Psalms 49:6-9 (KJV)
They that trust in their wealth, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches;None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him:(For the redemption of their soul is precious, and it ceaseth for ever:)That he should still live for ever, and not see corruption.

It matters not whether we speak of the:

• Low or high
• Rich or poor

We may speak of those whose sensitivities lead them to look at eternal issues and those whose consciences seem to be seared with a hot iron. The truth of the matter is all of us wish for the good of our loved ones. We hope for their best and, I suspect, wish for their eternal happiness. The Psalmist makes this clear, there is nothing any man can do to effect that happiness, especially eternally.

• Money won’t do it
• Love and concern won’t do it
• Education won’t do it
• Counsel won’t do it

We see it all of the time. The addict cannot be helped until the addict decides to turn around. Until then nothing anyone can offer makes any difference.

The ultimate care any of us have for a dear friend, brother or loved one is for their eternal happiness. The Psalmist directs us to but one means of such redemption, God.

• Money helps little
• Honor only lasts awhile
• Monuments can be torn down
• Land ownership changes names

But God redeems the soul forever.

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

For this and more than 4300 earlier Daily Visits with God visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2006.

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Psalms 49:6-9 (KJV) God Redeems The Soul Forever

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Romans 15:14 (KJV)
And I myself also am persuaded of you, my brethren, that ye also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another.

Having never met these brethren, but hearing their testimony, Paul said he was persuaded of three things concerning them:

They were full of goodness
The Hebrew word full means, “replete or completely filled”. This doesn’t mean they were good in and of themselves but that God had filled them with kindness toward their brethren.

They were filled with knowledge
The word, “filled” is an entirely different Hebrew word focusing on the idea of “to make” full. In the first case the goodness is the natural outcome of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. In this case it is the result of a process. Knowledge comes through:

• Study 
• Thought and 
• Instruction 

Because of these two “fillings” Paul was persuaded that:

They were able to admonish one another
This word means to remind or to gently warn. It takes both kindness and knowledge to admonish another. It takes kindness certainly to accept such admonition.

They could admonish one another. Not others outside of their own church but within it.

What grace when such a thing is possible!

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

For this and more than 4300 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.

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Romans 15:14 (KJV) Able To Admonish

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Psalms 45:9-11 (KJV)
Kings’ daughters were among thy honourable women: upon thy right hand did stand the queen in gold of Ophir.Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear; forget also thine own people, and thy father’s house;So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty: for he is thy Lord; and worship thou him.

This Psalm reminds me of the book of Esther. If it is indeed written by King David then it would have to be prophetic to speak of Esther. Indeed many of the scholars attach to it David as a prophet. John Gill, for instance, notes that,

“The title in the Syriac version is,”the Book of the Psalms of David, King and Prophet,” with which agrees the Arabic version.”

Esther was taken from among her people, urged not to reveal her people and won the King’s heart so she could then save her people.

We come out of this world not so we may ignore the souls of those around us but precisely that, having won the favor of the king of kings, we may participate in the salvation of the souls around us.

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

For this and more than 4300 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.

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Psalms 45:9-11 (KJV) Don’t Ignore Them

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Psalms 42:5-6 (KJV)

Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance.

O my God, my soul is cast down within me: therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites, from the hill Mizar.

Our spirit is that part of us that speaks to God. 

It is seen in Psalms 42:6 and also in Romans 8 where the Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. 

Our spirit also speaks to our soul. 

In the case of Psalms 42:5 it is encouraging our soul not to be cast down. 

One of the most practical reasons to maintain a good relationship with God and to communicate to him often is so our spirit knows what to tell our soul. We live in such a cruel world that it is easy to be cast down. Only this week I have learned of both police officers and military personnel who have ended their own lives. They had seen enough of the bad in this world. They had had their fill of the fight against evil. Somehow, in their battle for the good, they ran short of the resources to keep going. Those resources are inexhaustible and ready at hand. But they must be obtained through Christ. 

Some of those who ran out had no relationship with the Lord. But some of them did. In their case the tragedy of their deaths is amplified because they could have had the emotional, spiritual personal resources to survive and even thrive. They just didn’t know they could get them. 

Everyone gets “cast down” from time to time. The spiritual man can preach to his soul and climb out of it. 

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

For this and more than 4300 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.

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Psalms 42:5-6 (KJV) Climb Out!

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Psalms 40:10 (KJV)
I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart; I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation: I have not concealed thy lovingkindness and thy truth from the great congregation.

As important as it is to have the Word of God hidden in our hearts, it must never stay there alone.

• To know the Christ has saved us
• To be sure we have a home in heaven
• To have free access to the throne of grace 
• To possess the blessed hope of Jesus’ return

These are treasures indeed. But they were never meant to be buried away in our hearts.

• The gospel is limitless
• The mercy is free
• God’s love extends to all

Therefore the duty of the possessor of this righteousness is to lay it out in the open for all to receive.

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

For this and more than 4300 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.

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Psalms 40:10 (KJV) It’s Meant To Be Shared

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Psalms 39:1-3 (KJV)

To the chief Musician, even to Jeduthun, A Psalm of David. 

I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue: I will keep my mouth with a bridle, while the wicked is before me.

I was dumb with silence, I held my peace, even from good; and my sorrow was stirred.

My heart was hot within me, while I was musing the fire burned: then spake I with my tongue,

The Psalms sometimes express our heart’s feelings even when those feelings are wrong. We may use them therefore, to process through those emotions and come to Biblical and godly conclusions. 

David begins this Psalm on a right footing. 

There were things he ought not say. They were especially dangerous to say around the wicked and unbelieving. Perhaps it would be helpful to share these in confidence to a trusted and god-fearing adviser, but certainly not before a lost person. Sometimes the unsaved will use even truth in a twisted and corrupt way. It’s just best to be quiet and trust that God has our back. 

But David did what all of us have at one time or another felt. 

All those thoughts and emotions, pent up inside him, got the better of him and eventually burst forth as a complaint to God. 

I will suggest that, if we are going to complain, God is the best One for us to do that before. 

He is merciful and patient and will not use our words against us. Not so the wicked and lost. Probably not true even of the average Christian friend. God will always forgive us and help us. A mentor, a counselor or a trusted brother can perhaps guide us out of our soured spirit but the majority of people don’t need to hear what we have to say, good or bad. 

Better to leave something unsaid every day.[1]

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

For this and more than 4300 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.

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Psalms 39:1-3 (KJV) Leave Something Unsaid Every Day

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[1]A pastor by the name of Kim Grey said that at a preacher’s meeting way back in 1984 or 1985. I have never forgotten it. I have not always practiced it very well, but I have never forgotten it.

Psalms 38:13-15 (KJV)

But I, as a deaf man, heard not; and I was as a dumb man that openeth not his mouth.

Thus I was as a man that heareth not, and in whose mouth are no reproofs.

For in thee, O LORD, do I hope: thou wilt hear, O Lord my God.

The Psalmist had some dreadful enemies. The attacks were brutal and his ability to defeat them in his own strength was nil. He could not do this without God. 

So he did nothing. 

• As one that is deaf he ignored their threats
• As one that is mute spoke not a word

But he was not passive 

He instead put all his effort into hoping in God. 

Trusting God is not irresponsible

It is not lazy or negligent. That would be true if God were a figment of the imagination. Trusting God, calling out to Him, hoping He will hear and that He will make haste and help is not wishful thinking because:

• God is
• God is alive
• God is aware and
• God is active

Sometimes we don’t get the help we need from God because we don’t turn things over to God. 

• We listen to the criticism and take offense
• We open our mouths and say things we shouldn’t 
• We behave as if God cannot or will not hear

-->

And in so doing we cause that He doesn’t. 

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

For this and more than 4300 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.

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Psalms 38:13-15 (KJV) He Did Nothing

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Psalms 37:21 Nor Lender Be

Psalms 37:21 (KJV)

The wicked borroweth, and payeth not again: but the righteous sheweth mercy, and giveth.

Not long ago I presented a series of lessons from the Proverbs on stewardship. I taught the lesson in the adult Sunday school class and had several parents encourage me that these lessons ought to be taught to their teen children. I did that and then taught some of those lessons again at teen camp. 

One of those lessons is entitled “Nor Lender Be.” 

Many of us understand the dangers of borrowing. There are also Biblical dangers in lending. I make it a practice never to lend money but instead, if I have the ability to help, and if it seems that the Lord is leading. I give the money freely. 

This passage supports the practice. 

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

For this and more than 4300 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.

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Psalms 37:21 (KJV) Nor Lender Be

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Psalms 35:3 (KJV)
Draw out also the spear, and stop the way against them that persecute me: say unto my soul, I am thy salvation.

Over the years since my salvation I have seen a number of things offered to provide assurance of salvation. One well-known soul winner instructs in his soul winning class to “give them assurance.” Interestingly, in soul winning he never assumes a soul to be saved and, if he can lead them to pray, he will, even if they have done so before. He figures, I think, that if the previous soul winner failed to give assurance he failed to lead them to Christ.

Baptism is presented in the Word of God as “an answer of a good conscience.”[1] In other words, it may serve to provide assurance. I think also that, in many respects, the book of 1st John might be viewed as instructions for assurance.

Some people have a false assurance.

They are merely confident in the flesh. They see themselves as good and cannot imagine God ever condemning them.

I am convinced that the truly saved are sure of their salvation. I have come to believe the only reliable assurance of salvation is the witness of God’s Spirit with our spirit.

And that is the prayer of the Psalmist.

• In the midst of all his pain 
• In his prayers for deliverance and help 

he cries unto God this plea, “say unto my soul, I am thy salvation.” Regardless how God answers our other prayers, if we have an answer for this one, we are safe.

[1]1 Peter 3:21 (KJV)
The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:

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

For this and more than 4300 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.

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Psalms 35:3 (KJV) True Assurance

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Romans 11:13 (KJV)
For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office:

Though the word church is not used specifically of Romans, that it is written to a church in Rome is clear. He references the church in Cenchrea and the church in the house of Priscilla and Aquila.

Interestingly, the first portion of the book seems to be written from a Jewish perspective and to Jewish Christians. This passage is clearly written to Gentile Christians. They are obviously in the same church and/or in cooperating churches, i.e. churches of like faith.

This supports, in my view, the principle of Christians dropping their ethnic backgrounds (though perhaps not completely forgetting them) and uniting together in a local church. Inside the church there is neither Jew nor Gentile but the church of God. There are Christians bound together for a common purpose. There are believers focused on their common commission and not their national and cultural differences.

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

For this and more than 4300 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.

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Romans 11:13 (KJV) What’s Common Over What’s Different

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Romans 10:3-4 (KJV)
For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.

This is a fascinating play on the word, righteousness. Though I am cognizant of the possibility of making more than is here, still, it seems significant that God both inspired and preserved this contrast of the word.

God’s righteousness
Benson says this is the holy character of God as well as the extent of His holy law. I cannot argue that the Jews would have been ignorant of the holiness of God. I can see only that they misunderstood the nature of and purpose of God’s law.

Their own righteousness
This takes us to Adam and Eve and the root trouble of every man. We want to establish our own righteousness as good enough. Maybe we even want it to be established as the ultimate good.

The righteousness of God
If it is fair to make a distinction between this and the first it is that this has to do with God’s plan to bring righteousness to man.

The sense of the verse would be that the Jews, being ignorant of the true purpose of God’s law and wishing to establish themselves as righteous by their own merit, refused to submit to the one and only way God has determined that a man might be righteous before Him; in Jesus Christ.

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

For this and more than 4300 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.

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Romans 10:3-4 (KJV) Three Kinds of Righteousness

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