Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Shalom,


Psalm 116:1-2:


1 I LOVE the LORD, because He has heard [and now hears] my voice and my supplications. 2 Because He has inclined His ear to me, therefore will I call upon Him as long as I live.


The LORD has ALWAYS heard and answered the call of one who REALLY wants to know Him! This verse reminds me of 1 John 4:19:


19 We love Him, because He first loved us.


And Romans 5:8:


8 But God shows and clearly proves His [own] love for us by the fact that while we were still sinners, Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One) died for us.


His greatest desire is for us to preach the Good News so that others will have the same opportunity to call on Him that we have had! JUST DO IT!


In 1 Corinthians 4 Paul is cautioning again about "party factions" in the Body. I like how the Bible Exposition Commentary: New Testament says this:


We must avoid extremes when it comes to evaluating men and their ministries. On the one hand, we can be so indifferent that we accept anybody who comes along. But the other extreme is to be so hypercritical that Paul himself would fail the test. It is important that we "try the spirits" (1 John 4:1-6; and note 2 John), but we must be careful not to grieve the Spirit as we do so.


I like that Paul says this in 1 Corinthians 11:1:


1 PATTERN YOURSELVES after me [follow my example], as I imitate and follow Christ (the Messiah).


In other words, Paul was saying that it is our responsibility to find out if what he is saying is actually the Word of God. If it is DO IT! Anything about his life that was NOT in  line with the Word, DON'T DO IT! He wasn't trying to get a following for himself, but for Jesus! That really goes along with what the Bereans did, in Acts 17:11 and what the Pastor of The Spoken Word Church tells the people to do: "search the Scriptures daily to see if it is so! If it is, then DO IT!" AMEN!


Joshua 3-4 tells us of the Israelites crossing the Jordan River on dry ground! Here are two pictures. One is a type of map of the land around the area and the other is an artist's rendition of the crossing!


They crossed the Jordan by Jericho!
I REALLY think that it was probably a lot bigger area than this! But this was one of the prettier renditions and I LOVE palm trees! 

God just LOVES to show Himself strong on behalf of His people who will trust Him and obey His Word!  2 Chronicles 16:9a:


9a For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him.


That word "perfect" is the Hebrew word "shalem", which means: complete, friendly, at peace. When we are at peace with God, through the precious Blood of Jesus of Nazareth, then He is watching constantly for ways to get us INTO the BLESSING, and the BLESSING into our lives! Here is a fun song from Hillsong Kids, called "Supernatural":




What a GOOD God we have and serve! AMEN!


Shalom in Him!