A VERSE AND A THOUGHT: PSALM 24:5 - "BLESSED AND HIGHLY FAVORED"

He shall receive a blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation...Psalm 24:5

THOUGHT:
Being born-again and accepting the Truth of Jesus Christ, as one's Lord and Savior, is the only way to be an authentic Christian. God has no grandchildren and we cannot piggyback on the Faith of our parents or relatives. Each human being will rise or fall, before God, on the basis of this belief. 

While it may seem simple, it is really an incredible supernatural process. When the God of our Salvation (as in part B of the verse above) finally sees we are at the point of knowing the Gospel and making the most crucial decision towards our eternal home (heaven or hell) - He saves us from the latter.

Being born-again happens in an instant and we are immediately pulled from the future flames and set upon the rock, by the Rock of Ages. How this Truth works will be clearer in the Eternal Kingdom. However, God is revealing to us in this verse from Psalm 24:5 the following two very clear divine truths:
1.  We receive a blessing from the Lord. That is, God is so generous, kind, loving and compassion towards us that He has basically given us a present. It is a present which must and will be opened, as we are now sons and daughters of Jesus our Lord.  This is also the meaning of the original Hebrew word for "blessing" from  Psalm 24:5, which is "barak".
2.  The Blessing spoken of is the result of one thing....and one major thing alone- SALVATION. Righteousness from the God of his salvation is indicative of person - you and I - being made right (or justified) or "in right standing" before God....because of Christ.

Because we have confessed our sins and turned from following the ways of this world, and believed in the Work on the Cross, we are made right.
Because we have accepted Jesus Christ as the Only Way to Heaven, that He is the True Son of God Who died for our sins, so we can be forgiven and seen as righteous in front of the Father God, we are saved. 
Because we confessed with our mouth and believe in our hearts that He is Lord and God raised Him from the dead, we are rescued from the flames and blessed with Eternal Life. 
Because of all of this, when God looks at us, He does not see the unredeemed of the world but sees us through the Righteous Eyes of Christ, we are blessed, truly blessed.

ACTION:
Through prayer and bible study, research the word "Righteousness" and seek to comprehend the full meaning of it, to our position in Christ. Also, research the words "justification" and "sanctification" in the original Greek language. This will give a fuller understanding of Salvation.

A VERSE AND A THOUGHT: PSALM 24:4 - "CLEAN HANDS ..... THE MIND OF CHRIST"

“He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood and has not sworn deceitfully” (Psalm 24:4)

THOUGHT:

Eternal life is not something to be trivialized whatsoever. Every person ever alive -from Adam until the end of time, will spend eternity SOMEWHERE. There is no mulligan (do-over); no purgatory or annihilation. Each person who ever lived was assigned a fixed amount of time of life here on planet earth, then departure to the after-life, immediately followed by the Judgment.  Just before we die, and there is ample first-hand evidence of this, the person knows his/her eternal destination.

When an atheist dies,  that in which he did not believe and spread lies about “big bangs” and “evolution” immediately becomes very clear, but too late to do any correction in thinking. When a child of God leaves this world behind, Hope becomes sight. Then, Faith is rewarded.

This is the essence of Psalm 24 verse 4. Verse 3 basically asked a rhetorical question about who gets to be in Heaven, and therefore, allowed to be in the very Presence of God. The answer is 2 Corinthians 5:17 "Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come". How does a person become a new Creation, while in the same body, same home, same job or financial condition?  This only occurs via the process of regeneration….being born-again….saved.

A person made new by Christ, while living among everyone else in this world, is by definition made and washed clean by the Precious Blood of the Son of God. The Supernatural Blood of the Savior washes us as white as snow, so that we can appear, through and in Christ, before the Father on that Great Day of the Lord.

But there is more. We not only have to be made clean by the Blood of the Lamb but must believe the right things about God.  It is a known fact that, basically,  people do not go to hell for what they do, but for what they believe.  Believing in the unbiblical prosperity gospel if you are truly born-again is error and heresy, but the person is still saved. This sort of belief will suffer loss before the Bema of Christ.

However, believing one is heaven-bound because your grandmother or your dad was a true believer, and all you have to do is get baptized and give $20 in church now and then etc., will not lead a person into a personal relationship with Christ. Another thing that will lead millions of most of the last few generations etc. into eternal separation from God is the increasing amount of evidence (from Barna and others) that these people believe ALL religions are the same and lead to Heaven. This is rank heresy. These will never ascend to the Mountain and Throne of the Lord.

Falsehood in belief will send a person away from God the second they leave this earth. That includes believing the Amazing Sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the Cross is similar to a religion with 300 million gods or some overweight guy with a bald head sitting cross-legged or the other one with over a billion followers. Mixing the Power, Passion, and Purity of Jesus Christ with that is heresy as is swearing in His Name or the Name of the Father.  Most adults have to swear or agree to procedures at their place of work, depending on the level of security or in the military or court etc. This is not the kind of swearing of which the Bible speaks, but the use of the Lord’s Name to lie, mislead and other such conduct. Jesus warned about oaths and believing the correct things about the Kingdom of God.

ACTION:

We need to reexamine our theology. We need to develop our thinking to more like the Mind of Christ. People say that “doctrine” goes not matter….well, it matters to God. Read the book of Job, especially Chapters 38-41 and see if “doctrine doesn’t matter to God. Secondly, do not swear on anything -not on the hair of your head, your children and definitely, not on Heaven or Earth.

STRESS-FREE LIVING? - GIVE THANKS....REALLY!!!

     A LOOK AT THE MOST POPULAR VERSE ON AMAZON.COM

“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:6-7).

So the Bible says "Be anxious for nothing".....is this really possible? I mean, we have mounting medical bills; kids under peer pressure in high school and college; the mortgage is due; grandma's blood work did not look so good this time and Medicare does not want to pay for granddad's surgery; the car has an oil leak and the washer/dryer is acting funny....and "you're telling me be anxious for nothing?? NOTHING??!!"

Er....yes!! Yes, indeed and I quote Jesus here from Luke 12:25 "And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?" The natural reaction is to accuse me of quoting the Bible again and that would be correct. But if one rethinks that position, it would be blatantly obvious that individually and collectively, we are basically not in control of any of those life situations I just described, in the natural.  We sure can worry, fret, fuss, get anxiety attacks and post endless tweets about our problems but in the end, what we are really demonstrating for the world, our friends and family - a complete lack of Faith!

People like me have preached for years that the best way to turn things around, when under heavy personal attack and such, is to do something for someone else...to look outside yourself. This is contrary to the corruption of some people in the west, who "get their 'zen' on" and mix eastern mysticism with their "Christianity" by turning inward for answers to their problems, when nothing good can come from what God calls "the deceitful heart" (Jeremiah 17:9). Therefore, what can we do? The answer is so simple, that most ignore it and/or run right past it. The answer is given to us by the Word of God right here in this most popular verse of Amazon. This is the formula:

THE PREMISE: "CUT IT OUT AND ENOUGH WITH THE ANXIETY/WORRY/PANIC ALREADY"

THE PROPOSAL: "GIVE THANKS (to God)!! What?! Are you nuts, Bernie? Why should I thank God for all these problems that are causing me to panic?  That is correct- this is not human thinking. We are in search of the divine solutions because we have no good answer within us. So we MUST give thanks!
We give thanks because we are alive and are standing downright upright.

We give thanks because we can identify each problem and we can acknowledge the one who allowed these things to happen.

We give thanks because He has given us the Spirit of Truth at the moment of regeneration, when we were born again.  This is the biggest trump card we have over the rest of mankind, who has rejected Christ. The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God Who lives NOW in every believer, is our direct connection to the One Who can solve all our problems by directing us to the natural solutions. The Supernatural Power of God to remove all our anxiety and give us answers, direction and send provision and people into our lives to keep deal with anything the evil world throws at us.

Just like our first examination on this verse, where we discovered we have to go through Jesus Christ, we now have to do something even MORE radical - give thanks for our trials. But this thanksgiving is one of recognition! It is a recognition, in total gratitude, that we have Kingdom Authority in us (in the form of the Holy Spirit of God), Who now enables us to take the next step away from being "anxious for thing".

This next step is PRAYER, SUPPLICATION AND MAKING REQUESTS KNOWN TO GOD. These three will be examined in the third and final part of this short series.  So think on these things, as we press on - giving thanks to Almighty God is better than fake religion. Giving thanks - is the key to unlock the mystery to supernatural intervention in whatever ails us.

THINK ON THESE THINGS - WEDNESDAY

A KINGDOM, A KINGDOM, A KINGDOM FOR HIM, OF COURSE....Part 1

The word "Kingdom" does not carry much weight in today's society. Because of the abuse of monarchs and dictators towards their people, since time began,  us westerners do not care much for kings and kingdoms. In fact America was founded when the oppressive British Empire and King George 3 were both kicked out of here in the American War of Independence.


The popular worship song "Something About that Name" has a line in it which goes "kings and kingdoms will soon pass away..." What kings? What kingdoms? Well, in bible terms, these are words used to mean the Rulers of the countries of this perishing earthly system. 


This leads us to the final phrase in our indepth two week daily study of the LORD'S PRAYER, which the Lord Jesus gave to show us how to prayer.

Matthew 6: 8-13:

Our Father in heaven,
      Hallowed be Your name.
      Your kingdom come.
      Your will be done
      On earth as it is in heaven.
      Give us this day our daily bread.
   And forgive us our debts,
      As we forgive our debtors.
    And do not lead us into temptation,
      But deliver us from the evil one.
      For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

The Coming 1000 year Kingdom on earth is God's way of transition from this horrible fallen earthly system to the Eternal Realm.  This will happen after the coming Tribulation and the Wrath of God, on the pagan kings, leaders, presidents and dictators of this world who rejected the Lord Jesus. 

The progression from the natural to the supernatural state, of believers who have now been raised in Christ, re-establishes the ORIGINAL Order of things, when God created Adam and Eve. 

HIS IS THE KINGDOM. HIS IS THRONE.

WORSHIP CHRIST THE KING AND HIM THE KING, ALONE. 

Pray this with me:

FOR YOURS IS THE KINGDOM: Lord, You are Ruler of the Universe. At creation all the morning stars sang together and the Angels shouted for joy, even Satan before he tried to take over in Heaven.  Father, he is the prince of this world and what a sick, perverted, evil and corrupt world it is. But his time is coming. You said to my Lord “sit at My Right Hand and I shall make Your enemies a footstool” When Your Son returns in righteous power and majesty, every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Thank you Father, for Your Majesty for You alone are Holy, Holy, Holy, oh Lord God Almighty. The whole world is full of Your Glory, through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

(image by google images)