Getting past the scenery by Gary Rose

To those who know me, it is no surprise to learn that 2016 has been a very hard year- physically, spiritually, emotionally, intellectually and practically every way imaginable. And conversely, I should have realized that others are painfully aware of this as well.  Last night was an eye-opener to me; a brother-in-Christ came up to me and told me that he was worried about me. It meant a great deal to me that he said this, but if he is reading this- Don't worry about me. Why? Because I have learned to start with and then go beyond the scenery.

What in the world do I mean by this... Please read the following Psalm.

Psalm 9 (WEB)

 ¹ I will give thanks to Yahweh with my whole heart. 
I will tell of all your marvelous works. (emp. added GDR)
  ² I will be glad and rejoice in you. 
I will sing praise to your name, O Most High. 

  ³ When my enemies turn back, 
they stumble and perish in your presence. 

  ⁴ For you have maintained my just cause. 
You sit on the throne judging righteously. 

  ⁵ You have rebuked the nations. 
You have destroyed the wicked. 
You have blotted out their name forever and ever. 

  ⁶ The enemy is overtaken by endless ruin. 
The very memory of the cities which you have overthrown has perished. 

  ⁷ But Yahweh reigns forever. 
He has prepared his throne for judgment. 

  ⁸ He will judge the world in righteousness. 
He will administer judgment to the peoples in uprightness. 

  ⁹ Yahweh will also be a high tower for the oppressed; 
a high tower in times of trouble. 

  ¹⁰ Those who know your name will put their trust in you, 
for you, Yahweh, have not forsaken those who seek you. 

  ¹¹ Sing praises to Yahweh, who dwells in Zion, 
and declare among the people what he has done. 

  ¹² For he who avenges blood remembers them. 
He doesn’t forget the cry of the afflicted. 

  ¹³ Have mercy on me, Yahweh. 
See my affliction by those who hate me, 
and lift me up from the gates of death,   ¹⁴ that I may show all of your praise. 
I will rejoice in your salvation in the gates of the daughter of Zion. 

  ¹⁵ The nations have sunk down in the pit that they made. 
In the net which they hid, their own foot is taken. 

  ¹⁶ Yahweh has made himself known. 
He has executed judgment. 
The wicked is snared by the work of his own hands. Meditation. Selah.

  ¹⁷ The wicked shall be turned back to Sheol,
even all the nations that forget God. 

  ¹⁸ For the needy shall not always be forgotten, 
nor the hope of the poor perish forever. 

  ¹⁹ Arise, Yahweh! Don’t let man prevail. 
Let the nations be judged in your sight. 

  ²⁰ Put them in fear, Yahweh. 
Let the nations know that they are only men. 
Selah.

God almighty has created this world and everything in it; but HE didn't stop there, because he has worked with his creation since that creation.  And not just the things we see around us (I call this the scenery), but with HUMAN BEINGS as well. 

The following I consider a fact: Those who genuinely seek God, are in turn sought out by HIM!!! God helps them individually and them all collectively. The old and new testaments are history (otherwise known as HIS-STORY). As I can testify, God has been working behind the scenes (and sometimes in very obvious ways) throughout my life to use me according to HIS WILL.

Because of these things, I can tell you that everything will eventually be made ~100% perfect in this life and absolutely perfect in the next. So, no matter what the scenery may look like, Once I get beyond the scenery (or, in the case of the Psalm- beyond verse 1) I realize that I am never, ever alone because God is there.  At that moment and following I find great peace. Things may still go wrong and fall apart, but God never will.

To my worrying brother-in-Christ: If I can think this way, then so can you!!! Rejoice in the LORD and again I say REJOICE!!!

Gary

Bible Reading September 15 by Gary Rose

Bible Reading  September 15  (WEB)

Sept. 15

Psalms 71-73

Psa 71:1 In you, Yahweh, I take refuge. Never let me be disappointed.

Psa 71:2 Deliver me in your righteousness, and rescue me. Turn your ear to me, and save me.

Psa 71:3 Be to me a rock of refuge to which I may always go. Give the command to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress.

Psa 71:4 Rescue me, my God, from the hand of the wicked, from the hand of the unrighteous and cruel man.

Psa 71:5 For you are my hope, Lord Yahweh; my confidence from my youth.

Psa 71:6 I have relied on you from the womb. You are he who took me out of my mother's womb. I will always praise you.

Psa 71:7 I am a marvel to many, but you are my strong refuge.

Psa 71:8 My mouth shall be filled with your praise, with your honor all the day.

Psa 71:9 Don't reject me in my old age. Don't forsake me when my strength fails.

Psa 71:10 For my enemies talk about me. Those who watch for my soul conspire together,

Psa 71:11 saying, "God has forsaken him. Pursue and take him, for no one will rescue him."

Psa 71:12 God, don't be far from me. My God, hurry to help me.

Psa 71:13 Let my accusers be disappointed and consumed. Let them be covered with disgrace and scorn who want to harm me.

Psa 71:14 But I will always hope, and will add to all of your praise.

Psa 71:15 My mouth will tell about your righteousness, and of your salvation all day, though I don't know its full measure.

Psa 71:16 I will come with the mighty acts of the Lord Yahweh. I will make mention of your righteousness, even of yours alone.

Psa 71:17 God, you have taught me from my youth. Until now, I have declared your wondrous works.

Psa 71:18 Yes, even when I am old and gray-haired, God, don't forsake me, until I have declared your strength to the next generation, your might to everyone who is to come.

Psa 71:19 Your righteousness also, God, reaches to the heavens; you have done great things. God, who is like you?

Psa 71:20 You, who have shown us many and bitter troubles, you will let me live. You will bring us up again from the depths of the earth.

Psa 71:21 Increase my honor, and comfort me again.

Psa 71:22 I will also praise you with the harp for your faithfulness, my God. I sing praises to you with the lyre, Holy One of Israel.

Psa 71:23 My lips shall shout for joy! My soul, which you have redeemed, sings praises to you!

Psa 71:24 My tongue will also talk about your righteousness all day long, for they are disappointed, and they are confounded, who want to harm me.

Psa 72:1 God, give the king your justice; your righteousness to the royal son.

Psa 72:2 He will judge your people with righteousness, and your poor with justice.

Psa 72:3 The mountains shall bring prosperity to the people. The hills bring the fruit of righteousness.

Psa 72:4 He will judge the poor of the people. He will save the children of the needy, and will break the oppressor in pieces.

Psa 72:5 They shall fear you while the sun endures; and as long as the moon, throughout all generations.

Psa 72:6 He will come down like rain on the mown grass, as showers that water the earth.

Psa 72:7 In his days, the righteous shall flourish, and abundance of peace, until the moon is no more.

Psa 72:8 He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, from the River to the ends of the earth.

Psa 72:9 Those who dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him. His enemies shall lick the dust.

Psa 72:10 The kings of Tarshish and of the islands will bring tribute. The kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts.

Psa 72:11 Yes, all kings shall fall down before him. All nations shall serve him.

Psa 72:12 For he will deliver the needy when he cries; the poor, who has no helper.

Psa 72:13 He will have pity on the poor and needy. He will save the souls of the needy.

Psa 72:14 He will redeem their soul from oppression and violence. Their blood will be precious in his sight.

Psa 72:15 They shall live, and to him shall be given of the gold of Sheba. Men shall pray for him continually. They shall bless him all day long.

Psa 72:16 There shall be abundance of grain throughout the land. Its fruit sways like Lebanon. Let it flourish, thriving like the grass of the field.

Psa 72:17 His name endures forever. His name continues as long as the sun. Men shall be blessed by him. All nations will call him blessed.

Psa 72:18 Praise be to Yahweh God, the God of Israel, who alone does marvelous deeds.

Psa 72:19 Blessed be his glorious name forever! Let the whole earth be filled with his glory! Amen and amen.

Psa 72:20 This ends the prayers by David, the son of Jesse.

Psa 73:1 Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart.

Psa 73:2 But as for me, my feet were almost gone. My steps had nearly slipped.

Psa 73:3 For I was envious of the arrogant, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

Psa 73:4 For there are no struggles in their death, but their strength is firm.

Psa 73:5 They are free from burdens of men, neither are they plagued like other men.

Psa 73:6 Therefore pride is like a chain around their neck. Violence covers them like a garment.

Psa 73:7 Their eyes bulge with fat. Their minds pass the limits of conceit.

Psa 73:8 They scoff and speak with malice. In arrogance, they threaten oppression.

Psa 73:9 They have set their mouth in the heavens. Their tongue walks through the earth.

Psa 73:10 Therefore their people return to them, and they drink up waters of abundance.

Psa 73:11 They say, "How does God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High?"

Psa 73:12 Behold, these are the wicked. Being always at ease, they increase in riches.

Psa 73:13 Surely in vain I have cleansed my heart, and washed my hands in innocence,

Psa 73:14 For all day long have I been plagued, and punished every morning.

Psa 73:15 If I had said, "I will speak thus;" behold, I would have betrayed the generation of your children.

Psa 73:16 When I tried to understand this, it was too painful for me;

Psa 73:17 Until I entered God's sanctuary, and considered their latter end.

Psa 73:18 Surely you set them in slippery places. You throw them down to destruction.

Psa 73:19 How they are suddenly destroyed! They are completely swept away with terrors.

Psa 73:20 As a dream when one wakes up, so, Lord, when you awake, you will despise their fantasies.

Psa 73:21 For my soul was grieved. I was embittered in my heart.

Psa 73:22 I was so senseless and ignorant. I was a brute beast before you.

Psa 73:23 Nevertheless, I am continually with you. You have held my right hand.

Psa 73:24 You will guide me with your counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.

Psa 73:25 Who do I have in heaven? There is no one on earth who I desire besides you.

Psa 73:26 My flesh and my heart fails, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

Psa 73:27 For, behold, those who are far from you shall perish. You have destroyed all those who are unfaithful to you.

Psa 73:28 But it is good for me to come close to God. I have made the Lord Yahweh my refuge, that I may tell of all your works.

 

Sept. 15

1 Corinthians 11

1Co 11:1 Be imitators of me, even as I also am of Christ.

1Co 11:2 Now I praise you, brothers, that you remember me in all things, and hold firm the traditions, even as I delivered them to you.

1Co 11:3 But I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is the man, and the head of Christ is God.

1Co 11:4 Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonors his head.

1Co 11:5 But every woman praying or prophesying with her head unveiled dishonors her head. For it is one and the same thing as if she were shaved.

1Co 11:6 For if a woman is not covered, let her also be shorn. But if it is shameful for a woman to be shorn or shaved, let her be covered.

1Co 11:7 For a man indeed ought not to have his head covered, because he is the image and glory of God, but the woman is the glory of the man.

1Co 11:8 For man is not from woman, but woman from man;

1Co 11:9 for neither was man created for the woman, but woman for the man.

1Co 11:10 For this cause the woman ought to have authority on her head, because of the angels.

1Co 11:11 Nevertheless, neither is the woman independent of the man, nor the man independent of the woman, in the Lord.

1Co 11:12 For as woman came from man, so a man also comes through a woman; but all things are from God.

1Co 11:13 Judge for yourselves. Is it appropriate that a woman pray to God unveiled?

1Co 11:14 Doesn't even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a dishonor to him?

1Co 11:15 But if a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her, for her hair is given to her for a covering.

1Co 11:16 But if any man seems to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither do God's assemblies.

1Co 11:17 But in giving you this command, I don't praise you, that you come together not for the better but for the worse.

1Co 11:18 For first of all, when you come together in the assembly, I hear that divisions exist among you, and I partly believe it.

1Co 11:19 For there also must be factions among you, that those who are approved may be revealed among you.

1Co 11:20 When therefore you assemble yourselves together, it is not the Lord's supper that you eat.

1Co 11:21 For in your eating each one takes his own supper first. One is hungry, and another is drunken.

1Co 11:22 What, don't you have houses to eat and to drink in? Or do you despise God's assembly, and put them to shame who don't have? What shall I tell you? Shall I praise you? In this I don't praise you.

1Co 11:23 For I received from the Lord that which also I delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night in which he was betrayed took bread.

1Co 11:24 When he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, "Take, eat. This is my body, which is broken for you. Do this in memory of me."

1Co 11:25 In the same way he also took the cup, after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink, in memory of me."

1Co 11:26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

1Co 11:27 Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks the Lord's cup in a manner unworthy of the Lord will be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord.

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

1Co 11:29 For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, if he doesn't discern the Lord's body.

1Co 11:30 For this cause many among you are weak and sickly, and not a few sleep.

1Co 11:31 For if we discerned ourselves, we wouldn't be judged.

1Co 11:32 But when we are judged, we are punished by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world.

1Co 11:33 Therefore, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait one for another.

1Co 11:34 But if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, lest your coming together be for judgment. The rest I will set in order whenever I come.

Do you long to be with Christ? by Roy Davison

http://www.oldpaths.com/Archive/Davison/Roy/Allen/1940/061-withchrist.html
 

Do you long to be with Christ?

We want to be with those we love.
One of the saddest things in life is to be separated from loved ones. If we cannot be with them all the time, we want to be with them when we can.

During holidays large sums are spent visiting those we love. Much automobile and air traffic is generated by those who travel great distances to spend some time with loved ones.

When I was very small, I travelled with my mother by train half way across the United States to visit my grandmother.

The saddest separation of all is death. That was the last time we saw her. She had a stroke and died shortly thereafter. She was a faithful Christian, however, so we look forward to seeing her again.

How can we have this assurance? Through the resurrection of Christ! He is the Redeemer in whom Job believed as he longed to be with God (Job 19:25-27).

Jesus came to restore our broken relationship with the Father so we may have an eternal relationship with Him. Jesus longs to be with His loved ones, and they long to be with Him.


Jesus wants His followers to be with Him forever.

He prayed: “Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world” (John 17:24).

Knowing that he would be leaving His beloved disciples shortly, He assured them: “A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me” (John 16:16). “I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you” (John 16:22).

“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also” (John 14:1-3).


How can we be with Christ forever?

We must have a good relationship with Him now to be with Him forever.


Christ died for us that we might live with Him.

“For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him” (1 Thessalonians 5:9, 10).


We must deny ourselves and follow Christ.

Because Jesus gave His life for us, we give our life to Him.

“Then Jesus said to His disciples, ‘If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it’” (Matthew 16:24, 25).

“If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him” (John 14:23).

If we want to be with Jesus forever, we must be willing to suffer with Him: “and if children, then heirs - heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together” (Romans 8:17).


We must die with Christ to live with Him.

“This is a faithful saying: For if we died with Him, we shall also live with Him” (2 Timothy 2:11). By sharing in His death, we have His life in us as a foretaste of eternal life.

“Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:8-11).

“For though He was crucified in weakness, yet He lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in Him, but we shall live with Him by the power of God toward you” (2 Corinthians 13:4).

As Paul wrote: “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).

“But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:4-6).


We die with Christ through baptism.

We are united with Christ’s death, burial and resurrection through baptism.

“Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin” (Romans 6:3-6).

At baptism our sinful man is crucified with Christ. Through the power of the Holy Spirit and by the blood of Christ, our sins are washed away (Acts 22:16), and we rise from baptism to “walk in newness of life.” We have been “born again,” “born of water and the Spirit” (John 3:3, 5).

Previously, we were outside of Christ. Now we are in Him, a member of His body, the church: “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body” (1 Corinthians 12:13).

Paul reminds Christians: You were “buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead” (Colossians 2:12); “knowing that He who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus” (2 Corinthians 4:14).


Christians commune with the body and blood of Christ.

Jesus gives this loving invitation: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with Him, and he with Me” (Revelation 3:20).

When we break bread on the first day of the week, we have fellowship with His body and blood: “Is not the cup of blessing that we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread that we break a sharing in the body of Christ?” (1 Corinthians 10:16 NET).

In the Lord’s supper we encounter the body and blood of Christ. We meditate on what He has done for us. In our mind we hear the blows of the hammer and feel the pain from the spikes that were driven into His hands and feet, knowing that He was bearing the punishment for our sins. Yet, we also rejoice when we think about the stone being rolled away and the triumphant Christ emerging from the tomb. We feel extremely close to Him and surrounded by His love. This fellowship with the body and blood of Christ is spiritual, intimate and profound.


Christians long to be with Christ.

As long as we are still in the flesh, our fellowship with Christ is limited, but we look forward to being with Him forever.

Although Paul wanted to serve his fellow saints, he longed to be with the Lord: “My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better” (Philippians 1:23 ESV). “So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:6-8).


He who remains faithful may walk with Christ in white.

“You have a few names even in Sardis who have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with Me in white, for they are worthy. He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels” (Revelation 3:4, 5). “To overcome,” as used in Revelation, means to remain faithful until death.


After Christ returns, we will be with Him forever.

When Jesus comes again, we will be like Him: “Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2).


We will appear with Christ at His coming.

“For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:14-17).

“If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory” (Colossians 3:1-4).


We will reign with Christ.

“This is a faithful saying: For if we died with Him, we shall also live with Him. If we endure, we shall also reign with Him” (2 Timothy 2:11, 12).

“He is Lord of lords and King of kings; and those who are with Him are called, chosen, and faithful” (Revelation 17:14).
“To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne” (Revelation 3:21).


What have we learned?

We want to be with those we love. Jesus wants His followers to be with Him. How can we be with Christ forever? He died for us that we might live with Him. We must deny ourselves and follow Jesus. We must die with Him to live with Him. We die with Christ through baptism. We commune with the body and blood of Christ at His table. Christians long to be with Christ. He who remains faithful may walk with Christ in white. When He returns, we will appear with Him, we will be with Him, and we will reign with Him forever.

We long to be with Christ! “O Lord, come!” (1 Corinthians 16:22). “The Lord be with you all” (2 Thessalonians 3:16). Amen.

Roy Davison

The Scripture quotations in this article are from
The New King James Version. ©1979,1980,1982,
Thomas Nelson Inc., Publishers unless indicated otherwise.
Permission for reference use has been granted.

Published in The Old Paths Archive
(http://www.oldpaths.com)