Genesis 6:5, “the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually”
If this verse doesn’t make you pray, nothing will. Oh, it would be easy to say, that this was of days long ago; that men did not know any better; that we are not like that today; But the sad truth is that you cannot help but read the headlines in the newspaper or listen to the news or hear the conversation of friends, family and even strangers and not know that we are in an evil world and they are practicing it continually. How did we get here? Are we to blame? Is there any hope?
In this section of Genesis, we learn that only Noah was found righteous in the sight of the Lord. One man among all the rest of civilization. Now I know that the Lord can work through one or how many He desires to but He waits upon us; 120 in the upper room, one man preaches and 3,000 are saved and added to the church; numbers is not the issue, evil continually practiced is; Noah’s righteousness was swallowed up by being surrounded by evil; It wasn’t Noah and his sons were found righteous it was him alone; his righteousness saved his family; I am led to believe that if the sons practiced their father’s righteousness then there would have been more on the ark or even that God would have had mercy on man; You may feel like Noah, that you are all alone and cry out Elijah’s petition, “I am the only one left to serve the Lord”; and even thought it is evil continually around us, God has His remnant among us; What we need today is not to hunker down and become recluse and to wait until the Lord comes back or until we are called home but to be actively engaged in the world around us; Now hear me, I know that many are engaged in the world, even so much that you cannot tell the world from the Christian today; they talk like them, they act like them and they frolic like them; How many Christians come into the church on Sunday morning, bleary eyed and tired, yawning all through the service because of Saturday night? We are not to be like them nor act like them, “Come ye out from among them and be ye separate”. And as we are the minority there is no room for meager, fain hearted, cowardly Christians today. The only way to stop ‘evil continually’ is to be righteous continually. The church is weak and powerless today because they are given to a spirit of double mindedness. To stem this continual evil requires a few to meet God and walk with God and serve God whole heartedly. And as the church was granted fruit from their righteousness so we are promised this. “out of your belly shall flow rivers” a promise that as we look to Him He will reward us with fruit for the kingdom. A laborer for the kingdom is righteous continually; a laborer for hell is evil continually. Even though this world is evil and filled with sin and things continue to sink, God calls us to be righteous. Work today for the night cometh when no man can work. Labor in the Spirit to be righteous, to be right with God—in the Word; in meditations; in pray with out ceasing; in sowing and reaping; in fellowship with His glorious church; in desiring that His kingdom be done here on earth as it is in heaven.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Genesis 24:63 (rough draft)
Genesis 24:63, "And Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the eventide" One of my most cherished verses that has always been moving to me; Spugeon's Morning and Evening, was what drew me to the impact of it; found throughout Scripture is that theme, morning and evening, from creation, "the evening and the morning was the first day" to the sacrifices morning and evening; to the prayer times of the saints, and they prayed early in the morning and the retired at eventide to pray; Isaac was meditating, he had lost his mother, sorrow was upon him, have you been there? are you there now? joy has left for a season and darkness is present, maybe because of sin; in the eventide there is stillness and God draws us with His Holy Spirit, "Come out from them" leave the routines of life, and business, shut off the TV, retire from vanity and "Be still and Know Him" Upon the setting of the sun today, draw unto Him when the evening tide is there and the darkness is coming and know that He is light to us today;
the days are getting longer now and evenings are stretching out and my heart is swept away with this calling unto Him, may you find it and know it;
the days are getting longer now and evenings are stretching out and my heart is swept away with this calling unto Him, may you find it and know it;
Genesis 24:58 (rough draft)
From readings today: 1/31 - Genesis 24:58, "Wilt thou go. . .? I will go." My word study this year is "go"; I have done most of the other verbs in the Bible and have gleaned greatly because of them; I have also done all the questions asked in the Bible, a great study there is found; Here in this verse we find a question and a response; it is Rebekah's family asking of her if she will travel with Abraham's servant; She is ready to go and affirms it in her answer; We have a connection with this question as it is found throughout the Bible; Isaiah saw the heavenly vision in chapter 6 of Isaiah and when the Lord asked, "Who shall I send?"-- "Who will go?" Isaiah answered, "Here am I, send me" --"I will go"; Christ commands us in Matthew 28, the great commission, "Go" it is already assumed by His authority that there isno need to ask the question of who? for the answer is the church is the who and our obedience is found that we will go; but you know within the church there is always the calling out; called out to be preachers, teachers, and missionaries; I ready of the missionary services to commission them as they go; the many stories that they could tell of when God appeared to them and asked, "Wilt thou go?" And they answered Him, "I will go"; I think of many old saints like David Brainerd and Hudson Taylor and they were called to go, and they replied, I will go! God honored their faithfulness. I wonder of you what has called you to do; does He search today among His people with the thought "Wilt thou go" because He knows our disobedience and sloth; Think today on this, He does call us and we are to obey; Let nothing hinder us from responding, "I will go";
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
1/30
I love the Word and have been given a passion since I was 16 years old to know it. Over the last 23 years I have grown in different ways. At 16 I began reading the Bible through and memorizing it due to God's leading through instrumental people. Later as I read biographies of old saints I would pick up things that they had done. My belief is that if God richly blessed them then why shouldn't I try it and learn from it. I know full well that it is not for everyone. Most Christians we are told by the statistics that they do not even read their Bibles nor do they know the Word. Our churches are hurting because of this neglect. Several of the old saints I learned that they read the Bible on their knees and I had heard that people prayed on their knees but I never heard of reading the Bible on your knees but I was moved to do it. And when I did I learned the blessing of it. Later I picked up that several of these saints had read the Bible through close to 100 times in their life. When I did the math I realized that I would have to live to be over 120 to do that. I then set out to read through twice a year. As I read straight through, have my devotions (I will share later on that) and memorize my Bible verse, plan for teaching and preaching I have a large input of Scriptures. I believe that Scriptures are there to teach us and instruct us. Other studies that I have done ( I will share more on these later also) have been a blessing to me. These blessings are what I will use this blog to share with you. I have loved devotions and what they do to strengthen and teach us and will put these devotions in format for anyone that may want to read them.
Until,
dan
I love the Word and have been given a passion since I was 16 years old to know it. Over the last 23 years I have grown in different ways. At 16 I began reading the Bible through and memorizing it due to God's leading through instrumental people. Later as I read biographies of old saints I would pick up things that they had done. My belief is that if God richly blessed them then why shouldn't I try it and learn from it. I know full well that it is not for everyone. Most Christians we are told by the statistics that they do not even read their Bibles nor do they know the Word. Our churches are hurting because of this neglect. Several of the old saints I learned that they read the Bible on their knees and I had heard that people prayed on their knees but I never heard of reading the Bible on your knees but I was moved to do it. And when I did I learned the blessing of it. Later I picked up that several of these saints had read the Bible through close to 100 times in their life. When I did the math I realized that I would have to live to be over 120 to do that. I then set out to read through twice a year. As I read straight through, have my devotions (I will share later on that) and memorize my Bible verse, plan for teaching and preaching I have a large input of Scriptures. I believe that Scriptures are there to teach us and instruct us. Other studies that I have done ( I will share more on these later also) have been a blessing to me. These blessings are what I will use this blog to share with you. I have loved devotions and what they do to strengthen and teach us and will put these devotions in format for anyone that may want to read them.
Until,
dan
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