"I will not let anything worthless guide me. I hate the practice of transgression; it will not cling to me. 4. A devious heart will be far from me; I will not be involved with evil."
We might say that verses 3-4 are the second stanza of the "Song of Praise." David continues sharing with us the effect of God on his life. I do not know the date of Psalm 101, whether it was before or after David's sin with Bathsheba. Whichever, David knew the value of what he wrote, and it is good advice for us. David wrote that he would not let anything worthless guide him. David meant that he would not follow the counsel of the ungodly, and that he would be led by the counsel of God. We need to learn that anything that keeps us from our fellowship with God is worthless. We should not be guided by the counsel of the godless world, nor by the influence of wealth, for cast up against that which is holy and eternal the things of the world are worthless. David wrote that he would "hate the practice of transgression." At its root, "transgression" means to go out of bounds. David would not go out of the bounds that God had given him in which he should live. When a football player is running on the sidelines, he knows that for that run to count, he will have to stay in the bounds marked on the field. When David stepped out of bounds with Bathsheba, he paid a steep price for it. We probably also know the price of stepping outside of God's boundaries. David wrote that "A devious heart will be far from me; I will not be involved with evil." "Deviousness" means to wander from the right road, or to take the wrong path. David knew right from wrong, and he wrote here that he would not be devious in his life. When we walk with God in prayer, and in scripture, we will be careful not to wander from God's will for our lives. In Psalm 51:1-2 we can see David's own action when he wandered: "Be gracious to me, God, according to your faithful love; according to your abundant compassion, blot out my rebellion. 2. Completely wash away my guilt and cleanse me from my sin." This is good counsel that we should follow when we surrender to wandering from God's path. We should not waste our lives on that which is worthless. We should not transgress, or go out of the bounds of God's will. We should not wander from the path that God has set for us. I think you will agree that these verses from the "Song of Faith" offer good advice for us. Believe me, I know the value of this advice. Bro. Joe
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I will sing of faithful love and justice, I will sing praise to God. 2. I will pay attention to the way of integrity. When
will you come to me? I will live with a heart of integrity in my house. If I have ever preached or written about this Psalm, it is not in my memory. When I read it today, the words almost jumped out of the page at me. The two verses printed above express what I will call a "A Song of Praise." David referred to God's love as "faithful love." Among other things this means that God always loves us through all of events of our lives. The Bible makes it obvious that God is not always happy with us, but the Bible also makes it obvious that God has not stopped loving us. That is why He disciplines us. I can illustrate by the fact that when I was unhappy with my daughters and disciplined them did not mean that I had stopped loving them. Let's praise God for His "faithful love." David was also praising God for His "justice." This word gave me pause, but then it occurred to me that it means that God is always fair. "Justice" means that God is always right when He disciplines us. We would never dare shake our fists toward the sky and say "God you were unfair to me." (At least I would not, and I hope that you would not.) When God disciplines us, we need to find out what is wrong with us, repent and ask forgiveness. (I do not mean to infer here that all of our life's problem's are caused by God. Several years ago when I broke the little toe on my left foot, it was because of my clumsiness!) In verse 2, David expressed that he would walk in "the way of integrity." This meant that whatever occurred in David's life, he would maintain his integrity. Sometimes when the our lives get "out of sorts," so to speak, we blame God and go in the wrong direction. For example, I have known of people who left their churches because of some trouble that they had. I have known of people who turned to blaming everybody else for their troubles. What we need to do instead of blaming God, and others, is to go to the Lord in prayer and let Him solve the problem for us. Let's praise God for His "faithful love" and "justice," and maintain our integrity in everything that we have to face in life. Selah Bro. Joe w “He that does not love, does not know God, for God is love." God’s love is my favorite Biblical theme, if theme is the right word. According to 1John 4:8, love is the very essence of our faith. God’s love is not discriminating. Through Jesus we know that God loves everyone. He is not pleased with everyone, but He loves everyone. When we are told that “God so loved the world” no exceptions are given. It does not say that God loves most of the world, but that He loves the world – period. We should be glad because that means that God loves us. Also, it means that God never stops loving us. He is not always pleased with us and will discipline us, but He never stops loving us. It would follow that through Jesus, the love of God dwells in us; therefore, we should attempt to love all people as well. It will never be easy, but it will be the Christian thing to do and will make us more Christ like. God’s love is immeasurable. One of my favorite passages in the Bible is Romans 8:38-39: “For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus.” This passage describes a love that has no bounds. God’s love is so deep and wide that nothing can separate us from it. Can’t we see this emanating from the cross? You cannot measure a love that will hold true even when the recipients of that love are not worthy of it. (We call it grace.) After all, Jesus prayed from the cross, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” We can put our own names on “they.” God’s love is active. We read it in Romans 5:8: “But God commends love for us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” God’s love is not a mere feeling; rather, it is an action. Remember: “God so loved the world that He gave….” This means that God acted on our behalf to save us. God demonstrated His great love for us by having Christ die for us. He did this though we are all sinners. We can go back to the Old Testament and see God’s love at work for His people. We see God's love in the deliverance of Israel from Egypt. We see God's active love in the protection of Israel during their years of wandering in the desert. Throughout the Bible, we see the active love of God, working in behalf of His people. What was true in the Old and New Testaments is still true today. God loves us and He demonstrates it through the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. During this month of love, concentrate on the fact that God is love and that He loves us in spite of our sins and in spite of ourselves. There is nothing more reassuring than the fact that we have a God who loves us. We can depend on the fact that Jesus loves us. It is true that, “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so….” Shouldn’t we feel compelled by the love of Christ to tell others about this God who is love and who loves us? Go look in the mirror and say to the image that you see there: “God loves me.” He really does. Bro. Joe "Have not I reminded thee? Be strong and of good courage: Be not afraid and of a good courage: be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thou God is with thee wherever you go."
This verse is God's command to Joshua after the death of Moses as he assumed leadership of the Israelites as they prepared to enter Canaan (the promised land). They had wandered in the desert for forty years, because of their disobedience, and fear, to enter Canaan initially. It is given in God's word as a reminder to us as we live in our challenging world. Joshua is told to be "strong." I think that this would mean that he was to be strong in heart and constitution as he took over the leadership of the recalcitrant Jews. We certainly cannot be weak today if we are to reach our recalcitrant society. Today this would mean that we need to be strong in the Holy Spirit and in our faith in Jesus. We should not be easily discouraged in our service for Jesus. Joshua is told to be "of a good courage." We should not be afraid to live by our faith in Jesus daily, and not be intimidated by the taunts of the world as we live out our faith. I think that we will have greater courage if we love people. We cannot manipulate them to Jesus, but we can love them to Jesus. Love and courage will go a long way to success in service for Jesus. Joshua is told not to be "afraid or dismayed." If we love people, we will not be dismayed or discouraged in Christian work. Believe me, I know the challenge of this command. It is difficult to not sometimes get discouraged in our Christian service. When we begin to get discouraged, we should "take it to the Lord in prayer." The Lord always knows what we are facing, and we should know, as He was with Joshua, the Lord is also with us wherever be go. This promise did not die with Joshua. It is in the Bible to remind us that we need to be strong, courageous, unafraid and undiscouraged in our service for our Lord. Let's do it!!!! (In spite of sixty years in God's service, I certainly need this reminder, and I am certain that you also need it.) Bro. Joe (I recall that I got so tired of being called "our young, little preacher." It would be good to hear it again......lol) "But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of Him Who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light." (NIV)
Christians are often reminded of the need to be humble, but we are also reminded that we have special calling from God to be His people to the world. We are all that the text says, not to boast about our position in Christ, but to be His witnesses in the world. The text declares that we are "a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God." That is heady stuff, isn't it? But the very last lines in this verse tell us why we are all of this: "to declare the praises of Him Who called (us) out of darkness into His marvelous light." First, we are told what to share with people. We are to share "the praises of Him..." We have a lot to praise God for. We have been called out of a life of sin to a life of joy and satisfaction in Christ. We need to share this verbally, but we also need to declare it with the way we live our lives and in the way that we treat people. We have the promise of eternity with God in heaven. That is something that a lot of people do not think about, because they are so busy with life, making a living, etc. But we need to call their attention to the fact that there is a life beyond this one and that it is all-important for them to receive Christ as their Savior. Second, we are told why we should declare His praises. It is because we have been called out of darkness into light. I consider myself a positive person, but as I look around me, I see a lot of darkness. I see the possibility of darkness in my own life. Satan always calls us back to the earthly pleasures of sin, and we have to be on guard. I remember living in a dark world and it was not satisfying. But we are not called to shun this dark world but to encounter it with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Remember we are declaring that we have been called out of darkness into light. We do not need to be self-righteous about it, because that would be counter-productive. But it is true, nevertheless, and we are to declare it humbly, being thankful that we are in Christ. Psalm 100:2 reminds us that we are to “serve the Lord with gladness." When we realize that we are fulfilling a great purpose we will have a good attitude about what we are doing, and share His praises with enthusiasm and gladness. Having read this article, you might need to ask yourself if this is a description of your life? Satan will do anything to keep us from “declaring the praises of God." Satan hates it when we get serious about walking in God’s light and serving Him. He can keep us from declaring God’s praises by keeping us out of God’s word and away from our prayer closets. He uses the tool of discouragement to keep us from declaring God’s praises in our lives. When you feel that it is too time consuming to serve God, or when you feel that you are being pulled away from valuable Christian disciplines, you can be sure that Satan is at work to keep you declaring God’s praises. Don't let him do it. Share God's praises with a world that needs His praises. Bro. Joe “Is not my word....like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces"
God has a hammer and it is His word. The good news is that He has put this hammer into our hands. When we sing “if I had a hammer,” we don’t need to look far for the hammer. A lot of you reading this article are probably like me, you have a lot of Bibles at your house in several different translations. If people don’t have that hammer today, it is not the fault of Bible publishers. When you go into any Christian bookstore, there will usually be several shelves of Bibles in all of the various English translations. There will also be a wealth of study Bibles with the notes of famous Christians in the margins. We don’t need to wonder what we would do if we had a hammer. We might need to wonder what in the world we are doing with this hammer, and of what use is it if we don’t pick it up and use it? Jeremiah wrote: “Is not my word….like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces.” A hammer can be used to break things as mentioned in the text. When we think of a hammer, we probably think of a claw hammer, or a ball peen hammer. Right now I’m thinking of a seventy-five pound air hammer. When I was on the work crew at Norman College back in 1961, Mr. Parks, our boss, introduced me to this hammer. The concrete floor that we were breaking up could not have been done by a claw or ball peen hammer or even a sledge hammer. It took this air hammer to do it. When I picture God’s word as being a hammer that breaks things up, I think of that seventy-five pound air hammer. I think of that particular type of hammer, not just because it could break up some serious rock, but because you had to let it do the work. If you try to do the work for the air hammer, it will throw you all over the room, as one of my buddies found out. If we will heed the Bible and its teachings in our lives, the Holy Spirit who inspired it will work its power in our lives. We don’t need to add to it, it has all we need to build our lives on. A hammer can also be used to build or fix things. I do not own a lot of tools, because I am not much of a repairman, but I do own a hammer because a hammer is just needed to fix so many things. The hammer of God’s word can be used to fix anything that needs to be done. I want to give a couple of examples of what I mean. We need the hammer of God’s word to build positive relationships in our families. It is said that “the family that prays together stays together.” We can add that “the family that reads the Bible together stays together.” This applies to our relationships to people that we encounter in daily life, at work, or play or wherever. It definitely applies to building positive relationships in our churches. The Bible could cure a lot of church problems if we would just pay attention to what it says. We need the hammer of the word of God to build and fix things in our lives. It is true that all of us “have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” This doesn’t mean however that we should give up, because God has given us His word to help us overcome sin in our lives. We need to use the hammer of God’s word to smash the things that are wrong in our lives and to build, or repair, the things that should be right in our lives. We need the hammer of the word of God to fix things in our society. The trouble is that today the Bible cannot be used, or seen, in public places. We need a return to the word of God as part of our society. By that I do not mean the various books of the various religions or sects. I mean the Holy Bible that we have in our homes. When the word of God is preached, taught and lived it can break the things that need to be broken, build the things that need to be built, and fix the things that need to be fixed. But you actually have to use it - if you get my drift. Bro. Joe "O come, let Us sing unto the Lord: Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. 2. Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto Him with noise. 3. For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods."
Psalms contains many reminders of the greatness of God, and reminders of our need to praise Him. Verse 3 tells us the reason that we should praise and worship God is that "the Lord is a great God." I look into the sky sometimes and reflect on the greatness of God. If we could go into the immensity of the sky, there is no place that we could go to escape the presence of God. We need to pause and reflect on the greatness of God. We need to reflect on the greatness of God when we gather to worship Him. When we sing the great hymns of worship in our hymns, we should pay attention to those words of praise. Do we really believe what we are singing, or are we just singing because that is what is called for in our program? I have to admit that sometimes I am just singing instead of thinking about what I am singing. There are some great reminders about the greatness of God in those hymns that we have sung many times. . We need to think of, and reflect, on those words of wisdom in our hymns. We need to reflect on the greatness of God when we read our Bibles. I think of the many times that I have read through the entire Bible. I am not bragging when I remind you of my Bible reading. Several years ago, I remember hearing a sermon from one of our homecoming preachers in a church where I was the pastor. He mentioned that he read twelves chapters a day in the Bible. That preacher did not know how that one statement changed my life in reference to my own Bible reading. I had read through the Bible a few times before I heard that statement, but I went home that day and made a commitment to be in the process of reading the Bible through all of the time. I have stuck to that commitment for many years now. You can make that commitment today. You have a Bible, read it, and reflect on the greatness of the God Who provided that Bible for you. When you sing our great, and historic, hymns do you reflect on what the writer of the hymn had to say about the greatness of God? When you hear the pastor read the Bible, and when he preaches from it, do you reflect on the greatness of God? When you read the Bible, do you reflect on the greatness of its author? When you take the time during the day to reflect on life, do you include God in your reflections? The amazing fact is that the great God of the Bible loves each of us and wants the best for each of us. This means that the great God of the Bible loves you and wants the best for you. He knows that His best for us is to love Him, and accept that the best for us is to remember the love of God as we go through the many challenges of life. The best for us is to accept His great plan of salvation through His Son. There is no end to the things that could be written about the greatness of God, but I have to stop somewhere, and I will stop here. The question for you to reflect on today is that do you realize how great our God is ,and that this great God loves you? Take this reminder of the greatness of God personally, and praise His great and wonderful name. Bro. Joe “Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established. 27. Turn not to the right hand nor to the left: remove thy feet from evil.”
The suggestion to “ponder the path of (our) feet,” means that we are to think about the direction we are going. The problem in the lives of a lot of people is that they do not stop and think about where they are going or what they are doing. Understand that I am not talking down to you. I can look back on my life, particularly my younger days, and ask myself, “What in the world were you thinking?” It is obvious that people who became addicted to drugs, for example, were not thinking about what they were doing; (Thank the Lord, that was never one of my problems.) Surely they heard stories at some time in their lives about people whose lives had been ruined by drugs. There are even older people, who should know better, living terrible lives. I guess we all do things sometimes without thinking about what we are doing, but we are not doing ourselves any favors when we do. We are even told what the results will be if we will “ponder the path of (our) feet.” When we think about where we are going, all our ways “will be established.” Another translation of this is, “then all your ways will be sure.” When we live thoughtful lives we know where we are going. The idea is that when we live thoughtful lives we will give Jesus a place in our lives and the Holy Spirit will lead us in the right direction. This doesn’t mean that we will never take a wrong path, but we will know that we are not on the right path and turn from it. I referred above to my younger life. When I was about twenty years old and about to be discharged from the Navy; I wondered what I was going to do with my life. I knew what I should do with my life, i.e., that I should go into Christian ministry. The Lord spoke to my heart in a profound way and then I knew what I would be doing. When I “pondered” my path, and let the Lord in on it, then I knew the direction that I should take. Most of you reading this, probably know what direction I took. I would like to think that I have done it perfectly, but you know that I have not. But it has been good to know all along the way where I was going and what I was to do. I give the Lord all of the credit for that. If you are drifting through life and are dissatisfied with your life, then you might need to “ponder” what you should do. The Lord has a plan for your life, and you will not be happy until you take the path that He has laid out for you. Trust me, there is a plan laid out for you and when you take it, your way “will be established.” There is more to think about. Verse 27 reminds us that when we take the right path, we are not to “turn to the right nor to the left,” and that we are to “remove our feet from evil.” Even when we are taking the path that the Lord has laid out for us, we need to be careful because the devil will always be there to tempt us to take a “right” or “left” turn. We need to be careful where we put our feet. It’s like walking in a mine field, and we do not know where the "mines" are. What we need is someone to guide us away from the “mines.” This is why Jesus gave us the Holy Spirit when we believed in Him. In John 16:13a, Jesus told His disciples and us: “Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth is come, He will guide you into all truth.” Let’s take the Bible’s advice and “ponder the path of (our) feet.” Obeying this admonition will help us live better lives, and will keep us on the right path. Bro. Joe “Moreover it is required in stewards that one be found faithful.”
A “steward” is one who has been entrusted with something and is responsible for how he or she uses it. I was impressed this morning when I read the devotional from David Jeremiah’s devotional book Discovery. He wrote: “All human beings were created to be stewards of the gifts of God: life, breath, talents, resources, relationships, the creation in which we live, and others (Genesis 1:28). Christians have been made stewards of even more: the grace of God, spiritual gifts, the Gospel, and others.” I was impressed with the scope of stewardship that Dr. Jeremiah mentioned. God made all human beings stewards of the earth. That is why, for example, farmers are careful about what they plant and where they plant. One crop will take the nutrients out of the soil, so they do not plant that crop in the same place all of the time. We are often reminded of our stewardship of the air that we breathe. I am not a hyper-environmentalist, but I do understand that we need to be careful what we put into the air that God gave us for the good of all. God gave us the earth “to dress and keep,” so we are responsible for how we use its resources. When we misuse those God-given resources we pay the price of unclean air and ruined soil. So, in a sense, we are all stewards of what God has given us. Dr. Jeremiah pointed out, however, that Christians have additional stewardship responsibilities. The Bible points out the importance of the stewardship of God’s people, beginning with Adam and on through the whole Bible. In Genesis 12, God called Abraham and made him the father of the Jewish people. The descendants of Abraham were given the special stewardship of serving Yahweh. The Old Testament is filled with stories of how they failed in that stewardship and paid the price for it. Just as our soil and air can be ruined, so can our witness to the world through poor stewardship. We usually think of Christian stewardship from the standpoint of giving money, and that is an integral part of our stewardship. But we are given other stewardship responsibilities as well. There is the business of gifts of the Holy Spirit that each Christian has been given. The idea was/is that the work of God would be carried out by people using their gifts to serve God. There are gifts like leadership, encouragement and teaching, to name just a few. God’s work goes on by our stewardship of these gifts. The sad fact is that because we do not discover and use our gifts, quite often the work goes lacking. If God has given someone the gift of teaching, for example, then he or she should study and prepare themselves to teach as God ordered. The problem is that people with the gift of teaching will sometimes not use that gift for one reason or another. This can lead to “soul erosion.” I hope that you get the point that we are all stewards of what God has given us, and Christians are stewards of what God has given us to serve Him. Let’s conclude this article by taking a look at ourselves. Take a good look at your stewardship. Are you doing what God has gifted you to do? This stewardship is primarily for the work of the church, but the work of the church is to impact the world. If you determine that you are not a good steward of God’s gifts to you, then you need to get busy discovering what they are and begin to use them in your church and community. After all, Paul wrote to the church at Corinth:“Moreover it is required in stewards that one be found faithful.” Are you faithful in your stewardship? Really think about it. Bro. Joe “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man has found, he hides, and for joy thereof goes and sells all that he has, and buys that field.”
This verse comes in the middle of series of parables that Jesus was using to describe the kingdom of heaven. It portrays a man who came across treasure that someone had hidden in a field. He hid the treasure, then went and sold all that he had to buy that field. Jesus does not tell us what the treasure was, but it was surely precious for the man to put his whole livelihood on the line for it. However, we know what the treasure was that Jesus was illustrating. It was the kingdom of heaven. In this case, I will say that the treasure was the gospel of Jesus, which is our entryway into the kingdom of heaven. There are some good lessons for us in this verse. The first thought that came to mind was that the gospel, good news, about Jesus coming to earth is the hidden treasure of God's kingdom. Therefore, it is important that we share the “hidden treasure” of the gospel with a world that is oblivious to the salvation offered by Jesus. We need to tell them that the “hidden treasure” is not about religion; rather it is about a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Those of us who know about this “hidden treasure” should uncover it for the multitudes around the world. The second thought that came to mind was that the gospel of Jesus Christ is worth everything that we have. After he discovered the treasure in the field, the man went and sold everything that he had and went and bought that field. That was a valuable piece of property for the man to lay everything on the line. This means that the gospel of Jesus Christ is worth everything that we have as. Jesus told the “rich young ruler” that what he needed to do was sell all that he had, give it to the poor and follow Him. We will not have to sell everything that we have, but we need to surrender to the Lord whatever it is that is holding us back from either finding the gospel or sharing it with the world. I think that the crux of the matter is, what are you willing to surrender in order to discover and share the “hidden treasure”? Bro. Joe |
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