Verse of the Day 7/31

 

Jeremiah 9:23-24Thus says the Lord: "Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, ²⁴ but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord."  English Standard Version (ESV)

 

There is no shortage of boasting in today's society.  People may boast of their cars, homes, jobs, education, sports teams, personal athletic prowess and any number of things.  Today's verses show us what we should be more concerned about, that we know and understand God and His love, justice and the things that go along with it mercy, peace, and truth to name a few.

 

Given or perhaps taking to opportunity to boast, what do we boast about?  May it be about our knowledge and understanding of God and His attributes, not in a prideful way about ourselves, but our glorying in Him.

 

One day we will stand before the Father.  When we do, we won't be boasting "I did it my way" as in the Frank Sinatra song, rather we will come to Jesus and the Father

 

      Just as I am, without one plea,   	but that thy blood was shed for me,   	and that thou bidst me come to thee,   	O Lamb of God, I come, I come.     	Just as I am, though tossed about   	with many a conflict, many a doubt,   	fightings and fears within, without,   	O Lamb of God, I come, I come.     	Just as I am, poor, wretched, blind;   	sight, riches, healing of the mind,   	yea, all I need in thee to find,   	O Lamb of God, I come, I come.     	Just as I am, thou wilt receive,   	wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve;   	because thy promise I believe,   	O Lamb of God, I come, I come. 

In what spirit, in what attitude do you approach God today?  It will affect how you will approach Him that day when He "sets things right" (v.24 The Message).

 

In Christ,
Mike

 

Follow the Verse of the Day blog at http://mikesvotd.blogspot.com
Eph 1:7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace  NIV

 

Jeremiah 9:23-26The Message (MSG)

^23-24 God's Message:

"Don't let the wise brag of their wisdom.
    Don't let heroes brag of their exploits.
Don't let the rich brag of their riches.
    If you brag, brag of this and this only:
That you understand and know me.
    I'm God, and I act in loyal love.
I do what's right and set things right and fair,
    and delight in those who do the same things.
These are my trademarks."
    God's Decree.

^25-26 "Stay alert! It won't be long now"—God's Decree!—"when I will personally deal with everyone whose life is all outside but no inside: Egypt, Judah, Edom, Ammon, Moab. All these nations are big on performance religion—including Israel, who is no better."

Verse of the Day 7/30

 

Romans 4:5 But to the one who does not work, but believes on Him who declares the ungodly to be righteous,his faith is credited for righteousness.  Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)

 

There is probably no one in the New Testament that writes, that talks about "righteousness", that being in right standing before God, more than the Apostle Paul.  But that does not mean that the Bible is not full of examples of those who are "righteous".  You can go all the way back to Enoch who walked with God, Noah, Abraham and on through the Old and New Testaments.  As today's verse mention, it comes by faith, by trusting God in and through all of life's "circumstances", or better - situations.

 

I read the following quote yesterday which brought me to this verse:

 

"Justification by faith is an answer to the greatest personal question ever asked by a human soul: 'How shall I be right with God? How do I stand in God's sight? With what favor does he look upon me?' There are those, I admit, who never raise that question. There are those who are concerned with the question of their standing before men but never with the question of their standing before God. There are those who are interested in what 'people say' but not in the question of what God says. Such men, however, are not those who move the world. They are apt to go with the current. They are apt to do as others do. They are not the heroes who change the destinies of the race. The beginning of true nobility comes when a man ceases to be interested in the judgment of men and becomes interested in the judgment of God."    J. Gresham Machen, in God Transcendent (Edinburgh, 1982), pages 89-90.

 

What stands out in that statement to me is that the world tends to "go with the current" or go with the flow in today's vernacular. When you look back at those same characters through the Bible that God considered "righteous" it was those who went against the flow, against the wind, the tide of society.  Society is interested in the "judgments of men" which plays out in "political correctness" and anything else that tries to usurp God's authority.

 

It is a good question to ask ourselves, do I go with the flow or will I be among those in Hebrews 11, that great "Hall of Faith", those "heroes who change the destinies of the race", who walk with God against the flow in faith?

 

In Christ,
Mike

 

Follow the Verse of the Day blog at http://mikesvotd.blogspot.com
Eph 1:7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace  NIV

 

Romans 4:4-9The Message (MSG)

^4-5 If you're a hard worker and do a good job, you deserve your pay; we don't call your wages a gift. But if you see that the job is too big for you, that it's something only God can do, and you trust him to do it—you could never do it for yourself no matter how hard and long you worked—well, that trusting-him-to-do-it is what gets you set right with God, by God. Sheer gift.

^6-9 David confirms this way of looking at it, saying that the one who trusts God to do the putting-everything-right without insisting on having a say in it is one fortunate man:

Fortunate those whose crimes are carted off,
    whose sins are wiped clean from the slate.
Fortunate the person against
    whom the Lord does not keep score.

Do you think for a minute that this blessing is only pronounced over those of us who keep our religious ways and are circumcised? Or do you think it possible that the blessing could be given to those who never even heard of our ways, who were never brought up in the disciplines of God? We all agree, don't we, that it was by embracing what God did for him that Abraham was declared fit before God?

Verse of the Day 7/29

  

Jeremiah 7:2-3 "Stand in the gate of the Lord's house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the Lord, all you men of Judah who enter these gates to worship the Lord.³ Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place.  English Standard Version (ESV)

 

 

I read these verses on Sunday before going to church.  The words struck me, thinking of the prophet going out and calling on the people to change their ways, to turn away from "other gods", who are not gods, and return to the Lord.  Their worship had become hollow because they were so busy chasing things, other gods, that even when they went to the temple their hearts were not truly in it.  It was not the act of going to "the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord" (v.4) as the fashionable thing to do, as a "front for other gods" (The Message) that was important.  Rather,it was the rending of the heart, the changing, the amending of ways, the truly turning back to God that was important.

 

In our worship, we sang the song "All the Poor and Powerless".  The words of the chorus reminded me of Jeremiah in today's verses:

 

Shout it
Go on and scream it from the mountains
Go on and tell it to the masses
That He is God

 

He alone is God and there is no other.  He is what the people, "the masses" need.  If we would go out and shout it in words and in actions that He is God.  Selfish acts self seeking are to be replaced by acts of kindness, justice, mercy and compassion.

 

These thoughts brought me to the old hymn "Go Tell it on the Mountain".  I'll share the last two stanzas that remind us of the heart of the prophet Jeremiah and the hearts of true worshippers through the ages.

 

When I am a seeker,
I seek both night and day;
I seek the Lord to help me,
And He shows me the way:
Go, Tell It On The Mountain,
Over the hills and everywhere;
Go, Tell It On The Mountain
That Jesus Christ is born.

He made me a watchman
Upon the city wall,
And if I am a Christian,
I am the least of all.
Go, Tell It On The Mountain,
Over the hills and everywhere;
Go, Tell It On The Mountain
That Jesus Christ is born.

Read the passage from "The Message" below.  The prophet is still shouting to "clean up our act".  Is anybody listening?

 

In Christ,
Mike

 

Follow the Verse of the Day blog at http://mikesvotd.blogspot.com
Eph 1:7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace  NIV

 

Jeremiah 7:2-7The Message (MSG)

The Nation That Wouldn't Obey God

7 ^1-2 The Message from God to Jeremiah: "Stand in the gate of God's Temple and preach this Message.

^2-3 "Say, 'Listen, all you people of Judah who come through these gates to worship God. God-of-the-Angel-Armies, Israel's God, has this to say to you:

^3-7 "'Clean up your act—the way you live, the things you do—so I can make my home with you in this place. Don't for a minute believe the lies being spoken here—"This is God's Temple, God's Temple, God's Temple!" Total nonsense! Only if you clean up your act (the way you live, the things you do), only if you do a total spring cleaning on the way you live and treat your neighbors, only if you quit exploiting the street people and orphans and widows, no longer taking advantage of innocent people on this very site and no longer destroying your souls by using this Temple as a front for other gods—only then will I move into your neighborhood. Only then will this country I gave your ancestors be my permanent home, my Temple.

Verse of the Day 7/25

 

John 2:24-25But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people²⁵ and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.  English Standard Version (ESV)

 

Today's verses are some of those which can easily be glossed over.  They come at the end of John chapter 2 and with the way that the Bible has been put into chapter, many people will not link these verses to what John tells us in the coming chapters.  The key words here are "he knew all people" and that he "knew what was in man".

 

As John launches in what we know of as John chapter 3 we see a number of exchanges with people, from various walks of life who come in contact with Jesus, come to know something about him, and whose lives are changed forever.  We have Nicodemus, a Pharisee; we have the woman at the well, an adulteress, and the lame man that was healed at the pool in Bethesda and on to others such as Zachaeus.

 

In each case we see that Jesus knew who they were, knew what was in them, knew what they needed and they responded.  The responses differed, some were changed immediately, with Nicodemus it took some time.  It is a message for all of us.  He knows us, what makes us "tick" and what we really need.  How do we respond to Him when we come in contact with Him, when we come into His presence whether it is at a worship service or in our quiet place that we considered yesterday.

 

We may put on a good front, but as The Message puts it "He knows us inside and out and sees "right through" our facade.  One way or the other, Jesus gets to the heart of the matter.  If you have the time this weekend, choose one of these interactions in John 3 through 5 and see how he works.  "Most assuredly" He will have something to say to us.

 

In Christ,
Mike

 

Follow the Verse of the Day blog at http://mikesvotd.blogspot.com
Eph 1:7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace  NIV

 

John 2:23-25The Message (MSG)

^23-25 During the time he was in Jerusalem, those days of the Passover Feast, many people noticed the signs he was displaying and, seeing they pointed straight to God, entrusted their lives to him. But Jesus didn't entrust his life to them. He knew them inside and out, knew how untrustworthy they were. He didn't need any help in seeing right through them.

Verse of the Day 7/25

Verse of the Day 7/25

 

Jeremiah 29:12-13Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. ¹³ And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.  New King James Version (NKJV)

 

At the end of yesterday's post from Isaiah 66 I copied the passage from The Message which stated "but there is something I'm looking for; a person simple and plain, reverently responsive to what I say."  It is not the flashy attention grabber, it is the plain, simple, reverent person who responds to God as he reads and calls upon God.

 

Verse 29:11 is probably more commonly quoted  from this passage and speaks of God's plans for the seeker.  That seeking will involve commitment, making time for Him, which will mean putting aside all of the noise from the world around us to concentrate on what God has to say for us, what His plans are for us.

 

"Quietness is the classroom where you learn to hear My voice.  Beginners need a quiet place in order to still their minds.  As you advance in this discipline, you gradually learn to carry the stillness with you wherever you go.  When you step back into the mainstream of life, strain to hear those glorious bells: I am with you, I am with you, I am with you."  Sarah Young - "Jesus Calling"

 

Do you have that quiet place, that "classroom"?  If so, may we be "reverently responsive" to what He has for us today, "you won't be disappointed" (The Message).

 

Blessings,
Mike
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Jeremiah 29:11-14The Message (MSG)

^10-11 This is God's Word on the subject: "As soon as Babylon's seventy years are up and not a day before, I'll show up and take care of you as I promised and bring you back home. I know what I'm doing. I have it all planned out—plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for.

¹² "When you call on me, when you come and pray to me, I'll listen.

^13-14 "When you come looking for me, you'll find me.

"Yes, when you get serious about finding me and want it more than anything else, I'll make sure you won't be disappointed." God's Decree.

"I'll turn things around for you. I'll bring you back from all the countries into which I drove you"—God's Decree—"bring you home to the place from which I sent you off into exile. You can count on it.

Verse of the Day 7/24

 

Isaiah 66:2²   All these things my hand has made,
    and so all these things came to be,
declares the Lord.
But this is the one to whom I will look:
    he who is humble and contrite in spirit
    and trembles at my word.  English Standard Version (ESV)

The other day I quoted A. W. Tozer asking the question "what comes to your mind when you think about God?"  When you read the Bible, God's Word, especially as expressed by the prophets, they had a high regard, a reverence and yes a "fear" of God.  It came out in their writings and it was also evidenced in their lives.

 

Today's verse comes from the final chapter in Isaiah, one of the great prophets and collections of writings in the Old Testament.  In chapter 57 he referred to God as the High and Lofty One (Isaiah 57:15 NKJV).  He was captivated, compelled, convicted and convinced of the authority of God and His Word.  The thought that God would speak to him and through him would cause him to tremble.

 

The prophet can look back at his life, can look at the temple and can look at the hand of God in all of His creation and declare His majesty.

 

I'll ask the original question with a slight variation "what comes to your mind when you think about the Word of God?  Our response will tell us a lot about what we think about God Himself and the place that He and the Word have in our lives.  The wise will hear and obey His Word.

 

The wise will hear Him and obey His word  Long and blessed will be their days upon the earth  The fool will perish in the folly of his ways  Do you tremble at the Word of God  Have you considered the scope of eternity  In the light of unwavering truth  Have you regarded the works of a strong and mighty hand  Do you tremble at the Word of God    (from the song "Do You Tremble - Wes King)

 

Blessings,
Mike
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Isaiah 66:1-4The Message (MSG)

Living Worship to God

66 ^1-2 God's Message:

"Heaven's my throne,
    earth is my footstool.
What sort of house could you build for me?
    What holiday spot reserve for me?
I made all this! I own all this!"
    God's Decree.
"But there is something I'm looking for:
    a person simple and plain,
    reverently responsive to what I say.

^3-4 "Your acts of worship
    are acts of sin:
Your sacrificial slaughter of the ox
    is no different from murdering the neighbor;
Your offerings for worship,
    no different from dumping pig's blood on the altar;
Your presentation of memorial gifts,
    no different from honoring a no-god idol.
You choose self-serving worship,
    you delight in self-centered worship—disgusting!
Well, I choose to expose your nonsense
    and let you realize your worst fears,
Because when I invited you, you ignored me;
    when I spoke to you, you brushed me off.
You did the very things I exposed as evil,
    you chose what I hate."

Read more at https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah+66%3A1-4&version=MSG#QbD7w2Mu4wtbH6Jl.99

Verse of the Day 7/22

 

Jeremiah 2:11-12 Has a nation changed its gods,
    even though they are no gods?
But my people have changed their glory
    for that which does not profit.

¹² 

12 Be appalled, O heavens, at this;
    be shocked, be utterly desolate,
declares the Lord,  English Standard Version (ESV)

 

I read today's verses this morning in my Old Testament reading.  It is one that makes you realize how far the nation had fallen in the time of the prophet and it is also sobering to think of it in terms of our nation in recent history and currently.

This comes after reading a quote from A. W. Tozer in "The Knowledge of the Holy" in relation to Isaiah 55 where God states that His thoughts are higher than our thoughts and My ways are higher than your ways.

 

"Always the most revealing thing about the Church is her idea of God, just as her most significant message is what she says about Him or leaves unsaid, for her silence is often more eloquent than her speech. She can never escape the self-disclosure of her witness concerning God.

Were we able to extract from any man a complete answer to the question, "What comes into your mind when you think about God?" we might predict with certainty the spiritual future of that man. Were we able to know exactly what our most influential religious leaders think of God today, we might be able with some precision to foretell where the Church will stand tomorrow."

 

For a nation to "change its gods" or leave, forsake the true God, individuals must start the process, churches continue in the process and the nation follows.  A good self test would be to think of "what comes to my mind when I think about God?"  We begin to turn, to fall away when we put our thoughts, individually, as a church and as a nation above the thoughts and desires of the God who created all there is and continues to provide for and protect us.

 

Isaiah 55:7-8English Standard Version (ESV)

⁷ let the wicked forsake his way,
    and the unrighteous man his thoughts;
let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him,
    and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
⁸ For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
    neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.

What do we think of God?  May we not be carried away by empty god dreams and schemes.

 

In Christ,
Mike

 

Follow the Verse of the Day blog at http://mikesvotd.blogspot.com
Eph 1:7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace  NIV

 

Jeremiah 2:9-11The Message (MSG)

^9-11 "Because of all this, I'm bringing charges against you"
        —God's Decree—
    "charging you and your children and your grandchildren.
Look around. Have you ever seen anything quite like this?
    Sail to the western islands and look.
Travel to the Kedar wilderness and look.
    Look closely. Has this ever happened before,
That a nation has traded in its gods
    for gods that aren't even close to gods?
But my people have traded my Glory
    for empty god-dreams and silly god-schemes.