Week 27
The Lord's Day, week 27!
Thoughts on Philippians 3 & 4:
· Paul's emphasis in chapter 3 is that who you are, in the flesh, makes absolutely no difference before God. He's speaking of the Jewish believers who are attempting to force Gentiles to be circumcised, that they boast in the fact that they are Jewish, but He has all the more reason to boast if there was something in the flesh at all to boast in. But there isn't! Whether born a Jew or not, all of it is counted as loss for the sake of Christ... Again we see the necessity to die to self, to count all of it as nothing, as gone, as worthless compared to having gained Christ. Until you can view all of your fleshly identity as worthless in comparison to gaining Jesus as your Identity you will always wrestle and have a problem with true contentment. You will not see Jesus Himself as enough. We will want to maintain our status, our ethnicity, our family name, our money, our power, or even our victimhood status; which happens to be extremely popular today, but this is only because we haven't looked to Christ enough and truly believed Him to be enough. But look at Paul's response to losing all of it... and talk about having the credentials to call himself a victim! How many times was he beaten, imprisoned, and did he have to escape in fear of his life being taken away, and yet he never looks to that either, in all of it he presses on looking to make this unearned righteousness that was given him, his own because Jesus has made him, His own. Where's his focus? Jesus. His focus is on what Jesus has done for Him, on who Jesus is, and who he now is in light of what Jesus has done for Him. Everything else is meaningless. We live as citizens of heaven now, bringing the kingdom of God with us everywhere we go while awaiting for the return of our King who will transform our lowly body to be like His glorious body, by the power that enables Him to even to subject ALL things to Himself! You get that, ALL things, we preach the gospel because Jesus has the power to subject ALL things, we are willing to suffer because Jesus has the power to subject ALL things, we recognize that all suffering is for our good and when it happens it is not out of the control of Jesus because He has the power to subject ALL things, nothing happens that is beyond His control... This is what leads Paul to chapter 4, and the verses that every Christian needs to have memorized... "Rejoice in the Lord always, I say again rejoice!" Paul is in prison, he has experienced tremendous suffering for the cause of Christ, and he says, Rejoice, why? Because Jesus has the power to subject ALL things... Jesus was sovereign even over Paul's sufferings, and even over ours.
· Chapter 4 continues to tease this out by reminding us that there will still be anxiety, and here is what we do with it, bring it to the Lord by prayer and petition... I preached a sermon on these verses, the title was simple: In Everything Pray... This is what Paul is calling on the church to do here. I'll link to the sermon below. In verse 8 Paul says to put our minds on certain things, and here is the list, whatever is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellence and worthy of praise... notice he doesn't mention to think of your present circumstances, or how you feel about them, but these categories are all meant to direct our attention to the author of Truth, the true Righteous and honorable one, the only one who is pure, and truly lovely who did something that was truly commendable by taking on the death that we deserve, and He is the only one worthy of praise... He is pointing us back to Christ and away from ourselves. It is only by focusing on Christ that we can do all things, and these all things happen to be in the context of contentment and suffering, not prosperity! Next time someone quotes this verse to you and tries to link it to prosperity please kindly point them to Pauls context, sitting in prison awaiting his execution. That was the all things Paul had in mind when he wrote it! Paul closes by encouraging the Philippians in their giving, they gave when no one else would in order to further the gospel, and this was important because they didn't have the money the other churches did, and yet they sacrificed and Paul is extremely grateful for that and here he points them to the fact that this is pleasing to God, who will supply every need of theirs, according to His riches in glory of Christ Jesus. This too is not a promise of prosperity, but rather of contentment in Christ Himself. The riches are that of a spiritual inheritance, we are His children... that in itself is something that no one can take away from us, and should mean more to you and I then anything else in this world!
Today is the Lord's day, please be sure to worship with the Saints, be sure to praise the Lord who has given you life so abundantly! May He bless you this day as you seek to glorify Him in all that you do. God bless!
Monday, week 27!
Thoughts on Leviticus 10-12:
· The focus of Leviticus 10 is worship! How do I get that? Well consider Romans 12, present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. In the Mosaic Covenant the Jews were required to bring all sorts of sacrifices, we looked at that weeks ago. Here in this chapter we now have specific instructions given to the Priests, who are man’s representatives to God, for worship, which is the sacrificial system. Here's the main point in this chapter, worship God according to how He tells you to! We don't get to determine our worship, God tells us what kind of worship He will receive. In the opening verses Nadab and Abihu are killed for their false worship, they brought a sacrifice that was unacceptable to God. It was not according to what God had prescribed. Aaron their father, is not even allowed to mourn their death but rather is given further instruction and warning, "abstain from wine or strong drink when you go into the tent of meeting lest you die..." God takes His worship very seriously. Just a side note on alcohol here, the point wasn't that drinking wine or alcohol was a sin, if it was then all of Israel would have had to abstain and Jesus wouldn't have drunk wine when He walked the earth. But rather wine and alcohol was had with every meal just about, it was common among the people to drink. God wants the priests to be set apart from the common people, so they have to abstain from certain activities that the common people can partake in prior to entering the tent of meeting. They could partake otherwise, and yet if they did so when they were told not to, it would cost their lives. This theme of being set apart continues throughout the next chapter, it's the whole point of declaring some animals clean and others unclean. God wanted to set apart Israel from the other nations, they needed to be set apart also, and so one way He does this is by declaring certain animals clean and others unclean. By sticking to these strict dietary laws, Israel was distinct from the culture around them. It wasn't that the animals themselves were wrong to eat, but for a period and for a purpose, God declared them unclean for a specific people. God separates the priests from the common man, and Israel from all other nations... So, what does this mean today??? Well, today, there is only one man in Christ! We are now a kingdom of priests, so there is no longer separation among the children of God, thus when Jesus sits at the last supper He uses wine to represent the blood of the New Covenant, Jesus is our final High Priest, read Hebrews 4. He has broken now that distinction between the priesthood and the nation of Israel, and inaugurates a new priesthood of all believers who partake in this meal in remembrance of that final bloody sacrifice, and then we move ahead to the book of Acts and Peters vision, where God declares all animals are pronounced clean, no longer is there a need to abstain, the distinction between Israel and the other nations have been done away with. All become one in Christ, we are now free to eat whatever we want, sharing our cultural distinctions with one another and being able to share across a table without concern over what makes us unclean because we have been made clean by the blood of the Lamb. How about worship??? Well, we have nothing in the New Testament that breaks down the seriousness of how one worships God. In fact what we see is the opposite, that worship is still taken very seriously, and God is still to be approached only according to who He is. We have new ordinances established, Baptism and Communion, we have the preaching of the word, singing of songs, a very specific way to order the leadership of the church with responsibilities. In other words, God is still concerned with how He is worshipped and so we should care as well!
I hope you all had an opportunity to worship yesterday. Please don't grow content in not gathering, seek out a church to attend and be in the regular company of the saints! I pray the Lord blesses you today and that you have a wonderful start to your week. God bless.
Tuesday, week 27!
Thoughts on 2 Kings 1-5:
· Elijah remains faithful to the Lord and is taken away in a whirlwind to heaven! When I consider Elijah's ministry and what we know of him, we see the picture of a bold prophet and an insecure man... It may seem like such a contradiction but the truth is there are many in the church that are exactly the opposite of Elijah, they are weak or insecure prophets, and conceited and arrogant when it comes to the wisdom and power of man. This is how we end up with such hypocrisy and heretical teaching in the church. Men who will not stand on the word of God and simply say what God says, and instead choose to say what they think, and it all to often happens that what they think is exactly what the majority of the culture thinks. Here's what this sounds like today, love your neighbor says the pastor of the Mega church, and so hear them out, have compassion, don't tell them they are wrong because you don't know what they've been through. Just love them, tell them how important they are to god, tell them how god loves them and only wants what's best for them. Tell them to come to church, that they can belong even without believing! We won't ever judge them, we won't ever hurt their feelings, we want them to feel comfortable, we want them to feel safe, we want them to feel loved... while we are at it, we are going to give them some great biblical principles to help them live a better life. We will talk all about things like finances, healthy relationships, servant leadership, building good community, healthy boundaries, and of course love, love, love... and all the squishy church goes, AMEN! But the man of God says, REPENT, turn away from your wickedness for the Kingdom of God is here, right now, and if you die in your sin the wages of sin is an eternal death spent under the wrath of God! Jesus lovely plan for your life is to give up your sin, pick up your cross and follow Him, you and I are not enough, only Jesus is enough, you and I are not good, only Jesus is good, you and I know nothing of Love apart from the grace of God through faith in Jesus... Stop looking in the mirror because you and I are a complete mess and we need to look only to Jesus, stop trying to build your best life now, and recognize life itself is only found in Jesus, yes judge, but start with yourself because there's more of a mess found there than you'll ever find in someone else and when you do be sure to judge by Gods standards not your own. God says everything that is promoted in our culture as good today is evil, so the culture itself is wicked and evil, and there is nothing in it to be redeemed... the only hope for the culture is that people would repent and trust in Jesus that He would have mercy on us all. There is nothing good waiting for us as a country if we continue on the path that leads to destruction and only a radical turning away will change things. So, I ask you... which of these do you hear from your pastor? One of them is like Elijah, bold in Christ, no confidence in himself, the other is of the devil, I really can't put it any plainer than that.
· Elisha... what can I say but don't you see Jesus??? What a picture of Christ is he, look at His miracles, and the way he deals with the people including Naaman, commander of the army, he has no fear of man before him. For all that Elijah was, Elisha was more in that He is a clearer picture of Christ. True humility and boldness, not seeking to make his own name great but rather that of the Lords only. I love how he is constantly referred to, Elisha the man of God... When I die and the Lord calls me home, I only pray that I would be worthy of only that title. Ryan the man of God, that's it, that's enough, nothing else matters. Not Marine, husband, father, pastor, but man of God. May the Lord work in each of our lives to truly conform each of us to the image of His blessed Son, that we would become worthy of the title man or woman of God and that we would be completely content...
I have a special prayer request today, my cousin Erik Leite has brain cancer for the second time in his life. The first time he had the tumor removed and went into remission and it's been over 15 years since, until a few weeks ago. He and the family discovered the tumor had returned, and it was very aggressive. He immediately underwent surgery, and I believe I requested prayer for that then. The surgery went better than was expected. He returned home while the doctors attempted to put together a further treatment plan. Last week he had to be readmitted to the hospital because of some complications and we found out on Friday that the cancer is just too aggressive for further treatment. He decided instead to return home, to live out the remainder of his days with his wife, adult daughter and 7 year old son with the best quality of life possible. He is only 4 years older than I am... I have been considering this for the last week, and am so deeply grieved for him and his family, in addition to all of this, I don't have confidence in saying that he is a believer. The pain of going through this is enough, but to do so without future assurance and hope is so much greater. Three requests, first pray that when we visit, that the Lord would grant us the words to proclaim the gospel boldly, compassionately and with the urgency required that there would be hope even in his last days for the sake of his wife and children. Pray that when preached he and they would respond with repentance and faith. Second, pray for a miracle, that he would be healed, God is able, and I have promised the Lord that no matter how grim a situation looks I will pray for healing up until we are paying final respects at the cemetery. I have done this more times in the last few years than I can count now, but in all of it God remains able! My faith hasn't wavered because He hasn't healed, but I continue to seek more grace and faith to continue to believe in God for the healing, and so please join me in praying for his miraculous healing. Lastly, pray for comfort and peace for all the family. My uncle, Erik's father in-law, passed away from lung cancer just 8 years ago and so for them all to be going through this again so quickly has them devastated. I thank you ahead of time for your prayers. Let me know if there is anything I can be praying for you... God bless!
Wednesday, week 27!
Thoughts on Psalms 78-80:
· There are 3 words I've chosen for these 3 chapters to hopefully walk away with 3 points... Remember, Revenge, Restore... First, Remember which is for chapter 78, Ephraim was the first capital of Israel, but with the fall of Saul so cam the fall of the tribe of Ephraim and with David came the establishment of Judah as the capital and place where the Ark of the covenant containing the presence of God would be kept. This entire Psalm is remembering the events that led to this. It's important to recognize that the discipline of God is never without reason and often we only need to remember our own past to recognize what brought it on. The psalm draws the clear distinction between Israel’s unfaithfulness and God continued faithfulness, it is because of this He rejected the tent of Joseph; He did not choose the tribe of Ephraim... We must remember that all of our sin is against God, and how He chooses to deal with us is often, if not always so much better than we deserve. God was patient with Ephraim, from the time of Moses all the way up until David He allowed the Ark to remain with them. Now that He has brought about action the psalmist looks to the history revealing Gods dealing with them as clearly just. We are prone to get angry at the discipline of God, to question Him and try to justify ourselves. I know this is the case with me at least. But in those moments, when I take the time to remember, specifically, my unfaithfulness, and Gods faithfulness, I am struck with peace in recognizing God is still being patient with me, I deserve so much worse... Notice that for Ephraim, and most of Israel Judgement is still coming, but it is because remembering is meant to lead to more than just a guilty feeling, it is meant to lead to repentance and for them it doesn't. They have brief reprieves but nothing lasting, but let's not let that be the case for us. May we remember our unfaithfulness and Gods faithfulness that we would be led to repentance.
· The next word is Revenge I know, vengeance would have been better but I was going for alliteration. lol it's easy for us to get caught up staring at the sinfulness out there and wondering why isn't God dealing with that? Why am I here suffering, why am I facing discipline, why am I going through these trials, yet look at them! They sin all day every day and yet they continue to go free and face no hardship, especially when those who are doing so do it while they mock your own misfortune and hardship. But the psalmist shows us how to respond, by recognizing vengeance is the Lords, we leave it all in His hands, He will pour out His anger on the nations that don't know Him, while at the same time He remembers our sin no more! You see, no one escapes God! No one gets away with anything, and while we as His children often face a tougher child here on this earth, we know that there is always joy in the morning. We know that we've been granted His salvation while the earth only has His wrath to look forward to. He will return sevenfold into the lap of those who taunt Him, who behave as if there is no god but themselves. But we the sheep of His pasture give Him thanks forever!
· The last word is Restore and we see it used in Psalm 80. The psalmist is here looking to an earthly restoration, we see that from the context. He is looking to who Israel was, and asking God to bring her back to her former glory. But the spiritual application is also evident, because after all restoration in this life is still only partial. There is an ultimate restoration that we are promised in Christ, one that will come after the resurrection where we will be restored to the fullness of life we were made for. That is the restoration that should be most greatly desired for the child of God. There are times when I get confused about my earthly life, and begin to think of things I had and even begin to allow myself to fantasize about having them back. Perhaps there was a job you lost, or a home that was foreclosed no, or a church that you belonged to that fell on hard times, whatever it is the temptation can be to think back to that period of time and just think, Lord restore me to this point in time! But no, that's not the restoration we should look for, it's not the restoration that will satisfy and often even when those things are achieved we find that it completely fails to measure up to what we had hoped. There is only one restoration that will satisfy, and that's our restored relationship with God which will be fully consummated at the marriage supper of the lamb we will be fully in His presence again. Dwell on that, ask for God to hasten that restoration that we would finally be at true peace with Him.
I thank you all for your prayers for my cousin and ask that you continue to pray as it looks like I'll get out there either Friday or early next week to see him. In the meantime, also pray for our family as we seek more of the Lord and ask Him to strengthen us and give us a home full of His joy and peace. Thank you all and God bless!
Thursday, week 27!
Thoughts on Proverbs 8 & 9:
· Wisdom continues to be personified, and the writer here is making the case for wisdom, why we need wisdom for all of life... We start with a call to the children of men. Wisdom is available to all human beings, and as such at times even the unbeliever benefits from wisdom. We see this even within the visible church today, filled with unbelievers who come strictly to receive principles for living life. This is why many seeker driven churches are so dangerous. They offer what is often good, godly wisdom, and people take it home and apply it and then what do you know... It works!!!! But the problem is that though we want to be wise in how we live, when that wisdom is ripped apart from the right foundation, we are only creating a more comfortable path to hell. There is a reason that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight, Proverbs 9:10. Because wisdom must be rooted in the source in order for it to truly be of eternal benefit. This is why the gospel and Jesus must be the focus of all preaching, we of course want wisdom shared, we want to know how we should be living, but only how we should be living in light of who Jesus is and what He has done. From the call the writer moves on to the value of wisdom, it is more valuable than silver or jewels. Necessary for kings to rule and it is completely separate from evil, wisdom itself is hatred of evil. This is really important because this hatred of evil should guide us in what is truly wise. If I just took the time to consider more often, is this good, is this holy, am I breaking a commandment, does the word of God inform me in what I am about to do, will this action hurt someone, instead of only thinking about what I want, or how I feel in the moment, or why my actions are o.k. (self-justification) I would save myself so much heartache. All of our sin, is foolish... There is never a justification for it, and it is never wise. All of it is rooted in pride and arrogance, thinking we know better than God. I know that I need to slow down in life, I need to take more time to consider who God is and what God says in all of my actions, and for someone who likes to move as fast as I do, that is so hard, but that's what prudence is and that is where wisdom dwells... Then we have the source of wisdom, verse 22, God Himself is the source, wisdom came from God before the beginning of the earth. This means that wisdom is timeless and good for all eternity. Wisdom will not cease in the new heavens and new earth, but that which is wise today, was wise yesterday and will be wise forever. When we learn wisdom we are learning eternal truths, that which we will take with us to the new heavens and earth. This finishes then with a final call to submit, for whoever finds wisdom finds life and obtains favor from the Lord. Wisdom is a matter of life and death, embrace wisdom, embrace life, reject it and embrace death.
Today's reading has convicted me in many ways, and I pray it does the same for you. I have repenting to do, there are so many ways that I failed to love and embrace wisdom in my own life. But I am grateful to God for the conviction and for all of your prayers and continued encouragement. Is the word of God changing you, is it shaping you and conforming you to the image of God? I truly hope so and pray that it continues to do so. I hope to be seeing my cousin in the next few days, so please continue to pray for him. God bless you all and hope you have a wonderful day!
Friday, week 27!
Thoughts on Ezekiel 19-24:
· Judgment remains the focus and chapter 24 ends with the siege of Jerusalem, which we've read about also in Jeremiah. Chapter 22 lays out for us the guilt of Israel, why they are being judged, but here's what stuck out to me most today in all of this reading, because it is a lot. Have you ever considered why the Lord says He does things for "His namesake" or why He says, "and you shall know that I am the Lord" or "they shall see that I am the Lord" it's repeated a few times here, and we actually see it throughout all of scripture. But in the context of judgment is where it is most profound. Sin itself is the result of a lack of belief and trust in God. We sin because we don't believe, Israel sinned because they didn't believe, they turned to other gods and turned their back on the Lord who led them out of Egypt showing they no longer believed and then judgement is prophesied against them, that they may "know I am the Lord...".God will be acknowledged one way or the other, for those who will not submit and receive Him through repentance and faith today, will submit and receive Him as their final Judge but one way or another all of us know that He is the Lord our God. There is no escaping God, there is no one who dies and goes into eternity denying God and continuing to worship their idols, when judgement comes God will judge for His namesake that all the world would know He is the Lord God. Brothers and sisters, for those who trust in Christ we to have an option for today, either obey God today and show the world that He truly is the Lord our God. Or continue to backslide, continue to surrender to sin and the Lord will discipline you that the world knows, "He still is the Lord our God". Israel was God’s chosen nation, and they were to show the world who God is, but for the sake of the nations to whom they were to be His representatives, God judges them, chapter 21 verse 5 tells us He does this that "all flesh shall know that I am the Lord..." God must deal with sin, especially in the lives of those who are His children, especially with sin in the church, and He deals with it that the world would know Him. Why was the church kept from worship? That all would know He is the Lord our God. Why can't you and I get away with sin the way we used to? That the world would know He is the Lord our God. One way or another, all will see and know, in one life or the next, all the world will finally know... Here's my challenge to you and me for today, let us show the world through our holiness, rather than Gods judgment. We will never obey perfectly, but the more we submit the brighter His light shines, let us prefer obedience over discipline. In chapter 20 verse 41 the Lord says "He will manifest His Holiness among you in the sight of the nations..." Let us be Holy for He is Holy that all would know, He is the Lord our God! All God does is for His namesake, for His glory and one way or another He accomplishes this, we can either resist or submit, those are the only two options and when we resist He will still accomplish His end, so obey, submit, seek to Love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength! If we love Him, we will obey Him...
Friends, every day this week has cut me like a knife! I hope and pray it is doing the same work in you. We are more than half way through the year and with all that has happened in the world around us, as I read Gods world and can't help but be encouraged that it speaks to everything. There have been words for every season and situation because Gods word is always applicable, His word is always true, it is the only place we can go to in order to find peace and guidance in navigating such a wicked and rebellious world. His word speaks to my soul, and to all the world, and we must be willing to proclaim it in every season to all people. God bless you all and I hope you have a wonderful Friday!
Saturday, week 27!
Thoughts on Luke 17 & 18:
· Forgiveness, why is it so difficult for us? In verse 5 we see it was difficult to for the disciples, Jesus tells them they need to forgive every time a person repents even if it is 7 times in just one day. He doesn't even talk about what the sin is, because it doesn't matter, the point is that the person acknowledged their wrongdoing and turned from it. The disciples hear this, and their response is, "increase our faith". In other words, they say the difficulty of what was being asked of them, they recognized how hard it is for us to truly forgive. We find it hard to forgive most, when we fail to recognize how much we have been forgiven. The basis for Jesus command to forgive is the forgiveness of God towards those who repent. No matter how much someone has done to you, it will always dwarf in comparison to how much you and I have sinned and still sin against God. Forgiveness comes when we look at our own sin rather than the sin of others. It's easy to stay mad at someone when all you can see is how they have wronged you, but when you look at how much you have wronged God, it takes the sting out of it. Because you and I have done far worse to Him, and yet "if we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us of all unrighteousness." If you are anything like me though, you probably begin to think, yeah, but what about people who take advantage of us? What about those people who continue to sin against us, at some point we can just stop forgiving them right? At some point we need to value ourselves enough that we say, that's it, I won't allow you to treat me this way! NO! You and I are not more worthy than God, you and I deserve absolutely nothing but death. I know this is hard, I want to demand respect, and often in my home I try to, I try to make my kids treat me a certain way, I want to demand that my wife talk to me a certain way. Part of it is because God does call us to respect and love each other and I want to see it modeled in my home. But the other part of it is pride, and if i'm honest, it's probably more pride than it is me seeking for my family to be obedient. You know how I know? Because I get angry. I don't mean righteous anger, but emotional anger, anger that swells up internally. That anger is about me, not God. Think about Jesus on His way to the cross, His emotions never controlled Him, and this is God. He was spit on, flogged, beaten, stripped, and hung on a cross to die and yet He screams out, Father forgive them, they know not what they do. I have to repent of my own pride daily, and it's why I need to be forgiven daily and if you are honest, I think you probably need to also, because we are sinful human beings who think much more of ourselves than we ought. Look at how Jesus responds to the disciples request for more faith... If you had faith the size of a mustard seed... in other words, it's not about the size of your faith. The size of your faith is irrelevant, you know what matters? The object of your faith. That's what matters, who is your faith in? Because the clearer you see the object of your faith, Jesus, then even the smallest amount of faith will be enough to see you forgive. So, ask yourself, how clear is He to you? How well do you know Him and how much are you clinging to Him? Is He the object of your faith alone? Or do you still cling to some sense of self-dignity? Do you still value yourself more than Jesus? Do you still think you are worthy of better treatment than Jesus? Now, keep in mind, this doesn't mean we don't rebuke brothers and sisters, the context itself makes it clear, but it's how we cling to our self-righteousness, and allow ourselves to believe that we have to be treated better than we are. What makes someone sin against you and I sinful is first and foremost, who God is, not who you and I are. Remember that also. It's to God first they must go to and to God we should always be prepared to direct them. If God forgives them, then you and I better be ready to, too.
· The last thing i'll point to is this, in chapter 18 we have Jesus foretelling of His death a third time, and He is so clear, and yet the disciples do not grasp what He is saying. Today as I read that, I couldn't help but think, how much of what I read in the scriptures am I not grasping? How much am I still blind to? How much is sin in my own life keeping me from seeing? If this was the case for the disciples, you know it's the case for us to. He spelled it out for them, I am going to be tortured and killed and then rise again and yet, it was as if He was speaking another language. I know i've read passages before, even this year as we read this bible in a year plan, that I have before, but for some reason this time, it's opened up to me! It's like I am seeing it for the first time. I can imagine the disciples after Jesus was raised, they are sitting with Him and all of a sudden these words hitting them right between the eyes! "How did I miss that?" they would have thought. This is why we must always come to the scriptures with such a spirit of humility, trusting in God alone to open them up to us. It's His revelation, and He will illuminate it for us. I've taught on passages before only to have people come to me years later and say, hey check this passage out, i've never thought of this before or saw this before... I'll be like, yeah, that's awesome. But inside i'm thinking, I know we looked at that together a few years ago, I know we talked about just that thing, but Gods timing is so much better than mine. lol
Another week is over, I hope you have all had a great week. I'll be posting all of this week’s notes on the website today. God bless you all and enjoy your Saturday.