Teaching (no posting) Reflections of Love, Mercy, and Grace

[SpiritPsalmist]

Giver Of Good Things

7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. 9 Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? 11 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him! 12 Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

Here we see God as One who is willing and waiting for us to ask Him for the good gifts that He offers to us. Personally, I think these gifts can be varied. I believe they are not just spiritual but also physical and tangible. I've asked for spiritual gifts and have received them. I've also asked for seemingly small things and was pleasantly surprised when He supplied them for me.

Jms 4:3 does say "you ask and don't receive because you ask amiss". There have been many things in my life that I've asked amiss and boy am I thankful that God did not give me those things. My motives were purely self serving. The point is, He is waiting for us to not only ask, but to ask in accordance to His Word.

We find out what is in accordance with His will by spending time with Him, not only telling Him what we want but discussing with Him and listening for His responses, to what we read in His Word. Verse 8 says, for everyone who asks receives and he who seeks finds, showing that some seeking needs to happen. Remember the game Hide n' Seek? If a person was a good hider it could take awhile before the seeker found them. I believe God sometimes hides from us. Not to not be found but to cause us to hunt. "As the deer pants for the water, so my soul thirsts for YOU".

Are we thirsty enough to keep seeking until we've found Him? He's got good things to give us. The last verse says that however we want others to treat us is how we are to treat them. In my thinking that shows that my asking and receiving is based on if I'm asking for just myself or if I'm asking in order that others may be blessed?

Don't get down on yourself if you see any selfish motives in your asking. If you did not see it, you would not know where to allow God to do the tweaking in you.

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[SpiritPsalmist]

The Lord My Strength

Behold, God is my salvation,
I will trust and not be afraid;
‘For Yah, the Lord, is my strength and song;
He also has become my salvation.’”

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?

At a young age I learned God's strength and application to my life. I had spent the early part of my life with my grandparents who were church going people and they knew how to pray. I'm sure it's from them that I learned that I could run to God with anything and everything. Things at home with my parents were not so great and I spent a lot of time praying to God for help to get me through. He became my strength and my song. He is the strength of my life. Without Him I would be a mess. With Him I'm His message to a lost and dying world that there is strength in Him and through Him we can overcome any and all things that would hinder our progress toward becoming what/who He's called us to be. He is the strength of my life...of "whom" shall I be afraid?

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[SpiritPsalmist]

The Restorer

He restores my soul;

Restore:
to give back; make return or restitution of (anything taken away or lost).

He restores my soul. The Complete Jewish Bible says "He restores my inner person". My inner person. That part of me that is broken by hurt and disappointment. That part of me that has become hardened and defensive to not allow anyone to hurt me again. That part of me that reacts to things based on what happened at some other point in time and the walls go up to protect ourselves. That memory of something painful that paralyzes us from doing what we desire to do because someone at some point in time stole our dreams with thoughtless comments and actions.

HE restores, He gives back what was taken away from us or lost. The only thing we need to do is surrender our will and our way to HIM so He can make us new on the inside. When we turn from following our own way and follow HIS ways then we are in perfect position for Him to to take our inner person and change it and mold it to be more like Him. An inner person who was offended but has instead put themselves into the loving hands of the Father and overlooks offenses toward them and responds with love instead of resentment or accusation. A person of great faith and love instead of cowering in fear due to harm done to them in the past.

If you are in a place where you do not sense His restoration in your life quickly run to Him and seek out that place found only in His presence where you can find the restoration He promises. If you are already in restoration process, continue on. There may be some pain in the process but I can promise that there is great joy when restoration is found.

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[SpiritPsalmist]

Please accept my apologies for being so sporadic with this study. My younger sister had congestive heart failure right before Christmas. On Jan 27 she passed away. I don't think I have ever experienced such sorrow. I've been in a bit of a funk but feel myself slowly coming out of it. I covet your prayers and hope to be back on top of things soon.

Thank you.

 

[SpiritPsalmist]

Healer of the Brokenhearted

3 He heals the brokenhearted
And binds up their wounds.

It's difficult to describe a broken heart.

I can't really say I was estranged from my sister because there was never an argument or disagreement that separated us...yet, she would rarely speak to me. And when she did speak she was generally unkind. When I moved here to Kansas where she lived and where most of my dads side of the family is, I had such high hopes of getting closer to my sister. But instead she just withdrew. Of course I was not the only one she withdrew from, just one of many. Now, all those hopes are gone and I'm heartbroken. I loved my sister to the moon and back but I don't think she fully understood that. I told her every chance I got. I know it's nothing I could have done but still my heart aches.

I have confidence though that God is Who He says He is and does what He says He does. He is healing my broken heart and He's binding up the wounds. I have no doubt of that. For any others with broken hearts who are reading this, know that He will do the same for you. He promises it and He never breaks His promises.

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[SpiritPsalmist]

Friend

11 So the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend.

This verse always touches me. God expresses Himself in varieties of ways and one of those ways is to be our Friend. God desires to talk with us. To reveal Himself to us. To show us Who He is in all of the ways that He can show it. In scripture, as far as I've seen anyway, there are only two people who are referred to as friends with God. One was Moses, the other was Abraham. Abraham was known as the friend of God. (Jms 2:23) Both he and Moses had inside info on what God was doing. They were called His friends and He was their friend.

Do you consider yourself a friend of God? If you don't, do you want to be? Yeshua explains to us "how" we become friends of God. He said to His disciples "No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you". (Jn 15:15). His disciples started out as servants, learning and copying. Then it turned from not being just servants, but friends. Because Yeshua now considered them friends, all that He knew from His Father He shared with them.

I think when we first come to God and give up our doing things our way and pick up doing things His way that we start out as servants to Him. We are learning His will and His ways and we are learning to respond as He desires us to. As we grow and mature in our relationship with God, as we spend time in His presence discussing with Him and allowing Him to mold us and change us into the people He wants in His Kingdom, I believe He begins to show us Himself. He allows us that intimacy that takes place only between friends. Then, like that line from a recent song by Carrie Underwood, we find ourselves "dancing on His shoes with our bare feet, to the rhythm of His heartbeat".

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[SpiritPsalmist]

HE IS MY STRENGTH, MY SONG, AND MY SALVATION

Behold, God is my salvation,
I will trust and not be afraid;
‘For Yah, the Lord, is my strength and song;
He also has become my salvation.’"

When we find ourselves in need of strength, we can depend on the Lord to give us the strength we need. Neh 8:10 says, "do not sorrow for the joy of the Lord is your strength". Take joy in HIM. It does not matter what's going on around you, you can still have joy in Him and His strength. I will trust in Him and not be afraid for He is my strength. Taking joy in Him will put a song in our heart. Even when we're going through very difficult times.

As someone who puts our faith and trust in Him, we have every reason to sing and not mope around as if we don't have a hope in the world. That does not mean that we are bouncing around like a loony person who has no concept of what is going on. We know what's going on but we choose to put our faith and trust in the ONE who gives us strength to overcome and He puts a song in our heart and we may feel some sadness over things, but we are not left without hope. That alone is something to sing about.

He is our salvation. Not just from this life to that life but from the things that weigh us down in this life. We're not to just wish our earthly life away thinking that the rapture will come take us away from all that troubles us. HE's the one who gives us strength and a song that delivers us and saves us from whatever is ailing us while we're here on earth too.

So get those hymn books out and sing the songs of joy and expectation or those old songs from the 70's that were so popular with the Jesus movement (I think they were special because they usually were straight from scripture) and start singing away. You don't have to be happy to start but if you start and continue you will begin to feel the strength of the Lord rising up within you, then your song will begin to have a lilt to it and if you're not careful, you may even find yourself beginning to dance with the Lord and you will feel that same song that the writers of the above scripture felt. He is my strength, my song, and my salvation. Wow!

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[SpiritPsalmist]

A Revealer of Secrets (1814)

46 Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell on his face, prostrate before Daniel, and commanded that they should present an offering and incense to him. 47 The king answered Daniel, and said, “Truly your God is the God of gods, the Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, since you could reveal this secret.”

The backstory in a nutshell, King Nebuchadnezzar dreamed a dream but was perplexed of it's meaning. He called together all his wise men and dream interpreters and demanded not only that they interpret the dream but that they tell him what the dream was. Well, none of them could do it so the king called for Daniel and God revealed the dream to Daniel, Daniel told it to the king, then Daniel gave the interpretation. Of course the king was very impressed and made the above declaration to Danial, "your God is the God of gods, the Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets".

Secrets. Things you don't know but need to. Things you do that you don't want others to know.

I remember years ago when I was going through a financial crises (seems like most of my life) I was asking God to first, forgive me for my part into the situation I was in and second to show me how to get out of it. Sure there were plenty of people that had their opinions of what I should do, but it just never worked out for me to follow their advice. So, God gave me a plan (don't remember what it was now) and I put the plan in motion. Of course I got a lot of criticism from the side lines but I stuck to what I knew God had given me. One day, I was talking to one of the CPA's in our office and I told him what God had shown me. He sat their in amazement and then asked, "who told you to do this?" I said, "God did". He replied, "that's exactly what I would have told you to do". It took awhile but I am no longer in the situation I was in, and I owe it to God for revealing that "secret" to me.

A couple of months ago I was wearing my mothers antique ring. It's too small for my ring finger so I was wearing it on my pinkie, but it's a little big. Sometime when I got home from work it fell off my finger and I could not find it anywhere. I went to bed somewhat distressed but knew that it had to be somewhere in the house because it was there when I came home from work. I went on to bed and asked God if He would show me in a dream where it was. I don't remember if I had a dream or not but when I awoke I got up and went straight to the computer table, pulled the chair away and there at the leg of the computer was the ring. Thank you God.

God is a revealer of secrets. Even things about yourself He'll reveal if you ask Him. That happened to me once too. I caught myself reacting to something in a bad way. I stopped myself and said, "God, why do I do that?" He showed me. It was a bit of a surprise. I asked God to heal that part of me that was hurt and caused that reaction (name anything bad that happened in the past)but since that day, I never had that same reaction again.

Do you trust Him to reveal things to you about yourself that you need to allow Him to change? Do you need to know what to do in a situation that you are stumped as to what to do? He's a revealer of secrets.

For the whole story of Neb and Daniel read here.

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[SpiritPsalmist]

Mercy toward Balaam (at first)

22 Then God’s anger was aroused because he went, and the Angel of the Lord took His stand in the way as an adversary against him. And he was riding on his donkey, and his two servants were with him. 23 Now the donkey saw the Angel of the Lord standing in the way with His drawn sword in His hand, and the donkey turned aside out of the way and went into the field. So Balaam struck the donkey to turn her back onto the road. 24 Then the Angel of the Lord stood in a narrow path between the vineyards, with a wall on this side and a wall on that side. 25 And when the donkey saw the Angel of the Lord, she pushed herself against the wall and crushed Balaam’s foot against the wall; so he struck her again. 26 Then the Angel of the Lord went further, and stood in a narrow place where there was no way to turn either to the right hand or to the left. 27 And when the donkey saw the Angel of the Lord, she lay down under Balaam; so Balaam’s anger was aroused, and he struck the donkey with his staff.


28 Then the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said to Balaam, “What have I done to you, that you have struck me these three times?”


29 And Balaam said to the donkey, “Because you have abused me. I wish there were a sword in my hand, for now I would kill you!”


30 So the donkey said to Balaam, “Am I not your donkey on which you have ridden, ever since I became yours, to this day? Was I ever disposed to do this to you?”

And he said, “No.”


31 Then the Lord opened Balaam’s eyes, and he saw the Angel of the Lord standing in the way with His drawn sword in His hand; and he bowed his head and fell flat on his face. 32 And the Angel of the Lord said to him, “Why have you struck your donkey these three times? Behold, I have come out to stand against you, because your way is perverse before Me. 33 The donkey saw Me and turned aside from Me these three times. If she had not turned aside from Me, surely I would also have killed you by now, and let her live.”


34 And Balaam said to the Angel of the Lord, “I have sinned, for I did not know You stood in the way against me. Now therefore, if it displeases You, I will turn back.”


35 Then the Angel of the Lord said to Balaam, “Go with the men, but only the word that I speak to you, that you shall speak.” So Balaam went with the princes of Balak.

A little of the backstory:

After escaping Egypt , Israel came to the plains of Moab and set up camp. All the Moabites who'd heard all the stories of what Israel had done to the Amorites where in dread, thinking that Israel was going to attack them too. So they went to their King, Balak to do something about the Israelites being there.

Balak send messengers to Balaam, a heathen prophet, and told him that there was a people who had come from Egypt and Balak wanted him to come and speak a curse over the people, then Balak would start a war with them and he's win.
Balaam was well known for his prophesies coming true. Whoever he cursed was cursed and whoever he blessed was blessed. The messengers brought all sorts of incantation devices, as well as the fee for Balaam. Balaam heard their request and asked them to stay the night and he would seek the Lord on their behalf. It says that God came to Balaam and asked, "who are these men staying with you?" Balaam told Him. God said, "you are not to go with them, you are not to curse this people because they are blessed". So the next day Balaam goes to the men and he tells them what God said....although, not completely. Balaam told them that God had not given him permission to go with them. He left out that he was not allowed to curse them because the people were blessed. So the messengers return to Balak, tell him and Balak sends them back, along with other more prestigious people with offers of even more riches if Balaam would come and curse Israel.

Balaam tells them I cannot do what the Lord tells me to not do BUT invites them in to stay with him another night while he seeks the Lords council again. This time, God tells him "if the men come to call on you in the morning, go ahead and go but you're only to speak over Israel what I tell you". So Balaam gets up early in the morning, and goes with the princes of Moab. That's where our scripture picks up from.

Let me first note that, even though he was a heathen, Balaam really was talking with God. It does not appear that he knew who the children of Israel were but he was familiar with their God. He did not serve their God but he did seek counsel from Him.

So Balaam is told what he's to do. However Balaam is looking at all that money and gold he's being offered so when they return again with even more he says, "well let me go ask again". Big mistake. God's already told him what to do, but being merciful He says, well if your mind is really set on it "go". The only thing I can compare it to is when a husband wants to go out with his guy friends and his wife does not really want him to but he keeps telling her how much he wants to so in irritation she says, "fine....Go!" Now every wise husband knows that he'd better not go or he's in the doghouse.

So, Balaam rises early in morning on his own (they did not come to call on him) saddles his donkey, goes and gets them and they leave for Moab. On the way, the donkey sees an angel with his sword drawn blocking the path and the donkey runs off the path into the field. Balaam begins beating her with his rod and gets her back on the road. Then in between the vineyards and between two walls, the angel shows up again and the crushes Balaams foot into the wall. Balaam again beats her. Then further on when there was no way for her to turn and she saw the angel again she just lay down and again Balaam began beating her. This is when she was given a voice to speak and she began to defend herself.

I find it interesting that Balaam did not seem in the least bit fazed that he was talking with a donkey. Then Balaams eyes are opened and he sees the angel. The angel of the Lord tells Balaam that he was wrong to be on his way to Moab when he had already been instructed to not go. He was told he was wrong to beat his donkey because God was using the donkey to try and spare Balaam from His wrath. At that point it was the Lords preference to kill Balaam and leave the donkey alive but God was showing more mercy toward him than he deserved. Balaam confesses his sin and offers to turn back, but the angel of the Lord tells him "no, continue on, but you can only say what I tell you to say". Continue reading into the next few chapters to find out what happens to Balaam because even after this encounter with the angel, Balaam tried to go around God's plans. In the end, Balaam died along with the Moabites.

So what is there to learn from this part of the events with Balaam?

1. Once God tells you what to do, do it. He's not going to change His mind.
2. If you're trying to change His mind, He just might let you do what you want to do, but you won't like the end results.
3. God will likely set all kinds of kinks into your efforts. Take the hint. It will save you lots of time and heartache. That's not to say that there are not times where you must persevere but know that is what God says to do in the situation, not just go after it because that's what "you" want.

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[SpiritPsalmist]

Master Artist

31 So God saw everything that He made, and behold it was very good.

You can read the creation story here. Please don't think you know all about it already and not allow God to show you something new.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Then the next verse we learn that the earth was a blob of waste. Why? I don't know. Personally, I think there is more to the story of the beginnings of the earth but something big happened and the next thing we know is that the earth is chaos and waste. darkness was on the face of the deep and the Holy Spirit hovered over the face of the waters.

The "deep" is from the Hebrew word Tehom, the abyss. The Jerusalem Targum translates verse 2 as: 'And the earth was vacancy and desolation, solitary of the sons of men and void of every animal, and darkness was upon the face of the abyss; and the Spirit of Mercies from before the Lord breathed upon the face of the waters.'

Then, God began to speak. "Let there be light!" He then separated light from dark and then gave each a name. Evening/darkness, then morning/light, made one day.

Then He said (paraphrased) "let the waters separate and let there be expanse between them...waters below and waters above with an expanse (the sky) separating them".

waters from the waters. i.e. the waters above the firmament (the mists and clouds that come down to earth in the shape of rain), from the waters on earth (rivers and seas). ~The Pentateuch and Haftorahs, Jewish Publication Society of America in 1917~​

"Let the waters below be gathered into one place and let dry ground appear". "Let the ground grow grass, plants, and trees".

"Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky be for separating the day from the night. The difference between the "light" that came when God said "let there be light" and the two lights He set in the sky, according to the astronomer Halley is the nebular theory: the theory that the solar and stellar systems were developed from a primeval nebula.

NOTE: By The Light of The Moon​

"Let the waters fill with living creatures. Let flying creatures fly above the land." He created larger sea creatures and everything that crawls. He told them to be fruitful and multiply and fill the oceans and the seas. He filled the land with living creatures.

Lastly, He said, "Let us make man in our image" From the dust of the earth God "formed" man in His image, His likeness. And God saw everything that He had made and it was VERY GOOD!

Sometimes just browsing through pictures of animals and plants and people on this earth, some of which I had never seen before, I am just in awe of the artistry of our God. The Master Artist.

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[SpiritPsalmist]

God of Justice

When justice is done, it is a joy to the righteous (the upright, in right standing with God), but to the evildoers it is dismay, calamity, and ruin.

1 But now God’s righteousness apart from the Torah has been revealed, to which the Torah and the Prophets bear witness— 22 namely, the righteousness of God through putting trust in Messiah Yeshua,to all who keep on trusting. For there is no distinction, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. 24 They are set right as a gift of His grace, through the redemption that is in Messiah Yeshua. 25 God set forth Yeshua as an atonement,through faith in His blood, to show His righteousness in passing over sins already committed. 26 Through God’s forbearance, He demonstrates His righteousness at the present time—that He Himself is just and also the justifier of the one who puts his trust in Yeshua"

Justice:
noun

1. the quality of being just; righteousness, equitableness, or moral rightness: to uphold the justice of a cause.
2. rightfulness or lawfulness, as of a claim or title; justness of ground or reason: to complain with justice.
3. the moral principle determining just conduct.

Righteousness is defined as "the quality of being morally correct and justifiable." It can also be considered synonymous with "rightness"​

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Our God is a Righteous and Just God. Those whom God calls righteous are totally blessed by God and walking in HIS will and ways is a delight to them. To the unrighteous though, HIS will and ways are a burden and they detest HIM for HIS ways and as the above scripture says, God will eventually bring them to destruction.

In Romans 3 we are shown that those who put their faith and trust for salvation in what Yeshua did on the cross are considered now having the righteousness of Yeshua in them. There is nothing we can do to make ourselves any more saved than we are at that moment. Is there a "next step though" that God has given us to help us grow and mature? In regards to salvation, NO, but what about sanctification?

• But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. (2 Thess 2:13)

verb (used with object), sanc·ti·fied, sanc·ti·fy·ing.

1. to make holy; set apart as sacred; consecrate.
2. to purify or free from sin: Sanctify your hearts.
3. to impart religious sanction to; render legitimate or binding:

“The Lord knows those who are His, and, “Let everyone who names the name of the Lord keep away from unrighteousness.20 Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay—some for honor and some for common use. 21 Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from these, he will be a vessel for honor—sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work. (2 Tim 2:19-21)

If we want to be vessels for honor we can be sanctified and useful to the Master, and prepared for every good work. Thank you Yeshua that we are not left to our own means.
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