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  • flightsimmer

    Master
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    From time to time I have posted reprints of "The Daily Manna" by Pastor Paul Kirby, but I got to thinking that some here might enjoy a daily devotional.
    So I asked his permission and he gave it, so I decided to see how it goes.
    No comments or replies are needed but you may if you wish, however, he will not be able to reply as he is not registered on this forum.



    3 Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy
    place?
    4 He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul
    unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.
    5 He shall receive the blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of
    his salvation. Psalm 24:3-5

    We all know that salvation is of God through the life, death, and resurrection
    and ascension of His Son. We also need to know that we have a responsibility
    once we are saved to live the life of one that is. David writes that those that
    will ascend into the hill of the Lord is he or she that has clean hands and a
    pure heart. That is, those who understand that God alone can save and that they
    were not saved at all by their own merits. We are all expected to live holy
    lives. I know that this seems harsh to some but to me it is a blessing to know
    that I have that God-given ability to do so. God promised me in His written
    word that He would saved me from my personal sins and that He would cleanse me
    from anything that was not righteous. To cleanse means to purify and to make
    whole again. Sin had destroyed me but God has restored me. He resurrected me
    to live again in Christ and by Christ and through Christ. The wages of sin is
    death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ.
    So many just don't get it. Once God saves us, He expects us to live a life of
    life and not death. Sin is death but righteousness is life. It is not that God
    expects us to be perfect in the eyes of our fellows, He expects us to have that
    perfect desire to please Him with our lives and a perfect desire to win others
    to Him. We have, by salvation and sanctification, entered into God's holy hill.
    That hill is called Zion. Zion is the church. The church is what God added you
    to the very moment you received forgiveness for your sins. At that moment you
    was redeemed by the blood of the Lamb of God and God added your name to His
    church rolls. That church membership is what counts. When the end of time
    comes either for us individually or as the collective body of Christ, this is
    the book that God will look into to see if our name is there. If it is not
    there it will not matter wherever else it might be.
    Question is, are you saved by the blood of the Lamb of God? The question is
    not whether you are a church member unless that church is God's church and I
    don't mean that in any denominational sense. My hope and pray is that all that
    read this Manna is redeemed and members of the church of the living God.
    God bless and go and have a great day.

     

    flightsimmer

    Master
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    I will extol Thee, O Lord; for Thou hast lifted me up, and hast not made my foes
    to rejoice over me.
    2 O Lord my God, I cried unto Thee, and Thou hast healed me.
    3 O Lord, Thou hast brought up my soul from the grave: Thou hast kept me alive,
    that I should not go down to the pit.
    4 Sing unto the Lord, O ye saints of His, and give thanks at the remembrance of
    His holiness.
    5 For His anger endureth but a moment; in His favour is life: weeping may endure
    for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. Psalm 30:1-5

    Ok. Yesterday is history and tomorrow is future and all I have is the moment I
    exist in now. That is it. Every breath I take in and heartbeat that pushes
    life through and into my body is history once it occurs. I cannot go back to
    yesterday and do it over in order to live it better and I cannot go ahead into
    tomorrow to get ahead of the things that that day will bring into my life. All
    I can do is live now and once I have said that it becomes part of history. All
    I have in my life that is permanent and timeless is God the Father and God the
    Son and God the Holy Spirit. He has lifted me up, He does lift me up, He is
    lifting me up, and, He will lift me up.
    So many people live as though they achieve life on their own. They live as
    though life is owed to them and that life is not a debt to God that must be
    paid.
    Every breath we breathe is a gift from God. Every drop of blood that courses
    through our veins brings life from that breath. These moments are precious and
    not just the days and the weeks and the months and the years. For them, we owe
    God a deep debt of gratitude for If God did not enable and allow every heartbeat
    they would not occur and if God did not produce the rain and the sunshine in the
    right proportion we would not have food on the table. Every moment of every day
    should be a moment of praise. We should live praise but, sadly, so many don't
    even pause for a few seconds every day and give praise to Lord. So man assume
    that the next breath will come and the next beat of the heart will happen and
    that life will go on today as in the past and tomorrow as it did today. This is
    an illusion perpetrated by self. We don't want to think about the end of our
    lives here in this world but the end will come as surely as the sun will rise
    and set on this day.
    When you come to the end of this life, what then? What will you have to offer
    God in a way of explaining the lack of gratitude for His gift of life to you?
    How will you explain to Him that you never took the time to praise Him either as
    an individual or in a group setting? How are you going to explain that? Oh,
    you will attempt to but you will not be able to and the reason is that there is
    no excuse you can offer Him for the lack of praise. You didn't offer it to Him
    because you didn't have it in your heart. The gavel of eternity will come down
    from the Judge in eternity and He will say to those who did not fear, reverence,
    love, and praise. His words will be, "Depart from Me your workers of iniquity,
    I never knew you."
    I would rather take the time now to show God gratitude than to wait until this
    life has come to an end to try to explain to God why I did not have any in my
    heart toward Him. God's mercy does endure forever but so does His justice.
    God bless and go and have a great day.
     

    flightsimmer

    Master
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    12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord: and the people whom He has
    chosen for His own inheritance.
    13 The Lord looketh from heaven; He beholds all the sons of men.
    14 From the place of His habitation He looks upon all the inhabitants of the
    earth.
    15 He fashioneth their hearts alike; He considers all their works.
    16 There is no king saved by the multitude of an host: a mighty man is not
    delivered by much strength.
    17 An horse is a vain thing for safety: neither shall he deliver any by his
    great strength. Psalm 33:12-17

    Isn't it strange what people have a tendency to took to for health, safety, and
    security in this world today? When I was a child a war was raging. It was
    called World War II. I had uncles on my mother's side and my father's side of
    the family engaged in combat during that war. Some were in the U.S. Navy and
    others in the U.S. Army and all did their part and all came home. We are so
    thankful to God that they did. While they were "over-there" a star was placed
    on a banner at the church where we went. For all of those "stars" on that
    banner prayers went up to God to keep the men well and to get them home. All of
    those men did come home. God honored the prayers of His people.
    Today, our nation has forgotten those days and the God of heaven who helped us
    in that war to win. We did not win it alone. Without God's participation we
    would not have won it, we would have lost and would be occupied by either Japan
    or Germany to this very day.
    Those were simpler days. At the public school where I attended, every day began
    with a prayer for those fighting the war and the pledge of allegiance to the
    flag was recited. Even those who were not church-going Christians seemed to
    know the value of those prayers. Today, we have substituted prayer for
    propaganda and Bibles for bullets. Can anyone honestly tell me that they
    believe our nation is better off? I doubt it. Our nation is on the brink of
    anarchy in the streets and chaos in the home and in the halls of our schools.
    Most of out school teachers today are afraid to teach the truth and most
    certainly the truth about God.
    We will not be saved by any one of those politicians who are running for the
    presidency. No one is coming to our rescue once the enemies are at the door.
    We have told God to "go away" and He has gone and we are left to fend for our
    selves. All I can say is, God have mercy on our souls.
    Don't you think it is about time to invite God back? I do. May we have enough
    sense to do this before it is too late to do it.
    God bless and go and have a great day.
     

    flightsimmer

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    3 O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together.
    Psalm 34:3

    Most of the best times I have had in my life have been those I had with the
    church. Corporate worship interests me. Since I was a child, my mother had me
    in church services, mostly Sunday School and AM worship. At times we went to
    service on Sunday evenings and now and then we went to what was called cottage
    prayer meetings and mid-week prayer meetings that were held at the church
    meeting house.
    I can recall some of the older saints and their testimonies at these prayer
    meetings. I remember the prayers and how that they all knelt as they prayed.
    In those days, no one stood up to pray. And, when they prayed they had one
    person lead out in prayer and others prayed with them simultaneously. Some
    prayed very loudly and others almost at a whisper and some even under their
    breath. Some would even shed tears and some would get very happy. You see, in
    those days it was no shame to express emotions when talking to the Lord.
    I was privileged to not only attend but to help with holding a tent meeting down
    in Kentucky when I was only fifteen years old. It was with our current pastor,
    Brother Jesse Jones and a young evangelist named Coy Rigney. Brother Coy was
    only twenty-nine at the time and not married yet. He was in love with a girl
    named Pauline. She later became his wife. They are still living but getting
    along in years. Right now he is approaching 90 years of age. Oh, those were
    the days. Worship was real then and devotion to God was real as well even
    though it was hard.
    I was young and impressionable and idealistic. You know what? Except for the
    young part, not much has changed. I still can be impressed and I am still an
    idealist if you are talking about the true church of God. I believe in it
    because I can still find people to worship with that have a heart filled with
    love and hope and dreams and aspirations for Christ. Jesus is the only hope for
    this old world today. I was young and now I am aging and I have yet to
    experience one time when God did not come through for His people. I still say,
    "O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together." I still want
    you to come and worship God along side of me. I want to hear the excitement in
    your voice and I want to see the enthusiasm on your face as we worship the Lord
    side by side. We can do this, you know. We can if we are willing to set self
    aside and to seek Him and His will together. If you love the Lord, come and
    worship Him with me. It would be such an enjoyable moment and an unforgettable
    one too.
    God bless and go and have a great day.
     

    flightsimmer

    Master
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    4 I sought the Lord, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.
    Psalm 34:4

    Fear is the biggest hindrance to us all. Most of our fears are irrational and
    have no basis in truth. Fear of the future, fear that the past will someday
    catch up with you, fear that our finances will not be sufficient to get us
    through our retirement years or even get us to them, and, added to these are the
    social fears, health fears, and fears added to fears.
    Fear keeps us from testifying in public and fear keeps us from giving to the
    church, fear keeps us from putting ourselves "out there" for the Lord. David
    says, "I sought the Lord, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears."
    What is it that you might be afraid of that keeps you from being the person that
    God wants you to be? I might say here, don't be afraid of being afraid, you are
    human and all humans are afraid at one time or another.
    A friend of mine owns a machine shop. He told me the other day that he had lost
    a major customer. He didn't know what he was going to do. My response was that
    God will provide. That's an easy answer but it is a truthful answer too. God
    does provide.
    Faith is the opposite of fear. Faith compels us to take that leap into the fire
    knowing full well that God will protect us from it if that is His will and, even
    if He doesn't, we will not bow down to the gods of this world. Because of our
    faith, we would rather be thrown into the den with the lions than to cave to a
    law of man that calls for us to compromise one tittle of the laws of God. Faith
    will drive us to do the courageous thing for Christ.
    In today's world it would be easy to cave to our fears and to pull in the
    sidewalks and to lock the doors and to hide behind the four walls of the church
    buildings where we worship. We cannot do that if we want to be warriors of the
    cross of Jesus Christ. Where our fear is, we must take that to the Lord. He
    will hear us and He will deliver us from those fears just as He did for David.
    God bless and go and have a great day.
     

    flightsimmer

    Master
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    1 Plead my cause, O Lord, with them that strive with me: fight against them that
    fight against me.
    2 Take hold of shield and buckler, and stand up for mine help.
    3 Draw out also the spear, and stop the way against them that persecute me: say
    unto my soul, I am thy salvation.
    4 Let them be confounded and put to shame that seek after my soul: let them be
    turned back and brought to confusion that devise my hurt.
    5 Let them be as chaff before the wind: and let the angel of the Lord chase
    them.
    6 Let their way be dark and slippery: and let the angel of the Lord persecute
    them.
    7 For without cause have they hid for me their net in a pit, which without cause
    they have digged for my soul."
    Psalm 35:1-7

    This Psalm is written about one who has been falsely accused and greatly
    misunderstood by his peers. If you read it all the way through (and I recommend
    that you do), you will find that the innocent person who has gone our of his way
    to help others is now the target of their criticism. This is quite often true
    even in our time.
    We all have had to suffer these misunderstandings and even outright lies being
    told about us by a people or a person that we have gone to great lengths to
    help.
    Why this is I cannot say except that when you help another person then they feel
    a sense of indebtedness to you and their conscience begins to work on them when
    they cannot repay that debt. They then turn on you as though you are the reason
    for their guilt. It has happened to me and it will likely happen to you if you
    are one of those that has had a habit of coming to the rescue of others in need.
    Someone has said that one of the best ways to loose a friend or to alienate a
    close relative is to lend them money. I have made a it a habit not to lend any
    one money with any expectation of it coming back to me. That way, when it does
    not come back, I am not disappointed nor am I offended.
    I used to work in a small garage in Southern Indiana. The owner of that garage
    did a lot of work on credit. Many of those who came to him to get their farm
    equipment repaired or their automobiles and trucks, could not pay him for the
    work that he did for them. He would let them make payments on the work whenever
    they got the money. Consequently a lot of them conveniently forgot that they
    owed him this money and never paid. He told me one time that it was not so bad
    that they owed him money. What offended him the most is that they went out of
    their way to avoid him altogether. When they would drive past his garage, they
    would turn their heads and look the other way to avoid even looking in his
    direction. That hurt him more than their neglecting to pay the bill they owed
    him.
    God expects us to pay our debts and not to take offense at those we are indebted
    to. When we pray to Him, we ask Him to forgive our debts and He will if we are
    willing to forgive the debts of those who owe us. It works both ways and one
    will never be forgiven if they will not forgive. Our defense is God and our
    debt to Him is more than we can pay and He knows it so, He forgives it.
    May God help us all to be more understanding and forgiving or one another as we
    move through this life so that we can inherit from God what He wants us to have
    in eternity.
    God bless and go and have a great day.
     

    flightsimmer

    Master
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    9 And my soul shall be joyful in the Lord: it shall rejoice in his salvation.
    10 All my bones shall say, Lord, who is like unto thee, which deliverest the
    poor from him that is too strong for him, yea, the poor and the needy from him
    that spoileth him? Psalm 35:9-10

    Being rich does not equal to being happy. It doesn't equal being miserable
    either. The amount of wealth a person has actually has very little to do with
    their personal happiness. Happiness, as they say, is the Lord. Are you happy?
    The Apostle Paul, a very wise man, wrote centuries ago that Godliness with
    contentment is great gain. (I Tim. 6:6) What did he mean by that. He also
    wrote this: "I have learned whatsoever state I am in, therewith to be content"
    (Philippians 4:11). David wrote that he felt his joy all the way to his bones
    because his joy was in his salvation and not in his status or in his great
    wealth. David's joy that went all the way to his bones was based in his personal
    relationship with God.
    I am going through a very stressful time right now. Don't we all feel the
    stress?
    We live in a world where we have instant communication so that if a Palestinian
    kid knifes an Israeli soldier, we hear about it immediately. That is part of
    the problem but not all of it. We also live in a world that does not know what
    to make of all of the things that are happening. I have so many people who say
    to me that the Lord just have to come back soon to save us from ourselves. My
    response to that is that there is still too much work to be done to save those
    that are still lost and if He returns they will remain lost forever. Who wants
    all of these people to be lost and to spend eternity in hell? I don't. Some of
    these people are my children, grandchildren, cousins, nephews, nieces, in-laws,
    and other family and friends. I am not praying for the soon return of the Lord.
    I am not praying He doesn't return soon. I am praying that before He returns
    this world will experience a new Holy Spirit awakening revival. I am praying
    that God will shake heaven and earth to shake out of all the family trees those
    who can be saved. He knows who they are. He loves them and wants them to be
    saved.
    My joy is in my bones and my bones tell me that God is good, He is great and
    mighty to save. I love Him so and long to see Him soon but not so soon that I
    miss another opportunity to win another convert to Christ. Like the Apostle
    Paul and like so many other Christians, I am constrained between two opinions,
    to go on home and be with the Lord or to remain here to do as much good as I can
    before I go. I will leave the length of my earthly life to the Lord for I know
    that I will have an eternity to spend with Him once this life is done. In the
    meantime I want to be faithful to His call and His purpose for my life.
    God bless and go and have a great day.
     

    flightsimmer

    Master
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    12 They rewarded me evil for good to the spoiling of my soul.
    13 But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth: I humbled my
    soul with fasting; and my prayer returned into mine own bosom.
    Psalm 35:12-13

    It is easy to be misunderstood and misrepresented. It is also very easy to
    misunderstand and misrepresent the motives of others. This is why Jesus
    cautioned us not to be quick to judge others. The problem is that we normally
    have a beam in our eye while we are attempting to remove a speck of dust from
    their eye. This beam is very often a personal bias or a social prejudice. We
    must be ever so careful when judging the merit of another person's life.
    Having said that, it is also true that no matter how much you do for some folks
    it will never be enough to win them over to Christ. Last Sunday during the AM
    service, a lady came into the church not to attend church but to seek help with
    her rent on her room at a local motel. My wife was called out into the narthex
    of the church to help. She took money our of her own purse and assisted the
    lady and the lady promised my wife that she would return on Monday and bring the
    money back to her. Following the service, my wife explained to me what was
    going on in the narthex during the service and told me that she had helped the
    woman out and what she promised to do. I told her not to hold her breath while
    waiting for the money to come back, it likely never will.
    How many people we have helped down through the years I cannot say. There have
    been so many. Most of them asked for the help with a promise to repay the debt
    as soon as they arrived at some destination somewhere. In forty-three years of
    ministry I have only had two people keep that promise. I never expect the debt
    to be paid and am pleasantly surprised when it is and have not been pleasantly
    surprised very often.
    Here is the thing. God knows my heart and He keeps supplying. I don't know
    that I have ever lacked a thing that I need because I helped someone else in
    their time of need. God also knows that I am not a wealthy man. We church of
    God pastors are not known for our wealth. Most of the congregations of the
    church of God movement are not wealthy congregations and even if they were it
    appears that their philosophy when it comes to their pastors is that no pastor
    should be wealthy. A pastor serves better when he is poor than he would if he
    were wealthy. That probably is true.
    What I lack in this world's wealth is more than made up in the spiritual things
    of life. I have a treasure trove of friends and brothers and sisters in Christ.
    I have also made a lot of enemies because I will not compromise God's truth.
    Many that I have helped in a variety of ways have turned on me and forsaken me
    over the years. That hurts and I can sense David's pain in what he wrote which
    is the Scripture that I share with you in this Manna. But, we go on and our
    nature is to continue sharing the Gospel and a few dollars and a car or two and
    other things to those that need it. Why, because the love of God is real and it
    is not a façade that covers sins, it is a love that keeps giving to us and, so,
    we keep giving to others.
    God bless and go and have a great day.
     

    flightsimmer

    Master
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    9 For with Thee is the fountain of life: in Thy light shall we see light.
    Psalm 36:9

    Well, here we go. Yesterday evening I received a phone call from the nursing
    home where my mother is housed. The call was not good. Mom is in failing
    health and is near to the end of her life here on the earth. I have no clue how
    soon she will pass over into God's great abode but the word "hospice" entered
    the conversation and I know what that means. Mom is ready. She has fought a
    more than good fight and she has run the race in faith, not in her own ability
    to win it, but in God's ability to bring her to the finish line a winner. She
    is almost there. I am proud to be one of her five sons and one of her seven
    children. A sister, Nancy, died when she was 2 years old.
    My mother's children will indeed rise up and call her blessed. We were poor but
    wealthy, lacked formal education but never wisdom, would never have won and
    popularity contests but basked in the warmth of mom's love. I still say that
    "mom" is among the sweetest titles given among men.
    In today's Psalm David writes the truth. With God is the fountain of life and
    in His light we shall see light. We have life here but it is only temporary.
    In Christ we have eternal life. I can recommend Christ to anyone without
    needing to qualify Him to that person. Jesus is qualified by His pre-existence
    and His existence here as one among us and as the Messiah of God and as the
    sacrificial Lamb of God and as the only begotten Son of God and as the promise
    of God for life and light forever. One day He will come again and one day He
    will bring us all to the home where our fellow saints have and are going. In
    the meantime, we have to suffer the losses of fellowships with them as they go
    ahead of us, not to make a way for us for Christ has already done that. They
    are there cheering for us though. I have a lot of reasons to want to make haven
    my eternal home and no reason at all to make hell that place.
    Don't feel sorry for us, pray for us that we will be faithful to God in all of
    this. That is what is important to my mom and what should be most important to
    us.
    God bless and go and have a great day.
     

    GunSlinger

    Master
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    Right here.
    May the Lord bless and hold her in His loving arms, and may He give you and your family grace, comfort, and strength throughout these times. Amen.

    May God be with you and your entire family flightsimmer.

    ...and thank you for the daily inspirational.
     

    flightsimmer

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    35 I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay
    tree.
    36 Yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not: yea, I sought him, but he could not
    be found.
    37 Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is
    peace.
    38 But the transgressors shall be destroyed together: the end of the wicked
    shall be cut off.
    39 But the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord: he is their strength in
    the time of trouble.
    40 And the Lord shall help them and deliver them: he shall deliver them from the
    wicked, and save them, because they trust in him. Psalm 37:35-40

    There was a young lady (to me anyone under 60 is young) at church a week ago
    yesterday. She worked for a government agency. She told me she was being
    persecuted because of her Christianity. I believe her. Today, the wicked are
    in great power and likely in some of the most powerful positions in the world.
    They are growing in number like a spreading chestnut tree. The odds against
    those of us who are Christians ever getting any of these powerful positions back
    is over-whelming. We are becoming a minority in a country where we were once
    the majority. That is very difficult to live with but we must somehow learn to
    live with it. But, read carefully what David wrote. This is the way things
    have been for such a long, long time. For that matter go all the way back to
    the days of Eden and there you will find the serpent speaking his lies and his
    promises of fame and power into the ears of Eve to get her to turn away from God
    and her husband if need be to get that fame and that power. Satan could not
    carry out that promise then and he cannot do it now but that does not stop him
    from making the promises and it does not stop the majority from believing him.
    Eve had it made. There in the garden she lacked nothing. But Satan tempted her
    and opened up within her a lust for more than she needed and that is where he
    gets to all of us.
    The wicked of this world are growing in number by the minute. They hate God.
    That is the simplest way that I can put it. There was a time when they were
    only ambivalent toward God, but now, they have a hate for Him because He asks
    them to live a life of holiness and they are filled with a lust for something
    more. They want to march down the streets of heaven. Listen to them when they
    talk. They all expect to march down the streets of heaven. Ask them. Nearly
    to a person these expect to make heaven their eternal home and they expect that
    without ever making one effort at repenting for their sins and asking God to
    forgive them. They want to take heaven by force if need be. They expect to do
    that by their sheer numbers. Bluntly put, they will not succeed. They do not
    contribute a thing to the effort of Christ to save the world and, for that
    matter, they are the world that needs to be saved. They give nothing and their
    only wish is to take advantage of those that do. They look upon Christians and
    Christianity as another form or type of entertainment, a mere distraction, and
    nothing else.
    Why am I writing this? I am writing it because the Holy Spirit is leading me
    to. The church is not in trouble with God, the world is. God loves His church
    of which I am proud to be a member. One day we will march down the streets of
    heaven but only by the grace of God and though that grace is extended to the
    whole world that does not mean that the whole world will accept that grace on
    God's terms. Jesus said, "Many are called, but only a few are chosen." Why is
    that? Because only a few will find the strait gate and highway of holiness and
    chose to enter the gate and walk the path to heaven. You see, the wicked will
    be turned into hell but the righteous shall see God. I don't know about you but
    as for me I had rather suffer the pains of this world's rejection than to face
    the rejection of God.
    God bless and go and have a great day.
     

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    1 Lord, rebuke me not in Thy wrath: neither chasten me in Thy hot displeasure.
    2 For Thine arrows stick fast in me, and Thy hand presseth me sore.
    3 There is no soundness in my flesh because of Thine anger; neither is there any
    rest in my bones because of my sin.
    4 For mine iniquities are gone over mine head: as an heavy burden they are too
    heavy for me.
    5 My wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness. Psalm 38:1-5

    The purpose of these daily thoughts is to express what my heart feels and what
    troubles my mind or what brings joy to my soul. Think about it. One day I am
    over-joyed about my life and God's role in it and the next day I am perplexed
    and full of concern. I feel concern not only for myself but those that I meet
    along the way as I live my life.
    I was over to see my 97 year old mother yesterday. She was quite talkative.
    She was awake and alert and happy to have visitors. Who knows what tomorrow
    will bring but for that day, at least, she was glad to be alive.
    Isn't that the way of it? Some days things could not be better and some days
    they could not be worse. Today, at this moment, I am happy to be alive and to
    be saved from sin and to be sanctified by the Word and the Holy Spirit. There
    is no better place to be in life than safe in the arms of Christ. But, there
    are those days when Satan pushes against me and pressures me to live another
    way.
    Sin is a terrible thing and personal sin is a disastrous thing. Sin in the
    world around me grieves me sorely. But, when God reveals to me a personal sin
    that nearly grieves me to death. David speaks of his personal sin as a wound
    that stinks and that corrupts his whole being.
    I am not one who believes that we have to sin but I am one who believes that IF
    we do sin, we have an Advocate in Christ. Sin is always a choice and never a
    mere mistake in judgment. When one sins they are aware of the sin they are
    sinning. Sin does not catch us by surprise-the temptation to sin does. There
    is no sin without the temptation that precedes it. Every sin is preceded by the
    temptation to commit it. (I am speaking of personal sin). That is why John
    writes that there is a sin that is not unto death and that there is sin that
    brings death. The beauty of our relationship with God through His Son is that
    we have His Word and His Spirit to warn us away from sin. What a great God we
    serve.
    Sin always presents us with the consequence of guilt. That is what David writes
    in this Psalm. He is heavy-hearted because he has an awareness of the sin in
    his life. He is crushed by it. Sin is like a constricting serpent. It will
    squeeze the life out of us. The outcome of sin is death-always. The gift of
    God, however, is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. He is the one and
    only remedy for sin and thank God He is available to any and everyone who seeks
    Him to be that remedy.
    God bless and go and have a great day.
     

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    I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue: I will keep
    my mouth with a bridle, while the wicked is before me.
    2 I was dumb with silence, I held my peace, even from good; and my sorrow was
    stirred.
    3 My heart was hot within me, while I was musing the fire burned: then spake I
    with my tongue,
    4 Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I
    may know how frail I am.
    5 Behold, Thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing
    before thee: verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Selah.
    6 Surely every man walketh in a vain shew: surely they are disquieted in vain:
    he heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them.
    7 And now, Lord, what wait I for? my hope is in Thee. Psalm 39:1-7

    As we study these writings of David and his contemporaries we are struck by some
    thing. That something is their personal introspection and David's in
    particular.
    One has to wonder about David's personality, what sort of man that he was. God
    said of him that he was a man after His own heart which means to me that David
    and God thought a lot alike. God does not and cannot sin, of course, but David
    could and did. It is not the fact that he did sin that amazes me but rather how
    he would always openly humbly admit or confess the sin and take the consequences
    in stride. Where sin is concerned there are always consequences. As the poet
    has said, "no man is an island" and the things we do always affects others with
    out fail.
    David's main concern today is his tongue and how it may hurt others when he
    speaks. He even worries about how the words that he speaks may impact those who
    are his enemies. David realizes that even his days are numbered and that one
    day he too shall face the King of all kings and give an account of his life and
    how he used the power and authority that God had given him. Wouldn't it be a
    wonderful thing if every person in a position of power were to realize that God
    put them there and, not so much to enjoy the spoils of having won that place,
    but to use the position to make life a little less painful for others. The
    purpose for overseers, political or ecclesiastical, is to rule well the people
    given to them as their charges. I am not sure of that word rule and think a
    better word is to shepherd.
    When one is in a position such as the one David held, it is a trust. They are
    entrusted to that position and should serve God well in it and thereby serve the
    people well also. The problem with politics is that though most people may
    enter into it with a worthy goal in mind, that goal soon gets tarnished by all
    of the political maneuvering that has to happen in order to accomplish any good
    thing.
    In today's world of political maneuvering, a man's or a woman's word doesn't
    mean much. David is worried that his words may be taken to mean more than he
    intends for them to. How can we manage our words better? How can we be more
    considerate of the feelings of others when we speak? Is their healing in our
    words or is their a certain type of wounding in them? I like the great Apostle
    Paul would rather speak a few words that help than to speak a thousand that
    kills the spirit of another person. Even when we speak, do we wait upon the
    Lord? I wonder. May God sanctify our deeds and our words so that we can bring
    others attention to His great King and His kingdom.
    God bless and go and have a great day.
     

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    8 I delight to do Thy will, O my God: yea, Thy law is within my heart.
    9 I have preached righteousness in the great congregation: lo, I have not
    refrained my lips, O Lord, Thou knowest.
    10 I have not hid Thy righteousness within my heart; I have declared Thy
    faithfulness and Thy salvation: I have not concealed Thy lovingkindness and Thy
    truth from the great congregation. Psalm 40:8-10

    Just what is it we take our greatest pleasure in doing? Right now, it is "Deer
    Season" in Indiana and I know a lot of people who are deer hunting enthusiasts.
    They just cannot wait for that first day of the season. I believe it is bow
    season right now but that will change soon to gun season and that season will
    include the taking of both, does and bucks.
    When I was a young boy down in Southern Indiana, I used to love to hunt rabbits
    and squirrel. I would never hunt the limit which was five or either. I would
    only take one normally and head home. That was meat on the table for us and one
    was enough. We didn't have a freezer in those days so if you hunted too many
    they would just go to waste.
    In those days, I like to fish also. I was never as good at either of these
    things as other members of my family. I remember the last squirrel I shot. He
    was sitting on a limb eating. He looked beautiful to me. I shot him and there
    he lay on the ground and I felt guilty. I have never shot another squirrel
    since. I don't fault others who do and if it came to feeding my family I most
    definitely would shoot a squirrel, a rabbit, a deer, or other prey to feed them.
    In any case, it was pleasure then and it was part of being a young boy in that
    area of the state. I no longer find great pleasure in it. I have found
    something much better to take my pleasure in and that is serving Christ and
    winning souls to Him. I had rather be a fisher of men than a fisher of fish.
    Over the past 43 years I have preached innumerable sermons and taught countless
    lessons from the Scriptures. I take great joy in doing these things. When a
    soul comes to Christ and when that soul finds salvation, I experience great joy.
    What David writes in these few words that I have quoted in this Manna today is
    what I feel in my heart also. I am not trying to impress God by my works but I
    do want to express to Him my great love for Him and His truth which can be read
    about in the Bible. I don't remember ever desiring to leave Him and to go back
    out into the world of sin since the day He saved me. That is not to say that I
    have never been unfaithful to Him because I have but what it does mean is that I
    have never wanted to remain in a life of unfaithfulness. Christ is too precious
    to me. I never want to experience a day of life without Him at the center of
    it. It is hard to explain to those who don't love Him that way and they think
    it is strange when another person is not carried away by the excesses of sin the
    same as they are carried away by it.
    Today, I just want to live through it and come to the end of it and be able to
    say that I have been a pleasure to God and that it has been my pleasure to live
    for God. Oh, God, may I live today in such a manner that you will be pleased
    with my every act, my every thought, my every word, that is my prayer.
    God bless and go and have a great day.
     

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    As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after Thee, O
    God.
    2 My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear
    before God?
    3 My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me,
    Where is thy God?
    4 When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me: for I had gone with
    the multitude, I went with them to the house of God, with the voice of joy and
    praise, with a multitude that kept holyday. Psalm 42:1-4

    I try to pay attention to details. That could be one of my problems with other
    people. I see a person who has stage four lung cancer who just keeps on sucking
    on those cigarettes and I ask myself, why pray? Then I am reminded that this
    man not only has a physical life, he has a soul that needs salvation.
    In this Psalm David writes" "As the hart pants after the water brooks, so pants
    my soul after Thee, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God..." Is
    this true of me, it is true of us? He goes on to tell us that his tears are his
    meat day and night which asks the question, "Where is your God?"
    Then he tells us that he had gone with the crowd to the house of God with the
    voice of joy and praise on those special days to keep the holydays. I was
    thinking as I read this, isn't it a shame that we have changed the holy to holi?
    We no longer look upon those days that were holy to our forefathers as being
    holy, we see them as holidays and do anything but go to church or the house of
    God with the multitudes. For that matter, it is a rare thing to see a multitude
    of people in the house of God these days. The reason for this is that most
    people would rather forget God than to long for Him in their lives.
    My mother has been a journalist. Not in the sense that you normally take that
    term but in the sense that she studies her Bible and journals her thoughts every
    day. That is, she has done this faithfully for years until recently. I was
    with her the other day when a nurse was in her room tending to her and she told
    the nurse that she just wanted to get well enough again to study her Bible and
    to do her writing. She has not been well enough recently to do either. Will
    she ever get well enough to do these things again? I don't know but what I do
    know is that like the deer pants for fresh water to drink, her soul longs for
    the thirst-quenching words of God. We should all have this thirst but sadly it
    is lacking in many if not most today.
    God willing, I will be with the church in worship Sunday. There are many who
    want to be there that won't be able to come because of physical limitations.
    Some of these are shut-ins in their own homes and many are in nursing homes and
    some are in hospitals and some will be serving in a needed way in a vital job
    that keeps them away. But, God looks upon the heart of the person and notes the
    thirst they have for Him and honors that thirst and quenches it one way or
    another. If we can be at all, we should be where the body of Christ is and join
    it in the worship of our God and we should not be there merely out of obligation
    but from a deep longing to be where worship is happening.
    God bless and go and have a great day.
     

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    We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, what work Thou
    didst in their days, in the times of old. Psalm 44:1

    My grandchildren (especially one) love to hear about our exploits when we were
    children ourselves. By we, I mean my brothers and my sister and myself. There
    are so many of them and all of them are true. We would build "dens" to hide in
    and treehouses to climb up into in order to get away from it all and would round
    up neighborhood kids to play "cops and robbers" and "war" and back yard base
    ball, football, soccer, and so on. It was fun. We had no money to speak of in
    those days but every now and then we would scrape up enough to go to a Saturday
    afternoon western at the local Riviera theater. We got the money by gathering
    up pop bottles and selling them or junk and taking it to a local junk yard and
    selling it. I can only imagine how amusing it was to the fellow running the
    scales to see us pull our home-made cart onto his scales to have our junk
    weighed and then to give us a ticket to take to the office to get our cash.
    It was a different time but it was not all that different in some ways.
    I could go on and on about these things but I had best get to the point of this
    "Manna". The point is that we all have a life to share with our kids and our
    grandkids. One of the most important things to share with them as far as my
    life is concerned is when I got saved and Christ entered into the picture. I
    was nine years old (nearly ten). It was on a Sunday night and late September.
    I don't recall the exact date but I do remember the place and the saints that
    came and gathered around me and prayed with me. I believe all of them were the
    men of the church of God located on 22nd and Nell Street in Anderson, Indiana.
    These men were awesome. They cared. They embraced me following my conversion
    and took me under their collective wings and nurtured me as a Christian. It was
    a wonderful time and as a great author once said, "These were the best of times
    and these were the worst of times". Being a Christian in my neighborhood was
    difficult in a way. My brothers did not understand at the time but have come to
    understand today. My journey in Christ is my story to relate to my kids and my
    grandchildren. God has given me many victories along the way and, I have
    suffered some defeats. The defeats came when I was not in the will of God and
    this is God's way of teaching us to be careful to be in His will.
    Our children need our stories. Can you imagine sitting at the feet of his
    father and his grandfather and his uncles and hearing of their battles and how
    that God brought them one victory after another? I can. What a time for David
    that must have been.
    God is the same today in our lives as He was then in theirs. We need to let our
    kids of this generation know that He will be the same in their lives. This is
    very important. Share your testimony with your kids and your grandchildren. Do
    this and see how suddenly interested they become in you and your life and the
    God who has given you that life.
    God bless and go and have a great day.
     

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    20 If we have forgotten the name of our God, or stretched out our hands to a
    strange god;
    21 Shall not God search this out? for He knoweth the secrets of the heart.
    22 Yea, for Thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for
    the slaughter. Psalm 44:20-22

    Romans 8:36 is a direct quote of Psalm 44:22. Paul writes this. I have always
    had a hard time understanding this verse until it dawned on me today that it is
    not God slaughtering the sheep, it Satan. As a child of God, as a sheep of His
    sheepfold, I am marked by the evil intent of Satan for slaughter.
    It appears that this world in our time has forgotten the name of our God. This
    world certainly does worship a strange God that I am not acquainted with and, in
    truth, don't want to know. It is not that I don't want to know the one and true
    God better, it is that I have no desire to become acquainted with any of this
    world's idols nor this world's idolatrous ways.
    My God satisfies my every want and need. As I follow my Jesus, my Christ, I see
    sacrifice and not avarice. He gave all that He had in order to bring to us the
    message of God and to make God more personable to us. I never see Jesus using
    any of His God-given authority and His God-given powers to mitigate His own
    comfort and ease and health and wealth. He could have been very popular with
    the in crowd of His day. All He had to do to save His life was to do a little
    miracle for Herod. It was the same with John the Baptist. Both of these men,
    one the fore-runner of Christ and the other Christ Himself, gave up all of the
    comforts of this life in order to bring to us the salvation required for the
    blessings of the next life.
    We have Christians today that are more concerned about their own ease and
    comfort than they are about lost sinners. Christ concerned Himself with the
    souls of those that were lost. He came to restore the lost house of Israel. In
    this way we have forgotten our God and have created a God of creature comforts
    that will be a household God more than the Great God of creation and of eternal
    affairs. We go to our God with our personal needs and neglect the weightier
    needs of a world gone feral. We need to look at the world through the eyes of
    Jesus Christ and see it as a lost house that needs to be found for Christ. We
    must get back to serving the one true God who is not the God of gluttons and
    drunkards and dope pushers and crooked politicians and so on. God is the God of
    the righteous and the holy ones of the earth. God help us to see this and get
    back to the preaching of it. I only hope that you understand. I am a pastor
    and I find myself begging people who say that they love my God and their God to
    do the right thing in His behalf. I nor any other preacher should ever have to
    beg people to properly serve the Lord. They should do it out of reverence and
    respect for God and for who He is. God help us to see Him high and lifted up
    and the God of glory.
    God bless and go and have a great day.
     

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    1 God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
    2 Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the
    mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;
    3 Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake
    with the swelling thereof. Selah.
    4 There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the
    holy place of the tabernacles of the most High.
    5 God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: God shall help her, and
    that right early.
    6 The heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved: He uttered His voice, the earth
    melted. Psalm 46:1-6

    Our local newspaper has become an agent of the left. It celebrates the
    victories
    of the left and bemoans those of the right. I am speaking politically, of
    course.
    It does have a few writers that attempt to balance the political editorial
    position of the paper and a good political cartoonist but other than that it is
    just another arm of the leftist movement in this area.
    I mention this only to point out the up-hill battle the church is fighting to
    stay the course of the leftist movement(s). I am not shy about my stand against
    same-sex marriage and, I feel that I am in the majority when I say that I have
    no hate in my heart toward anyone. But, after having said that, I want to also
    say that I love God more than life itself and His Word is truth and absolute
    truth at that. You can try to manipulate it to move people into your corner
    when it comes to moving forward an agenda that goes against the Bible but the
    problem you have with that is that intelligent people can read it for themselves
    and see what it says and make up their own minds about it.
    There are some who say that the church (and Christ) are in peril of becoming
    irrelevant. I read in the local paper today that more and more young people are
    moving away from religion. I remember back in the 1960's when the "hippies" had
    the headlines and the same thing was written about them. It was said then that
    they were against "organized religion" and the established churches. I was a
    lot younger then and about the same age of many of those who this was being
    written about. It wasn't true then and it is not true now. Many people may be
    against organized religion but very few are against God Himself. Most people
    that I come across are simply confused when it comes to religion. I want to
    insert here that religion isn't what most people are in search of; what they are
    in search of is something or someone to put their faith in and to base their
    hopes upon. God is that Someone. The problem is that the so-called church has
    made God over in its image instead of allowing God to make the church in His.
    I have come to almost hate the word religion. It is sad what we have made of
    that word. I am not "religious", I am saved by the blood of Jesus Christ and I
    intend to be faithful to the One who saved me, the One who gave His life on
    Calvary to give me eternal life. Some would call that being religious but I
    call it being true to Christ.
    We live in troubling times for the Christian. Do not fret my brothers and my
    sisters. Christ is still at God's right hand and God is yet on His throne and
    nothing that happens on this earth politically will ever change that. Listen,
    there is a river that makes me glad, God is still in His holy church and she
    shall not be affected by all of the uproar and the political to do of today. He
    will and has come to her aid. She shall be left standing when all else has
    crumbled at her feet. Trust God in this. He has promised and what He has
    promised will stand the test of time and eternity.
    God bless and go and have a great day.
     
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