WHEN IT COMES TO DOUBT

From the first part of Psalm 11 are questions one would ask about raising doubts in a believer (or perhaps it is a question of doubt the believer himself is asking)  The rest of the psalm answers the question (vs 4-7)

We get doubts about what we commonly fear:
- - You should retreat (v1)
- - The wicked are working (v2)
- - They do it in secret, no one sees (v2)
- - If the foundations are destroyed what can the righteous do? (v3)

The answers . . .
- - Got still reigns in heaven (v4)
- - God sees all (v4)
- - God tries everybody, but he hates the wicked (v5)
- - God will punish the wicked (v6)
- - God sees the upright.

GOOD WELLS AND BAD WELLS

From Proverbs 10:32:  “The lips of the righteous know what is acceptable, but the mouth of the wicked speaketh frowardness.”  The righteous shows kind consideration when he speaks.  He knows what is acceptable because he has studied the other person and knows something of their state.  He knows how different words would affect him.

The wicked also knows of the other but speaks away from the appropriate answer (froward means away from).  So the wicked shows hurtful consideration, the desire to oppose.

Verse 11:  “The mouth of a righteous man is a well of life, but violence covereth the mouth of the wicked”  A well has an opening from which something must be drawn out.  What good is inside the righteous must be drawn out.  He is not quick with his answers.  When he gives answers they are healthful, as water is healthful.

If there is any healthful thing within the wicked, it is inaccessible because the well is covered.  He does not want to give out health but harm.  Obvious to all who see is the violence that covers his mouth.  It is always on top, always presenting to people.

COURT IS IN SESSION

Psalm 9:7:  “But the Lord shall endure forever:  he hath prepared his throne for judgment.”

I wonder, if man were not sinful would God not have to set up his throne for judgment?  If there were no sin his throne would be needed only for ruling; it would not be needed for discovering sin and pronouncing punishment for the wicked.  But since the wicked exist, God is preparing his throne for a time when they will be brought to account for transgressing his will.  God will outlast any hope of the wicked for covering up, or justifying, or getting past their wicked deeds.  There will be no hope the deeds will be forgotten or overlooked.  From the time a wicked act is performed God’s judgment throne is ready to pronounce a punishment.  Court is in session and the sinner is on the docket.

While the judgment is inevitable we must also remember “. . . the needy shall not always be forgotten:  the expectation of the poor shall not perish forever. . .” as said in v18.  We should consider afresh how we ourselves deserve judgment, but have been excused.  Jesus paid our fines.

TRAINING SPIRITUAL CHILDREN

What do we do to bring up spiritual children?  I think there at least three areas:  Devotions, Training and Example.

Devotions:  When I say devotions I mean reading the Bible as a family, aloud, all together in one place at regular, consistent times.  The Bible is the primary source of our knowledge about who and what and why God is, and what he requires.  There are other means such as at church or Sunday school or TV ministries, but how do you know what they are saying is what the Bible says?  You must read the Bible to know what it says so you can compare it to what the other sources are telling you.  Remember the Bible says, “In the beginning was the Word . . .”

Training:  We can interpret what the Bible is saying to us and our children as we are reading it to them.  We can direct them to other reliable Bible teachers.  We can assure they are among upright, wholesome friends, families and other teachers.  We can oversee what types of media (books, movies, TV, internet, etc.) they consume.  We can encourage them when they demonstrate good character and correct them when they don’t.  We can support them as they engage in activities such as sports, band, theater, etc. and converse with them about their experiences.

Example:  The most effective method is to be a good example.  They will learn as they see us talk among ourselves in the family and with others in public.  They will learn about character as they see our character.  They will learn what is fair and reasonable as they view us being fair and reasonable.  We show them what good works are by doing good works ourselves.  It won’t be so hard to “do as we say” as we ourselves do as we say.  They will learn about giving as they see us giving and as they experience what we give to them.

DRIFTING TRUTH

Proverbs 5:3  “Her mouth [the strange woman] drops as a honeycomb and her mouth is smoother than oil”.  This is how the wisdom of the world sounds, it is sweet and smooth.  It is difficult to overcome because it sounds as if it is good (honey) and it sounds so logical and solid (smoother than oil).  But it is death (v5).  The wisdom of the world is movable (v6).  It has no standard upon which it is based, so it is free to drift in any convenient direction.  When you shine the light of scripture and logic upon it, to show that it is incorrect, it slips aside into avoiding discovery.

The wisdom of the world will cause you to:

-  Give your honor to others (v9) – your sense of worth and dedication will be account to the evolutionists, and not with God’s people or family.

-  Give your years to the cruel (v9) – your time will have vanished among the vitriolic agitators, and not with God’s people or family.

-  Strangers will be filled with your strength (v10) – the materialists will have the effect of your strength and not God’s people or family.

-  Your labors will be in the house of the strangers (v10) – Your labors will be in the house of careerists and not with God’s people or family.

-  Your flesh and body will be consumed – at the end of your life your flesh and body will have been spent for your humanist education, for the vitriolic agitators and wrong-sex proponents, for possessions (many of which will have long since decayed), for your career (which did not further God’s kingdom).

God’s truth does not so shift.

MINING FOR TRUTH

Referring to Proverbs 2:1-5 it seems that it takes a lot of continual effort to get knowledge, understanding and wisdom.  These things don’t come easy and they don’t come quick.  It takes work , and it takes work every day.  You must receive, hide, incline, apply, cry, lift your voice, seek and search.

“Pro 2:1-5  My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee; so that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding; yea, if thou [cry] after knowledge, and [lift] up thy voice for understanding; if thou [seek] her as silver, and [search] for her as for hid treasures; then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God.”

When you seek for silver and search for hid treasure it is not done in five minutes of idle time before watching a video.  To seek you must decide where to go, you must do diligent research.  You have to determine how your search will be funded.  You must actually go there and methodically comb the area inspecting every rock formation.  You must balance your resources while doing it.  It takes time and it takes resources.  You have to spend something to get something.

So it is we have to spend some time in God’s word to get something out of it.  Seeking through the pages of Scripture brings to us understanding, knowledge, wisdom and is to arrive at the conception of right paths, the right way.  Truth will deliver people who find themselves in the wrong paths.

WHEN DOES “CAUSE AND EFFECT” HAPPEN

By looking at Genesis one I wonder if we can make an observation:  All things that appear to have a cause and effect may not have, or may not always have had, a cause/effect relationship.  God first made the light, then he divided it from the darkness, then he named the darkness “night” and the light “day”,  then the evening and the morning were the first day.  It was after that (three days later, on the forth day) that God created the lights (Sun, Moon, stars) and attached them to the day/night cycle(“rule over the day and over the night”).

- -  There was light without a source for it (Sun, stars).

- - There may have been “day and night” without the rotation of the earth.*

- - Things may become associated into cause and effect after they both are brought into existence:  there was light - - then there were sources for the light - - then the sources were made to “rule” over the light.

Might there be other things that seem to be in a cause and effect relationship which really may not be that way?  Were other energies made before the sources for them came into being?

Is it natural for us, in a human sense, to create “energies” before we create the “sources”?

- - Spirit [goes to] Soul?

- - Idea [goes to] Thought?

- - Feeling [goes to] Thought?

*Was all the light, after the division, on one side of the Earth, and the darkness on the other?  Then the earth rotated to achieve day and night?  Was day and night achieved some other way?

DEVELOPING CHARACTER

Pro 14:8  The wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way: but the folly of fools is deceit.  - - -  You should understand your way.  You should know and plan for what you are going to do and how and when you are going to do it.

Pro 14:12  There is a way which seems right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.  - - -  Many ways seem good, so in your plans make sure you are going where God wants, and not some other way.  God’s way is always safest.

Pro 14:15  The simple believes every word: but the prudent man looks well to his going.  - - -  Think about the direction you go and be wary of your counselors.  Every word of counsel should be examined and re-examined.  All should contribute to the building of God’s kingdom.

Pro 14:18  The simple inherit folly: but the prudent are crowned with knowledge.  - - -  The simple inherit folly because they have not made any plans.  They get whatever Satan brings their way.  The prudent see their plans unaffected by evil; they get them accomplished.

Pro 14:23  In all labor there is profit: but the talk of the lips tends only to penury.  - - -  Plans are good, but if you only talk or write of them, and never work them, they are useless.  You have to take action on your plans adjusting them along the way.

Character and righteousness do not just happen.  They are built step by step on a daily basis.  They do not exist in us because of some naturally inborn, unchangeable part.  They are not like our body type that has been given us from birth.  When we need them, if we have not been developing them, they will not be there.

GOD’S WORDS THROUGH MEN

We endanger ourselves when we think too much of the men who physically penned the Scriptures.  Biblical critics would tell us the men who wrote the Scriptures were captives of their time.  They ignore the possibility that God could use men to capture the Creator’s timeless truths.  Some would say the present time represents a different culture than the past so we should not apply historical ethical writings to ourselves.  Behind the issue is the assumption that Paul, not God, was the author of these words.  Therefore, some would say, we do not have to accept them as scripture because God did not write them. 

But we know the words on every page of the Bible are inspired by God, they are all his words.  How did the men that God used to choose the canonical scriptures choose this or that letter from Paul as authentic?  Was it not because Paul wrote it and it was very obvious to these men that Paul was God’s man (these men having lived closer to the time Paul actually worked and lived)?  Maybe it was because of who the authors were - - Apostles of or “blood relatives” of the Lord Jesus.

Biblical days were days when public discourse was oral.  Even written words were not dominant for most because the printing press was not yet invented.  All discourse tended to be local.  Yet the fame of Paul was widespread.  His fame, if not a sign of God’s working through Paul, at least it is a sign of the magnitude of his importance.  The words were copied and re-copied.  There had to be something more behind them than simply the letter of a churchman.

It is inspiring that the Bible should come from God as a collection of books written by men because, as God has worked among men in the past for the purpose of inspiring us, so he today works to inspire us in the Church - - by men of the present.  Then God was working in real live people who were doing things among their contemporaries.  They wrote it down as, or soon after, it happened.  If you were there, God was working among people you could have heard with your own ears, or touched. 

Although what churchmen of today write will not be in the Bible, God is working still among the people of the Church.

VITRIOL ON POSTS OR COMMENTS

While viewing a Pro-Trump site I saw some posts and comments that were condescending and acid in their tone.  I was sad to see vitriolic language used by anti-Trump people  I was sadder still to see the vitriolic language used at a pro-Trump site.  Vitriol is a sign of rude, insensitive caustic people who seem to want to do damage.  The language is not a simple expression of disagreement but is a indication of intent to embarrass and harm.  It fails to influence the targeted blogger or poster to either moderate the author’s opinion or lessen his resistance to the ‌commentator‌’s opinion.  It rather fortifies his opposition to the commentator‌’s opinion.

Vitriol is more like a declaration of war than a wish to achieve either an change or to reach a mutual agreement.  Vitriol will cause you to isolate yourself from the ones or the situation you wish to influence.  You will show yourself to be a disrespectful person of low manners and little influence.

Why would any other wish to even hear, let alone be influenced, by a rude, angry person?

To get results it is far better to assume the people reading your words are:  intelligent and can understand your point and might decide to make some change from what they think.  While commenting be courteous and assume they will kind enough to realize you both differ and respect you for sentiments.  Don’t act the opposite way yourself by being discourteous and disrespectful.

IMAGINING

I have been trying to do away with my imaginations.  I wonder if they do not short circuit any good that I might do?  (I imagine it, therefore I have “done” it, therefore I do not really do it.) 

God says, “without vision the people perish.”  Some sort of thinking about what will happen is good.  But I wonder if the way I imagine takes away from positive action.  Certainly the negative imagining is not good for it sets an evil cast upon events which have not yet happened.  Sometime is puts future events in the framework of the familiar - - the way we are used to events happening; yet, they may not actually happen that way.

I think, “men do not want me around” and I launch my imagination off in that direction.  Better for me to say, “I resist that thinking.  God said, ’resist the Devil and he will flee from you, draw neigh to
God and he will draw neigh unto you.’  In the name of Jesus I resist that thought.”

Maybe my mind being so full of imaginations keeps me from hearing from the Spirit of God.

I need to walk “by faith and not by sight”.  While I am doing what faith says, I can observe the results of faith - -  the “sight” part.

What would faith teach me about my relationships with other men?  I’m sure of this:  it’s important to know what God says is right - - as in the Law, Proverbs, parables, etc.

BEING WISE AS A SERPANT

Be careful of your personal information.  I recently read a Washington Post news article about Russian hackers implanting malicious code in a Vermont electrical grid computer system.  In the article it said:  “According to the report by the FBI and DHS, the hackers involved in the Russian operation used fraudulent emails that tricked their recipients into revealing passwords.”  This highlights something I hope you already know:  NEVER, NEVER give your personal information to any request for it to a source you are unsure about.  This applies to emails, phone calls and particularly to requests from the web.

I can’t imagine why you would provide an answer to anyone who wanted to know your password.  Why would they need to know it?  The very concept of “password” implies only you and that one particular entity (and no one else) already know what it is.

NO SOLOISTS

As I was thinking about a computer software problem I realized that I was feeling bad that I could not solve the problem alone.  I remembered that Jesus is called our “Advocate”.  How would you like to represent yourself as your own lawyer before God in Heaven’s courtroom?.  How wonderful That Jesus is our lawyer, our advocate.  Being a man, and not God, there are some things I can not do.  Then I remembered that God says that “in the multitude of counselors there is safety”.   So I should not feel bad to need another to help me solve a problem.

The world is such that if you do not keep pouring energy into your work, it will dissipate into nothing.  We have to keep active to keep anything we value.  Thank God he pours his energy into us.  How could we keep ourselves straight if we did not daily remind ourselves by reading, prayer, fellowship and church about God and his ways?  Even as we are doing that we need his Holy Spirit, and we need our family, friends and work-mates..

MUSINGS ON GENESIS

When God created the heaven some other things were there also:  darkness, the deep, waters.  Did these things come along with the creation, or was there darkness before there was an earth?  Before there was a heaven or earth was there nothing?  Or was this the place where, in the course of the spiritual dimension, God set the physical dimension running as a “new thing”:  Spiritual always, physical in time?

The earth was without form and void (empty)?  Does this mean there were no geologic features (lakes, mountains, seas . . .) or does it mean the Earth somehow was not coagulated into a solid physical sphere?

Where was the Deep?  On the Earth, outer space?

God created light and “saw” that it was good.  Did God “see” anything before there was light?  God knows everything, of course, but is “seeing” something different?

If darkness was upon the face of the deep, where was it not?  Were there other places that darkness was not upon?  If there were such places, what was upon them?  (Not light because light came after darkness).

God divided the light from the darkness (implying that light and darkness were mixed together).  When he did that “. . . the evening and the morning were the first day”.  This seems to be the start of time.

Apparently God was not satisfied with darkness and waters alone because he did not see that they were good, when God created light he saw that it was good; did the three have to be together?

CHURCH SELF-SEEKERS

(Jude 1:11)  “Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.”

Cain:  The sacrifice of works rather than the sacrifice of blood.

Balaam:  Seeking to become rich in the doing of God’s work.

Core:  Pushing himself to usurp the place of God’s appointed leaders. 

Cain and Abel both brought sacrifices to God but God preferred Abel’s offering over Cain’s.  Cain killed Abel in a fit of jealousy; Why?  Perhaps he thought his offering should have been more valuable.  He put more labor in growing crops than raising animals.  He had to plow, sow, reap, transport his produce whereas all Abel had to do was watch his sheep feed themselves and  self-reproduce.  Are we in a figure murdering each other for jealousy over the gifts of another?

Balaam sought riches in the doing of God's work.  We shouldn’t seek reward for doing what is normally expected of us.  We should do God's work because it is right.  We should do God's work for God's profit, not our own.  What are our real reasons for what we do in the church?

Core (and Dathan and Abiram) attempted to take the place of the ones God had already appointed for leadership:  Moses and Aaron.  God positions the ones he wants to be leaders in the church.  We should seek a church position to benefit God's work, not for self status.  Are we seeking a position within the church body for the sake of our status?

We are supposed to rebuke these self-seekers in the Church:  how much does rebuking really happen in the church of today?

ANGRY PASTORS

I once attended a church where it appeared that I made two of the clergy angry. One was older. He never smiled at me or ever gave any indication of welcome, let alone kindness. Once or twice he reached around behind me to smile and welcome another. If I had committed some great offense I was never shown what it was. The other was younger and phoned me up to ask why I had not provided an “Exit Interview”. He seemed quite put out about it. I neither executed any “Membership Document” nor verbally expressed an interest in becoming a “Member”. I thought being a member of the Body of Christ was enough. If there was a contract written, stated or implied I was ignorant of it.

Perhaps I was wrong by being a regular participant in the worship and providing them with a portion of my tithe.

If someone is angry at you, and you both are going to continue in contact, he should tell you what it is you do or say bothers him. And you should do the same. No one can improve from a wrong if they don't know what the wrong is.  Things like that can bother a person for a lifetime.

CHANGING JUDGMENTS

2 Cor 1 (paraphrased):  "When we purpose things within ourselves it is 'yes' or 'no'.  But the purposes (or promises) of God are 'yes' "(v20).  We make up our minds according to an occasion and decide “yes” or “no” about the occasion.  It may be “yes” today, buy tomorrow the situation may change and then become “no”.

The promises of God are not made up to fit the situation but are decided beforehand.  What is “yes” today will be “yes” and not “no” tomorrow.  When we can, we should make up our minds using God’s everlasting principals as our base, and not with facts that change from day to day or minute to minute.

A man kills another man with a brick.  Today we say he should be hanged (“yes”).  Tomorrow we look at his background:  the brick thrower is disadvantaged, he was beaten and abused all his life, he was half crazed with drugs, the dead man was an undercover police officer who was wanting to entrap the brick thrower.  Tomorrow we reconsider and say he should not be hanged (“no”).

God’s law does not change.  If a man sheds a man’s blood, by the hand of other men must his blood be shed.   We say, “unless there is a situation such as war, self defense, or by accident (no malice of forethought)”.  Have we instituted mercy into a Biblical concept where there seems to be none?  Yet we notice men of the Bible were not put to death because they killed others in battle, cities of refuge were set aside for people who killed another accidentally.

WORK DIVISIONS

Here is how many companies are organized:
A.  Operations - Decide what Tasks should be done.
B.  Administration -  Decide how to accomplish the tasks: when and where.
C.  Laborers/Craftsmen – Perform the Manufacturing or service

Here is what 1 Corinthians 12 says:
A.  (v4) Diversities of gifts, same spirit – Father, Operations
B.  (v5) Differences of Administrations, same Lord – Son, Administration
C.  (v6) Diversities of Operations, same God – Holy Ghost, Gifts

1. Word of wisdom
2. Word of knowledge
3. Faith
4. Healing
5. Working of miracles
6. Prophecy
7. Discerning of spirits
8. Tongues
9. Interpretation of tongues

DAILY READING

When I was 50 years old I wrote:

I'm still not one for a strong personal devotional time.  Yet, all these married years, and a little before – 25 (now 53) years in all – I have had the family devotions.  The daily Bible reading.  This small thing has been great in my life.  As God said – it has been the mustard seed that, though a tiny seed, grew to a great tree with branches for the fowls of the air to nest in.  One thing I have confidence about:  I know what God thinks about a lot of things.  Some would whisk me aside as being a “Christian Bigot”;  I would say to them, “What principles are a guide for your life?  Any?  Some favorite author or politician?  Some particular group you belong to?”

I know right from wrong, good from bad, profitable from unprofitable.  Each time I read the Bible I get yet more from it.  I have been a better man to the world because of it – even to those who would say it's  “just another book”.

FAST JUDGEMENT

Pilate, otherwise having a peaceful day, was inadvertently sucked into Jewish religious matters.  The Jews had a serious problem with Jesus for which they wanted him executed.  However, the only authority that could legally execute a person was the Roman government.  Pilate tried to kick the ball back into the Jew’s court.  They refused because they wanted Jesus killed and they weren’t allowed.  Now Pilate cared nothing for Jesus’ life, it mattered not at all to him, nor did Jewish religious disputes.  When Jesus was forced back into his lap he tried to quickly get him to admit he was “King of the Jews”.  If he could do that, he could render a quick death penalty judgement:  for no one could be king but Caesar.  He could get no evidence against Jesus except the troublesome fact that Jesus had said he was the “Son of God”.  That wasn’t enough in Roman eyes.  He brought him out before the people in “kings clothing” saying, “Behold your king” but the people said, “We have no king but Caesar.”  Now Pilate was stuck because, in his view, there was only one king, and that was Caesar.  The people knew he could not back away.

He tried to release Jesus until the Jews said that Jesus made himself king in the place of Caesar.  That was enough to let Pilate off the hook and get Jesus crucified for no one could be king but Caesar

The fact that an innocent man might die had no effect on Pilate’s thinking.  He wanted to avoid anything that would embroil hem in consequences for months to come, and in Jerusalem religious matters always have consequences.  He wanted out of a Jewish religious argument.  He did not want to be exposed to a religious discrimination suit by the Jews because of anything he did.  After all, that was a career stopper.