That Good Part

From Ray Stedman.... READ: Psalm 77:11-13 I will remember the deeds of the LORD; yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago. I will meditate on all your works and consider all your mighty deeds (Psalm 77:11-12). The crucial words in these verses are "I will." They indicate that the psalmist has caught hold of himself. He is no longer the victim of his feelings, and that is the point. The control of his life shifts from his heart to his head, and that is the way God intended it to be. He sees that the place to begin is not with himself, as he has been doing, or with his circumstances, but with God. And the proper order is not with prayer and then meditation, but the reverse: to begin with meditating about God, which leads to petition based on an understanding of who God is. That is the way out, and it points up the trouble this man has had before. He began his prayer with himself at the center. You can see that in his words. This problem that has brought him to God occupie...

This is from Ray Stedman's site..... READ: 2 Corinthians 11:3-15 But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ (2 Corinthians 11:3 KJV). "The main thing about being a Christian is to see that the main thing remains the main thing." That is what Paul is saying. The "main thing" is that at the heart and center of your life is the "simplicity that is in Christ," a simple thing. I have noticed over many years of observation that when religion becomes complicated, it is always a sign that it is drifting away from the realities and centralities of faith. The world around us is getting increasingly complex, and it is because it is drifting farther and farther from God. Look around at the world of nature, and you can see the simplicity of God's design everywhere. He builds the year around four seasons that repeat themselves and never fail. Yet that si...

I'm on vacation (?) this week, got a little spankin' from Ray Stedman today! In those days I saw men in Judah treading winepresses on the Sabbath and bringing in grain and loading it on donkeys, together with wine, grapes, figs and all other kinds of loads. And they were bringing all this into Jerusalem on the Sabbath, Therefore I warned them against selling food on that day (Nehemiah 13:15). Nehemiah was concerned by this disregard for the Law. He is trying to correct the difficulties that had caused problems for Israel in the past. So he orders the gates to be closed at sunset on Friday. He requires the Levites to cleanse themselves and to guard the gates so that no one violates the Sabbath. Should we also keep the Sabbath by refraining from work and travel? As we have seen throughout this book, these regulations imposed upon Israel were what the New Testament calls "shadows," pictures of something even more important that God wants observed. You observe the Sabbath...