OUR FATHER WHO FORBIDS FAVOURITISM

The book of James chapter 4 verse 1- 2 says this;

My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism.  Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in.

This passage by the Apostle James declares axiomatically that believers are to be impartial in our acceptance of one another.

The example given is of two people arriving  at a gathering where one person is oppulently attired while the other is poorly dressed in dirty old clothes.

James instructs us not to show special favour to the rich man while belittling the poor man and in fact the Apostle categorizes such discrimination as sinful.

The Lord chose the poor to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom of God while the rich are in the category of those who litigiously oppress believers and blasphem the name of the Lord Jesus and as such, it is foolishness to be deferential towards the rich while being condescending towards the poor.

Amen.

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OUR FATHER WHOSE GLORY IS DECLARED BY THE HEAVENS

Psalm 19 verse 4 says this;

Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.

In the heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun.

This verse speaks of the heavens and the denizens of the heavens and the activity that they carry out where knowledge continually pours forth from them wordlessly and even though this knowledge is transmitted in silence, the message nevertheless proceeds to the whole earth and to the ends of the world.

Those who can incline their ears to hear in the spirit are the ones who can intercept this  knowledge that is being broadcast continually from the realm of the spirit.

Part of this activity in heaven is the service of the sun that the Lord set a path for and it traverses from one end of heaven to the other end and as it moves, it provides heat to every place on the earth. As Psalm 119 verse 6 says;

The sun’s rising is from one end of the heavens, And its circuit to the other end of them; And there is nothing hidden from its heat.

This could be interpreted to be describing the journey that the sun takes around the milky way  galaxy and how it takes the whole earth along with it providing warmth to it as it goes.

Amen.

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OUR FATHER WHO WARNS AGAINST INCITING REBELLION AGAINST HIM

The book of Deutronomy chapter 13 verse 5 says this;

That prophet or dreamer must be put to death for inciting rebellion against the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt and redeemed you from the land of slavery. That prophet or dreamer tried to turn you from the way the Lord your God commanded you to follow. You must purge the evil from among you.

This verse, referencing prophets and dreamers who would try to persuade the people to turn away from God towards false gods, commands that such be put to death.

Even those among them who were  demonstrating signs and wonders were to be seen as false if their messages to the people were to follow gods other than the only true God who brought them out of bondage in Egypt.

The severity of such offences is illustrated when the Lord characterizes them as evil to be purged and prescribes that it be punished as a capital crime.

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OUR FATHER WHO ARISES TO JUDGE AND TO SAVE

Isaiah 33 verse 10 says this;

“Now will I arise,” says the Lord.

“Now will I be exalted; now will I be lifted up.

This verse conveys the singular event where the Lord ascends and is promoted and elevated above all else.

This verse is a textual confirmation of the Lord Jesus being God and the Father, a separate person, also being God. 

Here, the Lord Jesus, after declaring that He will arise by His own will then says that He will be exalted and lifted up. The allusion here is that another person will exalt Him and will lift Him up and the only one who would have the capacity to exalt and lift up the Lord Himself is of course God the Father.

Bless the Lord.

Amen

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OUR FATHER WHO PROVIDES A WAY TO GET AWAY FROM TEMPTATION

The book of James chapter 1 verse 14 says this;

but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. 

In speaking of the progression of wrongdoing, the Apostle James indicates in this verse that it is our personal evil desires that provide the arena for enticement where temptation plays out.

Any part of our lives that are under the control of the flesh rather than the Spirit are vulnerable to enticement because the fleshly nature always seeks ways to express its sinful affinities.

Our fleshly nature, being our original built-in condition, is deeply entrenched in us and so has home-court advantage when it comes to determining which desires to foster.

We are  "dragged away"  from our intention to pursue righteousness by our desires and we are then surrounded by the enticement to gratify our fleshly nature. The temptation then progresses to sin and sin progresses to death.

To avoid getting caught in this inescapable vortex, each believer must continuously pray in the Spirit to strengthen our inner man so that our  spirits can gain dominance over our fleshly nature and thus put to death the works of the flesh.

Regarding the process of acquiring strength in our spirit, Jude chapter 1 verse 20 says this;

But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit,

When built up and strengthened, our spirits can set the agenda of what kinds of thoughts and emotions are harboured in our lives and when evil desires are not given the chance to be conceived in our minds, temptations have no power over us and we can increasingly live free of the ravages of sin.

Amen.

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OUR FATHER WHO JUDGES HIS PEOPLE

The book of Isaiah chapter 3 verses 2 - 4, says this;

1) See now, the Lord, the Lord Almighty, 

2) is about to take from Jerusalem and Judah both supply and support: all supplies of food and all supplies of water, the hero and the warrior, the judge and the prophet, the diviner and the elder,

3) the captain of fifty and the man of rank, the counselor, skilled craftsman and clever enchanter.

4) “I will make mere youths their officials; children will rule over them.”

This passage details the nature of the affliction that will descend on Jerusalem and Judah when their day of judgement commences.

First, the provision of food and water will be disrupted and second, any kind of leadership  among the people will be removed.

Just when the population will need authority figures to coordinate the aquisition and distribution of vital supplies, every possible leader from judges to elders to captains will be removed which will leave the territory paralyzed and unresponsive.

In this extreme power vacuum, inexperienced  youths will rise to take charge of the affairs of the nation exacerbating the confusion and  misery.

A terrible day of judgement indeed.

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