Feeling guilty? WHY???

Hello fellow Americans.  God is good all the time, all the time God is good.  TOO BLESSED TO COMPLAIN!!

   Do you ever feel guilty when you don't-----

1. read your Bible daily
2. pray on a regular basis
3. don't do your Bible study
4. have sinful thoughts (lust, envy, jealousy, etc)
5. don't share the Good News with others
6. don't speak up when someone talks negative about God

If you are feeling this way-- STOP IT!!!  What does the Bible say?

  Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me.   

Isaiah 41:10 Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

  I Corinthians 10:13 No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

  Exodus 15:2 The Lord is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise him, my father's God, and I will exalt him.

Deuteronomy 20:4 For the Lord your God is he who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to give you the victory.

Ephesians 6:10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.

Thank you for reading with me today.  Keep your chin up, do not be discouraged or depressed. God is in control. Love you all.

In Christ's Love and Grace

Johnny

King David & King Saul

Good morning all.  God is good all the time, all the time God is good.  TOO BLESSED TO COMPLAIN!!!

  Was David any different than Saul?  Well,  Saul and David were both chosen by God to be kings.  Okay, that is good news, right?  Well, yes, but they both have stories to follow along with them.

   Saul listened to Samuel, did what God said he was to do, BUT, Saul went ahead of God and then had rationalizations for his actions, aka - excuses.  Saul did it his way all the time saying he did listen to Yahweh.  An example of this is when Samuel is told to take the Amalekites by thoroughly defeating them, yet he stopped short (1 Samuel 15:15).  Then he makes an excuse that the people spared the best sheep and oxen to make a sacrifice to Yahweh.  Ohhh, can you say LIE!  Or, maybe rationalize in Saul's case.   Then if you continue on in 1 Samuel 15 Saul shifts the blame, v. 15 And Saul said, They have brought them from the Amalekites: for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen, to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed.

  Now it is the peoples fault for not completely destroying the Amalekites.  Trying to slide out of it-- just like todays world - IT IS NOT MY FAULT!!

  Now David.  He was  quite the opposite of Saul. Saul was a man of great stature where as David was not of great height or muscle.  Here we must remember God sees us on the inside, not the outside physical version of us.  God showed Samuel that the next king would come from the tribe of Judah and family of Jesse.  Samuel looks at Jesse's seven sons, who happen to be tall and handsome, but he does not find the future king.  Samuel speaks to Jesse, who then retrieves David, a runt of the litter.  1 Samuel 16: 12 And he sent, and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, and withal of a beautiful countenance, and goodly to look to. And the Lord said, Arise, anoint him: for this is he.

  God picked David from the lineage of Jesse to be the next king. What happens next is very interesting.  There is no fanfare, no celebration, no horns, lights, music or any great ceremony.  David is anointed quietly and simply in Jesse's house.  The spirit of God comes upon David and leaves Saul.  1 Samuel 16: 13 Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brethren: and the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward. So Samuel rose up, and went to Ramah.  

14 But the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him.

  So, how are they different?  AND, how are they alike? More to come later.  Just for now, know that Jesus has the most written about HIM in the Bible, and next is David.

  It is fun to know more than the Sunday School versions of men in the Bible and see what is really going on. Thanks for reading. Love you all.

In Christ's Love and Grace

 Johnny

Saul? Who is Saul? King of Israel?

Good morning all. God is good all the time, all the time God is good. TOO BLESSED TO COMPLAIN!!!!!
  A you read I want you to think of what Saul does.  He is like the kid who does wrong, tries to justify it, blame shifts, and when really caught says "I'm sorry", as if this makes it all better.
   

  So, why Saul?  Often we know OF the stories in the Bible, but DO NOT KNOW the stories in the Bible.  Let me make sense of this. It is just like our salvation - many many people (even Muslims & JW's) know OF JESUS, BUT, they DO NOT KNOW JESUS as their saviour.  This is what I am referring to about Saul.

  Samuel, the prophet, (whose boys strayed) was aware that the people of Israel were not following God as they should.  Again, when coming out of the wilderness the Israelites complained to the point Moses appointed judges to handle the situations that would arise.  This was not God's plan, but the sin from the people caused it to be.

  For over 200 years judges made decisions for the Israelites and "they had no leadership" because they took God out of their equation.  Now, highly influenced by the peoples around them they felt they should have a "king" like everyone else. Yes, forgetting that their one true KING is YAHWEH!  At first this distressed Samuel, but in a conversation with God, he was told that the people were rejecting Him, God, Yahweh-- not Samuel. 

  In 1 Samuel 8:4-5 the elders came to Samuel and said, "You are old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations."

WHAT??  Yes, we are of this world, but we are not to walk of this world.  Why have they forgotten Yahweh? 1 Samuel 8:7-9 is where God tells Samuel the people have rejected Him, God, Yahweh.

  Let's go on to Samuel's warning. 1 Samuel 8:11-22 Samuel warns the people of what will happen when he appoints a king over them. Please take time to read this and you will get an idea of what type of king is coming.

  So often we study that Saul was a good king, a king chosen by God.  If chosen by God he obviously had to be good, right?  Not at all.  Check back with the warnings that Samuel gave in his verses.

   Saul was not a good king or even a good man.  He was filled with lots of pride and stubbornness.  If you will read on in Samuel you will find times you are "yea" for Saul and other times you are "what was he thinking".  Yes, as you read Saul you may make connections between you and Saul.  Feel sorry for him at times and criticize him at times.  He made good decisions and poor decisions - just like you and I do.  Hmmm!  Maybe he was not that different than us today, except he was king.

   If you read in 1 Samuel chapters 13-15 you will view various situations he was in; some small, some big, and we can see his mistakes.  This also can be seen as a warning to you and me.  Saul was filled with self-deception and self-exaltation.  He thinks he knows better than anyone else, even God. The sadness in this is that Saul does not see his faults, NO, not one fault does he see as he knows best.  Arrogance abounds!!!

  Let us stop here as your eyes may be tired, OR, you have already deleted this study. LOL.  If you came this far, thank you for reading with me today. Love you all.

In Christ's Love and Grace

Johnny

The First Book of Samuel

 Good morning all.  God is good all the time, all the time God is good. TOO BLESSED TO COMPLAIN!!!!

  It is quite interesting to me as how the Israelites followed, and supposedly loved the LORD, then would turn away.  It does not happen all at once it is a process.  We can see this in America, the fore-fathers striking out for independence and FREEDOM OF RELIGION (not freedom from religion as many believe today). the constitution founded on the principles of God, and now we are turning away from where we began.

   So, Moses led the people out of Egypt, made Joshua leader, Moses died and the Israelites went into the promised land.  However, along the way there were conflicts and strife so judges were set in place.  The last GOOD JUDGE was Samuel, but his sons were not as upright as he.  You can read about the corruption of the people and Samuel's sons in Judges and the beginning of 1 Samuel. (Israel asks for a king 1 Samuel 8)

  Then, after many decades of poor leadership and with political and social complaints the people of Israel wanted a 'king'.  Now, God was who they believed in, but, it seems, only at their convenience.  Yahweh is the king but they turned away from Him often. Sooooo, Samuel, who is a good judge (however his sons are astray and corrupt), consults the LORD about a king.   You can read about this in First Samuel 8.  God tells Samuel that the people are not rejected Samuel, but rejecting GOD, YAHWEH!

  Now, that will lead us into Saul becoming king.  We will go forth with this tomorrow.  A lot of today's study is to jog our memories and look back at the USA and how we parallel with Israel.  Founded on the principles of God; make rules and changes to satisfy the social, conform to the "squeaky wheel" that is making a lot of noise and fall away from God's word.  Take a moment to read Judges chapters 17 to 21 about the confusion and civil unrest among the Israelites.

  Who is Saul?  Is he a good king?  What happens when jealously and envy take over ones thoughts?  As we venture through Saul we will find out.  Thank you for reading with me today. Love you all.

In Christ's Love and Grace

Johnny

Who is Nabal? Abigail?

Good morning all.  God is good all the time, all the time God is good.  TOO BLESSED TO BE STRESSED!!!

  As we study the Bible things come to us that we may or may not have read; possibly heard but just passed us by.  This morning as I opened my Bible the pages before me were 1 Samuel chapter 25.  I glanced at it, then caught sight of a phrase that stimulated my curiosity: Abigail becomes David's wife.  Huh?? I don't remember this.

   So, going back and searching remember that David's first wife was Mikal, Saul's daughter given to him for killing Goliath.  It appears that next was Abigail, who was Nabal's wife.

  Okay, what happen here?  Adultery before Bathsheba? No.  Nabal, whose name means "fool" in Hebrew, was a Carmelite, very wealthy, a harsh and surly man, and a "man of Beliel".  Okay, a foolish man of Beliel.  What is Beliel?

  Beliel -- found 26 times in the Old Testament -- relates to wickedness or worthless.  In 2 Corinthians 66:15 Beliel is used for satan.  Beliel is used for satan, evil, the antiChrist.

   So now we have a man, Nabal, who is evil, harsh, surly and worthless.  David sent messengers to visit with Nabal. He rejected the messengers and insulted David.  At this point David took up arms to go forth against Nabal.

   Well, in the mean time some servants told Abigail, Nabal's wife, that these messengers were nice and did not harm but Nabal insulted them.  Abigail, whose name means 'her father's joy' or 'fountain of joy', loaded the donkeys with food and drink and went before David.  She was pleading mercy on behalf of her foolish husband Nabal.

   Then, 1 Samuel 25:36-38 Abigail came to Nabal, held a feast in his house. Nabal feasted, drank and was drunk but Abigail told him nothing of what she did in going to meet with David.  The next morning she told Nabal, and the Bible says: "that his heart died within him, and he became as a stone".

  Verse 38 "And it came to pass about ten days after, that the LORD smote Nabal, that he died".

   When David heard this he knew that the LORD returned Nabals wickedness back upon him.  This is when David sent and communed with Abigail to take her to him to wife. 

   Very interesting story that we often breeze right pass and think not about it.

Here is 1 Samuel 25 for you to read.  If you would like to listen to 1 Samuel 25 then click here. 

  Thank you for reading with me today. If you listen it is very interesting. Love you all. 
In Christ's Love and Grace

Johnny