PSALM 39
David tried not to pray for help verse 1- 2
I said – I will take heed to my ways – that I sin not with my tongue
I will keep my mouth with a bridle – while the wicked is before me
I was dumb with silence – I held my peace – even from good
and my sorrow was stirred
David had an inner struggle regarding silence verse 3- 5
My heart was hot within me – while I was musing the fire burned
then spoke I with my tongue
LORD – make me to know mine end – and the measure of my days
what it is – that I may know how frail I am
BEHOLD – YOU have made my days as an handbreadth
and mine age is as nothing before YOU
verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity
SELAH
David answers the question regarding hope verse 6- 7
Surely every man walks in a vain show – surely they are disquieted in vain
he heaps up riches – and knows not who shall gather them
And now – Lord – WHAT wait I for? my hope is in YOU
David wants the LORD to rescue him verse 8- 11
Deliver me from all my transgressions
make me not the reproach of the foolish
I was dumb – I opened not my mouth
BECAUSE YOU did it
Remove YOUR stroke away from me
I am consumed by the blow of YOUR hand
when YOU with rebukes do correct man for iniquity
YOU make his beauty to consume away like a moth
surely every man is vanity SELAH
David desires strength from the LORD verse 12- 13
Hear my prayer – O LORD – and give ear unto my cry
hold not YOUR peace at my tears – FOR I am a stranger with YOU
and a sojourner – as all my fathers were
O spare me – that I may recover strength – before I go hence – and be no more
COMMENTARY:
DAILY SPIRITUAL BREAKFAST: Young Believers
: 3 My heart was hot within me, while I was musing the fire burned: then spoke I with my tongue. (1901 “musing” [hagiyg] means whisper, murmuring, meditation, or groaning sound.)
DEVOTION: The LORD likes honesty in our relationship with HIM. HE wants us to express our emotions correctly to HIM. HE understands that we are frail beings. HE understands that we suffer and wonder why the LORD doesn’t cause our suffering to cease. HE knows that we are sinners. David is expressing his frustration with his sin and the consequences.
David was apparently sick and going to die. At first he was silent. He was thinking about what was happening in his life. He understood that the LORD wants us to think about our actions and the consequences. Most people don’t think, they just act and then think. This even happens in the lives of those who are followers of the LORD.
Then he began to whisper to the LORD about what was happening to him. He knew that life was short. He knew that there would come a time to die. He knew that he was a sinner. In his whisper he asked the LORD to help him understand what was going to happen to him.
He wanted forgiveness of sin. He asked the LORD to deliver him from his sickness and give him more time. A key word that David uses is “vanity.” There are times in our lives when we start muttering under our breath about something that is happening in our lives. We want to know what the LORD is doing in our life. We are not really talking with anyone but ourselves but we do it out loud. How many of us have done this at least once in their lives? David was doing this at this time of in his life. He was in need of the LORD to hear his prayer for forgiveness and healing.
He realizes that life is short and it will get shorter if he doesn’t make things right with God. David just didn’t want the LORD to treat him as a stranger while he was living. He wants the LORD to hear his prayer and forgive, so that he can go back to sharing with others the greatness of the LORD. He wanted everyone to know that his only hope was in the LORD.
David realized that this world was not his final home. He was just a stranger and sojourner. We realize this fact as well. Our final home is heaven where are citizenship has been purchased by the BLOOD of Jesus Christ on the cross. Praise HIS name!!! Do we want to share the same message in our world? Many of us are like Paul that wanted to be with the LORD but knew the LORD had some more work for us to do while we are here on this earth. Let us make each day count for the LORD!!!
CHALLENGE: We should want our life to end on a positive note with the LORD. That would mean confession and living for the LORD continually. We should remember to keep short accounts with the LORD. Our fellowship with HIM is very important. David didn’t want to leave this life on a sour note. Neither should we!!
DAILY SPIRITUAL LUNCH: Transitional Believer
:7 “And now, Lord, what do I wait for? My hope is in You.” (The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982. Wait – 6960 קָוָה, קָוָה [qavah /kaw·vaw/] v. A primitive root; TWOT 1994, 1995; GK 7747 and 7748; 49 occurrences; AV translates as “wait” 29 times, “look” 13 times, “wait for” once, “look for” once, “gathered” once, and translated miscellaneously four times. 1 to wait, look for, hope, expect. 1A (Qal) waiting (participle). 1B (Piel). 1B1 to wait or look eagerly for. 1B2 to lie in wait for. 1B3 to wait for, linger for. 2 to collect, bind together. 2A (Niphal) to be collected. James Strong, Enhanced Strong’s Lexicon (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2001).
DEVOTION: When we finally reach the end of our rope it is then that we reflect and realize that the Lord is the one that wants and is waiting for us to come back to Him. We often talk when we should be silent, grow angry when we should be patient, and walk in a fog when we should be still. The psalmist stated that he had done these things and it had created sin, sorrow and instability. Now he recognizes where he should turn and out of the depth of despair he hears a voice of hope! Suddenly the chaos, depression and frustrations lose their grip in him and the reality of truth erupts! He expresses his commitment to the Lord in the words my hope is in You. My hope is in You!
Now where sin had held him ransom there is deliverance! Where there was incessant talking there is stillness because God had shut his mouth! Where the psalmist walked in a fog there is clarity of purpose through his tears to fulfill God’s plan.
CHALLENGE: As believers we sometimes get caught up in an attitude of impatience and stress. We are angry and focused on our agenda and plans. In the sin of this lifestyle we need to be reminded of what we are truly waiting for! The fellowship and love of Christ! Are you pre-occupied and invested in the wrong items? Is it time to examine who your hope is in? Don’t wait, like the psalmist, until it all comes crashing upon you. Remember, your hope is in Him! (Dr. Brian Miller – board member)
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: 8 Deliver me from all my transgressions: make me not the reproach of the foolish. (5036 “foolish” [nabal] means vile person, senseless, godless, futile, worthless, good-for-nothing, someone who lacks good judgment, impious, or senseless.)
DEVOTION: David wanted to be someone who was a good testimony to the LORD. He wanted to serve the LORD faithfully. He didn’t do it all the time but he was always trying to serve the LORD during his life.
His sins are recorded in the Bible. He did some foolish things in his lifetime but he always returned to the LORD and asked forgiveness. We need to do the same.
We might not have sinned the same way that David did but we are all sinners who need to ask the LORD to forgive us and then move on to serve HIM again. It is sad that this is what is happening in our lives but it is true that we need to keep short accounts with the LORD. HE is willing to forgive us. HE is longsuffering toward us. HE wants us to know that HE is just a prayer away.
There are consequences to sins but one of the great things is that once we are forgiven we return to the LORD and HE will help us from that point onward. HE never gives up on us if we are genuine with HIM.
David was one who could write these Psalms because of all his experiences with the LORD He admitted his shortcomings and continued to try to live for the LORD through it all.
Are you doing the same as David? Are you keeping short accounts with God and watching HIM work in your life while you are trying to serve the LORD? If so, never give up.
CHALLENGE: Remember to keep short accounts with the LORD. HE is willing to forgive and forget. HE may show us some consequences to our sins but HE never leaves us or forsakes us. It keep David even during his most sinful times.
DAILY SPIRITUAL SUPPER: Mature Believers
:12 “Hear my prayer, O Lord, And give ear unto my cry; Hold not YOUR peace at my tears: For I am a stranger with YOU, And a sojourner, as all my fathers were.” (“Sojourner,” 8453 תֹּושָׁב [towshab], 1. resident alien, sojourner, someone who comes from the original Canaanite population of the territory occupied by Israel, or alternatively who has become resident in such a locality. [Koehler, L., Baumgartner, W., Richardson, M. E. ., & Stamm, J. J. (1999). The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament (electronic ed., p. 1712). Leiden; New York: E.J. Brill.]
DEVOTION: David describes himself in this psalm as a sojourner. The surprising part is that he uses this term as though he himself was a foreigner (someone temporarily living in Israel but still ethnically and culturally different). This is something that no Israelite would do, since a foreigner was not allowed to go into the temple with the Jews to worship God. (The other word translated “stranger” applied to a foreigner who became a Jewish proselyte.) Jews understood themselves to be God’s chosen people, and superior to the nations around them.
However, David takes a metaphor for one who is not of Jewish descent living among the Jews and applies it to this life. He realizes that life here is brief, and that we are just passing through this world to reach life after death. As a result, David calls himself a sojourner in this world. It is as if he is saying that there is nothing in this world that compares with his real home in heaven.
Peter picks up this idea in 1 Peter 2:11, when he admonishes the readers to act as though they are aliens and strangers in this world by abstaining from fleshly lusts. He notes that the world’s values are contrary to those of the believer in Jesus Christ, and that the life of the believer is to show this contrast by not living for the here and now.
CHALLENGE: Do we actually believe that eternal life with God is our destination? If so, we will want to live differently in this life and tell others about the glories of heaven! (Dr. Marc Wooten – board member)
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: 13 O spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go hence, and be no more. (8159 “spare” [sha’ah] means to avert one’s gaze, look a or about, pay attention to, turn away, accept, be concerned about, regard, or behold.)
DEVOTION: One of our goals in life is that we can die without any regrets. Here we find David the king of Israel. He wanted to understand how many days he had left to serve the LORD and he wanted to do a good job while he was still able to do it.
This was a time where he was in danger and wanted to have strength to continue to live a life that was pleasing to the LORD. He didn’t know when his last days were going to be but wanted to make the best of them while he was still alive.
We don’t know when our life is going to be over. At present with cancer I am not sure how many days I have on this earth and I want to do the best that I can to help people to understand the Word of God and to become believers if they are not.
I have many who have known me over the 40 years of ministry. There are some from my first church that still not living for the LORD as they should but I continue to pray for them and contact them as often as I can. I want to see them in heaven.
There are others that are believers and are living for the LORD and I am trying to be an encouragement to them as much as I can. This only happens through prayer and contact.
I have a family that I love dearly and want to see all of them in heaven. Our children have made a commitment to the LORD. Most of our grandchildren have made a commitment to the LORD and we want to see them continue to grow in the LORD.
I have brothers and sisters and their families that I continue to pray for and want their children to come to know the LORD.
I have cousins and other relatives that know the LORD but some do not. With David I want to have the strength to witness to them and see them become believers before I am no more.
Our days are numbered and the LORD brings family and friends in our lives to see that we pray for them and help them in their growth in the LORD any way we can. We should never stop trying to help those we love to become believers or to grow as believers.
I pray with David that I can be the witness the LORD wants me to be at this time period in my life. I have never been sinless but I have tried to turn my sins over the LORD and live a life that is pleasing to HIM today.
CHALLENGE: Can we pray with David that we can have strength to continue to serve the LORD well until the LORD takes us home to HIM?
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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)
Hope comes from the LORD verse 7
Prayer (Conversation with God on a personal level)
Prayer of a sick king to the LORD verse 1- 13
Prayer verse 12
Give ear to my cry verse 12
Prayer to be spared verse 13
Prayer for recovered strength verse 13
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)
God the Father (First person of the Godhead)
LORD – Jehovah (Covenant keeping, Personal) verse 4, 12
Lord – Adonai (Owner, Master) verse 7
Blow of hand of God verse 10
Rebukes that correct man verse 11
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)
Wicked verse 1
End verse 4
Measure my days verse 4
Frail verse 4
Days as a handbreadth verse 5
Vanity verse 5, 11
Walk in a vain show verse 6
Heaping up riches verse 6
Foolish verse 8
Stranger verse 12
Sojourner verse 12
Death verse 13
Sin (Missing the mark set by God on man and angels)
Sin verse 1
Wicked verse 1
Vanity verse 5, 11
Vain verse 6
Transgressions verse 8
Foolish verse 8
Iniquity verse 11
Salvation (Provided by Christ’s death on the cross for our sins)
Take heed to our ways verse 1
Sin not with our tongue verse 1
Good verse 2
Wait verse 7
Hope verse 7
Deliverance from sin verse 8
Prayer verse 12
Strength verse 13
Israel (Old Testament people of God)
Psalm of David verse 1- 13
Church (New Testament people of God)
Last Things (Future Events)
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DONATIONS:
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QUOTES regarding passage
There are mixed emotions here. The opening and the close of the psalm betray David’s revulsion against the brevity of life, which has been brought home to him by suffering (10f.); yet his first prayer is that he may learn the lesson of it well (4). This seems to be a deliberate act of facing unwelcome facts as God’s facts, and seeing them as he sees them (in thy sight, 5). How much there is to learn from this painful subject can be gauged from the word hebel: a mere breath (5); for naught (6); a mere breath (11), since this was to be the key-word of Ecclesiastes (translated there as ‘vanity’), to expose the fatal insufficiency of all that is earthbound. cf. e.g. verse 6 with Ecclesiastes 2:18f.; cf. also Luke 12:20; James 4:14f.; for this is equally a New Testament emphasis. (Kidner, D. (1973). Psalms 1–72: an introduction and commentary (Vol. 15, pp. 174–175). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.)
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39:4–6. Second, he sought relief from his frustration by submitting to the Lord’s determination of his life. He prayed that the Lord would help him know the brevity of life (cf. 90:10, 12). This prayer was prompted by the awareness that life is brief in duration—like a handbreadth and a breath (cf. Job 7:7; Pss. 39:11; 62:9; 144:4). All one’s labors in which he heaps up his possessions are vain, for life is short. (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. 823). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.)
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When we find ourselves burying our true feelings and creating physical and emotional pain for ourselves, then it’s time to talk to the Lord and seek His help. David knew that life was short and that the days would pass swiftly; he also knew that he was frail and that one day would die. He began to measure his days (90:12; 119:84) and saw that they were but a handbreadth (four fingers) and his age nothing in God’s sight. (See 90:1–11.) “Verily, every man at his best state [in his vigor] is altogether vanity” (v. 5) sounds like a statement from Ecclesiastes by David’s son Solomon, and he repeated the thought in verse 11. The Hebrew word translated “vanity” means “a breath, emptiness” (see 62:9; 144:4; Job 14:2; Eccl. 6:12). One of my Hebrew professors described “vanity” as “what’s left after you break a soap bubble.” In verse 6, he compared life to an “empty show,” with shadow people bustling about, trying to get rich. Busy for what? Wealthy for what? Years later, Solomon raised the same questions (Eccl. 2:18–19), and Jesus emphasized the same truth in Luke 12:16–21. If you measure the length of life, you may become despondent, but if you look around you and measure the depth of life, you are appalled. Life is swift, life is short, and for most people, life is futile. In modern vocabulary, people are living for the image and not the reality. (Wiersbe, W. W. (2004). Be worshipful (1st ed., pp. 150–151). Colorado Springs, CO: Cook Communications Ministries.)
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5. My days as an handbreadth. A familiar comparison in the east. “What are the days of man? Only four fingers.” “My son has gone, and has only had a life of four fingers.” “You have had much pleasure; not so, it has only been the breadth of four fingers.” “Is he a great landowner? Yes, he has about the breadth of four fingers.” “I am told the hatred betwixt those people is daily decreasing. Yes, that which is left is about four fingers in breadth.”—Roberts’s Illustrations of Scripture from the Hindoos. The same author says in illustration of verse 11, that the moths in the east are very large and beautiful, but short-lived; but this does not appear appropriate to that passage properly understood: Thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth; more correctly, Thou consumest as a moth his beauty; that is, as a moth consumes a garment. The moth in scripture language is the instrument, not the object of destruction. (Alexander, W. H. (1867). The Book of Praises: Being the Book of Psalms, according to the Authorized Version, with Notes Original and Selected (pp. 145–146). London: Jackson, Walford, and Hodder.)
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5–7 In the second place, not being answered in this curious question, but secretly checked for his impatient wish, he contents himself with the known truth, that this present life is but short, how long soever it shall last, and resolveth to wait on God’s time patiently. Whence learn, 1. For tempering our condition, whatsoever it be, it should suffice us to know that, whether we be in prosperity or adversity, our time in this life is but short: thou hast made my days as an handbreadth, and mine age is as nothing before thee. 2. Not in prosperity, but in adversity, is the uncertainty, weakness, emptiness, and vanity, of prosperity and things temporal, well seen; for in trouble, says David, verily every man at his best estate is altogether vanity. 3. Whatsoever seemeth excellent in the eyes of natural men in this world, is but the shadow of what it seemeth: health, strength, prosperity, riches, pleasure, honour, dominion, power, authority, are but the shadows of things so named: every man walketh in a vain shew. 4. Too much care and anxiety about things of this life, is a sickness and folly: surely they are disquieted in vain. 5. Experience putteth a deep stamp of the truth upon a man’s mind, and causes him to set his subscription unto it without hesitation: verily, surely, surely, is the seal of this truth here delivered after his experience. 6. The excessive care which men take to gather riches, this toiling and travailing, this spending of body, of wit and time, this frowning on some and fawning to others, this pleading and fighting with some and flattering of others, with other shifts by which men use to gather riches, (which they must leave behind them, and do not know to whom,) is a point of great folly and vanity in men: he heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them. 7. The right use of the perceived vanity of all things under the sun, is, that we should be sent by that consideration unto God, to rest on him: and now, Lord, what wait I for? 8. That which God hath promised in the life to come is only satisfactory and able to quiet a man’s mind, and make him patiently wait on God in all his trouble: what wait I for? my hope is in thee. (Dickson, D. (1834). A Brief Explication of the Psalms (Vol. 1, pp. 217–218). Glasgow; Edinburgh; London: John Dow; Waugh and Innes; R. Ogle; James Darling; Richard Baynes.)
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Ver. 5. Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth, &c.] These words, with the following clause, are the psalmist’s answer to his own inquiries; or rather a correction of his inquiry and impatience, shewing how needless it was to ask such questions, and be impatient to die, when it was so clear and certain a case that life was so short; not a yard or ell, but an hand-breadth, the breadth of four fingers; or at most a span of time was allowed to man, whose days are few, like the shadow that declineth, and the grass that withers; by which figurative expressions the brevity of human life is described, Psal. 102:11 and 103:15 and this is the measure made, cut out, and appointed by the Lord himself, who has determined the years, months, and days of man’s life, Job 14:5. And mine age is as nothing before thee; in the sight of God, or in comparison of his eternity; not so much as an hand-breadth, or to be accounted as an inch, but nothing at all; yea, less than nothing, and vanity; see Isa. 40:17. that is, the age or life of man in this world, as the word used signifies; for otherwise the age or life of man, in the world to come, is of an everlasting duration; but the years of this present life are threescore and ten, ordinarily speaking; an hundred and thirty are by Jacob reckoned but few; and even a thousand years with the Lord are but as one day, Psal. 90:4, 10. Verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Selah. As vanity may signify sin, emptiness, folly, falsehood, fickleness, and inconstancy; for man is a very sinful creature, empty of all that is good; foolish as to the knowledge of divine things; he is deceiving and deceived, his heart is deceitful and desperately wicked; and he is unstable in all his ways: he is all vanity, as the words may be rendered; all that he has, or is, or is in him, is vanity; his body, in the health, beauty, and strength of it, is subject to change; and so are his mind, his memory, his judgment and affections, his purposes and promises; and so are his goods and estate, his riches and honours; yea, all the vanity that is in the creatures, that is, in the vegetable and sensitive creatures, yea, that is in the whole world, is in him; who is a microcosm, a little world himself: and this is true of every man, even in his best settledy estate; when he stood the most firm, as the word used signifies; it is true of men of high and low degree, of the wise, knowing, and learned, as well as of the illiterate and ignorant, Psal. 62:9; Rom. 1:21, 22. even of those that are in the most prosperous circumstances, in the greatest ease and affluence, Luke 12:16–19. David himself had an experience of it, 2 Sam 7:1 and 12:11. yea, this is true of Adam in his best estate, in his estate of innocence; for he was even then subject to change, as the event has shewn; and being in honour, he abode not long; and, though upright, became sinful, and came short of the glory of God: indeed, the spiritual estate of believers in Christ is so well settled as that it cannot be altered; nor is it subject to any vanity. Of the word Selah, see the note on Psal. 3:2. (Gill, J. (1810). An Exposition of the Old Testament (Vol. 3, p. 692). London: Mathews and Leigh.)
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5. “Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth.” Upon consideration, the Psalmist finds little room to bewail the length of life, but rather to bemoan its shortness. What changeful creatures we are! One moment we cry to be rid of existence, and the next instant beg to have it prolonged! A handbreadth is one of the shortest natural measures, being the breadth of four fingers; such is the brevity of life, by divine appointment; God has made it so, fixing the period in wisdom. The “behold” calls us to attention; to some the thought of life’s hastiness will bring the acutest pain, to others the most solemn earnestness. How well should those live who are to live so little! Is my earthly pilgrimage so brief? then let me watch every step of it, that in the little of time there may be much of grace. “And mine age is as nothing before thee.” So short as not to amount to an entity. Think of eternity, and an angel is as a new-born babe, the world a fresh blown bubble, the sun a spark just fallen from the fire, and man a nullity. Before the Eeternal, all the age of frail man is less than one ticking of a clock. “Verily, every man at his best state is altogether vanity.” This is the surest truth, that nothing about man is either sure or true. Take man at his best, he is but a man, and man is a mere breath, unsubstantial as the wind. Man is settled, as the margin has it, and by divine decree it is settled that he shall not be settled. He is constant only in inconstancy. His vanity is his only verity; his best, of which he is vain, is but vain; and this is verily true of every man, that everything about him is every way fleeting. This is sad news for those whose treasures are beneath the moon; those whose glorying is in themselves may well hang the flag half-mast; but those whose best estate is settled upon them in Christ Jesus in the land of unfading flowers, may rejoice that it is no vain thing in which they trust. (Spurgeon, C. H. (n.d.). The treasury of David: Psalms 27-57 (Vol. 2, p. 216). 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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It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ! For this very reason peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here.” Patrick Henry
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2 Timothy 4
Paul charges Timothy to preach the Word of God and offset the ministry of false teachers.
INSIGHT
We think of Paul as being one of the great spiritual giants of the ages. Because of this, most of us don’t expect to receive the same reward that he will. However, we need to realize that the Lord does not reward talent or results – He rewards motive and faithfulness. At the end of his life, Paul wrote: “There is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing” (v. 8). That means you and me!
(Quiet Walk)
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HOW WE KNOW GOD
Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us,because he hath given us of his Spirit.
1 John 4:13
How do we have knowledge about God? “Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us.” How? The answer is, “because he hath given us of his Spirit.” So it all comes down to that in the last analysis. How do I know I have received God’s Spirit? How may I know for certain that I have been given and received something of the Holy Spirit of God?
Are you concerned about these things, and have you a desire to have them? Are you concerned about the life of your soul? Are you concerned about knowing God? I assure you that if you are, the Holy Spirit is in you, for people apart from God “mind earthly things” (Philippians 3:19)—carnal, fleshly things. Are you concerned about immortality and the things invisible and eternal? If you are minding these things, that is a proof that the Holy Spirit is in you.
Do you have a sense of sin? Are you aware that there is an evil principle within you? Not simply that you do certain things you should not do and feel annoyed with yourself because of it. No; rather, I mean that you are aware that you have an evil nature, that there is a principle of sin and wrong in your heart, that there is a fountain emitting unworthy, ugly, and foul things, and in a sense, you hate yourself. Our Lord said that the man who loves himself is in a very dangerous condition. The apostle Paul was a man who could say about himself, “In me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing..O wretched man that I am!” (Romans 7:18, 24). If you have ever felt yourself a sinner, and if you have hated this thing that gets you down, that is proof that you have received the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Thought to Ponder
If you have ever felt yourself a sinner, that is proof that you have received the gift of the Holy Spirit. (From The Love of God, pp. 96-98, by Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones)
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Evil Hearts Produce Evil Deeds
“And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” (John 3:19)
Make no mistake—those who love evil hate righteousness. Petty selfishness is often invoked to justify a host of social evils, and the sin burden constantly overlays human behavior. But an evil heart produces evil deeds and drives an evil person to commit atrocities. “For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved” (John 3:20).
Both the apostles James and Paul made the same observation. James noted that “wars and fightings” come from the “lusts that war in your members” (James 4:1). Paul bemoaned the conflict of “laws” that he sensed in his own body and called himself a “wretched man” because he couldn’t seem to shake the “law of sin” (Romans 7:18-24).
The beloved apostle John insisted that the twice-born should never love the world or “the things that are in the world” because “all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world” (1 John 2:15-16).
Once a decision is made to reject the overwhelming evidence of the “eternal power and Godhead” that the Creator has displayed for all to see (Romans 1:20), and once the personal conviction of the Holy Spirit has been spurned (John 16:7-11), nothing remains but social pressure to do good. And when that wanes (as it surely will), the individual person cycles ever more rapidly into a godless lifestyle, falling away “from the faith… having their conscience seared with a hot iron” (1 Timothy 4:1-2).
(HMM III, The Institute for Creation Research)
To muse is to think, and God is seeking to get men to think. The prodigal never took a step toward his father until he sat down to think. We read, “He came to himself.” The devil tries to keep people from musing, from thinking. Take that word so common today, “amusement.” People are amusement crazy. The devil has all kinds of schemes to amuse people. Cut that word up, “Muse”—to think “A-muse”—not to think. The “A” there is the negative, and it simply means this, to stop thinking. That is why the theaters are crowded; that is why people love the dance; that is why people go to all these ungodly things of the world—to keep from thinking. If the devil can keep people from thinking, he will have them all doomed and damned eventually. But God wants us to think. His Word is a challenge to us to think. (H.A. Ironside, Studies on book one of the Psalms, 226–227).
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The Lord takes Elijah to heaven in a whirlwind.
INSIGHT
Miracles don’t permeate the entire Bible. They tend to be concentrated during the times of Moses, the prophets, and Jesus. They occur other times as well, but these are the times of greatest concentration; and Elijah and Elisha represent one of the strongest periods. In our lives today, God seems rather inactive in comparison. Yet that is not because He is unable to act-but rather because He has chosen not to act in the same way. The power is still there, and we can rest in the confidence that He still has all things under control. (Quiet Walk)
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It Only Takes a Spark…
I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. PHILIPPIANS 4:13
For a firefighter, one of the most terrible phrases in the English language is “blow-up.” In a firefighter’s world, blowing up occurs when a manageable forest fire suddenly explodes into an inferno that rages through the grass and trees at a deadly speed.
To me, “blow-up” is an appropriate description of what’s happened during the last decade at the heart of American society. A searing fireball of destruction has engulfed a priceless part of our culture—the family.
I remember speaking to 700 college students at a Campus Crusade for Christ conference in Dallas. When I asked those who had been affected by divorce (through their immediate or extended family) to stand, 80 percent of the audience responded.
Afterward, a young man came forward to talk to me about his parents’ divorce. His father had been a leading evangelical pastor. “My dad was my hero,” he said. “He taught me everything I know. And now he’s gone. I’m the only one left in my family that is still walking with God.”
Far too many Christians today feel this same type of impotence. They are filled with fear—and burned by the heat of our cultural blow-up.
If you are tempted to lose hope and courage, take heart: You can make a difference! As today’s verse tells us, God can give you the strength and power to withstand the heat.
In fact, when a firefighter cannot outrun a blow-up, one common tactic is to ignite a fire of his own to burn the area around him before the fireball reaches him. If you feel threatened by the fires of today’s culture, it’s time to start a fire of your own. You can do that by returning to God’s Word and walking daily in obedience to Jesus Christ.
DISCUSS
What issues in our cultural blow-up cause you to lose courage and hope? Choose one way you can start a fire of your own that protects your family. (Moments with You Couples Devotional by Dennis and Barbara Rainey)
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DRAWING ASIDE
And Moses took the tabernacle, and pitched it without the camp, afar off from the camp, and called it the Tabernacle of the congregation. Exodus 33:7
Moses set the Tabernacle up outside the camp; “afar off from the camp.” Now here is the point at which I am most liable to be misunderstood, but it is here, and it is part of the teaching. There is invariably, in the history of every revival, this drawing aside. Let us not forget that the camp of Israel was then the “church” of God. In the Old Testament the nation of Israel was the “church” in the wilderness. This is the church we are talking about, and yet you see what Moses did? He took this tabernacle from the midst of the “church,” as it were and put it up outside, “afar off from the camp.”
No revival that has ever been experienced in the long history of the church has ever been an official movement in the church. That is a strong statement, is it not? But I repeat it. No revival that the church has ever known has ever been an official movement. You read of the great precursors of the Protestant Reformation, people like Wycliffe, Jan Hus, and others. It was always unofficial, and the officials did not like it. It was the same with Martin Luther. Nothing happened in Rome. No, it happened just to this monk in his cell. And so it has continued to happen.
Even after the reformation of the Church of England, there were men who began to feel dissatisfied, and they began to follow this pattern and do the self-same thing. That is the origin of Puritanism. Then you are all probably familiar with the story of Methodism in its various branches. The two Wesley brothers and Whitefield and others were members of the Church of England. But they did not begin to do something in the Church of England but formed what they called their Holy Club, outside the camp.
A Thought to Ponder: No revival that has ever been experienced in the Church has ever been an official movement in the church. (From Revival, p. 166, by Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones)
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