The Willow and the Oak - Psalm 1

"Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper. The ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish."

My favorite tree is the Willow Tree. Historically it has inspired poetry and children's stories for its elegant and melancholy nature in appearance. It has a unique beauty with its long hanging branches and narrow elongated leaves which dance and whisper in the wind like no others. It has medicinal uses recognized by Hippocrates, and grows easily when you cut a branch and stick it in the ground or in water to develop roots for a separate tree. I hear that it is possible to put it in water with a branch from another tree, not known to root like it does, and it can cause roots for this tree as well. Another quality of the Weeping Willow is that it does very well in or near very wet areas and can help stabilize loose wet soil to prevent erosion. Here is a picture of my personal Weeping Willow dancing in the wind as it is rooted by our springfed pond:

















I also like the Oak tree as we have recently planted one near the pond as well. It is known for its strength, towering height, and life span. Oak is favored by wood workers for its beauty and hard wood which results in the making of desirable and attractive furniture. A hidden difference between the Willow and the Oak tree is in the roots.

Oak trees will grow deep down into the soil as permitted by the soil:
















Willow trees will grow roots outward more than down as this Redwood tree:




It's been reported that the Willow roots can grow out as far as 3 or 4 times it's height to find a water source.

As Christians, we should have both deep and wide roots in the Love of Christ. As we drink deep from the Wellspring of His Salvation our roots should be well established in the Truth of God's Word. Meditating day and night in His Word and submitting our hearts to a prayerful and willing obedience of the Truth we are seeing as He provides the promised grace.

2 Peter 1:2-3
Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue,

Psalm 119:18
Open my eyes, that I may see Wondrous things from Your law.

Psalm 46:4-5
There is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God,
The holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High.

Psalm 36:8-9
They are abundantly satisfied with the fullness of Your house, And You give them drink from the river of Your pleasures. For with You is the fountain of life; In Your light we see light.

The fruit of this will be manifested to others as we absorb the Life coming from the Power of Him Who raised Christ from the dead and He produces the fruit through us. Without Him we are dry and lifeless.

Romans 8:11
But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

Our leaves will not wither because He will never leave us or forsake us. Without Him we have nothing and are nothing! He gets all the glory for any good done through our lives because He is the source of all true good.

Isaiah 26:12
Lord, You will establish peace for us, For You have also done all our works in us.

It is this Power which gave us Life when we were dead in our sins and blind to His Light.

Colossians 2:13
And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses,

2 Corinthians 4:6
For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

It is this Power which transforms us into the image of Jesus Christ.

2 Corinthians 3:18
But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

It is this Power which keeps us from falling as we walk in the Holy Spirit.

Galatians 5:16
I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

Psalm 56:13
For You have delivered my soul from death. Have You not kept my feet from falling, That I may walk before God In the light of the living?

Psalm 116:8
For You have delivered my soul from death, My eyes from tears, And my feet from falling.

Jude 24-25
Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, And to present you faultless
Before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, To God our Savior,
Who alone is wise, Be glory and majesty, Dominion and power, Both now and forever.
Amen.

Whatever he does prospers. And this prosperity is eternal and does not fade away as all riches of this earth will.

This free invitation to Salvation goes out to all as it was poetically described by God's prophet:

Isaiah 55:1 "Ho! Everyone who thirsts,
Come to the waters;
And you who have no money,
Come, buy and eat.
Yes, come, buy wine and milk
Without money and without price."

But you must see your dire need of the Savior, Jesus Christ, to save you from the sin that has separated you from eternal life.

Acts 2:38 Then Peter said to them, "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

After you come to this:

Drink Deep until your Lord returns!

Scripture quotes - nkjv

What is a like-minded faith in the Gospel?

When I say "like-minded faith" I am not referring to Calvinism, Arminianism, or even Spurgeonism. In all of my study and memory of Scripture, I have not found any of those names in there. The names are in the Dictionary, of which I have to look at often when I read some blog posts and comments as some have a more learned vocabulary and are therefore limited in their reach of the general public. (If that sounds like a slam on the intellectually elite, please pray that I am convicted about it as I am overwhelmed sometimes with referring to the Dictionary more than the Bible at times.) But it is true that Calvin is not one of the Apostles who laid the foundation for the Church. Spurgeon had no Holy Ghost inspiration to give us the Scriptures which gives us "the faith once for all handed down to the saints". As for Arminian, I can’t speak so well of him.

By "like-minded" I mean that I sense from some on the blogosphere that we are "of the same mind". And it is my conviction that this is "the mind of Christ" promised to believers through the Apostle Paul. I believe God has faithfully preserved all that He has ever wanted to say to mankind through the 66 books of the Holy Bible. In those books "it is written" that "the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him"(1 John 3). The Holy Spirit does not toss us around, but wills that we as believers in "the Truth of the Gospel" are "GROUNDED and STEADFAST, and are NOT MOVED AWAY from the hope of the gospel which you heard" (Col 1).

If you are unsettled in your faith, how can you lead others to a saving faith in Christ? When I see clarification with balance as one ministers the Truth of the Gospel, I see Jesus there. If they are in ignorance in their own flesh, not rightly dividing God's Word, then I do not see Jesus in them at that time. Christ does not change, we do. He is "the same yesterday, today, and forever". The great Apostle Peter, after being discipled by Christ for 3 years, filled with the Holy Spirit's Power and was instrumental in bringing thousands to faith in Christ, after this he found failure in his faith and played the hypocrite for a season.

We do not (or should not) follow good men who are changeable but rather Christ Who NEVER changes. And we simply follow, honor and respect men when they follow Christ without diverting. For Paul said "Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ"(1 Cor 11:1). It seems the qualifier here is that we imitate him only when he imitates Christ. For he also warned us through the letter to the Galatians saying: "But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed".

What are your thoughts on this matter?

Scripture from -nkjv

Have you read the instructions?

Ever purchased something and decided to skip the instruction book? Sometimes it may work out but other times it may get you into a real mess of trouble. Missing even just one detail can throw you way off and make it very difficult to get things going as they were intended. And sometimes paying attention to only some of the instruction book and ignoring how it is all put together (or balanced) with the rest of the instructions is worse! So when it come to life and death matters (or eternal life and eternal death matters) the Instruction Book that God gave to us, known as the Holy Scriptures, is far too important for us humans. To skip or skimp on God's Words is very unwise indeed. It does us no good to economize on knowing God’s Word or "the whole counsel of God" (Acts 20:26) because we are too busy or think we know enough. We should seriously desire all of God's Words to live by if we are born again of His Living Word.

When Jesus was tempted by Satan, one of His responses to the Devil was:

"It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God’ ".

Paul said:

"All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work." (2 Tim 3:16-17) -nkjv

and...

"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom..." (Col 3:16a) -nkjv

So we clearly see here that God did give us "instruction in righteousness" for this life and to prepare us for the life to come. And His desire is that we let Christ’s Word dwell in us richly with all wisdom.

Are you paying close attention to every Word of God?

The Originator?

Who owns our knowledge and understanding of Truth from God? Who really owns our gifts, our talents, our abilities, our physical traits, or material goods? Would God have Christians copyright their God given knowledge and understanding or the work of their gifts, abilities, and material goods? The key Scripture I am studying is:1 Cor 4:7

"For who makes you differ from another? And what do you have that you did not receive? Now if you did indeed receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?" nkjv

I found this to good and personally too convicting too avoid sharing. The following is credited to "The Believers Bible Commentary" regarding 1 Cor 4:5-10...

4:5 In view of this, we should be extremely careful in our appraisal of Christian service. We tend to exalt the spectacular and sensational, and depreciate that which is menial or inconspicuous. The safe policy is to judge nothing before the time, but to wait until the Lord comes. He will be able to judge, not only what is seen by the eye, but also the motives of the hearts—not only what was done, but why it was done. He will reveal the counsels of the hearts, and, needless to say, anything that was done for self-display or self-glory will fail to receive a reward.
That each one’s praise will come from God is not to be taken as a flat promise that every believer’s service will show up in a favorable way in that day. The meaning is that everyone who deserves praise will receive praise from God and not from men.
In the next eight verses, the apostle states quite clearly that pride is the cause of the divisions that have come into the church at Corinth.
4:6 He first explains that in speaking about the Christian ministry and the tendency to follow human leaders (3:5–4:5), he used himself and Apollos as the examples. The Corinthians were not forming parties around Paul and Apollos alone, but also around other men who were then in their church. However, out of a sense of Christian courtesy and delicacy, Paul transferred the entire matter to himself and Apollos so that by their example the saints would learn not to have exaggerated opinions of their leaders or to gratify their pride by the formation of parties. He wanted the saints to evaluate everything and everyone by the Scriptures.
4:7 If one Christian teacher is more gifted than another, it is because God made him so. Everything he has, he received from the Lord. In fact it is true of all of us that everything we have has been given to us by God. That being the case, why should we be proud or puffed up? Our talents and gifts are not the result of our own cleverness.
4:8 The Corinthians had become self-sufficient; they were already full. They prided themselves on the abundance of spiritual gifts in their midst; they were already rich. They were living in luxury, comfort, and ease. There was no sense of need. They acted as if they were already reigning, but they were doing so without the apostles. Paul states that he could wish that the time to reign had already come so that he might reign with them! But in the meantime, "lifetime is training time for reigning time," as someone has said. Christians will reign with the Lord Jesus Christ when He comes back and sets up His kingdom on earth. In the meantime, their privilege is to share the reproach of a rejected Savior. H. P. Barker warns:
It is positive disloyalty to seek our crown before the King gets his. Yet this is what some of the Christians at Corinth were doing. The apostles themselves were bearing the reproach of Christ. But the Corinthian Christians were "rich" and "honorable." They were seeking a good time where their Lord and Master had such a hard time.
At coronations, peers and peeresses never put on their coronets until the sovereign has been crowned. The Corinthians were reversing this; they were already reigning while the Lord was still in rejection!
4:9 In contrast to the self-satisfaction of the Corinthians, Paul describes the lot of the apostles. He pictures them as thrown into the arena with wild beasts while men and angels look on. As Godet has said: "It was not time for the Corinthians to be self-complacent and boasting, while the church was on the throne and the apostles were under the sword."
4:10 While the apostles were treated as fools for Christ’s sake, the saints enjoyed prestige in the community as wise Christians. The apostles were weak, but the Corinthians suffered no infirmity. In contrast to the dishonor of the apostles was the eminence of the saints. -end quote-

This, to me, is both convicting and relieving. Convicting because it is clear to me that I have not known suffering for the Lord Jesus as have so many in our history and many in this very hour throughout the world today. God has used what an abusive pastor said to me one time in his office before others. After I questioned him according to the Scriptures he said to me in a derogatory voice: "Who are you?!... You’re NOTHING!" As I remember this, this may sound odd, but it is refreshingly comforting to my soul. Why? Because it really doesn’t matter to me what he thinks, you think, or frankly even what I think about myself. Jesus is my Judge and yours and not one of us humans will make any difference about this Truth. This statement from the quote above is what makes all the difference to me:

"He (Apostle Paul) wanted the saints to evaluate everything and everyone by the Scriptures."

Thoughts have been going through my head that I wish to share and open up to those that this text reaches. And some of it is as follows... I fully trust in the Sovereignty of God! He does reign over all the affairs of mankind. I am nothing, He is everything. I must decrease, He must increase. I do not want to strive to get glory for myself. I wish to be motivated by the Holy Spirit in all that I share here on this blog or by any other means directly or indirectly as God sees fit. I, by the merciful grace of God’s conviction, was able to find that I have fail in this matter, as at times I’m caught by my conscience of the wrong motives in the "why?" of what I am doing. This is good. For to know conviction this way confirms to me that I am passing the test commanded in Scripture to "Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified." (2 cor 13:5) And "If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us." (1 John 1:10) nkjv

I have sinned with wrong motives and ideas contrary to the "good and acceptable and perfect will of God". God is the only witness to this and only He knows the reality or severity of it. It is comforting to know His promise that I am being transformed by the renewing of my mind (Rom 12:2) through faithful conviction of the Holy Spirit. But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. (Titus 3:4-6). nkjv

In light of the Creator and Sovereign Almighty God and Jesus Christ His only Son born from Eternity, I own nothing , you own nothing, and anything good we have or have done is always a result of the doings of God, most importantly our Eternal Life in Him.

Is 26:12
"Lord, You will establish peace for us,
For You have also done all our works in us." nkjv

And getting to the copyright question after seeing God’s Word regarding Who is the Originator of all or any good thing, do we go by this worlds view or God’s? I’ll first look at the definition for copyright:

copyright >noun: the exclusive legal right, given to the originator or their assignee for a fixed number of years, to publish, perform, film, or record literary, artistic, or musical material, and to authorize others to do the same.

Isn’t the question here Who is the Originator? The answer for all Christian believers is in the Scripture reference above. If God is the Originator of any and all that we have then we are the temporary stewards or the assignees accountable to the Originator in the End. A definition for assignee near in line with the Scriptures might be:

assignee >noun:
one appointed to act for another; a deputy or agent

Just something to think about before being to possessive or proud of any copyright we are responsible for. Give because it was all given unto you and yet accept within honest reason the temporary rewards for your labor. If you let the world give you glory and material gain as your motives are greed and pride then your rewards stop there according to God’s Word. If you let God use you and your talents solely for His purposes and glory then He may use those talents to supply your needs while living in this body and give you the greater reward for sincerely giving Him all the glory due the Originator. This is the conviction I get from this matter. How about you?

Mirror in the Soul...

The passage I am reviewing is James 1:21-25

"Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does." nkjv

There is one thing I have heard from many pastors or teachers coming from various theological viewpoints over the years that I have been saved. The basic idea of the following statement has stayed with me as I grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, and it goes something like this:

When you are preaching, teaching, or sharing God’s Word, remember that it must first go through you with honest conviction, yielding yourself to the corrections and being willing to see your own wrongs as you are speaking of particular wrongs.

Naturally we tend to receive with no trouble the positive, encouraging, edifying, enlightening, or comforting statements or promises in the Scriptures. Or those things that we think confirm or verify our own rightness in matters of our thinking or behavior. We are usually wide open to this great acceptance. But I think we all need to put down our "Breastplate of unrighteousness" which we have up many times to shield our soul from the holy convictions which we must yield to and be willing to confess and change through Christ’s redeeming power.

May we consider these verses and their context:

Romans 2:1
"Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things." nkjv

and

1 Cor. 11:28
"But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup." nkjv

and

2 Cor. 13:5
"Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified." nkjv

Do we take these words to heart with serious self examination? Or are we so familiar with them through years of conditioning and seeing only our proud accomplishments that we grieve our Lord and Savior and quench His Holy Spirit as He is moving on us to pay attention to these convictions first before showing others all we know?

The only true rightness any one of has is that which is imparted through faith in the righteousness of Christ and His work of redemption and renewal. And the knowledge by itself puffs up but through love edifies. Sometimes I see this happening:

Over and over, again and again, person after person, ministry after ministry in what is claimed as Christendom there are those who speak out against others yet they are living in sin and the denial of it. And many times they can be apparently so proficient in revealing God’s Word as it applies to others, meanwhile they are in some similar sorts of errors. It is like God is shining His light of conviction on their soul and instead of letting Christ complete His work of change through repentance, they take the mirror of their soul, and find others to reflect it on. Often this turns into condemnation of others as their soul strives to ignore and suppress the reality of their own sin. In other words their mirror is angled so that they don’t see themselves though God’s correcting words but others that they think deserve this as condemnation. As they grieve and quench God's Spirit this way, I believe this may somehow sear their consciences so they won’t have to face their sham or shame and repent of their own treasured and concealed sin.

I don’t know about you, but I long for the conviction of God to change me more and more into Christ’s likeness. Sin is like a hard crust on my soul keeping me from knowing the freedom that comes through living in the Love of Christ and letting Him be Lord of my spirit, soul, and body. Only through faith and confession to God and God alone can the effect of Christ’s powerful death and resurrection break this hardened crust of the deceitfulness of sin, so that I may have the good fruit of God’s Holy Spirit that says "Against such there is no law"(Gal 5).

I know of a man right now who is on the web saying he is a Christian and speaking out against false teachers and false teachings yet he himself is lying to people by portraying the many different identities and personalties that are never revealed as being the same person. Somehow rationalizing his deceptive ways while claiming a ministry of exposing liars. Do you see how he has angled the mirror in his soul?

Then there is a major organization known as CRI with a Hank Hanegraaff who tags himself "The Bible answer man". Read this and you will see how ironic his so-called ministry is and how he holds his mirror. As my wife and I were reading this we found amazing similarities, with a much smaller reach, regarding the matter we went through with a pastor we found had fooled us for some time and hurt many people in our circumstance and in other churches before as well. You may see this matter here .

Just as history has shown I believe our future history will reveal those who have been very naive about characters like those mentioned above. For instance, I know of apparently respectable and reknowned men who have honored the pastor that we have reported on factnet. When I think of how we were fooled by this man for so long I don’t feel as bad about my naivety when I find that even some people whom I respect to this day have been fooled and may still be fooled by this man. Deception is an amazing thing to witness when God has made the truth of a man's character known to you personally but even the well trained, experienced haven’t realized it yet. The right circumstances and questioning will reveal what is inside a man real fast sometimes. I am of course praying for the truth to be seen by these men in due season.

We do know God’s Word says:

Prov. 20:27
"The spirit of man is the candle of the LORD, searching all the inward parts of the belly."

and

1 Cor 4:5
"Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsels of the hearts. Then each one’s praise will come from God." nkjv

and

2 Cor 4:2
"But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God." nkjv

and

1 Tim 5:24-25
"Some men’s sins are clearly evident, preceding them to judgment, but those of some men follow later. Likewise, the good works of some are clearly evident, and those that are otherwise cannot be hidden." nkjv

With God as our only perfect and true Judge, are we a doer of God’s Word or a hearer only, deceiving ourselves?

May we learn to shine the mirror of God’s Word onto our own soul’s planks very thoroughly with the desire of removal before we look at the specs in our brother's or sister's eyes... AMEN

God willing, my next post will be regarding: Who(?) owns our knowledge and understanding of Truth from God? And would God have Christian's copyright in order to gain material or prestige from the knowledge and understanding He gave to us? The Scripture is:

1 Cor 4:7
"For who makes you differ from another? And what do you have that you did not receive? Now if you did indeed receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?" nkjv

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