Pennsylvania Scenery 1 Corinthians 3:18 Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise. 1 Corinthians 3:19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness. 1 Corinthians 3:20 And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain. The Delphic Oracle was quite popular with the Corinthian people. This group of Maxims was part of what Paul criticized above in his first epistle. Supposedly given by the god Apollo, some of these principles raise the eyebrows. Others sound very familiar, to our chagrin. “Know thyself,” came from the Maxims, also “Be yourself.” “Pray for happiness” and “Benefit yourself,” “Gratify without harming.” That’s some sweet wisdom if your life is beaten up; sarcastically speaking. Too bad it was…
Category: <span>Personal God</span>
“Like as a father pitieth* his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. For He knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.” Psalm 103:13-14 (*to love, love deeply, have mercy, be compassionate, have tender affection, have compassion.) God pities us. Do you know Him that way? If so, it might change a lot of things. Mom and dad taught us “don’t be a complainer, don’t whine about everything.” I understand why. God differently says, “come to me, you will find pity.” Father knows we are made of dust. Have you failed a lot lately? Be honest with Him. Is it because your circumstances are unbearable? Don’t make excuses for sin, but please tell Him all about everything. We must endure much on this earth, but sometimes our rear ends are getting kicked and we are not making it. Tell your Father in Heaven; He pities you…
The awareness of shame is a reckoning with lost innocence, the realization that one now has the potential to hurt another and be hurt, to honor God and to dishonor Him. Shame is the pervasive effect and affect of sin.Shame is the raincoat of the soul, repelling the living water that would otherwise establish us as the beloved of God. We believe falsely that our sin disqualifies us from receiving His love. Andrew Comisky Let mine adversaries be clothed with shame, and let them cover themselves with their own confusion, as with a mantle. Psalm 109:29 As he clothed himself with cursing like as with his garment, so let it come into his bowels like water, and like oil into his bones. Let it be unto him as the garment which covereth him, and for a girdle wherewith he is girded continually. Psalm 109:18-19 The business of putting on a…
In our suffering we may face gloom at dawn, and dawn after dawn, on and on, it stays. Grieving pain is longsuffering, expanding, lingering. It keeps on keeping on, reduces curing to schemes of preservation; ignores the total healing potential. Bodily aches require pain relievers, salves, creams, and rest. Pain of loss needs equal kinds of attention. First of my strategies in soul-trauma was to eliminate downward-turning advancements toward the mind-emotion-conscience etc. especially feelings. This exercise was simply “wound protection,” accepted since making peace with the loitering wound was considered a normal function. I became acquainted with just how much my wound would endure, which was not that much. I nursed it; after all, it assumed a prominent place in my soul. Woundees are a particular breed. As one of them, I didn’t really savor being around negative people. I craved love and attention; it was easy to discern skeptical…
Love allured me as my barely remaining chance. Nothing else attracted me. My shattering had stamped out any lingering self-effort in me; even the sense of nerves stirring had vanished. Inertia bound me. I became the man under the bed covers on a cold winter morning, paralyzed. I concluded, “The next transpiration of events would take place toward me, but not from me.” Then God came to me. He found me in my pool of blood, so to speak, and said “live.” Did you hear? God began to talk to me — thoughts of love, reintegration, joining, and joy. Love counterpoised my “death of soul,” percolating the threat and leaving it to seem like a mere concoction of my imagination. Then it set on fire a new beginning. Love’s infiltrating spheroid introduced an orb of extreme well-being in me, a far superior one with warmth and surety. Now, enveloping…
God laughed. Yes, from heaven He laughed in their face, at their calamity, at their delusion. The most sincere, He found hilariously funny, and justly cared not at their cultural correctness. The thoughts in the hearts of these wayward were only evil continually, and God flooded the world with no blinking. Noah in the mean time had built an ark of insulation, got in it with family and some animals, and was shielded from the laughing-wrath event. God didn’t change His mind at the crying of the ark-less, the drowning of the devil-logged proceeded. “Good riddance, I hope you enjoyed your brief excursion here on earth, but now we must move on to a cleansed and scoured new world, (paraphrase mine).” Pro 1:24-26 says, “Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; But ye have set at nought all my counsel,…
Taken at creation museum in Kentucky “Hope happens when a person who has none gets some.” “Some what?” “Well, I figure that the firm impression leading them to believe that they will get some is the ‘some,’ for now, giving them hope.” “Oh?” “Well, more than a feeling, they have some kind of promissory indication.” “That helps, but who is doing the promising? Are they trustworthy?” “Must be, or no hope happens.” “Are they able?” “They must be that too.” “Can a random event mess up the promise, even though a person is true and strong?” “I guess.” “I suppose we need a promise from one who is faithful, powerful and above all circumstances to bring hope.” “Like God?” “Yes, it must be God. Hope-giving phenomena relates to the helmet of salvation in Ephesians 6, but also to the helmet of the “hope of salvation” in Thessalonians 5:8. Martin Lloyd-Jones…
I and the Holy Spirit become inseparable when we two walk together agreed, for it is in Psalm 36:9 that “in thy, (His), light we see light.” In 2 Corinthians 4:6 we find these words; “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” In Proverbs 4:18 this light progresses in its illumination, and the succession sanctifies us as we go. Now, light and forward movement both, take the “one time” sanctification of our soul, and unfold the glory of it to us in a process. So, we are set apart unto God, once and for all at salvation and the unfolding revelation to us of this fact takes us closer to its truth in a practical realization. We walk in a moment by moment…
Life began on the first day of the week; on that, of all days first, when the sinless Savior died. It came out of Him, a fountain erupted, and swept the plains, valleys and hills till the life-effect sprouted buddings and blooms tall and broad. Bitter waters turned sweet and an ax head swam home to shore. A great net retrieved fish till net-burst, then waters came out of a person’s belly. A man stood up and walked right on the waters; which same waters make glad the city of God. Devils rankled the waters and a storm erupted, heads got washed; then calm resisted so feet got a good washing later. The waters headed north, over the mountains; an ark-boat buoyed, one and only to be seen. Men came out of that time capsule and water became wine at a wedding, many a year later. Yes, showers of blessing drenched the vines and men…
Before the throne of God above, I have a strong and perfect plea, a great High Priest, whose name is love, who ever lives and pleads for me, my name is graven on His hands, my name is written on His heart, I know that while in heaven He stands, no tongue can bid me thence depart, no tongue can bid me thence depart. Selah “When Satan tempts me to despair, and tells me of the guilt within, upward I look and see Him there, who made an end to all my sin, because the sinless Savior died, my sinful soul is counted free, for God the Just is satisfied, to look on Him and pardon me, to look on Him and pardon me.” The song continues. David feared to bring the ark of God into the city of David, having watched as that Holy Presence smote…