The Proverbs

On May 31, 2021   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Proverb 1: 1 – 7

These are the proverbs of Solomon, David’s son, king of Israel. Their purpose is to teach people wisdom and discipline, to help them understand the insights of the wise. Their purpose is to teach people to live disciplined and successful lives, to help them do what is right, just, and fair. These proverbs will give insight to the simple, knowledge and discernment to the young. Let the wise listen to these proverbs and become even wiser. Let those with understanding receive guidance by exploring the meaning in these proverbs and parables, the words of the wise and their riddles.

What better way to begin our journey through the proverbs than to discover the author and have him tell us the purpose for giving them? The book of Proverbs is the ultimate book of wisdom. Of course, wisdom is found throughout the Bible but this book succinctly discloses golden nuggets of wisdom for us.

Solomon begins his disclosure on how to receive wisdom in the very next verse when he tells us that the beginning of all wisdom is in reverential awe and respect of Yahweh. In God is all the wisdom of the universe so when we give our lives and time to Him, He reveals Himself and His wisdom to us.

Through this journey, we will acquire wisdom, discipline and insight. It’s going to be a great voyage!

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Happy Memorial Day

On May 27, 2021   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

 

As we pause this weekend to remember and honor those who gave their lives to protect our freedom, let us also remember the one who initially purchased that freedom for us.  Love is known by this, that Jesus willingly laid down his life for us (1 John 3: 16) so that we might be free.

The Word of the Day will start it’s summer schedule beginning next week.  Posts will be sent on Mondays only.  Since Psalm Mondays seemed to be enjoyed, we will begin Proverb Mondays.  We will start with Proverb 1 next week and then go through the Proverbs sequentially.  Read ahead and ask yourself which verse you would select from the next Proverb.

 

Have a happy Memorial Day!

 

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Revealed in You

On May 26, 2021   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

John 14: 21

The one who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and the one who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will reveal Myself to him.

I admit it; I am motivated by that last phrase, that Jesus will reveal himself to me. So, I back into the rest of the verse. If I want Jesus to reveal himself to me, then I must, first, have his commandments, and second, keep them. Keeping them means doing them. Well, what are Jesus’ commandments? When I began my Bible journey back in the 80’s, I began by reading the gospels with particular emphasis on the words written in red. And yes, I like the red letter Bible because Jesus’ words are in red, but truth be told, he is the Word so every word in the Bible is Jesus. Anyway, I started in Matthew but also read a psalm and a proverb each day. After that, I stayed in the habit of reading the Old Testament and the New. The One Year Bible is a nice tool for getting a bit of each every day.

Before we can keep Jesus’ commandments, we must know what they are. Watching how he acted and hearing his words instructs us. Doing his commandments is different. Most of us begin through an act of our willpower. And, for most of us, that is doomed to failure. The way to do his works and follow his commandments is to give ourselves over to him. The book of John talks about living in and with the trinity. I meditated on that book for a long time and still am. Jesus told us that it is not by our strength, but by our surrender that we live to Christ and show the Father within us. It sounds easy but it is the hardest thing in the world. We must die to self and put on the new self which is Christ in us.

When we let go of doing things of our will and design; when we let him intertwine with us, then he is revealed, and it is glorious. So, interestingly, the more you let go, the more you get. Not only does Christ love you but he is able to show you his love. He is able to express himself and his love to you and through you.

We must know the person of Christ, but all the study in the world will not help you to know the love of Christ and see him revealed. There are plenty of folks who have Bible knowledge but do not have the love of Christ flowing through them. That comes by putting our egos on the shelf and letting him be Lord. It comes through meditative surrender which is a function of trusting Jesus and courage. Some people are too afraid of what they will see in themselves if they ever get quiet enough to let truth arise. Jesus is truth but he is also life so where there is truth, there is life. When we allow him to speak to our hearts, he is able to express his love to us and that, in turn, is seen by the world as we naturally keep his commandments.

Let Jesus bless your heart today. Let him speak to you and reveal himself to you. He is the glory of God and he lives in you. Wow, that is amazing!

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The Good You See

On May 25, 2021   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

John 14: 7 – 10

“If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him.” Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you for so long a time, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? The one who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own, but the Father, as He remains in Me, does His works.”

Jesus came to earth, in part, to show us the Father. He told Philip that having seen him, he had seen the Father. So, I think that begs the question, how are people supposed to see Jesus today?

Jesus was the perfect representation of the Father. He didn’t claim to do anything on his own but rather that it was the Father who did the works. By his works, Philip, and indeed everyone, was supposed to understand that he was seeing the Father. This made me think that, again, Jesus modeled something for us. In other words, perhaps Jesus is seen and known today the way God was shown then, through others. Wouldn’t it be great to say, with confidence, if you’ve seen me, you’ve seen Jesus? Wow! Imagine, people can know Jesus because they know you. That is an ambassador of the highest rank.

Jesus shows no reservation in proclaiming his authentic representation of the Father. That is remarkable. I would hate for people to see my flaws and think they are representative of Jesus. We might say, though, that any good you see in me, is Jesus. Or, to the degree you see any good in me, you have seen Jesus. That’s fair.

Maybe after meditating on this passage, I can be more kind, forgiving and considerate. And maybe like Jesus, I won’t take credit for any good you see, because it’s not me. “The good you see, is Jesus in me.” I like that. Be blessed today.

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The End

On May 24, 2021   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Psalm 150

Praise the LORD!
Praise God in His sanctuary;
Praise Him in His mighty expanse.
2 Praise Him for His mighty deeds;
Praise Him according to His excellent greatness.
3 Praise Him with trumpet sound;
Praise Him with harp and lyre.
4 Praise Him with tambourine and dancing;
Praise Him with stringed instruments and flute.
5 Praise Him with loud cymbals;
Praise Him with resounding cymbals.
6 Everything that has breath shall praise the LORD.
Praise the LORD!

What a fitting way to end Psalm Mondays, with praise. Praise Him in every way imaginable. Praise the Lord!

If you have never given yourself over to praise before, today is the day. Don’t let another day go by without your praise being lifted to heaven. Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!

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I Am . . .

On May 21, 2021   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

John 14: 6

“I am the way, and the truth, and the life.”

We may think of this as a simple verse. It is well known also. I wonder, though, if it has profound depths that we don’t always see.
Imaging being one of Jesus’ disciples. You are sitting together after supper and he says, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.”  What would you think? One of my first questions is, the way to what? The better question would be, the way to whom? Jesus is the way to God. We know no one goes to God apart from Jesus. What we may lose touch with is that part of Jesus’ mission in the earth was to connect the Father with His people. He doesn’t want us to have a great relationship with him because we are “Christians” and fail to have a great relationship with our Father.

What about the truth? What did Jesus mean by that? Were his disciples perplexed? He is all truth and in him is no untruth, no deceitfulness. What an amazing statement that is. You do not have to question his motives or his words. What he says, literally, is gospel. Any word Jesus has ever spoken is absolute in its veracity. The other side of the coin is that no lie has any part in him. No, untruthfulness, deceit, fraud, cheating, treachery or duplicity has any part in him. He is whole in his honesty and forthrightness.

“I am the life.” He is eternal life, yes, but he is also the air we breathe right now. Because he is the life, we know he is alive. If he was not alive, nothing else could have life. I often wonder if the world began to die those three days he was in the grave. Did the life begin to seep out of the earth? Another thought, he said he came here to give us abundant life. Okay, if he is the life, then he came to give us himself in abundance, right? He is to be found by us and absorbed, breathed, and lived.

Well, perhaps it is a simple verse but it sure is amazing to ponder.

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Healing Word

On May 20, 2021   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

James 3: 17

But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peace-loving, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial, free of hypocrisy.

I told you the story about the rash I had and the miracle healing of it. Well, there are a couple of interesting take aways from that story. First, it really wasn’t a miracle healing at all. It was just God being God. I didn’t receive prayer and “Eureka” the rash was gone. It vanished because God had already provided healing and I finally cooperated with Him. The second important take away was that it wasn’t a Word from God on healing that I needed. It was a revelation on, first, prayer, and second, repentance. The important lesson from this little example is that it might not be healing you need. It might be repentance, or obedience, or something else entirely.

I heard another story like this once. The administrator of the ministry school I attended told this story one evening about praying for her sick child. She faithfully sat at his bedside confessing every healing scripture she knew and praying diligently for his health. The child’s health continued to deteriorate until he was at the point of death. She did everything she knew to do, but she didn’t do everything God knew to do, at least not until she received a revelation from Him. Exhausted and defeated, she turned to God and in those quiet moments, when not even prayer was being said, she heard God’s word. He told her she was praying the wrong thing. As she listened to that calm voice within her, the truth was revealed. She hastened to pray according to the word of wisdom from God and the child recovered.

I could have prayed and prayed and prayed for healing from the virus that caused the rash. I could speak to the rash and tell it to be gone. Those things would have left me frustrated, confused and still covered in a rash. It was the Word from God which healed me. Healing was in doing what Father told me to do.

We don’t always know what we need. We don’t always know the underlying cause of a thing. It looks like we need physical healing, but God might say we need emotional healing. I just read yesterday that 85% of illness has emotional roots. He might show us that we have gotten off course and the path we’re on has unintended, negative consequences so that the remedy is to get back on course. The point is, we just don’t know what we don’t know. However, God is omniscient. He knows. We need to learn how to be still; to be quiet and let Him speak to our hearts. He will lead us if we allow Him to.

This is why I have been encouraging meditation, stillness and quiet. I have written in years past about “busy” being a four-letter word. It all has to do with hearing God and receiving His guidance. When we get so busy that we no longer have the opportunity for quiet time with God, then we are too busy. It’s not healthy for us nor productive in the long term. Take some time to be in the tranquil presence of the Lord and let him speak to your heart.

See also: Psalm 46:10, Psalm 32: 1

 

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