PART 1: HIS INSTRUCTION, HIS TESTIMONY, HIS MERCY

One particular passage from the oh-so powerful praiseworthy Psalm 19, is worthy of further deep diving and study, rather than reading it and going on to the next thing. In fact, it is so inspiring as to be transformational in the best way possible!

Verse 7 (CSB) reads as follows:

The instruction of the Lord is perfect, renewing one’s life; the testimony of the Lord is trustworthy, making the inexperienced wise.

The instruction of the Lord, as found in the Scriptures!  In 2 Timothy 3:16 we know that The Word of the Lord is/was “breathed” into the authors of the Bible by God and is profitable for teaching (instruction); reproof (discipline); for correction (righting the path we were on) and for training in righteousness (just a closer walk with Thee, Oh Lord).  It is perfect. There is nothing that should be added or taken away.

Because of its divine origins, we know there is no error in it.

Because it is from the Mind and great big Heart of the Ancient of Days, we can trust it.

Because it is from the Creator of the Universe, Whose intricate designs  are flawless, seamless and nothing less than perfection, we can trust His Mighty Hand.

All of this revives the Soul! It refreshes us as we awake to a new day. It fuels us to make it through not just that particular day, but for the rest of our days. There is so much to be grateful here in that our Heavenly Father loves us so much that He poured out His Spirit into the most magnificent document ever written. It stands for all peoples of any age, until the End of the Age, when all will be revealed.

In light of all of this, and the Purity, Perfection and all-powerful Presence of the Lord, His testimony can be depended on. If He says it, it settles the matter. If He speaks it, we believe it. If He promises it, it will happens.

When His prophets speak, their warnings materialize at the appointed time. When His Spirit moves, He saves and rescues.

Therefore, He takes coal like us, and makes diamonds. He takes simpletons like us, and makes His complex creation simple. He rescues us from the folly of our disastrous ways, and bring us to the Knowledge of the uminaginable – the Knowledge of the Holy. He guides us out from the domain of darkness, into the Kingdom of His Marvelous Light!

Oh, what love is this?!

Oh, what incredible mercy and compassion!

Oh, what a mighty God He is.

Hallelujah, what a Savior, His mercies endureth forever.

 Christian Standard Bible (CSB)

The Christian Standard Bible. Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible®, and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers, all rights reserved. 

DEBRIEFED: - THE HOLY SPIRIT'S ROLE IN BIBLE HISTORY

A whole lot of Christians are very confused by the knowledge, Power and Presence of the Holy Spirit. This serious misunderstanding stands from such an unconscionable lack of teaching on the Person and Role of the Holy Spirit that Christians populate both ends of an untenable see-saw, in big majorities.

One on end, we have those who completely ignore the Holy Spirit and therefore, go about their church and personal spiritual lives in slow-motion with almost no fruit to show for their self-proclaimed love for the Lord. On the other end, we have a charismatic fringe who misuse the Name of the Holy Ghost (using King James language) to such an extremist degree, that it comes close to blasphemy. 

We will not discuss those things here. What we should do, is live in the Biblical middle of Scripture and prayer, in order to comprehend just Who this Third member of the Holy Trinity, really is.  Here are some major past critically outstanding events which the Holy Spirit of Christ was actively involved in – DIRECTLY from the pages of the Word of God:

THE HOLY SPIRIT WAS INVOLVED IN CREATION:
Genesis 1:2  “The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters".

THE HOLY SPIRIT WROTE ABOUT THE BEGINNINGS OF MANKIND THROUGH MOSES:

2 Timothy 3:16 "All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness".

There is no way Moses could have known in the natural how God created the Heavens and earth in six days, almost 6000 years ago. Moses could not have known of the Promise God made to Abraham or Jacob wrestling with the Angel of the Lord (Jesus) or all the details of the Exodus. Moses could not have written down the intricate details of the Tabernacle of God (the moving Temple in the desert) which is an exact replica of the one in Heaven.  The Spirit of God filled in all the details from Creation to the Flood and the Post-Babylonian exiled – to the Gospel Writers and the Apostle Paul.

THE HOLY SPIRIT INSPIRED AND BREATHED THE PSALMS INTO KING DAVID

When King David repented from his vile sins of adultery, murder and more by having an affair with Bathsheba and having her husband killed, he repented. He prayer of Repentance – Psalm 51 – is the standard for all sinners of all times who wish to make thing right with God. David confirms that he is one of the extremely few in the Old Testament, to whom God gave His Holy Spirit. David prays to God in Psalm 51:11b “Do not cast me from Your presence and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me”. The Holy Spirit is our guarantee that we are saved and Jesus is our own personal Savior.

THE HOLY SPIRIT PLACED JESUS IN MARY’S WOMB

Luke 1:35 "The angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God".

Everything created on the Earth came from an act of God. From the Spirit of the Lord hovering over the unformed earth in Genesis 1:2 to the fish in the sea, the birds of the air…and the baby in the womb. The most famous Baby ever conceived was the Lord Jesus Christ. His appearance on the earth was to a pure innocent young lady named Mary. Mary, a woman chosen by God, experienced a supernatural conception so that no sinful mortal man was involved. Jesus Christ remained sinless, pure and the One True God for the brief 33 years He lived as God Who became man.

THE HOLY SPIRIT DESCENDED ON JESUS THE GODMAN AT HIS BAPTISM

Matthew 3:16-17 "16 After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on Him, 17 and behold, a voice out of the heavens said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.”

God did not have to show this living and outward appearance of His Spirit visibly descending from Heaven to land on the broad Shoulders of King Jesus, at His baptism by John the Immerser (Baptist). Jesus did not even need to be baptized as He told John (click here). The first ever visible appearance of the Spirit was for the Father to confirm, once and for all, that His Only One of a Kind Son (only begotten) was indeed the Anointed One, the Prophesied One and the Promised Savior.

THE HOLY SPIRIT RAISED JESUS FROM THE DEAD

Romans 8:11 "But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you".

The great song by Contemporary Christian singer Jeremy Camp says it all in his extremely powerful song. As good as this song is, those words actually came from the Truth of the Word of God. The enormity of this is too incredible for words. Let this sink in....really sink in. Let it be permanently engraved in your mind, heart and soul that the same Holy Spirit Who is alive in you and I who trust and believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, was in that Tomb, on the Third Day after the Crucifixion. He rose Jesus from His one time mortal human body, back into the Life Giving Spirit that He always was. Is there anything better than this? A million times- NO!

THE HOLY SPIRIT CAME TO LIVE IN THE FIRST BELIEVERS AND ALL SINCE

John 16:7 "But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you".

Jesus told His disciples that it is better that He goes away, so that the Helper would come. This Helper is our guaranteed Advocate before all else. The word used in the bible is "parakletos" which means One Who stands up in the Courts of Heaven among other meanings in the Bible! Wow! Other meanings of this word are well-known. Advocate, Helper, Paraclete and others complete the definition of this word.  On Pentecost day, the second visible manifestation of the Holy Spirit was seen in the Upper Room, where the disciples were sitting around praying and listening. This event circles this most significant period in the life of a church, and the true believer. This one time event, marked the next and final phase in life - all from the pages of the Bible.

Acts 2:2-4a "When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2 And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit".

SEVEN FAMOUS BIBLE VERSES #3 - "JEREMIAH 29:11 - Past, Present, Future"

"For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope." Jeremiah 29:11
This famous and inspiring Bible verse is now the text of many tattoos on men and women all over the world. Apart from John 3:16 ("For God so loved the world....") and Matthew 7:1 ( "Judge not less ye be judged") - this one gives hope to a lot of people to the point of being placed on ink on chests, arms etc. along with bumper stickers, T shirts and plaques, paintings and posters.

Why should it not be? Here is the God of Heaven, our Creator and Maker, who says in His Word that He is such a personal loving God that He has the right paths to a life well lived. It is a life where all our needs will be taken care of and where He will continually guard and protect us. He literally says in THIS Word that He has the future of such a life and it is full of hope! No one is against that and everyone wants to believe this, even people who just profess a surface belief in God.

However, like everything else, we have to read the entire story before the Spirit of Truth and consistency - the Holy Spirit, will reveal ALL to us. When God made this statement through the Prophet Jeremiah about 2700 years ago, the LORD had punished Jerusalem for ignoring His commands and laws and sent them into 70 years of Exile, via the conquest of the brutal Babylonian regime. As devastating the raid and destruction of Jerusalem was by the Babylonians, they were commanded by God to spare Jeremiah who remained with the poor folk and ministered to them the rest of his life. He was directed to write this letter from Jerusalem, as an exhortation to the exiles. Please read the entire chapter of Jeremiah 29 here.

The relevant portion of this Scripture to the exiles contained the full measure of the quote which contains the verse we love so well - Jeremiah 29:11....including me. I love this verse because I know it to be personally true in my own walk, and life IN and WITH Jesus Christ. So before we go any further, please read the full passage and then let's grasp the right way to look at what God is saying here:
Jeremiah 29:10-14 (NASB)
"10 “For thus says the Lord, ‘When seventy years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill My good word to you, to bring you back to this place. 11 For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you,’ declares the Lord, ‘and I will restore your fortunes and will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you,’ declares the Lord, ‘and I will bring you back to the place from where I sent you into exile.’

This is a conditional promise to a GROUP of people - Jews in exile. Once the 70 years of exile were up, God did bring them back to Jerusalem....if they wished to come, via Nehemiah and Ezra. He promised to listen to them when they returned to the one true God, and their prayers, if they called upon Him. The passage above is just beautiful and the LORD was true to His promise. Only a few took Him up on these promises later on, as we read in the prophets Nehemiah, Ezra, Haggai and so on. 

However God always stays true. His Words and promises and Favor are for a lifetime. All we have to do is the following: 
- Call on Him first...before seeking counsel elsewhere.
- Come to Him with every praise, problem and possibility we have before us. King Hezekiah had some bad news in a threatening letter (Book of Isaiah). He got on his knees before God, spread the letter before Him and said "Lord what am I to do?" You and I, who have that personal relationship with God can do the same
- Pray to Him...continually....all day....every day....pray without ceasing! This is self-explanatory. Prayer, and fervent effective prayer, changes things.
- Jeremiah 29:13 tells us to "seek Him....find Him...Search for Him". These are ALL ACTIVE PRESENT TENSE verbs. That means we are to do it now.
- THEN - DO ALL OF THE ABOVE EQUATION WITH ALL YOUR HEART, GOD SAYS. And I will add - heart AND mind and body and soul.

So is Jeremiah 29:11 written to a group of people? YES! So does that mean it is NOT for us in the 21st century? NO! It is for us! I said God's promises are consistent and truthful.  

Here is what the Holy Spirit told us through the Apostle Paul in 2 Timothy 3:16: "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness".

All of these words of Jeremiah above, from verse 10-14 could be about us. We were exiled from God by sin. We were lost and going to hell. But we didn't seek Him out. He, God, came and rescued us from that sin through the Precious Blood of Christ on the Cross and His death, burial and Resurrection. When God calls us to Salvation, and we response and repent of our sin and trust Him fully, with all our Heart, and come to Him and pray and accept Jesus as Lord....THEN He will reveal that "He has plans for you....and the rest of this amazing verse!!"

This is how it works! The Bible is the living document for personal revival and transformation and we must trust the Word of God. What was written then in the Old Testament is for our education, so that the child of God - us - could know How the Lord operates. What is written in the New Testament is for our salvation and sanctification. They work hand and glove - together.

So use Jeremiah 29:11 as yours and mine, as much as we want. Let's just get the complete story right first, before running off and printing it on our foreheads!

WORD OF LIFE, PART 9: HIGHWAY 119 - REST STOP AHEAD

Have you ever made a huge mistake which hurt no one but yourself and promised God to never do it again? Or how about this one? Somehow, again in your own efforts, you have managed to get yourself in a pickle and promised God “Lord, if You get me out of this one, I will…..(fill in the blanks).

We have all done this more times than we can remember! God, in His mercy, grace and long-suffering with us, knows we are going to mess up and it is only His love that prevents Him from striking us dead the next time we make another one of these conditional “promises” we make. Some of these self-inflicted wounds have the potential to damage not just our testimony (depending on the level of degree of sin) but our own walk, if we are not careful.

When God disciplines us due to these shortcomings, it is for our own good. Who among us cannot testify to the goodness and mercy of the God of second, third and 3000 chances? Just imagine if the God of the Bible, the one True God Yahweh, was not our loving Creator who is full of grace and mercy?! (Verses 67-68) Where would we be? God does not just discipline us when we fall short in sin. He also brings correction through circumstances, people, new paradigms and most of all- His Word! "All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness" (2 Timothy 3:16).
Psalm 119:65-72

Teth.
65   You have dealt well with Your servant, O Lord, according to Your word.
66   Teach me good discernment and knowledge, for I believe in Your commandments.
67   Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep Your word.
68   You are good and do good; teach me Your statutes.
69   The arrogant have forged a lie against me; with all my heart I will observe Your precepts.
70   Their heart is covered with fat, but I delight in Your law.
71   It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I may learn Your statutes.
72   The law of Your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces.

As we travel along Highway 119 (as in Psalm 119), we, therefore, now pull over at the nearest rest stop (Verses 65-72) to simply get out and “stretch” our proverbial spiritual legs, be refreshed by reflection of the surrounding scriptures so present in our midst.  This rest area is designed, constructed by the Master and placed there for us to have a significant pause to stir our thinking.  This thinking should lead us to acknowledge our position as sinners saved by Grace in verses 67 and 68. It is only then we can fully comprehend His unmerited favor. Stretching our spiritual limbs should result in another desired effect. That is, it should birth an overwhelming sense of gratitude of what this Grace really looks like.

It would behoove every Christian, who is in the lifelong pursuit of holiness to use our few quiet moments in this spiritual rest area to meditate on verse 65. From this flows the instruction in the Revealed Word and Decrees of the Master Himself (verse 66). God has dealt well with us, in spite of ourselves and our mistakes, by His provision of our temporal needs. When we could not figure out how this bill was getting paid, or how our sick child was going to be cared for at the doctors, or how we were going to get to work the next day when the car would not start last night. When He provided this or that, just in the nick of time or brought us to this place where we found just the perfectly home within our price range, where community and safety were readily available.....these are some of the things which show that He has "dealt well" with this Servant. The most important part of the entire equation of course is the fact He saved our souls from the fires of hell.

Our reflection in the "rest area" will not be complete and we should NOT get back on the expressway, until we know that there is a verse 69. This verse represents the orange cones of life. These "orange cones" are not just things which slow us down, way down, but can become obstacles in life. Any so-called allegedly spiritual philosophy which tells you that "your best life is now" and you have the power to speak things which are not, into being, because you have the power of the "I am" will cause you severe internal engine trouble in the journey of life. The truth is this: you and I are going to face trials, tribulations and taunts from the enemies of God who have simply transformed themselves into those who HATE the people of God - Christians.

Oh, may we never forget, we are children and followers of the Suffering Savior, Who held up His Suffering for our sake, as a standard. This is the very Standard which was in the plans and Mind of Holy God, before He spoke the world into being in Genesis chapters 1 and 2. Do not despise the seasons of suffering, of going through the difficult times and testing because these are not the times that try men's and women's souls. 

These are the times which show our mettle. 
These are the things which show that of which we are made, in our core. 
These are the tests which graduate us from spectator to special in the Eyes of God and man. 
These are the testimonies which show the world we are who we say we are, and more importantly, we are WHOSE we say we are - Yahweh! 
This is the true meaning of perseverance of the saints which can provide the fuel for the next leg of the journey, in Jesus' Name.
This is what should be in our rear-view mirror as we drive on ahead through the construction zones of life, where we sometimes get slowed way down from our normal daily clip. 
This is what we need to grasp from Psalm 119:71 when the inspired Scripture says: "It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I may learn Your statutes".

Let us learn from the Master, the ultimate GPS of our lives, Whose love, mercy, compassion, forgiveness, direction, protection, provision and simple GRACE are the most priceless things in the world - ever (verse 72). Let us lean ONLY on Him for the very fuel of each and every moment that we may cruise in peace, joy and contentment, all the days of our lives. Let us resolve to live like this, from this moment on, and experience what is truly the most fruitful and meaningful life, we can possible imagine. It will bless you. It will bless everyone else around you, for an eternity. Amen

(Image 1 Credit Here)
(Image 2 Credit Here)