September 10, 2023: Psalm 139:21-22 - May We Loathe that which Comes Against God

Do I not hate them, O LORD, who hate You? And do I not loathe those who rise up against You? I hate them with perfect hatred; I count them my enemies.” - Psalm 139:21-22

King David did not mince words. As the Bible tells us, “But let your “Yes” be “Yes,” and your “No,” “No,” lest you fall into judgment,” (James 5:12), David was clear on where he stood as to the people who hate God and who came against Him: they were his enemies. He did not accept their beliefs in the name of tolerance, and he did as the Bible tells us we are to do. Yes, as believers in Jesus Christ, we are to pray for their salvation, that they would turn away from their sins and turn to Jesus and be saved from all their sins. However, we are not to approve of their sinful acts and we definitely must not accept those acts and bring them into the church. Sadly, many “pastors” are doing exactly that today. Instead of calling sin for what it is - sin against God - they are approving of their sins and encouraging them to remain in it. Let’s read what the Bible says about this:

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of our mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” (Romans 12:1-3)

“Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. He who does good is of God, but he who does evil has not seen God.” (3 John 11)

“Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them. But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth.” (Colossians 3:5-8)

“Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good.” (Romans 12:9)

“Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (Isaiah 5:20)

Satan, who is the author of confusion, has infiltrated the churches, Bible colleges, and seminaries. He has his puppets he is controlling and who pretend to be pastors and teachers but preach a different gospel than what Christ taught. Jesus told the woman who was caught in adultery to “go, and sin no more” (John 8:11) but these false pastors and teachers are telling their congregants that God loves them just the way they are and they don’t need to change, they don’t need to stop their sin, whether it be sexual sin or any other type of sin. Some are even bringing those who practice that which God calls sin into the church to put on shows, with many in the congregation applauding in full approval. Satan knows exactly how to rise up against God and that is through the same people who claim to be preaching the word of God but who in reality hate God and are rising up against Him.

This evil schemes of the devil should not surprise us, for God Himself told us this would happen in the last days:

“These are grumblers, complainers, walking according to their own lusts; and they mouth great swelling words, flattering people to gain advantage. But you, beloved, remember the words which were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ: how they told you that there would be mockers in the last time who would walk according to their own ungodly lusts. These are sensual [soulish or worldly] persons, who cause divisions, not having the Spirit.” (Jude 16-19)

“But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.” (2 Timothy 3:13)

“Now the Spirit expressly says that in the latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry; and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.” (1 Timothy 4:1-3)

Every single person who has ever lived has had a decision to make: are we for God or against Him? King David also had to make this decision, and he made the decision early in his life that he was for God. As believers in Jesus Christ, we are not to follow the world but to follow the word of God, Jesus, and that includes doing the right things in the eyes of God even when those things are not popular with society and culture, even when it may cost us our life. We are living increasingly more in a society in America that has turned against God and which has embraced evil, and it is out in the open, on full display for all to see, just as it was in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah. As with those two cities, God will tolerate this wickedness only for so long before He sends His righteous judgment, and I believe it is coming soon. This judgment will be upon the whole world, including on America, which has devised all sorts of evil, calling it “good,” and has exported its filth all around the world. God’s judgment is coming, and it will be swift. The time is now for you to choose: will you depart from evil and turn to Jesus Christ and be saved from what is coming, or will you stand against Him and see His wrath come upon you? Jesus wants you to turn to Him, but it must be of your own free will. The choice is yours alone to make.

“But the LORD shall endure forever; He has prepared His throne for judgment. He shall judge the world in righteousness, and He shall administer judgment for the peoples in uprightness. The LORD also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble. And those who know Your name will put their trust in You; for You, LORD, have not forsaken those who seek You.” (Psalm 9:7-10)

“…since it is a righteous thing with God to repay with tribulation those who trouble you, and to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, when He comes in that Day, to be glorified in His saints and to be admired among all those who believe, because our testimony among you was believed.” (2 Thessalonians 1:6-10)

“Great and marvelous are Your works, Lord God Almighty! Just and true are Your ways, O King of the saints! Who shall not fear You, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy. For all nations shall come and worship before You, for Your judgments have been manifested.” (Revelation 15:3) ✝️

September 8, 2023: Psalm 139:19-20 - Have Nothing to Do with Evil

“Oh, that You would slay the wicked, O God! Depart from me, therefore, you bloodthirsty men. For they speak against You wickedly; Your enemies take Your name in vain.” - Psalm 139:19-20

Many people believe these two Scripture verses and also 139:21-22 don’t match the rest of David’s heart’s expressions and that they are a rapid turnaround from the rest of this beautiful psalm. However, as one commentator explained, it very well may be that as David recalled when he was under attack by his enemies, it caused him to consider God and what He meant to David. I must admit, I struggled with these verses as well, but it is true that when we are under attack by evil, when we are burdened by the wiles of the devil, it just may cause us to fall on our knees and cry out to God; it may just cause us to look up and reach out and up to the only one who can save us. It may also cause us to look at our own self and to see the evil things that we have done in our lives, that we are all sinners in need of the Savior. It also represents the fact that David despised the things that these men of bloodshed did against God: they spoke against Him wickedly and took His name in vain.

David took personal offense to these attacks on God, just as he did when he was a young man, a shepherd of the sheep, when he heard about a Philistine giant named Goliath who had come against the armies of Israel, the armies of the living God. After the armies of Israel had fled in fear, David spoke out against Goliath to the people and when King Saul heard about it, he sent for David:

“Then David spoke to the men who stood by him, saying, ‘What shall be done for the man who kills this Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?’” (1 Samuel 17:26)

“Then David said to Saul, ‘Let no man’s heart fail because of him; your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.’ And Saul said to David, ‘You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him; for you are a youth, and he a man of war from his youth.’ But David said to Saul, ‘Your servant used to keep his father’s sheep, and when a lion or a bear came and took a lamb out of the flock, I went out after it and struck it, and delivered the lamb from its mouth; and when it arose against me, I caught it by its beard, and struck and killed it. Your servant has killed both lion and bear; and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, seeing he has defied the armies of the living God.’ Moreover David said, ‘The LORD, who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.’ And Saul said to David, ‘Go, and the LORD be with you!’” (1 Samuel 17:32-37)

When all the men of Israel had seen Goliath and fled in fear, it was only David who was bold enough to stand against him and to fight him, for David knew he had the power of God with him to fight against Goliath:

“Then David said to the Philistine, ‘You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the LORD will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you and take your head from you. And this day I will give the carcasses of the camp of the Philistines to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. Then all this assembly shall know that the LORD does not save with sword and spear; for the battle is the LORD’s, and He will give you into our hands.’” (1 Samuel 17:45-47)

And that is exactly what happened when the uncircumcised Philistine came to meet David. God saved David from the Philistine, and He saved not only David but Israel, and He did it with one smooth stone:

“Then David put his hand in his bag and took out a stone; and he slung it and struck the Philistine in his forehead, so that the stone sank into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the earth. So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone and struck the Philistine and killed him. But there was no sword in the hand of David.” (1 Samuel 49-50)

During the times of King David, Jesus Christ had not yet come in the flesh. The Jewish nation was under the Mosaic Law to abide by God’s commandments and ordinances and to perform certain sacrifices and offerings to atone for their sins. When David wrote Psalm 139, David acknowledged the wicked and that their attacks are against God. David’s heart’s cry was not just for himself but for His God who had been with him and protected him from the very beginning of his life. His God was under attack by wicked and evil men who took the Lord’s name in vain and spoke against God in a wicked manner, and he appealed to God that He would slay the wicked. Similarly, in the book of Job, in his times of horrible persecution by Satan, Job also prayed that God would destroy the wicked:

“Why do the wicked live and become old, yes, become mighty in power?… They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment go down to the grave. Yet they say to God, ‘Depart from us, for we do not desire the knowledge of Your ways. Who is the Almighty that we should serve Him? And what profit do we have if we pray to Him?’…Let his eyes see his destruction, and let him drink of the wrath of the Almighty.” (Job 21:7, 13-15, 20)

I know that as our world today grows darker and more wicked, I too want God to bring justice in His righteousness to the wicked, to those who curse God and take His name in vain and hate what is good and love what is evil. Instead of turning to God, they have turned to Satan and his wicked ways in order to build themselves up in power. They don’t heed the words of God but listen to the lies of Satan.

Let’s look at what the Bible tell us about evil and that we are to have nothing to do with it:

“Seek good and not evil, that you may live; so the LORD God of hosts will be with you, as you have spoken.” (Amos 5:14)

“The fear of the LORD is to hate evil; pride and arrogance and the evil way and the perverse mouth I hate.” (Proverbs 8:13)

“You who love the LORD, hate evil! He preserves the souls of His saints; He delivers them out of the hand of the wicked. Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart. Rejoice in the LORD, you righteous, and give thanks at the remembrance of His holy name.” (Psalm 97:10-12)

“These six things the LORD hates, yes, seven are an abomination to Him: A proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that are swift in running to evil, a false witness who speaks lies, and one who sows discord among brethren.” (Proverbs 6:16-19)

“Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good.” (Romans 12:9)

“He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.” (1 John 3:8)

“Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels…” (Jesus Christ; Matthew 25:41)

In Deuteronomy, God commanded Moses to tell His people that before they went to conquer the land that God gave them, they should not worship the false gods that the ungodly nations worshipped. God had given the Amorites 400 years to change their evil ways, but they did not stop doing their wicked and evil abominations against Him. Thus, God was ready to bring His people, the nation of Israel, into the land of Canaan, where the Amorites lived, and conquer them, but God warned Israel not to do what the Amorites had done:

“You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way; for every abomination to the LORD which He hates they have done to their gods; for they burn even their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods.” (Deuteronomy 12:31)

God hates evil, plain and simple. Evil is what Satan does to deceive people and lead them straight to the pit of hell, and that is the complete opposite of what God wants for us. Satan wraps his evil deeds in light and dresses them up with smooth-sounding words to entice people into sin. It is up to us to decide whether we will hate what is evil and flee from it or embrace it and be judged by God for it. It was that way from the very beginning in the garden with Adam and Eve, and it is that way now.

The Bible tells us:

“But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now as Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, disapproved concerning the faith; but they will progress no further, for their folly will be manifest to all, as theirs also was.” (2 Timothy 3:1-9)

“But evil men and imposters will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.” (2 Timothy 3:13)

As believers in Christ, we know that God wants all to be saved by turning to Jesus and that He wants no one to perish. Jesus Himself told His disciples:

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” (Jesus Christ; Matthew 5:43-45)

We never know who will turn from their wicked ways and turn to God and be saved; who will turn from evil and turn to good. The apostle Paul is a perfect example of this. We also know that we are not to accept and promote what is evil. Jesus Himself told the adulterous woman whom the Jewish scribes and Pharisees had brought to Him:

“‘Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.’ Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, ‘I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.’” (John 8:11-12)

Jesus acknowledged her sin of adultery and told her to go and stop sinning. He didn’t tell her that it was okay for her to continue to commit sexual sin because it made her happy, or it was okay because it was of two consenting adults, or it was okay because it was love…name your excuse; no, He called it for what it was: sin, and told her she must not continue in it. He also acknowledged that those who are in sin are in darkness and that if we follow Him, we must not walk in the darkness but walk in the light, in Him, for He is light. If we love God, if we love Jesus, we are to hate what is evil and flee from it, not leaving any room in our lives to be tempted by it.

In our world today, I can only imagine what David would have to say about the wicked who are running our world; evil is running rampant and only growing worse, just as the Bible said it would. I want it to stop, I want to see justice done, true justice that is executed by Jesus, righteously, without bias or bribery. I also know that if the evil ones do not repent and turn to Jesus, they will spend their eternity in hell, a place so much more wicked than what we see in our world today. I pray for them to turn to Jesus and be saved.

For all unbelievers, those who choose to reject Christ, they will one day be resurrected to life and stand before Him to be judged in His court. They will all be found guilty, for the only thing that could have made them innocent in God’s court is redemption of sins by Jesus, but they will have rejected His pardon that He paid with His precious blood. All of them will be cast into the lake of fire, where Satan, the final antichrist, also called the “beast,” and the false prophet will also have been cast. Evil will be finished, forever and ever, and sin will be no more. No more will bloodthirsty men speak against God and take His name in vain, and God will declare victory:

“And He said to me, ‘It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son. But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.” (Revelation 21:6-8)

All who choose to put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ, Almighty God, will live in His kingdom forevermore:

“Then the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people, the saints of the Most High. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey Him.” (Daniel 7:27)

As our world grows darker and more wicked by the hour, may we stand up for what is good in the sight of God, and may we be like David, not fearing what man can do to us, but fear God only:

“Though I walk in the midst of trouble, You will revive me; You will stretch out Your hand against the wrath of my enemies, and Your right hand will save me. The LORD will perfect that which concerns me; Your mercy, O LORD, endures forever; do not forsake the works of Your hands.” (Psalm 138:7-8) ✝️

September 1, 2023: Psalm 139:18 - How Precious is God's Mercy to Me

“If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand; when I awake, I am still with You.” - Psalm 139:18

Here David, the author of this psalm, continues with the previous verse which read, “How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them!” God loves us with a deep, deep love that we can know from no one else in our lives. He knows, He loves us, and He has a plan for each and every one of us. Let us consider what He said to the prophet Jeremiah:

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations.” (Jeremiah 1:5)

“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope, Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.” (Jeremiah 29:11-13)

Just as God had a plan for Jeremiah, so He has a plan for us. But as with Jeremiah’s life, that doesn’t mean our lives will be trouble-free and will only be filled with roses and perfume. God called Jeremiah for a specific reason: to proclaim to the people of Judah what was going to come upon them because of their deep sin against God and that they must repent and return to Him. At the time of Jeremiah’s life, Judah and Israel were a divided kingdom, with Israel in the north and Judah in the southern part of the kingdom. Judah had already seen Israel undergo calamity because of their rebellion and sin against God. During the time of Jeremiah, Judah was also undergoing God’s judgment, primarily because of its idolatry and immorality. God had delivered Judah from destruction before, but His mercy was at its end because His people chose to continue in their idolatry. As any loving father does, God sends us warning after warning so that we will correct our ways and stop sinning against Him, but when we refuse to listen to Him, He will send judgment upon us and that judgment’s intent is to cause us to see the error of our ways and return to Him.

Of Judah, Jeremiah wrote:

“O LORD, are not Your eyes on the truth? You have stricken them, but they have not grieved; You have consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction, They have made their faces harder than rock; they have refused to return. Therefore I said, ‘Surely these are poor. They are foolish; for they do not know the way of the LORD, the judgment of their God.’” (Jeremiah 5:3-4)

Jeremiah continued, saying:

“They have lied about the LORD, and said, ‘It is not He. Neither will evil come upon us, nor shall we see sword or famine. And the prophets become wind, for the word is not in them. Thus shall it be done to them.’” (Jeremiah 5:12-13)

Jeremiah was called by God to prophesy of the coming judgment that would befall Judah, that Jerusalem would be captured, and their beloved temple would be destroyed. However, Jeremiah’s message was not well-received by Jewish leaders to put it mildly. Instead of taking it as God’s word fitly spoken to Jeremiah, they took it as a message of “gloom and doom.” Instead of heeding Jeremiah’s warnings to them, they chose to ignore them and had Jeremiah arrested, imprisoned, and plotted to kill him. Jeremiah was all alone without any close family, as God forbid him from getting married and having a family because of the horrors that would come upon the land and to them. But through it all, with God as his strength, Jeremiah continued on with his mission given to him by God, no matter the cost to himself.

In the temple, Jeremiah proclaimed to the Jewish religious leaders and the people of Judah:

“The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, ‘Stand in the gate of the LORD’s house [the Jewish temple in Jerusalem], and proclaim there this word, and say, “Hear the word of the LORD, all you of Judah who enter in at these gates to worship the LORD!”‘ Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. Do not trust in these lying words, saying, “The temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD are these.” For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, if you thoroughly execute judgment [justice] between a man and his neighbor, if you do not oppress the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, or walk after other gods to your hurt, then I will cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever. Behold, you trust in lying words that cannot profit. Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods whom you do not know, and then come and stand before Me in this house which is called by My name, and say, “We are delivered to do all these abominations”? Has this house, which is called by My name, become a den of thieves in your eyes? Behold, I, even I, have seen it,’ says the LORD.’” (Jeremiah 7:1-11)

Though Jeremiah spoke these words many years ago to the people of Judah, his own countrymen, does this not sound like the attitude of people in America and in most of our world today? We also have forgotten God and replaced Him with idols and worship them instead of the one true God. Are we not worshipping “Mother Earth” and other false gods? Do we not have false prophets in our “churches” today who do not speak truth, do not speak the word of God, and ignore what the true prophets of God foretold long ago? How many false pastors and teachers are in professing churches today who are speaking lying words, making acceptable that which God calls sin, and expecting God to approve because they are sitting in a “church” that really is a “den of thieves,” just as what happened in the Jewish temple in the days of Jeremiah? Just as the people of Judah chose to remain in their sin, their pride, their worship of false gods, and they ignored God’s repeated warnings to them, exactly so are we doing today. As judgment came upon them, exactly as God said it would, so will the prophesied judgment come upon us.

For forty years Jeremiah preached messages from God for them to repent and return to the Lord and that if they did, God would restore them. Jeremiah’s heart was broken for his people and for his land. He was known as the “weeping prophet.” It was very difficult for Jeremiah to speak to the people and repeatedly be shunned by them; he felt dejected, even crying out to God, saying:

“Woe is me, my mother, that you have borne me, a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth! I have neither lent for interest, nor have men lent to me for interest. Every one of them curses me.” (Jeremiah 15:10)

“O LORD, You know; remember me and visit me, and take vengeance for me on my persecutors. In Your enduring patience, do not take me away. Know that for Your sake I have suffered rebuke. Your words were found, and I ate them, and Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart; for I am called by Your name, O LORD God of hosts. I did not sit in the assembly of the mockers, nor did I rejoice; I sat alone because of Your hand, for You have filled me with indignation. Why is my pain perpetual and my wound incurable, which refuses to be healed? Will You surely be to me like an unreliable stream, as waters that fail?” (Jeremiah 15:15-18)

The Lord heard Jeremiah’s appeal to Him; the Lord knew His heart and that it was right with him. The Lord then reassured Jeremiah:

“Therefore thus says the LORD: ‘If you return, then I will bring you back; You shall stand before Me; if you take out the precious from the vile, you shall be as My mouth. Let them return to you, but you must not return to them. And I will make you to this people a fortified bronze wall; and they will fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you; for I am with you to save you and deliver you,’ says the LORD. ‘I will deliver you from the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem you from the grip of the terrible.’” (Jeremiah 15:19-21)

Let us read what more about what God told Jeremiah to proclaim to the people of Judah as to the reasons why His judgment was about to come upon them:

“‘Nevertheless in those days,’ says the LORD, ‘I will not make a complete end of you. And it will be when you say, “Why does the LORD our God do all these things to us?” then you shall answer them, “Just as you have forsaken Me and served foreign gods in your land, so you shall serve aliens in a land that is not yours.”’

“‘Declare this in the house of Jacob and proclaim it in Judah, saying, “Hear this now, O foolish people, without understanding, who have eyes and see not, and who have ears and hear not: Do you not fear Me?” says the LORD. “Will you not tremble at My presence, who have placed the sand as the bound of the sea, by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass beyond it? And though its waves toss to and fro, yet they cannot prevail; though they roar, yet they cannot pass over it. But this people has a defiant and rebellious heart; they have revolted and departed. They do not say in their heart, ‘Let us now fear the LORD our God, who gives rain, both the former and the latter, in its season. He reserves for us the appointed weeks of the harvest.’ Your iniquities have turned these things away, and your sins have withheld good from you.”‘

“‘For among My people are found wicked men; they lie in wait as one who sets snares; they set a trap; they catch men. As a cage is full of birds, so their houses are full of deceit. Therefore they have become great and grown rich. They have grown fat, they are sleek; yes, they surpass the deeds of the wicked; they do not plead the cause, the cause of the fatherless; yet they prosper, and the right of the needy they do not defend. Shall I not punish them for these things?’ says the LORD. ‘Shall I not avenge Myself on such as nation as this?’

“An astonishing and horrible thing has been committed in the land: the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own power; and My people love to have it so. But what will you do in the end?” (Jeremiah 5:18-31)

Notice that God told Jeremiah to tell the people, “‘Nevertheless, in those days,’ says the LORD, ‘I will not make a complete end of you.’” (Jeremiah 5:18) This was a prophecy of God given to Jeremiah, that after Judah is judged, God would save a remnant of His people and bring them back from their captivity in Babylon back into the land that He gave them. God had Jeremiah expound on it:

“But I will gather the remnant of My flock out of all countries where I have driven them, and bring them back to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase.” (Jeremiah 23:3)

“For thus says the LORD: After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place. For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” (Jeremiah 29:10-11)

The prophet Daniel, who had lived in Judah and was taken into captivity in Babylon in his teenage years, along with three of his friends, remembered God’s promises to Jeremiah:

“…I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years specified by the word of the LORD through Jeremiah the prophet, that He would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem. Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes. And I prayed to the LORD my God, and made confession, and said, ‘O Lord, great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and mercy with those who keep His commandments, we have sinned and committed iniquity, we have done wickedly and rebelled, even by departing from Your precepts and Your judgments. Neither have we heeded Your servants the prophets who spoke in Your name to our kings and our princes, to our fathers and all the people of the land.” (Daniel 9:2-6)

Daniel appealed to the one true God, acknowledging his and his peoples’ sin against Him, and God heard his prayer. Just as God promised Jeremiah, after seventy years in captivity God released them and He brought a remnant of His people back into His land of Judah. God keeps His promises. He promised His people that He would preserve a remnant of them and bring them back into His land, and that is exactly what He did.

Just as God kept His promise to Judah, so does He keep His promises to all of us, both Jew and Gentile. Within the words of Jeremiah’s prophecy to bring a remnant of Judah from their captivity in Babylon back into God’s land, there is also prophecy of the first coming of Messiah, Jesus Christ:

“‘Behold, the days are coming,’ says the LORD, ‘That I will raise to David a Branch of righteousness; a King shall reign and prosper, and execute judgment and righteousness in the earth. In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell safely; now this is His name by which He will be called: ‘

THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.

“‘Therefore, behold, the days are coming,’ says the LORD, ‘that they shall no longer say, “As the LORD lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt,” but, “As the LORD lives who brought up and led the descendants of the house of Israel from the north country and from all the countries where I had driven them.” And they shall dwell in their own land.’” (Jeremiah 23:5-8)

Once again, God’s promises were fulfilled when Jesus came the first time. However, the first time He came, it was to offer salvation from sins to all who choose to believe in Him as Messiah, as the only one who can save us from our sins. Jesus was crucified, died, rose again on the third day, and ascended to heaven at the right hand of God, where He is today. As stated in the Scriptures above, Jesus Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords, will one day reign and prosper and will execute judgment and righteousness in the earth, and I believe, based on the word of God, that day is coming soon. He will reign for 1,000 years, and His people, a remnant of the Jews who chose to believe in their Messiah, will be back in their land that God gave them and they will finally dwell safely, as God promised them.

Before this millennial kingdom of Christ is set up, God will send judgment upon the earth. Just as God foretold the judgment that would come upon His people long ago in the days of Jeremiah, so did God foretell of a coming judgment that will come upon not only His people, the Jews, but also the whole world, and it is written about in many books in the Bible, including the books of Daniel and Revelation. All the signs that Jesus told His disciples to look for that would indicate this time of judgment, His second coming, and the end of the age are present.

Prior to His second coming and millennial reign will be a 7-year time of tribulation never known to mankind. The good news is that all who put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ, who saved us from our sins once and for all, saying, “It is finished!” when He gave up His life and died (John 19:30), will be spared from this time of horror upon the world, the time when Jesus will send His wrath upon a wicked and evil world who chose to love and remain in their sin and reject His free gift of salvation, paid for with His precious blood.

God’s thoughts to me are truly precious, for He had a plan of salvation all along, from the beginning, and His name is Jesus. Oh my God, how thankful I am to You for Your mercy and love, that you would save a sinner like me! Thank You for loving us so much that You would send Jesus to save all who would believe in Him:

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” (John 3:16-18)

If there is something stirring in your heart that tells you that this world is desperately sick and evil, it is the Holy Spirit convicting you “of sin, righteousness, and of judgment” (John 16:8). The Holy Spirit is prompting you to consider your eternity and where you will spend it. We are quickly speeding to the time of judgment that will come upon the world, just as it came upon Judah, exactly as God said it would. Are you listening to God, or is His word falling on deaf ears, as it did to those who lived in Judah during the time of Jeremiah? May you heed the words of Jeremiah that he spoke when he pleaded with the people to turn from their sins and to turn to God:

“Now therefore, amend your ways and your doings, and obey the voice of the LORD your God; then the LORD will relent concerning the doom that He has pronounced against you.” (Jeremiah 26:13)

May you heed the words of Jesus and turn to Him and be saved, before it’s too late:

“From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand hand.’” (Matthew 4:17)

“Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” (Jesus Christ; Luke 12:40) ✝️

August 26, 2023: Psalm 139:17 - God's Thoughts to Me are Precious

“How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them!” - Psalm 139:17

The same God who knew me before He created me is the same God who had a plan of salvation for me when I was yet still a sinner, lost in the unbelieving world, searching for something, not knowing then that I was seeking the Savior. How precious are the thoughts of God to me!

Our world today is bombarding us with bad news, reporting on crisis after crisis, but their motive is not driven by their love and concern for us but to keep us in fear. Fearful people do things they normally wouldn’t do and that includes giving up many of our God-given freedoms. The Bible is clear that we must fear God and not man and gives us the reasons why:

“And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” (Jesus Christ; Matthew 10:28)

“The fear of man brings a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD shall be safe.” (Proverbs 29:25)

“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.” (Psalm 23:4)

“The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” (Psalm 27:1)

“Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the LORD your God He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you.” (Deuteronomy 31:6)

God put each and every one of us on this earth at this time for a purpose, and I believe this is a time like no other in history. We truly are living in the times that Jesus spoke of as birth pangs, also called the beginning of sorrows, that would occur before the rapture of the church of believers and the time of Jacob’s trouble begins, the time of the 7-year tribulation period. The first thing that Jesus warned His disciples about regarding the signs of the times was to “Take heed that no one deceives you.” (Matthew 24:4) I have never seen deception in our world like we see today; it is off the charts. Deception isn’t just in the unbelieving world but it is running rampant in many so-called “churches.”

For believers in Christ, it is absolutely critical that our focus be on Jesus Christ and His thoughts toward us. His thoughts are written in His word and spoken to us through His Holy Spirit who dwells within us. When we keep our focus on Him and His word, we will not be deceived and we will not be full of fear. Jesus told us what would happen before it happens, just as the prophets did thousands of years ago with prophecies of Jesus’ first coming, so that when it happens, we would not be full of fear but would be excited with the knowledge and truth that Jesus is coming again and that this time, it will be to judge a wicked and evil world that rejected His free gift of salvation and chose to instead to align with Satan.

The world is being set up for the rapture of the church, the 7-year tribulation period, and the second coming of Jesus Christ, when the remaining Jews will finally believe in Jesus as their Messiah and will glory in Zion, in the land that God gave them thousands of years ago and they will glory in all of it, not just part of it. Jesus will defeat evil and reign on earth for 1,000 years prior to his creating a new heaven and a new earth. The book of Isaiah tells us:

“The wilderness and the wasteland shall be glad for them, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose; it shall blossom abundantly and rejoice, even with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the excellence of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the LORD, the excellency of our God.

“Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who are fearful-hearted, ‘Be strong, do not fear! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God; He will come and save you.’

“Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing. For waters shall burst forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert. The parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water; in the habitation of jackals, where each lay, there shall be grass with reeds and rushes.

“A highway shall be there, and a road, and it shall be called the Highway of Holiness. The unclean shall not passover it, but it shall be for others. Whoever walks the road, although a fool, shall not go astray. No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast go up on it; it shall not be found there. But the redeemed shall walk there, and the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with singing, with everlasting joy on their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.” (Isaiah 35:1-10)

Jesus Himself quoted Isaiah when John the baptizer was imprisoned and he began to wonder if Jesus was “the Coming One, or do we look for another?” and sent two of his disciples to ask these questions to Jesus. (Matthew 11:1-3) ”Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Go and tell John the things which you hear and see:

”The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me.” ’ ” (Matthew 11:4-6)

It is no coincidence that in our modern world where technological experts believe that they can be like God are even quoting this same Scripture in order to deceive many: (See: https://futurism.com/cyborg-world-how-biohacking-will-and-already-is-changing-everything)

“In a presentation titled “Biohacking and the Connected Body” at the Singularity University Global Summit, Hannes Sjoblad, co-founder of the Sweden-based biohacker network Bionyfiken, stated that we likely encounter 'cyborgs' on a daily basis without knowing it.

“The modern cyborgs we see today include pacemakers, smart insulin monitors, bionic eyes, and robotic arms and legs. These 'biohacks' are helping people with disabilities get more from life than ever before. Sjoblad notes this biohacking is utterly reshaping our world, and it will continue to do so. He explains, "we live in a time where, thanks to technology, we can make the deaf hear, the blind see, and the lame walk."“

Elon Musk has also expressed similar desires with his Neuralink brain implant, which was approved by the FDA for clinical trials in humans on May 25, 2023 (See: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/05/25/elon-musk-neuralink-fda-approval/).

These are cheap imitations of God and are tools of Satan in order to deceive the masses. Instead of worshipping the one true God they have chosen instead to believe the lies of Satan that they can be “like God.”

Per a December 1, 2022 article on forbes.com: (See: https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2022/12/01/elon-musks-neuralink-could-be-trialed-in-humans-in-2023-heres-what-you-need-to-know/?sh=5319e262625c)

“Musk has stated several times that his ultimate goal with Neuralink is to create an embeddable device that allows human intelligence to directly interface and eventually merge with artificial intelligence.”

This merging of humans with artificial intelligence is known as “transhumanism,” and it is increasing at an astounding pace. Along with this concept is the ability to control people like never before by tyrannical global leaders who refer to themselves as the “elites” and are all too-willing to adopt these controls, which ultimately will be used by the final antichrist, also known as the beast, to limit who can buy and sell, as prophesied in the book of Revelation chapter 13.

Everything we see happening in the world today is pointing to this happening, and it is happening at a lightning-fast pace. The time is now for each and every person alive to decide in whom do we trust: God or man? Do we trust in the One who created us and knew us before we were even formed in our mother’s womb, or do we trust in sinful men and women who are influenced by prestige and power, who can be bought and paid for with a price, who are sellouts to Satan? Whose thoughts are precious to you - the globalists’ or God’s?

I leave you with the words of the apostles Paul and John:

“For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time, for which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle - I am speaking the truth in Christ and not lying - a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.” (2 Timothy 2:3-7)

“For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39)

“And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.’” (Revelation 21:3-4) ✝️

August 21, 2023: Psalm 139:16 - God Fashioned Our Days Before We Were Born

“Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them.” - Psalm 139:16

One of the biggest lies of Satan is that people are products of evolution through the process of natural selection. Contrast that with what the Bible, including Psalm 139 teaches: God’s created us and has perfect knowledge of us even before we were born. In Psalm 139:16, it tells us that God fashioned or ordered our days before we were even born. In the book of Jeremiah, it is written:

“Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying: ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations.’” (Jeremiah 1:4-5)

Almighty God is the one true God, and He is a God of order. Everything He does has a design and a purpose, and that includes you and me. He designed us perfectly, with an extremely complex DNA code that we are still trying to understand today. Of our DNA, in his book titled “The Road Ahead,” Bill Gates, most likely an atheist or agnostic wrote, “DNA is like a computer program but far, far more advanced than any software ever created. (See: https://www.azquotes.com/quote/431168) All computer programs require a programmer, and with the case of our DNA, Almighty God designed it.

If you look at the shape of DNA, it is a double helix. Per the National Human Genome Research Institute: (See: https://www.genome.gov/about-genomics/fact-sheets/Deoxyribonucleic-Acid-Fact-Sheet#:~:text=DNA%27s%20unique%20structure%20enables%20the,of%20the%20original%20DNA%20molecule.)

“Scientist use the term "double helix" to describe DNA's winding, two-stranded chemical structure. This shape - which looks much like a twisted ladder - gives DNA the power to pass along biological instructions with great precision.”

“DNA's unique structure enables the molecule to copy itself during cell division. When a cell prepares to divide, the DNA helix splits down the middle and becomes two single strands. These single strands serve as templates for building two new, double-stranded DNA molecules - each a replica of the original DNA molecule.”

What are the odds that through evolution and natural selection, this “great precision” came about? The odds are impossible. Yet, the lie is consumed and believed by many. To believe the lie is to believe that there is no God, that He will not hold us accountable one day for our actions and for our rejection of His Son Jesus Christ. Or, even worse, instead of believing in the one true God, we believe that we can become gods - false gods - such as Yuval Noah Hurari and Claus Schwab and many other transhumanists believe: (See: https://blog.coursera.org/history-began-when-humans-invented-gods-and-will/)

“Sapiens will soon disappear. With the help of novel technologies, within a few centuries or even decades, Sapiens will upgrade themselves into completely different beings, enjoying godlike qualities and abilities.

“History began when humans invented gods – and will end when humans become gods.” (Yuval Noah Harari blog entry)

Mr. Harari is willfully deceived by the lies of Satan because his heart is filled with pride and ego, which is the same stumbling block that has caused the fall of millions of people, if not billions, and it is what caused the fall of Satan, also called Lucifer, who wants to be God.

God has given each one of us, including Mr. Harari, free will, and that includes the free will to believe or not believe in Jesus Christ as our Savior. With that free will and the choice we make as to what to do with Jesus, and no choice is a choice not to believe in Him, we also will receive the consequences of our choice.

God knew us before He even created us in the womb. He did not create us as robots, and He did not create us as animals. He created us in His image and gave us a soul. He put a longing in us, a sense of knowing that our life on this earth this is not where we belong and that we will spend our eternity somewhere. He gave us a strong desire to search for something, as written in Ecclesiastes by King Solomon:

“He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.” (Ecclesiastes 3:11)

King Solomon had it all, riches beyond what had ever been known at the world at that time and possibly for all time, all the power and prestige of being a king, and all the sexual intercourse he could ever want with all his wives and concubines, which was sinful in the eyes of God, and yet, in the end, King Salmon lamented that it was all vanity. He was miserable because he had filled his life with everything and everyone except with God. Here, he refers to himself as the “Preacher”:

“‘Vanity of vanities,’ says the Preacher, ‘all is vanity.’” (Ecclesiastes 12:8)

The book of Ecclesiastes ends with the truth:

“Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man’s all. For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil.” (Ecclesiastes 3:13-14)

For everyone who has been saved by Jesus Christ, by believing in Him as our Savior, who is the only one who can redeem us of all our sins, we are judged at the judgment seat of Christ. However, we are not judged to determine if we are saved or not, because our salvation is assured by our belief in Jesus. At our judgment seat, Jesus will determine whether the things we did for Him were done for the right reasons or the wrong reasons and we will receive our rewards for the things we did for the right reasons. (2 Corinthians 5:10) However, unbelievers will appear before Jesus at the Great White Throne and will be judged by Him based on their works. Since no work that we can do, no good deed, can save us from our sins - only belief in Jesus Christ as our Savior can do that - all unbelievers will be found guilty and cast into the eternal lake of fire. (Revelation 20:11-15)

As Psalm 139:16 reads, God fashioned our days for us, and one day, our time will be up. Our time here on earth will be done, and we will exit our life here and enter the first day of our eternity. I ask you these questions: Do you believe you were created by God for a purpose? Do you have a hole or a void in your life that you are trying to fill with everything but God? When your last day is done, when you take your final breath and your heart beats its last beat, where are you going to spend your eternity - heaven or hell? As King Solomon wrote, death comes to all of us:

“Then I saw the wicked buried, who had come and gone from the place of holiness, and they were forgotten in the city where they had so done. This also is vanity. Because the sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. Though a sinner does evil a hundred times, and his days are prolonged, yet I surely know that it will be well with those who fear God, who fear before Him. But it will not be well with the wicked; nor will he prolong his days, which are as a shadow, because he does not fear before God.” (Ecclesiastes 8:10-13)

“Remember your Creator before the silver cord is loosed, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher shattered at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the well. Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.” (Ecclesiastes 12:6-7) ✝️

August 18, 2023: Psalm 139:15 - God Saw Us in Our Mother's Womb

“My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.” - Psalm 139:15

Eternal God, Creator of the heavens and the earth and all that is in them, I thank You for creating me, for having a purpose for my life while I was yet in my mother’s womb, just as You created all human beings and have a purpose for every one of us. You counted my days before I even took my first breath. You breathed life into me, and I give You praise.

No other creation is there like the human body. You made us in Your image, male and female You created us. You formed us perfectly so that together we would unite as husband and wife, becoming one flesh so that we would populate the earth which You created for us.

You are quick to forgive us of our sins and slow to rise to anger. You knew that in the beginning, we would fall to temptation and yet, You still created us and You had a plan of redemption, and His name is Jesus Christ.

Oh Lord God, how we have sinned against You! We have murdered hundreds of millions of innocents while they were yet in their mothers’ wombs, quickly discarding all the beautiful precious souls created by You. Almighty God, my heart breaks for the mothers who chose this act of violence against Your children. I pray for the women and also the men who made that choice, who were deceived by the evil one, and who chose to ignore Your still small voice, the voice of reason and truth. How I pray that they would turn from their sins and turn to Jesus and be saved from their sins and freed from the guilt of shedding the blood of their own flesh.

Heavenly Father, I pray they will hear and heed the words of Jesus that He spoke to Paul and would turn from darkness to light:

“… to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.” (Jesus Christ; Acts 26:18)

I pray that someone reading this will see that each of us is a sinner and that forgiveness of sins is found only in You, just as the prophet Isaiah wrote, and that they will turn to You and be saved, before it’s too late:

“Seek the LORD while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, and He will have mercy on him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.” (Isaiah 55:6-7)

Oh God, I know that Your judgment is coming upon the world and on our nation, the United States, because of our deep sins we have committed against You. I thank You for the mercy and the longsuffering You have shown to us when we do not deserve it. How I pray that all people who have supported abortion and now even worse, the murder of a child even after the child is born, will see the horror and atrocities that we have committed against You, and that we will realize that our nation and the world are on the path to destruction because we have chosen the wide gate that leads to destruction. I pray for the false teachers and false prophets who claim to be saved by Jesus and yet promote abortion, even their own “churches.” I believe that as Your word told us would come in the end times before Jesus’ return, these are apostates and are truly wolves in sheep’s clothing, leading many down the broad way that leads to destruction. I pray that people attending these synagogues of Satan would be awakened to the truth that these apostates are workers of iniquity and would flee them en masse. I pray that they would get off of the broad way and get on the narrow way:

“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.” (Jesus Christ; Matthew 7:13-14)

Almighty God, as it is Your hand that formed each and every one of us in our mother’s womb, it is also Your hand that will bring swift judgment upon our nation and our world. The only thing that can save us is that we would turn from our sins and to turn to Jesus. I know that You will show grace to those who do, but for those who don’t, as their blood is on the innocent children they chose to murder, so will be their blood upon themselves if they continue remain in darkness rather than light.

Oh Lord God, hear my prayer! I pray all these things that You may be magnified, and I give You all praise, honor, and glory!

In Jesus’ loving and merciful name, I pray. Amen.

“For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.” (Jesus Christ; John 3:17-21) ✝️

August 16, 2023: Psalm 139:14 - I Will Praise You, God!

“I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well.” - Psalm 139:14

The Bible, the word of God, put down in writing over thousands of years ago through men chosen by God and who were inspired by the Holy Spirit. You either believe in what the Bible says or you don’t, and whether you believe it or not is your choice.

The Bible tells us that we are not a product of evolution but are fearfully and wonderfully made by God:

“You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created.” (Revelation 4:11)

“In the beginning was the Word [Jesus Christ], and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.” (John 1:1-3)

To make a decision not to believe that there is a Creator, Almighty God, and to believe instead the lies of evolution is to believe that the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa, located in the United Arab Emirates, coming in at 2,717 feet high and with 163 floors, and which took six years to build just created itself. To believe that after years of evolving, all the necessary parts just happened to be present and assembled themselves perfectly together, producing a structure that can withstand winds that are at the altitude, earthquakes, and other weather events. It just happened to assemble a structure that contains all the necessary systems to support such a complex structure.

To believe the lies of evolution is to believe that the greatest works of art just created themselves. For example, the painting on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel appeared over time when all the required parts of the evolution process were there - the brushes, the paint, the thought process to produce the image being represented on the ceiling, each stroke of the brush that was tediously painted on the ceiling. There was no creator; it just evolved over time.

Think about the most complex supercomputer. If you believe the lies of evolution, that supercomputer’s intricate parts just happened to evolve over time and precisely assembled all of those parts in way required form them to function. Per Analytics Insight, the most powerful supercomputer in the world is the Summit supercomputer: (See: https://www.analyticsinsight.net/top-10-most-powerful-supercomputers-in-the-world-you-should-know/#:~:text=Summit%20is%20currently%20the%20most,physics%2C%20energy%2C%20and%20healthcare.)

“Summit is currently the most powerful supercomputer in the world. It is located at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, USA. The machine was developed by IBM and NVIDIA and has a processing power of 200 petaflops. It is used for research in various fields, including physics, energy, and healthcare.”

Per IBM, a supercomputer is defined as: (See: https://www.ibm.com/topics/supercomputing#:~:text=Unlike%20traditional%20computers%2C%20supercomputers%20use,tens%20of%20thousands%20of%20nodes.)

“Unlike traditional computers, supercomputers use more than one central processing unit (CPU). These CPUs are grouped into compute nodes, comprising a processor or a group of processors—symmetric multiprocessing (SMP)—and a memory block. At scale, a supercomputer can contain tens of thousands of nodes. With interconnect communication capabilities, these nodes can collaborate on solving a specific problem. Nodes also use interconnects to communicate with I/O systems, like data storage and networking.

A matter to note, because of modern supercomputers' power consumption, data centers require cooling systems and suitable facilities to house it all.”

Such thinking is insane if you really think about it. Further, none of the examples I mentioned above can compare to the complexity of the human body, with its eleven main body systems that are present and fit together perfectly in order for the human body to function:

  1. Cardiovascular

  2. Digestive

  3. Endocrine

  4. Integumentary

  5. Lymphatic

  6. Muscular

  7. Nervous

  8. Reproductive

  9. Respiratory

  10. Skeletal

  11. Urinary

Per openmd.com: (See: https://openmd.com/guide/human-body-systems)

“Organs of the human body are commonly grouped into eleven systems. Each body system includes organs and structures that serve a common purpose. The systems are highly interdependent, working together to sustain life and enable interaction with the surrounding environment.”

Notice it says that the “systems are highly interdependent, working together to sustain life.” This is only possible by having a designer, a Creator that created those systems to work together perfectly. In order for a human being to have life and to sustain it, all of those systems must have been present at the very beginning; otherwise, life and the ability to sustain it would have not been possible. A human could not have had two of the systems present and then over millions of years had other systems added to it. The evidence is clear: If there is something created, it speaks to a Creator.

With the discovery of DNA and all the studying and analyzing of it that has occurred since that discovery, it is found to be amazingly complex and that it speaks to a Creator. Per your genome.org: (See: https://www.yourgenome.org/facts/what-does-dna-do/).

“The DNA code contains instructions needed to make the proteins and molecules essential for our growth, development and health.”

For these instructions, from where did they come? What are the odds they just randomly appeared over millions of years and they just happened to be coded in the manner required to create and sustain life? Just as the Bible’s book of Genesis tells us, the Creator of the heavens, the earth, and everything that is in them, including all human beings, is Almighty God. To disbelieve that is to be deceived by the lies of Satan. What gets in between believing that God is Creator of all things? Pride, and pride is exactly what caused the fall of Satan. Pride puts a massive wedge between us and God, causing us to believe anything that appeals to our prideful self, including the lie that we evolved over millions of years and that we are just another animal. Is it any wonder that our country, our world is in the sad and confused state that it is in? This does not speak to order as God created it to have but to disorder and confusion, which is exactly what Satan wants so that he can ensnare people in his web of lies.

For me, I reject the lies of Satan and I trust the word of God. Oh, yes, Lord God, I will praise You! Yes, I will trust in You, and I will praise You with all of my heart, soul, mind and strength. I know that You created me, and I am in total awe of You, Your power, Your presence, and that You know all things! Just as the evidence of You is present in all that I am, in my most inner workings, so is there evidence of You in all of Your word and in all of Your creation. Just as my body was designed like a tapestry that is woven together perfectly, so is Your word like a tapestry, woven together perfectly, with the Old Testament working together with the New Testament, revealing Yourself and Your perfect plan of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ for all mankind; that my soul knows very well. ✝️

August 13, 2023: Psalm 139:13 - Each One of Us is Created by God

“For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb.” - Psalm 139:13

Every single person ever conceived was created by God and in His image:

“Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’ So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’” (Genesis 1:26-28)

He put us together, designing us with complexity so intricate that we are just now beginning to understand its depth. He designed the woman to fit perfectly with the man and to become one flesh together as husband and wife and with the ability to conceive new life, new life that begins in the womb at the time of conception.

Each of us has a purpose in life and to bring glory and praise to Almighty God. God even called Jeremiah to be a prophet before he was born:

“Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying: ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I sanctified you [set you apart]; I ordained you a prophet to the nations.’” (Jeremiah 1:4-5)

These are the facts, but the god of this world, the false god, Satan, the father of lies and deception, wants us to believe otherwise. By wrapping this glorious truth of God in dark veils of lies and deception, Satan has deceived billions of people since the beginning of time, starting with the fall of Adam and Eve, causing them to believe that they don’t have to listen to God and obey His commands and that they can be “like God.” (Genesis 3:5)

Satan whispered lies into the ears of Charles Darwin and others who theorized that man was not created by God but evolved from lower species over millions of years. By doing so, he removed any accountability that man has for his actions. After all, if we are not created by God with a purpose for our life, both in our life here on earth but also in our eternal life after death, then aren’t we just acting on our instincts, just as any other animal does? Are we not still seeing these same lies and deception today in our modern world? The answer is a resounding “Yes!” and look at where it has gotten us: in a massive state of confusion and spiritual darkness.

The truth of God has been replaced by “your truth” and “my truth.” Unlike the truth of God, which is unchanging, “truth” is now defined by society and has become like a revolving door that spins as societal pressure is put upon it. When the door is in the open position, society decides to change the “truth” into lies and lies into “truth,” thus leaving the inhabitants of that society spinning round and round, lost in their constantly changing “truth,” having no solid ground on which to base their decisions. This is exactly what Satan does to deceive people, people who want to do what they want to do, who are in rebellion against God, and because they have rejected the truth:

“You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do, He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. But because I tell you the truth, you do not believe Me. Which of you convicts Me of sin? And if I tell the truth, why do you not believe Me? He who is of God hears God’s words; therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God.” (Jesus Christ; John 8:44-47)

Our society in America and in the world is in turmoil, and it looks exactly as God said it would when we “suppress the truth in unrighteousness:”

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man - and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.” (Romans 1:18-25)

In American society today, many people believe that the right to murder an unborn child in the womb is a woman’s right or choice, including in many professing “churches.” (See: https://www.healthline.com/health-news/meet-the-religious-groups-fighting-to-save-abortion-access). I believe Jesus would call these “churches” synagogues of Satan. We also have many people even saying that the unborn child is not human. If it is not human, then what is it? Is it a dog, an elephant, a lion, …? For anyone who says an unborn child in the womb is not human clearly is someone who has become futile in their thoughts and their foolish heart has been darkened. But this is how Satan operates by changing the truth into lies so that he can deceive people. Just as he did in the garden of Eden when he told Eve she surely would not die if she ate the fruit that God had forbade her and Adam from eating and also telling her that she would be like God, Satan whispers sweet-sounding lies into our heads in order to deceive us and turn us or keep us from God. We don’t call adultery for what it is - cheating on one’s spouse - but we call it an “affair.” We don’t call abortion for what it is - murder of an innocent child in the womb - we call it a “woman’s right” and a “choice.” I even watched a reel on Instagram recently where a young woman said she would feel “empowered” to have an abortion, to have the baby “evacuated” from her body. (See: https://www.instagram.com/reel/CvvJ0EZNJZ7/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==) I pray for her and all who believe the same lie, for the only one empowered by an abortion is Satan, and everyone listening to him is being deceived, to their own eternal peril.

Is it any wonder after the Supreme Court overruled the Roe v. Wade 1973 decision on June 24, 2022 that on February 1, 2023 it was announced, “the Satanic Temple will soon launch its first reproductive health clinic in New Mexico, which will provide free ‘religious medication abortion care,’” and “The organization also has something it calls a ‘Satanic abortion ritual,’ which includes the process of a person reminding themselves that their body is inviolate, undergoing the abortion, and then reciting a personal affirmation.” Further, “…claiming that its abortion ritual is exempt from restrictions and bans because the procedure is an essential part of religious practice.” (See: https://www.livenowfox.com/news/satanic-temple-telehealth-abortion-care-pills-new-mexico). Abortion does empower Satan because it supports exactly what he seeks to do: steal, kill, and destroy. Just as Satan tempted Eve in the garden by causing her to doubt God’s word and telling her she would be empowered, that she could be like God, so now is he telling women to doubt God’s word and that they can be empowered if they murder their children in the womb. When we are in rebellion against God, we are willing to listen to the lies of the devil and ignore the truth of God. When we do that, we submit to the one who only seeks to steal, kill, and destroy instead of turning to the only One who can give us life:

“The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” (Jesus Christ; John 10:10)

The good news in all of this is that God is willing to forgive us of all of our sins if we turn from our sins and turn to Jesus Christ and trust in Him for our salvation. What we have done prior to turning to Him won’t matter any longer after we turn to Jesus, for we will be washed clean of our sins by His blood He shed on the cross when He was crucified for our sins, died, resurrected, and ascended to heaven to be seated at the right hand of God the Father. We will be given new life in Jesus, and we will have it more abundantly, just as He said we would. The only time it will be too late to turn to Him is when we are dead; we must make the choice to turn to Him before we die.

Can you see that the world is growing darker, and it is a spiritual darkness devoid of God? Can you see that accompanying that spiritual darkness is a state of confusion? Can you see that people seem to have lost their minds and that nothing makes sense anymore? Can you see the absurdity in our society? If you were to read the Bible, God’s word, you would know that all of this stems from a rejection of God and His truth. He wants us to know the truth and to be set free by it, but Satan wants the complete opposite. He wants confusion in order to more freely control people in their confused state. This is what happens when a society abandons the truth of God and embraces and accepts a revolving-door of truth, when the door is opened to letting people define “truth.”

For many years, I lived without turning to Jesus Christ as my Savior. I was living for the world and not for God, and I was miserable. Since turning to Jesus Christ on May 23, 2012, my life has been changed, forever. On that day, I fully trusted in Him with my life and with all that I am. While I have been through extremely difficult times since then, He got me through them all. Through those trials and tribulations, I have read and studied His word and I know without any uncertainty that it is the truth, the unchanging truth. I was created by Him in His image and for a purpose, and that He was always there with me. I would like to leave you with the lyrics to a song He put in my heart back in 2019. I pray that you too, will turn to Him and be saved, and let Him change your life, forever. ✝️

YOU WERE THERE

You formed me in my mother’s womb. Fearfully and wonderfully made. Like no other creation, each one unique, reflecting Your never-ending love.

Your eyes looked upon me before I was born. Purposely made, each one of us. A plan You had laid before I took a breath.

You breathed life into me, and I give You praise. You know my deepest thoughts. You know that I am weak, that I’m a sinner in need of the Savior.

From the beginning, You were there, right beside me, though I could not see. My eyes were open but blinded by the world. Too comfortable in my sin to see that I was broken.

Till one day my world was shattered On my knees, crying out to You. You said, “Child of Mine, turn to Me, don’t wait till it’s too late.”

Dying to myself and letting go of pride,  I turned to You, and now I see, You were always there, right beside me.

August 6, 2023: Psalm 139:12 - The Darkness Shall Not Hide from God

“Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You, but the night shines as the day; the darkness and the light are both alike to You.” - Psalm 139:12

Like many children, when I was a young child, I was afraid of the dark, when it was time for me to go to bed and my parents turned off my bedroom light and closed the door and the darkness swept over my room. My mind would put thoughts into my head that weren’t there before, when the light was on. I would begin to worry about what was under my bed. Why hadn’t I worried about it before, when it was still light in my room? That is what darkness does to us - it causes us to fear.

There is a wave of darkness that has not only swept over our nation but also the entire globe in the past few years that I’ve never seen before. It is a spiritual darkness, and it is a spiritual war that is raging for the souls of mankind. I am in my late fifties, and I have never seen our world like this, especially in the United States. But it is also darkness disguised as light, a false light. This is no surprise as the Bible tells us this is what we wrestle against and it’s not only in the unbelieving in the world but in churches that profess to be Christian and which are wholeheartedly embracing and promoting that which God calls darkness and sin:

“For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works.” (2 Corinthians 11:13-15)

“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:12)

We are at war with the enemy, Satan. However, how can we expect not to be overcome by him when most of those who claim to be Christian do not even believe in him? A 2009 nationwide research poll conducted by the Barna Group provided the shocking results below from polled professing Christians: (See: https://www.barna.com/research/most-american-christians-do-not-believe-that-satan-or-the-holy-spirit-exist/)

“Four out of ten Christians (40%) strongly agreed that Satan “is not a living being but is a symbol of evil.” An additional two out of ten Christians (19%) said they “agree somewhat” with that perspective. A minority of Christians indicated that they believe Satan is real by disagreeing with the statement: one-quarter (26%) disagreed strongly and about one-tenth (9%) disagreed somewhat. The remaining 8% were not sure what they believe about the existence of Satan.”

When people who say they are Christian cannot even accept that their enemy Satan is real, it will be those same people who are deceived by him, and I believe that is exactly what we are seeing in our country today. To deny that an enemy exists is to allow oneself to be overcome and destroyed by him. Have they not read in their Bible when Jesus, who was fasting for 40 days in the wilderness, was tempted three times by Satan? Have they not read what Jesus said to Satan when he tempted Jesus a third time?

“And he [Satan] said to Him [Jesus], ‘All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.’ Then Jesus said to him, ‘Away with you, Satan! For it is written “You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve.’” Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him.” (Matthew 4:9-11)

This unbelief that the enemy - Satan - is real and he has existed since the fall of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden is what has led to many professing Christians being deceived because they are left defenseless against his schemes that are wrapped in light but which are meant only to steal, kill, and destroy. The devil - Satan - will use anything he can to put fear into us and then provide us with a solution that is wrapped in a false light, a false sense of goodness, in order to deceive us and lead us on the wide gate that leads to destruction. Sadly, this is widespread both across our nation and within our churches, not all of them, but I estimate the majority of them.

The good news is that the Bible tells us how to fight against the darkness, against the spiritual war that is raging all around us. The most important thing any person can do is to acknowledge that we are all sinners and to put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ as our Savior, to believe that only He can save us from all our sins. Once we do that, we are born again, we are washed clean from our sins, and we begin a new life in Him. And, the instant that we believe in Him, we are filled with the Holy Spirit, who will dwell within us from that point forward. The Holy Spirit will help us to understand God’s word, the Bible, when we read it. As the Bible says, the Holy Spirit will guide us into all truth (John 16:13). The Holy Spirit will lead us and may also prompt us to do certain things or not do certain things. For example, I had been going to a large church for about nine years and I had seen it going downhill, focusing more on entertaining people than on leading them to truth of God. The Holy Spirit impressed upon me to leave that church. At first I resisted because I was comfortable in it, it was what I had known for nine years, but the Holy Spirit gently kept showing me why I needed to leave the church, and I did, not long after. Unbeknownst to me at the same time, a couple of my dear sisters in Christ who also went to the same church had had the same kind of prompting. I found this out later from them when one of us had brought it up during a Bible study. They also eventually left the church. I truly believe this was God’s way of protecting me from a church that had become an apostate church and if I had stayed, I may have become apostate too.

In order to fight this spiritual war, it is absolutely critical that believers in Christ put on the whole armor of God, as written about by Paul the apostle in Ephesians 6:10-20. Notice in this Scripture below it says to “put on the whole armor of Christ.” What good is the armor of God’s protection if we don’t put it on or if we only put on some of it? If we don’t put on all the armor, we run the risk of being overcome by Satan. This armor allows us to fight this spiritual war not in our own power and might but in God’s power and might. We believers in Christ have a bullseye on our back because of our faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus told His disciples, we will be hated by the world because of His name (Matthew 10:22), and we see that hatred increasing as the world grows increasingly dark, deep in sin, and expecting everyone to accept, embrace, and promote that which God calls sin. When we don’t, we will be called every name in the book and our lives and that of our loved ones may be threatened. Believing in Jesus Christ as our Savior is not for spiritual wimps. We must be strong in our faith in Him, be willing to take a stand and not cower, no matter the cost. That is why God gave us His word and why He gave us the power of prayer, but if we don’t read His word and if we aren’t praying, then we are not putting on the armor that He gave us to protect ourselves from the fiery darts of the enemy, the devil. That is why in Ephesians 6:10-20 it tells us repeatedly to be strong and to stand in His power and might; not to run and hide and cower in fear:

“Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints - and for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth body to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.” (Ephesians 6:10-20)

Does that passage of Scripture sound like it was written by someone who was filled with fear, who had not experienced the saving power of Jesus Christ and had not had the light of Jesus totally transform his life? Absolutely not! Jesus Christ had totally transformed Paul’s life on that road to Damascus, and Paul knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that this world had nothing to offer him and that it is only when we are in our resurrected bodies with Jesus that we will begin to truly know what living means in a world without sin and where the darkness is no more. He knew his treasure wasn’t on this earth but in heaven. Shouldn’t we strive to have that kind of faith that Paul and that so many of the faithful in the Bible had? After all, they were real people, just like you and me. They had real lives and real problems just like us.

Another thing that strikes me in this passage of Scripture is that it says, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood…” My husband and I occasionally watch mixed martial arts and some fighters use a lot of wresting in their fighting techniques. I didn’t know anything about wrestling until I started watching this. Wrestling results in a lot of close physical contact with your opponent. One thing I noticed is that most of the time when a fighter’s opponent submits, it is when that opponent is on the ground. One site defines “submission” as shown below. (See: https://prowrestling.fandom.com/wiki/Submission#:~:text=A%20submission%20is%20a%20professional,if%20they%20wished%20to%20submit.)

“A submission is a professional wrestling term for yielding to the opponent and therefore losing the fall. Traditionally submission victories would occur when one professional wrestler would place his opponent in a wrestling hold. The referee would ask the trapped wrestler if they wished to submit.”

One person commented online, “Standing submissions are rare because you lose the floor as a limit / barrier to the opponents movement.” This is exactly what Satan wants us to do, to knock us to the ground so that he can take advantage that the ground provides him, limiting or providing a barrier to our movements. However, when we stand in the power and might of Almighty God, we can fight back, just as another person commented as to why a standing submission is rare: (See: https://www.reddit.com/r/martialarts/comments/s719t2/why_do_we_never_see_standing_submissions/?rdt=46980)

“…Also, when your opponent is standing, they can hit you a lot harder while you try and fight for that wrist lock. Better to take someone to the ground where controlling them is 100% easier.”

Being a believer in Christ takes action, we cannot do it passively. We cannot do it by relying on others to do it for us; we must do it ourselves. Don’t get me wrong. I am not saying we must do these things to be saved by Jesus Christ, and I am not saying we must do these things to continue to be saved. As the Bible tells us in Ephesians 2:8, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9) What I am saying is that Satan is at war with us and wants us to turn from God and turn to him, just as he tried to get Jesus to do when He spent 40 days in the wilderness and Satan tempted Jesus three times (Matthew 4:1-11). If we aren’t strong in our faith, we may very well fall into that temptation, just as Adam and Eve did in the garden when the devil tempted Eve. This is exactly why Jesus and the apostles Paul, Peter, John, and Jude warned about not being deceived and that deception would increase in the last days before Jesus’ second coming. We must not turn back to the darkness but remain in the light.

The Bible tells us that those who choose darkness over light, Satan over Jesus, evil over good will live their eternity in darkness. In this passage of Scripture, Peter is referring to false teachers, those who pretend to be of God but are not, and what their future holds for them:

“They have forsaken the right way and gone astray, following the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; but he was rebuked for his iniquity; a dumb donkey speaking with a man’s voice restrained the madness of the prophet. These are wells without water, clouds carried by a tempest, for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.” (2 Peter 2:15-17)

Jesus told the centurion that the Jews who thought they were saved because they were Jews, referred to in the Scripture below as the “sons of the kingdom” and yet rejected Jesus Christ as the Messiah would spend their eternity in darkness.

“But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness, There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Jesus Christ; Matthew 8:12)

The same is true for everyone who rejects Jesus Christ, who does not believe in their heart that He has saved them from all their sins. They may have been born into a religious family, they may have been baptized as an infant, they may have gone to church for decades, they may have done many good things, they may have tithed to their church, but none of those things can save us. Rather, we can only be saved by accepting the free gift of salvation from sins by believing in Jesus Christ as our Savior.

Jesus taught His disciples:

“And I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say to you, fear Him!” (Jesus Christ; Luke 12:4-5)

When we have a reverent fear of God, we have correctly placed fear, for He has the power not only to kill but to cast one into hell. When we have a reverent fear of God and we put our trust in His Son to save us from all our sins, we won’t be cast into hell but will be allowed entry into the eternal kingdom of God. Sadly, the majority of the world fears everything but God and will be denied entry into His kingdom when they die.

Yes, the darkness is increasing in the world, but the darkness cannot hide from God. Darkness and light are the same to God because He sees everything and He will judge the wicked, those who choose darkness over light:

“He will guard the feet of His saints, but the wicked shall be silent in darkness. For by strength no man shall prevail. The adversaries of the LORD shall be broken in pieces; from heaven He will thunder against them. The LORD will judge the ends of the earth. He will give strength to His king, and exalt the horn [strength] of His anointed.” (1 Samuel 2:9-10)

But for we who are called the children of God, we are not in the darkness but in the light, as Paul wrote about when he reminded his brothers and sisters that we are to be ready, watching for the Lord’s return, the Day of the Lord, when He will judge the earth in all its wickedness:

“But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief. You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober.” (1 Thessalonians 5:4-6)

Lately, when I write these devotionals, it takes me several days to write them. On the first night when I began writing this devotional, our area had a storm with quite a bit of rain. While there was no lighting or thunder, we had a power outage at night from about 9:30 p.m. - 12:30 a.m. At first, there was a power surge, with everything electrical powering off but then powering back on, but then it was a full stop power outage. When you have a power outage at night, it is really dark, much darker than if it were to happen during the day when the light of the sun still beams its light. In the darkness of that power outage, I remembered that I had some battery operated candles and I switched them on. I was amazed at how such a small bit of light could illuminate the darkness, penetrating the shadows to reveal what they once concealed. I knew there was a lesson for me in the timing of this power outage: it made me really stop and think about how the light of God truly does shine brightest when the darkness is at its peak, and that the light of God will overcome the darkness.

As I grew up, I eventually overcame my fear of the darkness but I had fear of many other things in my life. Through many trials, I finally learned I do not need to fear anything in this world, for my God is with me, each step of the way, lighting my way, until He calls me Home.

“For You will light my lamp; the LORD my God will enlighten my darkness. For by You I can run against a troop, by my God I can leap over a wall. As for God, His way is perfect; the word of the LORD is proven; he is a shield to all who trust in Him.” (Psalm 18:28-30)

“And you, child, [John the Baptist], will be called the prophet of the Highest; for you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways, to give knowledge of salvation to His people by the remission of their sins, through the tender mercy of our God, with which the Dayspring [Jesus Christ] from on high has visited us; to give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.” (Luke 1:76-79)

“There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light [Jesus Christ], that all through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and HIs own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” (John 1:6-13)

In closing, I ask you: are you in darkness, trying to hide from God, or are you in the light of God, shining His presence in the darkness? May you turn to Jesus Christ today and reflect His light as a child of God. ✝️

August 2, 2023: Psalm 139:11 - God is Our Light in the Darkness

“If I say, ‘Surely the darkness shall fall on me,’ even the night shall be light about me…’” - Psalm 139:11

God is an all-knowing God. God is an all-powerful God. God is an all-seeing God, and He sees all, whether it is night or day, darkness or light. There is nothing we do that can be hidden from Him; He sees and knows everything. These words can make us be fearful if we are trying to hide something in our sin and shame, but they can also be a comfort to us, reminding us that God is always with us, no matter how dark the darkness.

While crimes occur at all hours of the day, according to a June 14, 2019 article from Securitymagazine.com, “violent crimes are more likely to occur at night.” This is no surprise since the darkness of night provides opportunities for criminals that the day does not afford them, including running and hiding in the darkness of night and also catching people off guard as they sleep when they are not on guard and watching for people who might seek to hurt them. (See: https://www.securitymagazine.com/articles/90384-murder-robbery-and-driving-while-impaired-happen-at-night)

While criminals may be able to escape their crimes while here on earth, God sees everything:

“He reveals deep and secret things; He knows what is in the darkness, and light dwells with Him.” (Daniel 2:22)

“There is no darkness nor shadow of death where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves.” (Job 34:22)

When we reject the truth of God and His Son Jesus’ free gift of salvation, we reject the light and we gravitate instead toward the darkness, toward the sin, toward Satan:

“He who believes in Him [Jesus] is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.” (Jesus Christ; John 3:18-21)

“There are those who rebel against the light; they do not know its ways nor abide in its paths. The murderer rises with the light; he kills the poor and the needy; and in the night he is like a thief. The eye of the adulterer waits for the twilight, saying, ‘No eye will see me’; and he disguises his face. In the dark they break into houses which they marked for themselves in the daytime; they do not know the light. For the morning is the same to them as the shadow of death; if someone recognizes them, they are in the terrors of the shadow of death.” (Job 24:13-17)

The book of Isaiah warns those who embrace the darkness and reject the light of God:

“Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (Isaiah 5:20)

And yet, in the United States and in other countries, governments are changing laws and are becoming increasingly soft on crimes, resulting in even more crimes being committed. That is because they have done exactly as God through the prophet Isaiah told them not to do: they have put darkness for light, and light for darkness. Woe to our nation and all nations who reject the light of God for the darkness of Satan! Anyone who seeks refuge in the darkness, in their sin and shame, will reap the penalties for their woeful decision:

“He pours contempt on princes, and disarms the mighty. He uncovers deep things out of darkness, and brings the shadow of death to light. He makes nations great, and destroys them; He enlarges nations, and guides them. He takes away the understanding of the chiefs of the people of the earth, and makes them wander in a pathless wilderness. They grope in the dark without light, and He makes them stagger like a drunken man.” (Job 12:21-25)

When the apostle Paul, formerly known as Saul, had been seized by the Jews, arrested by the Romans and appeared before King Agrippa, Paul recounted the day when he was on his journey with several others to Damascus to go and persecute Christians when he was struck by the light of Jesus Christ, and his life was forever changed:

“…at midday, O king, along the road I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining around me and those who journeyed with me. And when we all had fallen to the ground, I heard a voice speaking to me and saying in the Hebrew language, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’ So I said, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ And He said, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But rise and stand on your feet; for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to make you a minister and a witness both of the things which you have seen and of the things which I will yet reveal to you. I will deliver you from the Jewish people, as well as from the Gentiles [non-Jews], to whom I now send you, to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.’” (Acts 26:12-18)

Paul was so blinded by the light of Jesus during his encounter with Him on the road to Damascus, he was blinded for three days. On the third day, his sight was restored and he was filled with the Holy Spirit of God. The light of Jesus Christ did a powerful work in Paul’s life from that day forward, a work that only Jesus could do: He changed Paul’s heart, a heart that once sought darkness instead of the light, a heart that once was filled with the power of Satan to one that was filled with the power of God. God used Paul in mighty ways to turn people from darkness to light, to turn them from the power of Satan to the power of God, through the light of Jesus Christ.

How many of us have wandered in the darkness, some of us for many years, before we encountered the light of Jesus and before our lives were converted, before our hearts were converted, as Paul’s was? How many of us have spent long and difficult nights in the darkness, waiting for morning to come, for that sense of dread to be lifted from us with the first rays of the morning sunlight? There is just something about the dawn of a new day that gives us renewed hope, a hope that everything will be alright.

Jesus is our light, He is our hope, and when we are filled with Him, we will have that sense of comfort and peace that He is with us, no matter how dark the night, for His light will get us through, leading us on the path of righteousness in Him. We must always remember that and not desire to return to the darkness:

“For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light. Therefore He says:

‘Awake, you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.’

“See then that you walk circumspectly [carefully], not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is.” (Ephesians 5:8-17)

Notice that the Scripture above does not say we were once in darkness. Rather, it says, “For you were once darkness.” When we haven’t turned to Jesus, we are darkness and darkness is what we show to the world, but when we turn to Jesus, we are light in Him and we reflect His light to the world. Thus, once we are saved by believing in Jesus as our Savior, we must not become like the world that rejects Jesus but reveal to the world, or to make manifest, the evil deeds of darkness; we must shine the light on the darkness. Have you ever walked into a kitchen late at night when no lights are on and you can’t see anything because there is no light present but when you turn a light on, even a small light, you saw cockroaches scatter across the floor, back into the shadows from where they came? That is what it is like to shine the light on the darkness; darkness hates the light.

Brothers and sisters in Christ - those who have been born again by believing and trusting in our hearts that Jesus is the Christ, the only one who can save us from our sins - as our world grows darker by the hour, let us remember what God’s word says to us regarding the light of Jesus Christ:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” (John 1:1-5)

“Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, ‘I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.’” (John 8:12)

“Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart. But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus’ sake. For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” (2 Corinthians 4:1-6)

“The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” (Psalm 27:1)

“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” (Psalm 119:105)

“This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.” (1 John 1:5-7)

“The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb [Jesus Christ] is its light.” (Revelation 21:23)

“And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts.” (Romans 13:11-14) ✝️

July 28, 2023: Job 12:21-25 - A Prayer for America

“He pours contempt on princes, and disarms the mighty. He uncovers deep things out of darkness, and brings the shadow of death to light. He makes nations great, and destroys them; He enlarges nations, and guides them. He takes away the understanding of the chiefs of the people of the earth, and makes them wander in a pathless wilderness. They grope in the dark without light, and He makes them stagger like a drunken man.” - Job 12:21-25

Almighty God, God of Israel and Father of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, I come to You with a repentant and heavy heart. Oh, how we in America and oh, how I myself, have sinned against You, with a depth of sin and shame that likely has never been seen before in all the nations of the world. A nation that was blessed by You beyond belief when we once put You first in our lives, above all things. How far we have fallen, fallen, from that once blessed nation! Now, we have become the example for the world to see, on full and arrogant display, of what a nation that once put You first and was blessed by You and which turned against You - and not only against You but also Your people, the nation of Israel - looks like when it replaces You with self, when it replaces You with false gods and idols, when it replaces obedience to Your commandments with carrying out all our deceitful and disgusting pleasures because they make us “happy,” when it replaces fear of accountability to You for our actions with no fear at all of any consequences of our despicable and evil actions against You, when it replaces all that is good with all that is evil. Your words tells us what happens when a nation forgets You:

“The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.” (Psalm 9:17)

Back in the early years, before our nation went to war with Britain to declare its independence from it, Patrick Henry, one of America’s Founding Fathers accurately proclaimed in his fiery “Give me liberty, or give me death” speech on March 23, 1775 at St. John’s Church in Richmond that You “preside over the destinies of nations": (See: https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/patrick.asp)

“If we wish to be free-- if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending--if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained--we must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must fight! An appeal to arms and to the God of hosts is all that is left us!

“They tell us, sir, that we are weak; unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot? Sir, we are not weak if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power. The millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable--and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come.

“It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace-- but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”

Almighty God, when we were being established as a nation with our thirteen colonies and declared our independence from Great Britain, we even wrote in our Declaration of Independence:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” (USA Declaration of Independence)

We recognized that we have a Creator, and that You - and no mere man - have given us rights that no one has the authority to take away or deny. Now, not only do we deny You as Creator, but we deny You altogether. We deny the right of the unborn to their existence because we see them as a burden to us instead of the blessing that they are. Even worse, we deny their very humanity.

John Adams, one of the Founding Fathers of America and second American President wrote to his wife Abigail of our declaration of independence, which actually occurred on July 2, 1776 but is observed on July 4, 1776 when the resolution of independence was approved. He recognized that the success of our nation and its deliverance from Great Britain was only by our “solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty.”: (See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independence_Day_(United_States))

“The second day of July 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more.” (Letter from John Adams to his wife Abigail regarding the Declaration of Independence)

Benjamin Franklin prayed this prayer on June 28, 1787 in Philadelphia, nearly three months before the US Constitution was signed on September 17, 1787, at the Constitutional Convention when the convention was in a deadlock, threatening the future of our new country:

“I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing the proofs I see of this truth - that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? We have been assured, Sir, in the Sacred Writings, that ‘except the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain that build it.’ I firmly believe this, and I also believe that without His concurring aid, we shall succeed in this political building not better than the builders of Babel: We shall be divided by our partial local interests; our projects will be confounded, and we ourselves shall become a reproach and a byword down to future ages. And, what is worse, mankind may hereafter from this unfortunate instance despair of establishing Government by Human wisdom and leave it to chance, war, and conquest. I therefore beg leave to move - that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessing on our deliberations, be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to business, and that one or more of the clergy of this city be requested to officiate at that service.” (Benjamin Franklin, June 28, 1787, Constitutional Convention, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)

It is clear from Benjamin Franklin’s speech on June 28, 1787 that he knew Your word, and he acknowledged that any success of America would only be because of You and only if it were built by You, by having You as its solid foundation. He also acknowledged it must not be governed by human wisdom but by Your wisdom, and we must be willing to let You lead us and not do it any other way. He appealed to You, and You blessed our nation abundantly. However, we did not heed his words that without Your concurring aid, we would become a reproach and a byword down to future ages. The only way we can have Your aid to us is if we remain with You, but we have left You and now, as Benjamin Franklin warned, we have become deeply divided as a nation and are a reproach and a byword; we are an object of scorn and derision to You and we have become a laughing stock to the world for our insanity.

Before we abandoned our faith in You, we taught Your word, the Bible, in our schools and we used names from the Bible to teach the letters of the alphabet to our children, such as “A is for Adam” and “B is for Boaz.” We taught the Bible to our children to give them a solid foundation for their lives through Your word and Your Son. Our early universities and colleges were founded based on belief in You and Your Son Jesus Christ, including Harvard College. They were founded to educate ministers in churches and to provide training that was built on the solid foundation of Jesus Christ. Per Harvard Divinity School’s website (See: https://hds.harvard.edu/about/history-and-mission):

“The origins of Harvard Divinity School and of the study of theology at Harvard can be traced back to the very beginning of Harvard College, when an initial fund of 400 pounds from the General Court of Massachusetts Bay Colony established the College in 1636. The founders of Harvard recorded their reasons for establishing this center of learning:

‘After God had carried us safe to New England and we had builded our houses, provided necessaries for our livelihood, reared convenient places for God's worship, and settled the civil government: One of the next things we longed for and looked after was to advance learning and perpetuate it to posterity; dreading to leave an illiterate ministry to the churches, when our present ministers shall lie in the dust.’”

Harvard College acknowledged and brought honor to You and Your Son Jesus Christ in both its original mission statement from 1642 and its motto from 1650:

Harvard’s Mission Statement from 1642: “Let every student be plainly instructed and earnestly pressed to consider well the end of his life and studies is to know God and Jesus Christ, which is eternal life, and therefore to lay Christ in the bottom, as the only foundation of all sound knowledge and learning.” (See: https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2016/1/19/secular-harvard-esteller/#:~:text=Consider%20Harvard%27s%20original%20mission%20statement,all%20sound%20knowledge%20and%20learning.”)

Harvard’s Motto from 1650: “In Christi Gloriam” (“For the glory of Christ).” (See: https://www.liberty.edu/journal/article/christianity-and-the-american-university/)

Princeton University, which began as the College of New Jersey, was also founded on the Christian faith to educate ministers of the gospel so that faith in You could be shared for generations to come:

“Princeton's broad role in public service and national development was evident from the very beginning of its existence. ‘Though our great Intention was to erect a seminary for educating Ministers of the Gospel," a founder wrote at the time, "yet we hope it will be useful in other learned professions — Ornaments of the State as Well as the Church. Therefore we propose to make the plan of Education as extensive as our Circumstances will permit.’" (See: https://princetoniana.princeton.edu/history/early-years#:~:text=Courtesy%20of%20Princeton%20University%20Archives,America%20in%20the%2018th%20century.)

“It’s common knowledge that Princeton University was founded by proponents of the great revival movement, often called the “Great Awakening,” that swept the American colonies about 1725. The word “revival” refers to the quickening of the human heart to hear and receive the Gospel in a decisive way. Usually understood as the revitalization of an old faith grown stale and lax, “revival” came to be synonymous with an emotional, personal, and immediate recommitment to God in Christ. As you may imagine, the intensity of this movement had its supporters and detractors. The desire to provide for the training of clergy who would be shaped by revivalism led to the establishment of the College of New Jersey in 1746, and the rest is history.” (See: https://paw.princeton.edu/article/princetons-revivalist-roots)

Oh, Lord Almighty, how we have gone astray from You! Now our “churches” are nothing more than social clubs, complete with coffee shops, feel-good messages disguised as sermons, concerts with music so loud that earplugs are needed, as our “worship teams” sing lyrics of songs that could be written about anyone, in sanctuaries with fog machines and dark venues. Professing pastors preach messages completely devoid of gospel truth and instead embrace the social norms of a society that has completely turned against You to approve and promote all that You call wicked and an abomination! Gone are the days when pastors feared You and not what mortal man could do to them, who preached on sin and how it separates us from you, convicting all of us who are sinners to show us that we are all in need of the One and only Savior who can redeem us of all our sins: Your only begotten Son Jesus Christ. Gone are the days when we preached your word in season and out of season, when it was popular and when it is hated, no matter the consequences to ourselves and to our livelihood, long before the government created 501c3 “churches” that willfully handed over all authority of their sermons and teachings to a government that has forsaken You. Gone are the days when we read and studied all of Your word, including the prophetic Scriptures that warned us of what is to come in the end times. Most churches do not preach on Bible prophecy because their so-called pastors do not want to offend anyone, they don’t want to make people uncomfortable, and because their congregants don’t want to hear those messages of “doom and gloom.” Gone are the days when pastors warned against being prideful and that it was Satan’s, also called Lucifer, pride that led to his great fall. Gone are the days when Scriptures that tell us what pride does to the heart and to the soul are preached in American churches. Now instead, the USA has an entire month dedicated to pride and not only pride but pride in one’s sin which You call an abomination. We even have people high up in American government saying that a month of pride isn’t enough and it should be an entire summer of pride. (See: https://www.foxnews.com/media/rachel-levine-declares-summer-pride-calls-transgender-treatment-suicide-prevention-care) We even have so-called “churches” celebrating the month of pride and hosting special activities for it. Gone are the days when pastors preached from your word, which warns us all of what happens when pride overtakes a person, when pride overtakes a nation:

“The lofty [proud] looks of man shall be humbled, the haughtiness of man shall be bowed down, and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day. For the day of the LORD of hosts shall come upon everything proud and lofty, upon everything lifted up - and it shall be brought low.” (Proverbs 2:11-12)

“Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” (Proverbs 16:18)

“The wicked in his proud countenance does not seek God; God is in none of his thoughts.” (Psalm 10:4)

“When pride comes, then comes shame; but with the humble is wisdom.” (Proverbs 11:2)

“A proud and haughty man - “Scoffer” is his name; he acts with arrogant pride.” (Proverbs 21:24)

But Your warnings have fallen on deaf ears in our nation and are not taught in most professing churches. Pride gets to the matter of the heart: do we serve self, which is actually serving the lies of Satan, or do we serve You? Do we bow to our fleshly, sinful desires or do we bow to You, the King of kings, Lord of lords, and Lord of hosts? Do we believe in our heart that we can save ourselves or that we don’t need saving of anything or do we believe in our heart that Your only begotten Son Jesus Christ is the Savior to all who would believe in Him and are not condemned, and we trust in Him for our salvation?

By failing to preach and teach on and read Your prophetic Scriptures because they are seen as “doom and gloom,” the pastors, teachers, and church congregants fail to see that the “gloom and doom” is only for unbelievers who will go through a literal hell on earth before Jesus’ second coming, only to be followed by living an eternal hell from which they can never escape. Particularly by not reading the book of Revelation, they fail to see that for believers in Christ, it is a revelation of who Jesus is and provides a warning and a look into what the future holds. Prophecy tells us we must remain steadfast in our faith and not be deceived by Satan, for deception in the end days will be rampant. By reading Bible prophecy, we can see and understand what unbelievers cannot understand and warn them of what is to come and to give them the good news, the gospel of Jesus Christ.

For all who believe in Jesus as our beloved Savior and Redeemer, it is a glorious future, a glorious eternity! The “doom and gloom” as perceived by unbelievers and also by professing “Christians” who refuse to read Bible prophecy is pure gold to true believers in You oh, my Lord and Savior, for in it we read what our future holds for us, and that future gives us hope in this dark and wicked world! Our hope is not in this world but in Jesus Christ and in Him alone! He is our true and good Shepherd, and He leads us into life everlasting with Him, in a new heaven and a new earth, when all sin will finally be gone, forever and ever. We will be with Him and all believers in Him in a place that is beautiful beyonds words, with all Your majesty, and where there will be no more pain, sorrow, death, or suffering. We will know and enjoy life the way it was meant to be, the way You intended it to be before the fall of Adam and Eve in the garden. However, unbelievers will be cast out and thrown into the everlasting lake of fire because they didn’t heed your warnings, they didn’t acknowledge You and trust in Jesus for their salvation. They didn’t want You - they wanted self, and self is what they will get. Just as our nation once had it all, we have chosen pride and self over You, and we are seeing the collapse and demise of our nation, a nation that once loved You but has turned away from You and has willfully and defiantly turned to the lies of Satan, ultimately leading us to our downfall and our detriment.

Your word tells us the consequences of our sin and shame, as happened with Your people in Judah and Jerusalem, when the nation and Your city was wicked and had forsaken You, as Isaiah the prophet wrote about:

“For Jerusalem stumbled, and Judah is fallen, because their tongue and their doings are against the LORD, to provoke the eyes of His glory. The look on their countenance witnesses against them, and they declare their sin as Sodom; they do not hide it. Woe to their soul! For they have brought evil upon themselves.” (Isaiah 3:8-9)

Your word provides comfort to those who put their faith and trust in You and are made righteous by trusting in Jesus for their salvation and condemnation to those who don’t:

“Say to the righteous that it shall be well with them, for they shall eat the fruit of their doings. Woe to the wicked! It shall be ill will him, for the reward of his hands shall be given him.” (Isaiah 3:10-11)

Your word tells us who will oppress and rule over a nation that has forgotten You:

“As for My people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O My people! Those who lead you cause you to err, and destroy the way of your paths.” (Isaiah 3:12)

Yes, O Lord, how we see this happening in our country and also in our world today with the role of men being all but erased, especially in our country with the feminization and humiliation of men made to look like ridiculous fools and the empowering of women, who are seen as superior to men in all aspects, including in physical abilities, especially in the entertainment industry with the predictive programming of the human mind. This is straight from the lies of Satan that started in the garden of Eden when he deceived Eve, who willingly chose to disobey Your command that she and Adam must not eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. As a consequence of her sin, You told Eve, “Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.” (Genesis 3:16) Lord God, in our great sin against You, we have fought against Your perfect structure for the family and have destroyed many, many lives because of our rebellion. Many children are not raised in households with a father and a mother, with the father putting You first and loving his wife as Christ loved the church and the wife submitting to her husband as to the Lord, as Your word tells us should happen in Ephesians 5:22-33. Instead, we decided that we knew better than You and we created all different definitions of families, only to see the many detrimental effects on our children that last over multiple generations.

Not only have we forgotten and turned our back on You, oh Lord, but we have come against Your people Israel, to our own detriment. Back when we were a nation in its infancy, John Adams recognized Your people, the Jews, and their importance and significance to the world: (See: https://www.azquotes.com/quote/1309876)

“I will insist the Hebrews have [contributed] more to civilize men than any other nation. If I was an atheist and believed in blind eternal fate, I should still believe that fate had ordained the Jews to be the most essential instrument for civilizing the nations. They are the most glorious nation that ever inhabited this Earth. The Romans and their empire were but a bubble in comparison to the Jews. They have given religion to three-quarters of the globe and have influenced the affairs of mankind more and more happily than any other nation, ancient or modern.” (John Adams, Letter to F. A. Van her Kemp, February 16, 1808)

Your word, the Bible, clearly tells us what will happen to nations that bless Israel and to those that curse Israel. When You brought Abram, whom You later named to Abraham, out of the land in which he lived with his father to a new land that You would give to him and his descendants and would make a great nation out him, this is what You said to Abram:

“Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him you curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Genesis 12:1-3)

The 33rd US President Harry S. Truman recognized the importance of Israel and “was the first world leader to officially recognize Israel as a legitimate Jewish state on May 14, 1948, only eleven minutes after its creation. His decision came after much discussion and advice from the White House staff who had differing viewpoints.” (See: https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/education/presidential-inquiries/recognition-israel )

While our nation has recognized the importance of your nation Israel and has blessed it for many years, that is no longer true and hasn’t been for some time. Our current president Joseph Biden has become increasingly hostile toward Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and has come against Netanyahu on his policies, most recently regarding Netanyahu’s proposed judicial policies. Per The Jerusalem Post on March 30, 2023, it has “sparked the worst crisis in American-Israeli relations in decades.” (See: https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-735639)

Further evidence of strained relations between America and Israel is written about in an article by Joel B. Pollak dated July 28, 2023, who writes, “Caroline Click, one of the most staunch pro-Israel voices in the media, has written a column arguing that Israel should stop taking U.S. military aid because it has corrupted the leadership and policy choices of her country.” (See: https://www.breitbart.com/middle-east/2023/07/28/pro-israel-columnist-time-for-israel-to-stop-taking-u-s-military-aid/)

While we have and continue to give aid to Israel, at least for the time being, our administration has become increasingly hostile to the right of Israel to defend itself and continues to push Israel to divide its land. This push to divide the land - Your land - is something that has brought and continues to bring curses upon America. It isn’t just happening with President Biden, but has been happening for decades with both democrat and republican presidents, including former Presidents Donald Trump, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George H. W. Bush. White House Correspondent and author Bill Koenig has written much about the negative impacts on America when its presidents have pushed Israel to divide Your land, including in his book titled “Eye to Eye - Facing the Consequences of Dividing Israel.” In his book, Koenig writes: (See: https://www.watch.org/store/product/1)

“Over one hundred billion-dollar, record-setting catastrophes and/or events occurred while US presidents George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump were pressuring or calling on Israel to divide their covenant land.

“The costliest insurance events, the costliest hurricanes, the largest tornado outbreaks, the famous “Perfect Storm,” the 9/11 terror events, and Hurricane Katrina corresponded to White House pressure on Israel to divide their land.

“The US, the UN, and the EU do not have the authority to divide God’s covenant land.

“Calling the Israeli-Palestinian talks “Middle East peace talks” is a false narrative.

“Jews have a three-thousand-year history with Jerusalem, and Christians have a two-thousand-year history.”

In an online article, Koenig wrote about the consequences to both America and Israel under President Trump’s administration when on January 28, 2020 he presented his “Peace to Prosperity” deal that proposed dividing the land of Israel: (See: https://watch.org/eye-to-eye/responding-skeptic-consequences-dividing-land-israel-william-koenig)

“President Trump presented his Peace to Prosperity deal on Jan. 28, 2020, in the East Room of the White House—the plan that had been developed by Jared Kushner. It spoke of a Palestinian state in up to 80 percent of Judea and Samaria. He tweeted the boundary map to his 73.6 million Twitter followers (now 85 million plus). The following day President Trump established his Coronavirus Advisory Panel. Life in America before Jan. 28 and after are dramatically different due to the coronavirus.

Bill Koenig also wrote on April 2, 2020 an article comparing the vast difference of life in America before and after President Trump delivered his “Peace to Prosperity” deal. (See: https://www.watch.org/eye-to-eye/life-america-and-after-trump-“peace-prosperity”-plan-was-delivered-january-28-2020%C2%A0

One thing is for sure, Bill Koenig makes some compelling arguments, arguments which seem far beyond random coincidence, that seem to demonstrate what You said, Lord God, about the consequences of those who curse Your people, the nation of Israel.

Almighty God, You told us in Your word:

“And He changes the times and the seasons; He removes kings and raises up kings; He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding. He reveals deep and secret things; He knows what is in the darkness, and light dwells with Him.” (Daniel 2:21)

“All nations before Him are as nothing, and they are counted by Him less than nothing and worthless.” (Isaiah 40:17)

“Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. He brings the princes to nothing; He makes the judges of the earth useless.”(Isaiah 40:21-23)

As you warned about in Romans 1:18-32, I believe that because of our refusal to glorify You and to be thankful for all You have done for us as a nation, and instead we are determined even more to continue in our sin against You, I believe that You have given many unbelievers in our nation over to their debased minds:

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man - and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.” (Romans 1:18-32)

What else can explain the insanity that we are seeing in our country today? There is a demonic spirit that is controlling many people, including many in high places of power and authority, not only in our country but throughout the world. Even some unbelievers are asking, “What in the world is going on?!” Everything has been turned upside down because we have not heeded Your warnings and we have turned Your churches into synagogues of Satan and pleasure palaces. Your word even tells us that the same type of spirit You warned us about in Romans 1:18-32 will also pervade the church in the last days:

“But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! For of this sort are those creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now as Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, disapproved, concerning the faith; but they will progress no further, for their folly will be manifest to all, as theirs also was.” (2 Timothy 3:1-9)

Almighty God, I pray that the people of this nation would read and heed Your warnings in Your word, which offer hope and salvation to all who believe in Jesus Christ for redemption of all their sins and which warn of the true doom and gloom that awaits all unbelievers. I include here words from our 17th president, Abraham Lincoln, who saw the carnage of the most bloodiest war in American history. These powerful words he spoke on March 30, 1863, when in the middle of the Civil War, he declared it a day of national humiliation, fasting, and prayer: (See: https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/proclamation-97-appointing-day-national-humiliation-fasting-and-prayer)

“Whereas the Senate of the United States, devoutly recognizing the supreme authority and just government of Almighty God in all the affairs of men and of nations, has by a resolution requested the President to designate and set apart a day for national prayer and humiliation; and

“Whereas it is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon, and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord;

“And, insomuch as we know that by His divine law nations, like individuals, are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war which now desolates the land may be but a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people? We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.

“It behooves us, then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.” (Abraham Lincoln, March 30, 1863, Proclamation 97—Appointing a Day of National Humiliation, Fasting, and Prayer)

Oh, my fellow Americans, that we would heed these words of President Lincoln and acknowledge that we too have forgotten God, the One whose gracious hand has preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us! We are just like the people he spoke of back on March 30, 1863! Are we willing to get down on our knees in all humility and pray to Almighty God and confess our sins to Him and acknowledge that He is God and there is no other like Him, and ask for forgiveness? Are we willing to take a period of time to fast, to withhold food from our bodies so that in our weakness, we depend on His strength, that we may stand in His power and might and not our own? Sadly, I believe the answer from most Americans is “no.” I pray I am wrong about that.

I believe we are on the verge of seeing not only the collapse of our country, and we have already witnessed the spiritual and moral collapse of it, but the entire world as we know it. I believe, based on my understanding of Your word, that we are on the verge of the time in history that the prophet Daniel wrote about in the book of Daniel and the apostle John wrote about in the book of Revelation, a time of which Jesus said:

“For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened.” (Jesus Christ; Matthew 24:21-22)

Almighty God, I know in my heart that it is only Your hand of mercy that is restraining all hell from breaking loose in the world, so that more people can turn to Jesus Christ and be saved from all their sins.

Father God, Your word tells us:

“Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” (2 Corinthians 3:17)

Lord God of Israel, I believe that Your hand of blessing has been removed from our nation and we have been cursed because of our many attempts to divide Your land of Israel, and because we have forgotten who You are - Almighty God, Creator of everything. Because of that, we have no liberty; the freedom that our Founding Fathers so desired and fought for, for our nation, the freedom that our military has fought for and died to protect for hundreds of years, has been replaced with bondage, and it is a bondage to Satan in our sin. My prayer for my nation is not that it would be made great again, but it is that we would return to You, asking for Your forgiveness and mercy upon us, and that our pastors would preach and teach Your words of truth and not a watered-down, feel-good, keep-them-coming-back-so-they-will-keep-putting-money-in-the-donation-box type of government-restrained sermons. I pray they would preach and teach on sin, hell, and heaven and the truth that each and every one of us is born a sinner and we will either go to heaven or hell when we die and will spend our eternity there. Where we spend our eternity is dependent upon the decision we make about Jesus Christ and whether or not to trust in Him as our Savior.

I pray that our nation sees that no politician can save this nation, whether republican, democrat, independent, green party, or any other type of political party. We are corrupted to the core, we have turned against You and all that is written in Your word, we have rejected Jesus’ free gift of salvation, and we have given our nation over to Satan. We have chosen foolish leaders to rule over us instead of letting You rule in our hearts. I pray the words of Daniel as he wrote in his prayer for his people in Daniel 9:1-19:

“As it is written in the Law of Moses, all this disaster has come upon us; yet we have not made our prayer before the LORD our God, that we might turn from our iniquities and understand Your truth. Therefore the LORD has kept the disaster in mind, and brought it upon us; for the LORD our God is righteous in all the works which He does, though we have not obeyed His voice. And now, O Lord our God, who brought Your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and made Yourself a name, as it is this day - we have sinned, we have done wickedly!” (Daniel 9:13-15)

Lord God Almighty, I pray that we Americans see that this nation, that this world offers no hope; the only hope for us is Jesus Christ. I pray our eyes and ears will be opened to the truth and that we will know that our nation is finished, it is done. As Job wrote in Job 12:24-25, our people who have rejected You and the truth are wandering around in a pathless wilderness, groping in the dark without light, staggering like a drunken man.

Lord God, the wicked rulers of the world, including many in our nation, are bringing down everything in order to bring in their system, which I believe, based on Your holy Scriptures, will be the system of the final antichrist, who will reign for seven years over a one world government, one world religion, and one world digital economic system that tracks and restricts everything a person will do during that time period, as prophesied by Daniel and John in the books of Daniel and Revelation.

I pray Americans would see that something is deadly wrong in our country, and that we have been deceived into believing it is a fight of democrat against republican, black against white, gay against straight, abortion against life, those who took the jab against those who didn’t, and on and on it goes. All of those things are real, along with the “Unidentified Flying Object (UFO)/Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP),“ and are being used by Satan not only to divide us but also to distract us to keep us from knowing what is really going on. The truth is there is a spiritual war being waged in our country and across the world for the souls of mankind. Satan is deceiving people like never before because he knows his time is short before the tribulation period starts, which will be a time of Jesus’ wrath on all the wickedness on the earth, including on all those who are molesting and mutilating children.

The first thing Jesus warned His disciples of what the signs of the end times would be was to “Take heed that no one deceives you.” (Jesus Christ; Matthew 24:4) He also warned of false prophets and false christs rising up and deceiving many. (Matthew 24:11, 24) Deception is all around us, and sadly, most people don’t even know they are being deceived. Lord God, I pray that You would put the right circumstances in our lives that would cause us to come to the realization that we need to turn to Jesus Christ and trust in Him as our Savior, before it’s too late. I pray that You would do whatever You need to do to our nation that would wake us up and turn our hearts to You. I know that You are a merciful God, and I also know that You are a just God. I believe that we are either at a point in our nation or very close to that time when You will have had enough of the wickedness and You will bring Your wrath upon us. You have every right to do that, for I believe we have gone far and above what Sodom and Gomorrah did and You rained down fire and brimstone upon them and destroyed them. I would never ask You to bless our nation for we absolutely do not deserve it. We had Your blessings for a long time, and we trampled all over them. Instead, I pray for Your will to be done in our nation so that it may bring praise, honor, and glory to You.

“Arise, O LORD, do not let man prevail; let the nations be judged in Your sight. Put them in fear, O LORD, that the nations may know themselves to be but men. Selah.” (Psalm 9:19-20)

Lord God, as Your word tells us, only Your kingdom will last forever and ever. No matter what happens upon the earth, believers in Christ are eternally secure by our faith in Him and when we die, we will be allowed entry into His kingdom. However, all unbelievers will be denied entry and will spend their eternity in hell. They can choose to ignore this truth or reject it, but it doesn’t change the fact that it is truth. The choice is theirs alone to make. I pray they choose wisely. In the name of Your Son Jesus, I pray. Amen.

“Why do the nations rage, and the people plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying, ‘Let us break Their bonds in pieces and cast away Their cords from us.’ He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall hold them in derision. Then He shall speak to them in His wrath and distress them in His deep displeasure: ‘Yet I have set My King on My holy hill of Zion.’

“I will declare the decree: The LORD has said to Me, ‘You are My Son, today I have begotten You. Ask of Me, and I will give You the nations for Your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for Your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron; You shall dash them to pieces like a potter’s vessel.’

“Now therefore, be wise, O kings; be instructed, you judges of the earth. Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish in the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are those who put their trust in Him.” (Psalm 2)

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.” (Jesus Christ; John 3:16-21) ✝️

July 22, 2023: Psalm 139:9-10 - The Hand of God

“If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there Your hand shall lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me.” - Psalm 139:9-10

We can run but we cannot hide from God. If we could fly at the speed of light and go to the farthest places in our world, there is nowhere we can go where He cannot see us, and that is a good thing. It is a wonderful thing if you are a believer in His Son Jesus Christ, for He will lead us by His hand and hold us with His right hand. The right hand of God is of great importance in the Bible, and to be at the right hand of God is a place of honor in the Bible. However, to be at the left hand of God is a place of judgment and sin. When Jesus comes to earth a second time to judge the nations, the Bible tells us:

“When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world…’ Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels…’ And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” (Matthew 25:31-34, 41, 46)

After Jesus died, resurrected, and ascended to heaven, He was placed at the right hand of God, where He is today. Before Stephen was martyred for his faith in Jesus Christ by being stoned to death by Jews, the book of Acts tells us about Stephen:

“But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and said, ‘Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!’” (Acts 7:55-56)

Jesus Christ is the right hand of God - the Messiah - and He takes hold of us who have put our faith and trust in Him for our salvation from sins. Jesus leads us in the way everlasting, and He holds us with His right hand when we are weak. The life of a believer is not an easy one but a difficult one. In fact, Jesus told us that it would be this way,

“These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” (Jesus Christ; John 16:33)

As Jesus said in the Scripture above, He has overcome the world, and when we keep our eyes on the prize - Him - we can make it through, with Him walking each step of the way with us, the narrow way that leads to life and which few find. (Matthew 7:13-14)

When we accept Jesus as our Savior, we are born again, forgiven of all our sins. As we grow in our faith, and we should grow in it, by reading from our Bible every single day and praying to God every single day so that we may know more about Him and draw closer to Him, we begin realizing that our life in this world is not our best life, no matter how many false pastors try to tell you otherwise. Rather, this life is a temporary stepping stone on our way to eternity. It is critical that we remember that when troubles and sorrows come our way, testing our faith in Him to reveal whether it is genuine or not. There is nothing like going through troublesome times to reveal whether we truly are with Jesus or are against Him. Will we still trust in Him for our salvation when our health issues are not healed? Will we still trust in Him when something happens to our child that rocks us to our core? Will we still trust in Him when bills are due and the money has run out? Will we still trust in Him when He doesn’t fix things for us as we expect Him to? Will we still trust in Him when the world, our nation, is in the midst of war? Will we still trust in Him when most people hate us for putting our faith and trust in Him and persecution rises to the level where our very lives are at stake if we continue to believe in Him? Will we trust in Him no matter what? Do we still trust that He is God and that He is good? Will we still trust in Him to lead us and to hold us with His right hand, or will it become too much for us and will we turn from Him?

We must have the right mind set and not think with our heart, for our heart is deceitfully wicked. This is where having knowledge of the Bible is absolutely critical because if we don’t know what the Scriptures say, there are many false pastors and teachers who are not working for God but on behalf of Satan who are willing to tell us whatever we want to hear and will lull us to sleep with the lies of the devil, without us even realizing we have been caught in Satan’s snare. We must set our minds on Christ and not on the world:

“If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.” (Colossians 3:1-4)

Did you notice what the Scripture above said? “Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.” This is critical for believers. It is so easy to get focused on ourselves, our situation, our troubles, our health problems, our family problems, and to become obsessed with it all. Instead of looking inward at us, ourselves, we must look upward at Him. Instead of worrying about all the stress, we are to give it all to Him and trust in Him that He is doing a work in us and through us. Nothing that is happening in our lives is a surprise to Him; He knew it would happen before it happened. When difficult times happen, we must take His hand and let Him lead us through His Holy Spirit who dwells in all believers. Let us remember the power of the hand of God. For believers in Christ, the hand of God is our salvation, our protection, and there is no one who can defeat Him and no one who can separate us from His love:

“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: ‘For Your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.’ Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:31-39)

“Indeed My hand has laid the foundation of the earth, and My right hand has stretched out the heavens; when I call to them, they stand up together.” (Isaiah 48:13)

“Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, measured heaven with a span and calculated the dust of the earth in a measure? Weighed the mountains in scales and hills in a balance?” (Isaiah 40:12)

“You have also given me the shield of Your salvation; Your right hand has held me up, Your gentleness has made me great. You enlarged my path under me, so my feet did not slip.” (Psalm 18:35-36)

We all have a decision to make whether or not to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for our salvation, which is the redemption of all of our sins by His precious blood. That decision we make will determine whether we see the hand of God leading us to life and upholding us with His strong right hand, or whether we will see His hand in wrath against us for denying God’s only begotten Son, choosing instead to believe the lies of the devil.

“The hand of our God is upon all those for good who seek Him, but His power and His wrath are against all those who forsake Him.” (Ezra 8:22)

“It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” (Hebrews 10:31)

“He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him - the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day. (Jesus Christ; John 12:48)

The Bible’s book of Revelation tells us there will be a time when all unbelievers who have died will be resurrected and will appear before Jesus Christ on His throne and will be judged by their works since they did not accept His free gift of salvation. The Bible tells us that our works cannot save us; it is only by the grace of God that we are saved through faith in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:8). Thus, all unbelievers will be found guilty by Jesus and will be cast into the lake of fire:

“Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.” (Revelation 20:11-15)

Is God’s hand leading you? Is His right hand holding you? ✝️

July 17, 2023: Psalm 139:8 - God is Omnipresent

“If I ascend into heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.” - Psalm 139:8

Let us go back to the beginning. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth…” (Genesis 1:1) The book of Genesis goes on to tell us that God created the heavens and the earth, He created everything that is in the earth, and He created man and woman in His own image. For the latter, the Bible states, “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness…” (Genesis 1:26). This is because God is the Father, God is the Son (Jesus Christ), and God is the Holy Spirit. Is there anything too difficult for God, the Creator of everything? No, absolutely not. Thus, it is no wonder that God is present everywhere, He is all present or omnipresent. Because He is everywhere, nothing can be hidden from Him, just as I wrote about in my prior devotional with Adam and Eve in the garden.

God is present everywhere, and if we are saved by believing in His Son Jesus Christ, that knowledge is a good thing, a comforting thing for us. However, for unbelievers, to them it may be a bad thing or it may mean nothing to them at all, for now.

If we read today’s Scripture verse again, it says, “If I ascend into heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.” God made both heaven and hell, and His presence is in both places:

“The eyes of the LORD are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good.” (Proverbs 15:3)

“Hell and Destruction are before the LORD; so how much more the hearts of the sons of men.” (Proverbs 15:11)

God’s presence, however, is different for unbelievers than it is for believers. For believers, we will dwell with Him and have fellowship with Him in complete fullness of joy, without sin, shame, and sorrow. However, for unbelievers, who choose to reject His Son’s free gift of salvation from all sins, His presence will be one that is full of torment:

“Then a third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, ‘If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation. He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever; and they have no rest day or night, who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.’” (Revelation 14:9-11)

While the passage above is referring specifically to the 7-year reign of the final Antichrist when everyone will be forced to take his mark or the number of his name and worship him or be killed and how everyone who does take it and worships him will spend their eternity in hell, the same is true for everyone who chooses not to trust in God for their salvation.

Notice the passage above says “…in the presence of the Lamb.” For unbelievers, they will be in hell and while the Lamb is present, they will not have fellowship with Him and will only know His wrath, for eternity. They will not know Him and experience Him as those who believe in Him do. Unbelievers will be separated from all His blessings, from all that is good and holy, because they chose to reject His salvation, thereby rejecting all that is good and choosing evil instead.

For more information, here is a link to an article from gotquestions.org that discusses God’s presence in hell: https://www.gotquestions.org/God-in-hell.html.

For believers, our desire is to be physically with Him, in His presence, and one day we will be with Him, whether it is the time when we are raptured - caught up to Jesus in the clouds at His glorious appearing before the start of the 7-year time of Jacob’s trouble when the final Antichrist reigns - or whether the time when we die and our soul is united with Him and we wait to receive our glorified bodies. For believers, until we are physically with Him, He has promised us in His word that He is always with us and will never leave us nor forsake us:

“Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the LORD your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you.” (Deuteronomy 31:6)

“And the LORD, He is the One who goes before you. He will be with you, He will not leave you nor forsake you; do not fear nor be dismayed.” (Deuteronomy 31:8)

God reiterates this over and over again in His word because He knows that our instinct is to be fearful when we are in difficult situations, but He reminds us that if we are with Him, if we have put our trust in Him, we have nothing to fear, for He is with us, and that is a good thing. The enemy Satan wants us to believe that we are alone in our suffering, in our trials, in our difficulties in life so that he can come along and tempt us when we are weak, with his ultimate goal of pulling us out of the grip of Almighty God. When we are in difficult situations, we must not even entertain Satan’s temptations but immediately put them out of our minds. The best thing to do is to go to Scripture and read God’s words that remind us of His presence and His deep love for us. Remember when Satan tempted Jesus three times? It was when Jesus had gone to the wilderness to fast and had not eaten for 40 days and nights. After each time Satan tempted Jesus, Jesus replied to him, saying, “It is written…” (Matthew 4:4, 7, 10). We too must know Scripture, God’s word, because it is the best defense we have against the enemy, for if we know it and believe in the power of it, we won’t be entrapped in the snares of the enemy. Notice also that Satan tempted Jesus when He was alone in the wilderness. Jesus was weakened by His lack of food, He was all alone with no one to encourage Him, and He was in the wilderness, a desert, a place unknown and likely with difficult terrain. So does Satan do with us, when we are alone with no one to help us in a deserted place that we do not know; it is at that time that we must trust in the One who will never leave us nor forsake us: Almighty God. It is by having this type of trust in God that will get us through our trials of life and ensure that whether we are raptured or die, we will be in the presence of our beloved God and Savior Jesus Christ for all eternity, and oh, what a glorious day that will be!

“You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” (Psalm 16:11)

“And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.’” (Revelation 21:3-4) ✝️

July 14, 2023: Psalm 139:7 - We Cannot Escape God's Presence

“Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence?” - Psalm 139:7

Almighty God. We either flee from Him or we run to Him, but in either case, He sees us, He knows where we are at, at all times. Whether we flee from Him or run to Him does not change who He is: all present, all knowing, and all powerful. Rather, our decision reveals the priority in our lives - ourselves or Him.

When we sin, we want to run from God, we want to hide our sin from Him. Remember Adam and Eve? What did they do after they ate from the one and only tree in the entire garden that God forbade them to eat from? Let us read:

“Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. Then the LORD God called to Adam and said to him, ‘Where are you?’ So he said, ‘I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.” (Genesis 3:7-10)

Until Adam and Eve had eaten of the fruit of the tree from which God had commanded them not to eat, they had no idea that they were naked. Now, it says their eyes were opened. Here they were in the garden, realizing they were naked before God, which wasn’t anything different than they had been prior, but now they were naked before Him in their sin and their shame. That was the difference. They knew in their hearts that they were guilty before God, and when they heard Him walking in the garden, they tried to flee from Him. The same holds true today. What happens when a robber robs a bank? They flee, for they don’t want to get caught in their sin. What happens when an adulterer is caught in bed with someone who is not their spouse? They might flee, but they might also try to kill the person who caught them in their sin. That is what happens with sin: one sin leads to another, to another, and we see that with Adam and Eve. Let’s read what happened next:

“And He said, ‘Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?’ Then the man said, ‘The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.’” (Genesis 3:11-12)

When God directly asked Adam if he had eaten of the tree from which God had specifically forbidden him to eat, instead of answering first with a “yes” or a “no,” he blamed the woman for his action and then he blamed God because after all, it was Him who had given her to Adam as a “helper comparable to him.” (Genesis 2:18) Then after blaming Eve and God, finally Adam said, “I ate.” Did Adam have to eat that fruit? When she offered the fruit to him, could he have reminded his wife what God had said to him, and then refuse to eat it? Yes, he could have done that, but instead of listening to God, he listened to Eve. This is what happens in marriages when a husband does not put God first above everything. If Adam and truly loved Eve and wanted to protect her from harm, he would have listened to God’s commands and not to Eve’s desires.

Also, in blaming God for his sin, Adam twisted the love that God had for him when He said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.” (Genesis 2:18) God didn’t want Adam to be all alone but wanted him to have companionship, a wife. However, in a desperate act to shift the blame off of himself and to put it on anyone besides himself, he blamed both Eve and God. How many times have we done this, not wanting to take responsibility for our own actions, our own decisions that caused us more trouble in our lives, and blame others, even blaming God? I know that I have done this many times, especially in my marriage, just as Adam did, and when I did, I felt trapped and wanted to flee; I wanted to escape.

Next, let’s read what happened when God asked Eve what happened:

“And the LORD God said to the woman, ‘What is this you have done?’ The woman said, ‘The serpent deceived me, and I ate.’” (Genesis 3:11-13)

Again, instead of taking the responsibility for her own action, Eve blamed the serpent. Deception is all around us today, just as it was in the garden. However, deception does not absolve us from our sins. Eve knew that God had told Adam not to eat the fruit of the tree in the midst of the garden, and we know that because she had told that to the serpent when he questioned what God had said, planting seeds of doubt. However, as I wrote about in my prior daily devotional, Eve had added to what God had commanded Adam, saying they should neither eat the fruit nor touch it or they would die. God never said they couldn’t touch the fruit, only they must not eat the fruit. This is what happens when we twist God’s word by adding to or taking from it. Not only are we deceived by the enemy Satan, but we also deceive ourselves as we try to come up with an excuse as to why we sinned. Eve’s first sin was not obeying what her husband had told her and second, instead of fleeing from the serpent, she let him deceive her and was complicit in it because she twisted the words of God, which the serpent used against her. When we look at something with desire in our heart to take of it and we ignore the voice, the warnings of God and instead heed the words of Satan, we set ourselves up for a fall.

How many of us, myself included, have been willfully deceived because of the lust of our eyes, the lust of the flesh, and then when things started to fall apart in our lives, we blamed God, we blamed so and so, and on and on, not accepting responsibility for our own actions? This is exactly what happened in the garden of Eden to Adam and Eve. Wouldn’t it have been so much better if they had listened to God commands, if they had obeyed Him? Wouldn’t our lives have been so much better if we had listened to God’s commands, if we had obeyed Him? How many times have we ourselves fled from God after we sinned, only to find ourselves in a bigger mess?

Obviously, we can’t change history. God knew before He even created Adam and Eve that they would sin, that they would fall into the sin nature, but He chose to create them anyway. Why? Because He had a plan of redemption, a plan of salvation, and it was right there in the book of Genesis. But before this plan of redemption would come, Adam and Eve would suffer the consequences of not obeying God, just as we ourselves suffer the consequences in our own lives for not obeying Him, for ignoring that still small voice in our heads that said to us, “Don’t do that!” but we did it anyway in an act of rebellion against God. Let us read what God then said to the serpent (Satan), Eve, and Adam:

“So the LORD God said to the serpent:

‘Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all cattle, and more than every beast of the field; on your belly you shall go, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.’

“To the woman He said:

‘I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; in pain you shall bring forth children; your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.’

‘Then to Adam He said, ‘Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, “You shall not eat of it”:

“Cursed is the ground for your sake; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall return.” ’ ” (Genesis 3:14-19)

First, let’s discuss the consequences of Eve’s sin. God said the woman’s sorrows and conception would be multiplied and childbearing would now become painful. As a mother, we worry about our children’s safety. Prior to Adam and Eve’s sin, they would have had children and never worried about their safety, for they would live forever in a place without sin and sorrow, but now, all that had changed. Now, Eve would worry about her children’s safety and would know that one day, they would die. Eve would sorrow after her firstborn son Cain would murder his brother Abel. God also told Eve that her desire “shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.” When God made Eve for Adam, He told Adam, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.” (Genesis 2:18) However, Eve’s desire had not been for her husband because if it was, she would have heeded the voice of her husband and not the voice of the serpent and not given into the desire of her eyes and the lust of her flesh. Consequently, God now said her desire would be for her husband and he would rule over her. Clearly, this is not a popular concept in our world today, and our rejection of it has caused much sin and chaos in the family and is a major contributor to the breakdown of the family, culture, and society. There clearly is a power struggle between many husbands and wives in marriages today.

Next, let’s discuss the consequences of Adam’s sin. Instead of having everything provided for him by God, now Adam would have to work for his food and it wouldn’t come easy for him. He would have to work hard and sweat in order to grow things from the earth that he, Eve, and their future family would eat. I can relate to the thorns and thistles part of what God said. Last year, my husband discovered there were wild black raspberries growing in a field nearby where we live. They taste really good, especially in homemade jam. However, picking them is definitely a challenge because the bushes are covered in thorns. When one of the thorns hook into you, you can’t pull away from it as the thorn only digs in deeper. This happened to me when a thorn got caught in my shoulder. It hurt, and I immediately pulled away but it only went in further. My husband had to help free it from me. The thorns were one thing, then add to that the summer bugs and the summer heat. We picked them for probably 30 minutes and reaped only three cups of fruit. It was a lot of work for just a little food, and this was what Adam had to learn after living in the comforts of God’s garden when previously everything had been provided to him by God.

This is such a picture of our American society today. God has blessed our nation in so many ways and yet, it wasn’t enough. We took our blessings from Him for granted, got puffed up in ourselves and became filled with pride and full of self; we put our trust in education and unrighteous governments, which provided no wisdom in the word of God; we felt invincible with our military prowess, thinking we could never be brought down; and we turned our eyes, our hearts, and our flesh on the things of this world and we were deceived - and are being deceived I believe more than at any other time in our history - by Satan, and we have taken God completely out of our lives. Just as Adam and Eve had a fall, which resulted in a fall of all generations thereafter, I believe we are seeing the fall of America, a nation that forgot the one true God, to embrace the lies of the devil, making life all about ourselves, and to have the audacity to think that we can be like God.

Speaking of the devil, now let us examine the consequences of his, the serpent’s actions. God said he would be cursed more than every beast of the field and “on your belly you shall go and shall eat dust all the days of your life.” The serpent would have no limbs and eat the dust as he slithers on his belly from place to place. Next, God gave the first prophecy of Jesus Christ. Let’s read again what it says:

“And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.” (Genesis 3:15)

Jesus the Christ would come from the Seed of the woman. We know that women do not have seed, or sperm, but have eggs. When Jesus was born, God Himself provided the Seed when a young virgin named Mary conceived Jesus through the Holy Spirit. Satan would war against Jesus and all who choose to follow Him, to believe in Him as their Savior. Satan would use evil men and demonic forces to crucify Jesus and have Him nailed at the cross, including the nail that would be thrust through His heel, but Jesus will bruise or crush Satan in the end. As the Bible tells us in the book of Revelation, Satan is a defeated foe and so is every single person who has ever and will align theirselves with him and against God. There is no escaping God’s presence. Try as he might by using modern technology, including artificial intelligence, which is growing more rapidly than most of us can comprehend, Satan and those aligned with him are no match against Almighty God. Almighty God is all powerful, all present, and all knowing, and He will not be defeated. God sees everything, He hears everything, He knows what move we will make before we even thought about making it. To believe anything else is to believe the lies of Satan.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, I write these devotionals as often as I am able to encourage you, to encourage myself, to stand strong in the Lord and in the power of His might, for we are in a spiritual battle with the enemy and will be until the day we die or until we hear that upward call of Jesus Christ when He:

“…will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.” (2 Thessalonians 4:16-18)

We must never forget that God is with us, always. We must remember His promises that He will never leave us nor forsake us. We must remember that we must not fear man but have a fear of the Lord, a reverent fear of Almighty God, our Creator and Savior. May we rest in the assurances that we who put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ have been forgiven of all our sins and that our hope is not in this world but our hope is in Him, the author and finisher of our faith. No matter how dark this world gets, and boy, is it growing darker every day, God is with us. He is the light that leads us in the way of salvation, in the way everlasting.

To those who aren’t saved by putting their faith and trust in Jesus Christ to forgive them of all of their sins, I ask you: can you see that the war that is raging across the globe is a spiritual war for the souls of mankind? Can you say that the battle lines are being drawn and each one of us must take a side and that the grey that once existed, the middle ground, is being erased, that things are black and white and there is no in-between? Can you see that Satan and his demonic forces are using as pawns those in power, including world governments and the “elite,” and the average, every day people who have aligned themselves with Satan, to deceptively implement policies that promote the destruction of mankind? Can you see that everything regarding population is to reduce it: abortion, alternative lifestyles that cannot reproduce, less men and women getting married and having children, forced one-child policies resulting in more men than women, sterilization masked as immunization, gender confusion, medical assisted suicide, worshiping the planet to the extent that the “elite” are pushing policies that will result in more people dying, such as forced closure of farms and decreasing the amount of cattle, chickens, and other much-needed animal protein that are required especially by young children as their brains develop, and the list is being added to all the time. Can you see governments, militaries, corporations, education, media, and entertainment are all doing things that are appeasing, embracing, and wholeheartedly promoting things that are evil and rejecting all that is good in the eyes of God? Why is this happening? Because Satan hates mankind and unlike Satan, we are the only beings created in God’s image. Satan is filled with pride and wasn’t happy enough to be called by God “the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty…in Eden, the garden of God…the anointed cherub who covers…” (Ezekiel 28:12-13, 14). Oh no, instead, Satan said, “I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.” (Isaiah 14:14) That is why Satan deceived Eve in the garden, leading her and Adam to the fall of mankind, and he wants to deceive as many people as possible before God finally says “Enough!” and tells His Son Jesus Christ, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, to take the scroll from His right hand and open the first of seven seals on the scroll. This will begin the unleashing of His wrath upon all who have rejected God and who are destroying His creation.

There is no running from God, there is no hiding from His presence. Let us read of just one of 21 judgments that are to come upon the earth in a time period known as the 7-year tribulation period, the time of Jacob’s trouble, when God has had enough and sends these judgments as a final wake-up call to mankind, to give them a final seven years to turn to Jesus Christ and be saved or to confirm their alignment with Satan and suffer the consequences of such as dreadful mistake:

”I looked when He opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood. And the stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree drops its late figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind. Then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out its place. And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb [Jesus Christ]! For the great day of HIs wrath has come, and who is able to stand?’” (Revelation 6:12-17)

If you are still reading this, and I know it’s long, I ask you, do you believe you can escape God’s presence? Are you prepared for what is coming, whether you live to see the days described above, or when you die, exiting this temporary life and entering your eternity? We all will spend our eternity in one of two places: heaven or hell. Where we spend it is entirely up to us and it is based on the single most important decision we will ever make in our lives: did we accept Jesus as our Savior, trusting in Him to redeem us of all our sins, or not? A “yes” answer guarantees our salvation and our eternity in heaven, with Him. A “no” answer or even avoiding the answer altogether, guarantees an eternity in hell. What do you choose?

The passage below sums up the difference between those who put their faith and trust in Jesus and those who don’t:

“We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is fitting, because your faith grows exceedingly, and the love of every one of you all abounds toward each other, so that we ourselves boast of you among the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that you endure, which is manifest evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you also suffer; since it is a righteous thing with God to repay with tribulation those who trouble you, and to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, when He comes in that Day, to be glorified with His saints and to be admired among all those who believe, because our testimony among you was believed. Therefore we also pray always for you that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness and the work of faith with power, that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.” (2 Thessalonians 1:3-12)

Just as Adam and Eve tried to hide from God after their sins but could not, so we too cannot hide from Him. For a believer in Christ, this is a good thing; however, for an unbeliever, this is a terrible thing:

“The mountains quake before Him, the hills melt, and the earth heaves at His presence, yes, the world and all who dwell in it. Who can stand before His indignation and who can endure the fierceness of His anger? His fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by Him. The LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and He knows those who trust in Him. But with an overflowing flood He will make an utter end of its place, and darkness will pursue His enemies. What do you conspire against the LORD? He will make an utter end of it. Affliction will not rise up a second time. For while tangled like thorns, and while drunken like drunkards, they shall be devoured like stubble fully dried.” (Nahum 1:5-10)

What is God’s presence to you? Are you fleeing from Him or running to Him? ✝️

July 9, 2023: Psalm 139:6 - Such Knowledge is Too Wonderful for Me

“Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain it.” - Psalm 139:6

Has someone ever said something to you that was so personal and you knew that only that one person could have said it because they knew you like no one else did? I had that experience back in 2012 when the Holy Spirit spoke to me. It wasn’t a verbal, out loud speaking but it was a voice in my head that I absolutely knew was not from me and I knew it was from Almighty God through His Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit spoke to me as a loving Father in the words of a song not yet written and not yet sung. God knows that I love music, I always have. I have found refuge many times in very difficult situations by listening to music. Music calms me. The Holy Spirit spoke words to me that were straight out of the Bible, and it was the good news of Jesus Christ, and how He could set me free from my sins, from my fear and pain, if only I would turn to Him. That day truly changed my life, and it is a day I never will forget.

God spoke to me in a way that was so very personal because He knows me, He knows everything about me. He formed me in my mother’s womb and had a plan for my life before I even took my first breath. He knows my weaknesses, and He knew that I would try to fix by myself the things that were causing me so much stress and worry in my life, instead of giving them to Him. I realize now that number one, it was my pride that was getting in the way, not willing to let Him have complete control over my life. Number two was my lack of faith in God to fix them. Number three was my lack of patience with Him for them to be fixed. I wanted to fix things and I wanted to fix them in my way and I wanted them to be fixed now! God, being the gentleman that He is, let me go about my ways of trying to fix the messes that I had contributed to making. Finally, when everything came to a head and I was broken, realizing I couldn’t fix anything, when I was at a point in my life when no one could help me, no one could understand what I was going through, not my husband, not my best friend, not my children, and I was all alone in my thoughts, my heartache, and my pain, I cried out to God to help me. That is when I heard Him say:

“Child of Mine, turn to Me. Swallow your pride, don’t leave My side. Trust in Me, and you will see I’m always here for you. Turn to Me, give it all to Me. Let go of the tears, let go of the pain. Give them all to Me. There’s no need to fear when I’m here. Turn to Me.”

Those words hit me like a bright light that opened my eyes to who God really is and they gave me hope, a hope like I hadn’t had in many years. I did turn to God that day. With my broken heart, I believed. I believed in His power and ability to pull me out of the pit I was in, and when I did, I felt like a 2,000-pound weight had been lifted off of my back. I could breathe. The burden of my sins had been taken by the One who came to set us, to set me, free from all my sins: Jesus Christ.

My heart was so full of love for God that He would speak to me in such a way that I absolutely knew it was Him and it was so very personal to me. That is just the way He works. He wants us to know Him personally, which is why He chose men long ago to write His word - the Bible - for all of mankind so that we may read it for ourselves and know Him and of His deep, deep love for us, a love like no other.

I had never heard the words “Turn to Me” in reference to God until that day I turned to Him, and since then, I have read several times in the Bible that uses that phrase or a similar one, including:

“‘Now, therefore,’ says the LORD, ‘Turn to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.’ So rend your heart, and not your garments; return to the LORD your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness; and He relents from doing harm.” (Joel 2:12-13)

“Look [or Turn] to Me and be saved, all you ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.” (Isaiah 45:22)

“All the ends of the world shall remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations shall worship before You. For the kingdom is the LORD’s, and He rules over the nations.” (Psalm 22:27-28)

“And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number believed and turned to the Lord.” (Acts 11:21)

God doesn’t want our outward actions or our empty praises of Him; He wants our hearts. He wants to know that we truly believe in Him and we will trust in Him no matter what comes our way. He wants us to give up our futile ways of handling problems ourselves and to give them all to Him. When we do, we are able to sleep at night, we don’t have anxious thoughts that weaken not only our mind but also our body, and most importantly, we grow in our relationship with God, knowing that He has this. When the issue or the problem isn’t fixed the way we would like it to be or in the timeframe we had hoped for, we must not let the enemy - Satan - get into our heads and cause us to doubt God’s love for us and the fact that He knows what is best for us.

It was the serpent Satan who put thoughts of doubt in Eve’s mind when he asked her in the Garden, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden?’” (Genesis 3:1) It was at that moment he put that seed of doubt into her mind. Instead of correctly answering to Satan what God had in fact commanded to Adam, Eve added to what God had said, saying, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’” (Genesis 3:2-3) God did not say that they should not touch the fruit of the tree in the midst of the garden. Why did Eve add to God’s words? I don’t know, but perhaps it was to make it seem like God was putting even more boundaries in their lives than He did in order to justify her coming sin. Then, the Bible tells us, “Then the serpent said to the woman, ‘You shall not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’” (Genesis 3:4-5) Satan tempted Eve, deceiving her by making her think that God was withholding something from her and Adam because God didn’t want them to be like Him. This is a lie from the pit of hell and Satan knew it, and Satan is still telling people that same lie today.

As they were with Adam and Eve, God’s commandments to us are for our protection, but sadly, most of the world does not see them that way, and we know that Eve and Adam didn’t see them that way either. When we open the doors of our lives to temptation, as Eve did when instead of telling the serpent that he lied and it was not what God said and walking away, she listened to him, and then she looked at the fruit, and “saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.” (Genesis 3:6) When we open our minds and our hearts to doubt the love of God for us, it is like opening the front door of our souls for Satan to come right in, pridefully deceiving us with his lies and deception, ensnaring us in our sin, making us operate on our feelings instead of the knowledge of God’s love for us. When we operate on our feelings, which is what I did for so many years in my life, we are in a trap that can only be set free by turning our hearts to God, letting go of our pride, and letting Him save us out of the pit. But, we must cry out to Him and then take His hand as He reaches toward us to pull us out; we must take that act of faith.

Has my life been a bed of roses since I took that act of faith? No, in fact, in many ways, my life got harder. I have cried many tears over family members gone astray and remain in their unbelief, friendships broken, the death of loved ones and of sweet pets, and not to mention all that craziness that has happened and is happening in our world, but since I turned to Him, I have been able to go through those difficult times with a hope I never had, no longer going through them with a sense of doom, like I couldn’t go on anymore. Having a relationship with Jesus Christ, where I know Him with my heart, the One whose knowledge of me is too wonderful and that is high and which I cannot attain, has given me confidence that I never had, knowing that He is with me always, and no matter what comes my way, I will get through it, in His perfect timing, in His perfect way. My job as His child is be patient, to be humble and trust in Him, to obey His commands, and to watch the work that He does in my life and in others in my life, always remembering that He loves me, as He loves you, more than we could ever know. If you haven’t turned to Him yet, what are you waiting for? Turn to Him today, before it’s too late. ✝️

July 6, 2023: Psalm 139:5 - God Surrounds and Protects His Own

“You have hedged me behind and before, and laid Your hand upon me.” - Psalm 139:5

How many of us have felt trapped, with nowhere to go, with no way of escaping the situation we are in? Though we ourselves have tried repeatedly to fix what was broken, we finally realized something: we can’t fix it. How many of us then realized we are a sinner in need of the Savior and that only He can fix what is broken and cried out to Him, finally surrendering to Him, giving it all to Him?

God doesn’t expect us to be perfect, but He does want us to trust in Him, in both the comfortable and happy times and in the dark and dreary times. He wants us to trust Him in times of good health and in times when we can barely get out of bed to face another day when we are so weak and weary. He wants us to trust in Him; His word even tells us that:

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD and depart from evil. It will be health to your flesh [body], and strength to your bones.” (Proverbs 3:5-8)

“And the LORD, He is the One who goes before you. He will be with you, He will not leave you nor forsake you; do not fear nor be dismayed.” (Deuteronomy 31:8)

“Commit your way to the LORD, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass. He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday.” (Psalm 37:5-6)

“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye. Do not be like the horse or like the mule, which have no understanding, which must be harnessed with bit and bridle, else they will not come near you.” (Psalm 32:8-9)

“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” (Jeremiah 29:11)

“It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man. It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in princes.” (Psalm 118:8-9)

“He is not afraid of evil tidings [news]; his heart is steadfast, trusting in the LORD.” (Psalm 112:7)

The Scriptures above about trusting in the Lord are just several of probably hundreds or more that are in the Bible. Why did God put so many verses about trusting in Him in the Bible? I believe it is because it is the last thing most people do, myself included, when times get rough, when we are faced with a challenge so big in our lives that we fight against it. When it seems that the problem in our lives we are facing is as big as Mt. Everest, we decide for ourselves that we can take down that mountain. That is our pride in trusting in ourselves and not in our Lord. It is like taking a pick axe and striking it against the huge mountain, trying to take it down. This truly is a mission impossible and all it does is wear us out, frustrating us because that mountain hasn’t moved, it hasn’t come down, and we want it down - NOW! What we should have done was to trust in the Lord to bring down that mountain with His power and might, by His way, and most importantly, in His perfect timing. Further, we don’t know what good will come out of seeing that mountain come down by trusting in the Lord as He brings it down, not only in our own lives but perhaps in other people’s lives who see us trusting in the Lord.

Let us remember the nation of Israel when God sent Moses to deliver His people - the nation of Israel - out of their 430 years of bondage to Pharaoh in Egypt. The Bible tells us:

“Then the children of Israel groaned because of the bondage, and they cried out; and their cry came up to God because of the bondage. So God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. And God looked upon the children of Israel, and acknowledged them.” (Exodus 2:23-25)

God heard their cries. What did He do? Did He decide to leave them there? No, He set about His plan He had made long before their forefathers had even come to Egypt. He started the action of taking them out of Egypt and bringing them into the land He had promised them long ago when He made His unconditional covenant with Abraham. Everything that had happened to Israel during their 430 years in captivity had been prophesied by God to Abraham, whose name was “Abram” before God changed it to “Abraham”:

“Then He said to Abram: ‘Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years. And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions.’” (Genesis 15:13-14)

“On the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying: ‘To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates - the Kenites, the Kenezzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.’” (Genesis 15:18-21)

God’s people went through 430 years of bondage before He would bring them into the land that He had given them in the unconditional covenant He had made with Abram. They had to go through many years of suffering before their future generations would see God’s blessing.

Moses and his brother Aaron went to Pharaoh, telling him, “Thus says the LORD God of Israel: ‘Let My people go, that they may hold a feast to Me in the wilderness.” (Exodus 5:1). However, Pharaoh said to them, “Who is the LORD, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the LORD, nor will I let Israel go.” (Exodus 5:2). Moses and Aaron tried again but Pharaoh refused to let Israel go and instead made it harder for them to do the work he was having them do by causing them to make bricks without providing them straw. Consequently, God then sent nine different plagues upon Pharaoh and Egypt to show Pharaoh that he must release His people, but Pharaoh hardened his heart and determined not to free them. I think there is a lesson to us in this, that when we refuse to listen to God and want to do things our way, our hearts become hardened against Him, as Pharaoh did. I know this is true in my case. As God sent things that were like plagues to me in my own difficult situations, instead of turning to God and yielding everything to Him, I dug my feet even further in my own resistance, and as I did, I felt like God didn’t care about me, even questioning that He even loved me.

Finally, God sent the tenth plague which was the most difficult but the only one that would cause Pharaoh to heed God’s command to let His people go. God ordered the death of all the firstborn in Egypt, both man and beast, but He would protect His people and gave them specific instructions on what to do. To protect their firstborns, they must slaughter a lamb no more than one-year old and without blemish, and then take some hyssop, dip it in the blood, and put the blood on the doorposts and lentil so that when the destroyer came that night and saw the blood on the doorposts and lentil, it would passover that house and protect all within it. This was when God instituted the Passover with His people. This was a foreshadow of the sinless Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, who would come to earth, be crucified, die, and resurrect three days later, to take away the sins of the world by His precious blood for all who put their trust in Him for deliverance of sins.

It is very interesting to note that each of the ten plagues that God sent upon Pharaoh and Egypt were all direct judgments against the false gods that Pharaoh and Egypt worshipped instead of the One true God, the God of Israel. There is an excellent article on gotquestions.org that describes this. (See: https://www.gotquestions.org/ten-plagues-Egypt.html) How many of us, myself included, have put our faith and trust in the false gods of this world, including the false god of self, instead of trusting in the Lord to deliver us out of a crisis situation we are in? With Pharaoh and Egypt, God used the same false gods they worshipped to afflict them. The sixth plague of boils that broke out in sores is one example that applies to us today. This sixth plague, per gotquestions.org: “…was a judgment against several gods over health and disease (Sekhmet, Sunu, and Isis). This time, the Bible says that [Pharaoh’s] magicians ‘could not stand before Moses because of the boils.’ Clearly, these religious leaders were powerless against the God of Israel.” Think of the recent plague that was put upon our world recently and in whom or what did we put our trust: was it in God, or was it in man, or something else? How many plagues must God send to us to show us we must not worship any other God but Him, the one true God? How many times do we not hear Him say to something to us as He said to Pharaoh before He sent the seventh plague of hail in all the land of Egypt:

“…for at this time I will send all My plagues to your very heart, and on your servants and on your people, that you may know that there is none like Me in all the earth. Now if I had stretched out My hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, then you would have been cut off from the earth. But indeed for this purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth. As yet you exalt yourself against My people in that you will not let them go.” (Exodus 9:14-17)

How many times have we hardened our own heart and exalted ourselves instead of God, ignoring His commands and His warnings and followed our own direction, only to make matters worse? How many of us have refused to believe and trust in the unmatched power of God?

At midnight of the tenth plague, when Pharaoh’s firstborn son died, he finally relented and called for Moses and Aaron by night and told them, “Rise, go out from among my people, both you and the children of Israel. And go, serve the LORD as you have said.” (Exodus 12:31) As God foretold to Abram in Genesis 15:13-14, before leaving, the children of Israel asked the Egyptians for articles of silver and gold and clothing, and the Egyptians gave it to them. Israel prepared food for their journey, and after 430 years of bondage, Israel - men, women, and children - with their livestock, began her exodus out of Egypt. However, it wasn’t long before Pharaoh regretted his decision and decided to pursue them. God, who is all-knowing, knew all along that Pharaoh would harden his heart during the ten plagues, and God knew Pharaoh would harden his heart again and would want to recapture those he just set free. Pharaoh readied himself and his army to pursue God’s people. The Bible tells us several times that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart. Pharaoh had reached a point where he rejected God’s commands so many times that God said, okay, I’m giving you over to your foolishness in trusting in your false gods and I am hardening your heart. As Pharaoh was preparing to hunt down God’s people, this was one of those times that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and God did it for a reason, as He told Moses:

“‘Speak to the children of Israel, that they turn and camp before Pi Hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, opposite Baal Zephon; you shall camp before it by the sea. For Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, “They are bewildered by the land; the wilderness has closed them in.” Then I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, so that he will pursue them, and I will gain honor over Pharaoh and over all his army, that the Egyptians may know that I am the LORD.’ And they did so.” (Exodus 14:2-4)

Moses did as God commanded, and the Bible tells us:

“And the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued the children of Israel; and the children of Israel went out with boldness.” (Exodus 14:8)

The children of Israel were encamped by the sea of Pi Hahiroth, before Baal Zephon and they saw the mighty Egyptian army pursuing them with many chariots and became very afraid and cried out to the Lord. Then they hurled accusations against Moses, blaming him for bringing them out of Egypt, saying to him:

“Is this not the word that we told you in Egypt, saying, ‘Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness.” (Exodus 14:12)

In their fear, they felt it would have been better to die in their bondage and slavery to Pharaoh than to die free in the Lord. They were fearing what man could to do them instead of fearing God, the one who has the power not only over our earthly bodies but our eternal souls. This is what fear does to us, it causes us to make poor choices. Even when it is oh so difficult, we must trust in the Lord and lean not on our own understanding, as the Bible tells us, because we do not know what God is up to in our lives, we don’t know the work that He is doing. We don’t have to know it, but we must trust in Him in all situations, even when we are boxed in, just as the children of Israel were, with nowhere to go, with only the sea around them and their enemy hot on their heels.

Moses then said to them:

“Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation [deliverance] of the LORD, which He will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall see again no more forever. The LORD will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace [be quiet]. (Exodus 14:13-14)

Notice that Moses said to them “stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD.” He didn’t want them cowering in fear of their enemy but to stand in confidence in their Lord and to know that He will fight for them. He didn’t want them yelling and screaming in fear, but to be quiet and to let God do His work through them and to reveal His glory through Pharaoh. This calls to mind the Scripture verse:

“Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth! The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah” (Psalm 46:10-11)

How many of us are willing to stand still and have confidence in our Lord, Almighty God, and face our fears with courage and boldness through our knowledge of Him, that He is for us and not against us, that He is with us and He is our refuge? How many of us can do this when we have nowhere else to turn because we are surrounded on all sides by our enemy or because of the trial that we are going through? How many of us have not looked at the challenges we are facing and how big they may seem to us but instead have looked up to see what an amazing God we serve and put our trust in Him and in Him alone to win this battle for us? If we have not, then we should ask ourselves why.

What happened next to Moses and the Israelites? “And the LORD said to Moses, ‘Why do you cry to Me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward.”’ (Exodus 14:15) God wanted them to “go forward.” Stop crying and move forward. Take courage in Him, be bold, knowing that He had their back, just as He has the backs of all of us who put our faith and trust in Him. When it seems we are boxed in on all sides, He makes a way, a way that no one else could make but Him, but, we must trust in Him to do it and we must go forward in faith. And then God, He did make a way. He told Moses to take his rod and stretch it out over the sea and it would be divided, providing dry ground for His people, the children of Israel, to go across it. We must absolutely remember that God’s ways are not our ways because He is all knowing, all present, and all powerful. He can do things we could never even fathom, and that is exactly what He did when He took Israel out of Egypt by bringing them through the Red Sea on dry land. The Bible also tells us:

“And the Angel of God, who went before the camp of Israel, moved and went behind them; and the pillar of cloud went from before them and stood behind them. So it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel. Thus it was a cloud and darkness to the one, and it gave light by night to the other, so that the one did not come near the other all that night. Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the LORD caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea into dry land, and the waters were divided. So the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea on the dry ground, and the waters were a wall to them, on their right hand and on their left.” (Exodus 14:19-22)

God had put the Angel of God and the pillar of cloud behind them, separating them from Pharaoh and his army so that they could not overcome them as they pursued the children of Israel as they walked through the Red Sea. Next, God took off the wheels of the Egyptians’ chariots, making it harder for them to pursue Israel. The Egyptians then cried out, “Let us flee from the face of Israel, for the LORD fights for them against the Egyptians.” (Exodus 14:25) With all of the children of Israel having safely reached the other side, God then told Moses to stretch out his hand over the sea in order to bring the waters back and upon the Egyptians, their chariots, and their horsemen, and Moses did as God commanded him. The waters swallowed them all up, eliminating the threat to His children, who had crossed safely through the Red Sea.

“Thus Israel saw the great work which the LORD had done in Egypt; so the people feared the LORD, and believed the LORD and His servant Moses.” (Exodus 14:31)

Israel didn’t have to go through the Red Sea, trusting in God that He would ensure they would arrive on the other end safely. No, they could have doubted in Him and turned back and ran the other way, back to Pharaoh and the Egyptians who kept them in bondage for 430 years and asked him to forgive them, but they didn’t. Though they must have been fearful, they trusted in God to go forward, just as we must trust in Him and go forward when He tells us to, knowing that He surrounds and protects His own, including us. Are you willing to have this level of faith in Him? I pray you do, for He is good and He is God.

For those of us, including myself, who see an increasingly wicked world that is turning against all who have put their faith and trust in His Son Jesus Christ for our salvation, as we feel more and more boxed in by the wicked forces who seek to persecute us and even kill us, as is being done now in some countries, let us remember Israel’s Red Sea moment and know with absolute certainty that God has not forgotten His children, and we too will have our Red Sea moment, and as He did with Pharaoh and his army, so He will do with them:

“He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall hold them in derision. Then He shall speak to them in His wrath, and distress them in HIs deep displeasure; ‘yet I have set My King on My holy hill of Zion.’” (Psalm 2:4-6)

Let us read the words of the Song of Moses that he and the children of Israel sang to the Lord for what He had done for them and what He would do next as He would bring them into the Promised Land. May we too, as believers in Christ, praise the Lord God for all He has done for us and will do for us when He leads us out of this life and into our eternity, when our true life begins!

“I will sing to the LORD, for He has triumphed gloriously! The horse and its rider He has thrown into the sea! The LORD is my strength and song, and He has become my salvation; He is my God, and I will praise Him; My father’s God, and I will exalt Him. The LORD is a man of war; the LORD is HIs name. Pharaoh’s chariots and his army He has cast into the sea; His chosen captains also are drowned in the Red Sea. The depths have covered them; they sank to the bottom like a stone.

“Your right hand, O LORD, has become glorious in power; Your right hand, O LORD has dashed the enemy into pieces. And in the greatness of Your excellence You have overthrown those who rose against You; You sent forth Your wrath; it consumed them like stubble. And with the blast of Your nostrils the waters were gathered together; the floods stood upright like a heap; the depths congealed in the heart of the sea. The enemy said, ‘I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; my desire shall be satisfied on them. I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them.’ You blew with Your wind, the sea covered them; they sank like lead in the mighty waters.

“Who is like You, O LORD, among the gods? Who is like You, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders? You stretched out Your right hand; the earth swallowed them. You in Your mercy have led forth the people whom You have redeemed; You have guided them in Your strength to Your holy habitation.

“The people will hear and be afraid; sorrow will take hold of the inhabitants of Philistia. Then the chiefs of Edom will be dismayed; the mighty men of Moab, trembling will take hold of them; all the inhabitants of Canaan will melt away. Fear and dread will fall on them; by the greatness of Your arm they will be as still as a stone, till Your people pass over, O LORD, till the people pass over whom You have purchased. You will bring them in and plant them in the mountain of Your inheritance, in the place, O LORD, which You have made for Your own dwelling, the sanctuary, O Lord, which Your hands have established."

“The LORD shall reign forever and ever.” (Exodus 15:1-18) ✝️

June 30, 2023: Psalm 139:4 - God Knows What I Will Say Before I Even Utter a Word

“For there is not a word on my tongue, but behold, O LORD, You know it altogether.” - Psalm 139:4

When we are children, we must learn to speak words. We start with uttering sounds which bring delight to our parents as they watch us grow. Have you ever seen a baby that isn’t speaking a single word but is making all kinds of sounds and having a wonderful time because he has discovered his voice? He doesn’t care where the is or what time it is, he is simply amazed at this new thing he is now able to do. As a baby grows older, they begin to sound words as they are coaxed by their parents to say such words as “Mama” and “Dada.” I remember when our son first said “Dada,” we were so happy, although I must admit I wanted him to say “Mama” first! It wasn’t long before our children learn to say the word “no!” as they begin to show defiance against what we want them do. Watching our children grow is truly a blessing from God.

Just as a parent can sometimes sense what a child is going to say before they even say it, perhaps by reading the non-verbal cues, so does our heavenly Father know what we are going to say before we even say it. God, the One who created us, who designed us, who formed us in our mother’s womb, not only knows what we will say before we even utter a word but He also knows if the intent of our heart matches what we said. How many of us have had a child lie to us to our faces, where the words they spoke do not match the guilt shown in their face? Just as a child can’t hide it from their parents, neither can we hide anything from God; He is all knowing, He is all present, and He is all powerful. The Bible tells us that there is nothing that can be hidden from Him:

“And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.” (Hebrews 4:13)

Just as God knows the thoughts and intents of our hearts, so does His word. In this same passage of Scripture in the book of Hebrews, itstates:

“For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12)

The Bible is the word of God, written by men chosen by God as they were inspired by the Holy Spirit of God. I have heard it said by David Paul Kikrpatrick, “We don’t read the Bible, the Bible reads us.” I absolutely agree with this statement. When we read the Bible, do we receive it with a repentant heart, realizing we are all sinners in need of a Savior, His only begotten Son Jesus Christ, the only One who can save us from our sins and decide to turn to Him and be saved, or do we reject His word as myths and fables, or possibly consider it a book only meant to control and limit our abilities so that we won’t be like Him, choosing instead to believe the lies of the devil that have been in existence since he deceived Eve in the garden, causing her and Adam to fall from God’s grace?

How many of us have uttered words that we wished we could take back after seeing the hurt they caused someone? How many of us have been on the receiving end of those words, perhaps not just once but having a long history of hearing such words from someone who claims to love us, with each word hitting our hearts like a dagger being thrust into it repeatedly? How many of us have in anger taken God’s name in vain, have used His beautiful Son’s name as a curse word? How many of us have been pierced by our conscience not to say certain things but in defiance did so anyways, with the consequences lasting much longer than it took for them to roll off our tongues in anger? How many of us have done these things and not even regretted what we did? God knew what we were going to say before we even said it, and yet, He is willing to forgive us of all we have ever done, to forgive every hurtful word spoken, if only we would do one thing: believe in His Son Jesus Christ. Why? Because of His deep love for us, a love beyond compare:

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” (John 3:16-17)

God is willing to wipe clean every single sin we have and ever will commit if only we believe in His Son:

“He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.” (Colossians 1:13-14)

God will remember no more the hurtful words we spoke. He will remember no more the sinful thoughts in our heart that were there even before we put them into words. But if we continue in our sin, in our pride, in our hard-heartedness, in our rejection of His priceless gift of salvation from sins offered to us by the precious blood that was shed for us by His sinless Son Jesus Christ, He will leave us in our present sinful state, honoring our choice, our free will.

What does the Bible say about our present state?

“He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” (John 3:18-19)

Look at our world today: is it growing lighter or is it growing darker? It is clearly seen that the darkness is increasing, with deeds that were once hidden in the shadows are now out in the open on full display for all to see, even by very young children. We are living in perilous times before the end of the age, before the second coming of Christ, as the Bible prophesied thousands of years ago, and it’s not just happening in the unbelieving world but even in professing churches, where false pastors and false teachers are preaching and teaching a false doctrine, deceiving many who willfully are ignorant because they don’t want the truth of God but wanted their ears to be tickled by smooth-sounding words. I urge you will all my being that if you are not saved by believing in Jesus Christ as your Savior, that you consider for a moment, what would happen if you were to die today, perhaps in the next hour, and where will you spend your eternity? I pray you take to heart Jesus’ words:

“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6)

Further, I pray you utter words with your tongue something similar that the apostle Peter, whose former name was Simon Bar-Jonah, said when Jesus asked His apostles, “But who do you say that I am?”:

“Simon Peter answered and said, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.’” (Matthew 16:16-17)

What do your thoughts say about your heart? What do your words reveal about your heart and about you? Do you have a heart for God, or is your heart all about you, all about self? Turn to Jesus today, give Him your heart, before it’s too late. ❤️ ✝️

June 28, 2023: Psalm 139:3 - God Knows the Motives of Our Heart

“You comprehend my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways.” - Psalm 139:3

God is omniscient, which is all-knowing, omnipresent, meaning He is everywhere, and He is omnipotent, which is almighty or infinite in power. In this verse of the psalm, David acknowledges God’s omniscience. God knows which path we choose, where we go on that path, and why we choose to go the way that we did, knowing the motives of our heart. He knows when we lie down to go to sleep and the thoughts that go through our minds before falling asleep.

When Israel’s king Saul disobeyed God’s commands when Israel was at war with its enemies that were on every side of them and had defeated them and in his pride had set up a monument for himself, God rejected Saul as king, regretting that He had set him up as king. God sent the prophet Samuel, who had grieved over the actions of Saul, to confront Saul regarding his actions. When Saul saw Samuel, he told Samuel, “Blessed are you of the LORD! I have performed the commandment of the LORD,” which was a lie, for he had not done all that God had commanded him to do after he had defeated his enemies. Two times Saul mades excuses for what he had done, even blaming the people for part of his decision. Samuel then said to Saul:

“Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of the rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he also has rejected you from being king.” (1 Samuel 15:22-23)

During the course of Saul’s conversation with Samuel, Saul said to him two times, “The LORD your God.” (1 Samuel 15:15, 21). Clearly, if Saul truly believed in God with his heart, he would have said "The LORD my God,” but he didn’t. Then, Saul truly stated that he had sinned by transgressing God’s commandment and had done so because he was fearful of the people and obeyed their voice instead of God’s. He then asked Samuel to pardon him. Notice that Saul did not confess to God Himself that he had sinned against Him. Saul simply wanted to make a statement that he had sinned and move on with being king, and he wanted Samuel to go with him to worship the LORD. However Samuel told Saul:

“I will not return with you, for you have rejected the word of the LORD, and the LORD has rejected you from being king over Israel.” (1 Samuel 15:26)

As Samuel turned away to leave, Saul took the edge of Samuel’s robe and it tore. Then Samuel said to him:

“The LORD has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today, and has given it to a neighbor of yours, who is better than you.” (1 Samuel 15:28)

Saul then stated again that he had sinned and asked Samuel to honor him before the elders of Israel and go with him to worship God. However, just as Saul had done twice already, he said, “…that I may worship the LORD your God” (1 Samuel 15:30). It was evident that Saul did not believe in God and did not want to worship Him; rather, he only wanted the benefits and blessings that God had bestowed upon him as of king of Israel but in his heart, he did not believe. God knew Saul’s heart and the motivations of it; that his motivation was self and not God.

As instructed by God, Samuel then went on to anoint the next king. However, the king was definitely not one any human being, including Samuel, would have chosen. Humans tend to want people who are in charge to be strong in word, physical stature, and in power, and one who will lead them on paths that most of the time are not in alignment with the path God wants us to take. God told Samuel to go to a man named Jesse, a Bethlehemite, telling Samuel, “For I have provided Myself a king among his sons.” (1 Samuel 16:1) . Fearing what would happen if king Saul heard what Samuel would do if he found out, God reassured him to go to Jesse and take a heifer with him and say, “‘I have come to sacrifice to the LORD.’ Then invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do; you shall anoint for Me the one I name to you.’” (1 Samuel 16:2-3)

Samuel did as God instructed him to do. He consecrated Jesse and all his sons and then invited all of them to the sacrifice. Jesse had eight sons, and the first son, Eliab, was brought to Samuel. Samuel looked upon him and said, “Surely the LORD’s anointed is before Him!” (1 Samuel 16:6) However, God told Samuel:

“Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the LORD does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7)

Six more sons of Jesse were brought before Samuel, and God said He had not chosen them. Samuel then asked Jesse if all the young men were there. Jesse told him:

“There remains yet the youngest, and there he is, keeping the sheep.” (1 Samuel 16:11)

Samuel told Jesse to bring him that son, and Jesse did. Then God told Samuel, “Arise, anoint him; for this is the one!” (1 Samuel 16:12) Samuel did anoint David “in the midst of his brothers; and the Spirit of the LORD came upon David from that day forward.” (1 Samuel 16:13)

It is interesting that David was the eighth son of Jesse. I don’t believe this is any coincidence, as the number eight in the Bible has deep significance. Per Biblestudy.org:

(See: https://www.biblestudy.org/bibleref/meaning-of-numbers-in-bible/8.html)

  • The number 8 represents new beginning, meaning a new order or creation, and man's true 'born again' event when he is resurrected from the dead into eternal life.

  • Eight is also an integral part of Jesus' sacrifice. Like the Passover lamb, Jesus was selected as the Lamb to take away man's sins on Nisan 10 (April 1, 30 A.D. - John 12: 28 - 29). He was crucified on Nisan 14 (Wednesday, April 5 in 30 A.D.). His resurrection occurred three complete days after he was buried, which was at the end of the weekly Sabbath day that fell on Nisan 17. Nisan 17 was day 8, counting inclusively, from the time Christ was selected as man's sacrificial Lamb. All this bears record of Jesus' perfect sacrifice and His complete victory over death.

  • Boys were to be circumcised on the 8th day. The number 8 symbolizes circumcision of the heart through Christ and the receiving of the Holy Spirit (Romans 2:28 - 29, Colossians 2:11 - 13). Those in Christ are becoming a new creation, with godly character being created by the power of God's Spirit (2 Corinthians 5:17, Ephesians 2:10; 4:23 - 24).

God rejected the sons of Jesse whom man would have chosen because God looked at the heart. God looked at David’s heart and not his outwardly appearance. This David was the shepherd of the sheep, and it is this David from whom Jesus, the Good Shepherd, would come, and His kingdom will be set up and it will last forever, as prophesied in Isaiah 9:6-7:

“For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.” (Isaiah 9:6-7)

It was this David, who before he became king and while Saul was still ruling as king, would have boldness as a lion because of his strong faith in God and was not fearful of men and what they could do to him. His boldness and courage in the Lord was fully shown when Israel was battling their enemy the Philistines. One of the Philistines was a giant named Goliath, who stood approximately 9 feet 9 inches tall. While taking food to his brothers and their captain who were at the camp near the Philistines in battle array, David had left his sheep with a keeper, and heard the men talking about this Philistine who had said he had come to defy the armies of Israel. David said to them, “For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?” (1 Samuel 17:26) David’s words were reported to king Saul, and he sent for David. When David came to Saul, David said to him:

“Let no man’s heart fail because of him; your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.” (1 Samuel 17:32)

But Saul told David he was just a youth and could not fight this man of war, but David persisted, saying:

“‘Your servant used to keep his father’s sheep, and when a lion or a bear came and took a lamb out of the flock, I went out after it and struck it, and delivered the lamb from its mouth; and when it arose against me, I caught it by its beard, and struck and killed it. Your servant has killed both lion and bear; and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, seeing he has defied the armies of the living God. Moreover David said, ‘The LORD, who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.’ And Saul said to David, ‘Go, and the LORD be with you!’” (1 Samuel 17:34-37)

Oh, what beautiful words David spoke, and they were also prophetic words, symbolizing the coming Messiah who would keep His Father’s sheep - all who put their faith in Him for salvation of sins - and give His life for His sheep. What a beautiful connection between David the anointed king and to Jesus, God’s Anointed One and the King of kings. David was willing to put his life on the line for his sheep no matter how big or small the threat was, whether an animal that threatened his father’s sheep or this uncircumcised Philistine who defied the armies of the living God.

Saul then clothed David in his armor but it was too big for David and he couldn’t walk in it so David took it off. Instead of being armored by man’s armor, David took up the armor of God in the name the Lord. He took his shepherd’s staff and chose five smooth stones from the brook, put them in his shepherd’s bag, and with his sling in his hand, he set off toward the Philistine. It is very interesting that David never referred to Goliath by his name, for it meant “champion,” and this uncircumcised Philistine was no champion in the sight of David; only one who defied the armies of the living God. When David came upon him, the Philistine said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?” (1 Samuel 17:43) The Bible tells us:

“And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. And the Philistine said to David, ‘Come to me and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field!’ Then David said to the Philistine, ‘You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defiled. This day the LORD will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you and take your head from you. And this day I will give the carcasses of the camp of the Philistines to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. Then all this assembly shall know that the LORD does not save with sword and spear; for the battle is the LORD’s, and He will give you into our hands.” (1 Samuel 17:43-47)

When the Philistine came to meet David, without any hesitation David hurried toward the Philistine army to meet the Philistine. David took one smooth stone out of his bag and shot it with his sling toward the uncircumcised Philistine, striking him on his forehead and killing him. He then cut off his head with the Philistine’s own sword. When the Philistine army saw what had happened, they fled in fear.

David had put his faith and trust in God to direct his path even as a young man when he was likely in his teens, when without fearing what man - even a giant - could do to him, he boldly in his faith confronted and killed the uncircumcised Philistine.

David would later become the king of Israel, but prior to becoming king he would suffer many things because king Saul resented David and was full of envy and persecuted and tried to kill him. Through that persecution, we have many of the beautiful psalms that David wrote in the book of Psalms, including Psalm 40, which is a psalm that emphasizes the importance of persevering in our faith in the midst of our trials of life. Below is this beautiful psalm, likely written at the end of his life:

“I waited patiently for the LORD; and He inclined to me, and heard my cry. He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my steps. He has put a new song in my mouth - praise to our God; many will see it and fear, and will trust in the LORD.

Blessed is that man who makes the LORD his trust, and does not respect the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies. Many, O LORD my God, are Your wonderful works which You have done; and Your thoughts toward us cannot be recounted to You in order; if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.

Sacrifice and offering You did not desire; my ears You have opened. Burnt offering and sin offering You did not require. Then I said, ‘Behold, I come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me. I delight to do Your will, O my God, and Your law is within my heart.’

I have proclaimed the good news of righteousness in the great assembly; indeed, I do not restrain my lips, O LORD, You Yourself know. I have not hidden Your righteousness within my heart; I have declared Your faithfulness and Your salvation; I have not concealed Your lovingkindness and Your truth from the great assembly.

Do not withhold Your tender mercies from me, O LORD; let Your lovingkindness and Your truth continually preserve me. For innumerable evils have surrounded me; my iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of my head; therefore my heart fails me.

Be pleased, O LORD, to deliver me; O LORD, make haste to help me! Let them be ashamed and brought to mutual confusion who seek to destroy my life; let them be driven backward and brought to dishonor who wish me evil. Let them be confounded because of their shame, who say to me, “Aha, aha!”

Let all those who seek You rejoice and be glad in You; let such as love Your salvation say continually, ‘The LORD be magnified!’ But I am poor and needy; yet the LORD thinks upon me. You are my help and my deliverer; do not delay, O my God.” (Psalm 40)

David wasn’t perfect, and he committed many sins, including committing adultery with Bathsheba and getting her pregnant and trying to cover it up by having her husband killed by putting him at the front line of a dangerous battle. But David repented and turned back to God, and unlike Saul’s false repentance, David’s was true, it was from the heart, saying to the prophet Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.” (2 Samuel 12:13) Nathan then told David, “The LORD also has put away your sin; you shall not die. However, because by this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme, the child also who is born to you shall surely die.” (2 Samuel 12:13-14)

David also wrote about his sin in Psalm 51:

“For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Your sight…” (Psalm 51:3-4)

“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit with me. Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.” (Psalm 51:10-11)

While David’s child with Bathsheba did indeed die, God blessed them with a son, Solomon, who would build the first Jewish temple of God, and it would be from the lineage of Solomon whom Jesus would be born.

David went on to become the greatest earthly king that Israel ever had, and it is through his bloodline that Jesus Christ - the King of kings and Lord of lords - was born through the Holy Spirit. David trusted in the Lord all the remaining days of his life. David’s example shows us that none of us are perfect, even David, but when we sin against God and acknowledge with our heart that it is He whom we have sinned against, the Lord is quick to forgive us, and that is why He sent Jesus, the Good Shepherd, to redeem all who put their trust in Him to forgive us of our sins. Of David, the apostle Luke, the author of the book of Acts, wrote:

“And afterward they asked for a king; so God gave them Saul the son Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years. And when He had removed him, He raised up for them David as king, to whom also He gave testimony and said, ‘I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart, who will do all my will.’ From this man’s seed, according to the promise, God raised up for Israel a Savior - Jesus…” (Acts 13:21-23)

How many of us are like David and currently facing the “Goliaths” in our own lives? Let us be like David and put our trust in the Lord, no matter how big the giant is, no matter how intimidating it may be. God can do a mighty work in our lives if we don’t see the problem before us but we see the power of the living God, in whom we should put all our trust.

When we decide to put our faith and trust in God, as David did when he was a young man, when we decide to follow God’s path, the path that leads to righteousness through believing in His Son Jesus Christ, we have all we need to slay the giant in our lives with one smooth stone, a stone that is packed with the power of Almighty God.

I leave you with the words of David from another beautiful psalm of his, from Psalm 31:

“Oh, love the LORD, all you His saints! For the LORD preserves the faithful, and fully repays the proud person. Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart, all you who hope in the LORD.” (Psalm 31:23-24) ✝️

June 22, 2023: Psalm 139:2 - God - Not Man Nor Technology - is Omniscient

“You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off.” - Psalm 139:2

Eternal God knows everything about you and everything about me. There is nothing hidden from Him; no thought, no action, no cursing of Him, no praise of Him. He sees and hears it all, and He knew exactly what we would say or do before we said it, before we did it. There is no covering up of our sins that He cannot see through. He knows our thoughts, piercing into not only our mind but into our hearts, knowing the motivation of such things, whether for His good and pleasure, or for ours.

When we lie in our bed before we fall asleep, thanking Him for all He has blessed us with, for getting us through another day, whether it was a difficult or an easy one, He hears us. When we rise up, ready to start the next day, He knows whether we thank Him for His tender love and mercy, giving us another day of our life here on earth, thanking His Son Jesus Christ for giving us the greatest gift we could ever receive, He hears us. When we ask Him to trust and obey Him in all things and lead us in the path of righteousness for His name’s sake, He hears us. When we fail and the wretched old man within us causes us to sin, God forgives us when we ask for forgiveness. He knows the thoughts and intents of our hearts and when our desire is to please Him, even when we fall short.

When we cry out to Him because life is hard, He hears us! When we seek comfort and strength by reading His word, He sees us, and He speaks to us through it, leading us into all truth by His Holy Spirit. As we read the pages of His word, as we pray to Him, He assures us that we are not alone, that He will always be with us, we who have put our trust in His Son Jesus for our salvation, to redeem us of all our sins. Though physical distance separates us from Him who sits upon His heavenly throne of glory, He dwells within us through the Holy Spirit. Yes, God is all knowing, and He knows every single thought we have ever had, and He knew them before we even thought them.

We are at a time in history like no other, a time when artificial intelligence is increasing exponentially such that for the first time on May 1, 2023, it was announced that “An AI-based decoder that can translate brain activity into a continuous stream of text has been developed, in a breakthrough that allows a person’s thoughts to be read non-invasively for the first time.”

(See: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/may/01/ai-makes-non-invasive-mind-reading-possible-by-turning-thoughts-into-text)

Mankind is doing all that it can to be God, but it will never be God, only a false god, a cheap imitation. With the majority of humanity rejecting who God is and His free gift of salvation from all sins, by trusting in His Son Jesus, it has turned to the lies of Satan instead, and he is leading the world into the same trap in which he led Adam and Eve. First, he planted seeds of doubt of what God had said to them, asking Eve, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden?’ “(Genesis 3:1) Next, luring Eve, Satan twisted the words of God when He told Adam not to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, “for in that day that you eat of it you shall surely die,” (Genesis 2:17) and Satan lied and deceived Eve, saying to her, “For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:5) Satan twisted the words of God, that were meant for protection of Adam and Eve, into words that made Eve think God only wanted to control Eve and keep her beneath Him and not like Him. What loving father would not want to protect his children and do everything he could, including setting up boundaries that are for their good? Do we as parents not set up boundaries for our own children? God knew that if Adam and Eve ate from that tree, they would no longer live forever in the Garden without sin but would die, because of their sin.

The majority of mankind rejects the one true God because it loves its sin - even denying that it is sin - and is trying to be God by making fake imitations of Him. How ironic it is that in one breath they deny that God exists, only to be followed by trying to create something they call “God” but which is made by man? God is eternal and has always existed; no one created Him, He always was. The desire to be God is what caused the fall of Satan, it was his pride, as the passages of Scripture from the Bible’s books of Isaiah and Ezekiel describe:

“How you have fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations! For you have said in your heart:

‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.’

“Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, to the lowest depths of the Pit.” (Isaiah 14:12-15)

“You [Satan] were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering: the sardius, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, , and jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and emerald with gold. The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes was prepared for you on the day you were created. You were the anointed cherub who covers; I established you; you were on the holy mountain of God; you walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones. You were perfect in all your ways from the day you were created, till iniquity was found in you. By the abundance of your trading you became filled with violence within, and you sinned; therefore I cast you as a profane thing out of the mountain of God; and I destroyed you, O covering cherub, from the midst of the fiery stones. Your heart was lifted up [proud] because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor…” (Ezekiel 28:12-17)

In Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28, while the prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel were writing about two earthly kings - the king of Babylon and the king of Tyre - Isaiah and Ezekiel were also speaking to the power behind these two evil kings, and that power is Satan. It was Satan who deceived Eve, and she willingly heeded his words instead of heeding God’s command, and it was Satan who deceived these two kings, who willingly rejected the One true God. In Ezekiel 28:13, it was Satan who was in the garden of Eden and no earthly king; he was the anointed cherub, and he is the one who was the seal of perfection. However, instead of praising God for all God had done for him, Satan was full of pride, wanting to replace God with himself. All that God had given him wasn’t enough for him - he wanted to be God. Oh, how do we see that today in our world, especially in the USA, a country that has been blessed abundantly by God because it once loved God and put its faith and trust in Him for many years, but now has become like Satan, full of pride and hatred of God, and wanting to replace Him with self.

Because Satan is not God and will never be, and because he is not omniscient, he is not all-knowing, he must empower men and women who have rejected God and accepted Satan to create tools that will give him and his coming frontman - the final antichrist - all power over humanity, which includes artificial intelligence, including the ability to read people’s minds. Sadly, there are many who willingly - happily - have done that, including those in the World Economic Forum, governments, social media, media, entertainment, education, and many others; they have sold their souls to Satan, just as Judas did when he betrayed Jesus Christ for thirty pieces of silver. They have not heeded the word of God that warns them of the consequences of pride:

“He rules by His power forever; His eyes observe the nations; do not let the rebellious exalt themselves.” (Psalm 66:7)

“A man’s pride will bring him low, but the humble in spirit will retain honor.” (Proverbs 29:23)

“Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty [disdainfully proud] spirit before a fall. (Proverbs 16:18)

“When pride comes, then comes shame; but with the humble is wisdom. The integrity of the upright will guide them, but the perversity of the unfaithful will destroy them.” (Proverbs 11:2-3)

“The wicked in his proud countenance does not seek God; God is in none of his thoughts.” (Psalm 10:4)

“‘Behold, I will make you small among the nations; you shall be greatly despised. The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who dwell in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high; you who say in your heart, ‘Who will bring me down to the ground?’ Though you ascend as high as the eagle, and though you set your nest among the stars, from there I will bring you down,’ says the LORD.” (Obadiah 1:2-4)

“And Babylon, the glory of the kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldeans’ pride, will be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.” (Isaiah 13:19)

God has nothing good to say about pride, only that it goes before destruction. If there is one characteristic of the USA that stands out in our world today, it is pride, and if anyone takes exception to it, especially those of us who have put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ for our salvation, we are mocked and hated. But we know that nothing is of more value than our soul, and our soul belongs to Jesus Christ, not Satan.

Many in our world today have become so puffed up, so prideful that they believe they can be gods and have wholeheartedly rejected the One true God. Globalist and declared atheist Yuval Noah Harari declared at a 2018 conference, “Homo sapiens are in the process of becoming gods.” (See: https://www.indiatoday.in/india-today-insight/story/homo-sapiens-are-in-the-process-of-becoming-gods-yuval-noah-harari-2325351-2023-01-23)

The globalists are busy creating as we speak every tool needed by Satan that will be used when the final antichrist, also referred to as the “man of sin,” the “son of perdition,” and the “lawless one” will begin his 7-year reign of power on the earth, when, through the use of the technological tools, he will control every single aspect of a person’s life: where they can go, what certain medical injections they must receive, what they can buy and sell that likely will be enforced by a digital system of currency, and will force everyone to take his mark or the number of his name - 666 - and worship him or be killed. They will worship his image and they will worship their false god, likely through artificial intelligence. The antichrist’s false prophet will be the enforcer of this required worship of the beast, the antichrist. Everything is being set into place for this antichrist system.

Artificial intelligence is rising quickly. Read the words of Yuval Noah Harari and what he recently had to say in June 2023 about AI and religion:

(See: https://www.christianpost.com/news/israeli-futurist-predicts-ai-will-soon-write-a-new-bible.html)

“AI can create new ideas. [It] can even write a new Bible.”

“In a few years, there might be religions that are actually correct,” he said. “Just think about a religion whose holy book is written by an AI. That could be a reality in a few years.”

NBC News and other media outlets reported on June 14, 2023 about an “AI Jesus” that is streaming on the gaming platform called “Twitch” and which is advising people on different subjects, including dating and gaming but also on spirituality issues. Chatbots enable users to have a conversation with a computer as if the user was speaking to another person, via live chat messaging. Here are two quotes from the “AI Jesus” chatbot created by The Singularity Group, which is based in Germany:

“As Al Jesus, I don't have physical belongings, but encourage you to consider what brings you happiness and comfort and make your decision accordingly.”

“My aim is to foster a positive, supportive community here on Twitch, helping others on their journeys toward spiritual growth and understanding.”

(See: https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/ai-jesus-twitch-stream-rcna89187)

As with any computer program, it is programmed, which means it can be programmed to include bias, including bias against the true teachings of Jesus Christ: that He alone is the way, the truth, and the life and no one gets to the Father except through Him (John 14:6), and that all who believe in Him are not condemned but are saved but all who do not believe are condemned already (John 3:18). Jesus never encouraged people to consider what brings them happiness and comfort but wanted them to consider their eternity and where will they spend it: in heaven or hell. The programmed words of AI Jesus are fluffy words of nonsense designed to lead people to hell and away from the truth of God and sadly are the same words that many churches are teaching.

People are flocking to this AI Jesus, as though it is their shepherd, but it is a counterfeit Jesus. Jesus Himself warned His disciples not to let no one deceive them as a sign of the end of the age and of the time prior to His second coming, in a time known as the 7-year tribulation period, or the time of Jacob’s trouble. Many believers in Christ believe the tribulation period will occur after the rapture of the church and then the final antichrist will step on the world scene to take his 7-year reign of terror. Jesus also said to His disciples:

“Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There!’ do not believe it. For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you beforehand. Therefore if they say to you, ‘Look, He is in the desert!’ do not go out; or ‘Look, He is in the inner rooms!’ do not believe it. For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For wherever the carcass is, there the eagles will be gathered together.” (Jesus Christ; Matthew 24:23-28)

Jesus Christ - who came to the earth, was crucified and gave up His life, died, was buried, three days later rose again, and after forty days on earth, ascended to heaven to sit at the right hand of God - IS the true Jesus and IS the good shepherd:

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives HIs life for the sheep. But a hireling [hired man], he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them. The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep. I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own. As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep [Jews]. And other sheep [non-Jews; Gentiles] I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd. Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life [died by crucifixion] that I may take it again [resurrect]. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father.” (Jesus Christ; John 10:11-18)

I think it is no coincidence that the group that created this chatbot is named the way that it is considering the definition of “technological singularity”:

“The technological singularity—or simply the singularity—is a hypothetical future point in time at which technological growth becomes uncontrollable and irreversible, resulting in unforeseeable changes to human civilization.”

(See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity#:~:text=The%20technological%20singularity—or%20simply,of%20the%20singularity%20hypothesis%2C%20I.%20J.)

It is no concidence that of the Great Tribulation period, Jesus warned:

“For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened.” (Jesus Christ; Matthew 24:21-22)

The usage of AI is increasing exponentially, and the globalists who hate and reject God are foaming at the mouth at all the various ways they will use it to control the majority of the world’s population. They are pawns in the hands of Satan, willingly doing his work because they believe they will be on the winning end of the war that is to come. They are greatly mistaken. They are greatly deceived. As Jesus said of Satan, “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.” (John 10:10) Jesus Christ has already won the war; Satan is a defeated foe. Anyone who has read the book of Revelation knows the future of Satan and all who are allied with him: they are all cast into hell, “the lake which burns with fire and brimstone” (Revelation 21:8), forever separated from God and all that is good.

The time is now to choose: are you allied with Jesus Christ or are you against Him? Have you put your faith and trust in Him, believing in your heart that He alone can redeem you from all your sins, or have you put your faith and trust in anything else to save you, or even believing that you don’t need redemption from anything and that which God calls sin isn’t, and that you can do anything you want and suffer no eternal consequences for it? Are you chatting with an AI Jesus and considering what brings you happiness and comfort, are you praying to and talking with the real Jesus, the real God, who wants to lead you to salvation?

Jesus Himself told His disciples:

“I and the Father are one.” (John 10:30)

He who has seen Me has seen the Father.” (John 14:9)

“Then Jesus cried out and said, “He who believes in Me, believes not in Me but in Him who sent Me. And he who sees Me sees Him who sent Me.” (John 12:44-45)

Only God is omniscient, is all-knowing; not man, not technology, not artificial intelligence, not a manmade chatbot. Only He knows all your thoughts and whether you are saved by believing in Jesus Christ, the good shepherd, as your Savior. If you have not done so already, will you put your trust in Him today, before it’s too late? Let us remember that only He is good and may we heed His words:

“Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” (Psalm 46:10) ✝️

June 17, 2023: Psalm 139:1 - The LORD Knows Me

“O LORD, You have searched me and known me.” - Psalm 139:1

Psalm 139 was written by David, and some believe it to be written when he was made king of Israel (see: https://www.blueletterbible.org/study/parallel/paral18.cfm). This one statement that David wrote is so simple and yet deeply profound. First, David acknowledges who God is and refers to Him by His name, which in Hebrew is “YHWH” (See: https://www.ancient-hebrew.org/god-yhwh/difference-between-lord-Lord-and-LORD.htm, which states, “When the word “lord” is written in all upper-case letters (LORD), the Hebrew behind this word is the name of God, יהוה (YHWH).”) What else do we know about God’s name? Before God used Moses to lead His people, Israel, out of captivity in Egypt, God appeared to Moses in a flame of fire on the mountain of God, called Horeb or Sinai:

“Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” (Exodus 3:10)

“Then Moses said to God, ‘Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them,”The God of your fathers has sent me to you,” and they say to me, “What is His name?” what shall I say to them?’ And God said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM.’ And He said, ‘Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, “I AM has sent me to you.” ‘ Moreover God said to Moses, ‘Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: “The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is My name forever, and this is My memorial to all generations.” ’ ” (Exodus 3:13-14)

Moses did as God commanded him to do and went to Egypt with his brother Aaron. After meeting with the Pharaoh of Egypt, telling him what God had told Moses, to let God’s people go, Pharaoh not only did not free God’s people but tightened his grip further on them by causing them to make the same quota of bricks but without giving them straw. Moses reported this to God, and feeling deep sorrow for the people, for Moses himself was also an Israelite who had been saved as a baby in Egypt by Pharaoh’s daughter when Pharaoh had given the command to kill all male Israelite babies. Years later, while living in Egypt with his heritage undisclosed, and after seeing his people suffer at the hands of Pharaoh, Moses killed an Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew (Israelite). Fearing for his life, Moses fled Egypt and lived in Midian, which is where he was living at the time he was tending sheep for his father-in-law and had went to Horeb, the mountain of God.

Now, after returning from Pharaoh after he refused to free the Israelites, Moses asked God:

“Lord, why have You brought trouble on this people? Why is it You have sent me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Your name, he has done evil to this people; neither have You delivered Your people at all.” (Exodus 5:22-23)

How many of us have felt as Moses did at that time? Here he was, faithful to God, doing as He commanded him, and yet the situation did not improve, it did not have the outcome we intended. Not only that, things were now worse. But God was not finished with the work He was doing through Moses for His people Israel:

“Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh. For with a strong hand he will let them go, and with a strong hand he will drive them out of his land.’”

Next, God did something that He had not done before: He would make Himself known to His people by His name, not by His title but by His Divine Name, which allows a very personal connection between them:

“And God spoke to Moses and said to him: ‘I am the LORD. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by My name LORD I was not known to them. I have also established My covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, in which they were strangers. And I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel whom the Egyptians keep in bondage and I have remembered My covenant. Therefore say to the children of Israel:

“I am the LORD; I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, I will rescue you from their bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. I will take you as My people, and I will be your God. Then you shall know that I am the LORD your God who brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. And I will bring you into the land which I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and I will give it to you as a heritage; I am the LORD.” ‘ “ (Exodus 6:2-8)

And God did exactly as He promised. Because of Pharaoh’s hard heart against God, God had to send ten plagues or judgments upon him before he finally let God’s people go. Even when he did let them go, his heart was again turned against the Israelites and he and his army with many chariots and horses chased after them. At this point, God performed another miracle when the Israelites were boxed in with nowhere to go and He opened the Red Sea for all the Israelites to cross through it on dry land. When Pharaoh and his army went into the sea after them, God had Moses stretch out his hand and water of the sea had swallowed up Pharaoh and all his army and everything with them. God had made a promise to His people, and He kept it, exactly as He said He would. How many of us have experienced a time in our lives when God accomplished something miraculous in our own lives in a way that we never expected, at a time when we too felt boxed in, with nowhere to go?

Returning to today’s Scripture from Psalm 139, David knew God as LORD and called out to Him by His name (YHWH). Next, David said that God had searched him known him. Later in this psalm, David would acknowledge that it is God who created him, forming David in his mother’s womb, and knowing all of the days of David’s life before he even took his first breath. Can anyone know us better than the Divine One who created us? God knows absolutely every single thing about us, and God searches our heart. He knows if we truly love him with all our heart, He knows if we are seeking Him, as He sought us. David wrote of this to his son Solomon, whom God chose to build the first Jewish temple:

“As for you, my son Solomon, serve Him with a loyal heart and with a willing mind; for the LORD searches all hearts and understands all the intent of the thoughts. If you seek Him, He will be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will cast you off forever.” (1 Chronicles 28:9)

The book of Romans also tells us that God searches our hearts:

“Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.” (Romans 8:27)

The passage of Scripture from the book of Jeremiah contrasts the heart of a man whose trust is not in the LORD but in man with the one who trusts in the LORD. It also tells us about the condition of the heart:

“Thus says the LORD: ‘Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from the LORD, for he shall be like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see when good comes, but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land which is not inhabited. Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, and whose hope is in the LORD. For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes; but its leaf will be green, and will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit. The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.’ “ (Jeremiah 17:5-10)

Through the power of the great I AM, the LORD God, Moses did lead God’s people, Israel, out of Egypt, and during their journey to the Promised Land, God gave them the Ten Commandments. The first and the greatest of all commandments was reiterated by Jesus when one of the scribes asked Him what is the first commandment of all:

“Jesus answered him, ‘The first of all the commandments is: “Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one. And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.” This is the first commandment.’ “ (Mark 12:29-30)

God searches our heart and knows if we truly love Him and have put all our trust in Him; we cannot fool Him. Yes, we will have our times when we are anxious, when we are scared, when we feel boxed in, as the Israelites did at the Red Sea, with nowhere to go and the Egyptians in hot pursuit of them, when we wonder why certain things are happening to us, but let us never forget that He is God, YHWH, and we know Him by His name. There is nothing that is happening to us that He did not already know. He is still holy, He is still on the throne, and He is still in control. He knows the end from the beginning, and He will never leave us nor forsake us. When we go through those dark times in our lives, let us pray like David did later in this psalm:

“Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my anxieties; and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” (Psalm 139:23-24)

When we are so scared and there is little or no light in our path, let God lead us, for He is our light, walking with us in our Red Sea moments, getting us through them, one trial at a time, leading us in the way everlasting. If we do this, every storm, every trial, every tragedy will be worth it in the end; all of these sorrows will be replaced with joy everlasting:

“Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.” (1 John 3:2-3)

“And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” (Revelation 21:4)

“Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to God our Savior, who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen.” (Jude 24-25) ✝️