Repost: Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory (Battle Hymn of the Republic) [with lyrics for congregations]
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Beware
Beware as the Holy Spirit works to reach a new generation, that there is not an attempt to destroy the remembrance of the working of the Holy Spirit of a prior or past generation.
Also beware of the attempts of the atheists, modernists, communists, freemasons, and satanists to remove remembrance of the working of the Holy Spirit in the past.
David served God in his generation.
Acts 13:36 For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption:
Prior to the mass publishing of Bibles through the printing press, the Lord raised up incredible artists and sculptors to put the message of the Word made flesh in works of art, oil paintings, frescoes, sculptures, and architecture. The people saw the message of the Bible through art.
Beware of destroying that which was inspired by the Holy Spirit in the past in order to push forward only the works of this generation.
https://www.rt.com/news/581516-general-georgelin-dead-notre-dame/
A blog post can only introduce a topic but not cover it in depth. For more study on various topics, click here for links to various Christian ministries.
Depending on the ministry, there may be online church services, YouTube videos, podcasts, radio programs, books, teaching, or more. You have to seek out what they have.
1982 – Dr. Francis Schaeffer
Repost: Francis Schaeffer | A Christian Manifesto | Coral Ridge 1982
A blog post can only introduce a topic but not cover it in depth. For more study on various topics, click here for links to various Christian ministries.
Depending on the ministry, there may be online church services, YouTube videos, podcasts, radio programs, books, teaching, or more. You have to seek out what they have.
Believe & Cast not away your confidence
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Isaiah 7:9 … If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established.
Matthew 9:29 Then touched he their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it unto you.
James 1:6 But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.
7 For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.
8 A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.
Mark 11:22 And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God.
23 For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.
24 Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.
Hebrews 10:35 Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward.
36 For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.
37 For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.
38 Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.
39 But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.
A blog post can only introduce a topic but not cover it in depth. For more study on various topics, click here for links to various Christian ministries.
Depending on the ministry, there may be online church services, YouTube videos, podcasts, radio programs, books, teaching, or more. You have to seek out what they have.
Isaiah 38
Isaiah 38:1 (KJV) In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came unto him, and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Set thine house in order: for thou shalt die, and not live.
2 Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and prayed unto the Lord,
3 And said, Remember now, O Lord, I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore.
4 Then came the word of the Lord to Isaiah, saying,
5 Go, and say to Hezekiah, Thus saith the Lord, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will add unto thy days fifteen years.
6 And I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria: and I will defend this city.
7 And this shall be a sign unto thee from the Lord, that the Lord will do this thing that he hath spoken;
8 Behold, I will bring again the shadow of the degrees, which is gone down in the sun dial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward. So the sun returned ten degrees, by which degrees it was gone down.
9 The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick, and was recovered of his sickness:
10 I said in the cutting off of my days, I shall go to the gates of the grave: I am deprived of the residue of my years.
11 I said, I shall not see the Lord, even the Lord, in the land of the living: I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world.
12 Mine age is departed, and is removed from me as a shepherd’s tent: I have cut off like a weaver my life: he will cut me off with pining sickness: from day even to night wilt thou make an end of me.
13 I reckoned till morning, that, as a lion, so will he break all my bones: from day even to night wilt thou make an end of me.
14 Like a crane or a swallow, so did I chatter: I did mourn as a dove: mine eyes fail with looking upward: O Lord, I am oppressed; undertake for me.
15 What shall I say? he hath both spoken unto me, and himself hath done it: I shall go softly all my years in the bitterness of my soul.
16 O Lord, by these things men live, and in all these things is the life of my spirit: so wilt thou recover me, and make me to live.
17 Behold, for peace I had great bitterness: but thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption: for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back.
18 For the grave cannot praise thee, death can not celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth.
19 The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day: the father to the children shall make known thy truth.
20 The Lord was ready to save me: therefore we will sing my songs to the stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of the Lord.
21 For Isaiah had said, Let them take a lump of figs, and lay it for a plaister upon the boil, and he shall recover.
22 Hezekiah also had said, What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the Lord?
A blog post can only introduce a topic but not cover it in depth. For more study on various topics, click here for links to various Christian ministries.
Depending on the ministry, there may be online church services, YouTube videos, podcasts, radio programs, books, teaching, or more. You have to seek out what they have.
Trust in the Lord
“I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I am not sure that you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.”
– Robert J. McCloskey Source
The above quote has also been attributed to Alan Greenspan; it illustrates a truth about communication.
Because accurate communication is important, this is why in Bible study concordances and dictionaries might be pulled out in order to to get a better understanding of what words meant at the time that they were written and in the context of what was written. And the Holy Spirit helps overcome the generational gaps as well.
Here is a well known scripture.
Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
What is really being said? Like a nautical Navigator’s Compass, if you start off a few degrees incorrect, you will be far off course by the end of the journey.
Trust can be looked at in two ways. You trust that God, as Sovereign, knows best, and you focus on God’s part only (there are always two parts, God’s part, and man’s part). A head knowledge of trust can lead to a “que sera, sera”, “what will be, will be” attitude. I trust God, so whatever happens is his will. Wrong. This is a free will universe; everything that happens is not God’s will. God gives us His Word, the Holy Spirit, and instruction through the five-fold ministry of the church; we learn “God’s ways” which require “acts of obedience” on our part that help us navigate this free will world. And while there are things that are not God’s will, paying attention to God and following the leading of the Holy Spirit can help us avoid problems.
Luke 4:28 (KJV) And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath,
29 And rose up, and thrust him [Jesus] out of the city, and led him [Jesus] unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him [Jesus] down headlong.
30 But he [Jesus] passing through the midst of them went his way,
Another way of talking about trusting God is this … I trust God enough to obey God, to obey the leading of the Holy Spirit, to obey God’s directions in the Bible, knowing that when I obey, that obedience will lead to a good outcome and blessing, even if there is a certain amount of time required as part of the process.
That is a better definition of trusting God.
Trusting God is not like put on a St. Patrick’s Day hat and saying, “I trust God today, let’s see if I am lucky.” No.
Trusting God is doing something God tells you to do knowing that there is a purpose in that act of obedience. And it is an ongoing lifestyle. Trusting and obeying God is an ongoing thing.
The best sports figures have coaches. And those coaches invade more than one area of life. They invade practice on the field. But they also invade the area of diet, exercise, and lifestyle. We instinctively know, as a matter of common sense, that a person who wins a gold medal in the Olympics had a lifestyle of hard work, correct diet, correct exercise, and many hours of practice. The person who got there did not get there munching on pizza, chips, sodas sitting on a sofa watching NetFlix. Some things are obvious.
But when it comes to God, there is a common sense aspect that is ignored. Somehow people get the idea that they can live any way they want, get into as many problems as they want, never change, never attempt to change in line with the word of God, call upon God at any time, and that God will come running to help them. In the parable of the Prodigal Son, God the Father came running to meet the son only after the son had made a quality decision to repent, turn from the old lifestyle, and return home.
If you are going to trust God, that has a component in it, that you trust him enough to obey his instructions.
If you are going to visit a friend in a far off city, and while talking to your friend, your friend tells you that the last fifteen minutes you should go a different route than normal because there is construction and if you want to avoid it, follow your friend’s instructions. If you trust your friend, you are going to follow the instructions your friend tells you so as to avoid the construction. You will follow those instructions if you trust him. But if you don’t trust him, and don’t want to listen, and don’t want to bother, you might find out your friend was right, and end up in a construction zone. It is a matter of trust. But trust is more than a head thing, trust is more than putting on a hat that says “I trust”. Trust involves obedience and a change of behavior.
If trust is left as a head thing, a mental thing, “que sera, sera”, “what will be, will be”, then you might go visit your friend, get stuck in the construction, and say “it was the will of God”. Maybe it wasn’t the will of God at all. You simply did not trust enough to obey when instructions were given to you.
A blog post can only introduce a topic but not cover it in depth. For more study on various topics, click here for links to various Christian ministries.
Depending on the ministry, there may be online church services, YouTube videos, podcasts, radio programs, books, teaching, or more. You have to seek out what they have.
Stay in Your Own Lane
King Josiah was one of the better kings of Judah.
But he didn’t stay in his lane. That was his one fatal flaw.
The Egyptian king Necho, of whom we have no information otherwise regarding his relationship with the God of Israel, did know that the Lord had sent him against Charchemish. The Bible states that Josiah hearkened not unto the words of Necho from the mouth of God.
It was Josiah’s fatal flaw, his Achilles heel, that led to his death.
Necho tried to dissuade him…But he [Necho] sent ambassadors to him, saying, What have I to do with thee, thou king of Judah [Josiah]? I come not against thee this day, but against the house wherewith I have war: for God commanded me to make haste: forbear thee from meddling with God, who is with me, that he destroy thee not.
In other words, in today’s vernacular, it might be…Josiah, you don’t have a dog in this fight. Don’t do it.
Or we might say today that Josiah didn’t stay in his lane.
But Josiah persisted, and it led to his death.
You can read about the story in the actual verses below.
Information about Josiah is given in both II Chronicles and II Kings. Because more detailed information about King Josiah and King Necho is in II Chronicles, that will be listed first. His general biography is after that in II Kings. Some of the same biographical information is also in II Chronicles and is not repeated here.
II Chronicles 35:18 (KJV) And there was no passover like to that kept in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet; neither did all the kings of Israel keep such a passover as Josiah kept, and the priests, and the Levites, and all Judah and Israel that were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
19 In the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah was this passover kept.
20 After all this, when Josiah had prepared the temple, Necho king of Egypt came up to fight against Charchemish by Euphrates: and Josiah went out against him.
21 But he sent ambassadors to him, saying, What have I to do with thee, thou king of Judah? I come not against thee this day, but against the house wherewith I have war: for God commanded me to make haste: forbear thee from meddling with God, who is with me, that he destroy thee not.
22 Nevertheless Josiah would not turn his face from him, but disguised himself, that he might fight with him, and hearkened not unto the words of Necho from the mouth of God, and came to fight in the valley of Megiddo.
23 And the archers shot at king Josiah; and the king said to his servants, Have me away; for I am sore wounded.
24 His servants therefore took him out of that chariot, and put him in the second chariot that he had; and they brought him to Jerusalem, and he died, and was buried in one of the sepulchres of his fathers. And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah.
25 And Jeremiah lamented for Josiah: and all the singing men and the singing women spake of Josiah in their lamentations to this day, and made them an ordinance in Israel: and, behold, they are written in the lamentations.
26 Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and his goodness, according to that which was written in the law of the Lord,
27 And his deeds, first and last, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah.
II Kings 22:1 22 Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty and one years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Jedidah, the daughter of Adaiah of Boscath.
2 And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in all the way of David his father, and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left.
3 And it came to pass in the eighteenth year of king Josiah, that the king sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, the son of Meshullam, the scribe, to the house of the Lord, saying,
4 Go up to Hilkiah the high priest, that he may sum the silver which is brought into the house of the Lord, which the keepers of the door have gathered of the people:
5 And let them deliver it into the hand of the doers of the work, that have the oversight of the house of the Lord: and let them give it to the doers of the work which is in the house of the Lord, to repair the breaches of the house,
6 Unto carpenters, and builders, and masons, and to buy timber and hewn stone to repair the house.
7 Howbeit there was no reckoning made with them of the money that was delivered into their hand, because they dealt faithfully.
8 And Hilkiah the high priest said unto Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord. And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it.
9 And Shaphan the scribe came to the king, and brought the king word again, and said, Thy servants have gathered the money that was found in the house, and have delivered it into the hand of them that do the work, that have the oversight of the house of the Lord.
10 And Shaphan the scribe shewed the king, saying, Hilkiah the priest hath delivered me a book. And Shaphan read it before the king.
11 And it came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the book of the law, that he rent his clothes.
12 And the king commanded Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and Achbor the son of Michaiah, and Shaphan the scribe, and Asahiah a servant of the king’s, saying,
13 Go ye, enquire of the Lord for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that is found: for great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not hearkened unto the words of this book, to do according unto all that which is written concerning us.
14 So Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam, and Achbor, and Shaphan, and Asahiah, went unto Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe; (now she dwelt in Jerusalem in the college;) and they communed with her.
15 And she said unto them, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Tell the man that sent you to me,
16 Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, and upon the inhabitants thereof, even all the words of the book which the king of Judah hath read:
17 Because they have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands; therefore my wrath shall be kindled against this place, and shall not be quenched.
18 But to the king of Judah which sent you to enquire of the Lord, thus shall ye say to him, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, As touching the words which thou hast heard;
19 Because thine heart was tender, and thou hast humbled thyself before the Lord, when thou heardest what I spake against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and hast rent thy clothes, and wept before me; I also have heard thee, saith the Lord.
20 Behold therefore, I will gather thee unto thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered into thy grave in peace; and thine eyes shall not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place. And they brought the king word again.
II Kings 23:1 And the king sent, and they gathered unto him all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem.
2 And the king went up into the house of the Lord, and all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the people, both small and great: and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant which was found in the house of the Lord.
3 And the king stood by a pillar, and made a covenant before the Lord, to walk after the Lord, and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all their heart and all their soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people stood to the covenant.
4 And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, and the priests of the second order, and the keepers of the door, to bring forth out of the temple of the Lord all the vessels that were made for Baal, and for the grove, and for all the host of heaven: and he burned them without Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and carried the ashes of them unto Bethel.
5 And he put down the idolatrous priests, whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah, and in the places round about Jerusalem; them also that burned incense unto Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all the host of heaven.
6 And he brought out the grove from the house of the Lord, without Jerusalem, unto the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron, and stamped it small to powder, and cast the powder thereof upon the graves of the children of the people.
7 And he brake down the houses of the sodomites, that were by the house of the Lord, where the women wove hangings for the grove.
8 And he brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense, from Geba to Beersheba, and brake down the high places of the gates that were in the entering in of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on a man’s left hand at the gate of the city.
9 Nevertheless the priests of the high places came not up to the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem, but they did eat of the unleavened bread among their brethren.
10 And he defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech.
11 And he took away the horses that the kings of Judah had given to the sun, at the entering in of the house of the Lord, by the chamber of Nathanmelech the chamberlain, which was in the suburbs, and burned the chariots of the sun with fire.
12 And the altars that were on the top of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the Lord, did the king beat down, and brake them down from thence, and cast the dust of them into the brook Kidron.
13 And the high places that were before Jerusalem, which were on the right hand of the mount of corruption, which Solomon the king of Israel had builded for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Zidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites, and for Milcom the abomination of the children of Ammon, did the king defile.
14 And he brake in pieces the images, and cut down the groves, and filled their places with the bones of men.
15 Moreover the altar that was at Bethel, and the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, had made, both that altar and the high place he brake down, and burned the high place, and stamped it small to powder, and burned the grove.
16 And as Josiah turned himself, he spied the sepulchres that were there in the mount, and sent, and took the bones out of the sepulchres, and burned them upon the altar, and polluted it, according to the word of the Lord which the man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed these words.
17 Then he said, What title is that that I see? And the men of the city told him, It is the sepulchre of the man of God, which came from Judah, and proclaimed these things that thou hast done against the altar of Bethel.
18 And he said, Let him alone; let no man move his bones. So they let his bones alone, with the bones of the prophet that came out of Samaria.
19 And all the houses also of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to provoke the Lord to anger, Josiah took away, and did to them according to all the acts that he had done in Bethel.
20 And he slew all the priests of the high places that were there upon the altars, and burned men’s bones upon them, and returned to Jerusalem.
21 And the king commanded all the people, saying, Keep the passover unto the Lord your God, as it is written in the book of this covenant.
22 Surely there was not holden such a passover from the days of the judges that judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, nor of the kings of Judah;
23 But in the eighteenth year of king Josiah, wherein this passover was holden to the Lord in Jerusalem.
24 Moreover the workers with familiar spirits, and the wizards, and the images, and the idols, and all the abominations that were spied in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, did Josiah put away, that he might perform the words of the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the Lord.
25 And like unto him was there no king before him, that turned to the Lord with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; neither after him arose there any like him.
26 Notwithstanding the Lord turned not from the fierceness of his great wrath, wherewith his anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations that Manasseh had provoked him withal.
27 And the Lord said, I will remove Judah also out of my sight, as I have removed Israel, and will cast off this city Jerusalem which I have chosen, and the house of which I said, My name shall be there.
28 Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
29 In his days Pharaohnechoh king of Egypt went up against the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates: and king Josiah went against him; and he slew him at Megiddo, when he had seen him.
30 And his servants carried him in a chariot dead from Megiddo, and brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own sepulchre. And the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and anointed him, and made him king in his father’s stead.
A blog post can only introduce a topic but not cover it in depth. For more study on various topics, click here for links to various Christian ministries.
Depending on the ministry, there may be online church services, YouTube videos, podcasts, radio programs, books, teaching, or more. You have to seek out what they have.
Take heed what ye hear; Pay attention to and take seriously what you hear
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Messages are coming to us all the time. They are either coming to us, going past us, sinking in, or bouncing back.
There are even idioms and phrases that indicate that we understand that this is happening.
- “He just doesn’t get it.”
- “Figure it out.”
- “Let it sink in. Let the truth sink in.”
- “Duh.”
- “Bingo.”
- “Let the elevator go to the top.”
- “Do I need to repeat that?”
- “What about ‘no’ don’t you understand?”
- “Did you hear me?”
To make progress, we need to understand the messages being sent to us by God and act on them if we hope for results. We can’t let it “go in one ear and out the other.”
The Bible is full of messages and wisdom from God and we can open the Bible and read it at will. But there are also messags of awareness, conviction, conscience, “gut-level” feelings, that are there to warn us. A lack of peace is a warning.
If you read through the Old Testament, you will find the story of Israel, which the Apostle Paul in the New Testament says is there as a repository of lessons for us. Some things don’t change. Some lessons are true generation to generation. Gravity is operating today, it operated yesterday, 20 years ago, and 200 years ago. We either learn to cooperate with the law of gravity or resist, fight, and experience the consequences of fighting the law.
In the Old Testament, when the nation left off following God, they experienced problems. The problems were designed to get them to a point of realization that the problems existed because they as a nation had ceased to put God first. Sometimes they figured it out. Sometimes they didn’t. Sometimes only some people figured it out and the rest didn’t.
It is the same today. For example, if a person says “they don’t have time” to pray or go to church, the day may come when that same person is flat on his back, looking up, with plenty of time to pray. God doesn’t bring evil, but it is entirely possible for a person through disobedience to walk out of the umbrella of protection and experience consequences.
Think of a life of obedience as a person holding a good and solid umbrella over his head. Obedience keeps the rain off. The rain is falling, but the person is protected by the umbrella. Now consider every act of disobedience as putting a hole in the fabric of the umbrella. Drops of rain begin to get through. The protection is less and less as the holes increase. The consequence of the holes increases.
Mark 4:23 (KJV) If any man have ears to hear, let him hear.
24 And he said unto them, Take heed what ye hear: with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you: and unto you that hear shall more be given.
25 For he that hath, to him shall be given: and he that hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he hath.
A blog post can only introduce a topic but not cover it in depth. For more study on various topics, click here for links to various Christian ministries.
Depending on the ministry, there may be online church services, YouTube videos, podcasts, radio programs, books, teaching, or more. You have to seek out what they have.
To Everything There is a Season
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Ecclesiastes 3:1 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
Ecclesiastes 3:2 … a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
Ecclesiastes 3:15 That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past.
That which we experience today is a result of our doing or “not” doing in the past, as the case may be. The seeds sown or “not” sown come to fruition.
Many people pray for prosperity, but there are foundational ground rules that must be followed for prosperity in conjunction with prayer. Where are those principles or ground rules to be found? In the Bible.
At a certain point if a person wants to make progress, it is necessary to break out of the cycle of unbelief and doubt that keeps them locked in because of questioning the Bible and the message of salvation through Jesus Christ. A person might say, well, how do I know the Bible is true? How do I know the principles are true?
The One responsible for seeing that Bible got written, the Word made flesh, came to earth, lived, was crucified, died, and was buried, and rose from the dead.
Luke 16:31 And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.
At some point it becomes necessary to look at facts and accept them.
A good example is the fact that God created only man and woman. “You either get it or you don’t.”
I Corinthians 14:38 But if any man be ignorant, let him be ignorant.
The facts are out there, a Google away. But the thing is, when a person finds the facts, it is necessary to believe them and act on them. Google hides searches and what comes up in a search today may not come up tomorrow. Save and share things that are important.
When it comes to finances, there is a thought that the only thing that is needed is to pray and that God will answer. And while it is true that God answers prayer, the Holy Spirit may require something in addition … tithes, offerings, a seed sown … some act of obedience. The Lord of the harvest directs the seed that must be sown to have a harvest.
God is interested in souls, in the things of eternity, in the trajectory of lives whether to heaven or hell.
James 4:3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.
The first thing to be done with any supply of money is to tithe and to give offerings to those who are spreading the message of the gospel because there are expenses involved in the gospel being shared.
To put it in today’s terms, the content is free, but the delivery system is not.
Every person with a cell phone understands that. People are delivered free content every day through phones that can cost $1000 or more. The content is free. The delivery system is not.
The things of the kingdom of heaven are no different. The message is delivered free, but someone pays for the delivery system and the content creation.
If you continually consume free content, just because it is free, and you think you have “beat the system” and figured out how to live without taking any responsibility to give, if you never give back in some way, it will eventually work to your disadvantage.
Proverbs 11:24 There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty.
25 The liberal soul shall be made fat: and he that watereth shall be watered also himself.
Judges 5:23 Curse ye Meroz, said the angel of the LORD, curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof; because they came not to the help of the LORD, to the help of the LORD against the mighty.
I Timothy 5:18 For the scripture saith, thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn. And, The labourer is worthy of his reward.
Haggai 1:5 Now therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts; Consider your ways.
6 Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes.
7 Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Consider your ways.
8 Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the Lord.
9 Ye looked for much, and, lo it came to little; and when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why? saith the Lord of hosts. Because of mine house that is waste, and ye run every man unto his own house.
10 Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew, and the earth is stayed from her fruit.
11 And I called for a drought upon the land, and upon the mountains, and upon the corn, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil, and upon that which the ground bringeth forth, and upon men, and upon cattle, and upon all the labour of the hands.
Ecclesiastes 11:1 Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days.
2 Give a portion to seven, and also to eight; for thou knowest not what evil shall be upon the earth.
A blog post can only introduce a topic but not cover it in depth. For more study on various topics, click here for links to various Christian ministries.
Depending on the ministry, there may be online church services, YouTube videos, podcasts, radio programs, books, teaching, or more. You have to seek out what they have.
A Story of Tithing and the Devourer Being Rebuked
Image Credit: User:Themightyquill, CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons
Here is the story of Alexander Kerr and the Kerr Glass Manufacturing Company. Click here.
Malachi 3:1 Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts.
2 But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap:
3 And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.
4 Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord, as in the days of old, and as in former years.
5 And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith the Lord of hosts.
6 For I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.
7 Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of hosts. But ye said, Wherein shall we return?
8 Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.
9 Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation.
10 Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.
11 And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts.
12 And all nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the Lord of hosts.
13 Your words have been stout against me, saith the Lord. Yet ye say, What have we spoken so much against thee?
14 Ye have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts?
15 And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt God are even delivered.
16 Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another: and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name.
17 And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.
18 Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not.
A blog post can only introduce a topic but not cover it in depth. For more study on various topics, click here for links to various Christian ministries.
Depending on the ministry, there may be online church services, YouTube videos, podcasts, radio programs, books, teaching, or more. You have to seek out what they have.