Category Archives: Questions

1 Corinthians, 2 Peter, 2019, Ephesians, Questions, Repentance, Salvation

The Response!

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17 So this I say, and solemnly affirm together with the Lord [as in His presence], that you must no longer live as the [unbelieving] Gentiles live, in the futility of their minds [and in the foolishness and emptiness of their souls],  18 for their [moral] understanding is darkened and their reasoning is clouded; [they are] alienated and self-banished from the life of God [with no share in it; this is] because of the [willful] ignorance and spiritual blindness that is [deep-seated] within them, because of the hardness and insensitivity of their heart. source

Please see the brackets in the third line around unbelieving. It is really important for us to grasp Paul is penning about not just any Gentiles, but the unbelieving, as there were many Gentiles in the Community (Church, Body) at Ephesus. Another clue for us that when a Gentile became a follower of the Jewish Messiah, they became family. Yeshua (Jesus as you may address Him) has One Family, One community.

But what of these unbelieving Gentiles? It was a term his readers understood; well understood. Outcasts. Banished from the Commonwealth of Israel.

BUT look it’s self-banishment! It’s not GOD’s will that any be banished! (See 2 Peter3:9)

Self-banished. What a word! What does it mean? Banished means sent away as an official punishment.

A few questions.
How often do we send ourselves away from fellowship with GOD because we have deemed ourselves unworthy?
How many of us see the bottom layer of that thinking?
When we self-banish ourselves, who’s the judge, the jury and the executioner?
Who alone has that Office and Responsibility?
So what are we doing when we self-banish?
What would cause us to do that?
(Subtle Pride.)
But it’s still damnable pride, is it not?

But wait! Does not the Scriptures tell us to judge ourselves so that we will not be judged?
Absolutely! It does! See 1 Corinthians 11:31. So what’s the factor here? The Response!

Pride sends us away!
Repentance draws us close!

1 Corinthians 11:31 Amplified Bible (AMP) 31 But if we evaluated and judged ourselves honestly [recognizing our shortcomings and correcting our behavior], we would not be judged. source

Please see it!  And correcting our behavior! That’s what repentance does. It corrects our behavior. Pride, even subtle pride, keeps us banished.

Repentance. Oh, what a beautiful, loving, holy gift!  Let us unwrap it as often as necessary!

Oh, Father, thank You, thank You for the gift of repentance! Pour out Your holy gift of conviction with repentance again and again that we may fellowship with You continually.  Amen and amen in JESUS name. 

Ephesians, Questions

That’s a Good Question or Two

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Ephesians 3:16 Amplified Bible (AMP) 16 May He grant you out of the riches of His glory, to be strengthened and spiritually energized with power through His Spirit in your inner self, [indwelling your innermost being and personality],  source

In verse 16 Paul sets forth what he is praying for the people.

To be strengthened.
Okay. Who of us does not need to be strengthened?

But he does not stop there.
He says he is praying they will be SPIRITUALLY ENERGIZED WITH POWER. And how and where is this power to come?
From themselves, their own undertakings and doings?
NO. THROUGH HIS SPIRIT.
And where is this SPIRIT OF THE LIVING GOD?
In them, it reads.

Is this still true? Is He in us? Then why are we not so spiritually energized? Why do we conduct ourselves as powerless people?

This is not a feel-good message, is it? Have we had too many feel-good messages? Is that why we conduct ourselves as people with little to no power to see GOD working and changing and transforming our lives and the lives of those we love?

So, now what?
Where will you go from this verse?
Where will I?
 

2019, For What It's Worth To You, Hosea, James, Questions

Any Thoughts?

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I went to look for a Passage. I found it. My prompting was people,  and their pain and sorrow and troubles and anguish and poverty. It’s rampant.  Have you noticed?

I found more than one Scripture addressing destruction but the reason is largely the same.

Hosea 4: (KJV) 6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, . . .   source

All our sorrows in this world in one way or another are due to lack of knowledge or the rejection of the knowledge given – perhaps not our own lack or rejection, but somebody’s and in turn it has affected (or perhaps infected) us.

So now what?

And you might say, well, Kathie, that’s not very encouraging. You are right it’s not. But it’s the truth. And what each of us does with the truth we know or refuse to know affects, effects and infects others.  So, again, I ask.

Now what?

James 1: (AMP) 5 If any of you lacks wisdom [to guide him through a decision or circumstance], he is to ask of [our benevolent] God, who gives to everyone generously and without rebuke or blame, and it will be given to him. source

2019, Gospel of Matthew, Questions, Repentance

Then Came John

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John the Baptizer. The first prophet on the scene in 400 years. Four Hundred years without a fresh Word from GOD.  Then came John.

In his camel-hair clothing and with a weird diet. But he had a Word and the people came from all over to hear.

5 At that time Jerusalem was going out to him, and all Judea and all the district around the Jordan;  source

Matthew 3

They were dry and hungry. A famine of The Word had made them ready.

And what was the Word from The LORD? Was it how kind and patient they had been to wait so long? Was it a message to validate their feelings and tell them how marvelous they were?
No.
The Word was REPENT. And they did!

6 and they were being baptized by him in the Jordan River, as they confessed their sins. source

Whatcha make of that?