“The survivors of the destruction of Jerusalem, left in Judah after the banishment of their fellow countrymen to the Euphrates, seemed, for the time, overwhelmed by the calamities that had befallen their nation. The Temple they had thought invulnerable was burnt to the ground; Jerusalem, in which they had gloried as “the joy of the whole earth” was a waste of blackened ruins. The town gates seemed to have sunk into the ground; the roads to Zion, once thronged with pilgrims, lay untraveled; no concourse gathered outside the walls, for gossip or business; even the walls themselves were thrown down, the jackals haunted the holy hill!” “For ages past every event in their national history, whether glorious or sorrowful, had been commemorated in the lyrics handed down from generation to generation. The defeat of Pharaoh, the triumph over Sisera, the death of Saul and Jonathan, the overthrow of the northern…
Category: <span>Personal God</span>
” For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.” Our lives are hidden lives, we are with Christ, and we are with Him in the Father. Who is to call into question the Chosen ones of God? God justifies. He declares them legally righteous. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died and rose again, and He is at the right hand of God, making intercession for us. Who can separate you from the love of God? Tribulation or imprisonment or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? Romans 8:33-34 All is actual in the place of “dead and hidden.” All is legally ours, but what about in our experience? The plan of God goes to work. “According as it is written, For thy sake we are put to death all the day long; we have been reckoned as sheep for…
Love, with heat and moisture, irons out a wrinkle, mends a broken heart. It even unifies a division, straightens a crooked or double mind. An animal may respond to love, so might a tree; these have some form of life in them. But, a man or woman cannot survive without love! The sophisticated psyche of a man checks his barbaric side. He remains cool. He would like to run amok all over the planet, but stifles his urges. Then he is told of “liberation” and feels cheated and hypocritical. He begins to explore his dark barbarism, but has no understanding of its depth. He senses that the cost for “liberation” will be rejection from the sophisticates, but the feeling of “free” empowers him forward. He affirms his rights of individuality; becomes more and more barbaric. He wonders where love has gone, but he has forsaken its initiation; he has chosen…
Dreams of falling are quite common — Off cliffs, buildings, down ravines. I just reviewed five web-pages of over 100 web-sites which claim to give the meaning of the “falling” dream. Psychology, Astrology, Christianity and even Hollywood all weigh in. Seems to be an obsession with the meaning of “falling” dreams. In contrast, the Bible teaches in Jude 24, ” (He)… is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy” What’s up? Blaise Pascal observes the condition of natural man: Inconstant, bored, anxious. Young people he describes as: all noise, diversions, and thoughts for the future. He says: “We think playing upon a man is like playing upon an ordinary organ. It is indeed an organ, but strange, shifting, and changeable. Those who only know how to play an ordinary organ would never be in tune on this one.…
South Africa has the deepest hard rock gold mine up to 12800 feet underground. At such depths the heat is unbearable for humans, and air conditioning is required for the safety of the workers. Wikipedia On average it takes 10-20 years before a gold mine is even ready to produce material that can be refined. Long before any gold can be extracted, significant exploration and development needs to take place, both to determine as accurately as possible, the size of the deposit as well as how to extract and process the ore efficiently, safely and responsibly. www.gold.org.n.d. What can we learn? “It may be hard, dark or hot, but we clever humans have ciphered grabbing and stacking gold and gems. Grabbing wisdom tells a different story and we faint while getting it, because wisdom shows itself a “different animal.” We fail wisdom mining even though time money and great sacrifice…
2 Corinthians 5:19 speaks a great truth to us, “That is, in Messiah, God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them; and He has entrusted the message of reconciliation to us.” The Savior brought us a new consciousness, and in that conscience there is no ledgering of a person’s willful trespasses. 2 Corinthians 4:6 tells us why, “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.” When this light enters a heart, then comes an immediate “knowing,” because Jesus is the Light of the World. Many use their eye-gate to evaluate the world, they answer for themselves the question of “how.” This means they can give a whole chart describing the function and content of the eye from scientific…
Good people all this Christmas time, consider well and bear in mind, …
People do similar things but for different reasons. Some folks know why they do what they do, others have not a clue why. Motivations include: Love, care, compassion, hatred, indebtedness, or fear. Money moves some, or gain of power. Other ones have altruistic drives and follow a rule of what they deem as right. Still others operate from a deceitful heart. Is their a correct one? In Matthew 21:23-27 Jesus discerns motivation. “… the chief priests and the elders of the people came unto him (Jesus) as he was teaching, and said, By what authority do thou these things? and who gave thee this authority? And Jesus answered them with a question, “… “The baptism of John, whence was it? from heaven, or of men? And they reasoned with themselves, saying, If we shall say, From heaven; he will say unto us, Why did ye not then believe him? But if…
When life is not fair: then I must leave the “fair/unfair” plane of existence. I must heighten my meager “fairness” concept to find God’s Spirit of life. I must accept my day’s wage of a penny, and realize that all get the same, “grace.” Kristen Butler said this “Sometimes you just need to talk to a four year old and an 84 year old to understand life again. powerofpositivity “If life is unfair with everyone, doesn’t that make life fair?” — Magaola Friends, accepting the unfairness of life — does that help us? I think rather that it breeds pessimism. No, our Father instead has asked us to climb into His wisdom and insight — to share with Him the deep meaning of the universe He created, and also later redeemed. The point of unfairness lies in our tainted, finite, partially blinded perspective — not in some seeming oversight of God. God…
“And my soul is removed far off from peace, I forgot prosperity And I said: ‘My strength is perished, and mine expectation from the Lord. Remember mine affliction and mine anguish, the wormwood and the gall. My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is bowed down within me. This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.” Lamentations 3:17-21 JPS I have given much attention to my capacity to respond to truth. This capacity, can we call it hunger? — is not self perpetuated, or self taught. It requires action on the part of God. So, in the writer’s hopeless state, he reflects on God’s coming initiations, they are sure to restore hope. In Psalm 42 the writer exclaims “hope thou in God,” as he instructs his own soul. Micah the Prophet wrote these words, “Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy; though I am fallen, I shall…