Shalom,


Psalm 123 is another Psalm of  Ascents. For us to ascend, we will have to continue to grow up in the things of God! One of the things addressed in this Psalm is the Godly way to deal with persecution! Verse 4 says this:


4 Our life is exceedingly filled with the scorning and scoffing of those who are at ease and with the contempt of the proud (irresponsible tyrants who disregard God's law). 


The Complete Jewish Bible says this:


4 more than our fill of scorn from the complacent and contempt from the arrogant.


When we make the all-out commitment to obey the Word of God, as led by the Spirit of God, we WILL suffer persecution (2 Timothy 3:12). The words for scorn and scorning above refers to mocking, while the word for contempt means disrespect. This is really pretty tame compared with actual physical persecution. That word, from 2 Timothy, refers to someone pursuing us, or chasing us down because of what we believe. That would be what Saul (Paul) was doing before he got saved! I don't  know about you, but I have been mocked and disrespected MANY times, but I have NEVER been chased down or away over the Word! Those times MAY be coming, but whether it's actual persecution or just bothersome scoffing, our answer to it is to DO verse 1:


1 UNTO YOU do I lift up my eyes, O You Who are enthroned in heaven.


Our New Covenant Scripture is found in Hebrews 12:2:


2 Looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith; Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set at the right hand of the throne of God.


He is our example of how to act under pressure and persecution! Staying filled with the Spirit and full of His Word will put us way ahead in this! 


1 Corinthians 12 is speaking of the Gifts of the Spirit and the Body of Christ! We will concentrate on the Body today. Verses 5-6 from the Message Bible:


5 God's various ministries are carried out everywhere; but they all originate in God's Spirit. 6 God's various expressions of power are in action everywhere; but God Himself is behind it all.


Then these verse, all from the Message Bible:

12 You can easily enough see how this kind of thing works by looking no further than your own body. Your body has many parts — limbs, organs, cells — but no matter how many parts you can name, you're still one body. It's exactly the same with Christ. 13 By means of his one Spirit, we all said good-bye to our partial and piecemeal lives. We each used to independently call our own shots, but then we entered into a large and integrated life in which he has the final say in everything. (This is what we proclaimed in word and action when we were baptized.) Each of us is now a part of his resurrection body, refreshed and sustained at one fountain — his Spirit — where we all come to drink. The old labels we once used to identify ourselves — labels like Jew or Greek, slave or free — are no longer useful. We need something larger, more comprehensive. 


14 I want you to think about how all this makes you more significant, not less. A body isn't just a single part blown up into something huge. It's all the different-but-similar parts arranged and functioning together. 15 If Foot said, "I'm not elegant like Hand, embellished with rings; I guess I don't belong to this body," would that make it so? 16 If Ear said, "I'm not beautiful like Eye, limpid and expressive; I don't deserve a place on the head," would you want to remove it from the body? 17 If the body was all eye, how could it hear? If all ear, how could it smell? 18 As it is, we see that God has carefully placed each part of the body right where he wanted it. 


19 But I also want you to think about how this keeps your significance from getting blown up into self-importance. For no matter how significant you are, it is only because of what you are a part of. An enormous eye or a gigantic hand wouldn't be a body, but a monster. 20 What we have is one body with many parts, each its proper size and in its proper place. No part is important on its own. 21 Can you imagine Eye telling Hand, "Get lost; I don't need you"? Or, Head telling Foot, "You're fired; your job has been phased out"? 22 As a matter of fact, in practice it works the other way — the "lower" the part, the more basic, and therefore necessary. You can live without an eye, for instance, but not without a stomach.


25 The way God designed our bodies is a model for understanding our lives together as a church: every part dependent on every other part, the parts we mention and the parts we don't, 26 the parts we see and the parts we don't. If one part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt, and in the healing. If one part flourishes, every other part enters into the exuberance. 

27 You are Christ's body — that's who you are! You must never forget this. Only as you accept your part of that body does your "part" mean anything.

We are all VALUABLE to each other, but no one is indispensable! We need to each do FULLY and ONLY "our part". Then we are knitted together by the Spirit of God and His work gets done! AMEN! Here is a song from Casting Crowns called "If We Are The Body?" which should challenge us to make sure we are doing OUR PART! 

Joshua 19-20 continues the dividing up of the land that God had promised for the nation of Israel, according to their Tribes. Again, the world would do well to check with the One, True, Most High, Living, Almighty God of the Bible when they start telling Israel what land should and should not be theirs! GOD HAS SPOKEN! Do they REALLY want to continue defying the one, True God? Those who persist, WILL find out! Continue to pray for the peace and prosperity of the nation of Israel and the city of Jerusalem!


Shalom in Him!