Month: June 2014

The time of the iris’ blooming is over and now we look to the annuals in the garden to begin to make things colorful once again. One of the things that I am learning about yard work and gardening is that you have to just keep at it. When one thing finishes making the

yard look marvelous, spends it days and is no more, then it is time to have something else planted to take its place in the color department. Growing plants take time to envelop a garden. We must learn to wait on them, care for them and enjoy the journey. It is called diligence.

Diligence is not a word we know much about in our modern life-style, but this morning as I was taking my regular reading and prayer time with the Lord Jesus, He reminded me about a missionary I know. She was sent to a particular province in a far eastern nation to plant a church as that province did not have one. So she went full of excitement and encouragement to bring many to Christ and establish the local church.

Planting Seeds

She arrived and rented a house with a large front room. She turned that room into the meeting room, set it up like a church, piano and all. She advertised her service through-out the village and was excited for the day to come. The Sunday came that she had advertised that she would begin services. She lived in the back part of the house, so she came into the front part early to greet the people. The beginning time came and went, but the people did not come. So she sat down at the piano and began to worship the Lord. After the period of time she had planned for worship, she stood and delivered her message to the empty seats.

Watering Seeds

She continued doing this Sunday after Sunday, week after week, month after month. Even after she made friends and people knew who she was and what was happening, still no one came. Or so she thought. Since it was mild outside, she always had the windows open in the “church room.” She had no way of knowing that early in these months, the children of the neighborhood began to come under the open window to hear the songs and the stories. They were hidden from her view and were so quiet that she did not know they were there. At first it was the younger ones, then the older ones. By the time she discovered them, she had been having “church” for her supposedly empty chairs for almost two years.

Plentiful Harvest

When it came time for her to leave that post and go to her next missionary assignment, she was replaced with a dedicated couple who were to pastor her very special church full of people who loved the Lord.

The Lord has his ways of training us and of using us. She was diligent to do what the Lord told her to do, even when no one was there (she thought) to hear or take advantage of what she was doing. We never know who the Lord has listening. We are so prone to measure by money and numbers that we often miss what God is doing. He calls and empowers us to obedience and diligence in that obedience. So as we learn to rest in His call and His appointment, we learn the priceless secret of “diligence.” Or as the Bible would say “faithfulness.”

Thank you Lord that you measure things very differently that we do. Teach us to number our days only in You and allow You to measure out the results as supply. The harvest is always bountiful and never skimpy. Thank you Lord for such love and increase.

So as we look to flower beds (appointed work) not yet full of color. Let’s remember to be faithful to care for them (to be diligent in what has been assigned) and allow the Creator to make all beautiful with our small seed efforts.  We have such a marvelous Lord!

As you can see from the header and this insert, my iris’ are really lovely this year. I am enjoying them so very much. I have recently added other flowers to the beds, as soon the iris’ will have completed their flowering time, we will need color then. I am enjoying it all. Now to the Word.

 “The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple; Psalm 19:7b NKJV

The word “testimony” means just that. In our understanding one’s testimony means the story of their walk with the Lord. In Hebrew, it is always a reference back to the Torah – the Law of YHWH. However, even if we add a bit of our understanding to it, the entire Word of the LORD is the story of our His faithfulness. He is always faithful and can never be unfaithful to His Word in any way. Hence, when we continue on with the next word, this helps us understand what the Word is actually saying.

The word “sure” in Hebrew is actually the word “believe” if translated literally. This is where Bible translators (we must honor them and pray for them for it is a very difficult job) have to know the “sense” of the Word beyond its literally meaning. It most generally is used in Hebrew to indicate “support,” “security,” “confirmation.” So we see the way the NKJV translated it, “sure” is very good. The story of the LORD’s faithfulness makes us very secure. It eliminates fear and anxiety in every way. The answer for all fear in the heart is to trust the LORD and His faithfulness.

“Making wise,” is to be wise, or to become wise. In other words, to trust the LORD and His Word is to become wise. The last word in this phrase is “simple,” or “foolish.” It means just what it says. To trust the LORD and His Word is to make one who is foolish or lacks understanding become a wise one.

What marvelous facts stored for us in opening our hearts and using our minds to read, study and meditate on the Word of Almighty God. With the Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit inside of us, we already have this Word written on our hearts and in our minds (Jeremiah 31:31-34 and also in Hebrews 8 & 10). All we need to do is avail ourselves of the opportunity to invest ourselves in Him through His Word.

If we study out “wisdom” in the Scripture, we will find it is always a gift from the Lord and never a result of getting old or educated by various trials. Wisdom is always available to anyone who will ask, according to James. However, when we love the Lord Jesus and want to know Him more, then we turn to the Word because the knowledge of God is contained there.

Let’s do it! Let’s begin to trust what we read and study and begin to meditate on it in our minds. It is for us. Have a blessed day in His wonderful love and wisdom!

As you can clearly see from my header, my iris’ are in full bloom and just beautiful. I have several varieties as they have come to me as gifts from dear friends. My neighbors really enjoy them too. Thank you Friends. They possess such a fullness of beauty.

“The Law of the LORD is perfect, refreshing the soul.”    Psalm 19:7 TNIV

(I would like to “unpack” this for us today. I am consulting an interlinear of the Hebrew and English so I can understand the dimensions of the words in the original Hebrew. For those of you who love to study this way, I recommend to you Biblos.com and its Biblehub. It is an outstanding full Bible program totally on-line. I go to the interlinear section and have it take me to the correct passage. Play around with it for a while; you will be glad to have this easy resource which can be used in any device with an internet connection).

The Word of God reflects the nature of its author and source, Almighty God. He is a dimensional being; meaning you can’t really ever discover all He is. He is always the same and at the same time so deeply vast as to not be simply nor complicated. He will always give us just as much of Him as we desire. Our concepts of that are so limited as sometimes to be laughable, yet in love He continually gives all our beings can receive.

Since we are created in His image, we too are dimensional beings. We have relationships that are deep and intimate. At the same time, we have relationships that are shallow and deal only in surface matters. As He is in relational matters, so are we. That being true, when we write, we write out of who we are what we think. So the writing can be shallow or deep, warm or cold, revealing or hidden. Therefore, we need to know that the Word of God written in our Bible is also dimensional. To truly get dimensional understandings, we must take the time to study deeply and that is normally done through the original languages. These helps are so available to all of us now, that I just recommend you begin to do some of it and allow your heart to be enriched by what you find. The Word is magnificent, just like our God!

The word used for ‘Law” is the Hebrew word “Torah,” which is understood to be the first five books of the Bible.  Other words descriptive of this word are “direction” and “instruction” as the Torah contains all of that. So we could correctly read, “The instruction of the LORD …,” or “The direction of the LORD….”

“The instruction of the LORD…;” the word used here is literally YHWH, or the covenant name our Father revealed to Abraham in Exodus. We commonly understand this as “I Am that I Am.” This is also the term in the Greek that Jesus often used for Himself. So the identity of the person doing the instruction is clear.

“The instruction of YHWH is perfect.” The word for “perfect” can also be translated as “complete,” or “sound.” So we could read, “The instruction of YHWH is complete.”

“The instruction of YHWH is complete, refreshing….” The word used for refreshing can also be “turning back,” “return,” “convert,” or to “restore.” Any of those can accurately be used. So now let’s read, “The instruction of YHWH is complete turning back the soul.”

The word used for “soul” can also mean, “living being, “life,” “self,” “person,” “desire,” “emotion,” appetite,” “passion.” So we could read, “The instruction of YHWH is complete, turning back the person (or emotion, or passion, or self etc…). The sense is that it returns one from what has been harmful and brings them back to what is restorative and therefore refreshing.

So the conclusion of the matter is that the Word of God is complete and very sound and by its very nature is able to restore individuals to wholeness. Some translations read, “restores the soul.”

Now we understand that, every thought, every feeling, every appetite, literally everything is brought into wholeness by a good dose of the Word of our God. That’s right, the Word infused with the Holy Spirit who lives within us is able to bring into clarity and sweetness everything about us. I wonder why we look so hard for quick-fixes instead of spending quality time reading and processing the Word of God? Something to think about.

Lord, we are yours. In your love, mercy and grace, show us these truths. Ground us solidly in a Spirit-understanding of these powerful words of life. Thank you.