Category: Bible, Gospel, Life

“Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. Do not put out the Spirit’s fire. Do not treat prophecies with contempt but test them all; hold on to what is good, reject whatever is harmful.

May God himself, the God of peace sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.” 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24 TNIV

These verses are often taught during this season of the year. These matters are commandments in the Christian life. As we live in Him, there are always choices. Just as we choose Him to be our Savior and entered into the life of His expression, so too as we learn, He continually leads us into the best choices.

To be thankful is an attitude of mind that will set us free and guard our minds of much that plagues our Christian world. When we choose thankfulness, it will be impossible to “suck our own thumb” in self-pity. Thankfulness immediately has a response in us. When we enter genuine thankfulness, then our hearts come up and we are able to think much more clearly. One of the problems of self-pity is as we engage in it our thoughts get trapped in a self-focused world that has problems truly seeing what is real and what is not. When everything is overshadowed with my self-pity filters, then my thoughts get muddled and my attitude then is determined by my circumstances. Thankfulness is a road to healing in such times.  David expressed this in Psalm 42:11 TNIV (as well as in other Psalms)

“Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.”

So Beloved Reader, let us begin to give thanks and allow it to permeate our thought patterns. Life will be better for it.  Go for it!

Have a Marvelous Blessed Thanksgiving!

Well, Precious Readers, it was quite chilly here in Central New York this morning, so fall is definitely on the way. The leaves are beginning to change and fall. I love this time of year, but really am not looking forward to raking all those leaves that will fall on the property. I know, it keeps me young or tired – one of them, I think.

As I wrote my “prayer letter” this morning to my intercessors (go to Prayer if you would like to receive this weekly update on the ministry and my schedule. Just fill in the form and click the gray button on the bottom/left area of the page. This goes directly to my lists and does not get used for anything other than my prayer letter and notifications that I choose to send to this group. I assure you there will be no pleas for funds sent to you) I referenced in my letter Colossians 2:20-23. I want to spend a few minutes here to expand on that a bit.

“Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations– ‘Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle,’ which all concern things which perish with the using — according to the commandments and doctrines of men? These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.” 

We read this and then actively participate in certain accepted Christian practices that fit right with in that framework. I have in the past, even taught courses of study on them. Yet, the Word is so very clear about our New Covenant status:

“I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.” Galatians 5:16. Also, Titus 2:11-12 “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.” 

Grace teaches us how to order our lives by Holy Spirit instruction through the Word of God in freedom and joy. The law only teaches of sin. The blood of Jesus, once engaged releases us into His joy of forgiveness and freedom to experience Him through Holy Spirit’s inward witness with the Word. All this becomes such an overwhelming interaction in relationship that there is no room for legalism or “sin concentration” or overt sin behavior – because this relationship is so complete in its provision that any participation in those matters belittles the love and freedom given through the gift of our Lord Jesus Christ. Any “acting-out” of the other concentration reveals the relationship gap. Being a Christian is not about gradually “becoming” something, but learning to “Be” as He is in His provision. Let’s re-read this Bible of ours!

Seems to me we need to really saturate our teaching and thinking with the provision instead of lack. Glory!

(All Scripture taken from NKJV)

Our Psalm 19 Ministries Institute of Biblical Studies begins in just a couple of weeks. ENROLL NOW so we will be ready for you when class begins. Registration and all details are available on-line at psalm19ministries.org or you can call us at 315-727-6194. These courses are exciting and full for the breath of the Holy Spirit. You will love what you will discover and your relationship with our Lord Jesus will soar.

“And remember I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:20b

“Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you? 1 Corinthians 3:18

Why is it we really do not believe these New covenant truths? Why is it we are always trying to “get closer to God” when He lives within us as believers? Even David in the Old Covenant understood that the Lord never left him. He wrote out his heart about this in the Psalms. “Where can I go to escape your spirit? Where can I flee to escape your presence? If I were to sprawl out in Sheol, there you would be. If I were to fly away on the wings of the dawn, and settle down on the other side of the sea, even there your hand would guid me, your right hand would grab hold of me. If I were to say ‘Certainly the darkness will cover me, and the light will turn to night all around me,’ even the darkness is not too dark for you to see, and the night is as bight as day; darns and light are the same to you.” Psalm 129:7-12 Yet in today’s “church” world folk are always working hard, in deep sincerity of heart, to repent enough, to read enough, to pray enough, to fast enough, on and on it goes. Everything is promoted as the key to get us “closer to God.”

I wonder just how the Lord feels about all that work and effort, when He did all that was needed for us to dwell in His heart as He does in ours? I wonder if it ever frustrates Him that we really do not seem to believe Him. We need to do something to make it happen. Just what is this demon that keeps us moving in unbelief and faithlessness?

He is here. He is in you, if indeed you have believed. Nothing, no thought, no word, no breath happens that He is not intimately acquainted with. Just so close, wrapping us in His grace, love and mercy. Lord may we seek to enter your rest in all this “stuff,” and trust you. You are here. You are speaking with us, and our efforts need to be turned another direction.

There is need for effort, but not this way. Our efforts are to be through His rest and through His Word in His Kingdom, working His will – which is in us. Let’s see, it says “…for the one bringing forth in you both the desire and the effort – for the sake of his good pleasure – is God.” Philippians 2:13. “Therefore we must be wary that, while the promise of entering his rest remains open, none of you may seem to have come short of it. For we had good news proclaimed to us just as they did. But the message they heard did them no good, since they did not join in with those who heard it in faith. For we who have believed enter that rest,….” Hebrews 4:1-3a

Read “Truth About Distance” in the Writings on this blog for more thoughts this direction.

I have written the following encouragement to my Intercessors in my prayer letter so thought I would just include it here as an encouragement to you as well. Thank you for reading.

“Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,

who comforts us in all our troubles

so that we may be able to comfort
those 
experiencing any trouble with the comfort
with which we ourselves are comforted by God.”

2 Corinthians 1:3-4 NET Bible

Several days ago, the Lord began to work with me regarding this scripture. It is always appropriate, to use the word “comfort” in this text, but I would like, to broaden our understanding of it just a bit. 

The Greek word used here for “comfort” is “paraklésis” and means  – “The core-meaning of paráklēsis (“personal urging”) is shaped by the individual context, so it can refer to: exhortation, warning, encouragement (comfort), etc. ” (This is from Strong’s word studies on http://BibleHub.com ). You will recognize its kinship to the Greek word we use for the Holy Spirit as the one with us, along side of us, our helper, etc….

So this word would be just as accurately (or even more accurately) translated as “encouragement.” It gives it a broader meaning and more accurately displays for us the heart of the Father. Let’s read the passage with it translated that way.

“Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all encouragement,
who encourages us in all our troubles
so that we may be able to encourage those
experiencing any trouble with the encouragement
with which we ourselves are encouraged by God.”

Now you see what a broader meaning it holds for us. Whether it is “comfort” or “encouragement” or any of the other synonyms that could be used, it is good to see it means more than to help those who have loss something or someone. It includes all of us in our every day lives.

We look to other people and to circumstances to bring us comfort and encouragement – but this passage is not primarily talking about that. It does not say I can encourage you with the encouragement I have received from others. (Now certainly we need to be encouragers of one another but the problem comes when we are the source of that for others or they are the source of that for us).

These two verses are pointing us to our Father. He is the one who intimately loves, enfolds and encourages us. If we only receive it from external sources, it will eventually not be there for us. It is in our intimate relationship with our Beloved Lord Jesus in the Father’s heart that will give us enough encouragement to sustain us and urge us forward in our daily lives.

How it must cause Him sorrow that so many of us live sad, depressed lives simply because of some perceived non-met need we hold dear! How very sad that we move from event to event, from person to person expecting His touch for something special for our lives, when all the while He is within us (as born-from-above believers) abiding and supplying more than enough vision and encouragement for the journey. We have all been this and experienced this – guilty. I am so grateful for His love, grace and forgiveness in that grace. I have been encouraged just this morning as I was pondering some items and feeling discouraged about them – then I sensed Him pointing me to His promise. Oh Yeah! So then I chose to believe and trust Him. Immediately within me, peace and anticipation of all good things rose and I begin to function beyond the problems! Thank you Lord.

May your heart and life find great encouragement in Him today. His love, encouragement and provision is always ours.

“The commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes;….” Psalm 19:8b

The words, statues, Torah, commandment, instructions, teachings etc… all are synonymous with one another through out this passage. Each word has the infused (exhaled) breath of God and all the enlightening power of that investment .  “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” Deuteronomy 4:4 Every word is important and every word needs to be taken to heart and learned to live in as bread to our persons.

This particular “word” tells us that our Father has no hidden or different motive but simply to be true and up front with you. His words are not mean’t to manipulate or force in any way. They are clean, pure and good.

These “Words” spoken or written by our Father do something supernatural. They bring light to the eyes of our understanding and we begin to “see” what was unseeable and to understand what was hidden and to lead us to live by walking where we can see. It is a dreadful thing not to be able to use our eyes. When in a darkened environment our eyes do adjust, but our ability to function is very limited. However, when light comes, the eyes immediately adjust and are able to know how to walk well without bumping into things.

This is the effect of the Word in our lives. There are many things we do not know. Our answers are in Him and through His Word. He treasures our hearts and longs to allow us to see what we cannot see. I am thinking of Proverbs 2:1-9. I will not write it all here, but urge you to read it and notice the progressive seeking of the Word by one who wants to know Him.

There are also three scriptures that come to mind and all of them are in the Gospel of John:

John 8:12, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”

John 14:21 “He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love Him and manifest Myself to him.”

John 15:15c “…for all things that I heard from the Father I have made known to you.”

His will is that we read, study and meditate on the light-words that bring supernatural illumination into our lives, so we begin to sense His heart and enjoy His fellowship. His Word is a key that He patiently waits for us to pick up and unlock much we have wondered about. He is so willing to show us and allow us to “see” through His pure light.

Thank you Lord Jesus! In your light, we see light. (All Scripture is NKJV)

Here is my latest YouTube. These are regularly placed on my web site (psalm19ministries.org), but thought you folk would enjoy them on my blog as well.

A new header once again! I enjoy putting my photo’s up on this blog and hope you, as my readers, enjoy them also. I was back in Vermont a couple of week-ends ago for a celebration of some friends’ 50th wedding anniversary. It was a marvelous time of remembering a fantastic couple and their massive contribution of faith, hope and love into their church and community. We enjoyed them and the many that gathered as well.

The next day, we went to a site that I remember with great fondness – this covered bridge. It is located only a few miles from where we lived for several years, and it is where we used to bring our four little ones to swim in August. Only in August would this river, the Battenkill, get warm enough to tolerate for just a little while.

Our children were very small so we put life jackets on all of them and we all went into the river to get cooled off. However, it would not be long before our daughter’s lips were turning blue. The boys always tolerated the cold better and we would spend several hours in and out of the water, enjoying the time of being together and having the river near by.

Memories and celebrations are important to us as humans. They have always been important to our Heavenly Father as well. The Feasts of the Lord in Leviticus 23 is all about celebration. They were seasonal and called for massive change in schedules, traveling, sacrifices, sharing, eating, rejoicing, giving gifts and most of all – remembering. Our Lord wants us to be a celebratory people. Our worship, prayer and life-style should reflect the faith, hope, joy and love that He has showered upon us – every day of the year.

However, special days and years were set aside to relax and enjoy things that mattered: Him, family, community and looking forward in hope. These were and are exceedingly important as we move through our days.

So often we complain at the commercialism of our modern celebrations, but one can always make them what the heart wants. The point is to celebrate, rest and enjoy one another – and the gifts that are given on any occasion. To give and to receive is a part of the celebration of hearts in our Lord Jesus Christ.

May we be a people of great joy as we continually recognize all He has done for us that we might in turn go and do likewise. What joy!

Anyway, just some thoughts as I share this covered bridge photo with you. Enjoy – most of all enjoy and rejoice in Him who is above all and the source of all!

I have begun a series of articles on Prayer on a separate page from this blog post. You will notice in the menu there is now a link to Writings. This is where the articles will be. I will continue to blog and also place the longer articles under “Writings.” It seems this blog post also appears below the article. Interesting. I will try to find out why and see if I can limit the page to the article.

Why a sparate item? So glad you asked! In the blog posts, I try to bring items of Biblical interest that I can work with in a way you can read and be blessed in a small venue. In the Writings, I hope to be concise, but will make no attempt to keep it short. That way those who are interested in what I think about the item are free to read.

I have the first article there now. It is a bit of an introduction. This allows me to use the blog a bit more fully. WordPress has such really good tools, it is a shame not to learn to use them. So those writings are a beginning to go further.

I took took this precious photo while walking with my daughter and my camera in Gethsemane Prayer Garden on the grounds of Faith Chapel in Syracuse, NY last Saturday afternoon. Tom Clarke, the visionary and care-taker of the garden was giving us a most informative tour and we thoroughly enjoyed the time. This is, of course, early spring here, so many of the blooms are not ready yet, but the garden is still a very peaceful and restful place to walk and pray. I urge you to enjoy it if you live close to this area. Thanks Tom.

This flowing stream reminds me of how we are to be as believers – always on over-flow. When Jesus said in John 7:37-38 “…If anyone thirsts, let Him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” He was describing what He was going to empower within each and every believer. He was going to cause them to over-flow continually, like the stream above in the Spring. In fact, He said “out of his heart will flow rivers” not just streams in Spring, but gushers all the time and not just one but “rivers.”

He intended that we understand that He has made us constant life-givers, not life-takers; always full to over-flow, not empty vessels always needing what another can give; abundant in giving life everwhere, not complainers about what He has yet to do (which describes most of our prayers); always having more than enough to give, not always lacking (Psalm 23).

I am thinking this is a “faith” thing. Living by faith means we see what He has spoken and live in the provision of that Word long before it is ours to feel or hold or spend. So join me today by either re-reading or reviewing at least His words about flowing like rivers of waters of life. I am choosing His Word. This is a faith thing. The rivers are flowing, so I must get some of it out and down.

Lord Jesus, teach me to see by your Word and trust you. I know this is what life in You is all about – learning to trust what You have said and living in that massive over-flow. I make it my choice today – over and over again. Thank you Lord.

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