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Ps 107 – Whoever is wise will observe these things….

Posted on August 6, 2012 by ez3728

Ps 107

This is a profound psalm, and I’ve taught on it several times. It’s 43 verses, with the last verse teasing you to go back and read the first 42. Actually, I believe the author (some think David, some think it was after the return from captivity) probably simply wrote the psalm line by line, but for our purposes reading the 43rd verse is a good place to start.

43 Whoever is wise will observe these things, and they will understand the lovingkindness of the LORD.
(NKJ)

The psalm is all about God’s amazing and merciful deliverances of four different groups – wanderers (v4), rebels (v11), fools (v17), and “those who go down to the sea in ships” (v23) – the last group representing folks who theoretically have their act together.

It doesn’t take excessive wisdom to conclude that pretty much any rescuer is exhibiting mercy and kindness to someone in peril, as the rescue-event occurs. But it does take a wise man to read this psalm and go deeper, and see that God, in His heavenly mercy, will even send trouble, as necessary, to get folks to cry out to Him. Ps 25:8 tells us He teaches sinners in the way. Good God.

V 5 has the Wanderers hungry and thirsty, without any one else to help (they must have looked elsewhere first), and their last resort is crying out to a good God.
V 12 shows us that GOD is the one Who brought the Rebels low, taking them to the place of utter desperation.
V 18 has the Fools at the point of death, despairing of life, prior to their shout-out.
V 25 has God once again bringing the trouble on the Got-It-Together folks, until after all their efforts fail, they realize they do not have it together, and they finally get humbled enough to cry out for help.

V 8 is V15, is V21, is V31 – whoever receives the mercy of God ought to bring forth the same response – give thanks to the Lord for His goodness and for His wonderful works to the children of men.

So what do we have here? An amazing revelation of wisdom (V43) that God loves people so much He will send them trouble, so they can cry out to Him after all the silly pseudo-rescue plans of earth, fail. God is God. And His exercise of wisdom begins early, because He loves mankind so much that He will never affirm bad or destructive behavior.

Yes indeed – His mercy endures forever, but “enduring” means His mercy never gets completely exhausted. There are times when, God being God, it might not appear to some parties that His mercy (which is cloaked in righteousness) is actually being displayed. Proof-text might be Ps 136, where EVERY verse ends proclaiming “His mercy endures forever”, and meanwhile there’s a recounting of the drowning of the entire Egyptian army. It is good to know God as God. And that is the beginning of wisdom.

Ps 107:1-43
1 Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.
2 Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy,
3 And gathered out of the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south.
4 They wandered in the wilderness in a desolate way; they found no city to dwell in.
5 Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them.
6 Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, and He delivered them out of their distresses.
7 And He led them forth by the right way, that they might go to a city for a dwelling place.
8 Oh, that men would give thanks to the LORD for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men!
9 For He satisfies the longing soul, and fills the hungry soul with goodness.
10 Those who sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, bound in affliction and irons–
11 Because they rebelled against the words of God, and despised the counsel of the Most High,
12 Therefore He brought down their heart with labor; they fell down, and there was none to help.
13 Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, and He saved them out of their distresses.
14 He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and broke their chains in pieces.
15 Oh, that men would give thanks to the LORD for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men!
16 For He has broken the gates of bronze, and cut the bars of iron in two.
17 Fools, because of their transgression, and because of their iniquities, were afflicted.
18 Their soul abhorred all manner of food, and they drew near to the gates of death.
19 Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, and He saved them out of their distresses.
20 He sent His word and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.
21 Oh, that men would give thanks to the LORD for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men!
22 Let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare His works with rejoicing.
23 Those who go down to the sea in ships, who do business on great waters,
24 They see the works of the LORD, and His wonders in the deep.
25 For He commands and raises the stormy wind, which lifts up the waves of the sea.
26 They mount up to the heavens, they go down again to the depths; their soul melts because of trouble.
27 They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits’ end.
28 Then they cry out to the LORD in their trouble, and He brings them out of their distresses.
29 He calms the storm, so that its waves are still.
30 Then they are glad because they are quiet; so He guides them to their desired haven.
31 Oh, that men would give thanks to the LORD for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men!
32 Let them exalt Him also in the assembly of the people, and praise Him in the company of the elders.
33 He turns rivers into a wilderness, and the watersprings into dry ground;
34 A fruitful land into barrenness, for the wickedness of those who dwell in it.
35 He turns a wilderness into pools of water, and dry land into watersprings.
36 There He makes the hungry dwell, that they may establish a city for a dwelling place,
37 And sow fields and plant vineyards, that they may yield a fruitful harvest.
38 He also blesses them, and they multiply greatly; and He does not let their cattle decrease.
39 When they are diminished and brought low through oppression, affliction and sorrow,
40 He pours contempt on princes, and causes them to wander in the wilderness where there is no way;
41 Yet He sets the poor on high, far from affliction, and makes their families like a flock.
42 The righteous see it and rejoice, and all iniquity stops its mouth.
43 Whoever is wise will observe these things, and they will understand the lovingkindness of the LORD.
(NKJ)

On a personal note, there were some seriously sketchy times in my life, pre-Jesus. God, in His mercy, caused me to get desperate, feel chained, sniff at death, get my boat rocked, etc.

At different junctures, I can look back and see myself in all four of those groups of folks. I now give thanks to the Lord for His goodness. And I humbly suggest you can too. We have much to be thankful for.

Posted in Everything, Personal Relationship, Psalms, Repentance, Revelation(s), Understanding & Knowing God, Wisdom | 1 Comment

Backyard Idols

Posted on August 5, 2012 by ez3728

The days of Judges could be summed up by the final verse of the book – “everyone did what was right in their own eyes”. Jealous/zealous God (“qana” in Hebrew meaning both zealous and jealous) doesn’t do well when folks who’ve made a covenant with Him do what is right in their own eyes, His standards always being higher that ours. Example below:

Judg 6:1-31
1 Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD. So the LORD delivered them into the hand of Midian for seven years,
2 and the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel. Because of the Midianites, the children of Israel made for themselves the dens, the caves, and the strongholds which are in the mountains.
3 So it was, whenever Israel had sown, Midianites would come up; also Amalekites and the people of the East would come up against them.

Israel was literally getting its lunch eaten by the Midianites.

4 Then they would encamp against them and destroy the produce of the earth as far as Gaza, and leave no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep nor ox nor donkey.
5 For they would come up with their livestock and their tents, coming in as numerous as locusts; both they and their camels were without number; and they would enter the land to destroy it.
6 So Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites, and the children of Israel cried out to the LORD.
7 And it came to pass, when the children of Israel cried out to the LORD because of the Midianites,

Already this is good. The people finally (in crying out to God) do what they should have been doing before the trouble started. Trouble now becomes the great motivator. That’s a classic theme. And precious, merciful God responds when they finally cry out, first sending an unnamed prophet to remind them of the reason for trouble:
8 that the LORD sent a prophet to the children of Israel, who said to them, “Thus says the LORD God of Israel: ‘I brought you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house of bondage;
9 ‘and I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out before you and gave you their land.
10 ‘Also I said to you, “I am the LORD your God; do not fear the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell.” But you have not obeyed My voice.'”

Now the Lord sends an angel, and Gideon asks the angel a WHY question that should not have been a question at all, had he read verse 1 (seriously – Deut 28:49-51 had already warned Israel of disobedience, and judgment by foreign nations – but when people do not know the word of God they are destined to relive the same errors, suffering the same consequences). The angel, knowing heaven’s purposes for Gideon, speaks out his future calling for boldness, while Gideon, treading wheat in a winepress, represents people trying to function in fear.

11 Now the Angel of the LORD came and sat under the terebinth tree which was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon threshed wheat in the winepress, in order to hide it from the Midianites.
12 And the Angel of the LORD appeared to him, and said to him, “The LORD is with you, you mighty man of valor!”
13 Gideon said to Him, “O my lord, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the LORD has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.”
14 Then the LORD turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?”

Skipping over the classic and most favorite famous-fleece verses, let’s go on to see some housecleaning that was required of Gideon, by God, prior to Gideon walking in his deliverer anointing.

25 Now it came to pass the same night that the LORD said to him, “Take your father’s young bull, the second bull of seven years old, and tear down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the wooden image that is beside it;
26 “and build an altar to the LORD your God on top of this rock in the proper arrangement, and take the second bull and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the image which you shall cut down.”
27 So Gideon took ten men from among his servants and did as the LORD had said to him. But because he feared his father’s household and the men of the city too much to do it by day, he did it by night.
(NKJ)

Amazing account. Gideon had been living in a nationally self-inflicted, and truly fearful situation. Israel was living out correction-by-God days because of their disobedience. Eventually it gets terrible enough for them to cry out, and their cries are heard, prophets and angels give forth directives, a chosen man (who didn’t look the part) is called into service, and instructed to tear down some familiar, family altars. And then the good stuff happens.

Gideon didn’t finish all that well – getting a little hung up on Gideon-worship (he refused to be named king and then named his son “my dad is king” – Abi-melech. Go figure) and idolatry after his great triumph over the Philistines, but the point to be made in this writing is that when a nation is living in sin, it will find itself corrected by God.

Correction-by-nations was spoken of earlier in Deuteronomy 28 and also later again, in 1 Samuel.

2 Sam 7:14
14 “I will be his Father, and he shall be My son. If he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men and with the blows of the sons of men.
(NKJ)

You’d think Israel would learn by now. You’d think America would learn by now.

Our nation made a covenant with God when we were founded. God holds people to their promises, and holds nations to theirs. Here’s a verse out of Isaiah that discloses Assyria as a judgment tool for the purposes of God. At this time we won’t even get off on speculations about Assyria extending beyond Isaiah’s own days:

Isa 7:17-18
17 “The LORD will bring the king of Assyria upon you and your people and your father’s house– days that have not come since the day that Ephraim departed from Judah.”
18 And it shall come to pass in that day that the LORD will whistle for the fly that is in the farthest part of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria.
(NKJ)

One would hope that as nations begin treading wheat in winepresses, watching their own economies fail, taking their shoes off and x-ray-searching eighty year old grandmas at airports, that perhaps we might hasten some anointing-for-deliverance by looking into our own backyards and proactively tearing down our own idols, to clear the ground for a work of the Lord.

It’s convenient to even point to the sins of others, and recognize those offenses and causes for self-inflicted personal or even national trouble. But what about some potential Gideons getting their backyards cleared in advance of their angelic visitation, in preparation and hope of their deliverer callings. That would be you and me, my friend.

Posted in Everything, Prophets, Repentance, Sin, Suffering, Understanding & Knowing God | 1 Comment

Israel: God’s Ground Zero.

Posted on August 4, 2012 by ez3728

It’s perfectly fine to “pull scriptures down” into situations that are not precisely the complete fulfillment of their full purpose. Jesus quoted Isa 61 in the temple, and omitted “Day of Vengeance of the Lord”. It wasn’t time for the Day in Vengeance to be called forth, that day in the temple when Jesus stood up to read. And Jesus gets the timing thing.

Paul cited Isa 28 “with men of other tongues” to explain praying in strange tongues, although it is apparent that Isa 28 was first intended to prophesy the incoming invasion of the Babylonians. Both of course represent the invasion of foreign cultures and nations – in our case believers praying in tongues representing the invasion of the Kingdom of God into the earth.

Peter, in Acts 2 cries out the prophecy of Joel 2:29 – the outpouring of God, to describe the upper room event, even though the FULL-fillment of that Joel-prophecy was yet to completely occur – the moon did not turn to blood (Joel 2:31) on the day of Pentecost.

All that said, when the Spirit of the Lord is guiding someone, it is OK to pull down scriptures, in obedience to the Spirit. And that, of course, is guaranteed to offend the religious spirit – which is fine with God.

All THAT said, we also would do well to respect and embrace the actual and original context in which a word from the Lord was first revealed.

Which leads us to Ezekiel.

Here’s most of the children of Israel, in captivity because of their ongoing disobedience, and a bunch of guys (Ezekiel and some likely holy friends) hanging out near the River Chebar, and God decides that one guy in particular is going to receive some powerful revelation (Ezek 3:1 – the word came “expressly to Ezekiel”).

(Now remember Matt 5:17-18 – Jesus told us ALL has to be fulfilled – and goes on to clearly warn us against teaching anything other than that – it can reduce our reward, no matter what the intent of our error).

Note that this prophecy is not to PEOPLE, but rather to PHYSICAL EARTH.
Ezek 36:1-33
1 “And you, son of man, prophesy to the mountains of Israel, and say, ‘O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the LORD!
2 ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: “Because the enemy has said of you, ‘Aha! The ancient heights have become our possession,'”‘
3 “therefore prophesy, and say, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: “Because they made you desolate and swallowed you up on every side, so that you became the possession of the rest of the nations, and you are taken up by the lips of talkers and slandered by the people”–
4 ‘therefore, O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord GOD! Thus says the Lord GOD (VERY OBVIOUSLY WHO/WHAT HE IS TALKING TO IS NOW LISTED) to the mountains, the hills, the rivers, the valleys, the desolate wastes, and the cities that have been forsaken, which became plunder and mockery to the rest of the nations all around–
5 ‘therefore thus says the Lord GOD: “Surely I have spoken in My burning jealousy against the rest of the nations and against all Edom, who gave My land to themselves as a possession, with whole-hearted joy and spiteful minds, in order to plunder its open country.”‘
6 “Therefore prophesy concerning the land of Israel, and say to the mountains, the hills, the rivers, and the valleys, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: “Behold, I have spoken in My jealousy and My fury, because you have borne the shame of the nations.” (The LAND as well as the people had borne shame for the sins of the people).
7 ‘Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: “I have raised My hand in an oath that surely the nations that are around you shall bear their own shame. (Strong stuff, God taking an oath. To whom did He swear? Ans: To Himself and to the reader)
8 “But you, O mountains of Israel, you shall shoot forth your branches and yield your fruit to My people Israel, for they are about to come.
9 “For indeed I am for you, and I will turn to you, and you shall be tilled and sown.
10 “I will multiply men upon you, all the house of Israel, all of it; and the cities shall be inhabited and the ruins rebuilt. (ALL the house of Israel, and then duplicated again in confirmation. When God says ALL, He means ALL).
11 “I will multiply upon you man and beast; and they shall increase and bear young; I will make you inhabited as in former times, and do better for you than at your beginnings. Then you shall know that I am the LORD.
12 “Yes, I will cause men to walk on you (for the EARTH, men walking on it is a good thing. For PEOPLE, men walking on you meant destruction, in Scripture), My people Israel; they shall take possession of you, and you shall be their inheritance; no more shall you bereave them of their children.”
13 ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: “Because they say to you, ‘You devour men and bereave your nation of children,’
14 “therefore you shall devour men no more, nor bereave your nation anymore,” says the Lord GOD.
15 “Nor will I let you hear the taunts of the nations anymore, nor bear the reproach of the peoples anymore, nor shall you cause your nation to stumble anymore,” says the Lord GOD.'”
16 Moreover (MOREOVER – as if that was not enough) the word of the LORD came to me, saying:
17 “Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their own ways and deeds; to Me their way was like the uncleanness of a woman in her customary impurity. (God had taken note of every sin of Israel, prior to the captivity)
18 “Therefore I poured out My fury on them for the blood they had shed on the land, and for their idols with which they had defiled it. (This is the God who never changes)
19 “So I scattered them among the nations, and they were dispersed throughout the countries; I judged them according to their ways and their deeds.
20 “When they came to the nations, wherever they went, they profaned My holy name– when they said of them, ‘These are the people of the LORD, and yet they have gone out of His land.’
21 “But I had concern for My holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations wherever they went.
22 “Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: “I do not do this for your sake, O house of Israel (which is what the proud Jewish folks were/are inclined to think), but for My holy name’s sake, which you have profaned among the nations wherever you went.
23 “And I will sanctify My great name, which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst; and the nations shall know that I am the LORD,” says the Lord GOD, “when I am hallowed in you before their eyes.
24 “For I will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all countries, and bring you into your own land.
25 “Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols.

(This next verse is often quoted as being a promise for the recipients of NT salvation, AND THERE’s truth there, but let’s appreciate it in its context – this points to the end times, once Messiah returns, and the people of Israel gaze upon the One whom they have pierced, and accept Him for Who He is)
26 “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
27 “I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.
28 “Then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; you shall be My people, and I will be your God.
29 “I will deliver you from all your uncleannesses. I will call for the grain and multiply it, and bring no famine upon you.
30 “And I will multiply the fruit of your trees and the increase of your fields, so that you need never again bear the reproach of famine among the nations.
31 “Then you will remember your evil ways and your deeds that were not good; and you will loathe yourselves in your own sight, for your iniquities and your abominations.
(That is not Jewish guilt: “loathe yourselves”, it is a remembrance, with regret, of the foolishness and madness of sin. Point well made.)
32 “Not for your sake do I do this,” says the Lord GOD, “let it be known to you. Be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel!”
33 ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: “On the day that I cleanse you from all your iniquities, I will also enable you to dwell in the cities, and the ruins shall be rebuilt.
(NKJ)

DRY BONES – all of Chapter 37 – I suggest you read it all – This amazing sequence is often applied to dry and dead saints who are promised restoration by a sovereign work of God. Amen – but I have to see this as what it is – a promise to Israel. Of course if the Lord breathes on these verses for other purpose, run with it. Some notable points are below (beyond Ezekiel’s obedience to prophecy as commanded, and the magic of what he saw in this long-distant vision of mass resurrection)

Ezek 37:11-12
11 Then He said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They indeed say, ‘Our bones are dry, our hope is lost, and we ourselves are cut off!’
12 “Therefore prophesy and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: “Behold, O My people, I will open your graves and cause you to come up from your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel.
(NKJ)

We know the dead will rise when the Lord returns. These verses fit. And He is working a special work within the house of Israel. Not enough time to go deep into all that in one already-long blog, but more might be expressed later.

CHAPTER 38 – a good prophetic read. Certainly is HHY (Hasn’t Happened Yet, so it has yet to occur). Gog and Magog, Rosh, etc. can in part be traced to Gen 10:2. At best, educated folks speculate as to the precise nations involved here, but some nations are named by names that are still familiar to us. All this coordinates with Zech 14:2, where the Lord says He will gather ALL nations, so named or not named, the point is well made, with the named being specifically pointed to by God.)

Ezek 38:4-23
4 “I will turn you around, put hooks into your jaws (in like spiritual fashion to how the Babylonians physically, torturously brought many of the Jews into captivity, leading them through the Ishtar Gate, referred to as the Gate of Satan – which Hitler reconstructed in Berlin – you can google that www.google.com), and lead you out, with all your army, horses, and horsemen, all splendidly clothed, a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords.
5 “Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya are with them, all of them with shield and helmet;
6 “Gomer and all its troops; the house of Togarmah from the far north and all its troops– many people are with you.
7 “Prepare yourself and be ready, you and all your companies that are gathered about you; and be a guard for them.
8 “After many days you will be visited. In the latter years you will come into the land of those brought back from the sword and gathered from many people on the mountains of Israel, which had long been desolate; they were brought out of the nations, and now all of them dwell safely.
9 “You will ascend, coming like a storm, covering the land like a cloud, you and all your troops and many peoples with you.”
10 ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: “On that day it shall come to pass that thoughts will arise in your mind, and you will make an evil plan:
11 “You will say, ‘I will go up against a land of unwalled villages; I will go to a peaceful people, who dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates’–
12 “to take plunder and to take booty, to stretch out your hand against the waste places that are again inhabited, and against a people gathered from the nations, who have acquired livestock and goods, who dwell in the midst of the land.
13 “Sheba, Dedan, the merchants of Tarshish, and all their young lions will say to you, ‘Have you come to take plunder? Have you gathered your army to take booty, to carry away silver and gold, to take away livestock and goods, to take great plunder?'”‘
14 “Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say to Gog, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: “On that day when My people Israel dwell safely, will you not know it? (It will infuriate the demonized nations that Israel is in existence, simply trying to live out their lives, in their land).
15 “Then you will come from your place out of the far north, you and many peoples with you, all of them riding on horses, a great company and a mighty army.
16 “You will come up against My people Israel like a cloud, to cover the land. It will be in the latter days that I will bring you against My land, so that the nations may know Me, when I am hallowed in you, O Gog, before their eyes.”
17 ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: “Are you he of whom I have spoken in former days by My servants the prophets of Israel, who prophesied for years in those days that I would bring you against them?
18 “And it will come to pass at the same time, when Gog comes against the land of Israel,” says the Lord GOD, “that My fury will show in My face.
19 “For in My jealousy and in the fire of My wrath I have spoken: ‘Surely in that day there shall be a great earthquake in the land of Israel,
20 ‘so that the fish of the sea, the birds of the heavens, the beasts of the field, all creeping things that creep on the earth, and all men who are on the face of the earth shall shake at My presence. The mountains shall be thrown down, the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground.’
21 “I will call for a sword against Gog throughout all My mountains,” says the Lord GOD. “Every man’s sword will be against his brother.
22 “And I will bring him to judgment with pestilence and bloodshed; I will rain down on him, on his troops, and on the many peoples who are with him, flooding rain, great hailstones, fire, and brimstone.
23 “Thus I will magnify Myself and sanctify Myself, and I will be known in the eyes of many nations. Then they shall know that I am the LORD.”‘
(NKJ)

Lots is HHY (Hasn’t Happened Yet) – but surely will, confirms our Lord. This post is a cursory look, at best, but it ought to magnify both the charge and the blessing associated with Ps 122 – the saints praying for the peace of Jerusalem. It is KEY to all that has yet to occur, and Jerusalem is Ground Zero for God’s plans of redemption and glory. And His priorities need to be our priorities.

No wonder Zech 2 tells us that offending Israel is like poking our God in His eye.

God owns all the earth (Ps 24:1, and elsewhere) but there’s something special about the LAND of Israel (as well as the people, my people).

Lev 25:2
2 “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When you come into the land which I give you, then the land shall keep a sabbath to the LORD.
(NKJ)

Lev 25:21-23
21 ‘Then I will command My blessing on you in the sixth year, and it will bring forth produce enough for three years.
22 ‘And you shall sow in the eighth year, and eat old produce until the ninth year; until its produce comes in, you shall eat of the old harvest.
23 ‘The land shall not be sold permanently, for the land is Mine; for you are strangers and sojourners with Me.
(NKJ)

Mine Mine Mine, says the Lord. And all that He has promised will occur. We are invited to learn of His plans, press into them, pray into them, and rejoice that His end plan is a good one.

When we pray “Your will be done” it is wisdom to understand as much of His revealed will as possible, so that we can pray with knowledge and understanding, and anticipation, hastening the coming of the Lord.

Jesus (Matt 24:29), says that “IMMEDIATELY” after some wild events, He will appear. Immediately means not 2,000 years later. In the dictionary “immediately” means immediately. All the prophecies of tough stuff happening were not fulfilled in the first century. Some were partially filled, obviously.

My flesh sort of wishes all the tough stuff would have happened already – that Nero was the complete and final Mr. 666. But too much did NOT happen back between 33AD and 100AD for us to happily check everything off. Like Ezekiel, for instance. Or Zechariah.

The joy of the Lord is our strength, always. His yoke is easy and His burden is light, always. We move forward into the world loving the lost, repairing the breaches, bringing hope to the world, always. And we embrace the whole word of God, always.

Posted in Everything, Holy Speech, Holy Spirit, Israel, Movement of God, Prayer, Prophecy, Understanding & Knowing God | 1 Comment

Global WARNING, not Global Warming

Posted on August 3, 2012 by ez3728

The weather has always been an issue. Society originally being completely agrarian, weather could mean survival or ruin, in short season. Crops and animals (hey, our food prices), travel and warfare – have always all been dependent upon weather. Ask Napoleon or Hannibal or Hitler (3 ego-maniacs with huge armies), crossing the mountains of Europe in snowy winters does not work.

In the Garden, the weather was perfect. After the fall of man, and during the cataclysmic events of the Flood (memorialized in most every ancient culture), lots of things got shifted and changed. The earth cracked open and waters came UP out of the earth – as well as rain falling from the sky for the first time.

Gen 6:13
13 And God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
(NKJ)

Gen 6:17
17 “And behold, I Myself am bringing floodwaters on the earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life; everything that is on the earth shall die.
(NKJ)

Gen 7:10-12
10 And it came to pass after seven days that the waters of the flood were on the earth.
11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.
12 And the rain was on the earth forty days and forty nights.
(NKJ)

And we’ve had weather ever since – low pressure fronts trying to compensate for high pressure fronts, all that kind of stuff. A world off-axis, shaken the first time by God in judgment, still reeling from that event. Of course we know there’s a promise of a greater shaking event, but that is towards the end of time.

Hag 2:6-7
6 “For thus says the LORD of hosts: “Once more (it is a little while) I will shake heaven and earth, the sea and dry land;
7 ‘and I will shake all nations, and they shall come to the Desire of All Nations, and I will fill this temple with glory,’ says the LORD of hosts.
(NKJ)

So God, identified by His warrior title – Adonai T’sva-oat (King of the Universe and Commander of the Armies of heaven – sounds more robust than Lord Almighty or Lord of Hosts), tells us that those kind of geographical as well as physical shakings are under His control.

Back To Weather.

Amos 4:5-13
5 Offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven, proclaim and announce the freewill offerings; for this you love, you children of Israel!” Says the Lord GOD.
6 “Also I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities. And lack of bread in all your places; yet you have not returned to Me,” says the LORD.
7 “I also withheld rain from you, when there were still three months to the harvest. I made it rain on one city, I withheld rain from another city. One part was rained upon, and where it did not rain the part withered.
8 So two or three cities wandered to another city to drink water, but they were not satisfied; yet you have not returned to Me,” says the LORD.
9 “I blasted you with blight and mildew. When your gardens increased, your vineyards, your fig trees, and your olive trees, the locust devoured them; yet you have not returned to Me,” says the LORD.
10 “I sent among you a plague after the manner of Egypt; your young men I killed with a sword, along with your captive horses; I made the stench of your camps come up into your nostrils; yet you have not returned to Me,” says the LORD.
11 “I overthrew some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were like a firebrand plucked from the burning; yet you have not returned to Me,” says the LORD.
12 “Therefore thus will I do to you, O Israel; because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel!”
13 For behold, he who forms mountains, and creates the wind, who declares to man what his thought is, and makes the morning darkness, who treads the high places of the earth– the LORD God of hosts is His name.
(NKJ)

In Amos, God reveals His sovereign control and utilization of weather, and its resultant effect. He is in charge. Always has been. Always will be. And meanwhile mankind wants to come up with bumper-stickers philosophies like “S— Happens”.

My bible tells me that a little sparrow does not fall to the ground without the Father knowing it, so I can write off any happenings as just happening. And He owns the cattle on a thousand hills (Ps 50) And the hills.

So God uses weather to deal with man. He uses other things as well, anything He so chooses, and may deem necessary – because the priority is man returning to God, not things going smoothly (Matt 18:8).

God will even call forth one nation against another.

Isa 45:5-9
5 I am the LORD, and there is no other; there is no God besides Me. I will gird you, though you have not known Me,
6 That they may know from the rising of the sun to its setting that there is none besides Me. I am the LORD, and there is no other;
7 I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create calamity; I, the LORD, do all these things.’
8 “Rain down, you heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness; let the earth open, let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together. I, the LORD, have created it.
9 “Woe to him who strives with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth! Shall the clay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making?’ Or shall your handiwork say, ‘He has no hands’?
(NKJ)

And how has our weather been lately? Droughts, famines, weird stuff. Extreme heat. Fish dying for lack of oxygen, in heated waters. And these reports are increasing in both frequency and intensity. We don’t even bring up the earthquake in Japan any more. Google and see how it’s going for those poor folks. They are still living it.

This is not about global WARMING. This is about Global WARNING.

God, not willing that any perish but that all will come to repentance, is dealing with mankind. Will we respond? Will the believers please respond first, and get some 2 Chron 7:14 activity onto their Priority List?

2 Chr 7:14
14 “if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
(NKJ)

Getting that into our lifestyles is more than one sober message delivered in clarity and humility, responded to by one on-our-faces altar call (or pray while remaing comfortably in your chairs, beloved brethren, if it is asking too much of you to get up and actually present your body before God).

God is doing something, and when He acts, we are responsible to respond.

Paul, in Colossians 1:28, said he warned (admonished) every man. Saved and unsaved.

Posted in Creation, End Times Related, Everything, Understanding & Knowing God | Leave a comment

Pages v Posts

Posted on August 3, 2012 by ez3728

I am beginning to understand the difference between Pages and Post. Silly me, I’ve been posting new PAGES behind the first one. Meanwhile, someone visiting this site, would have been thinking nothing fresh had been added since its first day. My bad.

I can see from My Stats that lots of folks have visited and read the more up-front pages, and some of the back pages were visited less frequently, perhaps because folks never realized their existence, figuring the site was unchanged from their prior visits – the July Most Recent Post day remained unchanged.

There’s been lots of fresh new POSTS (look at the title list in the top graphic) and you can click on ‘Zechariah’ or any other title and read new writings that were added after the original.

I am getting this weblog thing.

I know the Lord is happy with my progress, and keeps reminding me of things to express, so I am fine.

And new POSTS will be added from now on, so when you visit, you will more easily encounter latest writings.

Blessings.

Posted in Everything | Leave a comment

Ps 107 – Whoever is wise will observe these things….

Backyard Idols

Israel: God’s Ground Zero.

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