Leviticus 1:1

Then Jehovah called to Moses and spoke to him out of the Tent of Meeting,...

 We are able to reach our God through the Tent of Meeting. It is no longer impossible to meet with Him. Christ, the Son of God, has opened a path, opened a way to speak directly to God, the Father. It is through our spirit and in our spirit that we can touch and communicate with the Spirit.

We must first attest to our sins and acknowledge what Christ has done for us. We must offer Christ as our burnt offering. "Father, I give Your Son to you as our burnt offering. He who has died for us so that we may be saved."
Then we must partake of the meal offering, by feeding on His Words and digesting what He may give to us through our spirit. Allowing Him to feed us, and making a vow to be bound to God. Only by doing this, He can be satisfied and in turn we may be satisfied through Him.

Revelations 2:11

귀가 있는 사람은 그 영께서 교회들에게 하시는 말씀을 들어라. 이기는 이는 결코 둘째 죽음의 해를 받지 않을 것이다. 요한계시록2:11

Rev 2:11 
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes shall by no means be hurt of the second death.

2 Timothy1:7

왜냐하면 하나님께서 우리에게 주신 것은 겁내는 영이 아니라 능력의 영과 사랑의 영과 맑은 생각의 영이기 때문입니다. 디모데후서1:7

2 Timothy1:7 
For God has not given us a spirit of cowardice, but of power and of love and of sobermindedness.

Psalms 69

Psalms 69:30 
I will praise the name of God with a song and will magnify Him with thanksgiving;

69:31 
And it will be better to Jehovah than an ox or a bull with horns and hooves.

Psalms 43

Psalms 43:3  
Send forth Your light and Your truth; They will lead me; They will bring me to Your holy mountain and to Your tabernacles.

43:4  
And I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy; And I will praise You with the harp, O God, my God.

light, alter:

Light and truth (reality) are not separate things but are two aspects of one thing.

Truth is the shining of light, and light is the source of truth (1 John 1:5-6 and note 66, final par.). When the light shines on us, we receive the truth, the reality, and when we go to God in fellowship, we are in the light.

According to this verse the divine light and the divine truth lead God’s captive saints to God’s holy mountain and His tabernacles, which typify the local churches.

Both light and truth are in the church (1 Tim. 3:15)

The psalmists who wrote Psa. 42 — 44 were lovers of God in their captivity (42:6). They were panting for God, thirsting for God (42:1-2), and desiring to return to Jerusalem, to go to Mount Zion to reach the altar. Then they could enter into the temple to meet God their exceeding joy.

This is why they prayed that God would give them the light and the truth (v. 3) that they might know how to be released from their captivity and return to God’s dwelling place.

Psalms 40

Psalms 40:1  
I waited patiently on Jehovah, and He inclined to me and heard my cry.

40:2  
Then He brought me up out of a pit of destruction, out of the miry clay; And He set my feet upon a rock, establishing my steps.

40:3  
Then He put a new song in my mouth, a praise to our God. Many see it and fear, and they trust in Jehovah

40:16 
May all those who seek You be glad and rejoice in You; May those who love Your salvation say continually, may Jehovah be magnified!

40:17 
But I am poor and needy; May the Lord think about me. You are my help and my Deliverer; O my God, do not delay

Psalms 32

Psalms 32:5  
I acknowledged my sin to You,  and I did not cover my iniquity. I said, I will confess my transgressions to Jehovah.  Then You forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah

Psalms 32:7  
You are my hiding place; You preserve me from trouble; You surround me with the ringing shouts of deliverance. Selah

In the beginning of this psalm David confessed his sins (vv. 1-5), but at the end he justified himself as righteous and upright in heart. In reality, apart from Christ no one is righteous and upright in heart (Rom. 3:10; Jer. 17:9).

God’s forgiving our sins and not imputing iniquity to us are based on Christ’s redemption (Eph. 1:7). Apart from Christ’s redemption the righteous God cannot forgive our sins (Heb. 9:22).

David’s writing here is that of a person who tried to keep the law apart from Christ.

In His economy God does not want us to endeavor to keep the law. He wants us to live Christ, the God-man, that He may be magnified (Phil. 1:19-21a). To live Christ in order to magnify Him is to enjoy Him.

Psalms 28

Psalms 28:3  
Do not drag me away with the wicked and with the workers of iniquity, who speak peace to their neighbors while evil is in their heart.

28:4  
Repay them according to what they have done and according to the evil of their deeds; According to the work of their hands repay them; Return to them their due.

Psalms 19

Psalms 19:11
Moreover by them Your servant is warned;  In keeping them there is much reward.

19:12  Who can discern his errors? *Clear me of my secret faults.

19:13  Also keep back Your servant from presumptuous sins; Do not let them have dominion over me; Then I will be blameless and cleared of great transgression.

19:14  May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable before You, O Jehovah, my rock and my Redeemer.

*Clear:

David’s prayer in vv. 12-14 indicates that David was endeavoring to keep the law to the extent of being dealt with in his secret faults, in his presumptuous sins, in the words of his mouth, and in the meditation of his heart. However, even if David could have been perfect, this would not have pleased God.

According to the entire principle of the Bible, God does not want anything merely from man. Regardless of how good a thing is, as long as it is merely human, God will put it aside. What God wants is not a good man, or even a perfect man, but a God-man. God’s desire was to be incarnated as a man by the name of Jesus, to die on the cross, to be resurrected, and in resurrection to become a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:6, 17a) to indwell us (Rom. 8:11), to live in us (Gal. 2:20), and to live Himself out of us (Phil. 1:21a).

This psalm should be evaluated in view of the entire principle of the Bible, which is that God’s main purpose is to make Himself one with man and to make man one with Him, that He and man may have one life, one nature, and one living.

Those who are one with God are God’s organism, the Body of Christ, which will consummate in the holy city, New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:2 — 22:5).

Psalms 18

Psalms 18:1  
I love You, O Jehovah, my strength.
18:2  
Jehovah is my crag and my fortress and my Deliverer; My God, my crock, in whom I take refuge; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my high retreat.
18:3  
I called upon Jehovah, who is worthy of praise, and from my enemies I was saved

Psalm 18 is a human talk with the divine God, implying David’s intimacy with God.

Psalms 18:20
Jehovah has recompensed me according to my righteousness; According to the cleanness of my hands He has repaid me

"recompensed"
In vv. 20-28 David considered his righteousness, perfection, faithfulness, cleanness, and purity as the cause of God’s saving him, and he considered God’s salvation a recompense to him. This is a wrong concept. God saves us not because of our righteousness but because of His mercy and His compassion (Lam. 3:22; Eph. 2:1-9; Titus 3:5) and because of His own purpose (2 Tim. 1:9).

Psalms 15

A Psalm of David

15:1  
Jehovah, who may sojourn in your tent?
Who may dwell on your holy mountain?
15:2  
He who walks in integrity and does righteousness and speaks truth from his heart.
15:3  
He does not slander with his tongue;
He does not do evil to his friend, nor does he take up a reproach against his neighbor.
15:4  
In his eyes a reprobate is despised, but he honors those who fear Jehovah.
Should he swear to his harm, he does not change.
15:5  
He does not lend his money on interest, nor accept a bribe against the innocent.
He who does these things will not be shaken forever

Psalms 14

14:1  
The fool has said in his heart, 
There is no God.
They are corrupt; they commit abominable deeds;
There is none who does good.
14:2  
Jehovah looked down from heaven
Upon the sons of men
To see if there was anyone who had insight,
Who seeks after God.
14:3  
They have all turned aside;
They are together perverse.
There is none who does good;
There is not even one
14:4  
Have they no knowledge, all the workers of iniquity,
Who eat up my people as they would eat up bread
And do not call upon Jehovah?

Psalms 8:4 What is Mortal Man?

<quote>Psalms 8:4  
What is *mortal man, that You *remember him, / And the son of man, that You visit *him?</quote>

*mortal
Man is the central object of God in His creation for the accomplishing of His economy to fulfill His heart’s desire. What is written in vv. 4-6 concerning man was first alluded to in Gen. 1:26-28 and then quoted in Heb. 2:6-8. These three portions of the word reveal man in three stages: first, the God-created man in God’s creation in Gen. 1:26; second, the Satan-captured man in man’s fall in Psa. 8:4; and third, Christ as a man in His incarnation for the accomplishing of God’s redemption in Heb. 2:6. Such a man God remembers in His economy and visits in His incarnation.

*remember
God in the heavens first remembered man; then, He came to visit man by becoming a man through His incarnation (v. 5a; John 1:14; Phil. 2:7). In this way He brought the heavens down to the earth and joined the earth and the heavens, making these two one.

*Him
Referring to the man Jesus in His incarnation with His human living for His all-inclusive death

Psalms 7:8~9

Psalms 7:8   Jehovah will execute judgment on the peoples; / Judge me, O Jehovah, according to my righteousness / And according to my integrity that is with me.

Psalms 7:9   Oh, let the evil of the wicked come to an end, / But establish the righteous man. / For the righteous God / Tries the hearts and the inward parts.

Psalms 3:7 - written words

Psalms 3:7   Arise, O Jehovah; / Save me, O my God! / Oh that You would *strike all my enemies on the cheek; / And break the teeth of the wicked.

David’s prayer for vengeance against his enemies is contrary to the New Testament, which teaches us to love our enemies and to bless those who persecute us and pray for them.

Matthew But I say to you, Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you

Luke 6:35 But love your enemies, and do good and blend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He is kind to the unthankful and evil.

In the Psalms the words concerning the psalmists’ hating their enemies, their asking God to avenge them, and their cursing others are not the words of God but are words that issued from the psalmists’ natural sentiment while they were praising God. They are recorded by the Spirit of God in the Holy Scripture to serve God’s purpose of exposing the psalmists’ spiritual condition, i.e., that although the psalmists loved God and sought Him, they were natural, not spiritual, in their sentiment

The old testament had some violent verses, indeed. Especially those pertaining to God, we must recognize which words were spoken by Him and which words came from the natural human conditions. We must try not to take such words in the scriptures to heart and see only what is written. We must consider the instances and conditions in what is written, spoken in. Let us not disregard the context of the words in the Bible, for if taken out of context could cause much more harm to our lives than good.

Romans 12:14 Bless those who persecute you; Bless and do not curse.

Romans 12:20 But “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in doing this you will heap coals of fire upon his head."

Psalms 2:12

PSALMS 2:12 Kiss* the Son, lest He be angry and you perish from the way; For His anger may suddenly be kindled. Blessed* are all those who take refuge in Him.

Kiss:
To take refuge in the Son is to believe into the Son, Christ (John 3:16, 36), taking Him as our refuge, protection, and hiding place. To kiss the Son is to love the Son and thereby to enjoy Him (John 14:21, 23). To believe in the Lord is to receive Him (John 1:12); to love the Lord is to enjoy the Lord whom we have received. These are the two requirements for us to participate in the Lord.

Blessed:
Or, Happy. The human concept that man is blessed by keeping the law of Jehovah (1:1-2) is in contrast here to the divine concept that man is blessed by taking refuge in the Son

Hebrews 11:1 - Faith

(CREDIT NOTE: edited from an e-mail I received through a friend)

Hebrews 11:1 - Now faith is the substantiation of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

Our Christian life is a life of faith.
 

With every genuinely saved Christian, they have been given this wonderful capacity called faith. With every child born of God, they have been allotted equally precious faith. So we don't need to ask God for faith. Faith is already in us!   

 

Faith is not just hoping that God will do something for you. 

Rather, faith is seeing what God has already done for you and what God has already given to you. This is where the genuine growth in life is. The exercise of faith is related to our human spirit. Our spirit is a spirit of faith.   

This faith is also infused into us by God's Word. 

 

Faith is solid and substantial because it is founded on the Word of God. Whenever we feel that we are lacking in faith, we just need to stand on the Word! 

 

We know that God is true, we know that we are saved, we're cleansed by the blood and forgiven by God because the Word tells us so. 

Romans 8:24 For we were saved in hope. But a hope that is seen is not hope, for who hopes for what he sees?

All things hoped for are things not seen. As people of hope, we should aim our life not at the things that are seen but at the things that are not seen; for the things that are seen are temporary, but the things that are not seen are eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:18)

Romans 4:18 He beyond hope believed in hope in order that he might become the father of many nations according to that which was spoken, "So shall your seed be."

We don't say, "I hope God will forgive me." That's not faith. Faith is saying, "Thank You, Lord, that You have cleansed me, You have forgiven me, and You are living in me."

Hence we walk in faith.

Psalms 1:3

Psalms 1:3
And he will be like a tree
Transplanted beside streams of water,
Which yields its fruit in its season,
And whose foliage does not wither;
And everything he does prospers.

prospers:
The human concept here is that the man who delights in the law of God prospers in everything, whereas the wicked man suffers loss (vv. 4-5). But the experience of the psalmist in Psa. 73 was the opposite (73:1-7, 12-14). This seeming contradiction troubled the psalmist until he was instructed, in the sanctuary of God, to take only God Himself as his portion, not anything other than God (73:16-17, 25-26). According to the Lord’s teaching in the New Testament, those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness (not those who are prosperous) are blessed (Matt. 5:10). In his pursuing of Christ, the apostle Paul did not prosper outwardly but suffered the loss of all things and counted them as refuse that he might gain Christ (Phil. 3:8).

Baptism

Today, during fellowship, we were speaking to some new to the church. We found them to be seeking the Lord, but have yet to proclaim him as our savior. The fellowship went on to find that they have not been baptized properly. In their pasts, they were baptized only by the sprinkling of the water, but not yet fully immersed into the Lord.

It reminded me of how I came to be baptized. One of their stories coincided with mine.  She was seeking for God in several churches only to find that in such religion it felt very superficial and exclusive only to the members of that particular church. That if you were not one of them, and do not follow through with their practices,  then you are not deemed worthy to be a part of that church. There was no feeling of acceptance in the places we have went to.

Until someone preached what true baptism is; The one thing that struck me was

Living Daily in the Glory of God

When I started this blog, I wanted to write in it every day. I wanted it to be my way of continuously coming to the Word. I started it off well, sharing my enjoyment of this Christian life I have. However, it started to slow down. I didn't know why so much, until 2 weeks after. Until now.

When I started this blog, I was merely sharing what I have learned through the day. Something that I have read and learned about the Bible and of God. It was full of life, seeking the Lord. A few posts down the line, I looked into the Word not to gain the Lord but share knowledge. At that point, I slowed down in writing. I stopped writing.

I would open the window and have a blank slate in front of me to write whatever comes to mind, but nothing. Why? I can tell you, it's because I was seeking mere words in a book rather than the life of God in His Word.

I wrote in my earlier post and quoted that "Every Scripture is God-breathed". Somewhere down the line, I stopped taking that in and looked to teach rather than feed. It was good that I had a moment to step back and look at it that way.

This week, some students reminded me of what it means to continuously seek the Lord. To continuously live in Him. Amen!

The church is seeking to expand and to grow. The Lord is looking for His expansion through us, the church. To do so, we must not just come to the Lord during the Sabbath and during bible study, and meetings, and at the church building. But rather, we should come to the Lord whenever we can. Day by day, moment by moment. We must remember to praise and thank the Lord.

The students emphasized on creating vital groups and prayer groups. Every morning, I have a prayer group call me on the phone and we pray to God and call onto him for 15-30 minutes of our day. It's a great way to start the day by waking up and turning to God. Telling Him "Lord, I Love You! Lord, I praise you! Thank You, Lord!" However, it must not stop there. As Christians, we must continue to live a Christian life. To do so, we must continue to see God in everything we do. When we meet people, when we speak to each other, are we speaking God? Or are we speaking something of the world? Most likely the latter. In doing so, we distract ourselves from a goal of coming to God. In becoming one with the Lord. So how do we stop ourselves from doing so? By reminding ourselves that God wants to gain us more every day. When we do so, we will spontaneously speak as God speaks through us to our family, friends, acquaintances and maybe even random strangers.

By doing so, we breathe out God and feed the Word of God to others. We supply life into others, and in doing so we fill ourselves with God through them too. The feeling of knowing that you are with God, and you somehow (even for a brief moment) were able to feed and turn your conversation with a friend towards God, is a good feeling.

I didn't have that the past few weeks while looking to write. I was looking merely to just teach, rather than to converse and feed my readers and speak with God through my writing. So from this point on, I want to open myself to God first before I start typing. If what I am about to write has nothing of God in my words but rather more of my own thoughts, I do not want to write it anymore. I want to type as if God was typing for me.

Rather than trying to write something every day, like I was before, I want to write when I have a real feeling of being touched by the Word. Mainly, because at that moment, I am writing and dispensing God, rather than just my own thoughts. Lord Jesus! Help me in my weakness! Speak through me so that others may hear you! I want nothing of me, but everything of you in my words that others are reading. Lord, feed them with your Word through me.  Lord work on me daily and work through me. Let me serve you, as you have served us.