The Boot of September

For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult
and every garment rolled in blood
will be burned as fuel for the fire. Isaiah 9:5 ESV

We are past the boot of September! This is the sort of announcement that leaves you nonplussed, I'm sure. What could possibly be the 'boot' of September? Well, it's on my Peanuts calendar, right there between the 24th and 25th of September. So, we are now past the boot of September! Still not feeling the celebration? Well, anyway, with that inspiration, I did a word search on the Bible for 'boot', and found just one in the ESV. 

I haven't read the context for this verse yet, but some thoughts do come to mind right away. It may tell of a defeat for an army and the victors burn the footwear and clothing of the defeated troops. Perhaps the tale is a prophecy of a time when war is finished forever, and all willingly toss their combat clothing into the fire in celebration. We cannot know without the rest of the story, but as it is God's word, we do know that this will happen, or has happened, or sometimes both. What can Isaiah 9 have for us to look forward to? 

Aha! You know already. It is nothing less than a prophecy of a child, and such a child he is! Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace! The names roll on from the prophecy of our Savior and Lord, Jesus the Christ. 

All this blessing because Peppermint Patty booted a football on my calendar. You just never know the mysterious ways of God!

Bucky

Which Wanting Have I?

TEKEL: You have been weighed in the balances, and found wanting. Daniel 5:27

The word wanting is found in many places in the Bible, and it is interesting in its scope. Daniel gave the word to a ruler who did not measure up to God's standard in our verse for today. Joseph's wanting was that Mary not be publicly disgraced. Festus kept Paul bound wanting to do the Jews a favor. Later a Roman centurion prevented the death of prisoners because of wanting to save Paul. Wanting, it appears, speaks to the desires of the heart. 

What is my heart wanting to do this day? There's the obvious, I'm hungry and wanting some breakfast. Anyone could easily have guessed that, so what is wanting in my heart that is not me centered on this fine morning? I want to praise God for the lovely cool temperature of autumn mornings and the first few leaves changing to their fall colors. Does not praising God always lift the spirits a bit and take the focus off that too common me theme we tend to have? Yes, it certainly does. Shall I praise God for another day here on earth? Why yes, unless the Rapture came last night and I'm writing this to no one at all today. Of course then I will praise God that all of you have gone to be with our Lord forever!

 

Rejoice and praise the Lord on this day!

Bucky

Pulling You Down

These are spots in your love feasts, while they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves. They are clouds without water, carried about by the winds; late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots; raging waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame; wandering stars for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. Jude 1:12-13

Apostates have been with us for years, but it seems that at the end they will increase. There is only a little bit of Jude in the Bible, and yet much of it is given to warning about apostates. So, what are these things? It would be so easy if they would oblige us with horns, green skin, repulsive appearance, two noses or perhaps a trunk, three beady eyes with shifty little spots, or something that would give them away. Of course we wouldn't need much of warning to avoid such creatures spouting blasphemous words. Unfortunately, the apostates look just like you and me. 

Jude's first example is the Israelites who walked through the Red Sea and out of Egypt. You might think all of them would believe in God with such a sign as walking on dry ground between walls of water in what would in a normal times be a drowning experience. However, some refused to believe and they reached out in unbelief to drag down other Israelites. Apostates share experiences of the miraculous with us and yet refuse to believe and would have us go down with them. Therefore, Jude told us to watch out for them, just as we must say to one another today. 

Love to you in Christ Jesus!

Bucky

Find Your Way Home

Fools are so exhausted by a little work
that they can't even find their way home. Ecclesiastes 10:15 NLT

A little work this morning just outside. Another branch fell last night, but this one is more my size, as in no heavy equipment required. However, it did miss a window pane by a few inches, so praise to God for that. I also hope and pray in light of today's verse that I am not exhausted and unable to find my way home. Especially fervent prayer for that as the branch is leaning against my house! 

Why wouldn't this fool be able to find his way home though after a little work? It may be that Solomon has observed the work of fools and found them apt to go to the bar after a little work and so be too drunk to find their way home. This happens much even today. Many a marriage has been lost due to fools not being able to find their way home after work. Yes, this little proverb from the Ecclesiastes has some barbs poking out. And as often happens in the Bible, I hear those haunting words... "and such were some of you."  Our eternal home is in Heaven with Jesus, and we need Him to bring us there. Until that time though, we have earthly homes to live in for this brief season until our Lord returns. After a little work, we need to find our way home. All relationships in this time require some effort on our part, and one way to maintain those closely is to find our way home in a timely manner. Don't play the fool; find your way home!

No one else at home? Enter into that prayer closet! There's a relationship that always does us good to work on. 

Bucky

Ar, Matey! Whosoever Ye Will

And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. Revelation 22:17

Top o' the mornin' to ya, matey! Be this the final offer in the Word o' the Lord for them that will? Thar be a hundred and eighty-three whosoevers in the Word by Good King James, startin' with that whosoever would slayeth that scalawag Cain being cursed seven time oer' to that most famous verse of faith and love to the Lord's son in John 3:16 and on to this final offer to them that will. 

Would ye, matey? After all dem rumblins that pepper the Revelation, would ye take His final offer freely? Methinks Captain SwashBucky would have ye all saved this day! 

Would Jesus our Lord go for International Talk Like a Pirate Day? Ar, matey, methinks He could spill it wit' da best o' the seven seas sailors and rogues! 

Capt. SwashBucky

I Am Your Salvation

Take hold of shield and buckler,
And stand up for my help. Psalm 35:2

Ah yes, the interpretation view of one verse may go according to what the reader wants to see in it. Some would look at this and say that works are needed first to gain the Lord's help in salvation. And why, they may ask, would the Lord be averse to our participation in this work? 

It is critical that the work of salvation belong to the Lord. All of it. How could our Lord Jesus proclaim it finished on the cross if you or I these many years later still had a part to work out in it? What possible help could fallen man be in the work of salvation? Can you imagine 7 billion different partial solutions to salvation this morning? Aiiee! Neither can I. As Paul would say, "May it never be so!" Try not to imagine the horror as part of salvation was decided in each period of history. What part would the Coliseum, the guillotine, a world war, or a large corporation play in those diverse solutions? Which political party gets to decide for all of us after the majority votes? AAAUUGH!

It does not take much knowledge of us to see why we should not hold among ourselves any part of the solution to our salvation. Praise God it was in Christ alone! And David writing this psalm asked God for His help, and in the next verse writes to the Lord, "Say to my soul, 'I am your salvation.' " 

He is indeed our salvation!

Bucky

The Choice Comes

But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie. Revelation 22:15

Are we ready for the choice? It comes soon. Of course those of us who believe in Jesus have already made our choice. But for many, this day comes quickly. Will they believe in the Christ, the Son of the Living God? Or will they take the easier and wider path, have faith in only themselves or in the powers of this world, and fall to eternal outside with the dogs and sorcerers? 

For many, there is no choice yet. They think that they are not bad enough for the list in our verse for today, and yet somehow are good enough for heaven. They think that they should not have to choose because when the line is drawn at the judgment, if there even is such a thing, that their basic goodness and decency will place them above it. After all they do not act like those over there that the news media is reporting on today. And of course they are not nearly so bad as that famous Christian who sinned over in that big church. 

For those who have made the choice to believe in Jesus though, we know quite well that we belong on that list in our verse today except for Him. It is His dear Spirit who has made us aware of our utter failure to qualify for the judgment and that He has saved us anyway. The choice was made because He made it possible for us to choose Him. He of course is Jesus the Christ, Son of God and Savior. 

Once I was an idolatrous, murderous, sexually immoral sorcerer dog who loved and practiced a lie, and then He came into my life. 

Bucky

Full-Moon Friday the 13th

I will put an end to all witchcraft,
and there will be no more fortune-tellers.  Micah 5:12

Though your calendar may say the 14th, it seems that due to UTC and the Greenwich meridian and things like that, the full moon arrives over the U.S. late tonight, giving us a full-moon Friday the 13th. This has some a bit on edge over the state of things on this day, especially those who apparently fear turning into unlucky werewolves. What is going on all around us we must not ignore, for these are the very ones the Lord sent us to in His great commission. 

However, I was glad to see this morning that a couple of career and life choices will no longer be offered past a certain point. In Micah that day comes and, witchcraft and fortune-telling are no more. To us they are of no use anyway and worse they are forms of that which infuriates our Lord, idolatry. We are to give such things no credit and certainly none of God's glory. Want to know something of the future? Check the prophets the Lord has sent to us. Micah would be a good one to start with on a day such as this. I like it when our Lord states quite plainly: "I will put an end to all witchcraft." 

Praise God!
Bucky

The Lord's Instructions

 Also you shall destroy all the peoples whom the LORD your God delivers over to you; your eye shall have no pity on them; nor shall you serve their gods, for that will be a snare to you. Deuteronomy 7:16

Destroy all the peoples...? The wild-eyed lunatic with the 7-foot spear coming at you yelling death and destruction, sure most of us would have no problem with the instruction at that point. The diseased old crone chanting an evil curse at us, okay that is a form of attack. But then there is the children. Which of us could follow the Lord's command at that point? Have no pity on them? Did the Lord really say that, Moses? 

If you want to save yourself, this is the law that you must follow: to the letter, every jot and tittle. One of us cannot speak for the other, but personally, I like that Jesus said to believe in Him and have eternal life. I love Jesus for fulfilling the law on my behalf. I love God for sending His Son to die on the cross for the fact that I cannot follow His law to the letter, especially those letters in our verse for today. And then the Spirit leads us to God not wanting to destroy peoples either, but wanting to save everyone through His wonderful Son, Immanuel. 

Now there is some good news!

Bucky

Patriot Day 2019

“Behold the proud,
His soul is not upright in him;
But the just shall live by his faith. Habakkuk 2:4

Today we remember a sudden attack on our land in the form of civilian airplanes hijacked by an enemy who wished to destroy. And destroy they did. The details you will recall all too well, and if not there will be much opportunity today to refresh your memories. It is events such as 9/11 that test our faith.

How can a loving God allow such a thing? Many ask this question even today. What God allows is a choice. Some choose to believe in the Christ, while others choose to ignore, reject, procrastinate, and even envy, hate, or destroy. Take away the ability to choose the sin and to do what is right is no longer a choice but a default. The way of faith preserves the choice, and there will be events such as this one we remember on this day. Some will choose death and destruction over the salvation and justification bought by Jesus with His blood. And when they do make that choice, suffering comes to many and faith is tested. 

We believe in Jesus the Christ, and one day He will return. 

Bucky

The Journey From Birth to Redemption

Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. Jeremiah 29:12-13

The flesh we inherited from Adam at our birth takes a look at this scripture and decides there is too much work involved. That heart we were born with is known in another scripture as desperately wicked. How can such a thing be expected to search for God in an all-in sort of way? Too much work the flesh assumes and urges us to give it up for the pleasures of here and now.

Then, there was the rebirth in the Spirit and a renewal of the mind that began that very day. And thus did the war begin in us and in earnest as the heart of the birth wars against the spirit of the rebirth for possession of that formerly lost sheep.

However, Jeremiah was a prophet. And the prophet passes along to us a promise from God: 

"You WILL call upon Me and pray to Me... And you WILL seek Me and find Me." [Emphasis added.]

There is no maybe or might be in the prophecy of the Lord, and though it was at first directed at and to Israel, the Word moved on to the Gentiles and that, my friends, is us. We will call upon and pray to the Lord God, and He will hear us. What a wonderful promise! 

And that whole heart thing? There is an active promise at work in there too. And as we are redeemed by the dear Holy Spirit of God each and every day, that old heart is being broken up and replace by the new. Trust in Him!

Bucky

Repent!

Return to Him against whom the children of Israel have deeply revolted. For in that day every man shall throw away his idols of silver and his idols of gold—sin, which your own hands have made for yourselves. Isaiah 31:6-7

Return to Him is the call in the Bible from about Genesis 3 to Revelation 22. In the New Testament it is known as repentance, and in the OT it is the same thing. "Repent and be saved!" call the apostles of the Lord after the Pentecost. "Return to the Lord!" call the prophets after Israel. Those who know of the Lord God are called throughout history to return to Him. Even those of us who are saved by the Lamb are called to return daily to the Lord for we still have this old nature, a fellow passenger on the road to the Promised Land, who wants to trip us up and lay us low in the pleasures of the world. Repent! the call comes to those whom God loves.

Yes, I too once hoped that after the salvation thing we were free to do just any old thing. The flesh and the Devil would very much like us to believe that. However, there is our testimony which can be damaged by our sinful actions and thoughts. People who are curious about the Lord and His salvation watch us, and they take note of the stumbles and falls. It isn't that we are not forgiven for every sin from birth to death. It is that we love our neighbors and want the cleanest testimony to show them. We have plenty of examples already of how we were in our sins and how our Lord forgave them. Perhaps we can store up a few in Christ where we don't have to begin the story with what we did wrong?

Following the Lord who leads us in His righteousness,

Bucky

The Midnight Alarm?

At midnight I will rise to give thanks to You,
Because of Your righteous judgments. Psalm 119:62

We eagerly await the trumpet call at midnight, though it might happen at midday, because of a famous song about that subject. Last night, I had a midnight alarm call. I'm not sure how it got set or activated or whatever, but this device of dubious moral character went off at midnight out in my living room. As I cannot quite come to terms with a burglar risking years in jail simply for the purpose of playing a cruel practical joke on me, the fault must be mine. As God appears in His word and in my life to enjoy taking bad, inconvenient, or difficult things and using them for His glory and my edification, I am reminded of a that midnight cry we await any day now.

The ten virgins waited for it in our Lord's parable, and Paul wrote about it to the churches, and we wait too. This event is of such importance that our Lord reminded us to be ready. It is that sudden event that left one man standing alone in the field, one woman grinding the flour, and another with a bed to himself. In the twinkling of an eye, Paul said, we will be transformed and snatched up to be with our Lord Jesus forever! Yes, what better to turn to when awakened in the night but that great event known as the Rapture. Who better to turn to than the One who will bring us to Himself!

Thank You, dear Lord, for that reminder,

Bucky

The Fallen To The Risen

​

​​The fortress of the high fort of your walls
​​He will bring down, lay low,
​​And bring to the ground, down to the dust.​ Isaiah 25:12

In the past week, some of my high forts were knocked down. Yes, Isaiah is speaking out in the Lord against Moab. But this pertains to our forts as well; those strongholds of talent, intellect, physical strength, health, wealth, and other worldly forts that we think just might save us from something. We are blessed by the Lord when those forts that stand in our lives against Him are brought down to the dust.

Whatever may stand between us and the Lord, and our complete dependence upon Him and His salvation, must be thrown down, down to the ground. So that we cannot try to say silly things like, "I helped the Lord save me!" ​Nope, me and you were no help in salvation at all, only the blood of the Lamb could cleanse such a fallen one as you and me. The fallen must come to the risen to be saved, and it is only the Risen Lord Jesus who can save.

Praise God for His Risen Savior!

Bucky

The Right View

But many of the priests and Levites and heads of the fathers’ houses, old men who had seen the first temple, wept with a loud voice when the foundation of this temple was laid before their eyes. Yet many shouted aloud for joy, so that the people could not discern the noise of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people, for the people shouted with a loud shout, and the sound was heard afar off. Ezra 3:12-13

One generation recalled the glory of Solomon's temple and mourned what they had lost. Another generation saw the new temple and shouted for joy at what the Lord had given them. Which of them had the right view?

We might easily criticize the old ones, for they mourned what was gone in light of the disappointing floor plan of the new temple. We might just as easily criticize the younger set for not respecting the old things as they should. We have plenty of criticism to go around it seems. We might also take a trip to Jerusalem and see that neither temple is there at the moment, and then criticize Ezekiel for writing about a temple that has never been built. What a dreamer he was!

John and Peter could recall Jesus as He was when first calling up the disciples to follow Him. And they could witness to the resurrected Lord and that they had seen Him disappear into the clouds above them. And like a certain temple, they promised that the Lord too would return in His glory. So, what is the right view: to mourn with the great old ones until God wipes away every tear, or to rejoice with the new believers until our Lord returns?

I think that we will experience both several times until that time our Lord Jesus comes and God the Father wipes away every tear from our eyes. Always ready are we in Christ to mourn with those who mourn and to rejoice in Him!

Have a great Labor Day weekend!

Bucky

The People You Love

Shew thy marvellous lovingkindness, O thou that savest by thy right hand them which put their trust in thee from those that rise up against them. Psalm 17:7

What do you and I have that could put God in our debt and make Him owe us some lovingkindness? Yes, what an absurd question. Born fallen and living on the cursed earth, do we have anything at all to offer to the holy and perfect God of our fathers? And, no, adding any of our imperfection and fallen sinfulness to perfect righteousness would only serve to diminish our Lord.

However, then God showed His lovingkindness in the person of Jesus the Christ, and mercy was given to our sinfulness. The blood of the Lamb covered the fallen with grace. We have only to believe Him and believe in Him.

The people God loved were given a gift not one or all of us could purchase, and certainly more than we deserved. We place our trust in the Lord for salvation because there is no other way to be saved. The Lord owes us nothing, but in His lovingkindness He gave us His Son.

Have a great day in the Lord!

Bucky

Let Us Give

“These men are at peace with us. Therefore let them dwell in the land and trade in it. For indeed the land is large enough for them. Let us take their daughters to us as wives, and let us give them our daughters. Genesis 34:21

In Christ we want to do what is right, and so we study the Old Testament looking for those concrete, letter-of-the-law stories that make every decision obvious to us. And we come to the Dinah Incident. Everything in this is crystal clear, good guys vs. bad guys, um, yeah. Let us give them our daughters?

It would later be set down by God that Israel was not to intermarry with the tribes and nations around them in the Promised Land. Before that though came the Dinah Incident. To make the long story short, at least until you read it in Genesis 34, it is enough to know that one sin begets another and another, and Jacob's sons are not without their own guilt in this incident. Fornication, deceit, murder, and perhaps what we call statutory rape in our time, all combine to make a rather sordid story; one that is unfortunately so very fallen human in its scope.

Giving your daughters or some other sacrifice of value after the sin has been done just doesn't make up for the unrighteousness committed (and what did the daughters do wrong to deserve this fate?). Deceit and murder does not wipe the slate clean either, even if it is in response to a sin. This and other stories show that we are just pretty lousy at trying to save ourselves. As fallen humans, we don't really know how to make up for sin. It is a good thing for us that God sent to us a Savior!

Rejoice in the Lord!

Bucky

End Times Lazy

The lazy man is wiser in his own eyes
Than seven men who can answer sensibly. Proverbs 26:16

Have I become end times lazy? It is a question that I must ask of myself because it would be so easy to become that way. The Rapture could happen at any moment now, so why bother to work on the house, weed the garden, fix that relationship, or work for a living? Well, for one thing, there is no one who knows the day or the hour of that snatching away, and so the day and hour might be just far enough into the future that a lazy person could starve to death waiting and looking up at the sky. It may be even so far out there in calendar terms that the house sheltering one from the rain and snow might fall down before that trumpet call sounds. I won't use the weeds one because as all who have ever gardened can tell you, the weeds can take over a garden in about the same quickness as the Rapture will happen; that is, in the twinkling of an eye.

We have a duty to perform, a calling, and even a commission from our Lord Jesus. As the end times started when He arose to Heaven so long ago, and could end at any moment, or not for another hundred years, we must watch out for that end times lazy. The desire to quit doing all things and stand there staring at the sky, heavenly minded but no earthly good, as a famous pastor used to say.

Of course, looking again at our verse for today, if I am end times lazy, will I even know what I'm writing about here? I may need to look for seven men who can answer sensibly.

Now, go to work for Christ!

Bucky

Worthless Shepherds

“Woe to the worthless shepherd,
Who leaves the flock!
A sword shall be against his arm
And against his right eye;
His arm shall completely wither,
And his right eye shall be totally blinded.” Zechariah 11:17

A rash of leaders falling away or rejecting Christianity? I'll bet this message from the Lord through Zechariah will come up in sermons across the land.

This is not about the false prophets, for those have their own curses and judgment to face. No, this is about the one who becomes of no value, worthless, dried up sticks to feed the fire, and a shriveled fig tree with the ax poised to cut off its roots. This is to those who want to serve in a position of trust and then quit. Who desire to just walk away from their flock and leave 'em to the wolves of the world.

That leader may want to check with the Lord first.

Does this verse mean that ministers are 'stuck' in that one church in the little town in that rural state for their lives? No, there may come a time when the Lord would move some ministers around and would make sure that a new shepherd comes to the flock. And retirement is certainly possible too. But it is for the one who feels the temptation to quit on the Lord and His flock, and gives in to it!

Prayer is needed in this, from the shepherd and the flock.

Love to you in Christ Jesus,

Bucky

Turning To God

When the men of Israel saw that they were in danger (for the people were distressed), then the people hid in caves, in thickets, in rocks, in holes, and in pits. 1 Samuel 13:6

It is easy to see the circumstance of Israel by this picture of terrified people hiding anywhere they could find a place. But how like the fallen Adam they are in this moment! God had brought them to the promised land and they were hiding in the bushes. We might see their military as disarmed and impotent, or their leaders as weak, but what about their faith in God? After all those miracles, did Israel really need a strong leader to turn them to God in this moment? Could they not turn themselves each to prayer in faithful God?

We can understand that too in this age as so many of our fellows will not turn to God, not even in fear or under threat of catastrophe. They need us to do our thing; that thing those who follow our Lord Jesus do so well: we comfort them with the good news of Jesus our Savior. Mercy, compassion, love, and the joy of knowing Christ Jesus are just what our neighbors need in this world where each trip to the fair might be their last. And we can turn to God for the right words in every time and place!

Have a great day in Christ Jesus!

Bucky

A Pure Language

“For then I will restore to the peoples a pure language,
That they all may call on the name of the LORD,
To serve Him with one accord. Zephaniah 3:9

Restoration in the form of a pure language, that is wonderful news! As a writer, I am often appalled at how poor our language is in this age. We want to love God, but then we say how much we love pizza. There is something quite wrong there. We yearn to speak how awesome God is, and hear someone going on about how awesome their new car is; where is the difference we can use to honor God? And then there is the myriad of different languages and dialects on the Earth. How do we serve God with one accord when we cannot even understand one another? However, it was God's doing that scattered the peoples by confusing the language in the first place.

It serves God's purpose now to give us this confusion of tongues. One day though, our Lord God promises a restoration to a pure language. All may call on the name of the Lord in the same pure language. No fears about making funny signs at each other, no worries over social embarrassment through ignorance of foreign words, only a rich communication as we come together to worship God with words that mean exactly what we say and say exactly what we mean.

Rejoice in Immanuel, our Lord and God,

Bucky

Great Darkness, Great Fear

And the sun is about to go in, and deep sleep hath fallen upon Abram, and lo, a terror of great darkness is falling upon him. Genesis 15:12 YLT

This is that time of the year when the sun seems to fall out of the sky in the evening and has trouble getting up in the morning. Actually, we know it is just that seasonal change as autumn approaches about a month out and the long days of summer are passing in anticipation of school beginning once more. As for me, this is that time when I am once again getting up and going to bed at or near the hours of darkness. I'm avoiding the issue. Yes, it's true. Me and Abraham are scared of the dark!

I chose the Young's Literal Translation because it states that Abraham had a terror OF great darkness falling on him, while the NKJV, the usual version I use, states that horror AND great darkness fell upon him. Perhaps the translators of the latter one could not believe that Abraham might be scared of the dark! Actually, Abraham had good reason to be afraid as a prophecy of four hundred (400!) years of affliction for his descendants came to him from the Lord that very night. 'Horror and' or 'terror of' are both right it would seem.

As for me, my fears are not so much fun anymore. The boogies and bogeys of my youthful darkness fears have given way to the more mundane, such as running into a partly closed door edge in my skivvies or maybe cracking a shin on something I would have cleared easily in the daylight. Middle-aged fears of the dark just aren't quite so much fun as dreaming an alligator will snap at you from under a dresser in the basement. It's too bad too, those youthful bogeys had a way of waking a person right up!

Have a great new week in Christ!

Bucky

Useless Help

Give us help from trouble,
For the help of man is useless. Psalm 60:11

We don't want to be known as useless. Okay, maybe when that family wants to move all of their heavy furniture (and six wagon loads of stuff) from the 2nd floor apartment across town to that house with the steep driveway and narrow steps, we might accept the title for a day or two then. Sounds like a job for professional movers to me! Most of the time though, we would rather not be known as the useless one; the one with no skills or knowledge that can help anyone. However, there are many situations in this world where the help of man is indeed useless.

Salvation would be the A-number one problem along those lines. No help from man is going to solve that one! As the scholars of the word like to remind us: if it were so, then the life of our Lord Jesus would not have been required at the cross. No religion, no ritual, no help from man can save one of us, for that is the Lord's work and His alone. There are further problems in which man cannot help too.

Separation from a loved one perhaps? Our brothers and sisters in Christ gather quickly together to offer comfort and support, but the only thing that helps is the promise from our Lord Jesus that there will be a reunion for all those who believe in Him. We appreciate the efforts of our Christian siblings, but bottom line as these separations strike their sudden and painful blows is that promise that it is not forever. Now when those brothers and sisters align themselves with God's great promise and repeat it to us. Yes, surely then they too are useful help in this.

In Christ alone,
Bucky

The Last Days

...knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, 2 Peter 3:3

It is just a bit of a sentence, but how well the words of Peter speak to us in this age.

You may have noticed in the news this morning a disturbing report from Philadelphia wherein some persons in the crowd taunted and heckled the police officers in a stand off. It was, the reported noted, only a small fraction of the crowd gathered there. It is, however, a mode of behavior that appears more and more in our society and gains attention each time. The man surrendered eventually, but not before wounding six police officers. With the difference from wounding to death being so small in a gunshot, this disrespect is unloving and ugly.

One of the signs of the end times is the love of many turning cold as lawlessness is increased. (Matt 24:12) We can read of this daily, but sometimes it stands above the crowd a bit higher than before, and this report bothered me a lot. It is like the Holy Spirit nudging me to note this well. Be ready brothers and sisters in Christ, the end is near!

Love and grace to you in Jesus Immanuel, our Lord and Redeemer!

Bucky

Not One Is Missing

Lift up your eyes on high,
And see who has created these things,
Who brings out their host by number;
He calls them all by name,
By the greatness of His might
And the strength of His power;
Not one is missing.    Isaiah 40:26 

What in your life would you miss today if it were suddenly taken away from everyone? Smart phones? A little app like Netflix maybe? How about an operating system such as Windows 10? I can answer to that last one; if I did not have a backup PC at work, then no writing the devotional for today! Yes, an update tried to install last night and no PC for me this morning. Now who is going to fix my PC?

Something missing from everyone and everywhere would be a real attention-getter to those left behind, don't you think? That is of course a big part of the Rapture of the Church coming along any day now. However, for God, who will give the word for that moment in time when all those who believe are snatched away from this world, not one is missing of those He will reunite with His Son. He knows all things by name, and as it stands to reason that you and I are a part of that set of all things, then we too are known by name by the Lord God Almighty.

Rest in that knowledge today!

Bucky

P.S. I guess I know my project for this evening.

The Word of Ancient Times

After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.” Genesis 15:1

We must admit to a bit of jealousy in this one thing: the word of the Lord came to those people way back in ancient times, and in a vision too. Adam walked with God in the cool of the evening, Abraham received the word of God in a vision, but what do we get? Of course, neither Adam nor Abraham had a copy of God's Word in text form that any of us can get freely from the Gideons and other sources. We might even spend some money and purchase a spiffy leather-bound copy at a bookstore.

However, that Word of God in spirit form has also come unto us, for one of the missions of God's own Spirit is seen in John 14:26: "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you." Even without a copy of the word in book form, we have the Spirit of God reminding us of all things Jesus said. We have the Word right here in us; it doesn't get more immediate and intimate than that.

So, in place of griping about how the word has not come to us; let us give thanks to God for His Word in us! And watch faith and love grow as we are each guided by the Word as we read the Word of God, both of which we have by the grace of God.

Amen,
Bucky

Your Story, In The Hands Of The World

“We heard Him say, ‘I will destroy this temple made with hands, and within three days I will build another made without hands.’ ” Mark 14:58

False witness is a part of the narrative of this world. Your story, in the hands of the world, is going to change in ways you never thought possible. I don't even have to cite an example, as I know already that you have experienced this in your life.

It doesn't take much: a confession of a phobia, a telling of an old story from back in the day, and suddenly a new story is spun! One in which you get to star, all the while chasing this new story on its quick little legs, and protesting, "It didn't happen that way!" A little exaggeration might begin the news cycle, a bit of hyperbole is thrown in to make it more interesting to the teller of the tale, and that little confession you made suddenly has Oscar potential. Too bad you didn't think to retain the movie rights!

Jesus faced the same problem. His story before the court had become something quite different; so different that the witnesses could not agree which false narrative was the correct one to tell! People lined up to call the Holy One of God names which were blasphemous. Others shouted at Him to do things while He was dying to save them from their sins! Just as our Lord was treated so badly in the public stories, we too will face tales that bear subtle and evil changes to the original.

The Savior we love is not viewed in the same light by all in this world, and we must be prepared to defend His good name by our testimony.

Rejoice in Christ the Lord!

Bucky

Two By Garrulous Two?

After these things the Lord appointed seventy others also, and sent them two by two before His face into every city and place where He Himself was about to go. Luke 10:1

The world takes it as a sign of strength that a person should go alone to a strange place and do business. Jesus did not send His messengers alone, but two by two. We are taught in business courses about efficiency, building wealth, multiplying ourselves by replication of effort, and other worldly ways. Jesus did not do it that way.

"Aha! Got you there," The unbeliever declares, "for that is exactly what this Jesus was doing." Sorry to disagree with you, Mr. Unbeliever, but the scripture says that Jesus was going to every one of those cities and places where He sent His disciples. They went to prepare the place ahead of our Lord, but not one pair of those disciples could be the Lord. We find in another place that even such illustrious disciples as John and James were not qualified to take places on either side of our Lord Jesus, for those two places were reserved for a certain pair of criminals. What? Criminals?

We know the story from the gospels, and it surprises us that two disciples could not be there with Him on those crosses. And yet, we are reminded that our Lord does not do things our way. One way that works out is in bearing witness. When you give testimony, you do not need to do it alone. Someone in the church going out to meet people? Don't make them do it alone; go with! Not good at speaking up for the Lord? He will provide a garrulous gospeler to go with you!

Have a great day in the Lord!

Bucky

Let Tough Stop Us, Never!

Now when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth!” John 11:43

I sat down to Bible study this morning with an idea for next week's lesson. However, the idea did not appear to have enough substance in the scriptures to carry it through to completion. Appearances can be deceiving, as the old saying goes. A tough lesson is a test we cannot let stop us. And indeed, what if Lazarus had tried to get up and found himself bound up in grave clothes? No 'what if?' about it, he did find himself in that circumstance!

As the power of the divine command showed how Death's hold could not stand against the authority of our Lord Jesus, Lazarus met a tough obstacle. How does one get up in obedience when the grave dressers of the world have one bound up hand and foot? And that cloth covering the face didn't help one get a good breath either! I can imagine Lazarus having one moment of decision there in that grave: get up in spite of the tough obstacles in the circumstance, or lay back down and accept the waiting arms of Death, yet again. We know how the story came out, Lazarus obeyed his friend and Lord, and did not let a tough situation stop him. Quickened to life by the Lord and energized by His command, Lazarus came forth from the grave.

Now what circumstance seems too tough for you and me today? Where is Jesus our Lord quickening us to go? Lazarus was dead and bound up tight in grave clothing; what circumstance is too tough for you and me to face, with our faces uncovered and our limbs free? No, bound up with something in this world as we are, what circumstance is too tough when our Lord speaks His command, "Come forth!" and energizes us to new life and freedom with a little help from our friends?

Have a great day in Christ Jesus!

Bucky

I'll Be Content, Just As Soon As I Get There

Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you." Hebrews 13:5

The actor became famous for one particular role, and rich too! Yet, she wants to be known for a great range of parts. The musician was acknowledged by all as the best at playing one instrument, but he soon wanted to be the singer of the song too. In Luke, Jesus told the soldiers to be content with their pay. Has any soldier in any army been content with their pay since that time? How about you? Are you content with your pay, your life, your body, anything at all? I would like to report my contentedness and how I got there so that you can follow me, but I would be a liar. I know that I should be content, but I'm not.

Content is a land just over the next horizon, and I'll be content just as soon as I get there. How is that any different from the rest of the world?

Too true! From some day back in my past, I lost the state of content and found a world where I am not good enough. The world advertises my shortcomings every moment of each day. I'll just bring you into it, because from the day we first took our eyes off our immediate surroundings, you and I have been told we are not good enough in so many ways that our little heads will spin until our dying day...if we continue to pay attention to the world's judgment of you and me.

Yes, that is what happened. That day back in the day was the day we first listened to what the world had to say about us. It wasn't the criticism of a friend that sharpens us, it was the impersonal advertising of the world that said we could be better if we just went out to buy this, do this, change this, or in some way earn a way into the groovy crowd. (My day was back there a little ways.) And all along that way, our Lord told us in the scriptures to come to Him and lay down that burden of never good enough, because we will never satisfy it and only He can make us holy. The answer is just like the song sings:

In Christ Alone,

Bucky

The Time To Obey

Those who built on the wall, and those who carried burdens, loaded themselves so that with one hand they worked at construction, and with the other held a weapon. Nehemiah 4:17

Young Jadon followed his father up the hillside to the base of the city wall, a short spear suited to his stature in one hand and a pair of squared-off stones cradled in the other. His father carried a full spear and several of the larger middle stones which left Jadon ashamed until his abba told him to be patient as strength would come with growth in a season or two. As his father began work on a section of wall that their family worked at Nehemiah's direction, the young men of Jadon's age began the trek back down the hill to gather more stones for the wall building, following the asses and wagons which brought the large main stones up.

As the portage train wound its way along the steep trails, Jadon gave some thought to how long this project would take, and how or when he could get back to his leather work, something he enjoyed doing after the day's stone work was finished. If all of them could carry more stones with each trip, Jadon pondered, then the building might go faster. Even the ass drivers carried a weapon in one hand, meaning each of them could only manage one ass per trip. What if he could put together some sort of sheath, then they all would only be a little slower to deploy their weapons should the Samarians attack as Nehemiah suspected they might before the wall was completed.

Taking up his cloak at their water break, Jadon tore some strips and fashioned a mock-up of what he would make with leather later. Not on the side or front of the body, that was for sure; he didn't want to interfere with the larger loads they could carry. Jadon arrived last in the stone line but with his spear slung diagonally across his back and both hands free to tote the load. The supervisor of the quarry looked at him with a strange glance, but loaded him with twice the usual stones for his trip up the hill.

As they had the energy of the young, Jaden's friends questioned him about this rig, but refused to change theirs at the next break for fear of disobeying their abbas. Jaden, pushed aside the fear that rose up in him too, and instead chose to dream of the accolades his elders would bestow for his creative thinking. Perhaps he would even be sent to Nehemiah for special words of praise! It was in this dreamy state as he neared the wall that the alarm was shouted, "Samarians!"

The other men, young and older, quickly set down their wall stones and stood ready, spears in hand. Jaden grabbed for his spear, dropping his stones in the process and breaking two of them he saw, and tried to draw the spear bound to his back. What had worked so well in the calm of the water break below, did not go quite so easily in anticipated combat. First the 'sheath' tended to want to follow the shaft up and over his shoulder, and then the straps did not stay but lifted the back of his shift so that a rather demeaning view of his breeches showed over the valley below.

Seeing the readiness of the Hebrews, the squad of Samarians backed off quickly, acting as though it was some sort of exercise on their part. Jaden's abba helped him remove his spear and straighten his clothing. Jaden tensed up for the expected punishment, but his abba only led him out of hearing and away from the laughter he could hear starting among his friends as they retrieved their unbroken stones.

"Son, it is a good thought, but our lives hang in the balance here and we do not have the luxury of time to experiment. When the wall is completed, you shall have time to work out the problems with your sheath. Now though, is the time to obey," his abba stated gently. "And I suspect you have ruined the cloak your mother and sisters worked so hard to make for you."

Face flushed in shame, Jaden decided to obey, and to weather the storm sure to spring up back at home.

A Friday story for you!

God is good,

Bucky

Putting People To Sleep

And in a window sat a certain young man named Eutychus, who was sinking into a deep sleep. He was overcome by sleep; and as Paul continued speaking, he fell down from the third story and was taken up dead. Acts 20:9

Yup, even back in the day preachers could put people to sleep. Good enough for the world would be a cautionary tale: don't fall asleep on window ledges. However, this was not a good enough kind of tale for the Bible. Paul was there, and in the Spirit, Paul goes down and falls on the man, and then gives him a hug.

This is still used today as the initial steps in the paramedic's manual for falls from the third story of a building. You know it isn't! There's no fooling you on a Thursday morning. Falling on a fall victim and embracing them is not what modern medicine recommends to us when responding to an accident. However, the next morning, the young man was brought in alive.

The world declared the young man, Eutychus, lost and dead. The apostle of God declared otherwise, and the man lived. Kind of reminds us of something, I think. In the world, we are declared dead. In Christ, we live.

The time of the rapture of the twice born comes soon!

Bucky

His Way: Abundant Pardon

​Let the wicked forsake his way,
​​And the unrighteous man his thoughts;
​​Let him return to the LORD,
​​And He will have mercy on him;
​​And to our God,
​​For He will abundantly pardon. Isaiah 55:7

I want to go to Heaven, forever. And I have a few ideas about what Heaven should be. Those sound like my way. And the first line of our verse for today addresses my way. Throughout the years of my life on this earth I have shown my way to be filled with, let's see, what's the word for it? Oh yes, it too is right there in that first line of the verse, wicked. Indeed from an early age I learned how to demand my way and care nothing for my neighbor's way. The closest neighbor of course being my mother and my method of demanding being the usual for a baby, something in the tone of 'waaah!'.

Our verse tells of forsaking my way, the way of selfishness and thinking that I have a knowledge of what is good and what is evil. Hmm, that reminds me of something too, an old story from the Bible. As soon as Adam took that forbidden fruit, he likely was stunned by the number and strength of unrighteous thoughts that assaulted his mind. And the call from that first day of sin was for us to return to the Lord. Adam tried to hide from the Lord, and then he tried to blame his wife. Men have performed poorly at saving themselves ever since that time.

Two lines in this verse speak of wicked and unrighteous men, one line is a meeting of the man and the Lord, and then comes mercy and abundant pardon. Note how we are to return to the LORD and to our God. Jesus is our Lord and the way to God the Father. My way will never save me, but His way, who by the way IS the Way, has saved us from the law of sin and death.

Praise God for His mercy and abundant pardon!

Bucky

Love Trumps Rules?

Revive me with your loyal love, that I might keep the rules you have revealed. Psalm 119:88

[Disclaimer] There is no apostrophe in the title and this is not a statement about our President's decrees.

When I searched on love and rules in the Bible text, it was interesting that there was no verse saying that love trumps rules. In fact, there were several verses in the New English Translation and a couple in the ESV where love and rules went hand in hand. Deuteronomy, that old book of the law, spoke of loving the Lord and keeping His rules. The psalmist spoke of loving the Lord's rules and the prophets wrote of God's unfailing love as He rules. So, at least using those words, love does not trump any of the Lord's rules. Instead, love enables us to keep the rules and love is constantly in God's will as He rules.

In place of viewing the rules of the Word of God as some whip cracking down on us, it might be that we are to look to those two great rules the Lord Jesus gave to us that fulfilled all of the Law and the Prophets. And indeed, both of them involve love. Love is not a way out of or around the rules, but a way to live in them and keep them.

Praise God for His great unfailing love and His wonderful rules!

Bucky

Trashing the Honorable

The people will be oppressed,
Every one by another and every one by his neighbor;
The child will be insolent toward the elder,
And the base toward the honorable.” Isaiah 3:5

We may think that insolence from the younger persons is something invented in this particular generation, but Isaiah brought the prophecy of the Lord to another generation many years ago showing this would come to Israel, the remnant called Judah in this case. As I am no longer a child in years, there is a bit less to worry about, but then there is that line about the base and the honorable.

This thumbing the nose, to use an elder term, or trashing those in office comes to us as a temptation. And no it is not limited to the current president, though he may have raised it to unprecedented levels of popularity and volume. Speaking those disparaging words toward our leaders is likely a sign that the first two lines of this verse cannot be far behind. I don't think that I would care to live in a place where everyone was oppressed, and each by their neighbors at that! Even in our little town though we have seen the laws used to oppress one another by a neighbor. Perhaps a time as foretold by Isaiah to Judah is not far away for us too.

May the Lord our God guide us home to Him soon,

Bucky

On Eagle's Wings...to Himself!

"You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to Myself." Exodus 19:4

In the Revelation there is a prophecy of Israel and eagle's wings once again wherein the woman, which we know to be Israel by her birth of a special son, is given two wings of a great eagle to fly to a refuge. A place of refuge is of course what we look to our Lord to provide. We also look to meet the Lord Jesus in the clouds at the Rapture, which would also be a place where eagle's wings could take us if they are ordained by Him.

Eagle's wings speak of travel high, far, and fast. Travel away from danger and into the loving arms of our Savior. But the eagle's wings must also go into a shrieking dive to rend and kill. True, for now, but that is what the eagle must do to get by in this fallen and cursed world. We have similar activities that we do to get by until the reunion with our Lord. What we look, somewhat enviously we may admit, to the eagle for is that ability to fly high and far at great speed. And God uses that metaphor to remind us of that glorious destination in this amazing flight - to Himself! He brought Israel to Himself in the wilderness and daily He brings you and me to Himself with speed in this wilderness of the world. One day, as on wings of eagles, He will bring us to Himself forever.

Have a great day in the Lord Jesus!

Bucky

Out of Context!

the Kenites, the Kenezzites, the Kadmonites, Genesis 15:19

We sometimes like to grab verses out of context and use them for our own benefit. Well, here you go, take this verse and run with it. How did someone even think this should be a verse? Did division of the words in Genesis go a step too far? Some verses do stand well on their own, telling the story and all we need to know even these many years later. John 3:16 is a good example of this. But other verses must have their context or at the very least we are left quite baffled. What's a Kenite? Who were the Kenezzites and what happens if you use that one on a triple word score in Scrabble? Are there any Kadmonites left? Where was Kadmon anyway?

In the context, these are all peoples in the land promised to Abraham when he was still known as Abram. The Lord our God is making a covenant with Abram that includes all the land from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates. Ponder on the meaning of that geography for a moment or two! The context makes all the difference. That one verse taken from its context is utterly incomprehensible to us in these latter days. Those folks are so far out of our knowledge that the names just buzz in our ears (one more than the others) and we have no idea what to make of this verse. In the story though, we can understand that these nations or tribes occupied land that the Lord has contracted with Abram to own by way of His promise.

Memorized verses are good, but read the Bible and get the story!

Bucky

Confusion Everywhere

For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints. 1 Corinthians 14:33

The label states, 'no something' and gives no context. Is it a warning or an advertisement? Does the absence of that something make the product better, cheaper, or what? This is but a tiny part of the confusion sewn throughout the world and now grown into fully mature plants with seeds of confusion scattering far and wide. Political parties proclaim the other parties wrong about everything. One side says this thing must be eliminated at the same time as the other side says that it is essential to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And let's not get into all the religions of the world. Confusion and deception increase daily, and we need a sure thing to look to in this world.

The confidence we have in Christ shows you the way before I can even write it down, His word. The word of God is that sure thing we can study daily, indeed we must study daily, to bring us back to assurance in Christ while the storm of confusion rages all around. We believe in Christ and we believe His word!

Bucky

He Breathed On Them

And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. Genesis 2:7

So Jesus said to them again, “Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” John 20:21-23

He breathed on man once and life began in the man; He breathed on man the second time and life in the Spirit began. There is a remarkable similarity between the first life giving breath and the second. One life breathed in and then Adam chose to go his own way bringing death. Born once and fallen, from then on all of Adam's progeny were born fallen. Our Lord Jesus became the way to life once more by bringing the second birth, and to live all must be born again. And then our Lord breathed on man again and the Spirit of God came into those who believe in Him. And I can no more explain this than Nicodemus could back in his day.

It is the power of God in us and this new life comes by the breathing of our Lord into you and me. Rebirth in the Spirit and of the Spirit, the breath of life from God and from our Lord Jesus, and I have taken on something in this writing which I cannot teach or explain or even guess at. It is His word and work, and it is His word at work in us. To the unbeliever that is Christian mumbo-jumbo. To those who believe, we have no explanation for this great work of God save to give the glory to Him.

Faith cannot explain the mechanism or the method, but faith believes in the One who worked His will in us.

Bucky

It Melted?

So they gathered it every morning, every man according to his need. And when the sun became hot, it melted. Exodus 16:21

The sun melted? Sounds like an apt description for our weather lately. Of course, the manna melted away, not the sun. But what a test placed before Israel. This manna was tasty stuff. Now imagine your favorite food spread out on the rocks each morning. As much as anyone could want and more! Cheeseburgers, or pizza, or fried chicken, too early for that? How about all those good breakfast foods? And all you have to do is walk out of the tent each morning and gather what you need for the day.

Just for the day. No leftovers in little plastic dishes in the fridge.

Even as a bachelor, I have leftovers in the fridge and a pantry cupboard with food in it. No matter how good that manna was though, no matter how bleak the landscape might look in all directions from the camp, there was to be no storage. They tried and the worms liked the manna just as much as the people did. The stuff melted on the ground about mid-day, and it rotted overnight in the shade of a tent. This was not about overeating on that first day when Israel discovered manna was really good, but about trusting in God to provide each day and twice on Friday (for the Sabbath).

We would struggle too. A feast spread out for us each day, but only take what you need for the day and no sleeping in until noon? Yup, I could see problems coming for all of us in one way or another. No hunting for meat, just gather up that manna each morning. So, what did they do for the remainder of a normal day in the wilderness? And they didn't have the Internet back then!

Stay safe in the Lord today!

Bucky

In The Middle Of It

“The harvest is past,
​​The summer is ended,
​​And we are not saved!” Jeremiah 8:20

In the middle of something it seems that the next thing is far away. Yesterday was hot; today is forecast as hotter; tomorrow more heat and humidity. We are in the middle of it. It being summer of course, and I didn't need to tell you that. Jeremiah warned in our verse for today that there is an ending. A time comes when that which we are in the middle of is no more and has come to a close.

As for the church age, that time between the ascension of Christ and His glorious return, we may be in the middle of it or we may be close to the ending of it. Right now we cannot see the end and it seems much the same to us as it always has been. All we know for sure is that we are not present in the beginning of it. My evidence is that I can read about Peter and Paul in the Bible, and I have not met them recently. If you just graduated high school this year, you may wonder if one or both was still alive when I was a child. Not to worry, I did the same thing to my elders when I was your age.

Yes, we are in the summer time of the church, and we do not know yet when the harvest will be over and done with. Yet, recall Jeremiah and know that the time will come when the autumn and winter of this earth has come and swiftly the end will follow. However, there comes a new season and the return of our Lord to His place to make all things new. It seems so far away from us now, but swiftly He comes!

In the name of our precious Lord Jesus,

Bucky

The Gloomy Pits of Darkness

For God did not spare even the angels who sinned. He threw them into hell, in gloomy pits of darkness, where they are being held until the day of judgment. 2 Peter 2:4

Gloomy pits of darkness, why would anyone want to go there? And yet, many do. Of course they do not think that is what they want; thinking instead that they are going their own way to a heaven they imagine. For that matter, why would angels in heaven want to go down to gloomy pits of darkness? Well, of course they did not think they were going there either. The Devil doesn't want to go there; he wants to set his throne above the Lord's. The gloomy pits of darkness are not on anyone's wish list of places to abide.

We don't want to go there either, but if that is our only reason for doing good works then we have discovered a quite selfish reason. So, do good works so that we can go to heaven? Hmm, better target of course, but still a selfish and self-centered reason for striving to do good. And who says that a few good works done for your eternal destination is good enough to make the cut? The entrances to the gloomy pits of darkness seem to be yawning just a little wider this morning.

The only answer to our salvation remains in Jesus our Lord. Why did the angels who sinned not get a chance at repentance in Christ? Well, He was there with them, was He not? Whether the chance was given or not does not matter to our situation though. We do have the good news of Jesus Christ and we do have the time to decide to believe in Him...for now. Spreading the good news is eternally critical for the many who refuse to believe. The time grows shorter with each passing day. The hour and day of His return is set! Let us share again the good news that our Lord Jesus accepts all who come to Him, and all need to come to Him, soon!

The grace of Jesus Christ to you,
Bucky

Faith or Pride?

“Behold the proud,
​​His soul is not upright in him;
​​But the just shall live by his faith. Habakkuk 2:4

Ah, no, not that verse again! That means I have to spell 'Habakkuk' on a Monday morning. Why couldn't that prophet have a name like Tim or Joe or Bob? But I did spell it, you might point out, twice. Yes, but I also fumbled it both times as there seems to be some urgent desire to put a double B in the man's name. Not sure why that would be.

Two sides to this coin: the proud who does not have an upright soul, and the just who live by faith. Wait, wouldn't the usual opposite side of the coin be the just living upright in their soul? Yes, if we are talking regular old coins metaphorically, even though our coins are not meant to be opposites on the heads and tails, or obverse and reverse if we want to be correct. And where was I? Ran the ol' thought train right off the rails there!

Anyway, the proud and the just. It is interesting that God does not send word through Habakkuk (got it, that time!) that the just live by the uprightness or righteousness of the soul. No, we would have no chance that way, for all have sinned and fallen short of God's standard. Instead, the just live by faith. Faith in what or whom?

Faith and believes in are the same, and the One we believe in is Jesus the Christ. For He is, the way, the truth, and the life.

Live in Christ by faith!
Bucky

Not Always Our Desire

He saw that rest was good,
​​And that the land was pleasant;
​​He bowed his shoulder to bear a burden,
​​And became a band of slaves.  Genesis 49:15

Among Jacob's last words is this verse to Issachar, and it speaks to us these many years later. We can also see the later meanings that would come for all of Israel and not just the one tribe. Did 400 years of slavery in Egypt begin with Issachar? If the words of Jacob were prophetic, and it seems they are, then what did Issachar do to get this started?

According to the preceding verse, Issachar lay down like a donkey between two burdens. We do not know what they were, but apparently he bowed his shoulder to one of them - probably a decision made without consulting the Lord. Issachar may have chosen to do what he wanted instead of what the Lord desired of him. A choice we face often ourselves. In choosing his desire over the Lord's will, which is the heart of sin, he became enslaved. Sin does that to people.

However, we can know that this is not a permanent condition by a little jaunt back to Revelation 7:7 where we find 12,000 sealed from the tribe of Issachar. The tribe made it (will make it) to the end times, unlike other tribes who fell to sin along the way and are not found in that list. (The tribe of Dan, for example.) We too may fall into a trap of sin brought on by a decision to go our way instead of the Lord's way, and we can find forgiveness and mercy in our Lord. Amen!

Have a great weekend in Christ!

Bucky

Your Will or His?

I would hasten my escape
​​From the windy storm and tempest. Psalm 55:8

We agree with the psalmist, David in this case, and we too would hasten our escape from this world. Whether by way of the Rapture or through calling it quits on this world soon, we would be glad to be gone.

John may have groaned a bit when he heard the Lord say that he would be staying through to the end. Old age brings with it some sufferings, and there is something to be wished for in an early exit. Jesus also told Peter that he too would be staying on for a bit, but his end didn't sound quite so easy. Both disciples likely had an 'I would' available to them, just like you and me do, but we also know whose will is going to happen. When we pray that God's will be done, we are repenting of that 'I would', just as David brought his psalm to a close with, "But I will trust in You."

For those who do not yet believe, we may be here for a bit or we may be gone soon, but we will to do His will, and will pray for you and His salvation.

In Christ the Lord,
Bucky

The Power of Darkness Hour

“When I was with you daily in the temple, you did not try to seize Me. But this is your hour, and the power of darkness.” Luke 22:53

One way we think to measure freedom is in the time to do anything we want to do. (What we need of course is freedom from sin.) One power that does not have that sort of freedom is the power of darkness. We know from the Book of Job that the top dog in that power needed to get God's hedge of protection removed or loosened in order to attack Job, and even then there were restrictions. Jesus here speaking to the worldly authorities noted a particular hour when they were allowed to seize the person of the Christ. From Pilate to the lowest ranking soldier or priest, the worldly ones needed a break in the authority of the Christ in order to seize Him and do their will for that brief time. It had to be.

Those of us who believe in Jesus know that without this, no amount of force or guile could overcome the power of the Almighty, which Jesus as God in human form could have shown at any time He desired to do so. The Man who calmed the stormy waters of the Sea of Galilee surely could have sent the power of darkness packing. The One who healed so many and sent out the demons from so many others would surely not have been balked by a few men with spears and swords had He not desired first to fulfill His Father's will in the crucifixion. He submitted, but He was not weak.

For a brief time at the end of things here, the power of darkness will once more enjoy a season, a time, a few short years of power and the freedom to do some terrible things. But our Lord Jesus has already stated more than once to us that He is, "The Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End". (Revelation 21:6).

The love of the Almighty to you and yours on this day,

Bucky

We Would Not?

 For thus says the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel:
​
​​“In returning and rest you shall be saved;
​​In quietness and confidence shall be your strength.”
​​But you would not,
​​And you said, “No, for we will flee on horses”—
​​Therefore you shall flee!
​​And, “We will ride on swift horses”—
​​Therefore those who pursue you shall be swift!
Isaiah 30:15-16

What is it like to 'would not' before the Lord? I think we know by now through our disobedience.

When things are not going well, say in Bible study or prayer or worship, we often bend toward action. The Word of the Lord will get into my head if I just spend 12 hours of each day reading it, we say with the confidence of hard work. One commentary on the Word is not working, so surely three will do the trick. Or, I just need a different minister and all will be right between me and God, he said, right before the upheaval in the local church began. We have tried these and other things when the doldrums of the spirit have set in on us. The Israelites had a similar answer to the Lord when He spoke to them words of returning, rest, quietness, and confidence: Let us run to the hills on horseback!

Disobedience toward the Lord must be the number one reason for our struggles in the body of Christ. What's that you say? Unbelief? The unbelievers have their religious duties to help them through the tough times, or no religion to worry over at all. It is those who believe in Jesus and struggle to obey that face the dark night of the soul, the claustrophobia in the prayer closet, and an uproar in the church group. We mourn over the sudden opaqueness in the Word and the wall that seems to have sprung up between the supplicant and the Savior. And the answer may well be, "But you would not."

Love and joy in Christ to you,

Bucky

Lights In The World

Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world," Philippians 2:14-15

If you have ever held a leadership position, you will know what a delight it would be to have a group to lead who lived by this scripture passage. Of course you did...when the order was for a long weekend or to work on a popular project. Paul though is writing to the Philippians about those times when the command is not so much fun. A team-building exercise by way of coming together to complete an onerous task that needs doing, not the ones where the group goes to a ballgame. Yes, those orders where we the leaders and former leaders have heard expressed the sounds of human suffering, the moaning of the condemned, the lamentation of those left behind...yes, the hyperbole of the masses being told something they didn't want to do. What a light we could be in the world by simply not joining in the griping and complaining that so often characterizes the groups we work in at our place of employment.

Now that sounds almost doable, but what if we were to abstain from complaining and disputing in politics?

Bucky

Gentle Cords

I drew them with gentle cords,
​​With bands of love,
​​And I was to them as those who take the yoke from their neck.
​​I stooped and fed them. Hosea 11:4

After I gave my life to Jesus, I waited to feel the tug of His chains and felt nothing. I read the verses about being guided to the right or left, and waited for the pull on me to either side. Yet I felt nothing. It seemed that every decision was mine alone and the consequences were often too much for a person to bear on his own. The Lord foretold of hooks in the jaws to Sennacherib who had spoken proudly before the Lord after being given strength and purpose to accomplish a mission. That sounds a bit more like what I expected. But that is what God has for those who would stand proudly against Him.

The verse for today explains why we do not feel what that enemy whispers to us. The Lord our God uses bands of love, gentle cords to lead us. We are not yanked around like the proud ones, but led gently with love. The Lord removes the yoke of sin's payment from our neck and stoops to feed us. Those whispers of the enemy are lies. Trust in the Lord as He leads us gently in His love!

Gentle in love, our Lord.

Bucky

All Shall Know Him

"No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.” Jeremiah 31:34

Teaching is one of the callings we have one toward another. Some are blessed in doing it and others are blessed to receive it. However, this verse speaks of a future time when no teaching about the Lord is needed. All shall know Him. No more Bible study classes, no sermons, all already know the Lord. Kind of seems strange, does it not? What about worship services? Perhaps not, but only because all will worship the Lord already, all the time. Gathering together? Maybe we will be gathered together at all times already as the bride of Christ.

This verse speaks of something fulfilled that is no longer needed. New has come and the old thing has been set aside forever. Our Lord spoke of making all things new, so it stands to reason that we can wait as old things are set aside and new things take their places. Guessing what they might be is enjoyable, but will those guesses be correct? Of course, every one of us has something we do out of necessity now that we would gladly set aside in the new times to come. I could start a list, but would soon be overwhelmed. Like you, I will wait on the Lord and see all those new things He makes. Starting with knowing Him though, that is certainly a good 'un! I look forward to that with you!

Love and joy in Christ the Lord!

Bucky

Living By Faith

​“Behold the proud,
​​His soul is not upright in him;
​​But the just shall live by his faith. Habakkuk 2:4

Was Strong Faith the mighty man of superhero legend? No, faith is strong when it rests in strength, and no one is stronger than the one we know as the Almighty. If we depend upon our faith to be strong, it will rest in us and by now we have come to know our weakness all too well and often. The faith we are given by the Lord must rest in Him. We may even say that any faith we have was given for the express purpose of resting that faith in the Lord.

Weak Christian, strong Christian, fast, slow, busy, lazy... these are worldly terms we might use to compare ourselves one with another. What we have is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. If one of us could measure with a cup your faith or my faith, he would be looking in the wrong direction. Point the one who would measure to the One who is faithful beyond measure, our Lord Jesus. In this life I could be a busy Christian one season, enjoy the praise of men, and suffer health blows and be thought a slow or lazy Christian the next. But to borrow from Joshua, as for me and my house, we will place our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

My faith is in Jesus. If the world can overthrow my Lord Jesus then I will be overthrown. As I read the Revelation, I see that the world will try a couple of times.

Bucky

The Wicked Prosper

​You have planted them, yes, they have taken root;
​​They grow, yes, they bear fruit.
​​You are near in their mouth
​​But far from their mind. Jeremiah 12:2

We might see this verse going somewhere were it not for that last line. Far from their mind? Uh oh, this is not going to end well! Jeremiah takes up a complaint against the wicked ones who prosper in this world in verse 1 of the chapter. The prophet asks of the Lord why those who give no mind to God are made to do so well in the world. What is worse is that while Jeremiah suffers for the word given to him, the prosperous ones speak similar words.

It is a sad fact that in this world that someone without a thought for God can speak and write words much like ours, even just like ours in speaking of our Lord Jesus. Their ministry might accumulate vast wealth and large numbers of church members, while we minister to few and struggle to pay the bills. It won't do to fret over them!

All one of us can do is come to the Lord in prayer that we remain faithful to God in our ministry. You and I cannot answer for that other fellow and what is in his heart. If his ministry is false, it will become known.

I pray that the grace of God will overflow from the heart of all those who believe in His precious Son, Jesus Christ.

Bucky

That's A Mean One

And it shall be, that just as the LORD rejoiced over you to do you good and multiply you, so the LORD will rejoice over you to destroy you and bring you to nothing; and you shall be plucked from off the land which you go to possess. Deuteronomy 28:63

This is one of those verses from the Old Testament that to the unbeliever proves God's meanness. This is of course to ignore the first part about rejoicing in doing good and multiplying, but also ignores the text that goes on all around it. But we who believe in the Christ might also have a little question arise from this verse: How could the Lord rejoice over destroying those He loves?!!

Here is where you and I can have faith and separate ourselves, quite rapidly really, from the world and what it thinks it knows. We can believe God rejoices because there is good in the destruction of Israel in this case, but perhaps of us too in another case.

It is clear that the destruction is of Israel as a nation in this case. In later verses, Israel is promised a scattering and no rest among the nations to which it is plucked off to.. We too may be plucked off to somewhere else to remove something or someone from our lives by way of the Lord, to meet new people (especially those who do not yet believe in Him), and/or to be discipled by another teacher. There may be other reasons, but the old normal of life is lost and a new life begins in another place. Much like salvation this is! (Do I hear a Yoda-like voice somewhere?)

Now, let us ask the question again. Is God being mean or is God being loving and good by making sure that any destruction is carefully meted out to any and all He loves, so that evil influences are removed from us (or we from them), and all will work out for our good as our Lord rejoices over what will come from His firm steps?

Tough times in life are not a sign of God being mean to us, but of His love!

Bucky

A Cage Made Of Rules

But the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath; and he said to the crowd, “There are six days on which men ought to work; therefore come and be healed on them, and not on the Sabbath day.” Luke 13:14

The Sabbath was a great day for healing by our Lord, but some clung to their book of rules. They clung so tightly to them that they could not see what (or who!) was before them.

Like money, rules can be useful to us. When listed in a checklist, a set of rules can help us to see an operation through to a successful conclusion. When followed in training, rules can keep us safe and ease the learning process. Experiencing a catastrophic failure in a system, as some of us have found out, is a tough way to learn a 'don't do that'. However, also like money, rules can be a way to build a cage around ourselves such that we cannot see the Savior.

The ruler growled a rule at the poor woman healed of an infirmity she bore for eighteen years. Six days you can come get healing, leave my Sabbath alone! Dude! Did you just see the Savior heal that woman bound for eighteen years by the Devil? Do you understand at all the pain she endured? This one was still bound by the Devil it would seem, bound up in his cage of good-sounding rules. Read the story in Luke 13 and see how our Savior put his adversaries to shame. It will be the same in the final judgment. Those who love Him will be glorified with Him; those who deny Him will be put to shame.

Trust in Him!

Bucky

And Another Thing About Service

So it was, as soon as the days of his service were completed, that he departed to his own house. Luke 1:23

Service may be tough, but it also means that I may not get to do what I wanted to do! Wah, wah! Yes, after all these years the crying of the selfish child is all too easily brought forth from memory.

Patience is called for as we see the days of service for Zacharias coming to a close in our verse for today. His term of service had an end and he could go home to do what he wanted to do for a time. After the child came he could learn about another form of service, but that is a story for another day. In serving another we may have to set aside a thing we want to do for a time. That may not be easy in this age where we expect things to arrive so quickly.

We can also note from the verse today that service is often away from the home. That isn't always a comfortable situation either, especially for those of us who like the place called home. Ah, but this place is not our permanent home, and service away from His home is what our Savior did to save us.

Praise God for His service!

Bucky

It's Too Much, Ask For Help

Both you and these people who are with you will surely wear yourselves out. For this thing is too much for you; you are not able to perform it by yourself. Exodus 18:18

Much good advice comes from people who don't know much. In-laws, parents, teachers, ministers, and other people such as these offer advice to us because they were once as we are, and they hope that by some good advice we will not plow ahead foolishly as they once did. That it takes a few tries for us to learn to listen to that good advice only stores up another generation of good advisers for the foolish plowers. It's a rite of passage sort of thing.

One of those areas of good advice is often in the asking for help when we reach a point that a duty, task or project is too much for us alone and we need to ask for help. The problem usually is that we are in a stubborn plow-ahead mode and it takes someone we respect such as a, well, see the list above.

Now, of course we are to go to God first in prayer. But sometimes there is so much griping going on in our heads that He cannot get a word of advice in Himself, and so He sends in some advice from some of those folks we didn't always think knew very much. And we're back to the elders thing. Yes, because if one finds the mind too busy griping to listen to the Lord, then an interruption by one with good advice might just be the next best ticket to the wisdom train. And as our Lord Jesus said, if you have left the plow to follow Him, don't look back at it.

Have a great Thursday in Christ our Lord!

Bucky

An Understanding Heart

"Therefore give to Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people, that I may discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people of Yours?” 1 Kings 3:9

Oh, it is fun to imagine being king at times! We can see the advantage in the power, and in being the first one to know everything. Uh, no, as experience has shown, the person in charge is often not the first to know everything or even anything for that matter. The monarch must fight the urge to believe the first one and condemn the second automatically. Um, what?

If you have been on the hot seat because you were the second party, you know well what I am talking about this morning. The first one gets the sympathetic ear, the chance to tell the story from their perspective in a calm sea. The second one faces the pointed sword of justice, the arresting officers, the angry sea as the authority falls for that age old myth that the first one to run to the chief is the one who is telling the truth. Solomon wanted an understanding heart to be able to judge God's people when faced with the one said this-the other said that cases that would come before him.

Solomon in his position was both president and supreme court, and he was responsible to God for all of Israel. In any case where it was he said-she said, or they said this happened but the other folks say that happened, and in many things where the king on his throne far away would be among the last to know something happened out on the frontier, Solomon wanted discernment through an understanding heart. This was something wonderful in a ruler! I'm with you in asking in prayer for some more of that in our leaders, please.

The good news is that our Lord Jesus is more of that and He will rule one day.

Have a great day in the Lord Jesus!

Bucky

Service Is Tough

“I know your works, love, service, faith, and your patience; and as for your works, the last are more than the first. Revelation 2:19

I sought out the Lord to teach me patience, and I'm still waiting for that to happen. I sought from the Lord the meaning of steadfast endurance, and I just wish that would end sometime. And then came the subject of service. Service is tough.

Serving is seldom convenient. It is easy when on your way to the second town over to stop and drop something off in the first town as you are going through on your way. But, no the request for service goes something like, "On your way to Florida, can you stop in Juneau and wrestle a grizzly bear for me?" I'm like: Florida? I'm not going anywhere this weekend, and have you never looked at a map or globe or a GPS in your life? No, service is almost never convenient. Its timing seems to be off a little too.

Service is that phone call to do some work on a Friday evening just after (or before) you are going home from the work of a difficult week at the regular job. The call to serve does not come when boredom has begun to lay its heavy hand on your brain and a change would be welcome. Nope, that would be too easy. So, with timing and geography at issue, what else might serving call us for?

For Jesus, serving us in our greatest need called for His life... and a lot of suffering as well. When I read our Lord's words in our verse for today, I hope that my last works will be more than my first, because when service has called, I have not always been ready and willing. Service is tough!

Love in Christ,
Bucky

Trusting In Him

But let all those rejoice who put their trust in You;
Let them ever shout for joy, because You defend them;
Let those also who love Your name
Be joyful in You. Psalm 5:11

It is a song of praise. It is a prayer that these things will be done. "Let them..." David wrote, probably because it was not always that way even in his heart. As king, David wanted a peaceful land, and to gain that peace he wrote that all should be joyful in the Lord. Note how much the Lord must do for this:

1. He must be trustworthy.
2. The Lord must be defender of the people.
3. His name must be lovable. 
4. When trust is placed in Him, He must enable joy in Himself
   from those who likely have much to not be joyful about. 

Age can make us to not wake up feeling joyful. The Spirit rejoices in God within us, but the old body just does not feel that joy right away anymore. If that is not enough, feed yourself a little news today from the world... and joy might easily be driven out right there unless it is in and from One who provides a continuous supply. We do not live in a joyful world and our fallen bodies do not provide joy and the feelings of the day likely are not joyful. As David wrote those many years ago, we must trust in God and find our joy in Him.

So graciously does He provide!

Bucky

Turning From Idols

For they themselves declare concerning us what manner of entry we had to you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God. 1 Thessalonians 1:9

Turning from idols to serve the living and true God, now there is cause for celebration.

Idols are common throughout the known world, and we're not talking natives in the jungle bowing down before a carved wooden thing. Nope, we have an entire host of potential idols in this modern world, and any of them might ensnare us if we are not watchful. Today we even have the option of virtual idols on our computer monitors, if something that a person can touch and bump into is no longer enough for you. Want your idol to talk and move around? No problem, television already did that, but we can go even further and program a virtual world that... You know the story, and a false reality impossible to tell from virtual reality becomes more of an idol with each passing day.

But wait! Given a bit more time, we might bump into robots and androids inhabiting our own 'real' world that are impossible to tell from humans. And of course some will want to have sex with them. Sodom and Gomorrah anyone? Yes, all things come 'round again, as Solomon observed way back in the day.

Turning from idols to the living and true God is a cause for celebration, and the angels in Heaven celebrate each time a lost sheep is brought into the fold by our dear Savior Jesus!

Rejoice in Him!

Bucky

Comfy and Secure Yet?

One person dies in prosperity,
completely comfortable and secure,
the picture of good health,
vigorous and fit. Job 21:23-24

From Job's seventh speech, we have a truth or at least a true observation; it does happen. We are jealous and wish we could be that one person. Of course this could also be the picture of a wealthy young person dying in a sudden car crash, and then we think, "Oh, what a tragedy!" But we still wish we could try out their riches for a bit. Yes, prosperity by way of great wealth is a temptation to the mind.

Job in his lamentation phase, which is most of the book of Job, was not a fun person to be around. You and me may not be comfy and secure yet in our own strength, be it wealth, health, or otherwise, but we are not supposed to be secure in what we are in the world. Our comfort and security come from God. We may not see prosperity, health, wealth, comfort and security until we are in Heaven with our Lord. And vigor and fitness too! God does give us just enough of these things to get through the tribulation of this life. Oh, and that fellow who died with all those things Job said? He most likely died thinking that he didn't have enough of any of them.

Have a great and enjoyable day in Christ Jesus!

Bucky

Be Fully Alert!

He should look for chariots
drawn by pairs of horses,
and for riders on donkeys and camels.
Let the watchman be fully alert. Isaiah 21:7

A semi tractor with a 53 foot long trailer is parked across the street from my house this morning, and I don't remember one arriving last night. I can estimate the trailer length fairly accurately as the thing has "53' " printed right on the side of it. Now, as for keeping fully alert for horses, a chariot, and riders on donkeys and camels, I'm not sure that I am qualified. It may be an age thing.

No doubt about it, my senses are not quite as sharp as they used to be. Not that they were ever quite up to Call of the Wild standards to begin with but now that middle age is slipping out from under me I am not likely to be anyones watchman in the physical realm. Spiritually speaking however and in keeping an eye on world events, I am doing much better than in years past. Again though, I cannot take credit to myself for that, it is the Lord who has brought His word and the news to me through ministers and messengers.

Yes, at my age the watchman stays fully alert for only as long as he can stay awake, and that isn't always very long. Praise God that our salvation is of Him and not of me.

Love in Christ,

Bucky

No Sleep 'Til

When I applied my heart to know wisdom and to see the business that is done on earth, even though one sees no sleep day or night, then I saw all the work of God, that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun. For though a man labors to discover it, yet he will not find it; moreover, though a wise man attempts to know it, he will not be able to find it. Ecclesiastes 8:16-17

No sleep until I find out what God is up to! Solomon apparently tried to catalog or discover all the work being done on the earth by man, even the busyness of the night time, and saw some insight into the work of God. His insight was that man cannot know all the work of God that goes on day and night. Work at it though he might, the man could not see all of God's work and there was work of God that he could not comprehend.

So, if the wisest of men could not even hope to comprehend all that humans were up to and discerned that he could not know what God was doing under the Sun, what hope have I then of knowing God's work? All that God does is His business, I have only to trust in His steadfast love and goodness.

Bucky

Do You Want To Live Forever?

Gather My saints together to Me,
Those who have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice. Psalm 50:5

75 years ago this day men from several nations gathered to do battle. What words of encouragement might a chaplain find for these men, many of whom were about to die? It would be a heavy burden to stand there in that moment and seek a word from the Lord, only to hear silence.

In the steel landing craft, as fear cloaked the soldiers waiting there, many a covenant would have been offered up to the Lord. Would any be accepted and to the frightened one come words of assurance, "I accept; you will live to see another day"? Perhaps God kept His silence on these offerings and requests too.

Or, did all of them hear only the words of a few officers telling them this or that, all knowing that none of it might matter when the ramps fell and the battle for survival began in earnest? Did one of those officers ask that question, hoping to encourage the men by his wit; "Do you want to live forever?"

The flesh of course would be quick to answer that one, but sacrifice is never easy else it would be no sacrifice at all. And silent or not, the Lord God was there with each and every one, and some sacrifices He did take that day.

Thank you, dear Lord, for the sacrifice of Your Son. Amen.

Bucky

Just Love Him or Her, and Me Too!

‘You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD. Leviticus 19:18

The command to love your neighbor as yourself was spoken by our Lord first in the Law as we see in our verse for today. Jesus then spoke it twice in Matthew to make that three times from the Lord. Paul gave it to us again in his letter to the Romans and once more writing to the Galatians, and James gave it to us one more time to make three times for the apostles.

This command from the Lord just might have some bearing on how we are to live, he said with almost biblical understatement.

What about my wife, does she not come first? (I didn't get married last night, bear with me by way of example.)

I know the husbands want to ask that question. As we have said before, the wife is simply your closest neighbor. The children are your next closest and so on until you come to that person who is most distant from you on the earth, and he or she also we are to love as ourselves. Some of us need to work on the first part more - loving those neighbors - and others the second part should be recalled more often. For all of the uses, all six of them, end with 'as yourself'. Yes, we were born sinful creatures, but loving ourselves is part of the divine command too. If you doubt it, remember that the first one is signed: "I am the LORD".

Love to you in Christ our Lord!

Bucky

Mr. Mighty Wealth

"...then you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth.’ " Deuteronomy 8:17

The context of this verse for today begins with a warning from the Lord to His people, and it begins with: "Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God..." There are many promises given by way of this warning about increasing flocks, gold and silver multiplied, beautiful houses, and other things the flesh desires in this world. The promised land beckoned to the comforts of the flesh as Israel took up living in their new home. The temptation warned about sounds remarkably like the temptations faced by our Lord Jesus in the wilderness. Actually, it is also like the temptations to get rich and comfy we face today. I guess the testing remains the same because it works so well.

In my flesh, I want to be Mr. Mighty Wealth swooping in like a different sort of superhero to help those in need and thus be looked up to and offered the best place at the banquet. This does not make me unique by any means. There are even many who play the lotteries who have a list of things they will do to help others when their ship of wealth arrives at the port. Wealth and the desire for wealth are tough tests that each of us will face. Most will face the desire test, some few will also face the actual having wealth test. God will send to us the best test to make us into what he would have us to become.

Alas, we know from the histories in the Bible that Israel did not fare well in the wealth testing and did in fact come to forget their God. May God give me and you the strength to remember Him in poverty and in wealth.

Love in Christ to you,
Bucky