understanding verse 144
The righteousness of YOUR testimonies is everlasting
give me understanding – and I shall live
COMMENTARY:
DAILY SPIRITUAL BREAKFAST: Young Believers
:137 “Righteous are You, O LORD, And upright are Your judgments.” The
New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982).
Righteous – 6662 צַדִּיק [tsaddiyq /tsad·deek/] adj. From 6663; TWOT 1879c; GK 7404; 206 occurrences; AV translates as “righteous” 162 times, “just” 42 times, “righteous man” once, and “lawful” once. 1 just, lawful, righteous. 1A just, righteous (in government). 1B just, right (in one’s cause). 1C just, righteous (in conduct and character). 1D righteous (as justified and vindicated by God). 1E right, correct, lawful. James Strong, Enhanced Strong’s Lexicon (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2001).
DEVOTION: The character of God and the words of God go hand in hand and testify to His unchanging attributes. We can trust His word because His word does not fluctuate from His person! As His person is righteous and just so his word is also. The testimonies of our God is consistent whether it is about his person, speech or activities. C.H. Spurgeon stated, “Their characteristic is that they are like the Lord who has proclaimed them, they are the essence of justice and the soul of truth.”
As we are called to conform to His image and to be like Him, how are you doing? Can people trust us because our words and character are so alike that when we state something people know it will be accomplished? Our testimonies in deed need to match our testimonies of speech! We need to be people of righteousness and faith.
CHALLENGE: Today is a great day to begin being what we proclaim to be! Be Christ-like because you claim to be a Christian! Stop being like everyone else and imitate Christ. (Dr. Brian Miller – board member)
DAILY SPIRITUAL LUNCH: Transitional Believers
: 138 YOUR testimonies that YOU have commanded are righteous and very faithful. (530 “faithful” [‘emuwnah] means honesty, steadfastness, trustworthiness, the quality of being faithful, firmness, fidelity, security, reliability, duty, conscientiously, or truth)
DEVOTION: One characteristic the LORD wants to find in those who are genuine believers is that we should be reliable. HE wants to have a testimony where people will know that we are genuinely trying to be obedient to the teachings of the Bible.
HE is righteous and with the help of the Holy Spirit we can be righteous in our actions as well. We are still sinners that are saved by grace and the LORD knows that we are not 100% in all of our actions each day. Our goal should be 100% but that is not what reality has for us as believers.
All of us have to daily go to the LORD to ask for forgiveness when we are not obedient. HE is one hundred percent faithful to us while we are trying to be faithful to HIM. HE never gives up on genuine believers who are willing to admit and confess their sins HE is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness each day.
Our responsibility is to trust the LORD to help us each day as we try to keep our lives obedient to HIM. Confession is an action that should always be done with a willing heart. HE knows us better than we know ourselves. Don’t ever think that you have arrived at perfection before you are standing before HIM at HIS judgment seat.
CHALLENGE: We have to realize that we are sinners that are saved by grace and the LORD gives us grace each as we try to live a life of holiness to HIM.
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: 139 My zeal has consumed me, because mine enemies have forgotten YOUR
words. (7068 “zeal” [qinah] means ardor, jealousy, passion, strong desire, or deep devotion)
DEVOTION: This is the eighteenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet. We are a people of deep desires. When we want something bad we do everything in our power to get it. Here we find the Psalmist having a strong desire to know and understand the Word of God.
He states that his enemies have forgotten the Word of God. It seems to imply that they knew them once but didn’t think them important enough to follow. They were heading in a different direction.
Could these enemies have been fellow Israelites who knew the Word of God but didn’t want to follow their directions? They were people who knew the truth but walked away from it.
We have individuals in our life that we consider friends who know the truth of the Word of God but have gone in a different direction. They think they can do better without living the Christian life. Some even believe that there is no life after death, so they eat, drink and have a merry time while there on this earth.
Our responsibility is to be like the psalmist. We are to understand that the LORD is righteous and HIS word is upright. We need to acknowledge that the LORD only tells the truth. We can share the fact that HE is faithful to HIS word.
CHALLENGE: Are we consumed with a deep devotion to the LORD that causes us to share the truth of HIS word with others. We are called to be witnesses. Please witness!!!
DAILY SPIRITUAL SUPPER: Mature Believers
: 140 YOUR word is very pure: therefore, YOUR servant loves it. (6884 “pure” [tsaraph] means to be worthy of trust or belief, conceived of as being refined or pure, to refine, to smelt, to examine, to purge, or to be purified)
DEVOTION: One of the things that I love is honey that is pure. It tastes so good when you add it to something that needs sweeting. It gives it a special taste that only honey can add to the favor.
Now we see that God’s word is worthy of our trust and belief because we have tested it through the help of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We try to live a life that is pleasing to the LORD and it takes the application of what we learn from the Bible to help us to live that life.
We know when we are not measuring up to the standard that the Bible has for those who are followers of the LORD. Salvation is first but after that we have to learn to live the life that the Bible teaches.
We need good instructors in our life to help us understand what the Christian life is all about. They have to help us understand the words that are used in the Bible that cause us to think right about all of our actions.
As we grow in our Christian life we learn to love the teachings of the Word of God and learn how to apply them to our walk each day.
People can tell if we love the Word of God or not. It is in our voice and in our actions. We are always looking for ways to please HIM and show the world that we are obedient to HIM.
CHALLENGE: We have to study to show ourselves approved of God. Sometimes we will not please all those around us but it should be first and foremost in our thinking to please HIM!
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: 143 Trouble and anguish have taken hold on me: yet thy commandments are my delight. (4689 “anguish” [matsowq] means straitness, straits, distress, or stress)
DEVOTION: We are dealing with the fact that those who are followers of the LOR
are usually small, despised, having trouble and stress. We have doctors who measure our
stress levels. There are events that take place in our lives that cause more stress than
others. If we lose a loved one, get a divorce, move, change jobs, or have a new child are
events that cause stress.
They are giving medicine out today for all kinds of “so called” cures for stress. The psalmist has a cure for stress – the commandments of the LORD. Sounds like the wrong kind of cure to most. If we find something to delight in – it can cause us to lessen our stress level. Do we find delight in the Word of God? If we studied the Word of God would we ease our stress level?
The psalmist thinks so. Reason he thinks so is that the Word of God is righteous, pure, faithful and everlasting. When he turns to the LORD, he moves his focus from his troubles to his delight in the Word. We can do the same. It will not end our trouble and stress but we can transfer it to HIM.
CHALLENGE: Love the LORD your God who is revealed in the Word of God. Delight in HIM and HE will bring your through every storm in your life.)
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DISCIPLINES OF THE FAITH:
BODY
Chastity (Purity in living)
Fasting (Time alone with LORD without eating or drinking)
Sacrifice (Giving up something we want to serve the LORD)
Submission (Willing to listen to others and LORD)
Solitude (Going to a quiet place without anyone)
SOUL
Fellowship (Gathering together around the Word of God)
Frugality (wise use of resources)
Journalizing (Writing down what you have learned from the LORD)
Study and Meditation (Thinking through your study in the Word)
Secrecy (Doing your good deeds without others knowing but God)
SPIRIT
Celebration (Gathering around a special occasion to worship LORD)
Confession (Tell the LORD we are sorry for our sins on a daily basis)
Prayer (Conversation with God on a personal level)
Prayer for understanding verse 144
Silence (Letting the LORD deal with some problems and needs)
Worship (Time to praise the LORD alone or in a group)
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DOCTRINES OF THE FAITH:
Scripture (66 inerrant books of the Bible)
Judgments verse 137
Testimonies verse 138, 144
everlasting
Words verse 139, 140
Pure verse 140
Precepts verse 141
Law verse 142
Truth verse 142
Commandments verse 143
Rightness of Word of God verse 144
God the Father (First person of the Godhead)
Righteous Everlasting verse 137, 138, 142
LORD – Jehovah (Covenant keeping, Personal) verse 137
Upright verse 137
Faithful verse 138
God the Son (Second person of the Godhead –God/man, Messiah)
God the Holy Spirit (Third person of the Godhead – our comforter)
Trinity (Three persons of the Godhead who are co-equal = ONE God)
Angels (Created before the foundation of the world – Good and Evil)
Man (Created on the sixth twenty-four hour period of creation)
Enemies verse 139
Sin (Missing the mark set by God on man and angels)
Forgotten Word of God verse 139
Salvation (Provided by Christ’s death on the cross for our sins)
Zeal verse 139
Servant verse 140
Love Word of God verse 140
Remember the Word of God verse 141
Trouble verse 143
Anguish verse 143
Delight in Word of God verse 143
Understanding verse 144
Live verse 144
Israel (Old Testament people of God)
I am small and despised verse 141
Do not forget God’s precepts verse 141
Church (New Testament people of God)
Last Things (Future Events)
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QUOTES regarding passage
137–44 The strophe begins on an affirmation of the Lord’s righteousness (“righteous [ṣaddîq] are you,” v. 137) and ends on an affirmation of his word (“your statutes are forever right,” ṣeḏeq, “righteous,” v. 144). In between the psalmist laments his troubles (vv. 139, 141, 143). The excellence of the Lord and his word is adversely affected by the troubles and disgrace of his saints. The psalmist calls attention to his need, praying that the Lord will establish righteousness in his world.
The Lord is “righteous” in the distribution of rewards and punishments, as well as in his vindication of the godly (v. 137; cf. 116:5–6; 147:17–20; Isa 11:4; Rev 16:5, 7; 19:2). Everything reveals that he is “righteous” and that therefore his revelation is just and true; likewise they guarantee that the Lord will be just and true: his “statutes” (ʿēḏôṯ) are “righteous” (ṣeḏeq, vv. 138, 144; cf. v. 7), “right” (yāšār, “upright,” v. 137; cf. v. 7), “trustworthy” (ʾemûnāh, v. 138; cf. vv. 75, 86), “tested” (ṣerûp̱āh, v. 140; cf. 12:6; 18:30), “true” (ʾemeṯ, “faithful,” v. 142; cf. vv. 151, 160; 19:9; John 17:17), and “everlasting”/“forever” (leʿôlām, vv. 142, 144; cf. Matt 5:17–18).
Trust in the reliability of God’s word is directly proportionate to one’s trust in the Lord himself. The conviction that the Lord is righteous and faithful, as is his word, evokes a response of great devotion (“zeal,” qinʾāh, v. 139; cf. 69:9). The “zeal” increases as the adversities increase so that it wears one out (cf. 69:9). The psalmist takes seriously the presence of sin in this world (cf. v. 136). His adversaries “ignore” (š-k-ḥ, v. 139) God’s laws, whereas he does not “forget” (š-k-ḥ, v. 141) them. Instead, he “loves” (v. 140) and finds his “delight” (v. 143; cf. vv. 16, 24, 47, 70, 77, 92, 174) in them. Yet he feels himself to be insignificant and rejected by men (“lowly and despised,” v. 141; cf. Judg 6:15; Ps 22:7). Moreover, his loyalty to the Lord and his devotion to godliness have been unrewarded. Instead, troubles have come his way (v. 143).
In his anguish the psalmist holds on to faith in the Lord. He is able to help and has confirmed it in his promises (v. 140). Though he does not yet see the outcome of his present troubles, the psalmist knows his God to be “righteous,” his word to be “righteous” and “faithful,” and his promises to have been tested over and over again in redemptive history. He knows in whom he has put his trust. Therefore, he does not challenge the Lord’s integrity but prays humbly that he may “understand” (v. 144; cf. v. 125) so that he may be revived in his inner being (“live”; cf. 116). (VanGemeren, W. A. (1991). Psalms. In F. E. Gaebelein (Ed.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs (Vol. 5, pp. 758–759). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.)
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119:137–144. The psalmist declared that because the Lord is righteous His Word is righteous (vv. 137–138). He testified of his own zeal for the Word, which was pure (vv. 139–142). He found comfort in God’s righteous laws when he was in affliction (vv. 143–144; cf. v. 92). (Ross, A. P. (1985). Psalms. In J. F. Walvoord & R. B. Zuck (Eds.), The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol. 1, p. 882). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.)
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God’s Word is trustworthy no matter how long you live (v. 144). When we read the Word to ourselves, we see words in ink on paper. When we read the Word aloud, we hear puffs of sound that quickly disappear. Paper and ink and puffs of sound may not seem very lasting, but the Word of God is eternal and fixed forever (vv. 89, 160). To build your life on God’s Word means to participate in eternity (Matt. 7:24–29; 1 John 2:17). It is not the length of life but the depth of life that counts, and depth comes from laying hold of God’s Word and obeying it. Jesus spent only thirty-three years on this earth, and His public ministry lasted only three years, yet He accomplished a work that is eternal. (Wiersbe, W. W. (2004). Be exultant (1st ed., p. 135). Colorado Springs, CO: Cook Communications Ministries.)
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Ver. 144. The righteousness of thy testimonies is everlasting, &c.] Or, for ever. The righteousness which they require, or which they publish; the righteousness revealed in the Gospel, which is the righteousness of Christ; see the note on ver. 142. Give me understanding, and I shall live; an understanding of the testimonies of the Lord, of the word of God, the law of God, and Gospel of Christ; an understanding of divine and spiritual things; a clearer and larger understanding of them, which is the gift of God; both that itself at first, and an increase of it here prayed for, the end, issue, and effect of which is life. Such live spiritually, and by faith; they live cheerfully and comfortably, and for ever, as Aben Ezra and Kimchi repeat from the former clause: for this is life eternal to know the only true God and Jesus Christ; or to have a spiritual understanding of them, and of those things which relate to spiritual peace and comfort here, and eternal happiness hereafter, John. 17:3. (Gill, J. (1810). An Exposition of the Old Testament (Vol. 4, p. 235). London: Mathews and Leigh.)
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144. “The righteousnesss of thy testimonies is everlasting.” First he had said that God’s testimonies were righteous, then that they were everlasting, and now that their righteousness is everlasting. Thus he gives us a larger and more detailed account of the word of God the longer he is engaged in writing upon it. The more we say in praise of holy writ, the more we may say and the more we can say. God’s testimonies to man cannot be assailed, they are righteous from beginning to end; and though ungodly men have opposed the divine justice, especially in the plan of salvation, they have always failed to establish any charge against the Most High. Long as the earth shall stand long as there shall be a single intelligent creature in the universe it will be confessed that God’s plans of mercy are in all respects marvellous proofs of his love of justice: even that he may be gracious Jehovah will not be unjust. “Give me understanding and I shall live.” This is a prayer which he is constantly praying, that God would give him understanding. Here he evidently considers that such a gift is essential to his living. To live without understanding is not to live the life of a man, but to be dead while we live. Only as we know and apprehend the things of God can we be said to enter into life. The more the Lord teaches us to admire the eternal rightness of his word, and the more he quickens us to the love of such rightness, the happier and the better we shall be. As we love life, and seek many days that we may see good, it behaves us to seek immortality in the everlasting word which liveth and abideth for ever, and to seek good in that renewal of our entire nature which begins with the enlightenment of the understanding and passes on to the regeneration of the entire man. Here is our need of the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life, and the guide of all the quickened ones, who shall lead us into all truth. O for the visitations of his grace at this good hour! (Spurgeon, C. H. (n.d.). The treasury of David: Psalms 111-119 (Vol. 5, p. 392). London; Edinburgh; New York: Marshall Brothers.)
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FROM MY READING:
(Remember the only author that I totally agree with is the HOLY SPIRIT in the inerrant WORD OF GOD called THE BIBLE! All other I try to gleam what I can to help me grow in the LORD!!)
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Daily Hope
Today’s Scripture
Exodus 39-40
Some individuals, like my mother, have the innate ability to make articles of clothing and create beautiful sweaters and blankets from a ball of string! Especially in the eyes of someone who barely can draw stick figures and make them identifiable, I look forward to seeing the finished work of art.
Day by day the artisans worked to create and produce the patterns given to them by the Lord. Every stitch and fold were carefully placed, every mold was measured and examined for the exact size needed for the project. Aaron and his sons were measured, and the tailors spent time meticulously making the garments for each one. Threads were dyed and gold was beaten into thin sheets and cut into threads to create a magnificent garment fit to be worn before the King of the universe.
Others added the required memorial stones to the ephod to sit on the shoulders of the high priest. The breastplate was made with the precious stones placed in the order and sequence God had instructed. Each article and every piece of clothing was precisely made “as the Lord had commanded Moses.” This phrase is very important as it is repeated eight times in chapter 39. This repetition magnified the importance the Lord placed on the execution of His designed plans.
Meanwhile, the final details for the tabernacle were being accomplished. Both the priestly garments and the tabernacle were precisely designed and assembled, following the God given pattern. An unspoken value that is evidenced through the creation of the garments and the tabernacle is the manifestation of excellence in their work.
Moses and the workers labored mightily to build the tabernacle which was an exact replica of the tabernacle (God’s throne room) in heaven (Hebrews 9:11). This may explain the specific details and instructions given to Moses. The children of Israel were mindful of the Lord’s presence as they watched the cloud descend upon the tabernacle, revealing God’s glory.
Today, God does not call us to be visual based on determining how the Lord’s will is to work in our lives. Instead of looking for a cloud to ascend or descend, we are to look to the written word of God. It is His word that teaches us the Lord’s will for our lives. A walk of faith calls for us to know His word and to prayerfully apply the teachings He has instructed us to accomplish. Paul’s words clearly tell us God’s will for us; “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18). How would others rate our rejoicing, praying and giving thanks?
With an Expectant Hope, Pastor Miller
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Mary and Joseph flee with Jesus to escape Herod’s murderous attack.
INSIGHT
When Herod asks the scholars where the Messiah is to be born, they answer without hesitating: “Bethlehem of Judea, for so it has been written by the prophet.”
The odds against anyone other than Jesus being the Messiah are staggering. There are 60 major prophecies that are fulfilled in the life of Christ.
Josh McDowell writes in Evidence That Demands a Verdict that, by using the science of probability in reference to all 60 major prophecies, the chances that any man might have fulfilled all 60 is humanly impossible. Reason demands that we accept Jesus as the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies of the Messiah. (Quiet Walk)
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WHY OUR LORD PRAYS FOR THESE PEOPLE
I pray for them. John 17:9
Why does our Lord pray for these people at all? He is facing His own death, the greatest and most terrible moment in His life is at hand, and yet He pauses to pray for them. Why does He do it? The answer is all here. He does it first and foremost because of His great concern for the glory of God. While He is on earth, the glory of God is, in a sense, in His hands. He has come to glorify His Father, and that is the one thing He wants to do above everything else. And now as He is going to leave these people, over and above His own concern about dying is His concern about the glory of God; it is the one thing that matters.
Second, He prays for them because of who and what they are. They are the people to whom He has manifested the name of God, the people who have been given to Him, the people to whom He has given the Word, people who believe certain things. That is the definition of a Christian, and they, and they alone, are the people for whom He prayed.
Then He prays for them because of their task, because of their calling. He is going away, and He is leaving them in the world to do something; they have work to do, exactly as He had been given work to do. You see the logic of it all? God sent Him, He sends them, and He prays for them especially in the light of their calling and their task—the work of evangelizing. There are other people who are going to believe on Him through their word, and so they must be enabled to do this work.
He also prays for them because of their circumstances, the circumstances in which they were placed in the world. He says that they are going to have trouble in the world (verse 14).
A Thought to Ponder
Over and above Christ’s own concern about dying is His concern about the glory of God.
(From Safe in the World, pp. 11-12, by Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones)
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Power in the Ark
“And when they of Ashdod arose early on the morrow, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the earth before the ark of the LORD. And they took Dagon, and set him in his place again.” (1 Samuel 5:3)
The Philistines had captured the Ark of the Covenant, where God met with His people, and set it up in the temple of their god, Dagon. The first night, Dagon fell down before the Ark; the second night, he fell down broken in pieces. On the next day, a great plague fell on the people of Ashdod, and forthwith they sent the Ark away!
Just as Dagon fell before the Ark, which was a type of Christ, so the priests and soldiers who came to take Jesus away “went backward, and fell to the ground” in His presence (John 18:6). Similarly, just as the temple of Dagon could hold the Ark no longer than three days, and the whale could only hold God’s prophet Jonah for three days, so the grave could not hold Jesus longer than three days.
The Ark also exhibited its great power both to bless and to curse. It brought death to the Philistines who desecrated it, and even to the Israelites at Beth-shemesh when they foolishly looked into the Ark (1 Samuel 6:19). However, it evidently brought blessing to the house of the Levite Abinadab, where it stayed for 20 years (1 Samuel 7:1-2), and later to the house of Obed-edom (2 Samuel 6:11).
The same is true of the Lord Jesus Christ and of all who are “in him, which is the head of all principality and power” (Colossians 2:10). The presence of Christ was a blessing to many, but others “besought him to depart from them; for they were taken with great fear” (Luke 8:37). “For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish: To the one we are the savour of death unto death; and to the other the savour of life unto life” (2 Corinthians 2:15-16).
(HMM, The Institute for Creation Research)
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STORM DUMPS 18 TRILLION GALLONS OF WATER (Friday Church News Notes, September 21, 2018, www.wayoflife.org,fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) – Hurricane Florence, which made landfall in North Carolina on September 14, had dumped 18 trillion gallons of water by September 16. “That’s enough to fill the Chesapeake Bay or cover the entire state of Texas with nearly 4 inches of water” (“Florence aftermath,” FoxNews, Sep. 16, 2018). In April 2018, 50 inches of rain fell in a 24 hour period on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. In January 1966, 1.825 meters (6 feet or 71.8 inches) of rain fell in 24 hours in Foc-Foc, La Réunion, an island in the southern Indian Ocean. That was equal to 7.5 tons of rain per acre. These were localized storms of brief endurance. The flood of Noah’s day involved the breaking up of the fountains of the deep and a global deluge of rainfall for 40 days and nights straight (Ge. 7:11-12). Two excellent books on the global flood areIn the Beginning: Compelling Evidence for Creation and the Flood by Walt Brown and Earth’s Catastrophic Past by Andrew Snelling. These men have Ph.D.s in the earth sciences.
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COURTS AGAIN RULE AGAINST ATHEISTS TRYING TO REMOVE “IN GOD WE TRUST” FROM AMERICA’S CURRENCY (Friday Church News Notes, September 21, 2018,www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) – The following is excerpted from “Atheists Fail to Remove,” The Christian Post, Aug. 29, 2018: “Atheists who failed to remove the national motto ‘In God We Trust’ from U.S. coins and bills following an appeals court defeat have called their loss ‘utterly revolting.’ The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Paul, Minnesota, upheld in a 3-0 decision on Tuesday a lower court ruling from December 2016 that found that the national motto on money did not violate First Amendment free speech and religious rights. As the New Doe Child # 1 v. The Congress of the United States case explains, 27 individuals who are atheists or children of atheists, along with two atheist organizations, declared that they ‘definitely do not trust in God.’ Circuit Judge Raymond Gruender explained that the motto did not constitute an establishment of religion, however, and rejected the argument that the atheists are being forced to uphold a message that goes against their beliefs by carrying money. Gruender agreed with the Seventh Circuit that the arguments that ‘In God We Trust’ on money transforms a constitutional practice into an unconstitutional establishment of religion is ‘too simplistic.’ ‘The Constitution does not prevent the Government from promoting and celebrat[ing] our tradition of religious freedom, even if the means of doing so–here, adding the national motto to U.S. money–was motivated in part because of religious sentiment.’ Placing In God We Trust on coins and currency is consistent with historical practices,’ he added. Michael Newdow, a lawyer representing the plaintiffs, told Reuters in an email that it is ‘utterly revolting…’”
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The world stands guilty before God, and can only be forgiven through Christ.
INSIGHT
There are several commonly held misconceptions about how God evaluates the deeds of men. One idea is that as long as we don’t do anything “terrible,” God will overlook our “little” sins. Another is that God weighs all our good works on one side of a scale and all our bad works on the other. If the good outweighs the bad, we’re okay. A third incorrect notion is that God lines up all the people who have ever lived from the best to the worst and then divides them in half. If you make the cut, you’re okay. The truth the Bible teaches is that God demands sinlessness. And since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, all people are condemned. There is only one way out: Receive Jesus as your personal Savior. Through Him, all your sins can be forgiven. (Quiet Walk)
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CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE
That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. 1 John 1:3
The Christian experience is a definite and a certain experience–“that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us.” Now if people do not know what they have, how can they wish for others to share it with them? So that is the starting point “that the Christian experience is not a vague one; it is not indefinite or uncertain. Rather, it is a ell-defined experience, and true Christians know what they have; they are aware of what they possess. They are in no uncertainty themselves as to what has happened to them as to their personal position. “These things write we unto you,” says John, “that your joy may be full”–that you may share what we have. You cannot invite someone to share something with you unless you know exactly what you are asking him to share.
We are dealing with what may be called the great New Testament doctrine of the assurance of salvation, which has been subjected to considerable criticism. People have regarded it as presumption. They have said this is something that is impossible, and that no one should be able to claim such a thing.
But John is a man who tells us that he knows, and it is because he knows and because of what he has experienced that he is writing. Christians are not men and women who are hoping for salvation, but those who have experienced it. They have it; there is no uncertainty. They “know whom [they] have believed” (2 Timothy 1:12); and it is because John has possessed this that he writes about it.
A Thought to Ponder Christians are not men and women who are hoping for salvation, but those who have experienced it. (From Fellowship with God, pp. 57-58, by Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones)
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The Similitude of God
“Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God.” (James 3:9)
Here inserted within a very sober condemnation of the misuse of our God-given privilege of speech is what seems almost an incidental reference to the image of God in man. It is not a trivial reference, however, but very significant.
It tells us that even though the image of God in man has been severely marred by sin, it is still there! That is, man is eternal just as God is eternal, and we will all continue to exist forever, either in the presence of God, or away from His presence. That “image” is not shared with animals, even the higher animals. The latter do have a body, soul (in the sense of mind), and spirit (in the sense of breath), but they do not possess “the image of God” that was specially created in man alone after all the animals had been created (note Genesis 1:21, 27).
Another implication is that the word “similitude” includes the meaning of a physical resemblance. While God in His full essence is omnipresent and therefore invisible to human eyes, it is still true that, when God became man, He took on an actual physical body. Furthermore, our Lord Jesus, God the Son, still is “that same Jesus” and therefore still in that body (note Acts 1:11; 1 John 3:2; etc.).
Since His incarnation and His work of salvation were planned by the triune God “before the foundation of the world” (1 Peter 1:20), man was apparently created in the image of that body that Christ had planned to take on when He would eventually become man.
That being the case, our bodies are even more sacred than otherwise we might have assumed, and it is indeed a serious matter to misuse the tongue or any other member of the body, which is made after the similitude of Christ. (HMM, The Institute for Creation Research)
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