Wednesday, January 31, 2018

Jude 1:12 (KJV) Born Again or Twice Dead?

Jude 1:12 (KJV)
These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;
This is just about as scathing a passage of Scripture as we will find anywhere in the Bible. Never let it be said that the Bible is a soft book with a tender message and without judgment.
In the midst of this terrible description of those who have crept into churches unaware is this phrase, “twice dead.”
They are dead in trespasses and sinsHaving the burden of the sin nature and the record of willful acts of transgression, they are dead in their spirit and have no fellowship with God or his people.
The are as good as dead eternallyI am glad that so long as there is breath there is opportunity to be saved. Short of that, these await an eternity of suffering.
The Bible is not a mushy, wishy-washy book. But it is a book of hope. If any will but hear the warning they can accept the solution in Christ.
Better far to be born again than twice dead.

To my readers:
I would love to hear from you. Leave comments below.
For this and more than 4100 earlier Daily Visits with God visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2006.
If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.
For more resources from Pastor Marvin McKenzie visit http://puyallupbaptistchurch.com.
My books are available at:
My author spotlight at Lulu.com:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/marvinmckenzie
My author Page for Kindle/Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/author/marvinmckenzie

Jude 1:12 (KJV) Born Again or Twice Dead?

Please consider helping our church’s teen department by signing up for cash back shopping at http://www.dubli.com/M04VB. This program has three levels of participation, the first being completely free.

Tuesday, January 30, 2018

3 John 1:5-8 (KJV) Taking Nothing

3 John 1:5-8 (KJV)
Beloved, thou doest faithfully whatsoever thou doest to the brethren, and to strangers;Which have borne witness of thy charity before the church: whom if thou bring forward on their journey after a godly sort, thou shalt do well:Because that for his name’s sake they went forth, taking nothing of the Gentiles.We therefore ought to receive such, that we might be fellowhelpers to the truth.
There is here a principle I was taught in Bible College and, though not often practiced these days, I have not been able to shake. Preachers ought not seek to receive benefit (especially financial) from those who are not saved.
It is pretty much a given among the missionaries to foreign lands. In order to be welcome in most foreign fields the missionary has to prove he can provide enough income from other sources so he will not require them from the country to which he is called for ministry. I was taught the reason we support foreign missionaries and not home missionaries[1] is the home missionary can get a job while the foreign one cannot[2]. It just makes sense to me.
This also applies, I think, to what amounts to Christian panhandling. A Christian, because of his particular convictions, experiences need.
  • Maybe he refuses to work so he can devote himself to ministry 
  • Maybe he refuses a job because it will require him to compromise his own convictions 
  • Maybe he has overextended himself for what he believes is the cause of Christ
For whatever reason, he is in perpetual need and, just like the panhandler, has come to not mind constant begging. He even asks financial favors of the unsaved. Favors, by the way, that they don’t take kindly to granting even if they do give in to pressure to give.
Our God supplies for his own.
  • We ought therefore to live within the provisions He gives, asking nothing of the lost and
  • We ought to generously give to those preachers of the gospel who practice this sort of responsibility.

To my readers:
I would love to hear from you. Leave comments below.
For this and more than 4100 earlier Daily Visits with God visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2006.
If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.
For more resources from Pastor Marvin McKenzie visit http://puyallupbaptistchurch.com.
My books are available at:
My author spotlight at Lulu.com:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/marvinmckenzie
My author Page for Kindle/Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/author/marvinmckenzie

3 John 1:5-8 (KJV) Taking Nothing

Please consider helping our church’s teen department by signing up for cash back shopping at http://www.dubli.com/M04VB. This program has three levels of participation, the first being completely free.

[1] To the same extent as we would the foreign missionary.
[2] The preachers who conceived of this concept, I remind you, were aggressive and successful home missionary church planters.

Monday, January 29, 2018

2 John 1:6 (KJV) The Reader Is Dependent

2 John 1:6 (KJV)
And this is love, that we walk after his commandments. This is the commandment, That, as ye have heard from the beginning, ye should walk in it.
Notice that this epistle is not self contained. The reader is dependent upon those things “ye have heard from the beginning” for proper understanding. The transgression of the doctrine of Christ, mentioned in verse nine, can only be properly informed by what we learn in other passages.
The Mormons have a doctrine of Christ
But it is different than a Christian’s.
The Jehovah’s Witnesses have a doctrine of Christ
But it is different than a Christian’s.
The Seventh Day Adventists have a doctrine of Christ
But it is different than a Christian’s.
Even the Muslims have a doctrine of Christ
And it is different than a Christian’s.
In every case to understand the doctrine of Christ we must refer to what has been previously taught. In order to get the doctrine right we must go back to what the Bible teaches and not a church denomination or other religion.

To my readers:
I would love to hear from you. Leave comments below.
For this and more than 4100 earlier Daily Visits with God visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2006.
If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.
For more resources from Pastor Marvin McKenzie visit http://puyallupbaptistchurch.com.
My books are available at:
My author spotlight at Lulu.com:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/marvinmckenzie
My author Page for Kindle/Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/author/marvinmckenzie

2 John 1:6 (KJV) The Reader Is Dependent

Please consider helping our church’s teen department by signing up for cash back shopping at http://www.dubli.com/M04VB. This program has three levels of participation, the first being completely free.

Sunday, January 28, 2018

1 John 5:1-2 (KJV) Christians Love Christians

1 John 5:1-2 (KJV)
Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him.By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.
Rhetoric, the creative use of the word, written or spoken, to instruct and persuade, is a favorite of mine. I like attempting it (though I know I am not good at it). And I like observing it.
1 John 5:1 is certainly fine rhetoric. It requires thought to really catch but once you’ve caught it you immediately realize the simplicity of it. “every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him.” It’s this simple, Christians love Christians.
The next verse, I think, is the more challenging. Of course Christians love Christians, but how? What is the Biblically prescribed way to express this love? Am I free to love professing Christians in whatever manner I believe is love? No. Verse two tells me exactly how to love my brethren in the faith:
By loving God
That’s right. The best way to love another Christian is to love God first.
By keeping His commandments
Really! I express my best love for other Christians by obedience to the truths in God’s Word.
My wife knows that I want to love God more than I love her. She is fine with that. She even encourages and prays for that. The reason? She knows that the more I love God and keep his commandments, the more capable I am to love her.
Christians know this to be true so we long to see other Christians love God and keep His commandments.

To my readers:
I would love to hear from you. Leave comments below.
For this and more than 4100 earlier Daily Visits with God visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2006.
If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.
For more resources from Pastor Marvin McKenzie visit http://puyallupbaptistchurch.com.
My books are available at:
My author spotlight at Lulu.com:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/marvinmckenzie
My author Page for Kindle/Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/author/marvinmckenzie

1 John 5:1-2 (KJV) Christians Love Christians

Please consider helping our church’s teen department by signing up for cash back shopping at http://www.dubli.com/M04VB. This program has three levels of participation, the first being completely free.

Saturday, January 27, 2018

1 John 4:6 (KJV) Confidence

1 John 4:6 (KJV)
We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.
Hear these words from Barnes Notes,
“John here, doubtless, refers to himself, and to those who taught the same doctrines which he did. He takes it for granted that those to whom he wrote would admit this, and argues from it as an indisputable truth. He had given them such evidence of this, as to establish his character and claims beyond a doubt; and he often refers to the fact that he was what he claimed to be, as a point which was so well established that no one would call it in question.”
I wonder how others perceive our relationship with God?
  • Is our walk with God so consistent
  • Is our experience with God so compelling 
that we may assume that no one will call it into question?
I wonder how we perceive our own relationship with God?
Before we might reasonably expect others to believe we are of God, we must believe it ourselves.
What about those who do not believe us? That depends upon us. If we are sure of our relationship with God then we can be sure they are not of God. We would only have reason to doubt that if we have reason to doubt our personal fellowship with the Lord.

To my readers:
I would love to hear from you. Leave comments below.
For this and more than 4100 earlier Daily Visits with God visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2006.
If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.
For more resources from Pastor Marvin McKenzie visit http://puyallupbaptistchurch.com.
My books are available at:
My author spotlight at Lulu.com:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/marvinmckenzie
My author Page for Kindle/Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/author/marvinmckenzie

1 John 4:6 (KJV) Confidence

Please consider helping our church’s teen department by signing up for cash back shopping at http://www.dubli.com/M04VB. This program has three levels of participation, the first being completely free.

Friday, January 26, 2018

1 John 3:20-21 (KJV) Don’t Follow Your Heart

1 John 3:20-21 (KJV)
For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God.
An argument can be made, I think, that these two verses give us what is the crux of 1 John. It provides for us the value of the heart.
We hear so many say things like “follow your heart.” Is this really wise counsel? Mike Rowe makes the point that, when it comes to occupation[1] a person would be wiser to train for work that is needed rather than for what is our passion. A man may be passionate about sports but he would be wisest to let athletics serve as a pastime and do something else for a living. The Bible warns us that our heart can deceive us.
What is the lesson of this passage? That God is greater than our heart so we must give Him priority over it. Shall we listen to our heart or the Word of God?[2] It must be God’s Word!
Does this mean we ignore our heart? No. Though the heart is not an authority it can serve as an adviser. The heart will frequently point the spiritually tender soul toward the will of God. Sometimes, and this is the point of this passage, the heart will warn us when we are stepping away from the will of God.
God is always greater than our heart. With that conviction we may listen to what the heart says.

To my readers:
I would love to hear from you. Leave comments below.
For this and more than 4100 earlier Daily Visits with God visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2006.
If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.
For more resources from Pastor Marvin McKenzie visit http://puyallupbaptistchurch.com.
My books are available at:
My author spotlight at Lulu.com:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/marvinmckenzie
My author Page for Kindle/Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/author/marvinmckenzie

1 John 3:20-21 (KJV) Don’t Follow Your Heart

Please consider helping our church’s teen department by signing up for cash back shopping at http://www.dubli.com/M04VB. This program has three levels of participation, the first being completely free.
[2] Some people mistake their heart for the will of God.

Thursday, January 25, 2018

Ruth 4:9-10 (KJV) It Works Out

Ruth 4:9-10 (KJV)
And Boaz said unto the elders, and unto all the people, Ye are witnesses this day, that I have bought all that was Elimelech’s, and all that was Chilion’s and Mahlon’s, of the hand of Naomi. Moreover Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of Mahlon, have I purchased to be my wife, to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance, that the name of the dead be not cut off from among his brethren, and from the gate of his place: ye are witnesses this day.
Just an observation, the context of this whole book is raising up a seed for the dead. It was a law God had established generations before this and it is an important picture of the work of Jesus Christ. He, as our nearest kin, paid our debt and secured for us an eternal inheritance.
It is the name of Boaz that is preserved in the Word of God and it is from Boaz the Bible says comes David and more significantly, Jesus. The other kinsmen didn’t redeem Ruth lest he mars his own inheritance. We know his worries were unsubstantiated.
So too, our own worries are without foundation. Far too often we worry about things we need not. Really the only thing we ought to concern ourselves with is whether a thing is in the will of God as prescribed in the Word of God.
Everything else just works out.

To my readers:
I would love to hear from you. Leave comments below.
For this and more than 4100 earlier Daily Visits with God visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2006.
If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.
For more resources from Pastor Marvin McKenzie visit http://puyallupbaptistchurch.com.
My books are available at:
My author spotlight at Lulu.com:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/marvinmckenzie
My author Page for Kindle/Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/author/marvinmckenzie

Ruth 4:9-10 (KJV) It Works Out

Please consider helping our church’s teen department by signing up for cash back shopping at http://www.dubli.com/M04VB. This program has three levels of participation, the first being completely free.

Wednesday, January 24, 2018

1 John 2:6 (KJV) Stay Right There

1 John 2:6 (KJV)
He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.
The words, abide, or abideth, are found ten times in 1 John, seven of them in this chapter. According to Strong’s Concordance it means, “to stay (in a given place, state, relation or expectancy): – abide, continue, dwell, endure, be present, remain, stand, tarry (for), …” As far as I can tell it is always used in the positive sense, as in abiding in Christ and not in sin.
The concept of staying is one of personal volition. My salvation is a work accomplished by and kept by Jesus. My testimony, my walk, my fellowship is a matter of personal choice. I am told that, if I abide in Christ I ought to walk as He walked. I don’t have to, and plenty of professing Christians do not. But they are wrong.
They most certainly don’t have the testimony they ought to have, so:
  • They cannot have the assurance of salvation a Christian can have and
  • They possibly are not the Christians they assume themselves to be 
We ought stay focused on Jesus' return and stay submissive to His Word.

To my readers:
I would love to hear from you. Leave comments below.
For this and more than 4100 earlier Daily Visits with God visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2006.
If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.
For more resources from Pastor Marvin McKenzie visit http://puyallupbaptistchurch.com.
My books are available at:
My author spotlight at Lulu.com:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/marvinmckenzie
My author Page for Kindle/Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/author/marvinmckenzie

1 John 2:6 (KJV) Stay Right There

Please consider helping our church’s teen department by signing up for cash back shopping at http://www.dubli.com/M04VB. This program has three levels of participation, the first being completely free.

Tuesday, January 23, 2018

Ruth 2:2-3 (KJV) Happenstance?

Ruth 2:2-3 (KJV)
And Ruth the Moabitess said unto Naomi, Let me now go to the field, and glean ears of corn after him in whose sight I shall find grace. And she said unto her, Go, my daughter.And she went, and came, and gleaned in the field after the reapers: and her hap was to light on a part of the field belonging unto Boaz, who was of the kindred of Elimelech.
Gill writes,
“…though it was hap and chance to her, and what some people call good luck, it was according to the purpose, and by the providence and direction of God that she came to the reapers in that part of the field Boaz…”
What he says is right enough but I enjoy how Joseph Benson expressed this same truth, “God wisely orders small events, even those that seem altogether contingent. Many a great affair is brought about by a little turn, fortuitous as to men, but designed by God.”
The smallest details are in the hands of God. When those details serve to our favor we tend to be thankful. When the outcome hurts us more we tend to excuse God away.
To see God in either detail, and to trust Him and thank Him–this is the key to walking by faith.

To my readers:
I would love to hear from you. Leave comments below.
For this and more than 4100 earlier Daily Visits with God visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2006.
If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.
For more resources from Pastor Marvin McKenzie visit http://puyallupbaptistchurch.com.
My books are available at:
My author spotlight at Lulu.com:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/marvinmckenzie
My author Page for Kindle/Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/author/marvinmckenzie

Ruth 2:2-3 (KJV) Happenstance?

Please consider helping our church’s teen department by signing up for cash back shopping at http://www.dubli.com/M04VB. This program has three levels of participation, the first being completely free.

Monday, January 22, 2018

Ruth 1:15-18 (KJV) Not So Fast!

Ruth 1:15-18 (KJV)
And she said, Behold, thy sister in law is gone back unto her people, and unto her gods: return thou after thy sister in law.And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God:Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the LORD do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me.When she saw that she was stedfastly minded to go with her, then she left speaking unto her.
I know this is Old Testament and cannot be applied definitively to New Testament practice but there is something here worth contemplating. Naomi did not urge her daughters in law to come with her to Israel and to worship the true and living God. She gave them liberty to choose their old life if they were of a mind to do so.
It seems strange, even wrong, to encourage them to go back to false gods. I suppose one could chalk it up to Naomi’s self confessed bitterness. I am not sure that’s all that is here. Can you imagine taking a false believer back to the Promised Land where she mind find a kinsman redeemer and lead him into idolatry? Better to let them have the world than to bring them home and bring the world with them. It was only after Ruth made a strong profession of faith that Naomi left off speaking to her and led her to the people of God.
Good churches have been and are being destroyed by being too willing to let “converts” bring the world with them into the church. The spirit of Balaam is at work in our world. These churches don’t curse the people of God. They just spoil them by mixing them up with the people of the world.
Naomi had it right. These Moabite girls were welcome in the Promised Land but only after they had completely disavowed their: worldly culture, religion and associations.

To my readers:
I would love to hear from you. Leave comments below.
For this and more than 4100 earlier Daily Visits with God visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2006.
If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.
For more resources from Pastor Marvin McKenzie visit http://puyallupbaptistchurch.com.
My books are available at:
My author spotlight at Lulu.com:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/marvinmckenzie
My author Page for Kindle/Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/author/marvinmckenzie

Ruth 1:15-18 (KJV) Not So Fast!

Please consider helping our church’s teen department by signing up for cash back shopping at http://www.dubli.com/M04VB. This program has three levels of participation, the first being completely free.

Sunday, January 21, 2018

Judges 21:25 (KJV) We Need Law

Judges 21:25 (KJV)
In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.
The story begins in Judges 19:1 with words just like this. There is nothing good that happens when people do what is right in their own eyes. Even those few times the children of Israel did reference God it was a twisted and misunderstood view of God and His will.
This lesson is simply the importance of good, organized government.
  • We need law
  • We need justice and
  • We need a means of enforcement 
Without these men are always reduced to doing what is right in their own eyes.
And what they do will generally be wrong in the eyes of everyone else, most especially God.

To my readers:
I would love to hear from you. Leave comments below.
For this and more than 4100 earlier Daily Visits with God visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2006.
If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.
For more resources from Pastor Marvin McKenzie visit http://puyallupbaptistchurch.com.
My books are available at:
My author spotlight at Lulu.com:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/marvinmckenzie
My author Page for Kindle/Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/author/marvinmckenzie

Judges 21:25 (KJV) We Need Law

Please consider helping our church’s teen department by signing up for cash back shopping at http://www.dubli.com/M04VB. This program has three levels of participation, the first being completely free.

Saturday, January 20, 2018

2 Peter 2:10 (KJV) Liberty Under Government

2 Peter 2:10 (KJV)
But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, selfwilled, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities.
The term government refers to mastery or rule. It is any sort of organized authority.
  • Parental 
  • Corporate (as in work)
  • Spiritual 
We tend, I think, to equate the word to purely political. To do so in this instance would destroy the context. This passage is all about despising spiritual authority. It manifests itself in those people who claim to believe in God but not organized religion.
I spoke with a man this week who said I am a false teacher because I insist the Bible commands Christians to unite with a local church. He said that because the church is the people and not the building we can worship anywhere we want. He is exactly the person Peter speaks of. They demand liberty but are servants of corruption.
God organizes everything. He is a God of order. We would do best to find liberty under His government.

To my readers:
I would love to hear from you. Leave comments below.
For this and more than 4100 earlier Daily Visits with God visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2006.
If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.
For more resources from Pastor Marvin McKenzie visit http://puyallupbaptistchurch.com.
My books are available at:
My author spotlight at Lulu.com:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/marvinmckenzie
My author Page for Kindle/Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/author/marvinmckenzie

2 Peter 2:10 (KJV) Liberty Under Government

Please consider helping our church’s teen department by signing up for cash back shopping at http://www.dubli.com/M04VB. This program has three levels of participation, the first being completely free.

Friday, January 19, 2018

Judges 18:7 (KJV) The Principle of Strength

Judges 18:7 (KJV)
Then the five men departed, and came to Laish, and saw the people that were therein, how they dwelt careless, after the manner of the Zidonians, quiet and secure; and there was no magistrate in the land, that might put them to shame in any thing; and they were far from the Zidonians, and had no business with any man.
I have, in my mind, any of those many stories of old west towns that were beset with a strong evil company and no moral force for Good. In some cases there was no elected peacekeeper. In some cases, even if they had a lawman, he had no support, no backing from the townsfolk. Lawless men ran roughshod because the good people of the city were too afraid to stand up to them.
The principle can apply to a country
Weak leadership, with no backbone to stand up for the principles of the country, and no willingness to support a strong military, only asks for unrest with other nations.
It can also apply to a home
With no means of protection wicked men will take advantage of the opportunity.
In the earliest days of the American colonies, townspeople would form a “committee of safety.” Those on the committee volunteered to train and to assemble when their community was threatened. In several cases those very committees formed the earliest regiments in our War for Independence.
They say, that during WWII, one reason Japan never attempted an invasion into the United States is because they believed every American was armed and willing to fight. Whether the story is true or not the application is. Lawlessness always exists but it can only thrive when a people trust their security to someone other than themselves.
The principle has a prophetic application in that the Bible teaches it is when people say peace and safety then sudden destruction. A spiritually prepared people are the only ones who have no reason to fear the future.

To my readers:
I would love to hear from you. Leave comments below.
For this and more than 4100 earlier Daily Visits with God visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2006.
If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.
For more resources from Pastor Marvin McKenzie visit http://puyallupbaptistchurch.com.
My books are available at:
My author spotlight at Lulu.com:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/marvinmckenzie
My author Page for Kindle/Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/author/marvinmckenzie

Judges 18:7 (KJV) The Principle of Strength

Please consider helping our church’s teen department by signing up for cash back shopping at http://www.dubli.com/M04VB. This program has three levels of participation, the first being completely free.

Thursday, January 18, 2018

Judges 15:1-3 (KJV) God Will Not Fail

Judges 15:1-3 (KJV)
But it came to pass within a while after, in the time of wheat harvest, that Samson visited his wife with a kid; and he said, I will go in to my wife into the chamber. But her father would not suffer him to go in.And her father said, I verily thought that thou hadst utterly hated her; therefore I gave her to thy companion: is not her younger sister fairer than she? take her, I pray thee, instead of her.And Samson said concerning them, Now shall I be more blameless than the Philistines, though I do them a displeasure.
Within the pages of the book of Judges are a number of events, which can only be explained when we remember every man was doing what was right in his own eyes.
Samson was used of God to deliver Israel but nobody should argue that Samson was a man after God’s heart. He was, best case scenario, an example of God using that which is not good and by it producing a good outcome.
It is comforting:
That God did not create in Samson a machine like obedience to Him.
Samson was a man of like passions as any of us. God did not pull his strings as if he were a puppet. God let Samson be Samson and used Samson despite himself.
That God could and would use Samson despite himself.
Samson was just about as far away from God as he could have been. But Samson was God’s man to deliver Israel from the Philistines. God accomplished His plan despite the worldliness of Samson.
We should not see this as permission to be worldly, wicked or away from God. Samson paid a terrible price for his free will. But we can take from this the encouragement that, even when we fail in our desire to be holy, God will not fail in accomplishing His best through us.

To my readers:
I would love to hear from you. Leave comments below.
For this and more than 4100 earlier Daily Visits with God visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2006.
If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.
For more resources from Pastor Marvin McKenzie visit http://puyallupbaptistchurch.com.
My books are available at:
My author spotlight at Lulu.com:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/marvinmckenzie
My author Page for Kindle/Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/author/marvinmckenzie

Judges 15:1-3 (KJV) God Will Not Fail

Please consider helping our church’s teen department by signing up for cash back shopping at http://www.dubli.com/M04VB. This program has three levels of participation, the first being completely free.

Wednesday, January 17, 2018

Judges 13:1-3 (KJV) A Means of Grace

Judges 13:1-3 (KJV)
And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the LORD; and the LORD delivered them into the hand of the Philistines forty years.And there was a certain man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah; and his wife was barren, and bare not.And the angel of the LORD appeared unto the woman, and said unto her, Behold now, thou art barren, and bearest not: but thou shalt conceive, and bear a son.
Even as God delivered Israel to the Philistines He was preparing the one who would avenge them.
Judgment at the hand of God is consistently found in the Word of God, but never without at avenue of grace. God used every enemy of Israel. God explicitly sent many of them. But in every case God was quick to answer His people’s cry for help. In the end we learn that He had already prepared the answer before they ever asked.
God is the same yesterday today and forever. The same God who raised up Samson, at the very moment He delivered Israel to Philistia, has raised up a means of grace for us in the midst of our darkest judgment.

To my readers:
I would love to hear from you. Leave comments below.
For this and more than 4100 earlier Daily Visits with God visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2006.
If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.
For more resources from Pastor Marvin McKenzie visit http://puyallupbaptistchurch.com.
My books are available at:
My author spotlight at Lulu.com:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/marvinmckenzie
My author Page for Kindle/Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/author/marvinmckenzie

Judges 13:1-3 (KJV) A Means of Grace

Please consider helping our church’s teen department by signing up for cash back shopping at http://www.dubli.com/M04VB. This program has three levels of participation, the first being completely free.