The Daily Manna

[flightsimmer]

9 He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; he breaketh the bow, and
cutteth the spear in sunder; he burneth the chariot in the fire.
10 Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will
be exalted in the earth.
11 The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.

Oh that God would make all wars to cease. We all long for a day when we can
listen to the news and not hear about wars and rumors of war. It is being
reported this morning on a variety of news station that the Russian Jetliner
that crashed last week in the Sinai Desert was probably the victim of a bomb on
board. If that is so, Russia will like retaliate in some fashion and it won't
be pretty.

These words of David were written to portray God as the God of peace. When will
there be peace on earth? It is not likely any time soon given the current
mindset of so many. I believe that the majority of us, whether Christian or
not, just want to be left alone to live out our lives in peace. It is the few
who keep the cauldron's of war boiling.
I am not ISIS sympathizer by any stretch of the imagination but one must ask,
just where does such venom and bitterness and hatred come from. Those who are
attracted to ISIS are those that feel they have a legitimate grievance against
the world. I might also be that some see this movement as an extension of some
video game they have played on a computer. That is, it is a life game and they
want in on it. But, I believe they would be in the minority and that the
majority of those who join ISIS and other groups similar to them feel cheated or
threatened and just desire to surround themselves with some form of protection
from whatever threat they perceive to be out there. Defending themselves from
some tyrant, they become tyrants and thus, the wars continue and they seem to be
endless.
Christ is the Prince of Peace. His kingdom is the kingdom of peace. In this
world as part of the world, there is no peace. Life is a constant struggle and
there is no respite from those struggles. But, in Christ one can find a peace
that is beyond this world's comprehension. The Bible calls it a peace that
passeth understanding. For the Christian, God has broken the bow, snapped the
spear and burned the vehicles of war. We do not want to learn the ways of war
but much prefer to learn the way of peace. To know what that means all we need
to do is to study the life of Christ. His only war was against Satan and all of
the evil that he has brought into the world. He conquered him and sin on the
cross of Calvary.
We do hear of wars and rumors of wars these days. Christ said we would. But,
we do not have to contribute a thing to the cause of these wars. All we have to
do is to trust God to be our peace and we will have it. May God bless your day
with this great peace that only He can endow you with.
God bless and go and have a great day.

 

[flightsimmer]

1 O clap your hands, all ye people; shout unto God with the voice of triumph.
2 For the Lord most high is terrible; He is a great King over all the earth.
3 He shall subdue the people under us, and the nations under our feet.
4 He shall choose our inheritance for us, the excellency of Jacob whom He loved.
Selah.
5 God is gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet.
6 Sing praises to God, sing praises: sing praises unto our King, sing praises.
7 For God is the King of all the earth: sing ye praises with understanding.
Psalm 47:1-7

As I read the paper and listen to the news and then turn to the Scriptures, I
realize the truest meaning of the ancient writing that asks, "Why did the
heathen rage, why did the people imagine a vain thing?" We are so smart, all of
us. We imagine that we are in charge and we set the course for our day and think
what it will play out just as we imagined that it would. When will we ever
learn? Every tick of the clock is in God's hands. We do not rule. We all are
subject to the grand scheme which is God's plan and there is nothing we can do
but submit to it because we trust God with it. God's plan will lead to eternal
bliss and rebellion against it will take one to eternal anguish. God is the
great King over ALL the earth and all the earth will come to know and
acknowledge
this for it is written that every knee shall bow and every tongue will confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord.
Why is it that we rebel against this truth? It can only be that we want to be
in charge of our own destiny and the only reason for that would be that we do
not trust God with it. As for me, I will praise the Lord. He is not threat to
me. Rather, He is comfort and joy and peace. When all the days of the earth
are come to an end, there will be God, eternal in His heaven and sitting there
high and lifted up. It will be glory to see Him and to toss our crowns at His
feet for when we see Him we will see Him as He has desired to be seen by us
since from the very beginning. He will not be threatening in His countenance,
He will be awesome and welcoming and His voice will speak and say, "welcome
home"
and, "come and take your place in My home which is now become your home".
For now we have to put up with all of man's foolish goals which go against His
for them. But, one day this will be all done. What we must be is faithful in
the meanwhile. If we are faithful to Him, He will be faithful to us for He is
always faithful to His word that He has spoken to us.
God bless and go and have a great day.

 

[GodFearinGunTotin]

Flightsimmer, I don't know how many other people are following this thread. But so you know, there's at least one. I've been enjoying it. Keep it up.

 

[flightsimmer]

Thank you, I'll pass it on to Pastor Kirby.

 

[flightsimmer]

2 Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the
sides of the north, the city of the great King.
3 God is known in her palaces for a refuge.
4 For, lo, the kings were assembled, they passed by together.
5 They saw it, and so they marvelled; they were troubled, and hasted away.
Psalm 48:2-5

The phraseology of this text is something else. The term "beautiful for
situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion" expresses a greater truth
than most Bible commentators understand. One of the reasons for this is that
they take the narrow view of the statement rather than the broader one.
David was messianic and prophetic in what he wrote. He did not write what he
wrote to satisfy a current curiosity, he wrote to satisfy what is true of God
and His people in any age. The problem is that most people do not read the
Psalms with an eye to a different age than the one in which they were written.
Most people think that David only spoke of Israel then and not much about God's
Israel through the end of time. Israel, after all, was God's creation. These
people did not decide to become a people on their own. God raised them up.
They did not even choose God, God chose them. Israel was and always has been
the people of God's choice. This same theme runs through the Old Testament as
well as through the New. "You have not chosen Me", Christ said, "I have chosen
you". This is important.
Zion is not just a physical mountain, it is a spiritual one as well. Zion is
the church. The church is the composite of all those chosen by God to be His
people. How does He choose them? He chooses those that choose Him. Christ put
it this way, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son
that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
The church is composed of all of those who have believed in Christ for their
salvation.
I am part of a movement within Christianity that has been around for about 135
years. We believe that Christ is our salvation. We believe that we are Zion.
We are not "Zionists" in the sense that most people use that term, we simply
believe what this Psalm says which is that for every and in every situation God
is our Great King. We need not fear the world nor those who believe that they
are in charge of it. They are not. Mount Zion, the church of God, has covered
the entire earth and it is the one institution that most earthly men and women
fear the most. It has resisted every effort to bring it down since its
beginning for us. Jesus gave it existence when He died on the cross and the
Holy Spirit breathed life into it on the day of Pentecost. This movement that I
am glad to be a part of merely exists to tell its story over and over again to
every generation. The church is eternal. It began with God in eternity before
the earth and the cosmos was created and it will exist forever with God once the
earth and the cosmos is gone. This fact frustrates the one who are bent on her
demise. They see her as a formidable force that is the one constant in their
changing world. I praise God for "Zion" and am proud to be one of many that
make it not only a mountain but also the Holy City of God.
God bless and go and have a great day.

 

[flightsimmer]

6 They that trust in their wealth, and boast themselves in the multitude of
their riches;
7 None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for
him:
8 (For the redemption of their soul is precious, and it ceaseth for ever
9 That he should still live for ever, and not see corruption.
Psalm 49:6-9

This must have been bad news for those who believed that the sacrifices made at
the temple in Jerusalem was intended to atone for the sins of a nation or a
family. Though God instituted the ordinance of sacrifice, it was never intended
to be payment for sin. The sacrifice made was an act of faith in a God who
could and would forgive sin if sin was repented of. The sacrifice itself was an
act of repentance. It was brought to the altar just inside the gates of the
tabernacle to be killed as a way of saying that sin is death to me and the only
way for me to live is for God to accept my honest sorrow over my sin. The
sacrifice is to the person then what Christ is to us now. We did not die for
our sins, Christ died for them. He is the atonement and there is no other that
is acceptable to God. Why? The bulls and the goats and the lambs sacrificed in
the Old Testament are serving for them the same function that Christ does for us
now. These sacrifices died so that the sinner did not have to die. The sinner
was guilty but provided a way for that person to be forgiven and the way of
being
forgiven was common to all. It mattered not whether one was rich or poor God
would accept a substitute sacrifice for sins committed so that the sinner did
not have to die. A rich man could not bail out a close relative. A poor man
could not rely on a wealthy relative to bail him out either. Everyone had to
bring a personal sacrifice to be slain on the altar for the remission of sins.
God so loved us that He, once and for all time, gave His only begotten Son to
die for our sins so that we would not have to. Accepting Christ as that gift
from God as the Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world, accepting
Him by faith and confession and repentance which is Godly sorrow, will lead us
to the God of our salvation. Dare I say it? The Donald Trumps of this world
nor the Marco Rubios possess the power to redeem the world. Only Christ can do
that because He is the Lamb of God. God alone saves us for eternity.
Right now there is a great uproar over the holiday cup that Starbucks is using
for the "holiday season". Will you understand when I say, why do I care and
furthermore, why should you care? My faith in the Christ child Who is born the
Lamb of God will still be intact during the season and after and all the way
into eternity. If you want to pay Starbucks their exorbitant price for a cup of
coffee, by all means go for it. If you are a Christian that cup of coffee will
not diminish the power of God to save you or to keep you that way. I don't go
to Starbucks because I don't drink coffee not because they have a green or red
cup with their logo on it. There are more issues that are more demeaning to
Christ in this world that need to be addressed. Starbucks cannot save me nor
can it keep me from being saved. Being saved by Christ was a personal choice
that I made over 60 years ago and it is one you should have made and still can
make. I encourage you to go to God for your salvation and not to a rich friend
or relative.
God bless and go and have a great day.

 

[flightsimmer]

10 For he seeth that wise men die, likewise the fool and the brutish person
perish, and leave their wealth to others.
11 Their inward thought is, that their houses shall continue for ever, and their
dwelling places to all generations; they call their lands after their own names.
12 Nevertheless man being in honor abideth not: he is like the beasts that
perish.
13 This their way is their folly: yet their posterity approve their sayings.
Selah.
14 Like sheep they are laid in the grave; death shall feed on them; and the
upright shall have dominion over them in the morning; and their beauty shall
consume in the grave from their dwelling.
15 But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave: for He shall receive
me. Selah. Psalm 49:10-15

There are some things that you cannot get from a cursory reading of the Bible.
I have read the Bible through and study it often in search for its messages that
need to be preached and taught. I came across this passage and it seemed most
appropriate for the moment. This dear lady who passed away early this morning
was never a wealthy lady nor a lady who had made a name for herself. For that
matter most people in this community where she lived the biggest part of her
life will hardly note her passing because they hardly knew she lived here. But
one thing I do know is that God took note of her life and He has received her
into His paradise.
The rich (it seems we who think that we are poor always compare ourselves to
them and pick on them a lot). Let me specify. The rich sinner who believes
that he is something or someone more than the poor tends to believe that what he
has in the way of material and financial wealth is his. In truth when the truth
is known, nothing is his, he only has access to it for a while. Nothing of this
earth belongs to us. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. He owns
the cattle on a thousand hills and we are idiots if we think we do. We have
deeds to our property and titles to our vehicles and claim ownership of the
clothes on our back. And, yes, if someone takes them from us by force they can
be arrested. But, when my death comes to our door and takes us away, then to
whom do those things go? If we have a will we can express our desire as to
where they go but once they are in the hands of those people we have lost all
control over them. They can keep them or sell them or give them away to anyone
and even someone we would never have given them to. When you think about it,
everything returns to the earth from which it came and is recycled for a future
generation not because we are so good at recycling those things but because God
has ordained it so. Even our bodies return to the earth and become dust. We
are here for a moment and then we are gone and the only enduring thing is the
soul. It is the soul that God redeems and not the material things of the earth.
God will rescue the soul if the soul seeks God for its rescue. The soul that
seeks the Lord shall find Him but the soul that turns from the Lord shall be
lost forever. As they say, this is not rocket science, it is very simple. What
about you? Have you sought the Lord out for salvation? If not, what do you
expect to happen to your soul at the time of your death? You do have a soul and
for that matter you are your soul and your soul is you. The body is a temporal
house that will fall into disuse one day but the soul of man, it goes on for all
eternity. The sad thing is that not all souls will have that eternal place with
the Lord. Think on it.
God bless and go and have a great day.

 

[Leo]

Flightsimmer, I don't know how many other people are following this thread. But so you know, there's at least one. I've been enjoying it. Keep it up.

+1

 

[flightsimmer]

9 I will take no bullock out of thy house, nor he goats out of thy folds.
10 For every beast of the forest is Mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills.
11 I know all the fowls of the mountains: and the wild beasts of the field are
Mine.
12 If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is Mine, and the
fulness thereof. Psalm 50:9-12

God is self-existing and self sufficient. The only thing He wants from us is
fellowship-honest fellowship. There is a reason that He created us in His
likeness and image and that is that He craves fellowship with other beings
similar to Himself. He created us for that fellowship. Of course, that
relationship is to be based upon mutual respect for one another. If God did not
respect us, why would He go to all of the trouble to save us so that we can be
back in fellowship with Him?
Do not misunderstand me. I am not saying that God created us to worship but He
did created us to love. He created us to love and I know this because the Bible
throughout is a message of that love of God for us which is continuously
directed at us. All that God has done, even before the beginning, is to make
provision for a mutually agreed upon fellowship with us. Throughout all of the
Scripture we read about covenants. He made covenant with Adam. A covenant
requires two or more parties and in this instance the two parties are God and
the man He created. That He would give us a voice in any covenant is amazing to
me. He is God. He owns the cattle on a thousand hills which literally
understood means that He owns it all. God owns everything He created except us.
He does not want to own us, He wants to befriend us and make us like Himself.
Why would God want to do that? Because there is none holier, not more righteous
and none more powerful. He wants to share heaven with us but He cannot let that
happen as long as we want to be gods unto ourselves. The one thing God demands
is that we love Him with all of our hearts, all of our minds, all of our
strength, and with all of our souls. Where God is concerned, love begets love.
He created us to love and to fellowship but it will be on His terms because His
terms are perfect. He is good and His goodness endures forever. All He ever
wanted and wants to this day for us is what He knows is good for us. Just as we
want what is best for our children, God wants what is best for us even if we
don't understand it at the time. We think we know what that is and attempt to
sway God by our opinion but God sees the greater picture and prepares us for
what is ahead and not just for the moment. He loves us so. We need to agree
with His terms of endearment to be happy.
God bless and go and have a great day.

 

[flightsimmer]

14 Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most High: 15 And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me. 16 But unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth? 17 Seeing thou hatest instruction, and castest my words behind thee. 18 When thou sawest a thief, then thou consentedst with him, and hast been partaker with adulterers. Psalm 50:14-18 What can I say? God is great and especially so in times like these. My mother is moving on. She may last for a few more days but not many more. She has been and is a great lady and a woman of God. For her and what she has meant to me in my life, I can only give God praise and offer up to Him sincere thanks. These are troubling times in a way but they are also times of reaffirmation. When it comes to these times, there is only one Person to look to for consolation and help and He is no man, He is God. He is a present help in a time of trouble and every day I thank Him for being there to enable me to do the necessary things to comfort those around me. At the same time that I am ministering to my own mother, a man in the church that I pastor is preparing to say goodbye to his mom. She died three days ago early Wednesday morning. I will do her funeral Monday and I certainly covet all of the prayers that I can get in order to meet the needs of this young man and his family. It too is a good family and she too was a good and godly woman. I was blessed to have come to know her and to be her pastor. She is with the Lord today and of that I am certain. So, when we are so blessed, why is it that we ever question the integrity of God? My life has been with the saints for the most part. But in this scripture we are using for this Manna today, God cautions us to not fall in with the evil ones of this world. Protest their evil ways and the evil that they do. They will fight back to be sure, but if we do nothing, evil wins. This very thought brings me back to my own mom. She never let an evil thing slide. She protested it in her own way. She would write to politicians, judges, mayors, newspapers, and her words to them were specific to the problem that she wrote about. I remember when Anderson, Indiana was debating the horse track and the gambling that would come along with it. Mom wrote one letter after another cautioning the powers that were to consider the long-term effect it would have on the city. By the way, what she said would happen has happened and the city of Anderson is so diminished today that it has become a bedroom community that people commute from to find work elsewhere. If we don't call evil what it is, this Psalm tells us that we become part of the evil we should be protesting. To see another person committing a crime and do nothing makes us a part of the crime. We need to be do-something people. Do something even if it results in little or nothing being done about the evil. I love the Psalms for they speak to us in everyday terms, everyday situations that we all find ourselves in. As we read them we are reminded that God is with us to be the help that we all need. God bless and go and have a great day.

 

[flightsimmer]

Pastor Kirby's Mother past on this morning and is now with the Lord, all our prays are with him and his family.

 

[GodFearinGunTotin]

That's never easy, even when it's expected. Prayers for the family for God's comfort and strength.

 

[flightsimmer]

1 Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. 3 For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. 4 Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest. 5 Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me. 6 Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom. 7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. 8 Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. 9 Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities. 10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. 11 Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me. 12 Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit. Psalm 51:1-12 Let this speak volumes to us today. I will make this short. My mother went to see the Lord Saturday afternoon at around 2 PM. We will return to doing these Manna's as soon as possible. Thanks for your prayers. She was 97 years old and yet, not so old we were ready to let go of her. She is in the arms of her loving Savior. Praise the Lord.

 

[flightsimmer]

13 Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee. 14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness. 15 O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise. 16 For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering. 17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. 18 Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: build thou the walls of Jerusalem. 19 Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering: then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar. Psalm 51:13-19 As you know by this time, my mother has gone home to be with her most precious Friend and Advocate. She passed last Saturday into eternity never to walk this earth again. Her funeral will be at Robert D. Loose Funeral Home on 53rd street in Anderson, Indiana tomorrow at 1 PM. She asked me to do her funeral and I am going to do that. She is a remarkable lady that met the challenges of life with faith in Christ and won the victory that Paul writes about in 2 Corinthians 15. One of her grandchildren's favorite saying from mom is what she would say to him as he would get ready to leave after visiting with her. Mom would say to him, "You behave!" The theme of the 51st Psalm is just that. God tells us that He is not the least interested in the killing of bulls and goats and the sacrifices we make merely to appease Him or to impress Him. What is impressive to God and the only way to impress Him that I am aware of is to behave. When I say to behave I mean what mom meant by it. She meant and God means that our behavior counts for more than a mere token love that has no basis in fact. What God loves is a contrite heart and a humble spirit. God loves for us to know, that is, to recognize the fact that He is praiseworthy and that we come to Him to praise Him because we see Him as such. We can make all of the financial and material sacrifices we want and it will not do a thing to erase the sin that remains in our hearts. It is not until we have come to God with that sin and that we have acknowledged it and that we are ready for Him to take it away by the blood of His own dear Son that God is moved. He loves us even as sinners. But, up until we are willing to let Him remove that sin, nothing we do otherwise will make amends for the fact that we have and continue to commit it. Pastor George Skinner from both, my mom's and my early childhood, used to say, "I would rather be a Christian than a millionaire". Given the choice, which would you prefer? I am not what some would call "dirt poor". I am not a wealthy man by this world's standard either. I am a man who has had for a long, long time, more than all the wealth of this world could buy. I have had and, continue to have, Christ in my heart. Where He sends me I will go. What He tells me to do, I will do. What He lays on my heart to say, I will say. In other words, I will obey Him no matter the sacrifice that requires. God wants the obedience that faith requires because He knows that once He has the obedience, the sacrifice will follow. Oh, that we would all live a life of obedience to God and His Christ. God does love us all but the question remains, do we love Him? I am not talking about a passive love, I am talking of an active one that possesses us. It owns us. May God richly bless your life with that kind of love. God bless, and "You behave!" God bless and go and have a great day.

 

[flightsimmer]

8 But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God: I trust in the mercy of
God for ever and ever.
9 I will praise Thee for ever, because Thou hast done it: and I will wait on Thy
name; for it is good before Thy saints. Psalms 52:8-9

I have to wonder about the circumstances that brought about the writing of each
of the Psalms. They are all effective. This one seems to be the thoughts of a
man under siege spiritually who needed to know that he was still in the will of
God and that what he was going through at that moment was but for the moment and
not a life-time condition. It seems we all need to know that from time to time.

It is easy to praise the Lord when everything is going your way but when the
days are dark and dreary, that is the time when our faith in God and our lover
for Him is put to the test. This past week I have had two funerals. One was a
dear friend and a parishioner of mine. Sister Sue Kirkley died a week ago
Wednesday and mom died last Saturday. Both were true Christians and hard to say
goodbye to even if we knew that that goodbye is for a little while. Both of
these ladies were mothers and friends to about everyone they ever met. All we
heard about those who knew them both was praise for their generosity and faith.
It is my privilege to have known them both.
God bless and go and have a great day.

 

[flightsimmer]

1 The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. Corrupt are they, and have
done abominable iniquity: there is none that doeth good.
2 God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any
that did understand, that did seek God.
3 Every one of them is gone back: they are altogether become filthy; there is
none that doeth good, no, not one.
4 Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people as they eat
bread: they have not called upon God.
5 There were they in great fear, where no fear was: for God hath scattered the
bones of him that encampeth against thee: thou hast put them to shame, because
God hath despised them.
6 Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! When God bringeth back
the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.
Psalm 53:1-6

In this case "the fool" is a braggart who comes against the people of God and
believes that they can do so with impunity. In chapter fourteen and verse one
it means "stupid and ignorant". But, in either case it is very foolish to say
to oneself that there is no God. In today's verses they say that there will be
no consequence to the berating or the abuse of God's people because those who
say they are God's people are the fools. They believe that we who are the
people of God waste our time and our resources promoting a God who does not
exist. Some of these people who berate us were once one of us. That is why the
third verse says that they have gone back and have become children of men
instead of children of God.
If you study the content of this chapter you will note that it is a commentary
on backsliders and on those who hold in disdain the ones who continue on serving
the Lord. God knows who they are. He looks down upon them. He examines their
intentions and God notes the fear that they heap upon his people.
Listening to the news this morning about what is going on right now in Belgium.
The government of Belgium has it people literally in lock down. Though they may
not call it "martial law" that is pretty much what it is. They are afraid and
because they are afraid, the terrorist have won. There may be no viable reason
to fear but they fear nevertheless. These terrorists want that. Once they have
achieved that, they have won. Why give it to them?
I recall the days after 9/11 and the fear that America felt and to a large
degree still does. I made the remark then and still stand by it today, I am not
going to let these thugs change my way of living. Yet, we all know they have
because this nation is so afraid of what they might do next that it will impede
the way we travel and get from place to place. That is not my fault and I have
no way to counteract that. But, as much as I can control, I will go forward with
my life and function as I did before. Some have said that they are afraid to
even attend church for fear that they will be "sitting ducks" if they do. As
for me, I could not think of a better place to be if my life were to be taken
from me by a terrorist or by some other means.
I am no fool. I believe in God for God has given me every reason to do so. I
have no desire to believe otherwise even if the whole world would come to think
that I am the fool. God is. That is the beginning and end of it. He is. So,
which are you? A believer or a fool?
God bless and go and have a great day.

 

[flightsimmer]

16 As for me, I will call upon God; and the Lord shall save me.
17 Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and he shall
hear my voice. Psalm 55:16-17

As for me and my house, we shall serve the Lord. Thus spoke Joshua to the
people of Israel. Later, here comes David as he writes this to the chief
musician upon Jonathelemrechokim Michtam when the Philistines took him in Gath.
David looked to the Lord to save him from his most persistent enemy. Now,
follow this, he wrote: evening, morning, and noon, will I pray...aloud and He
shall hear my voice.
This nation is living in fear and has been living in fear since the taking down
of the twin towers in New York City. We have been anticipating another attack
by somebody who hates us. Today, they have materialized as ISIS and other
groups that see us as the "great satan". To them we are the people who most
stand in the way of achieving the goal of the globalization of their religion
which is a radicalized form of the Muslim religion. Currently we have a
President who just cannot bring himself to believe that they even exist as a
threat to this nation and the rest of the world.
Now, where I am headed with this is the fact that God controls the destiny of
the world and not just the United States of America. The several different
leaders of the nations of the earth are in their places to bring about an end
that God had planned for us all. It may not be the end of the world but it most
certainly is the end of the world as we have known it.
We have so enjoyed our freedoms for a long, long time. Where the Spirit of the
Lord is, there is liberty and where it is not is bondage. In about every nation
of the world, God is almost a by-word. He is not taken seriously and thus is
not prayed to for guidance. Do you believe that the majority of those in
leader-ship around the world take the time to pray three times a day as David
did? I would hope that they do but I doubt very much that they do. God has
raised up ISIS to humble and humiliate those nations that are arrogant enough to
thing that they exist by their own ingenuity and strength. The strength of
America has always been the faith of its people in God. As long as our faith in
God has been strong, we have been strengthened by it. As our faith in God
weakens, our strength as a nation weakens. There is a correlation to our faith
and our strength.
Today, military chaplains are told not to teach nor preach Christ crucified as
the sole means of salvation. They are criticized and disciplined if they do.
Thus, soldiers who need to have a deeply rooted faith in God are told that He
does not exist in the person of His only begotten Son but in a more generalized
way. As a Christian, I am convinced of the way. Christ said of Himself, I am
the life the truth and the way and no man comes to the Father except by Me. He
said it and that settles it for all time and unless and until we get back to
knowing this and believing it as nations, we are always going to be living in
fear of each the other and those "minor-league" organizations that threaten us
with acts of terror.
We must turn back to the Lord God, the Father of Jesus Christ.
God bless and go and have a great day.

 

[flightsimmer]

3 What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.
4 In God I will praise His word, in God I have put my trust; I will not fear
what flesh can do unto me.
To the chief Musician, Altaschith, Michtam of David, when he fled from Saul in
the cave.
Psalm 56:3-4

It is not that David was afraid of Saul, he was more afraid of what he might do
to Saul. After all, Saul was the anointed and God selected king of Israel. Of
course, David had been anointed to take Saul's place as king once he had died
but David was not about to bring about his death in order to be king. David
would bide his time and even assist Saul in whatever way he could to make Israel
a more godly kingdom. In other words, David knew his time would come and he
also knew it was not yet. He did nothing to hurry it along. He was, indeed, a
man after God's own heart. He put his faith and trust in the Lord for the Lord
had anointed and appointed his as a king in waiting and God would not have done
this if He had not intended for David to be king some day.
Did David ever feel fear? Of course he did but what time he did feel it, he
turned to the Lord to deal with it. Herein is where we fail all too often. We
feel fear and instead of turning to the Lord with it, we attempt to negotiate
our way out of it. David did not fear what "flesh" could do, he feared God
more.
A long time ago I served this country in the U.S. Army. I was never put in any
battle situations but I did serve in Korea. A few times I was sent to the U.N.
Peace Village where the United Nations leaders would meet with the leaders of
North Korea to talk about the different things that made for tense moments
between them. I drove a tour bus for the 1st Cavalry which took newly arriving
NCOs and Officers to the different camps in the 1st Cav's area.
I enjoyed driving that bus but going into the territory of North Korea was a
little nerve racking. Some might say that God is not there in that atheistic
country, but I beg to differ. I prayed to Him going in and coming out. I did
not want to become a "provocation" if you know what I mean. The North and the
South provoked each the other. God was with me wherever I went and I find that
to be just as true now.
In these times we don't have to go into the enemy's territory, they have come
into ours. Should we be afraid? Not just a few are. However, our God is still
on His throne. Our God is the same God that was David's God and he trusted Him
as should we. There is nothing coming our way today that God is not aware of and
will not prepare us to face. God is not cruel. Man is. Man has the ability to
inflict a lot of pain and agony on his fellow man. That is not God, that is
Satan.
One last thing before I wind this up this morning. The local ministers sponsor
a couple of community services a year. Last night the service was at the local
United Methodist church facility. I was appalled at the low turn out. What a
shame a community the size of Beech Grove, Indiana can not turn out at least 50
people for a service such as this. It was a good and meaningful service well
put together. Yet, if per chance the enemy of our soul sends something more
evil and sinister our way, who will we blame for the chaos that follows? Of
course the question will arise, "Why would God allow such evil to cause us so
much pain?" It is not God, it is us. If we don't pray against evil and stand
against it, what should we expect? I will trust the Lord. Who do you trust?
Just asking.
God bless and go and have a great day.

 

[flightsimmer]

12 If he offer it for a thanksgiving, then he shall offer with the sacrifice of
thanksgiving unleavened cakes mingled with oil, and unleavened wafers anointed
with oil, and cakes mingled with oil, of fine flour, fried.
13 Besides the cakes, he shall offer for his offering leavened bread with the
sacrifice of thanksgiving of his peace offerings. Leviticus 7:12-13

So many will gather in private homes across this country today to enjoy the
bounty given forth from it. Yet, there are those who have no where to go and
not much to eat. The thought occurred to me today that if we could eradicate
war and take the money that we spend on pursuing wars, we could feed the entire
world and have plenty left over.
In today's Scripture the law of thanksgiving offering is laid out. The first
thing that comes to my mind is that thanksgiving is an offering to the Lord. We
have turned it into a holiday and not a holy day. Instead of making it about a
heart of gratitude for what God has done for us, we are bothered if one tarries
too long in prayer over a meal. We cannot wait to get to the turkey or ham and
the dressing and the mashed potatoes and the pumpkin pie. We consume and then
we go our separate ways and back to our lives as they were because there is no
real change in us. The offering of thanksgiving was intended to be a sacrifice
of praise to the Lord for holiness of life. That is the reason for the oil and
the bread. When bread is leavened it is a type for the pure doctrine presented
by the Word of God. Bread is a type for the Word and leaven is the doctrinal
truth contained therein. The result should be holiness of life.
I am most thankful to God today for the Bible and for its teachings. Without it
and them, I would be lost as would be everyone else. I am thankful that God
cared enough to cause the Bible to be written in the manner that it was and that
we can know its truth and have a clear understanding of them. As David said,
those words are a light unto my path and a lamp unto my feet.
We all have so much to be thankful for that it would be impossible to be
thankless today. May you all have a blessed Thanksgiving Day and may the thanks
to God be an honest expression of what is in your heart.
God bless and go and have a great day.

 

[flightsimmer]

God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause his face to shine upon us;
Selah.
2 That thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations.
3 Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee.
4 O let the nations be glad and sing for joy: for thou shalt judge the people
righteously, and govern the nations upon earth. Psalm 67:1-4

Over the past several days a certain joy has settled into my soul. There is a
little melancholy to go along with it but given the circumstances one can easily
understand that. David writes to us concerning the mercy and the blessings and
the righteous judgment of God. There you go. Isn't that reason enough to want
to rejoice and yet to feel a certain melancholy about the sin-ridden world that
exists around us.
Jesus prayed for us in the seventeenth chapter of John's Gospel. He prayed for
our sanctification (our personal holiness) and he prayed for us to be a people
not caught up in the world's misery even though we must live here for a while
until God come to get us. He prayed, "Father, I am not asking you to take them
out of the world, but, rather, to keep them from the world". If Jesus had
prayed any other way, His death on the cross would have been absolutely
meaningless. If God had come for us at the same time that He took His Son,
Jesus, home, who would have been here to be witnesses of what Jesus did on the
cross and what happened three days later at the tomb.
Some people say to me (and you), "Meet me at the cross". I say back to them,
"Meet me at the empty tomb". I know what they mean but instead of the cross
being the emblem of victory, should we not place an empty tomb out in front of
every place (we call churches) where Christians gather to thank God for a living
Lord? We come in and we gaze at the cross and it is empty. Jesus died on a
cross and when they took Him down from the cross, He was dead. They took His
dead body and placed it in a tomb and sealed it up and the women came first to
further prepare the body of Christ for permanent burial. He was not longer in
that tomb when they got there and for a moment they thought someone had taken
His body out of it. Someone did. His name is God. The empty tomb more
symbolizes our hope and expectations than does the empty cross.
What a wonderful thing that the early apostles had to share with the world.
They could say to the world, our Lord is not dead, He is alive. If you don't
believe us, go look into the tomb where He was buried. For this very reason all
the nations can be glad and rejoice and celebrated the name of the One that we
have come to love and to trust so much. Isn't our God worthy of worship? Isn't
He worthy of praise? Yep!
God bless and go and have a great day.