Luke 22:67-68 (KJV) We Must Tell Them The Truth

Luke 22:67-68 (KJV)

Art thou the Christ? tell us. And he said unto them, If I tell you, ye will not believe:
And if I also ask you, ye will not answer me, nor let me go.

As much as we complain about the bias of our day, nothing has ever really changed. Of course, the mainstream media didn’t exist in Jesus’ day, but if it had, it would have behaved much like the chief priests, scribes, and elders of the people did.

Jesus recognized that they were not interested in the truth. They did not ask Jesus legitimate questions, nor were they looking for truthful answers.

They had no intention of believing Jesus or letting Him go free.

And He knew it.

He, therefore, did not enter into a conversation with them. What did was to declare a truthful judgment upon them.

As we approach the end of days, we Christians will find those of the world less and less willing to reason with us. They are angry. They are mad at life, mad at God, and mad at us for believing Him. They will not accept our message, nor will they excuse us for believing it.

This in no way means we must not talk to them. I said talk to them, not with them. The conversation is, by their choice, one way.

Regardless of the consequences, we must tell them the truth.

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 5600 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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Luke 22:67-68 (KJV) We Must Tell Them The Truth

Luke 21:14 (KJV) Put This To Bed

Luke 21:14 (KJV)

Settle it therefore in your hearts, not to meditate before what ye shall answer:

It would be entirely appropriate to define the word settle in modern terms as “put it to bed.” This thing is laid down, at rest. It’s not active in any way; it’s not changing posture, position, or place.

The context has to do with coming persecution. When these disciples face persecution in the future, rather than attempting to prepare a winning argument to get them out of their distress, they were to simply trust that God would give them the answer. Some have tried to connect this with preaching. That connection is a mistake. Some would say that the disciples were not supposed to be trained. This, too, would be an error. They were in training at that moment. Previously prepared persons may trust the Lord to use that preparation under pressure.

My point is that proper preparation enables us to “put to bed” our testimony. It’s not that we live unaware of what’s around us. We simply have no concern about what an appropriate response to pressure is. It’s already settled. We will trust 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 5600 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, and other resources, are available at:
https://marvinmckenzie.org

Let’s have coffee?
If you have been blessed by my devotional messages, you are able to leave me a small thank you at my Ko-Fi page.

Luke 21:14 (KJV) Put This To Bed

Luke 20:14 (KJV) There Is An Inheritance

Luke 20:14 (KJV)

But when the husbandmen saw him, they reasoned among themselves, saying, This is the heir: come, let us kill him, that the inheritance may be ours.

A person might read this parable and think it to be about as ridiculous as the question the Sadducees asked him about the woman with seven husbands. Jesus’s parable is, I suggest, meant to seem ridiculous. Who in their right mind would believe that, by killing the master’s son, the master would give them his inheritance?

This is precisely what happened with the Jews. They were so self-deceived that, when Jesus, the Son of God, came to them, they actually believed they would do God’s service by killing Him.

Oh, but the same ridiculous notion happens regularly today. People deny Christ, ignore Christ, rob Christ’s glory, and still expect to have the favor of the Lord upon them. They live in denial of all that God has said and then accuse God when something terrible happens in their world.

Just as the Jews of Jesus’s day killed the Son of God because they refused to recognize Him as God’s Son, people today deny and denigrate His name because they do not believe His testimony.

There is an inheritance to be received. It is received by those who come to Jesus and trust Him as their Saviour.

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 5600 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, and other resources, are available at:
https://marvinmckenzie.org

Let’s have coffee?
If you have been blessed by my devotional messages, you are able to leave me a small thank you at my Ko-Fi page.

Luke 20:14 (KJV) There Is An Inheritance

Lamentations 5:19 (KJV) Will You Remain Faithful?

Lamentations 5:19 (KJV)

Thou, O LORD, remainest for ever; thy throne from generation to generation.

Certain truths challenge and test the faith of the believer. They are doctrines we know to be true. We will claim them, agree with them, and “amen” the preaching of them.

So long as we do not have to live them.

The prophet lived in a time of great affliction. It was as if God had cast them off. The sins of their fathers had slain them and left people like the prophet and his contemporaries to bear the burden of their iniquities. They were suffering because of the sins and mistakes of a generation now past. They were not, by the way, going to escape this burden.

What is it that can comfort a Christian at this stage?

It was not the strength of their fathers
They were dead.

It was not the promise of rescue
God offered no such promise.

It was not the wisdom of their grandfathers
The enemy had shown them no mercy.

It was not the loving arms of their mothers
They had been left widows.

The Word of God offers this truth as their source of strength and comfort, “Thou, O LORD, remainest for ever; thy throne from generation to generation.”

Now the question. Will you remain faithful to the Lord with only this?

We live in a nation bearing the burdens of the sins of our fathers. Spiritually: 

• I see some reacting by coming up with new ways to make their faith feel good. 
• I see some rejecting their father’s faith as wrong and adjusting to what they believe is better. 
• I see others rejecting the faith of their fathers as fruitless false, and foolish.

The Bible says that God changes not. 

• Bible faith remains forever because God remains forever. 
• Bible truth is valid from one generation to the next because God’s throne remains from one generation to the next.

Will you remain faithful to the Lord with only this?

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 5600 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, and other resources, are available at:
https://marvinmckenzie.org

Buy me a coffee?
If you have been blessed by my devotional messages, you are able to leave me a small thank you at my Ko-Fi page.

Lamentations 5:19 (KJV) Will You Remain Faithful?

Luke 18:21 (KJV) A Concern for Their Souls

Luke 18:21 (KJV)

And he said, All these have I kept from my youth up.

Jesus expressed concern for this “certain ruler.” We would do well to have the same concern for him and those like him.

First, I see he was religious
He came to Jesus interested in matters of eternal life. He knew the commandments. He was a man of religion. We might think of him as spiritual.

Second, he would have been thought of as good
At least he thought of himself that way. He said he had kept all the commandments of the Word since his youth. He was not riotous or rebellious. He wasn’t even reckless. On the contrary, he would have been an upstanding community member.

Finally, we learn that he was rich
We like to call him the rich young ruler, but that is not how the Bible describes him. He was a ruler first. Rich was third on the list.

There is more than one sort of wealth. Pride can create a sense of wealth. I think of the church of Laodicea who thought of themselves as rich and needing nothing when in truth, they were poor, miserable, blind, and naked.

This ruler’s trouble is the same as many a modern churchgoer. As good as they see themselves to be, as spiritual as their lifestyle may reveal them to be, they miss the kingdom of God.

This certain ruler may even have an advantage over so many in churches today. He was at least willing to ask about eternal life. My concern is for those so sure of themselves that they cannot imagine themselves not possessing a home in heaven.

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 5600 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, and other resources, are available at:
https://marvinmckenzie.org

Buy me a coffee?
If you have been blessed by my devotional messages, you are able to leave me a small thank you at my Ko-Fi page.

Luke 18:21 (KJV) A Concern for Their Souls

Luke 17:32 (KJV) Lifeless, Bitter, Useless

Luke 17:32 (KJV)

Remember Lot’s wife.

What we are most likely to remember is that Lot’s wife looked back and turned into a pillar of salt.

• No looking back on God’s call upon our lives
• No looking back at the loss of the things of the world
• No looking back to the life that used to be but isn’t anymore

The context has to do with the coming of the Lord.  Jesus said of that hour, Luke 17:32 (KJV)
Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it.

It’s not so much you must die to self to be saved but that we die to self in order to look up to the Lord. The Christian cannot afford an affection for the world.

• A house
• A position
• An income
• Even family

these must never cause our eyes to turn away from Christ.

I do not believe a born again Christian (there is no other kind) can ever lose their salvation. I have, however, witnessed several turn into a lifeless pillar of bitterness and spiritual uselessness because they would not let go of the past.

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 5600 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, and other resources, are available at:
https://marvinmckenzie.org

Buy me a coffee?

Luke 17:32 (KJV) Lifeless, Bitter, Useless

Jeremiah 52:32 (KJV) What Causes Kindness?

Jeremiah 52:32 (KJV)

And spake kindly unto him, and set his throne above the throne of the kings that were with him in Babylon,

In the thirty-seventh year of the captivity of the Jews in Babylon, the Bible says that the king of Babylon began to treat the king of Judah kindly. There is little reason given for this kindness, but I have some suggestions.

First, there was the grace of God
He never stopped loving them, and though the judgment was of God, the nature of God tends toward goodness. Even amid this severity, there was grace.

Second, there was submission
I’m guessing on this one, but the promise of God had always been that they were to submit to Babylon, accept captivity and trust God to give them favor with their captors.

Finally, there was Daniel
Daniel and his friends had faithfully served the kings of Babylon since they arrived. They never compromised their faith, but they did serve the king well. Noted events, recorded in the book of Daniel, reveal that the testimony of these men led the king to a kind eye toward their God. No doubt this would have translated into being kind to the king of the Jews.

Obedience to God is always rewarded.

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 5600 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, and other resources, are available at:
https://marvinmckenzie.org

Buy me a coffee?

Jeremiah 52:32 (KJV) What Causes Kindness?

Luke 15:18 (KJV) You’re Welcome Home

Luke 15:18 (KJV)

I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee,

While the primary application of this parable has to do with the relationship of God the Father with the Jews, most of us see in it a second application having to do with our children and our desire to have an enduring relationship with them. This is especially true of the believing parent desiring a strong spiritual relationship with their children.

I propose a third application. Though it may seem weaker because we know that the pastor is not a father figure, perhaps we could view him as representative of the whole church. A member of the church leaves. We cannot stop them. We know it not their best decision. We know it is neither a biblical nor spiritual decision. We are nevertheless helpless to stop them.

They leave with all that God has given them. The gifts and callings were meant to be fulfilled in the framework of the spiritual body the Lord gave to them. Now this church will forever do without these gifts and callings. They freely spend those gifts and callings in another land. As long as his inheritance lasted, he had plenty of friends in that other land. There is no doubt that another church will accept them and gladly receive what is not theirs.

If this brother or sister has indeed walked away from the Lord’s calling, sooner or later, their inheritance will expire. I’ve known many a “faithful” Christian to have moved outside of the will of God, gladly received into a church but eventually burning out there, gladly received into another church but, burning out there, quit on the things of God altogether.

When he was come to himself. Not too many ever come to the place of humility where they will return. They come back empty. They come back with some baggage. They come back to some brethren who will have to be convinced they ought to be allowed back. Few are willing to come back.

God’s people, Jesus’s body, the local church, will welcome them home.

I pray for those who’ve taken their substance into a far country to come home.

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 5600 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, and other resources, are available at:
https://marvinmckenzie.org

Buy me a coffee?

Luke 15:18 (KJV) You’re Welcome Home