Pleasant

"You can be oh so smart, or oh so pleasant.  For years I was smart....I recommend pleasant."  Suggested by Elwood P. Dowd in "Harvey"


              Proverbs 3:13 - 18
 ¹³ Blessed are those who find wisdom,
   those who gain understanding,
¹⁴ for she is more profitable than silver
   and yields better returns than gold.
¹⁵ She is more precious than rubies;
   nothing you desire can compare with her.
¹⁶ Long life is in her right hand;
   in her left hand are riches and honor.
¹⁷ Her ways are pleasant ways,
   and all her paths are peace.
¹⁸ She is a tree of life to those who take hold of her;
   those who hold her fast will be blessed.

Teach Us to Pray

They said to Jesus, "Lord, teach us to pray."  Such an interesting request from the disciples of this interesting 'man'  they called Lord.  They knew how to pray!  They were raised in the faith of the God of Israel - most likely rabbinical students at one point in their life,  as most young men of that region and age. So I wrote down in bold what Jesus told them as recorded in Matthew and Luke's accounts;
  
"This, then is how you should pray:
Our Father  (Psalm 2:7, "He said to me, 'You are my Son; today I have become your Father' ")
in Heaven  (Genesis 14:19, "God Most High, Creator of Heaven and Earth.")
Hallowed be Your name. (Isaiah 6:2, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty)
Your kingdom come; (2 Kings 19:15 "O Lord, God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are GOD over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth.")
your will be done (Psalm 143:10 "Teach me to do your will, for you are my GOD;")
on earth as it is in heaven. (Psalm 19:1 "The Heavens declare the Glory of God" and Isaiah 66:1 "Heaven is my throne.")
Give us today our daily bread. (Exodus 16:4 "I will rain down bread from heaven for you." John 6:48 Jesus said, "I am the Bread of Life.")
Forgive us our debts,  (Psalm 79:9 "Help us, O God our Savior, for the glory of your name; deliver us and forgive our sins for your name's sake.)
as we have also forgiven our debtors. ( Psalm 103:3 "Praise the Lord, who forgives sin." Colossians 3:13 "Forgive as the Lord forgave you.")
And lead us not into temptation,  (Psalm 116:6a "The LORD protects the simple-hearted,)
but deliver us from the evil one. (Psalm 116:6b "when I was in great need, He saved me.)

And later the teachers of the Law came and asked Jesus, "Of all the commandments which is the most important?"  He answered, "The most important one is this, 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this; "Love your neighbor as yourself.  There is no commandment greater than these." He quoted what was taught by Moses in Deuteronomy 6:4-9.

Hear, O Israel, the L-rd is our G-d, the L-rd is One.
Blessed be the name of the glory of His kingdom forever and ever.
You shall love the L-rd your G-d with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your might. And these words which I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them thoroughly to your children, and you shall speak of them when you sit in your house and when you walk on the road, when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign upon your arm, and they shall be for a reminder between your eyes. And you shall write them upon the doorposts of your house and upon your gates.

"All you nations"

I saw a very disturbing film yesterday.  I won't mention the title.  But what I will mention is a Psalm.

Psalm 117

Praise the Lord, all you nations; extol him, all you peoples.
For great is His love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever.
Praise the Lord.

That is all it says. It is the shortest Psalm or chapter in the Bible.

The place I want to park is where it says "all you nations...all you peoples" - nations in the bible refers here to the Gentiles.  This reminder to the Gentile nations in the Hebrew Scriptures is to praise the God of Israel! I pray you know the relevance of that message for today. 

In researching this Psalm, I came across a very accurate statement that bears repeating. "The enemies of Israel are the ones who are best equipped to praise God, for they know better than anyone how He has thwarted their anti-Semitic designs." (Netziv)  Yes, HE has thwarted - only God can open your heart and eyes to thwarting anti-Semitic designs. Only He can unveil your eyes to the deception of hatred toward His people. I pray He opens your eyes today.

If you truly 'know' God, then you will know that He sent His Messiah who came through the Jewish people.  "And from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised!" as Paul wrote.

There is no room in God's plan for anti-Semetics.  No room.

To all Fathers

The Peace of Thy Children

by Henry Morris, Ph.D. | Jun. 19, 2011

"And all thy children shall be taught of the LORD; and great shall be the peace of thy children." (Isaiah 54:13)
This prophetic verse has its primary fulfillment still in the future. Nevertheless, it states a basic principle which is always valid, and which is especially relevant on Father's Day. The greatest honor that children can bestow on a father is a solid Christian character of their own, but that must first be his own gift to them. Before sons and daughters can experience real peace of soul, they must first be taught of the Lord themselves, and the heavenly Father has delegated this responsibility first of all to human fathers.
The classic example is Abraham, "the father of all them that believe" (Romans 4:11). God's testimony concerning Abraham was this: "For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment" (Genesis 18:19). This is the first reference in Scripture to the training of children and it is significant that it stresses paternal instruction in the things of God. Furthermore, the instruction should be diligent and continual: "When thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up" (Deuteronomy 6:7).
The classic New Testament teaching on child training has the same message: "Ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord" (Ephesians 6:4).
Not wrath, but peace, as our text suggests. Great shall be the peace of our children when they know the Lord and keep His ways. Great, also, is the joy of a godly father when he can see the blessing of the Lord on his children, and then on his grandchildren. "Children's children are the crown of old men; and the glory of children are their fathers" (Proverbs 17:6).

And I am so grateful to my husband, the father of our children, for teaching our daughters the way they should go.  I pray with you for their protection and steadfastness in the Lord. May you be blessed today my Beloved.

The Scriptures Testify

“Search the Scriptures...they testify about Me.” John 5:39  "if you believed Moses, you would believe me,  for he wrote about me." John 5:46

Charles Spurgeon writes, "The Greek word here rendered search signifies a strict, close, diligent, curious search, such as men make when they are seeking gold, or hunters when they are in earnest after game. We must not rest content with having given a superficial reading to a chapter or two, but with the candle of the Spirit we must deliberately seek out the hidden meaning of the word.

Holy Scripture requires searching—much of it can only be learned by careful study. There is milk for babes, but also meat for strong men. The rabbis wisely say that a mountain of matter hangs upon every word, yea, upon every title of Scripture. Tertullian exclaims, “I adore the fulness of the Scriptures.” No man who merely skims the book of God can profit thereby; we must dig and mine until we obtain the hid treasure. The door of the word only opens to the key of diligence. 

The Scriptures claim searching. They are the writings of God, bearing the divine stamp and imprimatur—who shall dare to treat them with levity? He who despises them despises the God who wrote them. God forbid that any of us should leave our Bibles to become swift witnesses against us in the great day of account. 

The word of God will repay searching. God does not bid us sift a mountain of chaff with here and there a grain of wheat in it, but the Bible is winnowed corn—we have but to open the granary door and find it. Scripture grows upon the student. It is full of surprises. Under the teaching of the Holy Spirit, to the searching eye it glows with splendor of revelation, like a vast temple paved with wrought gold, and roofed with rubies, emeralds, and all manner of gems. No merchandise is like the merchandise of Scripture truth.

Lastly, the Scriptures reveal Jesus: “They are they which testify of me.”  After reading from the writings of the prophets in Isaiah 61, Jesus "rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down.  The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, and he began by saying to them, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." 

No more powerful motive can be urged upon Bible readers than this: he who finds Jesus finds life, heaven, all things. Happy he who, searching his Bible, discovers his Savior.

(excerpts from Charles Spurgeon, "Morning and Evening" for June 9th)

The sheep of His pasture...

More on sheep...sorry, I just can't get them off my mind.  Was lead to read Psalm 100 today and their they were again!!  This is where I say, God is so good...all the time.

Psalm 100

 

A psalm. For giving grateful praise.

  ¹ Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.
 ² Worship the LORD with gladness;
   come before him with joyful songs.
³ Know that the LORD is God.
   It is he who made us, and we are his;
   we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
 ⁴ Enter his gates with thanksgiving
   and his courts with praise;
   give thanks to him and praise his name.
⁵ For the LORD is good and his love endures forever;
   his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Sheep

Sheep.  That would be the lesson plan.  There is a little girl that comes to our congregation twice a month on Shabbat who I have the privilege of teaching.  I don't prepare much.  But sheep were on my mind.  Actually sheep and cotton balls.  But when I got to the class I realized the cotton balls were still at home.

So we went on a hunt.  The closest thing we could find were disposable diapers - which to a 7 year old was hysterical.  So, I got her attention with the diaper and we proceeded to dismantle it, extracting the cottony fluff.  Pasting clumps of fluff on a paper plate, we added a black head and 4 legs. While working,  she told me she was reading a book about Sammie the Sheep that morning.  As far as I was concerned, that was all the confirmation I needed to begin the teaching of the day.

So I mentioned that sheep are not very bright.  They hang out in herds.  They become a bit stressed when separated from their 'friends' and they tend to want to flee in a panic when threatened...which could be more effort than some shepherds want to exert! A shepherd spends an inordinate amount of time with his flock.  So our discussion was also about the shepherd.

When we finished making her sheep, she had gathered other stuffed animal sheep from the classroom to make a herd.  She placed her creation amongst the other sheep and I told her a story about a shepherd who watched 100 sheep.  How every night they would be herded into the pen and counted.  But one night, there were only 99.  I told her to close her eyes.  And I hid her creation.  I asked her if she was satisfied to just leave her creation lost and play with the stuffed animals that looked like her homemade sheep.  She looked at me like I was crazy!  She said, "No! We have to find my sheep!"

She went on a hunt around the room until finally she found her lost sheep.  She held it high...and said, "I found it!"  And I told her the rest of the story.  In Ezekiel 34, "the Sovereign LORD says; I myself will search for my sheep and look after them.  As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep."  Then in Luke 15 Jesus said, "Suppose one of you has a 100 sheep and loses one of them.  Does he not leave the 99 in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. He calls his friends and neighbors together and says, "Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.' I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who do not need to repent."

She got it.  Do you?