Wednesday Bible Study Isaiah 27

Morning Prayer

Read Isaiah 27 together.

My Commentary and bringing the lesson home.
Verse 1
In that day This brings us to the day of our Messiah’s triumphant return.
There are 100 or more prophecies of the advent of Christ the first time.
And all of these have been precisely and literally fulfilled.

When you read the Living Word Of GOD, you will see as in Matt 25:26 “that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled.”
And the Scriptures were fulfilled in a most literal sense.
Example…
That Jesus would ride on a Donkey. John 12:14
The parting of his garments. Psalms 22:18
The piercing of his hands and feet. Psalms 22:16
“HE took up our infirmities and bore our diseases.” Matt 8:17

And many more. You need to read the Bible and when you get done, Read it again. Every time you read the “breathed out” words from our Creator, you will gain further understanding.
And if you communicate to GOD, through prayer, that you would like greater Understanding, greater Faith, if you have truly given yourself to Christ, who has forgiven your every sin, and you have forgiven those that have trespassed against you, GOD will grant your prayer.

The scripture says GOD “cannot lie” and that he will not change his mind.
Numbers 23:19
GOD is not human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?
Titus 1:2
in the hope of eternal life, which GOD, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time, 3 but has in due time manifested His word through preaching, which was committed to me according to the commandment of God our Savior;

What HE has promised, HE will do. The truthfulness of the Bible is at stake in the Second Coming. And this what Isaiah is talking about, “In That Day.”

We move on to the rest of Verse 1

the Lord with His severe sword, great and strong,
Will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent,
Leviathan that twisted serpent;
We’ve seen the Lord’s mighty sword in Rev 19 so let’s go there and read it.
Rev 19:17-21
Then I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in the midst of heaven, “Come and gather together for the supper of the great GOD, 18 that you may eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them, and the flesh of all people, free and slave, both small and great.”

19 And I saw the beast, the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against Him who sat on the horse and against His army. 20 Then the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who worked signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. These two were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone. 21 And the rest were killed with the sword which proceeded from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse. And all the birds were filled with their flesh.

You have to love a happy ending.

It is our Lord Jesus on the Horse, coming back as our conquering King.
This reference of the Leviathan is possibly in connection with ancient myths of nations near Israel. This could be the Northern Tribes of Israel who had seriously strayed from the Will of GOD. It is used as an illustrative element for the people he was talking to. The people of the day knew of symbolic terms used to make a point. However, satan manifested himself as a serpent to Eve in the Garden of Eden in Gen 3:1-5, could he not also make himself a sea monster too?
We’ve also seen in Rev 13:1-3 where this imagery is used in describing the emergence of the Antichrist which came from the sea.
Then I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads, and on his horns were ten diadems, and on his heads were blasphemous names.2 And the beast which I saw was like a leopard, and his feet were like those of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. And the dragon gave him his power and his throne and great authority.

The end result is And He will slay the reptile that is in the sea. Isaiah is prophesying the ultimate defeat of satan when the Kingdom of the Messiah conquers all.

Verse 2
In that day sing to her,
“A vineyard of [a]red wine!
3 I, the Lord, keep it,
I water it every moment;
Lest any hurt it,
I keep it night and day.

This becomes a song of GOD’s care for his vineyard. The Church is his vineyard and we are the Bride of Christ. GOD will tend to his Church, water it, tend to it with loving care. This vineyard is where you pray to GOD, leave your worries at the Cross, and I do mean leave them there. What good does it do for you to say with your mouth that trust our Lord, yet still worry and think that it is OK.
You are not going to be watered as well as you’d like to be.
Trust in the Lord is Faith in the Lord that you will receive your daily bread. It is Faith that GOD will keep his promises, to all of us. HE does not change his mind like we sinful creatures do. But a word of caution.

Acts 5. Let’s go read that.

Acts 5:1-11 Lying to the Holy Spirit.
But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession. 2 And he kept back part of the proceeds, his wife also being aware of it, and brought a certain part and laid it at the apostles’ feet. 3 But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price of the land for yourself? 4 While it remained, was it not your own? And after it was sold, was it not in your own control? Why have you conceived this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men but to GOD.”
5 Then Ananias, hearing these words, fell down and breathed his last. So great fear came upon all those who heard these things. 6 And the young men arose and wrapped him up, carried him out, and buried him.
7 Now it was about three hours later when his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. 8 And Peter answered her, “Tell me whether you sold the land for so much?”
She said, “Yes, for so much.”
9 Then Peter said to her, “How is it that you have agreed together to test the Spirit of the Lord? Look, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out.” 10 Then immediately she fell down at his feet and breathed her last. And the young men came in and found her dead, and carrying her out, buried her by her husband. 11 So great fear came upon all the church and upon all who heard these things.

What lesson do we draw from this? Discuss…

We are sinful creatures and only by the Grace of GOD do we have any hope of redemption. GOD will forgive, yet our GOD is a wrathful GOD. If you believe and have trust in GOD, you will be well watered.

Now look at Verse 4 and 5.
4 Fury is not in Me.
Who would set briers and thorns
Against Me in battle?
I would go through them,
I would burn them together.
5 Or let him take hold of My strength,
That he may make peace with Me;
And he shall make peace with Me.”

HE will burn out those who are beset with evil or (and this is a very big OR), HE would let them take hold of HIS strength. And would make peace with them.
Is that not totally cool? You could be all sorts of trouble. Rebellion, Denial, the works. I was that way, until very recently. And I took hold of HIS strength. Everything that I counted for something in my life was shown to me to be nothing. He took my strength and let me use HIS.

Look at how many in this world are resisting this offer. The craziness of what happened in El Paso and Dayton Ohio. It has been said that we are seeing the end result of boys without Fathers. The destruction of the family has been a favorite target of satan. Mothers raising Sons without the benefit of Fathers, where is the guiding influence for both girls and boys? Paul talks about why and how this came to be in Romans 1 specifically starting at verse 18. I encourage you to read this on your own. It will answer many of the questions of what you see going on today.

We have people denying GOD. Acting as if this world, this sinful world is all there is. Satan is the prince of this world and you can see he is very good at what he does. He was fallen from GOD and wants all of us fallen too. That part in the Lord’s Prayer, deliver us from evil, you should ask the Lord that, every day. The Lords Prayer, you can go through each line, and talk to GOD of what it means to you. Praise HIM, Glorify HIM, ask him to bring to earth what is in Heaven. Make it a very personal prayer. I love doing that.

Something that was brought to my mind from Pastor Otto, this last Sunday was to come to the Lord as a servant. Not always asking for what you need, but by serving the Lord first.
Luke 7:7-10
7 And which of you, having a servant plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and sit down to eat’?8 But will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare something for my supper, and gird yourself and serve me till I have eaten and drunk, and afterward you will eat and drink’? 9 Does he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I think not. 10 So likewise you, when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do.’ ”

What is our duty? To follow GOD’s Law. And what is GOD’s law? The Old Testament, GOD’s Law would have been the 10 Commandments, the Sacrificial Laws, Dietary Laws and that sort of thing which were lined out in great detail. I think it would be good to hear this description of Why the law from John MacArthur.
This is from his sermon The Adoption of the Believer from 2017. He is preaching from Galatians 4:1–11.
Paul has been contrasting what the law does and what faith does, and they cannot be mixed. When the Judaizers came along and said it’s faith plus works, they mixed things that cannot be mixed. The law has a purpose. Back in verse 19 of chapter 3, “Why the Law?” Not to save, “It was added because of transgressions.
Why the Law? And I gave you four reasons for the law. Reason number one, to define sin at its broadest level. Obviously there is a law written in the heart of everybody, and we all have a conscience. So everybody knows what it right and what is wrong, and they know it because the law of GOD is written in the heart. But that is not a complete law; and so GOD revealed His law to Moses in all of its completeness to define sin at the broadest possible level.
Secondly, He revealed His law to demonstrate to us that sin is not just something wrong with us, something that’s out of whack with us that affects our relationships with other people and brings bad consequences on us sort of naturally, but the violation of the law of GOD is in fact open rebellion against GOD. It is high crime. The law then says that sin is more than a defect, it is an act of rebellion against GOD.
The third reason that Paul tells us we have received the law is so that we will understand that having violated the law and having rebelled against GOD, we are under the sentence of death. Death comes to all men. The wages of sin is death. We ask, “Why is there death?” Because everyone is a law-breaker. The wages of sin is death.
And the fourth reason GOD sent the law – the law was in place from Moses to Jesus for all those hundreds of years – was to demonstrate that the law could not save. There it was in the hands of the Jewish people who had the best opportunity to fulfill the law, to obey the law. They swore they would. They took a blood oath, back in Exodus 24, that they would obey the law. They did not obey the law. In fact, they violated the very first of the commandments, which was to have no other GODs. They went wholesale into idolatry, they violated the law of GOD at every point; ultimately judgment fell on their heads, they were taken into captivity, they were taken out of their land. There’s a little bit of a trickle-back, and even a few there now. But Israel still exists in disobedience and apostasy and rebellion against GOD in a collective sense.

So that’s why there was Law. Like he said, when Jesus was crucified and rose again, the 10 Commandments are still the Law, but all the sacrificial and dietary laws, are no longer valid. And the Judaizers would not let that go. They are the ones chasing after Paul, trying to malign and undo what Paul had said. Telling the Gentiles that you needed to get circumcised, and do the works according to their idea of how to follow the Law, to become righteous and that was the only way the Gentiles could go to Heaven. Satan was very busy with these people.

So now the Law with the advent of Christ became divided in 2 parts. Once again John MacArthur says of this:
The Law, meaning the Ten Commandments, the summary of GOD’s Law,
GOD’s moral Law. The first part deals with GOD and the second part deals with men. The first part, our relationship to GOD, the second part, our relationship to man. The first part can be summed up in these words, “Love the Lord your GOD with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.” And the second part can be summed up in these words, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” so that if you love GOD perfectly and you love your neighbor perfectly, you will fulfill the whole Law. You’ll never violate GOD and you will never violate anyone else. Therefore Romans 13:10 says, “Love is the fulfilling of the whole Law.” We are to be the model of the fulfilled Law. We are to be the model of GODliness in the world and it is our love that makes that visible. It is our love for GOD that drives us to honor Him. It is our love for others that drives us to honor them.

Love is the one thing that separates us from all the pagans, idolators, carnal Christians and everybody else walking around out in the world. They will know you by your works. This is the work of the Holy Spirit, not works of you, which will not work at all. Try this, ask the Holy Spirit, tonight or later today, or even right now, we’ll wait, to take control of you. To control your thoughts and actions. I mean, what do you have going in your life that would be better than this. Lunch, I’ve seen the lunches they serve here. Ask HIM to take control of you and be honest about it, and then feel the peace of understanding and his presence start to change you.

If you have done this and you’re still moping around, unhappy with life, feeling you’re no good and all that. Well, you’ve got some work to do. Get down on your knees and that might be metaphorically if you have some medical issues, GOD will understand. Ask GOD to show you what’s keeping HIS blessing from you. I know I talked about this last week, but it’s important. Do this until you get something back from GOD, and in my case, it about stops me in my tracks with watching in my minds eye, and in full living color, the travails of my misbegotten life. You will get the message and then do that which he has instructed you.

Let’s see, where were we. Oh yes, Verse 6.

6 Those who come He shall cause to take root in Jacob;
Israel shall blossom and bud,
And fill the face of the world with fruit.

In looking at the commentary of various Biblical writers that expound in scripture, there was no strong consensus. They all complained about the poor translation into english and to me it sounds as if HE, GOD will cause those who come, to take root in Israel and to prosper.

7
Has He struck Israel as He struck those who struck him?
Or has He been slain according to the slaughter of those who were slain by Him?

They had not been punished, as the oppressors had punished, ruthlessly and in hate, but had in His wrath remembered mercy.

8
In measure, by sending it away,
You contended with it.
He removes it by His rough wind
In the day of the east wind.

Once again, the people doing commentary, and I am using Bible Hub, all are complaining that this has been translated to just about unintelligibility. I have to profess that I am not sure what it means, either.

9
Therefore by this the iniquity of Jacob will be covered;
And this is all the fruit of taking away his sin:
When he makes all the stones of the altar
Like chalkstones that are beaten to dust,

Wooden images and incense altars shall not stand. HE sought to “purge” Judah and Jerusalem from the “groves and the carved (sun) images, and molten images.” The Asherah Poles or the sun-images, the two leading features of the cults which Israel had borrowed from the Syrians and Phoenicians

10
Yet the fortified city will be desolate,
The habitation forsaken and left like a wilderness;
There the calf will feed, and there it will lie down
And consume its branches.
11
When its boughs are withered, they will be broken off;
The women come and set them on fire.
For it is a people of no understanding;
Therefore He who made them will not have mercy on them,
And He who formed them will show them no favor.

Before this glorious promise, concerning the removal of Israel’s sin and calamity, shall be fulfilled, a dreadful and desolating judgment shall come upon them.

12
And it shall come to pass in that day
That the Lord will thresh,
From the channel of [d]the River to the Brook of Egypt;
And you will be gathered one by one,
O you children of Israel.
13
So it shall be in that day:
The great trumpet will be blown;
They will come, who are about to perish in the land of Assyria,
And they who are outcasts in the land of Egypt,
And shall worship the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem.

JUDAH PROMISED RESTORATION. The general practice of Isaiah is to append to gloomy prophecies words of encouragement He does this even when heathen nations are denounced.

Closing Prayer

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Courage

Matthew 15:11 “Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man.”

It was a beautiful summer weekend. The wife and I arrived, impromptu at a beloved Aunt and Uncles place to connect with family I may have never met before. 27 years on, I am still the New Guy at most of these family gatherings. I do have a valid excuse for not knowing who’s who, as we’ve been out of state for about 20 years.

As the evening wore on, past the re-introductions, guys standing around and asking what you do or did do. And a little while after that, what I knew was coming, the lowering to the lowest common denominator. Jokes, guy jokes.

I have found through 60 years of life as a guy, when we get together, we get stupid. And it doesn’t even require beer. The jokes start and even before I was a Believer, I was uncomfortable.

What was running through my mind was Matthew 15:18 But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man.

They started telling jokes and these were not really bad jokes. But these were family members, that should have known better, and I was standing there, very unhappy with them and myself because I’m standing there not doing anything about it, so I was sharing their sin.

Being new to this, a believer in Christ, I had no tools to speak to these guys where they would listen. Short of calling fire down on their heads, which would cause uncomfortable questions from the wives on what did you do to my husband and over what?
These are mostly Scandinavian stock and not very forgiving as a rule, over simple things like this.

What comes out of your mouth, reflects what is in your heart. One of the first things to change in me was how I talked. I was never real bad but we all tell ourselves the same thing. Once you accept Christ, repent and believe, if you have truly done this, the Holy Spirit will come into you and start making changes. Now, just because the Holy Spirit is in you does not mean you stop sinning, no, but you start sinning less. And if you ask the Holy Spirit to take control of your life, your thoughts and actions, your life starts changing for real.

If you are not feeling a change within you after accepting Christ, ask the Lord what is holding you back. Try this “Oh Heavenly Father, please show me what is holding me back from your blessings, grant me the knowledge of what I need to do to walk within your Will.” Thank HIM and praise HIM for HIS Grace and Mercy. A consistent and earnest prayer of something like this will definitely show you what the problem is. It has shown me in full living color, what exactly is wrong with me and what to do about it.

I am continually surprised at people’s unbelief of the power of Prayer. Our Father wants to hear from you, often, and is more than happy to give what you ask for, as long as it is in line with his Will. What is his Will? Ask HIM. HE wants you to ask.

I have since learned from my Lord what to say and do, but mostly be courageous enough to speak out. The Lord never puts you into a situation that you can’t handle. Ask for courage from our Lord. We all need more of it.

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A New Way

Followers of the Way–“and [Saul who became Paul] asked for letters from him to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem,” (Acts 9:2)

I believe a re-introduction is in order here. I am sure you’ve noticed a bit of a change in decoration and content and that’s pretty much what’s happened with me also. The old content and the old me, deleted. Like Paul in Philippians 3:8-10, everything I was, counts for naught. I think GOD had decided, probably some time back before the Earth was formed, that when we moved back home to Minnesota, it was time for me to quit fooling around like I was in control of my life, Hah! In Kansas, living out on the prairie and not too close to anything, we had to do for ourselves.

Back in Aug 2015, I quit my job with the School District my wife and I worked for and went to work fixing up our 1878 stone house, It had not been well taken care of since around the end of the 1930’s, and when we got it, windows and doors were falling apart, plumbing was piecemeal and slow and the electrical, which was from 1950 when it was put in, was down right dangerous. I have always been able to learn from books, video or just plain watching somebody. In fact, I was quite proud of that “self learned” approach. I was able to watch Youtube and learned how to plumb, wire, weld and build furniture, anything really. And the house and property needed every bit of it.

Spiritually, I was a wasteland of self deception, denial and rebellion. I grew up a Lutheran, going to Sunday School, Confirmation and Church every Sunday. I’d have to say it didn’t stick to me. I did not go to College but continued learning on my own and was very interested in Science and History. And I would have to say that is where doubt really entered my mind. Satan just has to knock you off course a degree or 2, a whisper here, a nudge there and the next thing you know, you’re on the wide path to Damnation, along with all your neighbors. There were hints here and there that GOD was still interested in me. The fact that I am still alive after doing so many stupid things, says we have a most merciful GOD indeed.

It took 2 years to get everything done, and I’d say that in the last 6 months of that hectic time, I had noticed something was wrong. I have always been strong, able to do whatever I needed to do, and now my feet were not acting right. I did not seem to be able to control my ankles, so my feet were kinda slapping the ground when I walked. And my right hand was feeling just a little weak. But I was so busy getting the house ready to sell, I didn’t have time to worry about being a little tired in spots.

The house and property did for us what we needed it to do. We ended up selling it the first day, for cash, Grace again, and then it was a rush to get packed up and out of there. We ended up in Minnesota, where my wife and I grew up, around the end of September 2017. My wife’s Mother, Sister and her husband lived in the small town of Grove City. We were graciously invited to bunk up at her Sister’s place until we found a place of our own. My Sister in law and Husband are the salt of the earth people and good solid Christians to boot. In fact, my wife’s entire large family would be characterized the same way. Good solid Christians.

It was about this time, GOD started applying a bit more persuasion to me, placing me in a home with these two Baptists. Sure, we went to Church with them and all that, but I was not done being my honorary stiff necked Jew quite yet.

We ended up buying a house, from my wife’s nephew, about a block and a half from her Mother’s and her Sister’s places. The whole town is about 4 or 5 blocks square, so that’s not saying much.
I went to the Dr and complained that my feet and hands were not working right. He poo pooed me and sent me home. I went back a few months later, and was a quite a bit more insistent. He scheduled me to see a Neurologist in Willmar, a town about 19 miles to our West. The catch with the Neurologist was it would take 3 months to get in to see him. Busy man apparently. This is where GOD’s Grace drops into the scene like it’s all a big happy coincidence, and the amazing thing is I was not done rebelling yet. The cool thing I have learned about GOD is, if HE wants you, you’er gonna get got.

The receptionist from the Neurologist called again and said she had an opening, for the next day, bright and early. We then spent the next 3 days with the Dr. probing, spinal tapping which is my all time favorite, MRI’ing and his prognosis was CMT, which is 3 Doctors names (that I can never remember) for a disease that weakens the extremities in older people. He wasn’t ruling out anything more serious without some more testing. The Dr. called the next week and told me that he found protein in my spinal column which should not be there and that’s not good news. By this time I had come to the conclusion that it was ALS. How did I know that? Well, my Mom died from it and her Father died from it. I am pretty good at seeing the handwriting on the wall and that’s what I came up with. And it hit me like a ton of bricks. Everything from I’m too young to die, wah!, to I have many more things I want to do and this is not fair. Of course not, it was only Spring, ya whiner. Everybody know the fair comes at the end of summer. The whole while GOD has got his hand out, offering it to me. But the scales were still on my eyes.

The Neurologist offered me a plan to reverse the CMT with infusions of Hemoglobin which has to be done 2 days in a row, every 2 weeks. The process takes up to 7 hours to complete, with you sitting there, sitting there watching it drip, drip, drip slowly into your arm. And you feel miserable after you get home. It has to do with it being millions of bits of other people coming into your body and sometimes producing hives and labored breathing. I did 3 sessions of that, and got to watch other people coming in to get their chemo treatments. And see the pity in their eyes cast at me, thinking I was getting chemo too. That was a very educational experience. He called off the treatment by the end of June as no improvement was noted. I was starting to come around to the idea of accepting GOD and maybe the earth was created 6752 years ago, on a Tuesday.

It’s now late July 2018 and one night my wife woke me up because she was having a very bad seizure. She’s never had a seizure before and I was pretty dang sure I could not handle this on my own. Ended up with about 20 people in the house trying to get her in the ambulance. I called my Brother in law and shakily asked to come over and he did. My next door neighbor Pete, walked over at the same time. Pete was the Pastor of the Baptist Church we had been going to and an all around great guy. Pete, my Brother in Law and I went to the Hospital and I am not sure if it was then or exactly when, but I had totally bought into GOD’s program, hook, line and sinker. We got my wife home, went back to sleep and she promptly had another seizure, not as bad. So she ends up going to the same Neurologist I am seeing. Next, they find a brain tumor in her head when she got an MRI because of the seizures. By this time I am ready to grow a beard, get some cardboard and go down to the Highway, waving the REPENT SINNER, THE END IS NIGH sign at all who drive by.

Turns out this long story has a happy ending. I finally grasped GOD’s outstretched hand, just in time, too. I found out I do have ALS and it really does not matter to me anymore. What does matter is that I did accept Christ as my Savior, I read the Bible for the first time and now I am leading Wednesday Bible Study, which Pastor Pete used to lead but he was called to Northern Minnesota to minister up there. Pastor Delroy was then our Shepard and has since decided to take the summer off and I got the nod. Funny thing, Pastor Delroy still comes to Bible Study, I guess he meant he didn’t want to work this summer, and is now making noises like maybe I should just keep doing it. I guess it’s a good thing I like to learn and love history.

There are many lessons to be drawn from this. You are never so lost that GOD cannot find you. Our GOD is a patient, loving GOD. Our sins have been forgiven when you accept Christ, however, you need to do some forgiving too.
Matt 6:14-15
14 For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you,

15 but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

And this is important, not for your Salvation, but to receive GOD’s Blessings like Faith, Discernment and just about any other thing that GOD wants to give you. And you will be disciplined as a Father always disciplines a child of HIS when they err, but that’s a whole lot better than eternal darkness and torment in a lake of fire, without the love of Christ.

My wife accepted Christ back in ’84 and had been patiently tapping her fingers, waiting for me. Now, as of last week, we have been baptized and joined the Baptist Church. I also have been blessed to speak boldly for the Lord in Bible Study, which is a very big surprise to me. My ALS is proceeding in that I can’t do much with my hands and walking is difficult. My breathing and swallowing are not affected. And once again, I will let Paul speak for me. This is from 2 Corinthians 12 and it will start out mid verse 7.

Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Blessed again, to use my mouth for the Lord. It will be a bit of a challenge to walk down to the Highway with my REPENT SINNERS sign, but if GOD wants me to do it, I will get there. Be sure to wave if you see a wild eyed man waving a cardboard sign on the corner of 2nd street and Highway 12, Grove City.

Psalm 23:6

6 Surely your goodness and love will follow me
    all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord
    forever.

Of late there is a saying floating around “Are you tired of winning yet?”, with GOD it’s “Are you tired of his Blessings yet?” GOD will provide, you just have to ask. I leave you with this from Charles Spurgeon:

Our heavenly Banker delights to cash his own notes. Never let the promise rust. Draw the word of promise out of its sheath and use it with holy violence. Think not that God will be troubled by your importunately reminding him of his promises. He loves to hear the loud outcries of needy souls. It is his delight to bestow favors. He is more ready to hear than you are to ask. The sun is not weary of shining, nor the fountain of flowing. It is God’s nature to keep his promises; therefore go at once to the throne with, “Do as you have said.”

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Faith

Yesterday at our Wednesday Bible Study, we discussed George Muller, a man who took GOD at his word. Our Lord said in Matt 21:22 “And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.”

George never took a salary or a loan or a mortgage and yet built 5 orphanages and fed thousands of orphans. This is a story from George Muller’s journal about receiving Daily Bread.

One morning, all the plates and cups and bowls on the table were empty. There was no food in the larder and no money to buy food. The children were standing, waiting for their morning meal, when Müller said, “Children, you know we must be in time for school.” Then lifting up his hands he prayed, “Dear Father, we thank Thee for what Thou art going to give us to eat.”
There was a knock at the door. The baker stood there, and said, “Mr. Müller, I couldn’t sleep last night. Somehow I felt you didn’t have bread for breakfast, and the Lord wanted me to send you some. So I got up at 2 a.m. and baked some fresh bread, and have brought it.”
Mr. Müller thanked the baker, and no sooner had he left, when there was a second knock at the door. It was the milkman. He announced that his milk cart had broken down right in front of the orphanage, and he would like to give the children his cans of fresh milk so he could empty his wagon and repair it.

And that’s how Mr Muller’s life ran, every day, Faith that GOD would provide.
I thank Josh, our Pastor, for bringing this guy to my attention last Sunday. So, I asked our group what would it take to have that kind of faith, to trust our Lord to provide for our needs, just like it says in the Bible. I noticed a lot of far away looks for a few moments.

With faith as small as a mustard seed, the scripture says you can move mountains.
Matt 17:20
20 He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

First things first. Do you believe in Christ? If not, take this first step and pray to GOD, asking him for his presence in your life. That would be your first act of Faith. If you are honest with yourself and GOD, HE will lead you to more information and people that will help you.

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