My scripture reading, this morning, included Psalms 40. It’s a great chapter that has many encouraging verses; however, this morning, verses 9 and 10 spoke to me the loudest.
• Psalms 40:9-10 •
“I have proclaimed good news of righteousness [and the joy that comes from obedience to You] in the great assembly; Behold, I will not restrain my lips [from proclaiming Your righteousness], As You know, O Lord. I have not concealed Your righteousness within my heart; I have proclaimed Your faithfulness and Your salvation. I have not concealed Your lovingkindness and Your truth from the great assembly.” (AMP)
David said . . .
• I have preached, proclaimed, testified of Your righteousness, Your good news, and the joy that comes from knowing and obeying You❗️
• I refuse to keep my lips from telling about Your goodness❗️
• I have not hidden, or kept Your goodness in my heart, but I have testified of Your faithfulness and Your salvation❗️
• I have not kept Your loving kindness, or Your truth from others, but I have testified of you openly❗️
David is telling us that he has openly TESTIFIED and TOLD of the goodness of the Lord, and the great salvation that Jesus has to offer everyone of us.
❓ Are you TESTIFYING of the goodness of Jesus❓
❓Have you TOLD anyone lately about what Jesus has done for you❓
❗️Open your mouth, it’s time to speak up for Jesus❗️
‼️ IT’S TIME TO TESTIFY‼️
Your Servant and His,
— Pastor Gene Allen, Lead Pastor FamilyChurchAG.com
I really hope that you rested well last night. And if not, may “Nap Time” be somewhere in your near future.
Let’s take our attention to Micah, chapter 6, today.
Throughout Micah chapter 6, the Prophet Micah speaks for Yahweh, the Lord God, and uses legal language to picture a courtroom scene. One commentator, I read from, said, “In a sense, this chapter represents God’s lawsuit against Israel.”
In Micah, our Lord speaks very frankly with the Israeli people; however, in Micah 1:2, the Lord makes it clear that He was also, actually, speaking to everyone of us on the earth.
At this time, Israel was involved in committing horrific sins against God, and each other. (Read Micah, chapter 6, carefully.) Israel would sin grossly against the Lord, and then offer the Lord a cheap sacrifice, and/or lifeless worship, expecting Him to simply cover up, and forgive, their sins (see verses 6-7).
In verse 8, the Lord tells Israel, and each of us, what He really wants from us.
“He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8 ESV)
To Do Justice
Father God wants us to have a right relationship with Him, and also a right relationship with each other. We must do justly to all; we must do wrong to none, and do right to all.
To Love Kindness
We must love kindness, mercy and steadfast love for our Lord, and others. We must delight in these things as our Father God does. We should be most happy to have any opportunity to do good, and we should do it cheerfully.
To Walk Humbly
We must walk humbly with our Lord. Like Enoch, of old, we need to walk with God, placing our faith in Him, trusting Him, serving and pleasing Him. We must conform to God, converse with Him and commune with Him.
We must walk humbly with mankind. We should live in a spirit of humility, and an attitude of carefulness or thoughtfulness, preferring our brother’s and sister’s before us.
Let’s all work diligently on these things and make this old world go around a little smoother while waiting on our Lord’s return.
Be blessed!
— Pastor H. Gene Allen, Lead Pastor FamilyChurchAG.com
Let’s start the day off right — in God’s Word — and may the Lord’s daily Word empower us to have a Great Day, and a Great Week.
• Proverbs 8:32-36 •
(32)“Pay attention, my children! Follow my advice, and you will be happy. (33)Listen carefully to my instructions, and you will be wise. (34)Come to my home each day and listen to me. You will find happiness. (35)By finding me, you find life, and the Lord will be pleased with you. (36)But if you don’t find me, you hurt only yourself, and if you hate me, you are in love with death.” (CEV)
Proverbs 8:32 – Here is a strong encouragement, or a warning, to “Pay attention, my children! Follow my advice (or my wisdom) and you will be happy.” — Happiness, the blessed life, comes from serving Jesus and obeying Jesus.
Proverbs 8:33 – “Listen carefully to my instructions, and you will be wise.” — Hear, and learn, the wisdom from the Lord and become wise in your thoughts, your understanding, your ways and in your conversation.
Proverbs 8:34 – “Come to my home each day and listen to me. You will find happiness.” — Have a visitation, a conversation, with Jesus everyday. Read your Bible, meditate on what you just read. Pray for understanding of what you just read. Listen carefully to what the Word, and Jesus, is trying to communicate to you. Then talk with Jesus for a while and share your heart with Him. — A daily relationship with Jesus is where true happiness comes from. (See Proverbs 3:2.)
Proverbs 8:35 – “By finding me, you find life, and the Lord will be pleased with you.” — Real life, a happy life, a joyful life, fullness of life, is the reward for those who pursue godly wisdom.
Proverbs 8:36 – “But if you don’t find me, you hurt only yourself, and if you hate me, you are in love with death.” — In God’s Word, choosing to reject wisdom is portrayed as self-destructive. Proverbs 15:32 says, “You hurt only yourself by rejecting instruction, but it makes good sense to accept it.” (CEV)
REJECTING WISDOM can ultimately result in death. Proverbs 14:12 says, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.” (ESV)
ACCEPTING WISDOM can save you from death. Proverbs 14:26-27 says, “In the fear (respect, wisdom) of the Lord one has strong confidence, and his children will have a refuge. The fear (respect , wisdom) of the Lord is a fountain of life, that one may turn away from the snares of death.” (ESV)
Godly Wisdom, knowing Jesus, and His Word, is the difference between Life and Death.
• Deuteronomy 30:15-16, 19-20 •
(15)“See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil.” (16)“If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you today, by loving the Lord your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his rules, then you shall live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. (19)I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, (20)loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.” (ESV)
✝️ Choose Life! ✝️ Choose Jesus! ✝️ Read the Bible! ✝️ Get Wisdom!
Sincerely,
— Pastor Gene Allen, Lead Pastor FamilyChurchAG.com
I’m my private prayer and devotion time, early this morning, I came across Psalm 37, and the Lord impressed on me to share a deeper look, with you, concerning verses 3 – 6.
The scriptures say . . .
“Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. (4)Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart. (5)Commit your way to the Lord; trust in Him, and He will act. (6)He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday.” — Psalm 37:3-6 (ESV)
A Deeper Look . . .
Psalm 37:3 — Instead of envying the wicked, and wanting what they have, the righteous, (Jesus followers), should trust in The Lord God. This “trust” is accompanied by action — “do good,” (do God’s will), and be faithful to Him.
Psalm 37:4 — Obey The Lord, trust Him completely, and your reward will be that He will give you answers to your prayers, even your deepest desires. Father God is always looking for ways to bless His people.
Psalm 37:5 — Let The Lord lead you, and you commit yourself totally to Him and His ways. Doing so shows The Lord that you trust Him completely with His outcome to your situation, and His answers to your prayers.
Ps. 37:6 — The Lord will validate you, stamp you with His approval, be proud of you and openly claim you as His own, in the brightest part of the day (so everyone will hear and know that you are His).
Conclusion . . .
I hope that this “deeper look,” at Psalm 37:3-6, gives you a better understanding of our need to totally trust the Lord, and our Lord’s desire to totally take care of us and claim us as His own.
If people could just realize, that Jesus is for us, and not against us. That His desire is not to judge, condemn, or oppress us, but to save us, bless us and totally take care of us.
Jesus said, John 3:16-17 . . .
““For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. (17)For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him.” (ESV)
In John 10:10, Jesus said . . .
“The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it in abundance [to the full, till it overflows].” (AMP)
When we trust Jesus with our lives, and serve Him faithfully, His promises is to give us abundant life on earth and eternal life in heaven.
My Prayer is that You will Trust in the Lord and be Blessed!
“Our God, no one is like You. We are all that is left of Your chosen people, and You freely forgive our sin and guilt. You don’t stay angry forever; You’re glad to have pity…” — Micah 7:18 (CEV)
“But if we confess our sins to God, He can always be trusted to forgive us and take our sins away.” — 1 John 1:9 (CEV)
He Washes our Sins away.
“But if we live in the light, as God does, we share in life with each other. And the blood of His Son Jesus washes all our sins away.” — 1 John 1:7 (CEV)
He Forgets all our Sins.
“But I wipe away your sins because of who I am. And so, I will forget the wrongs you have done.” — Isaiah 43:25 (CEV)
He Removes our sins far from us.
“The Lord won’t always be angry and point out our sins; (10)He doesn’t punish us as our sins deserve. (11)How great is God’s love for all who worship Him? Greater than the distance between heaven and earth! (12)How far has the Lord taken our sins from us? Farther than the distance from east to west!” — Psalms 103:9-12 (CEV)
Jesus Tramples and Throws our sins into the sea.
“and pleased to be merciful. You will trample on our sins and throw them in the sea.” — Micah 7:19 (CEV)
The Bottom Line
Once we ask Jesus to be Lord of our lives, and once He deals with our sins by . . .
Forgiving All Our Sins
Washing All Our Sins Away
Forgetting All Our Sins
Removing All Our Sins
Trampling and Throwing Our Sins Away
Our past sins will never be brought up again. They are totally forgotten and completely out of His mind and memory.
And if the devil tries to bring your past sins to your mind, you remind the devil that your sins are completely forgiven, absolutely gone and totally washed away.
The Apostle Paul said in Romans 8:1, that after we have been saved by Jesus, that . . .
“Therefore there is now no condemnation [no guilty verdict, no punishment] for those who are in Christ Jesus [who believe in Him as personal Lord and Savior].” — Romans 8:1 (AMP)
Conclusion
Our desire, and goal, should be to live the very best life for Jesus that we possibly can, and do our very best to, “go, and sin no more.” (John 8:11).
The Lord bless you as you live for Jesus and faithfully serve Him.
Sincerely,
— Pastor H. Gene Allen, Lead Pastor FamilyChurchAG.com
Pastor H. Gene Allen 