Friday May 23, 2008 Psalms for Today (111-115)

We have a running tradition in the church here that we should all be on a "life-long-head-soak" in the Scriptures. The psalms and Proverbs divide nicely into daily reading, always available to you.

Today's Psalms had some whiz-bangers in them that have run along the lines of our studies and comments in our community. I think the timing is divine.

Ps 111:5-6
this runs with our discussions of the milennial and eternal reign of Jesus, and the passing comment of Paul in 1 Cor. 2.

Ps 111:9
the "covenant" of which he speaks is clearly not the Law of Moses, because Moses Himself told of the one who was to come after him--that the people were to follow Him (acts). And Hebrews teaches us abotu the Melchisedek priesthood, and Jeremiah 31 teaches us that there was coming a New Covenant... The covenant that this Psalm is referencing is the one we're in now! Amazing prophetic material in this psalm.

Ps. 112 starts with describing the man who lives in the "fear of the LORD" and goes on to show that the guy's not afraid of anything else and is blessed by the LORD. So fear is good, when it's godly fear.

yet in 112:9, we have a verse that is quoted in 2 Cor. 9:9 and the final passage is about JESUS. v.10 descibes how much the wicked HATE the rule and reign of Jesus, while we are commanded to pray "Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done" feel that?

in ps. 113: 4-6 we have a great reference to what I believe is the reason that Satan would speak and do as he is described in Is 14:12-17... God's own HUMILITY is amazing, astounding, even scandalous, before the might of the angelic hosts! "Who is like the LORD our God, who dwells on high, who humbles Himself to behold the things that are in the heavens and the earth..."
God comes down. From Eden on, he has come down. Check out Philippians 2 and see how scandalous this is. Then walk in it, because He has called the obedient faithful to bear the cross (luke 9)

Ps. 115
...amazing! amazing! Reading this scathing indictment of the world's religions! Go to India. go to Nepal! Go to Burma! Go to Thailand! Read this on a hillside there, out loud, and people will KILL YOU! I'm serious!
Read this in the tribal regions of the bush! God will tear down the false gods by His word. You will slip through their hands, until your appointed time to join Christ in the fellowship of His suffering. After that, the power of the resurrection!

There's an interesting thing in here: verse 16.
"The heavens, even the heavens (that is, the highest heavenly realms) are the LORD's; but the earth He has given to the children of men."
...and who's whining about how jacked things are down here and "how can god allow suffering like this..." Bro, it's US! We're the ones who believed the devil and ate of the fruit from the start. We're the ones who agree with his pride and serve falsehood and money and all...
We're the ones! It's on US.
...and everywhere that people turn to the Lord and call on His name, the earth gets renewed! Look at the justice the mercy that are poured out on people groups who turn to the LORD! The very existence of hospitals in India! The avoidance of civil war in England in the late 1700s. Ending child labor--christian movement. Women's suffrage--christian movement. Civil Rights--what was kIng? a christian preacher... get a clue, all! Jesus is the only answer. Drop what you got and follow the LORD!

Thursday Night, May 22, 2008

This thursday ended with us on track, finishing up 1 Kings 18--the showdown on Mt. Carmel.
HEre are some pics of swords. I drew these to give us an idea about the kind of sword that was used back then to kill people with. Different from the straigher, narrower European swords. Not too different from the Arabic curved "Scimitar" of the Sarrasins (during the time of the crusades).

But before we got into Elijah, we hit up the following Scripture track:
Luke 19--the parable of the minas
Jude 14, 15
Rev. 19:11-21 (which Abe, a local pastor and first-time Bible Study visitor has tattooed on his right arm real big)
Then 1 Cor. 6:2
...and Luke 9:55
Then on to Rev. 20 and 21, the final apocalyptic showdown between the reign of Jesus, the will of man, and the subversive pride of the Devil...

Don't miss Isaiah 14:12-15 for the fall of satan
...which Jesus references in Luke 10:17-18

The Elijah stuff was kind of a "blow by blow", getting us into the actual "being there" experience of the stuff...

Proverbs 29:11

"A fool vents all [their] feelings, But a wise [person] holds them back."

Deeeep. Deeeeeeep for a generation raised on the "I'm-here-if-you-need-to-talk/Let-it-out!-Vent-your-feelings" "you'll rot if you keep it inside..." type of pop-psycholoty stuff...

Wow.

So... if a fool vents all of their feelings, how does a wise person deal with them? Feelings are strong, and our training in Americana-pop has deepened their ruts in our souls. What do you do with feelings outside of TALK about them?

and as for VENTING... it is more than talking. It is also acting out and being controlled by feelings that should otherwise be controlled...

HOLD BACK YOUR FEELINGS... That's strange advise! Listen to that again: "Hold back your feelings". Wow.
But listen, while they're held, LOOK at them. Where do they come from? Slow it down. Ponder it. Ponder the processes of them... Ponder What they are and why they affect you so... Slow it down. Take days.

Take hours in prayer and searching the Scriptures for resonance... you know about resonance, right? It's when a passage of scripture-a story about God and His Ones-resonates with you on some deep level, and you have to step back and think and pray and allow yourself to feel and journey deep into your mind and soul and spirit to get your whole self up to par on what your deep innards are doing with all that...

God wants us open, listening, flowing in His Stuff, so that we can speak and listen to Him, communing in him with each other...

Holding back means giving TIME to our feelings and inner rumblings. Giving time and space to our inner life, so that our mind catches up to the mysteries of the things of God. ...so that our heart can catch up to the woundings and healings of the Cross...

Much of what I'm talking about here is taking life to the foot of the Cross and sitting in deep meditation with Jesus, there, getting everything under the Cross... Do you understand "getting everything under the cross"? It is about consecrating our lives... surrendering our desires and plans... hearing the voice of God for ourselves... becoming fit with love to serve and speak and touch and feel in the world... ...fit with love to operate in the Spirit in the world, free from the world.

Yet many of us... no. All of us... tend to let feelings dump out without giving them the time we could. not ought. COULD. "Ought" is the language of condemnation. This isn't requirement. The cross pays for all our faults and shortcomings. "Could". That's the language of PROMISE! Forget now about all the times you have dumped your inner process for "spillage". Think about how much deeper with God you'll go this month! Today! As you put hands around your feelings and cup them up to your face to look into them...

"Oh, that's sadness. Why am I sad, Lord?" What is this sadness? Give it a month in the presence of God, listening in the Word and searching in the spirit. Times with the Body will confirm the voice and leading of God, and you'll emerge comforted and equipped.

"Oh, that's anger. What is this anger, Lord?"... Ephesians has, "Be angry, and sin not" in it, so let the anger burn close to your face... look into it, look away from it and see what it illuminates. So often anger, if you look into it, is like a campfire, rendering your sight ineffective. You have to put your back to it and see what is illuminated by it. Its like that. Anger shows us what must change, and prayer and consecration of our life will make us fit with love and vision to operate for change of those things...

Don't dump out your feelings. Dumping can be talk (most often), but it can also be DECISION MAKING--the changing of aspects and attitudes in life that were meant to bring you into this discipline of the deeper aspects of life. In fact, these decisions, large and small, made by feelings, unprocessed, unpondered, constitute LOSS of peace, rest, power... loss of the LIFE of the cross.

Get a handle on your feeligns. Don't just cork them, but take them to the foot of the cross and ponder them there, with Jesus, in prayer, meditation, listening to the Word, who is Jesus, Himself.

blessings. deepest blessings flowing from the cross of Jesus, today.

Proverbs 27

10 Do not forsake your own friend or your father’s friend,
Nor go to your brother’s house in the day of your calamity;
Better is a neighbor nearby than a brother far away.

Ironic, if you read the grubbykupp blog, today. We're looking at the answer to my question, here. Help is help, when you need it, where you live. Accept it. Don't keep needs and their remedy "in the family".

"...my father's friend..." Who is My Father's friend? Those who do what he says, no? People who love. People who help. People who care... wow. the field is wider than we thought, out here...

Provervbs 21:8

2007.11-21 Bible study-Provervbs 21:8

"The way of a guilty man is perverse;
But as fo rthe pure, his work is right."

there is something rotten about unconfessed sin.
Like an abscess that hasn't been heated, lanced, pressed and drained, unconfessed sin and the guilt that comes with it is a corruptive influence in the life of a child of God.

Get it out. Go to the ones you've hurt--the ones affected by the sin--and get it out. Clean house. Make the person you appear to be the same as the one you really are. That is integrity: the integration of the outside, public you with the inside, private you.

We all stumble in many ways, but our lord has provided us with instruction on how to live obediently to Him in regard to failures and sins. Confession keeps us clean and paves the way for healing. It is an opportunity for the love of God to prosper in the church, to the glory of Christ.


Look at the rot that entered the camp with Achan, early in the book of Joshua.

Look at how the only way for the Moabites to get an edge on Israel was through the seduction of sin! (Rev. 2:14) (and read the torah-first five books)

With unconfessed sin, we bring the curse of God and give the advantage to the enemy of our souls. he always wants to accuse us, even as jesus ever lives to make intercession for us. (Jn.17) (Hebrews)



James 5
if your brother sins and apologizes...
Matt 18:15
Mt. 18: 21-22
Col. 3:12-13

there it is. there is going to be sin in the camp. But we can avoid the curse of guilt and the humiliation of God's discipline. We can shut the mouth of the Devil.

Look at Joshua the high priest in the days of Zechariah (ch.2 or 3) and how God dealt with the evident sin in his life.
twofold:
1. Sin was exposed before God
2. Sin was cleaned away.
(ps. 51--we actually sin against God, alone?)
3. God delivers an injunction against sin, with promises.

Look at John 8, and the woman caught in adultery!

1. Sin exposed before God, cleaned away.
2. Sin forgiven, and warned against.

that's that.

Look at Isaiah 6
Isaiah confesses his own sin, God just plumb forgives it. Told the angel to get a coal, and... done deal.

Think about all these... let the puzzlement fade to wonder. God has given the gift of His one and only Son on the cross to make this forgiveness ours.

Let us "Kiss the Son..." (Psalm 2)

Proverbs 19

For today's proverbs, I'm only going to touch one: verse 3.

"A man's own folly ruins his life,
yet his heart rages against the LORD."

In my NKJV it says:

"The foolishness of a man twists his way,
And his heart frets against the LORD."

What do you think about this? I love it. It brings me such relief to know that the LORD is good, and that when I'm angry at him, it's ME. I'm the one who is a fool, in such cases, and i can STOP fretting against him...

and i have fretted against him, in my own heart's folly. and i will, again, most likely. but this proverb lays me down, tellign me that when I'm raging against God by complaining about His plan, or whining and fretting about his way in my life, that he's not taking me into consideration as I wish... that i am wrong.

and that's good news.

...that I'm a fool.

and that's a healing rebuke.

When my own foolishness has twisted my way, my first inclination is to complain against God... at least it had been. I don't know so much, now. As I walk in fellowship with Jesus, I grow more and more fond of His Discipline and chastisement. I am beginning to recognize the troubles of life as the media of God's best loving lessons and equipping... literally fitting us for heaven...

yet i have been good and foolish before...

but there are people who are FOOLS! These folks are totally BENT! Pride and mockery, scoffing and cursing are the water in their fishtank. They're twisted at heart, with no fear of God. they wake up and care only about their own appetites. These ones are the ones this proverb is really scraping on. They are quick to blame God, listing all the things they see wrong with the world and their environment and circumstances as evidence against yeilding to Jesus Christ or the gospel or the kingdom or however you want to say it...

and their blaming god, prating on all the reaasons they have for not following His Word, is vain. empty. they have twisted it.

Now, there are some who don't believe, and aren't so bent. they are waiting... they are looking for a compelling reason, proof, or evidence to sway them in one direction or another.. they're different people... they have reservations and concerns, but are seeking answers or understanding. Their hearts don't rage or fret against God, but are still supple to His teaching. God will touch them, surely.

Hey, no matter where you are,no matter what's happening, don't BLAME God, SEEEEK God. He loves you. What you're going through is launch-pad material for a walk with Him.
He loves you. He really does.

Proverbs 15

i'm only going to comment on one of these many proverbs, today.

here it is, unapologetically in the New King James Version:

"The way of life winds upward for the wise,
That he may turn away from hell below."

Proverbs 15:24

I LOVE this translation of this particular proverb. Not afraid to use "hell" for the Hebrew "She'ol". Portraying life as it truly is: an upward climb.

Let's talk about how a "linear" view of time: the idea that time has a beginning and an end--has usually been portrayed on a "time line"? These lines are usually straigh lines with a little hache-mark on each end, with marks along the line to show events...

most of us have this "linear" view of time. we were raised like that.

Some of us may have a "circular" view of time. This idea usually includes concepts of reincarnation, or "memory afterlife" (I will live on in the birds that eat the bugs that eat my corpse) (or I will live on in the memories of those whose life-understanding has been built on my contributions). "Circle of life" "Lion King" disney, hinduism, reincarnation... you get it. Not too much of that around here. We're usually linear folks, us westerners...

anyway, there is a Biblical view that I like a lot. It is linear, but not a flat line. It is an ascending spiral. Think of it. There is a "going-around-ness" to history. Things do really tend to repeat, in a sense. we look back and see patterns.
In this view of history, we don't look "back" as much as we tend to look "down" below us. Similarities, "circularities" are due to the fact that we are coming around again to similar "seasons" of history. The rise and decline of nation states--it's all happened before. Yet never exactly like this...

and so history rises toward the consummation.

Mt. 24 says that troubles in our times are like "birth pangs". They will get closer and closer together, and intensify. Toward the end, the spiral of history tightens, and the speed of change picks up, right until the return of Jesus.

From that point, history gets a break...

Well, think on the fear of the Lord, and wisdom. Ponder the way of life, and what it means to truly live. Think for a moment of death, and hell. let the shudder of the true realities of what Jesus said come upon you.

"Twas grace that taught my heart to fear...
...and grace my fear relieved..."

let wisdom overtake you as you realize what an utter mess you make of life when you live outside of holy fear.

I assure you, somethign much worse than any of your worst fears awaits those who don't fear the lord and serve Him. Not just a "messed up" life, but hell, itself.

that's what i'm hearing in this proverb. not just a promise of a smoother life (that means, a peaceful life before God, with assurance that He is pleased with you), but deliverance from the punishment of the wicked.

as an upward spiral, living wisely is an uphill climb. But we get strong, in wisdom. And we get beautiful to God.

Proverbs 8

I read this in the New King James, this morning. I love that version. I have Johnny Cash reading that version's New Testament for my iPod. I got the extra room in the margins version, blacked out the gold lettering on the front with the editor's name and started to flat-out ANNOTATE. Please. Please don't enshrine it after I die. Just let it go. get your own deeeeeep study notes...

Anyway, sometimes NKJV sounds a bit loopy, so please pardon. It was good enough for Johnny Cash, and it's based on the version Jesus used, so deal with it.

In this Chapter, we see Lady Wisdom, crying out on a hill, next to the way, and at the gates of the city. From up there, she cries over us as we pass by. Will we listen?

I thought of breaking this chapter down like I did the last two, but it doesn't lend itself to a good "breaking down". We would lose what's happening here: She is there. Up there, right now, calling to us.

Better than Wealth.
Plain as day to anyone with a lick of good sense.

She's got prudence.
She's got knowledge.
She's got discretion.
She's got counsel and sound wisdom.
Understanding and strength...

fearing the LORD? that is the start.
pride? arrogance? evil speech? She hates'em. Doesn't hang with that.

Wisdom is older than dirt!
SHE WAS THERE.
__________________________
Now, at this point, a bit about the whole concept of "Lady Wisdom". Some unstable people have twisted this teaching ab out her into a "fourth person of the trinity" thing. Loosen up. This smacks figurative: that Wisdom isn't a personal entity. But she could be, and that still doesn't make her God.

Her promises are different.
She only helps those who seek her out.
none have sought for God, yet he has reached out and seized us in Mercy! He seeks his foolish lost sheep with tenderness. He makes a people out of blasphemers and evil people. How Kind God is to us, and how harsh Lady Wisdom is.

I do seek wisdom, recognizing and bemoaning my own folly, leaning into the breast of Jesus, dropping my stones of accusation against myself and others... Jesus has shown me that I, a fool can seek HIM for wisdom (James 1) and he will give it. Jesus hasn't shown me that I must seek some lady.
---------------------------

Wisdom and wealth are related, but those who are in it out of a love of money have already lost her.

check out the early cosmological stuff in v.22-31.
Wisdom liked us from the start. She wants to see us grow up straight.

v.32-35
Listen
keep
Hear
Be wise
disdain not instruction,

Listen
watch
wait
find
obtain favor...

v.36
you're only going to hurt yourself in forsaking wisdom? Not ONLY yourself. you become a fool and you'll end up liable for all the people you undercut along the way.

Proverbs 7

v.1-5 Call Wisdom a Sister
listening to these words, i hear a call to love wisdom... to seek it out and "family up" with it. That is, to be a little brother to her.
...and there's the warning to men about the "forbidden woman". Like a total broken record.

v.6-23 The slaughter of a soul
this is the story of a young man who got the opportunity of a lifetime to have sex with a hot wife. There are tons of men in our generation whose fantasy this is. He will die at least once for this...

v.24-27 The moral of the story...
"...her house iis the road to hell, descending into the chambers of death..."

I can't help but notice Death and Hell. Jesus has the keys to those. He can get a man out of that. And that's what we need... unlocking of men who are caught in sin (Gal.6).

hey, don't forget to remind yourselves to remember that these Bible studies are necessarily short and incomplete. get on in here and comment to complete the ideas you see underdeveloped and neglected. this helps everyone...

Proverbs 6

v.1-5 Get free of financial entanglements.

v.6-11 Against Laziness

v.12-15 The wicked man who gets creamed.

v.16-19 Six things the LORD hates.

v.20-35 Against the Adulteress...

an important contrast is made in the last section between the "prostitute" and the adulteress. We know from yesterday's chapter that the seductress' house is death... check. And there's more to come on that theme as we go on to chapter 7.

Why is there so much, so early in the wisest of the wisdom books, about men getting seduced? Look around. Men just absolutely crave sex. fact. Let's deal with it. Let's get men married and get marriages on track, with good sexual expression within the safety of Godly committment.

So many men are sex-starved, spiraling down in the toiletbowl spin of our culture. With the internet so full-on... there's nobody who doesn't have to deal with this. Men must be on guard to avoid the pollution of pornography.

So many women are "romance-polluted" by our culture's false ideal of romantic perfectionism... the idea that emotional feelings rule the marriage bed is bad. bad bad bad.

I was once told point-blank by an older man that the number one way for men to be pure in this sin-saturated generation is frequent sex with their wife. That totally gels with yesterday's chapter, urging men to delight in sex with their wife. So many men have a lot of junk to clear out so they can do that.

We have to get honest about each other, us married folks. We need to really get things straightened out. Men, get pure and get honest with your wives about how much you want to have sex with them. Women, get real and appreciate the men you have. they are forsaking all others for you. They may disappoint some or many aspects of your previous romantic ideals, but they are YOURS and you are THEIRS.

Paul spoke about this. He said it clearly that deprivation shouldn't happen, or satan would be happy to tempt us astray. Seriously. Deal with it, everyone.

So all the men need to confess and forsake any impurity.
And all the women need to learn to love the actual husband they have, relinquishing their disappointments and fears to God.

That'll bulletproof the church to sexual scandal.

oh, and you singles, celibates, Get your sex on LOCK! You are sealed under vow to God until the time of marriage. Don't mess with that! Stop all sexual expression and stimulation (visual or romantic) now!!! Completely stop.

I'll be glad to elaborate anytime...

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a dumping ground for Bible Study Notes (non-Jeremiah) for a community of Jesus people in Cincinnati, OHIO... cheers!