A Worthless Bargain

The buyer haggles over the price, saying, “It's worthless,”
then brags about getting a bargain! Proverbs 20:14

Out the window, I can observe the glaze of ice that began last night, and made my walk home from the Thanksgiving feasting a bit more hair-raising than normal, has stayed with us overnight. Thus, I am getting ready to go out a bit more slowly than the usual. Today is, danger aside, the big sale day for the Christmas holiday shopping season. And, someone, somewhere, will do what I have done before, that is to find a great sale on an item they have no need for and purchase it anyway. The item is worthless to the buyer and will gather dust on a shelf before making its way down to the goodwill store, or worse reside there until the next of kin show up to gather things for the estate auction. What a bargain they made!

As we can read in our verse for today, King Solomon collected this proverb, which speaks to the same behavior, almost a thousand years before Christ our Lord was born in Bethlehem. We like a bargain and it gives us a warm and satisfied feeling to find one. However, a good bargain on a worthless item does a person no good. And, as I have also found out, gifting the item leaves one feeling a bit hollow inside, probably because the method forces a person to fit the gift as opposed to shopping for a gift to fit the person.

Have faith in God though; He can make good come of even our worthless bargains!

Merry Christmas! 
Bucky

The First Thanksgiving Feast

When Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the steward of his house, “Take these men to my home, and slaughter an animal and make ready; for these men will dine with me at noon.” Genesis 43:16

This story has the elements we often see in the Thanksgiving holiday feast. Joseph's family had come from a great distance. Joseph ordered an animal slaughtered for the feast and that the guests be put up in his home for the noon meal. They came bearing food gifts of almonds, honey, spices, and pistachio nuts to add to the feast. They brought double money for... okay, not everything is quite as we do in the Thanksgiving celebration for the day. There is also that part of the story where they do not know that family is hosting them. 

Yes, the Thanksgiving feast would prove a bit awkward if the host turned out to be the kid brother you had thought sold off to slavery and likely never to be seen again. Better that we let the story of the first Thanksgiving feast remain with the Pilgrims and their Indian guests. Both Joseph's story from the Bible and the story from a nation that was to come are good to read and recall on this day of gratitude to our Lord. 

Great is the name of our Lord! 

Bucky 

Give Thanks For The Word

And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. Colossians 3:17

Just before we celebrate Thanksgiving together, I would like to lead us in giving thanks for the Word. Yes, give thanks for the Word Himself, Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. At times it seems rather obvious, and at other times it is rather obvious that we are not remembering to be grateful for God's provision of His Word. Giving thanks to God is a privilege we have through Christ Jesus who died to save us. 

Therefore: Thank You, dear God our Father, for Your Son, our Savior and our Lord, from all of us together on this day before Thanksgiving! May Your name ring joyfully in our hearts this day.

Love,
Bucky

Overwhelmed With Gratitude

She fell at his feet and bowed before him, overwhelmed with gratitude. Then she took her son in her arms and carried him downstairs. 2 Kings 4:37 NLT

Thanksgiving week begins with gratitude and a prayer that when we see Jesus we might have a similar attitude as this woman in our verse today. Surely the person she is falling down before has done a great thing for this woman. Surely it is something to do with her son, a young child as we can see in the circumstances in this verse. This is of course the story of Elisha raising a woman's son back to life. A miracle! And the woman is overwhelmed with gratitude. 

As we have been raised up from sin and back into a new life in our Savior, we too have reason to be overwhelmed with gratitude. What was dead in its sin, is now made new in Christ. Thanks be unto the Lord for His mercy and grace to us. And now we wait gratefully on Him for the resurrection! 

Amen. Hallelujah!

Bucky

The First Most Hairy One

And the first came out red. He was like a hairy garment all over; so they called his name Esau. Genesis 25:25

450 times in the New King James version the word first comes up. Which word are we talking about here, you might ask. No, no, the word 'first' is the one I searched this morning. Esau did not have a good first day. He came out first and he came out red and hairy all over, like a fur garment. And poor Esau runs into a failing we have to this very day - naming the poor kid after an anatomical feature. Esau means 'red'... Esau probably wished for that much of his life. Esau actually means 'hairy'. Sort of like being called fur-ball all your life and being reminded of something you might wish were otherwise. Thanks Mom and Dad! 

Your first day in this world may have started out much better. Perhaps you came into the world with a lyrical name often associated with physical beauty, but more likely is that you were born in the days when babies were given a good swat by the doctor to get us crying right away. The urge to cry continues with us to this day. Be thankful you weren't the first most hairy one. At some points in history, you would have been left in the woods to die and your mother burned at the stake for consorting with an animal. 

Then again, your parents might have named you, Barfswallerol. Imagine spelling that out for the teachers in every grade while the other students rolled on the floor laughing. 

Praise the Lord for the days of this life,

Bucky

Thankful Today, Grateful Tomorrow

And the LORD God prepared a kikayon and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be shade for his head to deliver him from his misery. So Jonah was very grateful for the plant. Jonah 4:6

The word kikayon we usually see as 'plant' in the Bible, because no one in this age seems to know what a kikayon was or is. Whatever sort of plant or structure it may have been in Jonah's day, he was very grateful for it. We don't particularly need to dwell on it, the plant was a gift and Jonah was grateful. However, we know the story: a test came in the morning of the next day and Jonah's gift was withered and unable to provide the shade Jonah so enjoyed. Would Jonah be content with what God sent the next day and remain very grateful? 

Ah, yes, that is the story we know well from back in the day. We know it so well because we have been there. A blessing one day and we are filled with gratitude; a little tribulation the next day and gratitude is forgotten and we are all about blaming the Lord. All our joy is sucked away down the drain of yesterday when the trial comes. I guess we all know that it shouldn't be that way, yet we still catch ourselves right there with Jonah. 

I don't have an answer for this of myself. I can only recommend a good friend who loves and stands ready to help us all. His name is Jesus and through His dear Spirit we have all the help we need to remain very grateful to God when the tough times come.

Love in Christ,
Bucky

A Works Resume?

“So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth. Revelation 3:16

It is interesting that God would rather talk to one who is angry with Him than to one who is ambivalent in his feelings. The word lukewarm gets one appearance in the scriptures and it comes near the end, and it is in a message to a one of the Lord's churches. Even one who is cold toward the Lord seems to have a better chance of being heard than the lukewarm. But, the Lord calls on their works. Why am I going on about attitude? 

If you have never awakened in pain or down in depression, or perhaps just in a plain old poopy funk, then you may not know what a work it is to get into the word of God and enter into prayer in order to turn that attitude around to the glory of God. And yet it appears the Lord is more able to work with a person cold toward His word on that down morning than one who depends upon the richness and plenty of his resume of works and does not know his need for the Lord every morning. I didn't come up with this on my own, it is in the next verse where God starts with, "Because you say..." 

Praise God! I need Him each morning and every day,

Bucky

What God Does

“Oh, that I were as in months past,
As in the days when God watched over me." Job 29:2

Why does Job think God has quit watching over him? The answer to that is of course well known to me, as I have often thought that maybe God was taking a day off that time when... You know the kind of day I speak of ! Perhaps it was only an hour, but surely those terrible things would not have happened had the Lord not taken that time off His duties, we judge with a certain prideful sort of ignorance. Yes, we cannot know all that God has done for even one of us. How could we ever know all that God does in even a moment?

Hebrews 1:3 gives us a revelation of what God is doing at all times: He upholds the universe with the mighty power of His command. What else out there might fall down if God were to relinquish His steadfast attention to duty? We also know from the story in Job that God had set strict limits on what the Enemy could do to Job. Hardly a sign of failing to watch over poor Job. The fact that I am writing this and you are reading it, tells us that the Enemy who was a murderer from the start, according to our Lord Jesus, has not done this to you and me shows that we are watched over constantly by God. 

Always watched over by the Almighty One,

Bucky

Yes, It's Not That Easy

So they read distinctly from the book, in the Law of God; and they gave the sense, and helped them to understand the reading.  Nehemiah 8:8

One fine day in Bible study, you did not feel as though you fully understood the passage. The minions of the dark one stepped in and told how that left your salvation in doubt. Guilt and shame were the tools those minions used to undermine your faith. Look up! Way back in the days of rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem, the Israelites needed help to understand the Word too. Jesus took the disciples aside to explain His parables. The Revelation we are still working on every time someone takes up a study of it. Yes, it's not that easy to understand and know the Word of God! 

Tackling the problem of the Word is an exercise in faith and steadfast endurance combined with a growing love for the Lord. Is it any wonder there can be a communication gap when Isaiah 55:8-9 tells of how God's thoughts are higher than our thoughts as the heavens are above the earth? God could have made it simpler and easier of course, but I think He knows that our struggles with His Word help to hold our attention on Him and to bring us back for more. Fear not though! The Lord knows to give just as much as we can receive at any study session. 

Have a great Friday in Christ the Lord!

Bucky

Prospecting

I rejoice at Your word
As one who finds great treasure. Psalm 119:162

The urge has come over me to go prospecting in the word of God in search of great treasure! I estimate my chances of striking words of purest gold and life-changing treasure at 100 percent. 

As everyone knows, the worldly key to finding life-changing treasure is a metal detector, because all life-changing treasure is made of metal, I guess. It goes something like this: hard-earned treasure is first spent to purchase a metal detector of whatever means the dreamer can afford. Score: worldly treasure hunter -$100 to $1,000 or more (for the accessories of course). Then an old abandoned barnyard is found as it is closer than the beach where the old pirates buried their treasure. 

$100 and a promised share in anything found is forked over to the owner of the 'abandoned' farm when he sees a suspicious car parked on his place.

 

The treasure hunter begins the scan and immediately hears 'tweep!' from the metal detector. He digs up an old pop tab and carefully replaces the disturbed earth. A mere half step later, 'tweep!' and he digs up a rusty nail, 2 flakes of old tin foil, and a bent screw. He shoves the dirt back into the hole, stands up and 'tweep!' goes the metal detector. He digs up part of a horseshoe nearly rusted away. Seeing the pattern, the treasure hunter quickly fiddles with some settings on the metal detector and sets off in search of gold and silver. And proceeds to scan the entire farmstead, all 3 acres of it with nary a sound from the detector. No life-changing treasure today. 

Later that spring, a family stops by a garage sale and sees a metal detector for sale at a modest price. A few miles away, in an abandoned-looking farmyard, an old pirate feels a warm glow spreading from his wallet. 

There is treasure, if we know where to look for it!

God bless,
 Bucky

Enough

For we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles—when we walked in lewdness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries. 1 Peter 4:3

John had connections; Paul could be described as sexist by our standards of the day, and Peter, well, Peter didn't seem to shake off that racism that was common among his people. The will of the Gentiles? Peter seems to be that kind of fellow who could walk into a bar and start arguments and even a fight. And he would be the one standing there wondering to the police afterward what had started it all. 

Take most of our ancestors in the faith and you will find a sinner first. John the Baptist knew enough from the womb to do the right thing. There was difficulty in finding anything wrong with Daniel. And our Lord Jesus of course knew no sin. Most people in the Bible though, especially those chosen by our Lord to follow Him, struggled with a checkered past, and it didn't automatically go away after our Lord saved them. Paul wrote of doing those things he didn't want to do. Peter slams us by calling sin the, "will of the Gentiles." Ow! Thanks, Pete. 

Yet we know enough to know where he is coming from. For we once did the will of the Gentiles and Peter's list probably pretty much tells the story of many a first year in college or away from home in a new job...even for those raised in the church!

Time to follow the Lord Jesus!

Bucky

Serving Well

He has redeemed my soul in peace from the battle that was against me,
For there were many against me. Psalm 55:18

Did David mean there were many people opposing him, or that there were many battles from which the Lord redeemed his soul in peace? Either way works of course. David we know participated in many battles and his reign was not one of fairy tale happily ever after rosy glow in the sky living. Phew, say that again fast. Serving the Lord as king and warrior had its ups and downs for David. Always there were those who opposed David, and always it seemed there was another battle to fight. The one time David decided to hang back in Jerusalem instead of fighting in the battle did not turn out so well. So, do we dare criticize the man after God's own heart? 

We too rise up each day to fight those who oppose us, whether they be physical or spiritual, and we are redeemed  by the Lord to peace of the soul with Him. Like David, we serve well, even though there are days when the battle goes against us and days when we rejoice in the Lord's victory. As with David and his nation of Israel, we are tested by the battles that go against us, usually because we tried to go our own way, and we grow in faith in Christ Jesus our Lord. Faith is the key to serving well in the Lord. 

May the Lord Jesus strengthen our faith on this day,

Bucky

Ask Ever So Much, And the Son Said Yes

“Ask me ever so much dowry and gift, and I will give according to what you say to me; but give me the young woman as a wife.” Genesis 34:12

In this verse it sounds like a story of the greatest love. And yet, surrounding this verse is enough sin to fill the world. The deceitful ones in this story are not the Gentiles. The murderous ones are not the Gentiles. But it all began with a sinful Gentile. This poor verse, surrounded by such sin. 

In this verse though, one can see the Lord Jesus coming before the Father and asking the price to save His intended bride. Surrounded by sin on all sides, the Father and Son stand on the world, and the price to satisfy the judgment on all that sin is the life of the Son. A dowry price so great is all that could allow the marriage ceremony to be held at all. And the Son said, "Yes". 

We rejoice because with that answer we were saved. The Church as the Bride of Christ will one day marry the Bridegroom, who is the Son of God. All that salvation completely dependent upon a love so great that He gave all to save us. Praise the Lord our God and His Son, Jesus Christ!

Bucky

Rough Reminder Alley

Trust in the LORD with all your heart,
And lean not on your own understanding;
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He shall direct your paths. Proverbs 3:5-6

This is one of those oft repeated proverbs that seem to elude me at times. It is in those times when I think that I'm pretty smart or knowledgeable about a thing that I go down Reminder Alley to a meeting with this passage of scripture. Of course, Reminder Alley is one of those streets we go down that has frustrating delays, needless expenses, and self criticism along the way. Reminder Alley is just off of Experience Avenue, and while it does teach us something, the Way of our Lord is much the smoother path. 

The usual indication that I am off on another trip down Reminder Alley is that this scripture comes to mind. As in the reminder from that still small voice that I did what the second line said not to do and suffered the consequences. Praise God that at those times when I am once more standing stupidly in the snare and ready to acknowledge the error of my ways, the Lord has this promise:

Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler
And from the perilous pestilence.  Psalm 91:3

Praise God for His Way,
Bucky

An Illusion of Control

 Pul king of Assyria came against the land; and Menahem gave Pul a thousand talents of silver, that his hand might be with him to strengthen the kingdom under his control.  2 Kings 15:19

King Pul deserves a nod for keeping his name simple, or perhaps not, as Pul may have been, as we tend to do, a shortened version of something too complex for the writer of 2 Kings to remember or spell. Today though, the subject is the illusion of control that money might give us. 

Menahem tried to buy off Pul, and he did it by taxing the rich, and it seemed to work for a time. However, Menahem is among the many kings of Israel introduced to us in these latter years by, "and he did evil in the sight of the Lord." Uh oh, it would seem that buying off the enemy is not what the Lord would have us to do. And as going to money is much the same as running to Egypt when the Lord desires us to come to Him in prayer, yes, we can see that this was not the right answer. 

The dangerous thing is that these worldly answers seem to work for a time. King Pul did take his little name and go home. The rich people taxed could likely afford it and they probably did not forget it either. The poor seemed to get off easy in this case. But, the problem was that it was not the best answer; the answer the Lord desired of Israel: come to Him. 

We have that same choice: try a worldly answer first or come to the Lord in prayer first. Sitting here with a cuppa after breakfast, the answer seems obvious. When the tribulations come though, best to recall that obvious answer real quick! It may not seem so obvious in the moment when we seek control by our own means. 

Have a great day and seek the Lord in prayer!

Bucky

A Long Time Waiting

Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelt!
Add year to year;
Let feasts come around.

Like chaff that passes away;
Yes, it shall be in an instant, suddenly.  Isaiah 29:1 & 5b

We are in that period our Lord Jesus spoke of in His Olivet Discourse, that time of waiting when people are eating and drinking, marrying and going to weddings, and going about the things of daily life here on this earth. (Matthew 24:38-39). The City of Ariel, the notes say it is Jerusalem, also enjoyed a golden age during David's and Solomon's reigns and beyond when life seemed to go on and on as generations grew up to marry and have children who married and so on. We too have genealogies of births, weddings, and deaths going back for quite some time, and still our Lord has not returned for us. Yet, there is that warning a few verses down, suddenly! 

Jesus said that same thing about His return, suddenly! We have only to wait for it, though the days and years may seem long to us. One day, like chaff that passes away, we will see this life gone forever along with all its pain, sorrow, tears, and toil. Wait patiently and be awake, suddenly will be upon us in an instant!

Bucky 

A Few Fragments

So they ate and were filled, and they took up seven large baskets of leftover fragments. Mark 8:8

Halloween is over for another year, except for a few fragments lying about here and there. Yes, Halloween candy, the gift that hangs around the waist. How different were the fragments our Lord had collected after the multitude was filled! Seven large baskets of leftover fragments, enough to feed several more for a time. Where did these leftovers go? The scriptures do not say. 

When the scripture does not say, then it is something we do not need to worry over. Such questions may also indicate that we are missing the main point. He fed four thousand people in this story from Mark's gospel. Would we miss that for worrying over the disposition of a few leftover baskets? 

Praise the Lord on this great day!

Bucky