Titus 1:2 In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began.

A Trustworthy Hope
      The Bible opens with the stories of creation, the fall of man, and the penalty of death being imposed on all mankind.
      As the story develops, God gave man hope.   This was first enunciated to Eve and was developed in the promises to the fathers and the prophets.
      The Jews had distorted that hope and made it only an earthly, national hope.
      But to Paul it was much more.   The Gospel which he was appointed to announce to all was designed to secure the "hope of eternal life" to those who received Christ.
      He did not view this as a hope newly proclaimed.   He linked it with that promise made "before time began".
      The promise was related to God's purpose in creation to take out a people who would enjoy eternity with Him.
      And it was a secure promise because it was made by God, who cannot lie.
      Our only hope is in that promise of God.

Today's Thought: God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent.   Has He said, and will He not do?   Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good? Numbers 23:19







Monday
Psalm 119:129 - 135.

Thy testimonies are wonderful, therefore doth my soul keep them.
The entrance of Thy words giveth light, it giveth understanding unto the simple.
I opened my mouth and panted, for I longed for Thy commandments.
Look Thou upon me and be merciful unto me
As Thou has done to those that love Thy name.
Order my steps in Thy Word and let not any iniquity have dominion over me.
Deliver me from the oppression of man so will I keep Thy precepts.
Make Thy face to shine upon Thy servant and teach me Thy statutes.





Tuesday
Psalm 137-144.

Righteous art Thou, O Lord, and upright are Thy judgements.
Thy testimonies that Thou hast commanded are righteous and very faithful.
My zeal hath consumed me because mine enemies have forgotten Thy words.
Thy Word is very pure, therefore Thy servant loveth it.
I am small and despised yet do not I forget Thy precepts.
Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness and Thy law is the truth.
Trouble and anguish have taken hold on me yet
Thy commandments are my delights.
The righteousness of Thy testimonies is everlasting,
Give me understanding and I shall live.





Wednesday
Anguish Turns to Hope ~ From the reading of God's Word ~ Lamentations 5:1-22
      Our generation has no time for tears.
      We like to see a warm smile and hear the sound of laughter.
      But if there is a time to rejoice, there is also a season in which to let sorrow do it's work.
      Jeremiah is so identified with God and his contemporaries that he experiences extraordinary grief.
      On the one hand, the prophet is pained to see that the nation has fallen into disgrace, lost it's inheritance to aliens and forfeited it's homes to foreigners.   He laments over the poverty and enslavement of the people.
      Egypt and Assyria, heathen powers, dominate the scene.
      Music is silent, joy departs and dancing becomes mourning as sin is punished.
      The heart of Jeremiah is also broken with the things that break the heart of God, the faithlessness and lostness of the people.
      Yet the final note is one of hope.   The prophet looks to the Lord for renewal and restoration.







Thursday

Seeing With Faith ~ From the reading of God's Word ~ Hebrews 11:1-3

      There is a vital difference between knowledge and faith: knowledge is based on experience; faith, on testimony.
      Faith is a very common commodity exercised daily in everyday affairs.
      A check is accepted, for example, because the issuer of the check says he has money in the bank and the one who accepts the check trusts in his veracity.
      Gospel faith rises above this everyday type of faith in one major essential: belief in the divine testimony. We have never seen God, heaven, angels, or the crowns of victory.
      The divine Word, however, testifies to their existence.
      Faith takes this divine testimony and acts upon it.
      Faith appropriates all of the promises of God and proceeds on the basis of those promises.
      Faith gives substance to things that are not yet seen.
      By faith there is an apprehension of the invisible that gives assurance of it's reality.
      The heroes of faith took the promises relating to a future state of affairs and acted as if they were present.   The believer of today must do the same.










Friday

I will bring the blind by a way they did not know;
I will lead them in paths they have not known.
I will make darkness light before them and crooked places straight.
These things I will do for them and not forsake them. Isaiah 42:16











Saturday
Pride and Riches ~ From the reading of God's Word ~ Ezekiel 26:12, 13
      The political importance of Tyre at the time of Ezekiel accounts in part for the great length of the prophecy (Chapters 26-28) against that city.
      Along with Babylon and Egypt, Tyre was the most glorious exhibition of worldly power in the ancient Near East.
      The prophecy against Tyre is an indictment against the mistaken faith which the people of the merchant city put in their world famed riches.
      Unfortunately, when their riches increased, their heart became proud and as a result they made their heart as the heart of a god. (28:6).
      Tyre was a city of merchants and she rejoiced over the destruction of Jerusalem because a commercial competitor had been eliminated (v. 2).
      This intense worldly mindedness led to heartless indifference to the destruction of Jerusalem.
      The secular world will never allow ethics to get in the way of business (Joel 3:6; Amos 1:9).
      Tyre represents the world in its opposition to God, its unbridled ambition, its fleshly confidence, and it's pursuit of selfish purposes.

Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwells in him, and he in God . . . 1 John 4:15

The descriptive words are taken from The Daily Devotional Bible and of course, the scripture, itself is from my KJV, a more recent version.

Words to Ponder
Sondance ~ Table of Contents