“Our Daily Bread” http://odb.org/
The Daily Devotions of Greg Laurie
http://www.harvest.org/devotional/daily-devotions/home.ht
“Homily Grits Devotional” http://www.homilygrits.com/
Psalm 7:8… The Lord shall judge the peoples; Judge me, O Lord, according to myrighteousness, And according to myintegrity within me. (NKJV)
The opening scripture was written by David, who wrote 75 of the 150 Psalms… I really enjoy reading the Book of Psalms, and especially what David has written…because we can not only see a man who loved the Lord…we can be encouraged by God’s great love and mercy for His children, no matter how bad they have sinned… Read about David’s sin of adultery with Bathsheba, and essentially the murder of Uriah (Bathsheba’s husband)…to cover up David’s horrible sin, in…2 Samuel 11…
David was a man after God’s own heart, because God knew David was going to eventually do God’s will…Acts 13:22… And when He had removed him, Heraisedup for them David as king, to whom also He gave testimony and said, ‘I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart, who will do all My will.’ (NKJV)
I understand David asking the Lord to judge him according to his “integrity”; but I find it interesting that David wanted the Lord to judge him according to his “righteousness”… Granted we have the advantage of 20/20 hindsight, with the entire Bible to learn from… But we see very clearly in the Book of Isaiah, that our righteousness is worthless… Isaiah was written after David wrote this scripture in Psalms… Here is a link with what is believed to be the chronological order of the 66 Books of the Bible… You might not have known that the order listed in the Bible, is not the order that these Books were written… http://ichthys.com/mail-Bible-books-ChronologyII.htm
Isaiah 64:6… But we are all like an uncleanthing,And all our righteousnesses are likefilthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away. (NKJV)
All of us are born with a natural sin nature, ever since Adam sinned…Romans 5:12… You can see from Isaiah’s scripture, that our own personal righteousness will never be good enough for us to earn our own way into heaven… When someone tells me they are going to heaven because they are basically a good person…I do my best to lovingly try to explain the gospel, with what the Bible clearly tells us about this false, works based salvation…
Good works that we do in the name of the Lord, will never forgive our sins…Matthew 7:21-23… The Apostle Paul pens this, in…Romans 3:23… for all have sinned and fallshort of the glory of God, (NKJV) I want to get back to what I originally started to write about… But I would direct anyone who wants to find out what God and the Bible reveals to us, in order to be deemed righteous in God’s sight, and heaven bound…to go to www.Godsmanforever.wordpress.com and type 7/11/2013, and then 7/12/2013 into the search window… If nothing else, just listen to the 7/09/2013 – 20 minute audio sermon by Dr. Charles Stanley, where the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is presented…
All Christians should pray to the Lord on a regular basis, asking Him to reveal sins they might not otherwise be aware of… Do all of do this ?? Only if we as Christians are really doing our best to live in the will of God, like David was most of the time… We see other scripture penned by David, where he asked God to search his heart, in…
Psalm 139:23-24… Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties; 24 And see if there is anywickedway in me, And leadme in the wayeverlasting. (NKJV)
The Bible teaches us that anyone enjoying living in sin, will love the darkness…so they would prefer not to have their sins exposed by the light of Christ…
John 3:19-21… And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone practicing evilhates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. 21 But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.” (NKJV)
We as Christians must decide to live our lives for the Lord, always doing our best to live in the will of God… Or we can hang onto the sins that give us personal pleasure, and risk the chastising and possible scourging that God promises all of His children, who are living in continuous, unconfessed sin… Read…Hebrews 12:6-11…at the following link… http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=heb12:6-11&version=NKJV;KJV
I spent 2 days writing about how the Christian can make it past the up-hill struggle with their flesh and Satan competing with the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:16-18)…to reach the summit in their personal spiritual walk with the Lord… It is only at this point of spiritual maturity, when the obedient Christian is “Walking in the Spirit” on a more or less continuous basis…where God’s richest blessings will be showered upon His obedient children… You can read about my personal struggle to reach this stage, by going to the wordpress.com link above, and typing in 7/15/2013, and then 7/16/2013 into the search window…
I can only tell you from my personal experience…that “Walking in the Spirit” by allowing the Holy Spirit to guide your every step…has to be experienced to be believed… Christians must confess, repent, and turn from their sins (1 John 1:9), to again be deemed righteous in God’s eyes… This fullness of Christ is the way God wants all of His children to live… The Apostle Paul pens this, for those filled with “all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:16-20)…
Ephesians 3:20… 20 Now to Him who is able to do exceedinglyabundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, (NKJV)
God is capable of opening locked doors for His children…of propelling us beyond our wildest dreams…of helping us overcome challenges we would never attempt in our own strength… But these supernatural achievements are obtained for us by the Holy Spirit, for those who choose to allow His power to “work in us”…
The Apostle Paul penned this truth, when he wrote this, in…Philippians 4:13… I can do all things through Christwho strengthensme. (NKJV)
Heavenly Father, I pray that Your Word would ignite a fire with-in all of Your children…which will burn away all the chaff from the wheat…Matthew 3:12… I pray for this fullness of Christ, and the many blessing beyond belief it will bring, to all of Your obedient children, in Jesus’ most precious name and for His sake…Amen…
Blessings in Christ, bruce
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