Shalom,
Psalm 94:1:
1 O LORD God, You to Whom vengeance belongs, O God, You to Whom vengeance belongs, shine forth!
We're not going to speak of vengeance today, but of the last two words. The Amplified Bible says "shine forth" and the King James Bible says "shew thyself". It is the Hebrew word, "yapha`", which means: to shine, to be light, to cause to shine, to send out beams. The psalmist wants the LORD (Jehovah) to show off! He wants Him to be revealed in all of His splendor and glory so that the world will know that OUR God IS God! I want that, too! Not so that we can say, "I told you so", but so that people will want to hear the Good News and be born again! WHY do I want that? Because THAT is the most important thing to our Father! When we are really about our Father's business, the pettiness of the world will have little affect on us! I also like verses 12-13a:
12 Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) is the man whom You discipline and instruct, O Lord, and teach out of Your law, 13 That You may give him power to keep himself calm in the days of adversity,
We heard about the discipline, instruction and correction of the Lord at The Spoken Word Church this morning! I LOVE the fact that the instruction and correction of the Lord will give me the power to be calm in the midst of adversity! That calm is something that will be a witness to others of the greatness of our God! Allow His instruction and correction into your life and you will know that peace and calm, too!
Luke 15 has always been a delight for me to read because I once was a sinner and now I'm saved! Even after being saved, I sometimes wandered off a little, but He always sought me out and brought me back! I'm not speaking of sin here, but of letting other things become more important than they should and not keeping HIM first place! I think we've all been guilty of doing things our own way sometimes. Isn't it a joy to YOU to know that HE is always ready to welcome you back into close, intimate fellowship with HIM? After all, we DO know that HE wasn't the One who moved!
In 2 Chronicles 35 we see the account of good King Josiah celebrating the Passover. Verse 18:
18 No Passover like it had been kept in Israel since the days of Samuel the prophet, even by any of the kings of Israel, as was kept by Josiah and the priests, the Levites, and all of Judah and Israel who were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
Josiah was a good and Godly king and "did right in the sight of the Lord". But he died young because he went headlong into something that he THOUGHT was right, but he was wrong! At The Spoken Word Church we encourage people to be active in their faith! Don't just sit there and wait for God to tell you to do something! Make a decision to act and trust the Lord to let you know if your decision is right or not! That is GREAT advice, IF you are in close, intimate fellowship with the One, True, Most High, Living, Almighty God of the Bible on a daily basis! There is no shortcut for spending time in His presence! We CANNOT be led by the Spirit of God any other way! Don't let anything distract you from being constantly aware of His presence inside of you! He is your LIFELINE! AMEN!
Shalom in Him!
