Monthly Archives: July 2009

For the Master’s Use – Day 5

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Gleaning Gold

~Luke 16:13 No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other.

Nuggets of Truth

Before salvation, I can honestly say that my thoughts and my desires did not focus on God.  My life was spent doing what I wanted to do.  I did what felt good.  I went to church every Sunday but did not live the life that I claimed to esteem on Sundays.  I was a religious die hard, however, rooted in my upbringing, and clinging to doctrines taught as a child by my parents and my priest.  I defended a “faith” never confirming whether or not it was based on God’s own Word, the Scriptures.  I was trying to serve two masters – my religion and my flesh (sin), which were both being controlled by the devil.  Some may find this a harsh statement.  However, the Word says that anyone who is in a religion that is based on what I can do to enter Heaven and not on the fact that Christ did everything for us, is serving another master.

Christ’s words in Luke 16 help us to understand that one cannot mix “religion” and the world.  You must have one or the other.  It is our nature to love the one and pay less attention to the other.  Trying to be religious will always be a battle in futility.  The flesh will continue to win because we have a sin nature and it is natural for us to desire sin.  Jesus said in:

~John 8:42-44  Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me.    Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word.   Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

When we know the Truth, the truth will guide us and will keep us.  Every man is a liar according to God’s Word:

~Romans 3:4a  God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar;

Why believe a man when one knows man is a liar?  Why base our eternal destination based on man’s words?  It stands to reason that you would want to know the truth from the source that cannot lie, wouldn’t you?  The Word says that God does not lie as He is not a man:

~Numbers 23:19  God is not a man, that he should lie;

His Word is perfect and does not contain lies.  Therefore, you can trust God’s Word to lead you in the right direction.  His truths will set you free through salvation in Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone.

~John 8:31-32  Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

Jesus provides not only salvation but He sets us free from the bondage of Satan or religion.  We are no longer serving two masters but now possess the Holy Spirit and are now able to say that we know the Father.  We are now children of God and have a relationship with the Father as a child has with his own earthly father.

Refining the Gold

As believers, we have the pure Word of God to guide us.  The Author of the Word, the Holy Spirit, inspired and instructed Godly men to pen what God intended for mankind to have.  We are truly blessed to have God’s Word in our lives. The word “Author” is found three times in the Bible, all three in the New Testament:

~1 Corinthians 14:33  For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.

~Hebrews 5:9  And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him;

~Hebrews 12:2  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 down at the right hand of the throne of God.

This same Author, God, does not want us to be in a state of confusion.  He desires peace for us.  No longer do we have to serve to masters.  We, as believers, now serve Him.  He also is the Author of our salvation.  His perfect and sinless life and death on the cross became the atonement we desperately needed to overcome serving two masters.  Lastly, He is the Author and Finisher of our faith.  Notice Hebrews 12:2 says He is the finisher of our faith?  Once we place our faith in Christ and the salvation He provides, our salvation is finished.  We have a different Master to serve!  Let’s serve Him and glorify Him in word and action!

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For the Master’s Use – Day 4

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Gleaning Gold

~Isaiah 26:3  Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.

Nuggets of Truth

Isaiah’s words of having “perfect peace” are more meaningful than meets the eye. There can be no perfect peace without Jesus Christ. Without salvation, man is treading water in a sea of despair – searching for happiness through things and circumstances. However, Isaiah states that God will keep us in perfect peace. How?

It is wonderful how God’s Word perfectly explains itself. Verses are supported elsewhere making for a wonderful explanation of God’s plan for us. Jesus Christ gives peace to those who wish it.

~John 14:27 Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

He is the keeper of peace.  It is His to give!  No one can have true peace without Him. Why? Because He gave His life for us to have peace. He fulfilled the Old Testament peace offering for our sins. Only Christ could fulfill this offering as He was perfect and without sin. He gave His life, shed His blood so we could have this peace.

~Leviticus 3:1-2 And if his oblation be a sacrifice of peace offering, if he offer it of the herd; whether it be a male or female, he shall offer it without blemish before the LORD.  And he shall lay his hand upon the head of his offering, and kill it at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation: and Aaron’s sons the priests shall sprinkle the blood upon the altar round about.

This peace is provided by the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, whose blood was shed for our sins.  It is this acceptance, this trust in Him, that brings eternal salvation. No more do we need to worry where our eternity will be spent because Christ took care of it on Calvary. Now that we have the peace of knowing where we will spend eternity, we continue our Christian walk working for the Master.

Refining the Gold

Today’s verse says that we will also have peace if our minds are “stayed on thee.” When we are rooted and grounded in the Word of God, nothing can persuade us to move in another direction away from God. Our faith is firm – our beliefs are strong – our walk is straight and focused.

Nothing can convince us that salvation is dependent on anything else but Jesus Christ’s perfect work on the cross. We place our minds, hearts and lives on Him for salvation. It was His righteousness that paid that peace offering. It was He who was able to justify salvation because of His sinless life. It was His blood that was sacrificed for us. It was His blood that cleansed us and pardoned us. Without Him, we cannot even hope to be good enough to enter Heaven!

After we have trusted in His perfect sacrifice and peace offering on our behalf, He promises that He will keep us in perfect peace. There is nothing better than perfect. Perfect means no deviation. It is above all else and cannot be removed. Noah Webster defines it as:

1. Finished; complete; consummate; not defective; a perfect work; a perfect system.

Our Peace Offering was finished by Jesus Christ. His sacrifice was complete and not defective – it was a perfect work – His salvation is the perfect system for mankind! That is why there is perfect peace to those who trust in Him! Many pretend they have this peace but once left alone in the dark of night, they ponder and know in their hearts that they are a sham.  There could never be perfect peace if we had to depend upon ourselves for salvation. There could never be perfect peace if we had to depend upon ourselves to keep our salvation. Why? Because we are not perfect! We are most assuredly defective!  What peace He gives the true born-again believer.

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For the Master’s Use – Day 3

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Gleaning Gold

~Joel 2:13 And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil.

Nuggets of Truth

This is a popular verse to show God’s patience with mankind.  Yes, He surely is patient for if He weren’t, I would surely be dead today.  But there is so much more to this verse, my friends.  The first part of the verse is the actual meat of this verse.  God instructs us to do something and then He will do something in return.

The Jews would tear their clothing as a sign of great grieving, distress and sorrow.  I read Joel 2:13 and I see that God wants us to go to this drastic measure with our hearts.  How convicting is this?  How truly sorrowful are we when we sin?  Do we grieve with intensity over hurting our Heavenly Father?  Are we distressed at what we have done?  Do we have honest sorrow in our hearts for our wickedness?  Yes, the born-again believer is blood bought and is saved from eternal damnation because of Jesus Christ’s work on the cross.  But when we sin after salvation, our conviction should be intense!  This is what I believe the Lord is trying to tell us today.

As we glean from this verse in Joel today, let’s present our sins to God in the same manner.  Let’s look at sin the way our Heavenly Father looks at it – vile and despicable.

~Isaiah 64:6  But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

Isaiah brought this out.  Our sinfulness is so unclean that even the “good” things we do are looked upon as filthy rags in God’s eyes.  Strong’s defines the Hebrew word for “filthy” in this verse as:

H5708
עד
‛êd
ayd
From an unused root meaning to set a period (compare H5710 and H5749); the menstrual flux (as periodical); by implication (in plural) soiling: – filthy.

When a filthy rag is compared to this definition, it puts our sin into perspective and gives us a glimpse of God’s view of it.

Refining the Gold

As of today, let’s look at our sinfulness in a new light.  When we see sin as God sees sin, it helps us to glean from Joel’s words.  We must figuratively rend our hearts (tear our hearts) and be truly sorrowful for sinning against God.  When we prepare our hearts in this manner, we become truly repentant and are able to draw nigh to our God!  It is then that we see that He is:

…gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil.

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For the Master’s Use – Day 2

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Gleaning Gold

~James 1:25-26 But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain.

Nuggets of Truth

Continuing on the same thought from yesterday’s devotional, we see that James exhorted the Christians to continue in the Word. It seems to me that there were “religious” people in the midst of the Christians and James was pointing out the differences. What were these differences between the “religious” and the born-again believer?  James states that the believer will:

  • Look to the Word of God which gives salvation and frees us from the bonds of sin – the perfect law can only be made perfect by Jesus Christ and His work on the cross!
  • Continue in the faith
  • Not be one who will forget what he hears the preacher say but will take it with him
  • Apply what he has learned and will use it – he will “do the work” … not work to get saved but work after salvation for the cause of Christ.  Christ, Himself, said: ~John 4:34  Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.
  • Be blessed in his work – When a believer has joy and peace, everything he does for the cause of Christ is blessed by God.
  • Hold his tongue – will not be a backbiter, talebearer, one who speaks evil of others.  The fruit of the Spirit cannot produce this type of heart.  The heart that is submitted to the Spirit’s guidance will be the total opposite.

Refining the Gold

Continuing in the faith is not easy.  No one said it would be.  Christ warned us that the world would hate what the Christian has to say.

~Matthew 10:25  It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household?

Don’t be discouraged – continue in the faith – do the work that the Lord would have you to do with the gifts that His Spirit has given to you.  The Holy Spirit has given to you specific gifts that, when used with the right motives (to glorify Jesus Christ), will produce much for the Kingdom!  The “religious” only serve in vain according to today’s verses.  They are doing all the things they have been taught to do but their heart is not in their religion.

~Matthew 15:8-9  This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.   But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.

It would be awful to “think” you’re doing all the right things in your religion only to find out at the time of judgment that your beliefs have been in vain! The Christian does not need to worry himself because his faith has been based on the work of Jesus Christ and that work is perfect and eternal. However, the Christian should busy himself with working for the Kingdom by telling others how to be born again – encouraging those in need of a kind word – giving to and helping those in need – exhorting the brethren to live righteously. Our work is far from over and won’t be until the Master calls us home! What a day that will be!!!

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For the Master’s Use – Day 1

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Gleaning Gold

~Revelation 1:3 Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.

Nuggets of Truth

The Apostle John exhorted the believers not only to read this “difficult” book of the Bible but also to hear what God had to say.  Moreover, he did not stop there. He added the little word keep in the latter part of the verse. We can’t just read and hear but we must keep and not part with what God has taught us. Noah Webster defines the word “keep” as:

To hold; to retain in one’s power or possession; not to lose or part with; as, to keep a house or a farm; to keep any thing in the memory, mind or heart.

Anyone can read and anyone can hear. But not just anyone can keep in their hearts the Scriptures they have learned. Keeping denotes an act of hanging onto the doctrine that we have learned and not departing from it.  When we keep, or hang onto a doctrine we have learned, it means we are practicing it.  You’ve heard the old saying, “You can’t just talk the talk, you have to walk the walk!” A person who puts into practice what he has been taught is truly a disciple of God’s Word. That is why it is important to study the Bible and get the meat that God wants us to grow by.

This is so important that God speaks of it twice in Revelation:

~Revelation 22:7 Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.

Refining the Gold

We don’t have much time left. Read, hear and keep what God has given to you as you do your Bible studies. What are you doing with those verses that you are reading or hearing preached? Do you apply them to your heart? Are you abiding by what God has taught you? This is how the believer grows in Christ.

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Day-by-Day – Day 90 – Seek

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~Psalm 94:8-9 Understand, ye brutish among the people: and ye fools, when will ye be wise? He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? he that formed the eye, shall he not see?

We cannot be so brazen as to believe that God does not pay attention to the little things we do in life or He does not hear the words spoken in secret.  The same God who created us is the same one who hears everything and sees everything.  There is nothing hidden from the Lord.

This is an encouragement to the born-again believer to live righteously.  This is an exhortation to the unbeliever to seek after God and not be foolish. Don’t delay!  No one knows when his last day on this earth will be.  Seek the truth in the Bible – read the Gospel of John through three times.  All the answers of life are contained in its pages.

~Proverb 14:12  There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.

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Day-by-Day – Day 88 – Woe Unto You

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Jesus rebuked the Pharisees and the scribes and called them hypocrites eight times! They were the religious leaders of the day yet they were not esteemed by Christ. Let’s take a look at what Jesus was rebuking them for:

~Matthew 23:13 But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in. They could not lead their members to salvation because they were not saved themselves.

~Matthew 23:14 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows’ houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation. They had the appearance of righteous living but were not righteous at all.

~Matthew 23:15 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves. They traveled far and wide to win one to their religion and made them worse off then when they began.

~Matthew 23:23 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. They did all the right things of the law but yet did not love the unloved, they did not have mercy nor faith.

~Matthew 23:25 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. They kept every letter of the law but their spiritual walk was wicked.

~Matthew 23:27 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness. They appeared righteous to their congregation but inside their religion was dead.

~Matthew 23:29-30 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. They claim to be so righteous that they would not have put to death the prophets.

Seven times, Christ rebukes them in Matthew in these exact words.  A hypocrite is one who preaches one thing yet does the opposite.  All one has to do is to observe a religious leader for a while and compare his actions with the Word of God.  He will reveal his true colors in due time.

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Day-by-Day – Day 87 – Searching

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~Matthew 4:4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

What are you living by? Are you following someone’s teachings? Are you making up your own mind? Are you leaving spiritual matters to others? God tells us to live by His Word, therefore, we must have His Word in existence today or He would be asking us to do the impossible.

Religions of today would have you believe that if you follow them, they will provide joy. So is that working for you? Are you at peace? Do you have joy? I won’t preach to you. I merely ask you to read the Bible. This is where truth, joy and peace can be found. Don’t you want that right now? Where should you start? Start in the Book of John. I challenge you to read it through three times. In the mean time, I will be praying that you will find what I have found!

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Day-by-Day – Day 86 – Separation

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~Romans 16:17-18  Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them.For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.

What have we been taught in the Scriptures?

  • Jesus is God – John 1:1  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
  • Jesus was born of a virgin – Mathew 1:23  Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.
  • Jesus died on the cross for our sins – 1 John 4:10  Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
  • Jesus rose from the dead – 1 Corinthians 15:20  But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.
  • Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father – Colossians 3:1  If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
  • Jesus is the only way to Heaven – John 14:6  Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
  • We must be born again to go to Heaven – John 3:3  Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Who, then, are those that cause division contrary to the doctrine learned from the Scriptures?  Study the Word for yourself and find out who stands on different doctrine!  Then avoid them!  They appear as sheep but are ravenous wolves!  I was raised roman catholic.  I was taught that there was more to salvation than just the Bible.  If your religion teaches this as well, open your eyes, read the Word and find the truth!

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