Acts 11:28-29 (KJV) The Universal Famine

Acts 11:28-29 (KJV)

And there stood up one of them named Agabus, and signified by the Spirit that there should be great dearth throughout all the world: which came to pass in the days of Claudius Caesar.

Then the disciples, every man according to his ability, determined to send relief unto the brethren which dwelt in Judaea:

 

It's interesting to read the varying opinions of men about the Word of God. The Bible says two things in this passage:

 

- The Spirit of God said there would be a dearth throughout all the world.

- That the dearth came to pass in the days of Claudius Caesar.

 

Varying commentaries claim that "all the world" means all of Rome or that "all the world" means all of Judea. I just want to ask, "What's wrong with believing the Bible?" It may be that the only portion of the world we have a record of for that time was Rome or Judea. That we have no human record has no bearing on what record God has. "All the world" in my estimation means "all the world."

 

Consider, all the world was in a dearth. There was famine, scarcity of food throughout the world. People were destitute everywhere! And what was the response? The disciples, the believers, the Christians (as they will soon come to be called) chose to give what they could to help brethren whose destitution was worse than their own.

 

Our world today is spiritually destitute. This is no time to huddle among ourselves and keep what we have to ourselves. This is a time to share what God has given us with those who have less. We who have learned the Word of God must be about the business of giving what God has given to us to those whose understanding of the Word of God may be less than our own.

 

There is division among the disciples. There is a growing tendency to believe what we want to believe about God, about sin, and about salvation rather than what God says about these things. The need of the day is not that we hide these truths for the sake of unity - that only prolongs the dearth. The need today is for those who have some understanding of the Word of God, according to their ability, to send relief to others.

 

#BiblicalTruth #GlobalDearth #ChristianResponsibility #UnityInFaith #SharingGodsWord

The Universal Famine: A Call to Action

 

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.

For this and, more than 6300 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:
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Join me at Daily Visits with God Podcast
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Acts 11:28-29 (KJV) The Universal Famine

Hosea 13:3 (KJV) Fleeting vs. Flourishing

Hosea 13:3 (KJV)

Therefore they shall be as the morning cloud, and as the early dew that passeth away, as the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind out of the floor, and as the smoke out of the chimney.

 

What a description of a life lived in sin:

·       As the morning cloud

·       As the early dew

·       As the chaff in the wind

·       As the smoke from the chimney

 

Psalms one speaks in similar terms of the ungodly.

Psalms 1:4 (KJV)

The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.

 

That is in contrast with the believer as it says, 

Psalms 1:3 (KJV)

And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

 

The rains of blessing fall on the just and the unjust but so do the winds of judgment and trouble. The difference is that those who know the Lord, meditate upon His Word, and observe to do His commandments reap the most from the rains and suffer the least from the winds.

 

#SinfulLife #UngodlyVsRighteous #BiblicalImagery #SpiritualContrast #BlessingsAndJudgment

Fleeting vs. Flourishing: The Evanescent[1] Nature of Sin

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[1] The word means, “passing, temporary, transitory.”

 

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.

For this and, more than 6300 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

Join me at Daily Visits with God Podcast
https://marvinmckenzie.substack.com/

Merch at my Teespring store https://macz.creator-spring.com/
Be a witness with hats, mugs, t-shirts, sweat shirts, and more

Let’s have coffee?
The link to Ko-fi  is an opportunity to support this effort to reach a world of souls with the Word of God. I would appreciate any gift you can give. 

Hosea 13:3 (KJV)  Fleeting vs. Flourishing

Acts 9:2 (KJV) Turning Point

Acts 9:2 (KJV)

And desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem.

 

Ephesians 3:1 (KJV)

For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles,

Colossians 4:3 (KJV)

Withal praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds:

 

Wow! What a turnaround! Saul of Tarsus once sought the authority of the priests to imprison Christians, but on his journey to Damascus, he encountered the High Priest, Jesus Christ.

 

Years later, now known as Paul the Apostle, he found himself in bonds. Though imprisoned by men, what truly mattered were the bonds that connected him to Jesus Christ.

 

“A man is no fool to give up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose” – Jim Elliot. For Paul, what he had lost meant nothing compared to what he had gained – the excellence of knowing Christ and the power of His resurrection.[1]

 

The whole world experiences some form of bondage. We all yearn for freedom:

·       Freedom from oppression

·       Freedom from fear

·       Freedom from toil

·       Freedom from government

 

God offers humanity the highest form of freedom – freedom from sin, and with it, freedom from death.[2]

 

#FromBondageToFreedom #PaulsTransformation #FreedomInChrist #PowerOfResurrection #SeekingTrueFreedom

Turning Point: The Power of Redemption

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[1] Philippians 3:7-10 (KJV)

But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.

Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,

And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:

That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;

[2] 1 Corinthians 15:54-57 (KJV)

So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.

O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?

The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.

But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

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.

For this and, more than 6300 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

Join me at Daily Visits with God Podcast
https://marvinmckenzie.substack.com/

Merch at my Teespring store https://macz.creator-spring.com/
Be a witness with hats, mugs, t-shirts, sweat shirts, and more

Let’s have coffee?
The link to Ko-fi  is an opportunity to support this effort to reach a world of souls with the Word of God. I would appreciate any gift you can give. 

Acts 9:2 (KJV) Turning Point

Hosea 10:13 (KJV) A Recipe for Downfall

Hosea 10:13 (KJV)

Ye have plowed wickedness, ye have reaped iniquity; ye have eaten the fruit of lies: because thou didst trust in thy way, in the multitude of thy mighty men.

 

“Because”

 

Notice the progression of events in this passage.

·       Ye have plowed wickedness (because)

·       Ye have reaped iniquity (because)

·       Ye have eaten the fruit of lies (because)

·       Thou didst trust in thy way, in the multitude of thy mighty men.

 

The text describes in a nutshell the whole curse of mankind. When Eve and then Adam ate of the "fruit of lies," a terrible evil came upon them; they became as gods, knowing good and evil. The corrupt nature has at its roots a false sense of trust. Corrupt man believes he can trust himself, his wisdom, his intellect, the combined education of his kind.

 

It is to our own downfall that we trust in our way. It is to our great harm that we believe we can rely on the culmination of human experience. We plow wickedness, reap iniquity, and eat the fruit of lies because we believe ourselves over God.

 

We live today in one of the lowest points in human history.[1] Sin is rampant. Evil is more pronounced than it has been perhaps in 400 years. We have learned more, achieved more, and traveled farther than at any other time in recorded history. But we have lost our way morally, socially, and spiritually. The ruling class fails to see the problem because they lean too heavily on their mighty men.

 

But the fruit of lies leaves a man empty.

 

The righteousness of Christ fills, satisfies, and, in the end, leads to eternal life.

 

#FruitOfLies #TrustInGod #PlowWickedness #ReapIniquity #RighteousnessOfChrist

A Recipe for Downfall: The Fruit of Lies

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[1] Spiritually and morally speaking. The fruit of lies has been influential, leading many, especially in the unbelieving world, to believe that we have reached an all-time high. They often cite advances in science, medicine, and technology as evidence, and some claim progress in ethics and social issues. However, this perspective is skewed by the "fruit of lies," leading them to see acceptance of alternate lifestyles, etc. as advancement. In contrast, believers uphold the Word of God as their standard and disagree with these assertions of progress.

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.

For this and, more than 6300 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

Join me at Daily Visits with God Podcast
https://marvinmckenzie.substack.com/

Merch at my Teespring store https://macz.creator-spring.com/
Be a witness with hats, mugs, t-shirts, sweat shirts, and more

Let’s have coffee?
The link to Ko-fi  is an opportunity to support this effort to reach a world of souls with the Word of God. I would appreciate any gift you can give. 

Hosea 10:13 (KJV) A Recipe for Downfall

Acts 8:40 (KJV) Family First

Acts 8:40 (KJV)
But Philip was found at Azotus: and passing through he preached in all the cities, till he came to Caesarea.
 
Here is a fascinating passage. After serving in the town of Samaria, establishing what appears to have been a solid work, the Holy Spirit of God moved Philip to head into the desert where he met and led the Ethiopian eunuch to a saving knowledge of Christ.
 

The desert, not being commodious to live in, Philip began an itinerant ministry starting first at Azotus, and preaching in all the cities between it and Caesarea on his way. How long he was in these cities we are not told. Experience has taught me that stopping to preach one message isn’t really preaching “in all the cities.” It’s possible, I suppose, that he stopped in each city, preached, and if there was little response, moved on. It’s more likely he stayed in each of these cities long enough to either have established a beachhead for future ministry or else to have determined that God’s Spirit had not worked there as of yet.
 
At any rate, he preached in every city “till he came to Caesarea.” Adam Clarke writes,
“It is likely that his itinerant mission ended here; though he continued occasionally to perform the work of an evangelist, and to bring up his family in the knowledge and fear of God, which is the most imperious duty that any master of a family can be called on to perform, and which it is impossible for any man to accomplish by substitute…”
 
While Clarke steps into what I consider to be heresy in his phrase following this,[1] I appreciate and find instruction here. He sees the most important duty as bringing up his family in the knowledge and fear of God. Far too many in the Lord’s work have lost sight of this.
 
It is a wise man who, while burdened for and busy about the work of world missions, evangelism, and church planting, recognizes that place where God wants him to plant his roots and bring up his family.

 

#PhilipAndTheEunuch #DesertMinistry #FamilyFaith #RootedinFaith #ItinerantMinistry

Family First: Following the Spirit

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[1] “...and which none can neglect without endangering his own salvation.” A man’s most important work is to provide for his family. This is especially true of providing for them spiritually. But salvation cannot be endangered by any means. Many may people have a false profession of faith. Caring for their family won’t cure that problem. Those who are genuinely saved should know the responsibility toward the family. I believe many in the ministry a generation or two ago were taught that reaching the world was equal to or more important than the family. Believing that lie would not have caused them to lose their salvation.

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.

For this and, more than 6300 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

Join me at Daily Visits with God Podcast
https://marvinmckenzie.substack.com/

Merch at my Teespring store https://macz.creator-spring.com/
Be a witness with hats, mugs, t-shirts, sweat shirts, and more

Let’s have coffee?
The link to Ko-fi  is an opportunity to support this effort to reach a world of souls with the Word of God. I would appreciate any gift you can give. 

Acts 8:40 (KJV) Family First