- Tuesday, 2/4/20 Another
reminder (mostly to ME), Servants, be
subject to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but
also to the froward, 1 Peter 2:18. We’re to treat our bosses as if he/she
were Jesus Christ. So, how sweet, submissive, hard working WOULD you be if...
Isaiah 30;15, For thus saith the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: and ye would not. Quietness...in the Hebrew that means “quit talking.” Or, it means, “get into a quiet place; quiet surroundings.” “Quiet” is a very interesting word: it means “not noisy.” Get quiet and remember what God has done...and we would not...
- Wednesday, 2/5/20 Proverbs 29:20, Seest thou a man that is hasty in his words? there is more hope of a fool than of him. Some are destroyed/crippled because they commit too quickly; some because they’ll never commit to anything. Decide slow, and with prayer, then DO. What is God prompting you to do? Isaiah 32:17, And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever. What does righteousness do? Makes peace. What does righteousness bring? Calmness and confidence...forever. Are you righteous? Does your life show the effect of righteousness?
- Thursday, 2/6/20 In the Bible, order is very important. Notice what comes first: Psalm 31:24, Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the Lord. The strength comes AFTER we take the next step by faith and obedience. Courage is first: (a decision to act brave.) Let the Bible define what it means. God is very able to show us what He “really” meant to say. We have misconstrued His word and adopted and repeated unscriptural definitions so long that Bible doctrine seems “wrong” to us. Psalm 33:1, Rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous: for praise is comely for the upright. To rejoice does not mean just being an optimistic, happy, ‘glass-half-full’ person. Rejoicing is equivalent to praising God, which, BTW, does not mean repeating the words or simply “PTL.” How do you praise your kids or your sweetheart? You list what they did that pleased you; you brag on them. So, go rejoice, i.e. praise God, i.e. tell Him what He’s done that pleased you; brag on His actions.
- Friday, 2/7/20 Psalm 32:6, For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found. Very simply, to be godly we must have an active prayer life. Do you? And, if we’re not godly, what are we? Psalm 107:9, For he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness. This doesn’t necessarily mean that He gives us the thing that we believe we need. It primarily means that HE is the satisfaction that we truly need. All of us need to decide anew that in Christ and in the Bible are “all things that pertain to life and godliness” and that “the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.” Maybe if we’d be content with Him and deepening our relationship to Him, we’d get more of the peripheral things.
- Saturday, 2/8/20 Mark 4:37, And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full. A boat that is FULL of water can’t float...but this one did. Lesson? Satan can rock your boat but he can’t sink your ship...if the Lord’s there. Psalm 27:4, One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in his temple. We often forget God’s purpose for various things. What is one of His purposes for His house, the local NT church? It’s not a spiritual social club primarily. We’re to go to church to focus on Him, and get answers for our lives. During the song service, let your heart soften and sing TO Him. Under your breath, tell Him how awesome He is. Let the tears come. Then, open your heart to the message...not to “enjoy” it, but to learn from it, even if the learning is a negative pointing out a shortcoming. Go to church tomorrow differently.
- Sunday, 2/9/20 Matthew 5:44, Love your enemies. How??? God tells us in the rest of the verse: bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you. Love is NOT primarily an emotion, it’s treating someone Scripturally. So...go love ‘em. Isaiah 30:21, And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left. Our walk with God (i.e. our Christian life in general) is composed of many steps. We may not see where the path is leading, but we almost always can discern where the next step or two is to be. An awareness and obedience to this truth would, A) Enable us to walk close to His plan for our entire life, and, B) keep us from most sin: we know what to do right now...we just choose wrongly.
- Monday, 2/10/20 Do you have a STRONG desire for something? A spouse, a job, forgiveness? Beware! When our hunger goes up, our discernment goes down. The devil can poison us with a “disguised apple” because of our hunger. Proverbs 27:7b, To the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet. Ecclesiastes 11:6, In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand: for thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good. This, perhaps, is teaching that as we get older, we tend to be less generous. Beware that “saving for retirement” doesn’t replace “walking by faith.”
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