Into Psalm 23

What I would like to do, is to start a new series on Psalm 23. Yes I did some of this a while back but it would be good to go through the whole Psalm. The first would ve an introduction if you will and then we will start the Psalm 23. What do you believe? And with that we can also ask the question, what don’t you believe? Why are those 2 questions so important? Well the first is important as to believing in truth, facts….versus not believing in truth, facts…Or secondly we could believe in things that are not true, facts.. and not to believe in the truth, fact…Sometimes it is very easy to get confused in what we believe and what we don’t believe. Sometimes we believe something, a truth, but in actuality we don’t believe all of what it means…and sometimes we want to mix the truth with non-truth to fit our own desires or reasoning. Sometimes we compromise the truth, to fit in with society…compromise in some areas is not good. In Ex.3:16 “The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob has appeared to me” God tells Moses to say to the elders this; the history of the one true God. It is important that we also believe in the one true God. So often in the Old Testament we see the phrase God of Abraham….This is the God we believe in. Now let’s go forward to the New Testament and also look at the Lord Jesus. In Matt.3:17 “and lo a voice out of the heavens, saying, This is my beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased.” Now we can read a lot more in the Gospels about our Lord. We must remember that He is the Son of God, He is God….and we must never diminish His position of God and the things He said or the things He has done or the things He is going to do. If we look around today we don’t see a lot of idols (statues) around; some but not many. But there are a lot of religions around pulling or trying to pull us into compromising our faith; that is to accept that there are other god’s just like the one true God. Now I’m not talking about being radical…but rather to be on guard, to hold fast to the one true God and His son Jesus Christ. To follow Him and Him alone.

Along the way

As we go through life it is important to learn things, ways... that help us to live life. Last week we talked about, yes and no, how it is important to grasp this concept. For if one has a problem with that one, more than likely they will have trouble with this or these next sections. That would be to follow the rules. When we were young we grew up with rules, for the most part we did not see them written on paper... that we had to sign but more they were general knowledge...things we learned through life, at home, school and ... O.K. let me step back a bit. When we were real little we had to ask for this to do that.... Mom can I ____? Dad can i___? As we get older there became more freedom... Mom I am going... Dad I am doing... more of the sense of communicating of were or what one was doing. Let's call this the high school years. The yes and no's of earlier should have taught us some of the do not do...for later in life. How to act in school, around adults.... Now that we are older how to act at work, how to play, how to be responsible... For the most part when one turned 18 no one gave them a list of rules, or a book of rules that needed to be followed... now I am not talking about getting a bible. You see as we grow up, we all should learn some basic rules or ways of life, along the way. Yes we should learn ways of life from our parents... hopefully. Proverbs 1:8 "Hear, my son, your father's instruction And do not forsake your mother's teaching." Also read Proverbs chapter 4.

Trust

Last week we talked about learning, no. We really only talked about obeying when we are told no. Obeying is only one part of learning no. The other would be to have respect for the one saying no; or even a trust for the one saying no. We use the example of Moses in Ex. 33; What if Moses disobeyed God and took a peek. Let me offer up the three reason's he might have thought of why it would be ok to take a peek. The first would be that rebellious spirit; no one is going to tell me what to do! Did you get that; we want to do what we want...yes it is true think about it. The second would be that you did not respect the person saying, no. It could be for many reasons. For example a dislike or political difference or religious difference or race or place you live or ... Now to the 3rd, the lack of trust. For us this is big. If you take the time to think about it, we are not really trusting people. When we were little we trusted mom and dad.... but as we grew up we saw their weakness, faults... and we started not to trust them like before... Now I know I am not the only one with imperfect parents... or parents that have disappointed... A funny thing happens as one get's older they have a hard time to trust their children to do things...we even have a hard time trusting other people...
In Gen. 3:1-6 We have the account of "the fall of Man". How did that happen? How do we fall in our modern lives? As we look at this passage, the "serpent" goes to Eve; his main objective to have Eve to start to question what God has said. Then to put an idea before her, that God is with holding... if you will, something that she needs...In verse 6 we see that the damage is done, Eve is rationalizing on her own... What has just happened? Satin persuaded Eve not to trust God... You see Moses could have taken a peek but instead he trusted what God said...and stayed in the cleft of the rock. We today need to trust God; to rely on His word the bible. Most important not to read between the lines and add or subtract from God's word; to make it say something or imply something...to fit our situation, thinking... that is what the serpent did to Eve. Fast forward 5 thousand or so years and we see Satan(the serpent) trying to do the same thing. This time He fails, thanks be to our Lord Jesus Christ. That would be in Luke 4, known as the temptation of the Son of man. Fast forward another 2 thousand or so years, Satan is still trying to do his work, getting people to not trust God. Are you standing strong against him, like Moses and like our Lord Jesus? Trust God!

No looking

As we go through life there comes points in time that one will learn something that he wished he learned earlier in life. Now some of those things were things that we were made aware of, taught.... but for some reason or another we just didn't get it or we just fought against the principle... Seriously, think about it! Don't we all have things that are just hard for us to learn...or put into practice.... Or things that we heard about and thought "that doesn't apply to me." I will not do that... That is for so and so or for people like... The list goes on and on...
Now before we go too far let me remind us all that we are talking about "good" principles... and that we use the bible, Gods word, as the final test if you will. Now where do we begin. Let us go back to our earliest days. For all of us let's say around or before the year of our 2nd birthday. As a parent have you heard the expression of the "terrible 2's"? So that is where we will begin. Now in those early years one would think that a child so dependent would learn things easily or fast. Well they do. So what is this that some of us or maybe all of us have a problem with? When one says no, it means no, and yes means yes.
Think about it. That more and more that in our society when parents say, no. More and more it seems to mean maybe. Or even that if you do it that no means yes, because you have done it. Now as we go through life this conflict of "no" seems to reek havoc with us. We tend to fight with it and this fight comes unaware, that is that we don't even realize that we have a struggle. That as we get older this struggle affects so much. As I was thinking how to write this devotion let me close with 2 thoughts. The first would be the struggles that I have with this concept of "no" and how inadequate I am to talk about such things. The second was were in God's word did He say, no, or did He imply, no. Some come to mind, what I would like to use is Exod. 33:20 "But you cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live." This is when Moses is on Mount Sinai to get the 10 commandments. So here God says, no; but allows Moses to see His back side. What I would like us all to notice is that when the answer is no, there may be a good reason behind it...or even a protection... Think about it what if Moses took a little peek? No looking...

Marriage to be honored

It's been a few months! But here we go again. Do you all remember our theme? "We are men and we do what men do! So what do we do?" Now we have been talking about honor. Now I would like to address one more topic dealing with honor. Even today I have heard of a situation that warrants this topic. Now this topic will equally address both men and women. I would like to say that this topic was something that needed not be addressed 20-30 years ago but that is not the case. But at the same time it seems that now, it needs to be talked about even more. So what is this last topic dealing with honor? That will be to honor marriage.
That us as men and women will look at the institution of marriage in honor. That we would not be the one to break up a marriage. That as a man you would not get involved with a girl who is married or even with one who is engaged...that also a women would also do the same. It is a shame that you hear of a married man going after another women or a married woman going after another men. It seems to be a common thing. I mentioned that even today, I talked with a man who just got back with his wife; leaving his girl friend.
That even the ones who are married would not give up so easily. Yes I do mean so easily. I was watching a movie the other day, a sci-fi , in the movie there were good aliens that were just like humans...to make this short I will try to quote the line that an older one said to the younger; " We are not like the humans, when we marry it is forever." Now that is the thinking that we all need. How does one fall out of love after one, two, twenty...years? Let's not think that it does not happen. We all need to be working on our marriage all the time... that we will have the resolve to honor marriage. That we would have a resolve to honor our own marriage; to do those things that will make it better and better... For us men to love our wives... to appreciate them.... to do things...Now one more thing, you do not honor marriage when you are living with someone(not married), seeing if you like each other...Marriage is marriage and it is not o.k. to do the things of marriage without being in a marriage; for those things are reserved for marriage. -------Hebrews 13:4 "Marriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled"

The struggle---bible reading

It has been a while since I wrote. If you want to know it has been way to long. Let me fill you all in, and maybe this will encourage you in your walk. Let's all be honest, the Christian walk can get really rough....
So I will say that these events have happened over the last 6 to 12 months. I will not put them in order but will try to put them together in a way that will be helpful. Let me start by saying that the "Stay Strong" ministry has been going on for about 3 to 4 years and like most ministries if not all there is opposition... Yes we all should know that we have an enemy(s), that he is very strong and cunning or better yet let say he is smart. He can use whoever he can; even with them being unaware...Now that in of itself is a hard thing to deal with.
Also during that time sickness came upon me. Let me put it like this I thought I was getting the flu... then I would start feeling better for a few day... then sick then better then sick...then one day the sickness hit me like a ton of bricks I could barely stand...the next day to the doctors...a bad infection where you don't want to have infections...Iv therapy... Can you believe I got a little better but I was still sick. How did the doctor put it, it is very uncommon for someone to have 2 serious problems at once. Well another specialist...and test...
You know when you get older and sickness comes and it is not the common sickness that you had thru the years... and things hurt...that never hurt before... it get's one a thinking. Then when something is found and you here those words, we will send it out to see if it is cancer... Wow, or better yet whoa, hold on what did you say? The feeling... it is hard to describe...the days seem to go by so slowly... Well I don't have cancer... What a relief! But what is with us men? Why are we so hard, so callous, so insensitive...
So during that time pain killers...it is hard to think... it's so hard to read... Let me tell you what happened one day. I was sitting there in my house, just resting...not really doing anything, recoupperating but at this time I was feeling a lot better. A thought came in my mind to read the word, the bible. The bible was there on the table just out of my grasp; I looked at it and looked at it. I just could not pick it up and read it. I would like to say that this was just a 5 minute ordeal but no it was much longer than that and I do mean longer. The whole time the feeling to read the word of God was there, but for me to get up and move that 5 feet was so hard. I was frozen. I just sat there; what a sight that must of been! Let me tell you I enjoy reading God's word. But as I recollect on those weeks it seemed that I was reading less and less without being aware of it. Then bang that day hit! You see it is a slow progression that we all must be aware of; that is we read a little less... pray a little less or quickly... give thanks a little less... forget to ask for forgiveness... then before you know it your thought's are not on God... but more on the world... and yourself... your going your own way...thinking your own way. You see for me I need to read God's word, it is a live, it is fresh, it is food for my soul... It helps through my day... it helps me to focus on God the father, Jesus the son and the Holy Spirit. It helps in prayers... It helps me to draw near to Him. So Let's go back to that struggle. The struggle of reading God's word, yes it is real! Yes, it is one that can be won. Was the struggle one that was in of itself in my own will? Or was the struggle brought on by the evil one? I'm not sure but I do know this; that this struggle and ones like it come. We all need to stand strong in our resolve to follow Jesus and our resolve to draw near to God. James 4:7-8 "Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double minded." You see when we distance our self from God our hands(deeds) start to not be "good"... and our hearts(thinking) starts to be a miss... so let us all read God's word daily.

Honor your wife it's the right thing to do.

Can I be real with you all? Seriously! The next topic of our devotion is a real hard one for me. Let me say not a new topic but a continuance of what we have been talking about. That would be honor. Now, let it be known that I do try in this area, and try hard; but I also find that I tend to get lacks in this area. So where do we start? Let's start with the verse, 1Peter3:7 " Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the women as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life."
Wow! More to do for our wives. Yes, more. If you are like me, I am still figuring out how to love my wife, how to cherish my wife... and when I think that I'm doing well then bang. You see for us we tend to think that when we start doing these good things that we have arrived, if you will. Almost like one plus one equals two thinking. If I do this, this is what should happen... Now let me give us all an example that will help us with loving, honoring our wives. You wife's favorite meal is____. So you desire to learn how to cook that meal, in a gourmet style if you will. Done just right... to perfection. You do it out of love... or you do it to honor her on a special occasion... Well it worked out so well, you decide to do it again and again and again; twice a week, maybe more. Guess what? The impact it once had starts to diminish. It can even get so bad as to having a reverse effect.
The moral to our story is that it is not a one thing(deed) that will equate to filling the requirement of love, honor... That it is the sum of a lot of deeds that will say loudly, love. And not only that that these deeds seem to change, yearly, monthly, weekly and yes even daily. Our verse is about honor, to show honor by doing loving deeds... it is a good way to show honor. I like what it says in our verse, " understanding", to learn what see likes...and needs... Now why do we need to honor her, because she is the weaker vessel. Now we will not try to explain all that or any of what weaker vessel means. All we need to know is that God wants us to honor our wives. And I believe that this honor thing goes hand in hand with love. So us men need to step up more in this honoring thing.

Love the key to honor

Honor it is hard to give! We have been talking about honor and obeying the past few weeks. Have you found it hard to give honor? It is hard to give honor we need to think about it...Now there is a way that makes giving honor a lot easier. That would be with the help of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now let me take a step back. One needs to honor God, the one true God, the God of all creation. The one who created you and me...Why you might ask? Because He deserves it, He is the one who does great things, has a position...Never mind all that He is...Perfect, Powerful...
Now with that we need to honor what He says needs to be honored. That would include His son Jesus Christ. Yes, we need to honor Jesus! If we are to put things in order of positions, that deserve honor, Jesus would be first, for He is first. Until we can give Jesus and God the honor they deserve, giving honor to others will be hard or harder than it needs to be. What I want to do is give us a few verses to help us with this honoring thing. The first would be Rev. 4:11"Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for You created all things, and by your will they existed and were created." John 5:23 "that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him." Yes we need to give honor to our God and His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. We sing songs to Him, about Him... giving him honor but there is one important "ingredient" if you will; that will be LOVE. One last verse, John 14:23 "If any one loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him...". You see we obey the commandment because we love the one who gave them, by keeping them we also give honor to the one who gave them. Honor is more than "lip" service; it comes with an action too. That love is the deep, deep part of why we honor...So put love into the equation when you want to show honor, it makes a difference.

Everyone

The last few weeks we looked at obeying and honor. We started with obeying our parents and then moved to honoring people in positions. That will also include honoring our parents too. As mentioned before there is a lot to the word honor, and there are a lot of ways to demonstrate honor. But who are we to honor? Only the ones in positions, parents, the ones who have done something great... Special people! Yes, that is the way we think, believe it or not. Now in the bible there is this verse; 1Peter2:17 "Honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king."
" Honor all people"; that puts a whole new perspective into our lives. If you are like me it gives me a lot to think about. We are to honor everyone. Doesn't one need to do something to be honored? Seriously, did that question come up in your mind? Yes, everyone deserves honor. Not because they are so and so or did such and such, but because they are a person. Or better yet a person created by the one true God. Now some that we honor are children of God, "believers". We even have a hard time with that. Think about it we have a hard time showing honor.
Like holding a door open for someone...helping one in need, letting another go before you; saying thank you; welcoming each other; being happy for someone; crying with someone; giving to someone...but the most would be in our minds to think, everyone deserves honor. From the "lowly"--to the "highly" and we must be aware not to get caught showing partiality. Everyone deserves honor. Yes, I too need to work on that. James2:1-4 "My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism. For if a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and there also comes in a poor man in dirty clothes, and you pay special attention to the one who is wearing the fine clothes, and say, 'You sit here in a good place', and you say to the poor man, 'You stand over there, or sit down by my foot stool.'"
Let me say it is not only limited to the rich and poor. It reaches over to all aspects of life; race, culture, countries, towns, cities....Showing honor is a hard thing to do. We must begin showing honor more and more to everyone.

Honoring positions

Honor it is hard to give. Think about it, when we do give honor it is only for a moment, a hour, a day, a week...Seriously we tend to give honor for a short period of time. An athlete maybe the best at a certain time but the next year he doesn't perform as good...or didn't win; well he loses all his honor...Think about it, the best of the world come together every four years to compete. The best of the best but if one doesn't win the gold; for the most part he/she is looked down upon...they let us down... and sometimes we tell them, from the stands, how bad they are...sometimes people act like they could do the task...or play better. You know for the most part these people trained, studied...to be where they are. Think about it some of these people are one of the best in the world for what they are doing, and we don't give them honor for the great achievement they have done; even if they never become number one.
In our society we need to honor those who are in a position that deserves honor. Be it a president, vice president, senator, congressmen, mayor, judge, policeman/women, fireman/women and ...Yes, I know there are good ones and bad ones of the above but the fact is that we honor the position that they hold. It is easy to honor someone when they do an outstanding deed... but we also need to honor when they are doing the routine deeds. How about when they are trying hard and it does not work out the way it should have...when things...just seem to go wrong. So we need to honor people in positions be it in government, at work, people doing special things...Yes, we need to give honor. Now let me use one more word that is part of honor, respect. Respect- to consider worthy of high regard. Rom.13:7 "Render to all what is due them: tax to who tax is due, custom to whom custom, fear to whom fear, and honor to whom honor.
Think about it sometimes the ones we honor is not that they did something...but rather that they have a position, a title...that brings honor. At the same time we also must remember the ones who have done something...that deserve honor.

Honor, let's start

Last week we talked about obeying; children obeying their parents... Hopefully as adults we also learned to obey. For if we do not learn, or have a good grip on the obey thing, we will also struggle with the next topic. That would be honor. Honor is more involved than most of us think. So we will take a look at what honor means and how do we apply it in our daily living.
First let's look at one part of the definition of honor: an exalted title or rank. Last week we mentioned that we need to learn to obey; we used as our example obeying our father and mother. But in scripture it also tells us to honor our parents. Deu. 5:16 "Honor your father and mother, as the Lord your God has commanded you, that your days will be long , and that it may will go well with you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you." What does it mean to honor? That is the question we all need to figure out. It means more than obeying. Even though obeying is still part of the answer.
Before we continue, let us all recognize that there are types of fathers and mothers. Good ones, alright ones, o.k. ones, bad ones, real bad ones, out of the picture ones, ...But let us all remember that just like our fathers and mothers we all are with our short comings in some way. There is also one common thing that we all have; we all have a father and a mother. With that we all need to bestow on them honor. It is not a question of if they deserve it...or if in our eyes they have earned it...They are your parents and with being your parents they deserve honor. It is not a choice, it is a command of God. As in following the obeying thing helps us in our lives so does giving honor to our parents. Oh, but you do not know my father/mother...Yes, I do understand some situations(not all) that it wasn't good. The point is if you are willing to do what is right. To make a difference. How do we honor them? Father's day, Mother's day, birthdays...inviting them to things...now here is the deal, loving them. Yes it is hard for some of us. We are hurt...in all types of ways...but giving honor maybe the beginning of healing....making the difference.

New series

The next topic I would like to talk about is going to take a long time. Yes, maybe even longer than the last; dealing with sin. What is this topic you ask? Well it is best described in a statement...or a title. "We are men and we do what men do; so what are we to do?". Stop and read that over a few times. Did you get questions in your mind of what are we to do? Did you wonder if what you are doing is the right thing/way...to do things? Or did you go right to the things that men do for fun, sports... As you can see it is a big topic! With that let us all understand that we will more than likely only cover some areas of this topic and that even these areas may be covered in a small way. The goal is to help us to act more as real men.
Where do we start? I believe that we need to go all the way back to when we were young. How young? Well let's not get caught up with the age thing, it will be more important now to grasp the principle. The principle will be obedience or to obey. Eph. 6:1 "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right." This principle of obedience will never end for us. So it begins for all of us as children, we are to obey our parents. Some of us did well here, some not so well and some of us started well, then lost ground during the teen years...some who started off not well, turned during those teen years to do well; and believe it or not some just have a hard time for a very long time. But if we look at our lives most of us will probably see an up (obeying) and down (disobeying) imposing thing. Something that our parents used to keep us from...fun. As we get older this obeying thing does not go away. If we take the time to think about it, as adults we have to obey even more. As we get older we need to be more responsible. Have you heard those words before? They are true, the older we get the more choices we have. And with the more things we can do... there seems also to be laws and rules that we need to obey or follow. How are you, how am I with obeying the rules...How are you, how am I with obeying the one true God and His laws..?pattern. We do good then all of a sudden were not doing good, in this obeying thing. Really, it is hard!

Illness

It's been a few weeks since I posted. Well illness came upon me. The past few weeks... the flu has been around. Every so often I thought I had it... but I would get some what better. Then bang! Guess what it was not the flu. So now I am on the road to recovery and will be posting weekly(or some what) again. Hopefully this ministry will be helpful to you all and a blessing. Thanks for being patient, Peter Dee

True friend / true brother

Some things are just hard to do! When we are doing a physical task, it is easier when you have help. When I was in college, we would sometimes form study groups, each of us helping one another to learn...I had a group of friends that we encouraged each other in doing our studies...We kind of help each other along.
Sometimes we need to have friends to help us along. To encourage us to be better, to help us in our time of need...It seems that in our society today most of us men are non dependent or independent. That most men do not have close friends or a friend that they can go to with, let's say, "disappointing news". News that will make one wonder why am I your friend, if you did or do that, or what kind of a man are you?... As men, that thought or feeling is a real stumbling block. Yes it is true, no one wants to be looked down upon...the feeling of shame. Seriously, when one is looking for help...a friend needs to help! When a brother is looking for help, a brother needs to help. We forget what our Lord has said, "He who is without sin cast the first stone." We forget that we to are sinners saved by grace. We forget that there is a battle going on and that the battle is at your friends/brothers front door and he's not doing good, he's getting beat up...He needs help. We forget that just maybe the battle will be at our front door and we will be the one calling for help.
What do we do as friends, prayer, prayer. That would be the first! You notice prayer twice; that is to represent continued prayer... Helping him with the issue, be it taking him to work...to avoid. Helping him to understand the better way...showing him the better way, example. Bible study... It can get pretty deep. But what if it is beyond you? Well there are groups that help with special issues. For example the For men's only group. Dealing with sexual sins...but here is the deal brothers are you willing to take a brother there, to go with him...People may see! People may hear! That you are there. You see that is the biggest problem, that others see...and other_______________. They do not see the good picture.; that a brother or even sister is going to be healed! It's a good thing.

Trusting to pray

Now sin has a desire for us, it is powerful and it is used powerfully by the evil one. You may ask, is he still talking about how to deal with sin? Yes we are. Let us never forget that this battle will last a life time. Now we have been talking about the tough sins, hard sins, the sins that plague us. You know the sin that we just have a hard time to let go of. You tried all the ways...mentioned...and it still is plaguing you. Sometimes you lose hope, what can I do now...
Well there is still another principle for us to grasp to help us deal with sin. James 5:16 "Therefore, confess your sins one to another and pray one for another, that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much." Now let me go back a few verses and say this, "there are here in James 5 two more principles/ways to help us to deal with sins." The first is to go to the Elders for prayer, which we see in verses 14-15. I know it is dealing with sickness, but if you read on it deals with sin. Believe it or not sin can also cause sickness. Now in verse 16 it tells us to confess to one another. Yes that does mean to tell on yourself. Tell someone that you are dealing with a sin...Now here is the important part, so that person will pray for you. Just like going to the Elders, it is so that they will pray for you. It is that we need help! The help of a godly man who will pray for us. For our church leaders who will pray for us. For us who have this problem that we cannot handle on our own, that we are willing to reach out for help. That help being prayer, intercession. Let me say this, it is hard to confess a sin to another, a sin that plagues you, admitting a weakness; admitting a strong hold, admitting something bad is wreaking havoc in you.
With that, for the ones who are being asked to help, it is a great responsibility. Another brother is coming to you for prayer, for continued prayer if you will. He is trusting you to pray for him. He is trusting you not to be judging. He is trusting you to help him be healed. He is trusting you because he sees you as a "spiritual" person. Or better yet the word, righteous, is used in our verse. Oh that we will be willing to ask and that we will be willing to pray for each other.