March 13, 2012 … The Red Flag of Blessing

Passage of the Day: Reference of Today’s Chronological Bible Study: Deuteronomy, Chapters 8-10 … To study these chapters, go to this link -

Deuteronomy 8: 10-14: … [Beware the Good Times!] … 10 When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you. 11 Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. 12 Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, 13 and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, 14 then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

My Journal for Today: As I was reading through my directed chronological read in God’s word this morning [Chapters 8-10 of Deuteronomy], there were a number of lessons about which I could blog. However, the issue of being aware of blessing struck me as the one on which I should journal because it’s a matter which hangs me up frequently; and that is why I’m calling this entry “The Red Flag of Blessing.”

In all of Deuteronomy 8 (upon which you can study/meditate by the link above), Moses is trying to get God’s people to remember that God takes His children through the tough times to prepare them for the good times. And Moses clearly reminds his people that as God took them through all those years in the wilderness, the Lord provided everything they needed … even though the times seemed so hard. But one warning God lays out through Moses can be found in the highlight passage I’ve copied above from Deut. 8: 10-14; and that has to do with watching out for what is produced when we are led through life when “the good times roll.”

In our culture, and especially our Christian culture, we have a tendency to think of “blessings” as all the warm and fuzzies and goodies which come during those “good times” in life. It’s when we feel “blessed” by abundance, good health, and well being. But when we’re in times of privation, problems, or pain, it’s very hard to feel and acknowledge that we’re being BLESSED by those hard times.

So, as Christians do we really take to heart what Moses writes about for God’s people in Deuteronomy 8; and in our internalization of these truths, as well as passages in God’s New Testament, for example Romans 8: 28, do we see the tough times as times of “blessing?”

AND … when we’re being blessed by the warm and fuzzy times, when God is allowing us to see “the good times roll,” are we duly grateful, openly expressing our thanks to God for all of what is easy to see as “blessings?” … No, … I think Moses nails it in the section of Scripture which I’ve emboldened and underlined above in Deut. 8: 12-14. When the good times roll, with our deceitful hearts (see Jer. 17: 9), we have a tendency to default to becoming prideful; and we generally think we – our SELVES – have created the good times rather than acknowledging Jehovah Jireh, our Lord and Provider.

Hence, I call attention to the “RED FLAG OF BLESSING;” and I hope we can take heed from the teachings of Deuteronomy 8, … that the tough times teach us humility and the good times call for that humility to recognize – with gratitude – from Whom all “blessings” flow – good times and bad.

And in that regard may I link you to a wonderful song, written and performed by Laura Story, whose personal witness is found in the lyrics. Here’s the link: … and then I want you to hear Laura’s story at this link. And when you hear Laura Story’s song and witness about “blessings,” you will see that she has experienced the “blessings” of the tough times as well as the gratitude for seeing God’s “blessings” in the good times.

I pray that we all can see the truth and believe Paul’s words in Romans 8: 28 and live in all the “blessings” of this life – the tough times and the good times as the Prophet Moses wrote about for us in Deuteronomy 8.

My Prayer Today: … Thank you for all your “blessings,” Lord … the good times and the tough times. Amen

March 2, 2012 … Sin Always Has Consequences

Passage of the Day: Reference of Today’s Chronological Bible Study: Numbers, Chapters 18-20 … To study these chapters, go to this link -

Numbers 20: 5-12: … [A Serious Oops!!!] … 6 Moses and Aaron went from the assembly to the entrance to the tent of meeting and fell facedown, and the glory of the LORD appeared to them. 7 The LORD said to Moses, 8 “Take the staff, and you and your brother Aaron gather the assembly together. Speak to that rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water. You will bring water out of the rock for the community so they and their livestock can drink.”
9 So Moses took the staff from the LORD’s presence, just as he commanded him. 10 He and Aaron gathered the assembly together in front of the rock and Moses said to them, “Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?” 11 Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff. Water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank.
12 But the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them.”

My Journal for Today: Well, there are a number of good application points I could blog about from today’s chronological read through Numbers, Chapter 18-20. Certainly a discussion about tithing or spiritual giving and its role in supporting God’s Priesthood (see Numbers 18) would be a worthy discussion, especially since God’s people today, i.e., the Church, don’t take tithing nearly as seriously as we should.

However, it was Moses’ brief – but very significant – backslide into sinfulness, described in the highlight passage copied above, which God seemed to draw me to blogging attention this morning.

Wow! Sometimes I just have a bit of trouble understanding God’s justice. But that shouldn’t be surprising to me, should it? God is God; and I – most certainly – am not. And why would I think that I could – or should – be able to judge or understand much of what God decides to do. I know; … that’s God’s lesson from Isaiah 55: 8-9 (and if you don’t know that one, please study it with this link!). But there is one lesson from Moses’ pridefulness and sin, exhibited in the passage above which doesn’t escape me; and that is that SIN ALWAYS HAS CONSEQUENCES. And unfortunately for Moses, the consequences of his disobedience and prideful rock and water incident there in Kadesh, where the people were poised and ready to go over into the promised land, was that Moses would never get the opportunity to step into that land he had long led the people toward. All that obedience Moses exhibited, for nearly 40 years, wiped out with two pride-filled taps on a rock to give the grumbling Israelites some much needed water. Can’t you just imagine Moses, saying “Oops, Lord, my bad! Please forgive me.” And, of course God did forgive him; but the consequences of that momentary backslide had very serious outcomes.

So, … what do we learn from this truth-bearing scenario? Well, I’m strongly reminded of something I had to learn by a much longer, stronger, and very chronic bout of prideful sinfulness in my life. It was not until I was 40 years old (and the symbolic significance of that length of time does not escape me) that I set aside my chronic double life of sexual sin and was delivered – by my faith – into the loving arms of our Savior, as He became my Lord in 1983. And I believed then, as I know now, that I was (and now am) saved eternally from my past, present, and future sin. However, the consequences all those years, as I walked in prideful and hurtful sinful living, just didn’t go away in that moment of conversion. No, I came to realize that ALL sin has consequences which God uses to shape us into His own image; and sometimes, like with Moses, those consequences can be painful in this life.

So, as I sit here and meditate on the passage I’m focusing on here, … I GET IT! Sin is serious business [!] … because it is an affront to God’s holiness and His love and His grace; and we dishonor the One Who shed His blood to save us from our sin when/if we choose to sin or even when we casually participate in sinful acts. So, when we sin [and, of course, we will], we cannot expect for God to just dismiss our sin whimsically with a brush of His mercy. We need to learn from the lesson of Moses taking God’s power too casually and realize that God pays attention to our heart when we sin. Oh yes, … He will love us in an eternally forgiving manner; but He also loves us enough not to let our sin go by casually without consequences.

My Prayer Today: … Yes, Lord, I do get it; and may I always keep short accounts and come to You for your forgiving grace when I sin; … never taking my sin nature for granted and always remembering what You did in sacrifice to save me from myself. Amen

2010 – November 7 – Money In An Hourglass

Study from God’s Word… Luke, Chapters 13 – 18 and Matthew 20: 1-16 … Passage for Reflection: Luke 16: 13 … NIV “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

My Journal for Today: If you take the time to read/study the chapters in Luke and from Matthew 20 from today’s study of the New Testament, you have to come to the inescapable conclusion that our time here on earth is limited; as well as the message that, during the time we have, we somehow must understand, receive, and apply the truths being taught by Jesus in these passages, which were directed primarily to the Pharisees, who where were lost in themselves. There is story after story in these passages, Jesus’ parables, which espoused God’s kingdom values; and the Pharisees just could not – or rather chose not to – humble themselves to the place of being able to believe what Jesus was telling them and warning them.

Jesus didn’t hate the Pharisees. He loved them … enough to give them the stark truth; but they simply could not – or would not – set their pride aside and receive God’s truth in humility. Jesus, and later His Disciples and Apostles, told the people, especially the religious leaders, to humble themselves; and His message was that the first will be last and the last will be first. And we heard the Lord espouse the truth that man can’t worship and serve God and money.

My friends, do we get it? Or are we, like the Pharisees, mired in pride and selfishness, … unwilling to hear or receive the repeated cries from Jesus in the New Testament for us to get our act together before it’s too late. There will be a day when it truly is too late. And those of us who know the truth and have received it in humility must be in prayer, doggedly and persistently, for those we know who have rejected God’s message of repentance and grace. We must do all we can to share the Gospel truth Jesus was communicating to the lost in His day so that the lost in our day can hear the truth of hope and salvation.

Oh, how I pray that all who read here have received this wonderful news with a humble and contrite heart; and I pray that all of us who have are sharing this news with all we can in our world and in our day.

My Prayer for Today: Lord, help us to spread the truth of the Gospel in our time. Amen

2010 – August 26 – The Devil, You Say!

Study from God’s Word… Ezekiel, Chapters 26 – 28 … Passage for Reflection: Ezekiel 28: 17 … NIV Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor. So I threw you to the earth; I made a spectacle of you before kings.

My Journal for Today: What are your thoughts about Satan? Unfortunately I think some people either think of him as a silly, but sappy, cartoon figure depicting the evil side of mankind. It’s the result of how man thinks of the opposite of “god” or maybe “good,” which is no more real to them as satan [with a small “s”]. And then there are those who ascribe too much power to The Devil, declaring “the Devil made me do it” to every mistake or improper decision that such a person might make.

Yes, Satan is very powerful; and he is much more powerful than I am (or you are). But he is a created being, an angel who fell from God’s grace; and now, though he has a free-will like man, he and his angelic followers, pridefully think of themselves as gods or adversaries of God Almighty, Yahweh. And there are two passages in scriptures, one of them found in my Scripture studies for today, Ezekiel 28, and the other in Isaiah 14, which are, according to scholars. who are much more well versed in Scripture than I, human depictions of God’s created adversary, the Devil.

And it is fascinating for any Scripture student, like me, to wonder why the Almighty Yahweh, who created His angels, would allow a lesser being, like Satan, to stick around after he fell from heaven to take up residence on earth as the prince of darkness, masquerading as an angel of light. But it’s clear that Satan, the Devil, and his demon minions, are part of God’s plan. But they create an atmosphere – i.e., Satan’s system, the world – which is to some degree – hell on earth.

But the one characteristic of our enemy, the Devil, which is emphasized in Ezekiel 28 and Isaiah 14, is pridefulness. And if there is an “original sin,” pride is it. Pride – or the desire to become a god by controlling our own destiny – is that character trait which is most Satan like. And thereby the opposite of pride, humility, is likely the character trait which is most like Christ; and I believe that God has allowed Satan to continue to exist on earth while HE, the Lord, pursues His beloved human race so that we, the pursued who must come to faith in God, can see what anti-God characteristics are like. We cannot see Whom God is without having an arch-type who depicts all that God is not; and that is Satan in all his malevolent being.

So, as I move forward in my life, I must have faith that God is God; and He is in control of even a very powerful adversary like the Devil. Yes, Satan is much, much more powerful that I; but I have the power of the Living God, in His Spirit, dwelling in me so that I can be victorious over Satan and his world – and yes, even over my own deceitful, prideful heart. The truth of 1st John 4: 4 bubbles up from my consciousness as I write this, declaring, You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them [your spiritual enemies], because the One who is in you [God's Spirit] is greater than the one [Satan] who is in the world. And I will go with that thought today as I do battles with God’s enemy, The Devil, who will always be my enemy … every day of my life.

My Prayer for Today: Lord, You, and You alone give me the power to be victorious over you arch enemy, the Devil. Amen

2010 – June 23 – Dressed for Disaster

Study from God’s Word… Isaiah 1: 1 – 9; Is 5: 1 – 7; Is 1: 10 – 17; Is 1 : 21 – 26; Is 2: 6 – 9; Is 2: 10 – 18; Is 3: 8 – 15; Is 3: 16 – 4: 1; Is 32: 9 – 11; Is 5: 8 – 23 … Passage for Reflection: Isaiah 3: 18 – 23 … NIV 18 In that day the Lord will snatch away their finery: the bangles and headbands and crescent necklaces, 19 the earrings and bracelets and veils, 20 the headdresses and ankle chains and sashes, the perfume bottles and charms, 21 the signet rings and nose rings, 22 the fine robes and the capes and cloaks, the purses 23 and mirrors, and the linen garments and tiaras and shawls.

My Journal for Today: As my devotional shepherd, Dr. LaGard Smith, points out, … Isaiah was for Judah what the Prophets Joel, Hosea, and Amos were for the northern tribes of Israel when God’s promised land became split and embroiled in political intrigue and in-fighting in those days centuries before Christ. His prophesies to Judah were unrelenting and must have been tough to hear for the people and even more so for the leaders of that southern kingdom. Isaiah railed against the sins of Judah; and his prophesies focused on the coming judgments of God, … and also upon the exciting advent of a Messiah and the salvation for God’s people.

There were many instances and examples of idolatry and sinful excess to which Isaiah addressed to God’s people, speaking for God; but one of these had to do with the prideful excesses of the women of Judah, where these women strutted their pride in fine garments, jewelry, luscious perfumes, and other physical adornments which spoke of the pride and arrogance of God’s chosen children who had abandoned His ways. And today’s highlight passage speaks of this and how God, in His day of judgment, would snatch such prideful finery away from His children.

Today, in a post-modern idolatrous world, we hear such catch-phrases as “dress for success” and “clothes make the man;” and these exhortations speak of trying to adorn our outer selves to be seen as high and mighty in our world, where climbing to the top of the heap is so important. But as we read this, Christians should know that Isaiah then, and God’s believers now, are not so concerned about the external finery being worn as discerning believers should be concerned for the hearts of those who were using adornments to pridefully call attention to the external person rather than to honor God by what we wear on the outside.

The question becomes – in Isaiah’s eyes as well as the discerning Christian today – “What happens when all the externals are stripped away?” What is left? Will the person who stands naked before God, stripped of externals, be a person God will see as true to the core; or will the Lord only see that all the finery was a sham to hide the true self, which is morally and personally bankrupt of Godly values?

Yes, today’s passage seems to focus on the tendency of women toward physical adornments; but men can be just a prideful, trying to hide the real self with marks of worldly success, and trying equally to impress others to gain personal favor or the position of power. Who among us is not guilty of dressing on Sunday to impress God’s people when we go to church rather than to honor God with our dress and adornments? Are we dressing for success in Satan’s world or are we dressing to represent our Lord to a world gone mad with arrogance and power mongering?

Oh, how these studies, holding up God’s truth as a mirror, challenge my mentality to realize why I do what I do and even dress the way I do … so as to put on a mask or to shine God’s light into the world. Which is it? Prayerfully, it is the latter, … that I would dress to show off God’s robes of righteousness; but my vigilance must be constant to avoid the former, where I dress to show off myself.

My Prayer for Today: Lord, keep me tuned into to wearing what I wear to honor and glorify You … and not to adorn or raise up yours truly. Truly Yours! Amen

2010 – May 15 – Not a Wise Move

Study from God’s Word… 1st Kings 7: 1 – 12; 1st Kings 9: 1-9 [2nd Chron. 7: 11-22]; 1st Kings 9: 10-14; 2nd Chron. 8: 1-3; 1st Kings 9: 17-19 [2nd Chron. 8: 4-6]; 1st Kings 9: 20-23, 15 [2nd Chron. 8: 7-10]; 1st Kings 9: 24 [2nd Chron. 8: 11]; 1st Kings 9: 26-28 and 10: 22 [2nd Chron. 8: 17, 18 and 9: 21]; 1st Kings 4: 29-34; 1st Kings 10: 14-21, 27, 23-25 [2nd Chron. 1: 15, 9: 13-20, 27, 22-24]; 1st Kings 4: 26, 10: 26, 28-29 [2nd Chron. 1: 14, 16-17; 9: 25, 28]; 1st Kings 4: 21, 24 [2nd Chron. 9: 26]; 1st Kings 4: 20, 25; 1st Kings 4: 1-19; 1st Kings 4: 22, 23-28; 1st Kings 10: 1-13 [2nd Chron. 9: 1-12]; Psalm 72: 1-19 … Passage for Reflection: 2nd Chronicles 8: 11 … NIV 11 Solomon brought Pharaoh's daughter up from the City of David to the palace he had built for her, for he said, "My wife must not live in the palace of David king of Israel, because the places the ark of the LORD has entered are holy."

My Journal for Today: As you can see above from the record of what I’ve read from the Old Testament today in The Daily Bible in Chronological Order, the record of Solomon’s accomplishments and his accumulation of wealth, worldly influence, and power were impressive, to say the least. And I’m so grateful for F. LaGard Smith’s editing of all of this from 1st Kings and 2nd Chronicles, where it is all written for us to study in parallel reference. I would have never been able to see all of this in such concise space and time to appreciate all that Solomon did in his 20 year reign while the Temple and his palace were being built.

But as I read all of this during my devotional time this morning, especially being alerted by Dr. Smith’s highlight passage and his devotional entry for this date, I was stricken by the strange point/counterpoint of Solomon’s God-given wisdom and his human foolishness. And we see that coming into focus as he makes a worldly and politically “wise” move in marrying an Egyptian princess to solidify his security position with Egypt in those days. However, then he must, against God’s commands, bring this pagan wife into his palace. So, he builds her a separate quarter in the palace so that she will not pollute the holiness of the Arc of the Covenant. Go figure! Such a wise man being so foolish to think that he could bypass God’s will and The Lord’s commands. And this goes on, as I read in 1st Kings 4 and 10 of Solomon’s accumulation of horses and wealth and women, I couldn’t help but reflect on this man’s almost pathological denial of what he must’ve known were God’s commands for any man who became King of Israel. Solomon was mega-wise; and if so, as he accumulated all those horses, women, and wealth, he had to have been convicted by God’s rules for His Kings laid out in Deuteronomy 17.

So, did Solomon, this super-wise man, think that he was pulling the wool over God’s eyes? But knowing how foolish and prideful I can be – and have been – in my life, I empathize with Solomon’s degree of arrogant stupidity, pridefully wrapped up in a package of worldly wisdom, which God had imparted to this man who inherited the kingship from his father, David. Certainly like father, like son; because David knew of God’s commands; but his kingly arrogance was a model of foolhardy judgment in his interaction with the woman who was Solomon’s mother. Wow, Solomon certainly didn’t get this mixture of wisdom and arrogance from anybody strange, did he? As they say, “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”

The whole thing is a clarion and glaring warning that NO ONE can bypass God’s commands. NO ONE is wise enough in our fallen humanity to think that he can get away with a departure from God’s way. And in this New Covenant dispensation, we Christians really have no excuse because we have God’s word – His absolute truth – to shine a light on our path. God, the Father, sent His Son to light that path; and all we have to do is be obedient to His word and follow His (the Son’s) way; and we will have all the wisdom we need to live in this life. That’s what Peter learned and espoused to believers in 2nd Peter 1: 3-4; and this being the truth, we need to realize that if we believe this and live by the truths of such passages as Psalm 119: 105, Prov. 3: 5-6, and Luke 9: 23, we’ll never let pride or denial or human foolishness bring us down as these sinful forces did for Solomon.

My Prayer for Today: Lord, help us to believe in, follow, and live by these truths. For in doing so, we will glorify You. Amen

2010 – Day 4. Jan. 4 – The Language of Pride

Reading and study of Genesis 10 – 11; Passage for Reflection: Genesis 11: 4 … NIV Then they [the descendants of Noah] said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth."

My Journal for Today: Today I move, in my Daily Bible study, into the account of Babel, as Noah’s descendants move onward and decide to build the “tower to the heavens,” which becomes an idol representing the original sin of pridefulness, that sin which was brought into the Garden by the serpent and became mankind’s undoing. When we look at pride, the mother of all sin, we need to realize, as my devotional Pastor, F. LaGard Smith points out in today’s study, that “PRIDE” is a two sided-coin, one having a good side and the other a bad – VERY BAD – side.

I’m a grandparent, and when I see our grandkids doing incredibly precocious things, the pride of being part of their very being and upbringing rises in me. That is not necessarily a bad kind of pride. Nor is the pride I have as being a Christian and seeing some whom I have taught or mentored becoming stronger and more mature in their faith in Christ. My pride here stems from the realization that Christians, some of whom I had led to Christ, are growing in their faith and surrendering their being to their Lord. That is pride in what God is doing, not the other type of self-centered pride which is the other side of the pride coin.

That type of selfish pride is seen even in little kids. It is that “terrible-twos” kid of pride where a child will lie rather than be uncovered doing bad things. It is the pride of the cover up of Nixon’s Watergate or of Clinton’s sexual affairs. It is the pride of Tiger Woods, thinking that he’s above God’s moral code. It is the pride of mankind who would build a building to rise to the heavens as a monument to their own accomplishments, not to recognize the greatness of the One True God. And that could be the twin towers in New York as well as the Tower of Babel. Yes, this is the pride which led God to give man many languages and to disperse God’s children into the world to form many nations, living prideful lives where wars and what we see going on in the ever darkening world occur even today.

So, Pastor Smith asks a very salient and pointed question at the end of his devotional today. He writes, What kind of pride do other see in me – an appropriate sense of pride [in God’s glory], which they will notice with respect, or a self-focused pride shouting to the world that it’s all about me?” And I added the phrase in the parenthesis above because it is our pride in what God is doing in our lives which should be the only pride we pursue; and most certainly any pride in self or our own accomplishments must be deferred to what God is doing in and through us, which reflects HIS glory, not our own.

My Prayer for Today: Lord, I pray today that my pride is only in You for what You are doing in and through You for only Your glory. Squelch in me any pride of self; and raise in me the recognition and thankfulness for what I might do for Your glory. Amen

2009 – Day 362.Dec 29 – Rationalization

Blogger’s Note: Today’s entry is the last one in Pastor Chuck Swindoll’s book, Great Days with the Great Lives. I cannot explain why there does not appear to be 365 days of devotionals in the book. However, because of this publishing glitch, I’m going to have to let God lead me to two more devotional subjects to close out 2009 because I don’t want to begin my 2010 devotional project (about which I’ll explain in January) until the first day in January. However, today’s entry is one with which I believe we can all identify and from which we can relearn, repent, and be renewed.

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Passage for Study: 1st Samuel 15 … 1st Samuel 15 linked for study …

My Journal for Today: If you’re following me here, BE SURE to go back and read through the entire true story in 1st Samuel 15 BEFORE you read the remainder of what I’m about to write in my journal entry for today; and see if you aren’t personally convicted by Saul’s sin and his RATIONALIZATION of the sinful choices he made.

So, … I’m assuming that you’ve followed my instructions and have read the entire chapter in question BEFORE reading this. If you did not, though I’m certainly not God, Who commanded Saul in very specific language what to do after God allowed him to defeat the Amalekites, I wonder how you’re rationalizing the shortcut you have made in reading on without following through with my humble request to read the entire chapter BEFORE reading on to this point. If you did go back and read the entire chapter, as I instructed, “Way to go!” And I thank you for respecting my wishes.

But I am Bill Berry, not God! And if you rationalized your choice to read on, ignoring my request to go back and read ALL of Chapter 15, … well, you’re not going to have to deal with God in this matter – that is, unless God also was leading you to follow my instructions and you had the temerity to ignore God’s will as well as mine. But we all have likely done what Saul did in this story, haven’t we? A lot of the time in life, we clearly know what is right and wrong; and we go ahead anyway and make wrong choices, don’t we? And then we rationalize those is some selfish way, trying to convince ourselves that what we did is somehow okay in God’s eyes. And I believe this pattern of “situational ethics,” which leads to rationalization, is becoming an epidemic in the world today.

I’ve heard it said, “To RATIONALIZE is to perpetuate “RATIONAL LIES.” And that’s exactly what Saul tried to do, … did he not? But Samuel wouldn’t let Saul get away with those pathetic and selfish attempts to hold out on God. And I hope you noticed that God reached an end to His patience and mercy with regard to Saul’s sin and his rationalization. And even though Saul weakly tried to ask for God’s forgiveness, God was so grieved over this egregious act and cover-up that the Lord moved to replace him with David as King.

My friend, it is true that God is a God of second, third, or fourth chances; and His mercy is new everyday [see Lam. 3: 22, 23]; but apparently God did not see true repentance in the attempts at forgiveness Saul tried to make before God; because the Lord turned away from Saul. We Christians, now that Christ has died for our sins and has become our Redeemer, have the promise that God will never forsake a true believer [see Heb. 13: 5] and that true repentance will always lead to cleansing from sin [see 1st John 1: 9]. That’s why I believe that being omniscient, God saw through Saul’s anemic attempt at rationalized forgiveness, knowing that Saul was incapable of true repentance.

My dear one, I don’t know just what God sees in my heart; but I do know that He will turn away from my rationalized attempts to be forgiven if my heart is not truly repentant. Repentance requires action decisions to turn away and walk away from sin and to seek and pursue righteousness. Only when we are straight up with God and we reject the RATIONAL LIES, which our sin-ridden heart (see Jer. 17: 9) will want to perpetuate, can we truly and humbly repent and receive the cleansing and enabling grace which is promised by 2nd Cor. 12: 9. Only then will we, with vulnerability and honesty, turn to God and away from our sin nature.

I pray for us in that regard …

My Prayer for Today: Lord, help us – HELP ME – to reject rationalization and to humbly seek to be real and honest before Your throne of grace, knowing that obedience and humility are the keys to Your enabling grace which allows us to overcome our sinfulness in Your Name and for Your glory. Amen

2009 – Day 360.Dec 27 – Sad Day

Passage for Study: 1st Samuel 10 – 11 … 1st Sam. 10 – 11 linked for study …

My Journal for Today: Well, … the Hebrew people got what they wanted, … a regal and proud warrior, a physically good looking man, and a charismatic leader. And they ushered him in as their king, giving over to him the allegiance and worship which had been due to God Himself. It seemed as if this was the crowning glory of Israel. It seemed that this man, Saul, was the one to bring Israel together and result in the change and glory that they had once had when Moses led them out of Egypt and Joshua consolidated the Hebrew nations, taking them into the Promised Land.

In 1st Samuel 10 – 11, it would seem that Israel had ushered in the glory days; but from God’s perspective, this was one of Israel’s saddest seasons. And as we know when we read ahead in God’s word, we can read of how God, Who had allowed His Spirit to be on Saul for a season in giving the people a king and the kind of king they desired, would retract His Spirit, and allow Saul’s sin nature to come to the surface, which led to chaos, confusion, and consuming degradation. Because of Saul’s impatience, rebellion, jealousy, and all-consuming pride, Saul, as Swindoll points out, “… shriveled into a twisted, maniacal, pathetic figure. … No one (in those days) could see it; … but slowly and ever so surely [evil] polluted the waters of [Saul’s] mind and soiled his soul.”

As Swindoll closes his devotional entry for today, he speculates on what the prime qualities of leadership are which you’d look for if you were trying to elevate someone to become the CEO of your company; and the prime one he pointed to was MODESTY, which I believe evolves out of a combination HUMILITY and MEEKNESS. These qualities in a leader are the only character adjectives Jesus ever used (in the NT) to describe Himself (see Matthew 11: 29 in the AMP version); and so, our God incarnate, has given us, by self proclamation and example, the prime qualities we should look for when vote for our leaders. And one must ask himself/herself, “Have we done so these days, when, in looking for change, we voted for a President who promised he would bring change to our land. He’s physically good looking; and he’s charismatic. He seems to promise that America can lead the world into a new realm of glory.

However, do we now have that leader, one who has the modesty, humility, and meekness which are Christlike and will be able to bring us the protection and leadership which brought America into prominence in the past? Or have we elected a pride-driven leader who is consumed with power and will not allow God’s Spirit to lead him to follow the only source of power Who can bring our land back to the grace we once knew which glorified God and God alone? I’ll let you speculate and answer that question for yourself.

My Prayer for Today: Lord, forgive us for where we have taken this land. And I implore Your mercy in this season of change, which, if we continue on this course, will bring Your wrath of separation from us. I know You, by your promises of Deut. 31: 6 and Hebrews 13: 5, won’t abandon Your remnant, Lord; so we pray patiently, as You’ve instructed in 2nd Chron. 7: 14, for Your healing to come to our land. Amen

2009 – Day 336.Dec 3 – Genuine Humility

Passage for Study: Acts 18: 1 - 17 … Acts 18 linked for study …

2nd Passage for study: 2nd Corinthians 11: 22 – 28 … [self search and study in 2nd Cor. 11 required]

My Journal for Today: Okay, we’re back to the quality of HUMILITY again. If you’ve been following me during my 2009 devotional journal entries, using Chuck Swindoll’s book Great Days with the Great Lives, you would have seen that each of the “great lives” I’ve studied has, in one of the focus studies, centered on humility. For Joseph, Moses, David, Esther, Job, and now Paul, they all either had this quality in their inborn character or, more likely, God led them through life to a place where humility was honed and shaped into their character.

And this should not be a surprise to anyone who has studied the life of our character model for life, … our Lord and Savior, Jesus. In our study of Paul, we’ve already read how Jesus was the prototype of humility (go back and read Phil. 2: 5-11) with Paul exhorting all Christians in that passage to have a mind like that of Christ (see verse 5). Here, in our passages we’ve been using for the last few days, the Apostle Paul would declare that he would never want anyone to point to his (i.e., Paul’s) strength in the face of imprisonment or danger. No, he would rather point to his humiliation or weakness, which allowed God to pour His empowering grace into the life of this humbled warrior. Paul had come to a place in his life where he understood the principle of Prov. 3: 34, that God rejects the proud but gives grace to the humble.

But we, especially today, live in a world which lauds just the opposite. Swindoll quotes J. Oswald Sanders, from his book, The Leader, who wrote, ”We form part of a generation that worships power – military, intellectual, economical, or scientific. … Men everywhere are striving for power in various realms, often with questionable motivations.” And I don’t think any of us would debate that position.

However, Swindoll, also quotes a counterpoint from the Scottish preacher James Stewart, who wrote, ”It is always upon human weakness and humiliation, not human strength and confidence, that God chooses to build His kingdom; and that He can use us not merely in spite of our ordinariness and helplessness and disqualifying infirmities, but precisely because of them.”

Wow! Do we get it, my beloved?! What a freeing and empowering principle this is for all of us who pursue Christ as our leader in life. Because of this great principle, espoused in God’s truth so often (see Isaiah 41: 10 and most certainly from all the passages I have referenced today), we, in humble recognition of our weaknesses, can receive God’s enabling grace and be empowered to make a difference for God’s kingdom and for His glory. And as we’ve gone through these great lives along with Chuck Swindoll, we’ve seen that these men and one woman became strong when they recognized their weaknesses and allow God to give them the empowering grace to do exactly what our Lord instructed in Luke 9: 23 (a verse I certainly hope you have internalized by this point in your Christian life).

HUMILITY, my friend. That’s where were the action of our hearts should be focused. For when we realize that God honors humility, never pride, we’ll be on the road to denying self and following Christ.

My Prayer for Today: Lord, I know the risk in praying for humility. But if it takes Your shaping ministry, Holy Spirit, to humble me so that I can receive Your grace. Bring it on! Amen

2009 – Day 320.Nov 17 – Forgive Them

Passage for Study: Acts 15: 35 - 41 … Acts 15 linked for your study …

My Journal for Today: My devotional yesterday focused, as does the repeated passage today, on the contention which caused Paul and Barnabas to part ways. Obviously there were some bad feelings between the younger John Mark and Paul; but down the road of their independent lives, we saw that this riff, which had caused the separation was repaired – likely by Paul’s maturation as a disciple and his willingness to forgive the younger disciple, Mark. We referred yesterday to the fact that Paul was able to later commend Mark for his work for the Lord (again one can read this in Col. 4: 10-11 and 2nd Tim. 4: 11).

Holding on to one’s anger and letting it develop into a grudge or bitterness is, as I said yesterday, giving power to the enemy to poison our hearts and weaken our witness for the Lord. Oh how our spiritual enemy, Satan, loves to pour his fuel of discontent on the fires of anger or bitterness; and we become the victims of our own anger or prideful ill feelings. And that’s what it really is, my dear one, … isn’t it? It’s pride which causes us to hold a grudge or withhold forgiveness.

Jesus told His disciples to do as He did [again Luke 9: 23]. Paul wrote (in Phil. 2: 5) to have the same attitude as Christ. Well, Jesus himself said [read it in Matt. 11: 29] that his attitude was one of humility and meekness; and one can’t be humble and meek and hold a grudge. So, my friend [s] we need to do a self inventory. Do we have any – and I mean ANY – wounds or past riffs in our lives which have caused us to retain a prideful – AND SINFUL – attitude of bitterness toward another? If so, we’re giving Satan a beachhead of retained sin in our lives. We’re giving our enemy the license to weaken our witness or ministry for the Lord; because we cannot be living sacrifices for Christ (see Romans 12: 1 – 2) if we have forgiveness which we’re withholding from someone in our lives.

But you may say, “Bill, you just don’t know how much they hurt me and did me wrong.” And you’re right, I don’t. But was Jesus wrong when He said on the cross, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they are doing.” My friend, if we want to be free from the burdens of unresolved sin because of unresolved forgiveness, we simply MUST take those wounds to the cross and turn them over to Jesus (as He commended us in Matt. 11: 28 – 30 or in Matt. 5: 23 – 24).

No, my friend, I’m not saying that we condone what was done to us to cause these wounds or ill feelings; but I am saying that we release those ill feelings to the Lord; and let Him deal with the judging. You know it as well as I do, judgment is not our business; it’s God’s. And until we let God be God in the matter of forgiveness and let His blood heal our hurts, through forgiveness, we’re going to be carrying around a burden of sin which weighs us down for as long as we carry it.

Let it go, my friend!

My Prayer for Today: Lord, thank You for helping me to let all those past wounds be healed by the salve of forgiveness and your grace being poured on me to release me from ill feelings. Amen