“I LOVE THE LORD!”

 Psalm 116:1-4                    (ESV)

“I LOVE THE LORD”

    [1] “I LOVE THE LORD”, because HE has heard

        my voice and my pleas for mercy. 

    [2] Because HE inclined HIS EAR to me,

        therefore I will call on HIM as long as I live. 

    [3] The snares of death encompassed me;

        the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me;

        I suffered distress and anguish. 

    [4] Then I called on the name of the LORD:

        “O LORD, I pray, deliver my soul!”

There are times when I awake and there are “notifications” on my phone trying to tell me that something is more important than hearing from THE ONE WHO CREATED this unworthy servant!  From my life experiences, NOTHING is more important than what the WORDS of Isaiah 42:5 states!  “Thus says GOD, the LORD, WHO CREATED the heavens and stretched them out, WHO who spread out the earth and what come from it, WHO GIVES BREATH who gives breath to the people on it and SPIRIT to those who walk in it:”

Apparently there are MANY people who want us to BELIEVE that their perspective is the most important thing for us to consider as we proceed through our journey in “this world”!  But “I LOVE THE LORD” and it needs to be THE FIRST THING that enters my mind, and the LAST THING I permit before I go to sleep!  “I LOVE THE LORD”!!!

“THE FATHER ONLY!”

 Matthew 24:36-44                   (ESV)

NO ONE Knows That Day and Hour

“[36] “But concerning that day and hour NO ONE KNOWS, not even the angels of heaven, nor the SON, but “THE FATHER ONLY”. [37] For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the SON OF MAN. [38] For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, [39] and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the SON OF MAN. [40] Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. [41] Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left. [42] Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your LORD is coming. [43] But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. [44] Therefore YOU ALSO MUST BE READY, for the SON OF MAN IS COMING AT AN HOUR YOU DO NOT EXPECT.”

There is great anticipation and birth pains regarding events that are transpiring currently in the status of our nation AND THE WORLD!  I am a simple minded man, a person who has no earthly organizational degrees to warrant my thoughts on the events that are occurring.  

“THE FATHER ONLY” knows WHEN HE will say, SON, GO BRING MY CHILDREN HOME!  My imagination tells me that the TIME HAS TO BE VERY NEAR!!!  But even some of the Disciples thought it would be in their time on earth, around 2,000 years ago.  Folks have gotten so casual with the thoughts of the RETURN OF JESUS that most even act as though they DO NOT BELIEVE what JESUS SAID in the passage of Scripture above.  

A few verses earlier in Matthew 24 JESUS is speaking to HIS Disciples and said in Matthew 24:8 “All these are but the beginning of the birth pains”.  The “birth pains” just before a birth can be overwhelming!  But JESUS CHRIST can ease the suffering by us DEPENDING on HIM!!  

“THE FATHER ONLY” knows precisely when the time is right for the RETURN of JESUS!  I can only BEG you to MAKE SURE that you are PREPARED for HIS RETURN!  Your Sunday School teacher doesn’t know when HE IS COMING BACK!  Your pastor doesn’t know! Even JESUS doesn’t know! The PRECISE timing is known by “THE FATHER ONLY”, and HE isn’t negotiating end-times with anyone!!!

“I WILL MAKE A WAY!”

 Isaiah 43:19                    (ESV)

    “[19] Behold, I AM DOING A NEW THING;

        now it springs forth, DO YOU NOT PERCEIVE IT?

    “I WILL MAKE A WAY” IN THE WILDERNESS

        and RIVERS IN THE DESERT.”

Many years ago (maybe 30+) I was searching for an ANSWER from the LORD as to WHY HE was leading me (and my family!) along the PATH I was journeying???  I went to a park area south of my house and GOD spoke to me through Isaiah 43:2, “When YOU PASS THROUGH the waters, I WILL BE WITH YOU; and THROUGH the rivers, they SHALL NOT overwhelm you; when you walk THROUGH fire you SHALL NOT be burned, and the flame SHALL NOT consume you.”  GOD gave me a CONFIDENCE that HE would be with me through whatever trial I faced, REGARDLESS OF THE CIRCUMSTANCES!!

On July 09, 2007 GOD took a few days to display to me that HE was in CONTROL, especially when I wasn’t able to draw any GLORY from HIM and HIS OMNIPOTENT HAND!!  Hospitalized for 52 days, no job for two years, losing a dear friend to a totally unexpected tragedy, losing my mom AND my mother-in-law a few months later a few months later, then eighteen months of non-productive job searching has vividly demonstrated that ALMIGHTY GOD is the ONLY reason I have survived ANYTHING!!!  

We aren’t able to SEE The CREATOR through the WILDERNESS of life!  Through the struggles and valleys of life we think we can figure out a way to “get across the Red Sea”, even after GOD has displayed HIS MAJESTY in annihilating the Egyptians while miraculously DELIVERING HIS CHOSEN people!  But when HE CAUSES me to BE STILL, AND KNOW THAT HE IS GOD I am beyond words trying to understand or explain HIS HANDIWORK!!!

Last week I was back in the same park area in an attempt to HEAR FROM HEAVEN,and once again ALMIGHTY GOD took me to Isaiah 43.  Only this time HE is saying “I WILL MAKE A WAY” IN THE WILDERNESS AND RIVERS IN THE DESERT to a servant who DESPERATELY is wanting to HEAR ONLY FROM HIM!!!  HIS MAJESTY has been revealed to me TIME AND TIME again in my life, but now HE is DIVINELY OPENING my human EYES to SEE that HE doesn’t require me to be watching to SEE HIM, but simply to be USED by HIM!  Even after a SEVENTEEN DAY COMA, HE permitted me to show HIS GLORY!!!  

“I WILL MAKE A WAY”!!!!

“YOU CANNOT SERVE GOD AND MONEY!”

 Matthew 6:19-24                    (ESV)

“[24] “NO ONE CAN SERVE TWO MASTERS, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. “YOU CANNOT SERVE GOD AND MONEY”.”

Being tasked with describing WEALTHY can be a grossly misguided and misunderstood endeavor???  JESUS (GOD IN HUMAM FORM-INCARNATE) is recorded in the Scripture above stating that “YOU CANNOT SERVE GOD AND MONEY”!!!  Surely anyone who saw JESUS IN HUMAN FORM would be DRAWN to WHATEVER was required to be one of HIS??? SURELY???

Sadly, most of humanity doesn’t have the ability to separate themselves from living IN the world without being conformed (to behave according to society) to the norms OF “this world”!!  These standards are VERY TEMPTING to be drawn into, but GOD has a way of orchestrating the lives of HIS CHOSEN to avoid succumbing to the influences of “the enemy”!  HE LOVES us too much to permit “contamination” to infiltrate our lives and cause us harm and destroy our lives!

The King James Version of the BIBLE uses the word “mammon” in place of “money”.  The word “mammon” is defined as “the FORCE that MAKES PEOPLE makes people try to become as rich as possible and the belief that this is the most important thing in life”!  The “FORCE” that supposedly MAKES PEOPLE do things “the enemy” himself.  He has the ability to dress up with SPLENDOR, but his rewards are CATASTROPHIC AND ETERNAL!!!

Hearing JESUS say “YOU CANNOT SERVE GOD AND MONEY” makes a lot more sense when you are able to SEE TRUTH instead of the lies of “the enemy”.  Have your EYES been OPENED to SEE that “YOU CANNOT SERVE GOD AND MONEY”???

“THE PEOPLE COMPLAIN!”

 Numbers 11:1-3                    (ESV)

“THE PEOPLE COMPLAIN”

“[1] And “THE PEOPLE COMPLAINED” in the hearing of the LORD about their misfortunes, and when the LORD heard it, HIS ANGER WAS KINDLED, and the fire of the LORD burned among them and consumed some outlying parts of the camp. [2] Then the people cried out to Moses, and Moses prayed to the LORD, and the fire died down. [3] So the name of that place was called Taberah, because THE FIRE OF THE LORD BURNED AGAINST THEM.”

Sometimes I simply need to SHUT UP and enjoy my fellowship with my CREATOR!!!

GOD doesn’t need any assistance or update on how bad our life is going, HE CONTROLS EVERYTHING!!  

HE doesn’t need to HEAR “THE PEOPLE COMPLAIN”!!!

“HEAR THE WORD OF THE LORD!”

 Amos 7:14-16                    (ESV)

“[14] Then Amos answered and said to Amaziah, “I was no prophet, nor a prophet’s son, but I was a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore figs. [15] But THE LORD TOOK ME FROM FOLLOWING THE FLOCK, and the LORD said to me, ‘GO, PROPHESY TO MY PEOPLE Israel.’ [16] Now therefore “HEAR THE WORD OF THE LORD”. 

    “YOU SAY, ‘DO NOT PROPHESY AGAINST ISRAEL,

        AND DO NOT PREACH AGAINST THE HOUSE OF ISAAC.’”

Preaching what is RIGHT in the eyes of the people hearing the MESSAGE can be a terrible mistake!  In 2 Chronicles 25:14-16 King Amaziah, recently victorious on the battlefield, was glorying in the spoils of victory and forgetting that THE BATTLE BELONGS TO THE LORD!  How quickly he found out WHO he was serving though!!  King Amaziah was informed by the Prophet of GOD in 2 Chronicles 25:16 “2 Chronicles 25:16b “I know that GOD has determined to destroy you, because you have done this and have NOT LISTENED TO MY COUNSEL.”  King Amaziah was “caught up” in the celebration of wartime victory and chose the glamour of victory over LISTENING TO THE LORD!!!

Am I any better in my life??  Or do I tend to get so caught up in things considered to be “Ministry” that I neglect to WORSHIP my CREATOR???  

ALMIGHTY GOD is not in need of ANYTHING that I have the capability of saying or doing!  HE displayed this to me in July of 2007!  “My life” is most productive when I “BE STILL” and celebrate LIFE IN JESUS!!  HE does not need any assistance from a mere mortal body, rather HE accepts the PRAISE and ADORATION that I am CREATED to provide!!

Recently a picture from approximately 30 years ago was made known to me.  The photo was of my two sons standing just inside of our front door covered in dirt and filth!  This picture was a great reminder to me that although I sin and do things that don’t GLORIFY my SAVIOR, HE STILL LOVES ME and longs for me to accept HIS redemptive LOVE for my life!!

Do I want to be remembered as a “King Amaziah”?  Because of the SACRIFICIAL LOVE of JESUS,, GOD SEES me as JESUS!  When HE considers me, all that can be seen is someone HE LOVES, just as my sons!!!  My “account” has been PAID IN FULL!  

“HEAR THE WORD OF THE LORD”!!!!

“THE SPIRIT WHO IS FROM GOD!”

 1 Corinthians 2:6-12

Wisdom from the SPIRIT 

“[6] Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although IT IS NOT A WISDOM OF THIS AGE OR OF THE RULERS OF THIS AGE, who are doomed to pass away. [7] But we impart a secret and hidden WISDOM of GOD, which GOD DECREED BEFORE THE AGES for our glory. [8] None of the rulers of this age “understood” this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the LORD of glory. [9] But, as it is written, 

    “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,

        nor the heart of man imagined,

    what GOD has prepared for those who love HIM”—

    [10] THESE THINGS GOD HAS REVEALED TO US THROUGH THE SPIRIT. For the SPIRIT searches everything, EVEN THE DEPTHS OF GOD. [11] For who knows a person’s thoughts EXCEPT the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of GOD except the SPIRIT of GOD. [12] Now WE have received not the spirit of the world, but “THE SPIRIT WHO IS FROM GOD”, that we might understand the things freely given us by GOD.”

Most of humanity doesn’t have the capacity nor the capability to SEE what they are missing because the god of this world has them blinded from seeing TRUTH!  WE, the people who have been CHOSEN before THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD, can SEE that which others consider a useless ambition, something which we are wasting our time pursuing.  

It is difficult to gloat over being CHOSEN BY OUR CREATOR BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD when we had ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to offer as a contribution for being SELECTED by HIM!  Pure and simple, “THE SPIRIT WHO IS FROM GOD” is the ONLY HOPE that any of us have to rely upon!!!

“ON HIS LAW HE MEDITATES DAY AND NIGHT!”

 Psalm 1:1-2                    (ESV)

The Way of the Righteous and the Wicked

    “[1] BLESSED IS THE MAN

        who walks NOT in the counsel of the wicked,

    NOT stands in the way of sinners,

        NOR sits in the seat of scoffers; 

    [2] but HIS DELIGHT IS IN THE LAW OF THE LORD,

        and “ON HIS LAW HE MEDIATES DAY AND NIGHT”.”

The HOLY SPIRIT is speaking to me that I don’t need to get so involved with the cares of “this world”!  I AM A CHILD OF THE KING OF KINGS and LORD OF LORDS and I need to demonstrate that at ALL TIMES!!

I MUST DELIGHT IN THE LAW OF THE LORD and “ON HIS LAW I NEED TO MEDITATE DAY AND NIGHT”!!!

 

“IT IS WRITTEN!”

 Matthew 4:1-4                    (ESV)

The Temptation of JESUS 

“[1] Then JESUS was led up by the SPIRIT into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. [2] And after fasting forty days and forty nights, HE was hungry. [3] And the tempter came and said to HIM, “If you are the SON of GOD, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” [4] But HE answered, “”IT IS WRITTEN”, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by EVERY WORD that comes FROM THE MOUTH OF GOD.’”

Since I am considered to be an “uneducated” man, I tend to research things I write in an effort to make sure that I am sharing TRUTH, and NOT error!  Undoubtedly, I have failed in the past, and will from time to time fail again, until I am called HOME by my LORD and SAVIOR!  But it is my goal to expound nothing but TRUTH, and my prayer is that HE will take me HOME before I fail HIM too greatly!!!

In the preceding verses before Matthew 4, JESUS displayed humility as he was baptized by John in Matthew 3:14-17.  WHY did our CREATOR have a need to be baptized?  Could it be that HE was setting an example for us to follow, not to be SAVED, but as a TESTIMONY of HIS OBEDIENCE to our HEAVENLY FATHER!  I find it VERY telling that the CREATOR responded “IT IS WRITTEN” to “the enemy” in verses four, seven and ten of Matthew four!  How did JESUS KNOW the BIBLE so well at such a young age?  According to John 1 verse 1 “In the beginning was THE WORD, and THE WORD was with GOD, and THE WORD WAS GOD.  The SON IS THE WORD, and we mustn’t forget to recognize that point!

“The enemy” tried to tempt JESUS with temporal things that had no ETERNAL value to them.  My mortal mind IMMEDIATELY goes to Matthew 27:4 when Judas told the Chief Priest and the Pharisees when he was trying to GIVE BACK the 30 pieces of silver, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.” They said, “What is that to us? See to it yourself.”  Money had NO VALUE to him now, so he proceeded to hang himself (Matthew 27:5)!

Our LORD and SAVIOR KNEW THE WORD, because HE WAS THE WORD (John 1:1)!  HE KNEW what SCRIPTURE said, because HE WAS THE WORD!  Perhaps if I had a more serious and devoted relationship with “IT IS WRITTEN” I would be a stronger vessel to be used for HIS GLORY???

Romans 10:9

 Romans 10:9                    (ESV)

“[9] because, if you confess with your mouth that JESUS is LORD and believe in your heart that GOD raised HIM from the dead, YOU WILL BE SAVED.”

Psalms 46:10

 

HIS IMAGE

 

“JESUS AND PETER!”

 John 21:15-18                    (ESV)

“JESUS AND PETER”

“[15] When they had finished breakfast, JESUS said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love ME more than these?” He said to HIM, “Yes, LORD; YOU know that I love YOU .” HE said to him, “Feed MY lambs.” [16] HE said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love ME?” He said to HIM, “Yes, LORD; YOU know that I love YOU.” HE said to him, “Tend MY sheep.” [17] HE said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love ME?” PETER WAS GRIEVED because HE said to him the third time, “Do you love ME?” and he said to HIM, “LORD, YOU know everything; YOU know that I love YOU.” JESUS said to him, “Feed MY sheep. [18] Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.”

When I awoke this morning the song “Lovest thou me more than these” was in my brain damaged mind!  So I went to Scripture and tried to figure out WHAT it was about this encounter that needed to be RECORDED in the WORD OF GOD and referred to for the next two thousand years???  The next few words are simply my thoughts. 

Peter had a EXTREMELY vocal personality!!  I can just imagine that JESUS wanted him to CAREFULLY consider what he was saying, KNOWING that Peter would die in the manner that he did?  JESUS, knowing EVERYTHING as HE did, already KNEW the difficulties (and BLESSINGS!) that lie ahead for Peter and HE might have been preparing Peter for the ROAD ahead??

Trying to place myself in the place where Peter was in this post-resurrection encounter with THE SAVIOR OF THE WORLD, I can’t fathom that JESUS would possibly still LOVE me after I have failed HIM so greatly?  But, like Peter, I may need to SLOW DOWN and let the story of “JESUS AND PETER” change my life to where I can be USED to GLORIFY JESUS CHRIST and not be so concerned about ANYTHING else!!!