"The LORD is a jealous God, filled with vengeance and wrath. He takes revenge on all who oppose him and furiously destroys his enemies! The LORD is slow to get angry, but his power is great, and he never lets the guilty go unpunished. He displays his power in the whirlwind and the storm. The billowing clouds are the dust beneath his feet. At His command the oceans and rivers dry up, the lush pastures of Bashan and Carmel fade, and the green forests of Lebanon wilt. In His presence the mountains quake, and the hills melt away....Who can stand before his fierce anger? His rage blazes forth like fire, and the mountains crumble to dust in his presence. The LORD is good. When trouble comes, he is a strong refuge. And He knows everyone who trusts in Him." (From Nahum, Chapter 1--NLT)
Henny Youngman once said, "When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading." Are religious people today saying, "When I read about judgment, holiness, denying myself, obedience, I gave up reading the Bible?
My texts for the devotionals come from my Bible reading, not my "agenda." I do not pick and choose what my flesh desires. If I did, there would be absolutely no hope for me. I would just live in the same delusion in which much of humanity lives. My only hope for survival in life, and at the "Judgment Seat of Christ" is to be full of and obedient to "the whole counsel of God."
The Medieval Believer, Jerome, says of Nahum, "The prophecy belongs to the close of the world and the comfort of the saints therein, so that whatsoever they see in the world, they may hold cheap, as passing away and perishing and prepare themselves for the Day of Judgment." Don't engage in selective reading; it will lead to a "delusional salvation." Just as your body needs many vitamins and minerals, so your soul needs the many "Words" of God. There is only one salvation which saves, delivers, and keeps to the end. It is the Salvation which is Jesus Christ, all of Jesus Christ, the rebuke, the warnings, the holiness, the obedience, the comfort, the peace.
The last very last passage of the Bible says, "....And if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book." Our salvation is Jesus Christ, His Blood, His Body, His Word, His Holiness, His Everything. "Drink ye, all of it!"
Father, in Jesus' Name, "How I love Thy law." May it be "my meditation all the day." Amen.
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My "Take" On Sarah: www.antipasprayerforce.blogspot.com
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