What have you begun before that needs finishing now?

 Was recently reading Second Corinthians 8 when I came across these familiar verses in verses 10 to 12: “10 And in this matter I am giving my advice: it is appropriate for you who began last year not only to do something but even to desire to do something— 11 now finish doing it, so that your eagerness may be matched by completing it according to your means. 12 For if the eagerness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has—not according to what one does not have.”

 Now of course I believe we all know that Paul was talking about a voluntary Collection for the poor in Jerusalem that the Corinthians had begun to put together but had still not completed a year later, but today I was wondering if we too do not have unfinished projects of our own that we have begun, whether last year or years before, that we too need to finish now?

 Yes, sadly, many people are sarcastically referred to as “Gunners”. That is that are always saying that they are ‘gunna do this’ or they are ‘gunna do that’ and often begin well but rarely finish.

 Again enough of them, what about you and me? Are we too “gunners”? Or are we finishers too? People and God are not interested in what we have begun; but only in what we have finished with what we have as verse 12 clearly states.

 So in closing, what is it that you have begun that still needs finishing, and when will you do it? T.O.W.G.P.

Have you really come out from among them.

Was Just reading from the Second Letter of Paul’s to the Corinthians, when this familiar passage took on a new emphasis to me, so I thought I would take the liberty of sharing it with you. Now 2Corinthians 6: 17 – 7: 1, says: “17 Therefore come out from them, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch nothing unclean; then I will welcome you, 18 and I will be your father, and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty." 1 Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and of spirit, making holiness perfect in the fear of God.” Looking at the text in 6 17, we see again that we were told to separate ourselves from our past sinful connections and, if we do, God will welcome us into His presence. Further, in 6:18, He promises us that he will be our Father and we His Children. Now this promise is not new to us nor to the Corinthian church I believe, but I can’t help wondering if we, like the Corinthian believers then, also even now, need to in the words of 7;1, to “cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and of spirit, making holiness perfect in the fear of God.” What say you? Yes like the Corinthians we have been saved and are now the Children of God, but have we, like them then, allowed ourselves to go back to our old ways again and thus need to cleanse ourselves again, from every defilement of both our bodies and our minds? So in closing I ask again: “Have we really come out from among them? Or have we allowed ourselves, perhaps even unknowingly, to slip back in to our old ways again, and thus need to come again to God in repentance for forgiveness of our backsliding? Over to you now for your reflection. And action if needed! T.O.W.G.P.

Not how many Bibles, but …

My son was around the other night and wanted some specific biblical information about a certain subject. Information that I didn’t have off the top of my head, but believed I had written down earlier and placed in one of my bibles.
So I started looking for it and upon having no success, said, it wasn’t in that Bible. Well by the time I had said that for the third time, he piped in, with, “How many Bibles do you have?”
Well!!! The actual answer to that question is a little hard to answer as one bible has 3 separate versions in the one Book. But with different bibles and versions in separate books, I have at least 9.
That then led me to this thought: “It is not a matter of how, many bibles one has, but rather a matter of how often one looks at any of them?”
Yes, you can have one or a hundred Bibles, but if you never look into them or open them, then you have, for all intents and purposes, no Bible at all. Yes, a closed Bible is no different from not having even one.
Although I do truly believe that the best book of all is the Bible, and even if that was the only book you had, you would not need any other! However true as that is, it is only true if you actually open and read it with an open mind and Heart.
Will you do that now? Yes open a Bible and reads it with an open heart and mind? Will you?

The Land of Nod

I think that all of us have at one time or another used the expression “ In the Land Of Nod” to refer to being asleep, But did you know that the expression in its original form is Biblical?
According to the Word of the Day for Tuesday, April 6, 2010, the land of Nod is a mythical land of sleep. Further it states: “Land of Nod is a pun on the biblical place-name, the country to which Cain journeyed after slaying Abel. See Genesis, 4:16.”
My assignment for you today, should you choose to accept it, is, “How did the Land of Nod in the Bible, come to mean sleep in modern Parlance?”
I believe I have the answer, but await your response, for either correction or confirmation. Thanking you in advance.

The spread of Flu and Sin.

Today we are looking at Genesis 6 and the spread of sin among mankind. Despite what many claim and even desperately want to believe, Sin is both infectious and contagious and persistent too. Back in Chapter 3 of Genesis with the disobedience to God’s clear command to Adam and Eve, we saw Sin start out first as a suggestion, then as the act, then spread in the sharing or encouragement of Adam to join in this act of disobedience. Then in Chapter four we saw how this sin spread onto one of their Children, before eventually spreading to all mankind,
We note two things of interest here though Adam and Eve’s sin stopped with Arable. Able Choose not to sin and obeyed God. Yes it cost him his life at the hand of his brother, but he still refrained from sin and will be remembered forever more for it.
While Cain, on the other hand, indulged freely and spread that sin to others and also is for evermore remembered for it too.
It reminds me a bit of the current Flue epidemic going around at the moment. Some are unaffected by it and others are somewhat affected and some others completely laid low by it.
Sin is like that too. Some seem naturally immune to it (They are not, but that’s another story.) Whiles others are touched but not greatly harmed, and yet others are laid quite low by it, even unto death.
Now Doctors tell us that we all need to be careful about the Flu. And to take certain precautions, both not to get it, and also how not to spread it. We should do the same too with sin and contain it rather than spread it around to others.
Able did his bit to not spread it, but Cain willingly spread it. What about you now? Both with the Flu and with Sin? Are you doing every thing possible to stop its spread, or are you, even if by your inaction, actually spreading it further and further?
Again something for all of us to think on during our quiet times with the Lord.

Learn from Life experiences and get right with God right now!

Well, today’s topic is called, “Learn from Life experiences and get right with God right now!
But do we ever really learn from the life experiences of others? Or do we always have to experience them ourselves, even if only in some small way, before we finally get right with God Now?
Fortunately for us these lessons for right living & learned the hard way by others, have been recorded for us in the Bible for us to learn from. To learn from and thus to avoid all the pitfalls of others who have gone before us and to emulate or copy the good experiences for ourselves. Thus learn what to do and what not to do, from the experiences of others who have experienced life in its fullness and rawness. Learn so that we don’t make similar mistakes to them and repeat their bad experiences instead of enjoying their Good ones.
But do we really learn from these examples put before us in the Word of God? And if not, why not?
I fear that it could be largely because most who call themselves Christians, don’t really know the word of God clearly.
Sure, many can recite passages and even whole chapters off in their head, but how many actually understand what they are reading or reciting? And how many understand these words within the whole context of the Bible and not just taking “bits ’n’ pieces” here and there and fitting the word of God to their lives, instead of fitting their lives to the word of God?
Studying Luke’s gospel has been a revelation to me in seeing how every passage is connected in some way to those that precede and follow it. And the same is also true how each chapter is connected in themes to those, which precede and follow it.
So please, please, please, read your bibles both regularly and read whole chapters and whole books and not just verses here and there, no matter how special they are to you. Again, let us all read the whole word of God in its context and not just read bits ‘n’ pieces of it.
Your fellow servant in this Word:

To Equivocate or not?

I have hesitated and been quite ambiguous and unclear as to whether I should write about September 21st 2009’s word of the day, “Equivocate.
To equivocate is literally to call equally one thing or the other. To be deliberately ambiguous or unclear in order to mislead or to avoid committing oneself to anything definite.
In other words to equivocate is to try and avoid making a decision. Or committing yourself to an action, you are either unsure of or are afraid will turn around and bite you irregardless of what decision you make. Hence you equivocate in responding or answering, hoping the problem will go away and you can avoid committing yourself.
Sometimes this works with no real cost to you or the others involved, but sometimes your equivocating can cost badly. Either cost you or others, but still cost greatly. So if you find yourself in a position of equivocating where further equivocating is simply putting of the inevitable. Or worse likely to be costly to someone, whether you or anyone else, climb down of the fence and make a commitment.
After all remember James 4:17. “Anyone, then, who knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, commits sin.”
So stop hurting others and start doing what you know is right and start doing it right now!