Psalms 27:13 (KJV) The Land of the Living

Psalms 27:13 (KJV)

I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.

I see this passage having applications in two senses.

On the one hand, a person could quickly become depressed and despondent if he only believes God’s goodness is eternal. We live today. We have needs today. We really need God’s goodness today. What good is that goodness if it has no application today?

On the other hand, this is not ultimately the “land of the living.” We spend such a short time in this life. What if, like the rich man, we fared sumptuously on the goodness of the Lord today and then lifted up our eyes in hell? So much better to be as Lazarus, who saw so little of God’s goodness in this world but basks in His goodness eternally today.

We have no reason to be down, even if we have very little of the world’s goodness. This is not the land of the living.  That place exists beside Jesus when all those who are born again will live forever with Him.

That is the land of the living, and it is in that land, I have hope. I would faint if I did not believe I would see that land and enjoy the goodness of the Lord there.

To my readers:
Thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

Donate to Bible Baptist Church every time you make an Amazon purchase through this link, https://smile.amazon.com/ch/91-1265824

For this and, more than 5500 earlier Daily Visits with God, visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

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.

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Psalms 27:13 (KJV) The Land of the Living

Psalms 26:4-5 (KJV) Doctrine of Separation

Psalms 26:4-5 (KJV)

I have not sat with vain persons, neither will I go in with dissemblers.
I have hated the congregation of evil doers; and will not sit with the wicked.

The doctrine of separation is a serious one in the Bible. It is as necessary as godliness; if we would give thanksgiving to God and testify to others.

The Psalmist breaks down separation into three groups:
With whom he will not sit (political)

He says he will not sit with either vain or wicked men. The concept of sitting in that day was one of being in leadership. It’s the idea of a city council. He refuses to be unequally yoked in business or other legal issues with those who are atheists or purposefully wicked

With whom he will not associate (personal)
He says he will not go in with dissemblers. He won’t join hands or agree with those who tear down and sow discord. It’s not as formal an association as the first, but it is just as destructive.

Those he will hate (ecclesiastical)
This is a powerful word. It implies an active and aggressive separation. I don’t believe it requires violence against them, but it does speak of a conviction opposed to theirs. This group is the congregation of evildoers. A congregation does not have to be religious, but I think it is suggested given the context. Evildoers are not necessarily murderers or guilty sins of that nature. It is evil to hold the word of God in unrighteousness. He will have nothing to do with what isn’t committed to the truth of God’s Word.

To my readers:
Thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

Donate to Bible Baptist Church every time you make an Amazon purchase through this link, https://smile.amazon.com/ch/91-1265824

For this and, more than 5500 earlier Daily Visits with God, visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

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:
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Psalms 26:4-5 (KJV) Doctrine of Separation

Psalms 25:14 (KJV) The Secret of the LORD

Psalms 25:14 (KJV)

The secret of the LORD is with them that fear him; and he will shew them his covenant.

We ought to invest more of ourselves into the fear of the LORD. To fear the LORD is to love Him.

Consider from this passage the cycle that revolves around the fear of the LORD.

The secret of the LORD is with them
I take it that this secret equates to the mysteries of the New Testament. The fear of the LORD is the key that unlocks these mysteries.

He shows them His covenant

I take that to be salvation through Jesus Christ. The sins of the saved are forgiven and forever forgotten. They are born again into the family of God and will dwell with Him forever.

This is all based upon the sacrifice of Christ at Calvary. 
It is revealed and then given to those who fear the LORD.

To my readers:
Thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

Donate to Bible Baptist Church every time you make an Amazon purchase through this link, https://smile.amazon.com/ch/91-1265824

For this and, more than 5500 earlier Daily Visits with God, visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

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:
https://marvinmckenzie.org

Psalms 25:14 (KJV) The Secret of the LORD

Psalms 22:1 (KJV) His Outcome in Our Trouble

Psalms 22:1 (KJV)
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?

We know these words to be prophetic of the Lord Jesus Christ. He cried them out to His Father as He hung, dying, on the cross. They were spoken at a moment of unbearable pain, in body, in soul, and in spirit.

We know them also to be cried out at the most crucial moment in the history of mankind. The Son of God hung there with the sins of all humanity. The eternal destiny of men was sealed forever at that very moment.

We all face times when we feel like God has forsaken us. We feel like we pray, but He does not hear. We cry but, as far as we can tell, God remains silent. Our times of pain can never compare to those of our Saviour, but we can learn Him.

God is holy.

Remain faithful to the LORD and trust that His outcome in our trouble will be greater than we imagine.

To my readers:
Thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

Donate to Bible Baptist Church every time you make an Amazon purchase through this link, https://smile.amazon.com/ch/91-1265824

For this and, more than 5500 earlier Daily Visits with God, visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

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:
https://marvinmckenzie.org

Psalms 22:1 (KJV) His Outcome in Our Trouble

Galatians 3:3 (KJV) So Foolish?

Galatians 3:3 (KJV)

Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?

This is a fundamental verse. It is certainly pivotal in this epistle. It is the distinguishing trait between true faith and mere religion. It is also the battle every professing Christian engages every day.

The religious world would argue the whole concept of “having begun in the Spirit.” Religion likes to make the starting mark that place when people start to do as they teach. But even among those who get it that the Christian faith starts with a work of the Holy Spirit, the bulk of them quickly jump to teaching that we begin with a gracious work of God, but we run the Christian race with determination and perspiration.

We, who acknowledge that the Christian begins, runs, and finishes in the Spirit, wrestle with it in our own flesh. We want to be it in the Spirit, but we struggle to see how to continue if we don’t involve the flesh.

Oh, LORD, teach us to walk by faith, live by faith, run by faith, work by faith so that, in the end, we finish our race by faith.

To my readers:
Thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

Donate to Bible Baptist Church every time you make an Amazon purchase through this link, https://smile.amazon.com/ch/91-1265824

For this and, more than 5500 earlier Daily Visits with God, visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

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:
https://marvinmckenzie.org

Galatians 3:3 (KJV) So Foolish?

Psalms 19:1 (KJV) A Model Witness

Psalms 19:1 (KJV)

The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.

I think we tend to look at the witness of Creation as the first, but the most incomplete form of witness. It tells us that there is a God, but we have no other information about Him. The rest of the Psalm addresses this problem. But I want to consider the example of this witness.

It is constant
Day unto day and night unto night

It is verbal
Uttereth speech

It is educational
Sheweth knowledge

It is missionary
Gone out through all the earth

It is worshipful
Hath set a tabernacle

It is messianic
As a bridegroom

It is eschatological
Coming out of His chamber

It is a warning
Nothing hid from the heat thereof

On a further observational note, I see that
It is not aggressive.
There is a difference between constant and aggressive.

It is not offensive
I know very few who mind a good look at the stars

It is not coercive
Multitudes study the creation and come to wrong conclusions

It is trusting
God is omnipotent. 

We need not concern ourselves with the outcome. We need only be the witness God has made us to be.

To my readers:
Thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

Donate to Bible Baptist Church every time you make an Amazon purchase through this link, https://smile.amazon.com/ch/91-1265824

For this and, more than 5400 earlier Daily Visits with God, visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

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:
https://marvinmckenzie.org

Psalms 19:1 (KJV) A Model Witness

Psalms 17:4 (KJV) A Way to Escape

Psalms 17:4 (KJV)

Concerning the works of men, by the word of thy lips I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer.

This passage seems easy to understand.

There is what he calls the works of men

This is the impulse of the flesh. It can refer to that “wood, hay and stubble”[1] when a person wastes his life in whatever earthly, temporal pursuit he chooses. It would certainly also include those acts of humanity the Bible describes as “excess of riot.”[2]

These works are further described as “the paths of the destroyer”
They are not what God would have of us. They are the steps of the devil. If he can lead a man to do nothing more than waste his life, then he has succeeded. Often, he can lead them on a much more destructive path than even that.

It is the Word of God that lights a path away from such destruction
And so, it is such an utter and absolute shame that men spend so little time reading and meditating upon the Words from God’s lips.

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[1] 1 Corinthians 3:12-13 (KJV)
Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;
Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.

[2] 1 Peter 4:4 (KJV)
Wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you:

To my readers:
Thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

Donate to Bible Baptist Church every time you make an Amazon purchase through this link, https://smile.amazon.com/ch/91-1265824

For this and, more than 5400 earlier Daily Visits with God, visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

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:
https://marvinmckenzie.org

Psalms 17:4 (KJV) A Way to Escape

Psalms 16:8 (KJV) Before and Beside Us

Psalms 16:8 (KJV)

I have set the LORD always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.

He set the LORD before him, and then the LORD came beside him.

A few verses down, the LORD is at the right hand of God.[1] We should consider these terms (in relationship to ourselves) as representative.

He is before us

To lead us and guide us. To make way for us. To walk where we must soon walk. He is before us to protect us and guard us. He sees the dangers before we do. He makes them known to us. He often takes on the threat in our place.

He is beside us
At our right hand. He supports us and strengthens us. He also comforts and befriends us. We are not alone. We have a friend that “sticketh closer than a brother.”[2] His presence beside us elevates us and places us in a company we would not otherwise come to know.

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[1] Psalms 16:11 (KJV)
Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.

[2] Proverbs 18:24 (KJV)
A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.

To my readers:
Thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

Donate to Bible Baptist Church every time you make an Amazon purchase through this link, https://smile.amazon.com/ch/91-1265824

For this and, more than 5400 earlier Daily Visits with God, visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

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:
https://marvinmckenzie.org

Psalms 16:8 (KJV) Before and Beside Us

Psalms 13:1 (KJV) Have You Met Him?

Psalms 13:1 (KJV)

How long wilt thou forget me, O LORD? for ever? how long wilt thou hide thy face from me?

I have long agreed with the advice that the Psalms are the place to read whenever we are going through difficult times. The Psalms address every sort of emotional pain under every kind of circumstance imaginable.

This is an excellent illustration of this. When in the midst of the storm, we often feel like it’s going to last forever.

The truth is, no storm lasts forever. By the way, no sunshine does either. Life is filled with mountaintops and valleys. Some indeed seem to experience higher mountaintops, and some have lower valleys, but all people have both.

The storm you are currently in will end sometime. They do not last forever.

Only eternity is forever. Some forever experience eternal life in the presence of God. Some will forever experience torments in the lake of fire and brimstone.

The difference is Jesus Christ.

Have you met Him?

To my readers:
Thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

Donate to Bible Baptist Church every time you make an Amazon purchase through this link, https://smile.amazon.com/ch/91-1265824

For this and, more than 5400 earlier Daily Visits with God, visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

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:
https://marvinmckenzie.org

Psalms 13:1 (KJV) Have You Met Him?