MORNING
Psalm
128
B1 What does this mean?
C1 The fear of the Lord
D1 Most say this is to respect Him, not be afraid of Him, but the
word fear is the word to be afraid.
D2 Two things about the fear of God.
E1 It refers to the fear of judgment.
F1 Those who do not believe and do not obey have one type of fear.
G1 Unclean, evil spirits: Matthew 8:28-29 NKJV When He had come to
the other side, to the country of the Gergesenes, there met Him two
demon-possessed men, coming out of the tombs, exceedingly fierce, so
that no one could pass that way. 29 And suddenly they cried out,
saying, "What have we to do with You, Jesus, You Son of God?
Have You come here to torment us before the time?"
G2 Unclean, evil people: Acts 24:25 EMTV And as he reasoned about
righteousness, self-control, and the judgment which is going to be,
Felix became afraid and answered, "Go away for now; but when I
have opportunity I will summon you.
F2 Those who do believe and do obey. This is a different type of
fear.
G1 Isaiah, the prophet: Isaiah 6:5 NKJV So I said: "Woe is
me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I dwell
in the midst of a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the
King, The LORD of hosts."
H1 Note what happened though: Isaiah 6:6-7 NRSV Then one of
the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from
the altar with a pair of tongs. 7 The seraph touched my mouth
with it and said: "Now that this has touched your lips, your
guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out."
G2 John, the Apostle: Revelation 1:17 NRSV When I saw him, I
fell at his feet as though dead. But he placed his right hand on me,
saying, "Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last,
G3 All people: Luke 12:5 EMTV But I will show you whom you should
fear: fear Him who after He kills, has authority to cast into hell;
yes, I say to you, fear Him!
G4 Perfect love drives out fear. Note how this was true with both
Isaiah and John. It is also true for you and me. 1 John 4:18
NRSV There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out
fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not
reached perfection in love.
C2 The blessings in this Psalm refer to God’s blessing of children.
The PRINCIPLE taught though is there is blessings to fear God in the
correct way. He tells us to not fear.
C3 We also need to walk in His ways. This means to obey the rules the
Lord Jesus gave us in the New Testament in thoughts, desires, words,
and deeds, have a godly lifestyle, have a godly worldview, etc.
C4 Some other blessings in this Psalm. God gives
D1 Financial stability. This is true if governments, etc. obey God’s
rules too. Most never have.
D2 Happiness and joy. This is the idea of the word well.
D3 Family stability. This is true when all live God’s ways.
D4 Peace. This is inner peace with God and outer peace with all we
meet. Sad, isn’t it, that most will not live God’s ways, so those
ungodly choices lead to sorrow and pain for others?
B2 How do I apply this to my life? Fear God.
EVENING
John
16
B1 What does this mean?
C1 Jesus Tells Disciples He Is Leaving But the Comforter Will Come
D1 Jesus foretells persecution. This is because others will not live
God’s ways. The choices they make are evil. Because of this they
hate God and those who follow God. Their solution is to cause pain
for God’s followers and even death. They do these things to God’s
people because they did not know God.
D2 Note how Jesus tells us these things so we will be aware and not
turn away from God (stumble, offended, fall away).
D3 Note how it bothers Jesus when He detects their sorrow.
D4 The Counselor (Advocate, Comforter, etc.) is the blessing of Jesus
to us. The Holy Spirit is this counselor. There is no better
Counselor. He is the Counselor of all counselors. He will listen to
us and intercedes for us. You can tell Him anything. Tell Him your
pains and sorrows. He will listen. Why doesn’t He deliver? It is
because of the freedom of humans to do things God’s ways or some
other way. The evil choices of others affect all of us.
D5 The Holy Spirit has 3 other ministries: to convict of sin,
righteousness, and judgment. The Holy Spirit convicts us that we are
not good in God’s sight, that we will be judged and sentenced to
eternal punishment, and that we can distinguish between righteousness
and not unrighteousness.
D6 Verse 13 is primarily for the Apostles and disciples hearing Jesus
but is to be applied to all of us.
C2 Jesus Tells the Disciples of Their Coming Sorrow
D1 Verse 16 primarily refers to Jesus being absent from death (gone)
and His resurrection (present with them again, though for a short
time).
D2 Verse 26 might be primarily referring to the time that Jesus was
present with the believers from His resurrection to ascension.
D3 Verse 32, of course, was fulfilled when Jesus was arrested. Jesus
in wisdom, love, and holiness, showing compassion for His followers
wanted to warn them what lied ahead.
D4 Overcome the world. Bible Illustrator NT has this comment on verse
33:
II. IN WHAT MANNER DID OUR LORD OVERCOME THE WORLD.
1. He overcame the world's falsehood by the power of His truth.
Others were sent to denounce the falsehood, but the world smiled or
frowned on them, and silenced them by its seductions or threats, and
many of them learned to repeat the wicked shibboleths. The faithful
were murdered, one after another, and finally Christ came, born to
this end to bear witness to the truth, and sealed His testimony with
His blood, and by so doing won a victory such as the Church does not
need to win again.
2. He overcame the world's wickedness by His holiness. Till He
came, the idea of absolute holiness was never presented to the mind
of man. But He presented to the end an image of perfect purity.
3. He overcame the world's malice by His infinite love. Only love
can be victorious. The measure of malignity is the measure of defeat.
Animosity is only roused by those who have in some sense gained an
advantage over us. Here, then, is the peculiarity of the Lord's
triumph. He was at war with the world openly and persistently, but
the world never had a better friend; and He turned its murderous rage
into an occasion for manifesting His most benignant gifts.
B2 How do I apply this to my life? Beware of sorrows and persecution.
I
hope
to have a devotional every day on John’s
Gospel starting with the last chapter of Luke’s Gospel.
This
is
the way I do my devotions. You may notice grammatical and spelling
errors. It is my hope you will also start or continue in your daily
reading and thinking about
the Scriptures. I do this Monday through Friday. It is a 3 year plan
of reading and thinking on 1 chapter in the Old Testament, which
takes 3 years, and reading and thinking on 1 chapter in the New
Testament once a year for a total of 3 times. So, I read through the
Old Testament 1 time and the New Testament 3 times over a period of 3
years. I
do this Monday through Friday and use Saturday and Sunday for other
devotions.
