From jmbetter at gmail.com Tue Jan 1 11:28:35 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Tue, 1 Jan 2013 11:28:35 -0800 Subject: Jeremiah 25-29 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* *AUG 4 - JEREMIAH 25-29 - JUDGMENT PREDICTED: 70 YEARS* *1. 25:11 (25:1-14, ESV) PROPHECY OF THE 70 YEARS CAPTIVITY. ?This whole land shall become a ruin and a waste, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.? *Father, You are Sovereign of the universe. You speak and it is done, and none can say You, Nay. *Hallowed be your :name!* *2. 25:15 (25:15-38) SIGN OF THE WINE CUP OF FURY. Thus the LORD, the God of Israel, said to me: ?Take from my hand this cup of the wine of wrath, and make all the nations to whom I send you to drink it.? *Your will even in judgment, shall be done upon all the earth, O Father! *Your :kingdom come!* *3. 26:15 (26) MESSAGE IN THE TEMPLE COURT. ?Only know for certain that if you put me to death, you will bring innocent blood upon yourselves and upon this city and its inhabitants, for in truth the LORD sent me to you to speak all these words in your ears.? *Father, Your word is a true word, even when unpalatable. Judgment and chastisement to bring us to our sinful senses sometimes becomes necessary. Bring us to our senses! *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth!* *4. 27:6 (27:1-11) SIGN OF THE YOKES FOR NATIONS. ?Now I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant, and I have given him also the beasts of the field to serve him.? *What a Great and Sovereign God You are, Father! You do *all* things after the counsel of Your own will. You do what is necessary to bring us to repentance. *Our :daily :bread Give us this day.* *5. 27:16 (27:12-22) SIGN OF THE YOKES FOR ZEDEKIAH. Then I spoke to the priests and to all this people, saying, ?Thus says the LORD; Do not listen to the words of your prophets who are prophesying to you, saying, ?Behold, the vessels of the LORD?s house will now shortly be brought back from Babylon,? for it is a lie that they are prophesying to you.? *How we love to deceive and be deceived! How we hate to face spiritual reality! Forgive us for our hard-heartedness, Father! *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors!* *6. 28:9 (28) CONTEST BETWEEN PROPHETS. ?As for the prophet who prophesies peace, when the word of that prophet comes to pass, then it will be known that the LORD has truly sent the prophet.? *Father, thank You for these words of wisdom to discern between prophets, the false and the true. Help us to heed these words of wisdom. *And bring us not into temptation!* *7. 29:10 (29) JEREMIAH: LETTER TO THE CAPTIVITY. ?For thus says the LORD; When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place.? *Hallelujah! How marvelous You are, O Jehovah Father! None other can say and do such things as You! *But deliver us from the evil one!* *NONE**: 29:13-14 (29) GOD?S PROMISE! **?You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you, declares the LORD, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the LORD, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.? *Again, such promises as this from You Father, humble our hearts! *C.H. Spurgeon Quotes: *In heaven they marry not, but are as the angels of God; yet there is this one marvelous exception to the rule, for in heaven Christ and His Church shall celebrate their joyous nuptials. This affinity as it is more lasting, so it is more near than earthly wedlock. Let the love of husband be never so pure and fervent, it is but a faint picture of the flame which burns in the heart of Jesus. *Our Psalm for the day: 34:1: 18 (34) TASTE AND SEE THAT THE LORD IS GOOD! ?I will bless the LORD at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth. 18 The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.? *O Father, open our eyes to see all the hypocrisy in our life. Let us *Hallow your :name* by walking consistently in Your word! 34. ?A Psalm of David, when he changed his behavior before Abimelech; who drove him away, and he departed.? Of this transaction, which reflects no credit upon David?s memory, we have a brief account in 1 Samuel 21. Although the gratitude of the Psalmist prompted him thankfully to record the goodness of the Lord in vouchsafing an undeserved deliverance, yet he weaves none of the incidents of the escape into the narrative but dwells only on the grand fact of his being heard in the hour of peril. We may learn from his example not to parade our sins before others, as certain vainglorious professors are wont to do who seem as proud of their sins as old Greenwich pensioners of their battles and their wounds. David played the fool with singular dexterity, but he was not so real a fool as to sing of his own exploits of folly. 34:1. *I will bless the LORD at all times. *He who praises God for mercies shall never want a mercy for which to praise. To bless the Lord is never unseasonable. 34:2. *My soul shall make her boast in the Lord. *Boasting is a very natural propensity, and if it were used as in this case, the more it were indulged the better. The exultation of this verse is no mere tongue bragging; *the soul* is in it, the boasting is meant and felt before it is expressed. What scope there is for holy boasting in Jehovah! 34:6. *This poor man cried. *His prayer was a cry, for brevity and bitterness, for earnestness and simplicity, for artlessness and grief; it was a poor man?s cry, but it was none the less powerful in heaven, for *the Lord heard him, *and to be heard of God is to be delivered; and so it is is added, the Lord *saved him out of all his troubles.* At once and and altogether David was clean rid of all his woes. The Lord sweeps our griefs away as men destroy a hive of hornets or as the winds clear away the mists. Prayer can clear us of troubles as easily as the Lord made riddance of the frogs and flies of Egypt when Moses entreated him. 34:14. *Seek peace*. Anger is murder to one?s own self as well as to its objects. *And pursue it.* Hunt after it; chase it with eager desire. It may soon be lost, indeed - nothing is harder to retain - but do your best, and if enmity should arise let it be no fault of yours. Follow after peace when it shuns you; be resolved not to be of a contentious spirit. The peace which you thus promote will be returned into your own bosom and be a perennial spring of comfort to you. 34:18. *The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart. *Near in friendship to accept and console. Broken hearts think God far away, when He is really most near them; their eyes are holden so that they see not their best friend. 34:20. *He keeps all His bones: not one of them is broken. Eternity* will heal all their wounds. Not a bone of the mystical body of Christ shall be broken, even as His corporeal frame was preserved intact. Divine love watches over every believer as it did over Jesus; no fatal injury shall happen to us. We shall neither be halt nor maimed in the kingdom, but shall be presented after life?s trials are over without spot or sprinkle or any such thing, being preserved in Christ Jesus and kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation. *(From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O Fuller)* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Wed Jan 2 11:11:55 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Wed, 2 Jan 2013 11:11:55 -0800 Subject: Jeremiah 30-33 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* January 2, 2012 *AUG 5 - JEREMIAH 30-33 - RESTORATION PROMISES* *1. 30:11 (30, ESV) RESTORATION: THROUGH REGATHERING. ?For I am with you to save you, declares the LORD; I will make a full end of all the nations among whom I scattered you, but of you I will not make a full end. I will discipline you in just measure, and I will by no means leave you unpunished.? *Father, Your rule is supreme, Your justice right, and Your mercy so full! *Hallowed be your :name.* *2. 31:3 (31:1-22) RESTORATION: THROUGH CONVERSION. ?The LORD appeared to him from far away. I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.? *Father, You humble our hearts with such expressions of Your great love and faithfulness. Forgive us for walking afar off so often. *Your :kingdom come!* *3. 31:26 (31:23-30) RESTORATION: THROUGH REBUILDING OF ISRAEL. ?At this I awoke and looked, and my sleep was pleasant to me.? *Father, we thank You for this prophetic dream of restoration given to Jeremiah. Yet we come to appreciate *You* more than Your promises of blessing to us. Yes, for *Your*pleasure, we are created! * Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth!* *4. 31:33 (31:31-37) RESTORATION: THROUGH THE NEW COVENANT. ?But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.? *Ah, Jehovah Father, we rejoice in Your plan of the New Covenant for the church, composed of Jew and Gentile. We bless You for Your provision of a heart-change! What bounty and grace! *Our :daily :bread Give us this day!* *5. 31:38 (31:38-40) RESTORATION: THROUGH JERUSALEM CONFIRMED. ?Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when the city shall be rebuilt for the LORD from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate.? *What powerful words of Restoration-Promise You give us, O Father! What You ordered for Israel of old, You oversaw that it was done! In Your mercy deal gently with us. *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors!* *6. 32:17 (32) RESTORATION: SIGN OF KINSMAN-REDEMPTION! ?Ah, Lord GOD! It is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you.? *Praise, blessing, honor and adoration be unto You O Father, world without end. Amen! You are all-powerful, and worthy to be praised. *And bring us not into temptation!* *7. 33:3 (33) RESTORATION: THROUGH DAVIDIC KINGDOM. ?Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.? *What a great Father You are! There is *nothing* too hard for You! As we fill our minds and hearts with all You are and do, we are forced to confirm these truths again and again! *But deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE**: 31:34 (31:31-37) RESTORATION: UNDER THE NEW COVENANT! **?And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ?Know the LORD,? for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.? *The day comes O Father, when Your glory shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. And Jesus Your Son has revealed You unto us, and *You* are in *Him*, and *He* in *You*! *C.H. Spurgeon Quotes: *What is heaven? It is the place which his love suggested, which his genius invented, which his bounty provided, which his royalty has adorned, which his wisdom has prepared, which he himself glorifies; in that heaven you are to be with him for ever. *Our Psalm for the day: 35:13 (35) GREAT IS THE LORD. ?But I, when they were sick - I wore sackcloth; I afflicted myself with fasting; I prayed with head bowed on my chest.? *Here we see You by prophecy, as the Lamb of God, seeking the welfare of Your persecutors. Here we see the self-lifesublimated to the will of God! No wonder we *Hallow Your :name*, Father! Title: *?A Psalm of David.? *Here is all we know concerning the Psalm, but internal evidence seems to fix the date of its composition in those troublous times when Saul hunted David over hill and dale and when whose who fawned upon the cruel king slandered the innocent object of his wrath, or it may be referred to the unquiet days of frequent insurrections in David?s old age. The whole Psalm is the appeal to heaven of a bold heart and a clear conscience irritated beyond measure by oppression and malice. Beyond a doubt, David?s Lord may be seen here by the spiritual eye. 35:3. *Draw out also the spear, and stop the way against them that persecute me*. To stave off trouble is no mean act of lovingkindness. As when some valiant warrior with his lance blocks up a defile, and keeps back a host until his weaker brethren have made good their escape, so does the Lord often hold the believer?s foes at bay until the good man has taken breath, or clean fled from his foes. 35:4. *Let them be confounded and put to shame that seek after my soul. *There is nothing malicious here; the slandered man simply craves for justice, and the petition is natural and justifiable. Guided by God?s good Spirit, the Psalmist foretells the everlasting confusion of all the haters of the righteous. Shameful disappointment shall be the portion of the enemies of the gospel, nor would the most tender-hearted Christian have it otherwise; viewing sinners as men, we love them and seek their good, but regarding them as enemies of God, we cannot think of them with anything but detestation and a loyal desire for the confusion of their devices. No loyal subject can wish well to rebels. Squeamish sentimentality may object to the strong language here used, but in their hearts all good men wish confusion to mischief-makers. 35:7. For* without cause have they hid from me their net in a pit, which without cause they have digged for my soul. *Twice does David assert in one verse that his adversaries plotted against him *without cause*. Net-making and pit-digging require time and labor, and both of these the wicked will expend cheerfully if they may but overthrow the people of God. 35:8. *And let his net that he has hid catch himself: into that very destruction let him fall*. There is a *lex talionis* with God which often works most wonderfully. Men set traps and catch their own fingers. They throw up stones, and they fall upon their own heads. How often Satan outwits himself and burns his fingers with his own coals! This will doubtless be one of the aggravations of hell, that men will torment themselves with what were once the fond devices of their rebellious minds. They curse and are cursed; they kick the pricks and tear themselves; they pour forth floods of fire, and it burns them within and without. 35:11. *False witnesses did rise up. *This is the old device of the ungodly, and we must not wonder if it be used against us as against our Master. To please Saul, there were always men to be found mean enough to impeach David. *They laid to my charge things that I knew not*. He had not even a thought of sedition; he was loyal even to excess; yet they accused him of conspiring against the Lord?s anointed. He was not only innocent but ignorant of the fault alleged. It is well when our hands are so clean that no trace of dirt is upon them. 35:12. *And my prayer returned into my own bosom. *Prayer is never lost: if it bless not those for whom intercession is made it shall bless the intercessors. Clouds do not always descend in showers upon the same spot from which the vapors ascended, but they come down somewhere and even so do supplications in some place or other yield their showers of mercy. If our dove find no rest for the sole of her foot among our enemies, it shall fly into our bosoms and bring an olive branch of peace. 35:21. *And said, Aha, aha, our eye has seen it. *Glad to find out a fault for a misfortune or to swear they had seen evil where there was none. Malice has but one eye; it is blind to all virtue in its enemy. Eyes can generally see what hearts wish. A man with a mote in his eye sees a spot in the sun. How like a man to an ass when he brays over another?s misfortunes! How like to a devil when he laughs a hyena-laugh over a good man?s slip! 35:23. *My God and my Lord. *The cry of Thomas when he saw the wounds of Jesus. If he did not count our Lord to be divine, neither does David here ascribe deity to Jehovah, for there is no difference except in the order of the words and the tongue in which they were spoken; the meaning is identical. What words they are, with their two eyes seeing Jehovah in two aspects, yet as one, grasping him with two hands in the double ?my? to one heart, for the word is but one, bowing before him on both knees to worship him in lowliest reverence. Well might Nouet, in his exposition of the words as used by Thomas, exclaim, ?O sweet word, I will say it all my life long; I will say it in the house of death; I will say it in eternity.? *(From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Thu Jan 3 13:46:37 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2013 13:46:37 -0800 Subject: Jeremiah 34-38 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* January 3, 2013 *AUG 6 - JEREMIAH 34-38 - PROPHECIES BASED ON SINS OF KINGS* *1. 34:2 (34:1-7, ESV) JEREMIAH: BOTH WARNS AND ENCOURAGES ZEDEKIAH. ?Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Go and speak to Zedekiah king of Judah and say to him, ?Thus says the LORD: Behold, I am giving this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire.?? *Did You mean this, Father? Yes, and Your judgment was righteous! Sometimes the only way in which Your Kingdom can be furthered, is through righteous judgments! *Hallowed be your :name!* *2. 34:16 (34:8-22) ZEDEKIAH: HIS INEFFECTUAL COVENANT. ?But then you turned around and profaned my name when each of you took back his male and female slaves, whom you had set free according to their desire, and you brought them into subjection to be your slaves.? *Forgive us Father, for reneging on our word. We commit ourselves to justice, and then go back on our word. *Your :kingdom come!* *3. 35:18-19 (35) JEREMIAH: SIGN OF THE RECHABITES. But to the house of the Rechabites Jeremiah said, ?Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Because you have obeyed the command of Jonathan your father and kept all his precepts and done all that he commanded you, 19 therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Jonathan the son of Rehab shall never lack a man to stand before me.? *What a powerful promise, Father! *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.* *4. 36:4 (36:1-26) JEREMIAH: HIS SCROLL TO JEHOIAKIM. ?Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Nerita, and Baruch wrote on a scroll at the dictation of Jeremiah all the words of the LORD that he had spoken to him.? *Thank You Father, for Your Word! How we need it as our plumbline! How we need Your Son Jesus as or *living* Plumbline! How we see that we fall short of Your glory! *Our :daily :bread Give us this day.* *5. 36:32 (36:27-32) JEREMIAH: REWRITES THE BURNT SCROLL. ?Then Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to Baruch the scribe, the son of Neriah, who wrote on it at the dictation of Jeremiah all the words of the scroll th at Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire. And many similar words were added to them.? *How our hearts tremble at the sin of Jehoiakim. Yet we often treat lightly Your Word, Father! O deal with us until we honor You, Your Word, and Jesus Your Living Word. *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our debtors!* *6. 37:10 (37) JEREMIAH: PARTIALLY DELIVERED BY ZEDEKIAH. ?For even if you should defeat the whole army of Chaldeans who are fighting against you, and there remained of them only wounded men, every man in his tent, they would rise up and burn this city with fire.? *With You Father, the die was cast. The point of no return was reached. Judgment was inevitable. *And bring us not into temptation.* *7. 38:20 (38) JEREMIAH: URGES ZEDEKIAH TO SURRENDER. Jeremiah said, ?You shall not be given to them. Obey now the voice of the LORD in what I say to you, and it shall be well with you, and your life shall be spared.? *Why Father, is it so difficult for us to receive Your clear promises? O forgive us our sin of unbelief, and grant us to perceive the rightness of Your Word! *But deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE**: C.H. Spurgeon Quotes: *You and I can never imagine all the depths of hell. Shut out from us by a black veil of darkness, we cannot tell the horrors of that dismal dungeon of lost souls. Happily, the wailings of the damned have never startled us, for a thousand tempests were but a maiden's whisper, compared with one wail of a damned spirit. It is not possible for us to see the tortures of those souls who dwell eternally within an anguish that knows no alleviation. These eyes would become sightless balls of darkness, if they were permitted for an instant to look into that ghastly shrine of torment. Hell is horrible, for we may say of it, eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man to conceive the horrors which God has prepared for them that hate him. *Our Psalm for the day: 36:5; 9 (36) HOW PRECIOUS IS YOUR STEADFAST LOVE (CHEsed). ?Your steadfast love, O LORD, extends to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds. 9 For with you is the fountain of life; in your light do we see light.? *Father, when You abide within us, we have all we need, and Your living word has right of way. We are now Your habitation. We are now identified with You in death and resurrection of Jesus. No wonder we begin to see clearly. Father, we *hallow your :name!* Psalm 36 is The Song of Happy Service: such a one as all may join in who bear the easy yoke of Jesus. The wicked are contrasted with the righteous, and the great Lord of devout men is heartily extolled; thus obedience to so good a Master is indirectly insisted on, and rebellion against Him is plainly condemned. 36:1. *The transgression of the wicked says within my heart, that there is no fear of God before his eyes. *Men?s sins have a voice to godly ears. They are the outer index of an inner evil. Wickedness is the fruit of an atheistic root. If God be everywhere, and I fear Him how can I dare to break His laws in His very presence? 36:2. *For he flatters himself in his own eyes.* God-fearing men see their sins and bewail them. Where the reverse is the case, we may be sure there is no fear of God. To smooth over one?s own conduct to one?s conscience (which is the meaning of the Hebrew) is to smooth one?s own path to hell. He had not God before his eyes in holy awe, therefore he puts himself there in unholy admiration. He who makes little of God makes much of himself. They who forget adoration fall into adulation. Their eyes must see something, and if they admire not God, they will flatter self. 36:3. *The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit. *This pair of hell dogs generally hunt together, and what one does not catch the other will; if iniquity cannot win by oppression, deceit will gain by chicanery. When the heart is so corrupt as to flatter itself, the tongue will follow suit. The open sepulcher of the throat reveals the foulness of the inner nature. 36:5. *Your mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens. *When we can measure the heavens, then shall we bound the mercy of the Lord. Towards His own servants especially, in the salvation of the Lord Jesus, He hes displayed grace higher then the heaven of heavens and wider than the universe. Oh, that the atheist could but see this, how earnestly would he long to become a servant of Jehovah! *Your faithfulness reaches unto the clouds. *Far, far above all comprehension is the truth and faithfulness of God. He never fails, nor forgets, nor falters, nor forfeits His Word. 36:7. *Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Your wings. *Oh, that more of Adam?s race knew the excellency of the heavenly shelter! It made Jesus weep to see how they refused it: our tears may well lament the same evil. 36:9. *For with You is the fountain of life. *This verse is made of simple words, but like the first chapter of John?s Gospel, it is very deep. From the Lord, as from an independent self-sufficient spring, all creature life proceeds, by Him it is sustained, through Him alone can it be perfected. Life is in the creature, but the fountain of it is only in the Creator. *In Your light shall we see light. *In spiritual things, the knowledge of God shed a light on all other subjects. We need no candle to see the sun; we see it by its own radiance and then see everything else by the same luster. We never see Jesus by the light of self, but self in the light of Jesus. Vain are they who look to learning and human wit; one ray from the throne of God is better than the noonday splendor of created wisdom. Lord, give me the sun, and let those who will delight in the wax candles of superstition and the phosphorescence of corrupt philosophy. 36:10. *And Your righteousness to the upright in heart. *The worst thing to be feared by the man of God is to be forsaken of heaven, hence the prayer; but the fear is groundless, hence the peace which faith brings to us. Learn from this verse, that although a continuance of mercy is guaranteed in the covenant, we are yet to make it a matter of prayer. For this good thing will the Lord be inquired of. 36:11. *Let not the foot of pride come against me. *Good men may well be afraid of proud men, for the serpent?s seed will never cease to bite the heel of the godly. *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Fri Jan 4 11:45:50 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Fri, 4 Jan 2013 11:45:50 -0800 Subject: Jeremiah 39 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* January 4, 2013 *AUG 7 - JEREMIAH 39 - JERUSALEM BESIEGED: RIGHTEOUSNESS VINDICATED* *1. 39:1 (39:1-4, ESV) CAPTIVITY: JERUSALEM TAKEN. ?In the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army came against Jerusalem and besieged it.? *Father, You are the God Who calls the things that are not as though they *were*! Three years before Jerusalem fell, You called it as *already done*! You are * Sovereign*! You are *Omniscient*! *Hallowed be your :name!* *2. 39:5 (39:5-7) CAPTIVITYY: JUDGMENT ON ZEDEKIAH. ?But the army of the Chaldeans pursued them and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho. And when they had taken him, they brought him up to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, at Riblah, in the land of Hamath; and he passed sentence on him.? *O Father, You Who revealed Yourself in Christ, how powerful is Your Word! How swiftly it runs! How accurately does it come to pass! How fearful and awesome are Your ways! *Your :kingdom come!* *3. 39:8 CAPTIVITY: JERUSALEM DESTROYED. ?The Chaldeans burned the king?s house and the house of the people, and broke down the walls of Jerusalem.? *On with mighty irresistible power progresses the fulfillment of Your Word, Father. All Your promises to Your people are certain! *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth!* *4. 39:9 CAPTIVITY: FINAL DEPORTATION. ?Then Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, carried into exile to Babylon the rest of the people who were left in the city, those who had deserted to him, and the people who remained.? *How stern are Your ways, O Father! How just Your punishments! How fearful Your Name, Jehovah Father, our Elohim, our Sovereign Lord! O may Your fear always be ours as it was for Isaac. *Our :daily :bread Give us this day.* *5. 39:10 CAPTIVITY: A REMNANT LEFT. ?Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, left in the land of Judah some of the poor people who owned nothing, and gave them vineyards and fields as the same time.? *Again, what mercy and grace do we see in You Father, toward the poor! Build in us this same attitude. Live out Your Covenant Love (CHEsed) through us! *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 39:11-12 (39:11-14) CAPTIVITY: JEREMIAH SPARED. Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon gave command concerning Jeremiah through Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, saying, 12 ?Take him, look after him well, and do him no harm, but deal with him as he tells you.? *Imagine Your faithfulness O Father, on our behalf! We marvel how You can incline the heart of the heathen for good toward Your people! You also spare us! *And bring us not into temptation!* *7. 39:18 (39:15-18) CAPTIVITY: PROMISE TO EBED-MELECH. ?For I will surely save you, and you shall not fall by the sword, but you shall have your life as a prize of war, because you have put your trust in me, declares the LORD.? *Father, You spoke Your word of comfort and strength to one of Your servants through Your prophet! How gracious! Indeed You do see the sparrow fall! *But deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE**: C.H. Spurgeon Quotes: *I would to God that saints would cling to Christ half as earnestly as sinners cling to the devil. If we were as willing to suffer for God as some are to suffer for their lusts, what perseverance and zeal would be seen on all sides! *Our Psalm for the day: 37:4-5; (37) ?Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart. 5 Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him, and he will act.? * Yes, these are faithful and true words from You, O Father! *23-24 ?The steps of a man are established by the LORD, when he delights in his way; 24 though he fall, he shall not be cast headlong, for the LORD upholds his hand.? *Faithfulness! Faithfulness is Your Name, O Jehovah Father. Hallelujah! For *You* are worthy! Subject: The great riddle of the prosperity of the wicked and the affliction of the righteous, which has perplexed so many, is here dealt with in the light of the future; and fretfulness and repining are most impressively forbidden. It is a Psalm in which the Lord hushes most sweetly the too common repinings of His people and calms their minds as to His present dealings with His own chosen flock and the wolves by whom they are surrounded. It contains eight great precepts, is twice illustrated by autobiographical statements, and abound in remarkable contrasts. 37:1. *Neither be You envious against the workers of iniquity. *Who envies the fat bullock the ribbons and garlands which decorate him as he is led to the shambles? Yet the case is a parallel one; for ungodly rich men are but as beasts fattened for the slaughter. 37:2. *And wither as the green herb. *How complete an end is made of the man whose boasts had no end! Is it worth while to waste ourselves in fretting about the insect of an hour, an ephemera which in the same day is born and dies? Whining believers there is a living and incorruptible seed which lives and abides forever; why should they envy mere flesh, and the glory of it, which are but as grass, and its flower? 37:4. *Delight yourself also in the Lord. *In a certain sense, imitate the wicked; they delight in their portion - take care to delight in yours, and so far from envying you will pity them. There is no room for fretting if we remember that God is ours. 37:6. *And He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light. *The more we fret in this case, the worse for us. Our strength is to sit still. The Lord will clear the slandered. If we look to His honor, He will see to ours. It is wonderful how, when faith learns to endure calumny with composure, the filth does not defile her, but falls off like snowballs from a wall of granite. 37:9. *But those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth. *Passion, according to Bunyan?s parable, has his good things first, and they are soon over; Patience has his good things last, and they last forever. 37:10. *For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be. *O wherefore, tried believer, do you envy one who in a little while will lie lower than the dust? *Yes, you shall diligently consider his place, and it shall not be. *His house shall be empty, his chair of office vacant, his estate without an owner; he shall be utterly blotted out, perhaps cut off by his own debauchery, or brought to a deathbed of penury by his own extravagance. Gone like a passing cloud - forgotten as a dream - where are his boastings and hectorings, and where the pomp which made poor mortals think the sinner blest? 37:16. *A little that the righteous man has is better than the riches of many wicked. *We would sooner hunger with John than feast with Herod; better to feed on scant fare with the prophets in Obadiah?s cave than riot with the priests of Baal. A man?s happiness consists not in the heaps of gold which he has in store. Content finds *multum in parvo, *while for a wicked heart the whole world is too little. 37:36. *Yes, I sought him, but he could not be found. *Moved by curiosity, if we inquire for the ungodly, they have left no trace; like birds of ill omen, none desire to remember them. Some of the humblest of the godly are immortalized, their names are imperishably fragrant in the church, while of the ablest of infidels and blasphemers hardly their names are remembered beyond a few years. Men who were in everybody?s mouths but yesterday are forgotten tomorrow, for only virtue is immortal. 37:40. *And save them, because they trust in Him. *Faith shall insure the safety of the elect. It is the mark of the sheep by which they shall be separated from the goats. Not their merit, but their believing, shall distinguish them. *(From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Sat Jan 5 11:44:33 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Sat, 5 Jan 2013 11:44:33 -0800 Subject: Jeremiah 40-42 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* January 5, 2013 *AUG 8 - JEREMIAH 40-42 - HYPOCRISY IN THE REMNANT* *1. 40:4 (40:1-6, ESV) REMNANT: JEREMIAH LIBERATED. ?Now, behold, I release you today from the chains on your hands. If it seems good to you to come with me to Babylon, come, and I will look after you well, but if it seems wrong to you to come with me to Babylon, do not come. See, the whole land is before you; go wherever you think it good and right to go.? *Father, You indeed reign over *all* the affairs of men! *Hallowed be your :name!* *2. 40:9 (40:7-12) REMNANT: REGATHERING OF THE JEWS. ?Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, swore to them and their men, saying, ?Do not be afraid to serve the Chaldeans. Dwell in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it shall be well with you.?? *Yes Father, You always foresee our need, and make provision ahead of time for it! Before we call upon You, You have *already* answered. *Your :kingdom come.* *3. 40:14 (40:13-16) REMNANT: PLOT AGAINST GEDALIAH. ?And Jonathan said to him, ?Do you know that Baalis the king of the Ammonites has sent Ishmael the son of Nethaniah to take your life?? But Gedaliah the son of Ahikam would not believe them.? *Forgive us Father, for so often being na?ve and unbelieving! You try to spare us from pain and hardship, yet we blindly and stubbornly go our own way! *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.* *4. 41:2 (41:1-10) REMNANT: PLOT SUCCESSFUL. ?Ishmael the son of Nethaniah and the ten men with him rose up and struck down Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, with the sword, and killed him, whom the king of Babylon had appointed governor in the land.? *O what peace we often forfeit; O what *needless* pain we bear: All because we do not carry * everything* to God in prayer. Father, forgive our sin of unbelief and stubbornness! *Our :daily :bread Give us this day.* *5. 41:17-18a (41:11-18) REMNANT: JOHANAN BECOMES LEADER. ?And they went and stayed at Geruth Chimham near Bethlehem, intending to go to Egypt 18a because of the Chaldeans.? *We reap what we sow. Our troubles we bring upon ourselves. Then we blame You for the the law of sowing and reaping. *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 42:4 (42:1-6) REMNANT: JEWS INQUIRE OF JEREMIAH. Jeremiah the prophet said to them, ?I have heard you. Behold, I will pray to the LORD your God according to your request, and whatever the LORD answers you I will tell you. I will keep nothing back from you.? *How You seek to help us Father, in our blind and foolish ways. We deserve more chastisement than You in your mercy give us. *And bring us not into temptation.* *7. 42:7 (42:7-22). REMNANT: GOD?S MESSAGE TO THEM. ?At the end of ten days the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah (in a dream, 31:26; Numbers 12:6-9).? *How faithful You are, O great Jehovah Father! Lift us above the dream level, where like Moses, we speak to You face to face! We would go above prayer to *meditation* on Your Word! *But deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE**: 42:20 (42:7-22) REM**NANT: JEREMIAH REVEALS THEIR DECEPTION. ?For you have gone astray at the cost of your lives. For you sent me to the LORD your God, saying, ?Pray for us to the LORD our God, and whatever the LORD our God says declare to us and we will do it.?? *Nothing is hidden from You, Father. We are *sure* that our sins will find us out! We cast ourselves upon You and Your mercy! *C.H. Spurgeon Quotes: * God, by his Spirit, brings old truth home to the heart, gives new light to our eyes, and causes the word to exercise new power over us; but he reveals no new facts, and he utters no words in man?s ears concerning his condition and state. We must be content with the old revelation and with the life and power and force with which the Holy Spirit brings it to the heart. Neither must any of us seek to have any additional revelation, for that would imply that the Scriptures are incomplete. *Our Psalm for the day: 38:18 (38) DO NOT FORSAKE ME, O LORD. ?I confess my iniquity; I am sorry for my sin.? *Father, we honor You when we see ourselves as Your Word reveals us. We honor You when we acknowledge that *no * good thing dwells in our flesh (Romans 7:18)! We *hallow Your :Name* when we *justify* You in *all* You have said! Title: ?A Psalm of David, to bring to remembrance.? David felt as if he had been forgotten of his God, and, therefore, he recounted his sorrows and cried mightily for help under them. The same title is given to Psalm 70, where in like manner, the Psalmist pours out his complaint before the Lord. It would be foolish to make a guess as to the point in David?s history when this was written; it may be a commemoration of his own sickness and endurance of cruelty; it may, on the other hand, have been composed by him for the use of sick and slandered saints without special reference to himself. Among the things that David brought to his own remembrance, the first and foremost were: (1) his past trials and his past deliverances. The great point, however, in David?s Psalm is to bring to remembrance; (2) the depravity of our nature. There is, perhaps, no Psalm which more fully than this describes human nature as seen in the light which God, the Holy Spirit, casts upon it in the time when He convinces us of sin. I am persuaded that the description here does not tally with any known disease of the body. It is very like leprosy but it has about it certain features which cannot be found to meet in any leprosy described either by ancient or moder writers. The fact is, it is a spiritual leprosy, it is an inward disease which is here described, and David paints it to the very life, and he would have us to recollect this. 38:1. *O Lord, rebuke me not in Your wrath. *Rebuked I must be, for I am an erring child and You a careful Father, but throw not too much anger into the tones of Your voice; deal gently although I have sinned grievously. The anger of others I can bear, but not Yours. 38:5. *My wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness. *Conscience lays on stripe after stripe till the swelling becomes a wound and suppurates, and the corruption within grows offensive. What a horrible creature man appears to be to his own consciousness when his depravity and vileness are fully opened up by the law of God, applied by the Holy Spirit! Even the most filthy diseases cannot be so foul as sin. No ulcers, cancers, or putrifying sores, can match the unutterable vileness and pollution of iniquity. Our own perceptions have made us feel this. We write what we do know, and testify what we have seen; and even now we shudder to think that so much of evil should lie festering deep within our nature. 38:8 *I am feeble. *The original is ?benumbed,? or frozen, such strange incongruities and contradictions meet in a distracted mind and a sick body - it appears to itself to be alternately parched with heat and pinched with cold. Like souls in the popish-fabled purgatory, tossed from burning furnaces into thick ice, so tormented hearts rush from one extreme to the other, with equal torture in each. A heat of fear, a chill of horror, a flaming desire, a horrible insensibility - by these successive miseries a convinced sinner is brought to death?s door. 38:11. *My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my sore. *It is very hard when those who should be the first to come to the rescue are the first to desert us. In times of deep soul trouble, even the most affectionate friends cannot enter into the sufferer?s case. Let them be as anxious as they may, the sores of a tender conscience they cannot bind up. Oh, the loneliness of a soul passing under the convincing power of the Holy Spirit! 38:18. *For I will declare my iniquity. * When sorrow leads to hearty and penitent acknowledgment of sin, it is blessed sorrow, a thing to thank God for most devoutly. *I will be sorry for my sin. *To be sorry for sin is not atonement for it, but it is the right spirit in which to repair to Jesus, Who is the reconciliation and the Savior. A man is near to the end of his trouble when he comes to an end with his sins. 38:19. *But my enemies are lively, and they are strong.* However weak and dying the righteous man may be, the evils which oppose him are sure to be lively enough. Neither the world, the flesh, nor the devil are ever afflicted with debility of inertness; this trinity of evils labor with mighty unremitting energy to overthrow us. If the devil were sick, or our lust feeble, or Madame Bubble infirm, we might slacken prayer; but with such lively and vigorous enemies, we must not cease to cry mightily unto our God. 38:20. *Because I follow the thing that is good. *If men hate us for this reason, we may rejoice to bear it: their wrath is the unconscious homage which vice renders to virtue. This verse is not inconsistent with the writer?s previous confession; we may feel equally guilty before God and yet be entirely innocent of any wrong to our fellowmen. It is one thing to acknowledge the truth, quite another thing to submit to be belied. The Lord may smite me justly, and yet I may be able to say to my fellowman, ?Why do you smite me?? *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Mon Jan 7 12:48:25 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Mon, 7 Jan 2013 12:48:25 -0800 Subject: Target Groups! Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* January 7, 2013 *2013-01-07 - Target Groups* *TARGET GROUPS: South King and Pierce County - Small Prayer Groups: Pilot Prayer Team from October 31, 2009; Korean ?The Resting Place? in Auburn; Gig Harbor Elders; Friday Morning Prayer Group at Burien New Testament Russian Church, Pastor Victor Lebed.* *GOAL for this area and these groups: To see out of these a City Church form, with an Eldership in each of their gates.* *On July 1, 1987 I was ?chicken sitting? 1500 chickens in Wetaskiwin, Alberta. The Northern Alberta area around Edmonton had been suffering from 10 years of excessive rains at the time of both seed-time and harvest. Many farmers of several sections each - were going bankrupt, and being taken over by the government. The farm I was helping out on - and also showing me hospitality - was one of these. As I was doing my daily chore of feeding the chickens and collecting eggs, I approached the Lord. ?Lord, in the days of Elisha, You rewarded the Shunammite woman - by granting her a son in old age for her hospitality, and later raised him from the dead. I am Your servant. Could you not for this farm grant relief from these excessive rains??* *He replied, ?Yes. Call a prayer meeting of some 6-8 groups in the area on the first Wednesday of August, and ask them what happened 10 years ago in this area - that brought down My judgment.?* *At that meeting, one young man responded. ?That?s easy. Ten years ago a fight took place between some white folk of Wetaskiwin and some of the First Nations People from the Hobbema Reservation just south of here. They had all been drinking, and an Indian was thrown out of a second floor hotel window. He landed on his head and died. The Indians understood how such as this could happen when drinking was taking place, but thought justice still ought to be done. The reply was, ?The only good Indian is a dead Indian. You should thank us.??* *They did not agree with this, and neither did God! The excessive rain had started in that region from that very time onwards for the next 10 years.* *An ?Adams? family of 3 young men had taken lectures from me in 1948-49 at North Battleford, Saskatchewan. The youngest brother had a new and used car and truck business in Wetaskiwin, and had been so good and fair to the First Nations of Hobbema, that they had made him an honorary chieftain, with a full eagle feather headdress reaching to the ground. They also promised him that if ever he had a request, to come to one of their business meetings - and they would do their best to meet it.* *I approached my friend and told him that four white Christian brothers wanted to meet with the leaders of the Hobbema Reservation, apologize and ask forgiveness for what had happened ten years previously. When he had made our request - with surprise they asked him to repeat his request, and then conferred one with another.* *They then responded to my friend: ?You are a man of integrity. We accept your request, and you can tell your four friends that because of your integrity they do not need to appear before us. Have them meet the 1stWednesday of September, and we will agree with them that God will lift His judgment of this ten year unseasonable rain.?* *From that September day until December 11th, no rain fell. Every farmer f rom that area for the first time in 10 years was able to bring in a full harvest, prepare the ground for spring seeding, and repair fences and buildings. It was the talk of meteorologists across Canada, seeking an explanation.* *I queried the farmer with whom I often stayed if he had not let them hearthe explanation. ?Of course not,? he replied. ?You know what they would have said. There you Christians go again - trying to take credit for something taking place because of Your God.? As far as I know, this unusual answer to prayer has not yet come as an explanation to the weather analysts. * *Now** - what happened in the above in 1987, I believe God would repeat as another kind of answer to prayer - in South King and Pierce County for today. In 1971 and 1972, under the leadership of Dennis Bennett of St. Luke?s Episcopal Church - Seattle I and Seattle II took place. Some 50,000 people met in June conferences. Over 1000 came to Christ at those time, plus many healed and delivered. It was front page news in both Seattle Dailies. The religious editors of both dailies deferred to Dennis Bennett: that because they recognized this unusual Visitation under 30 guest Apostolic-teachers **was of God - they did not wish to put out editorials concerning this, except first they were okay-ed by him. The ?Children of God? controversy was satisfactorily settled in Seattle at that time. They were forced to leave a city for the first time because of 70 Seattle leaders who sent a delegation to confront them, and save the Jesus? People. Secondly, the threat of ?gay? delegates to take 1000 of the young people from our churches was averted, and the leader of this threat soon died of ?Aids?.* *But in 1972 the successor to the leadership of Dennis Bennett abused his position, and God lifted His Revival hand off of Seattle. He promised to return some decades later, but not to start in Central Seattle; but first in South King and Pierce Counties; then Kitsap and Snohomish Counties; then East of Lake Washington, and finally in Central Seattle again. That word came in 1973, 40 years ago this year!* *Now God is saying - ?It is time for South King and Pierce County to gird up their loins! It is time for small groups to come together in the area to seek My face for a renewal what temporarily stopped in 1973. It is time to believe for the restoration of City Churches, composed of many local churches in cities, with a functioning Eldership in their gates, like Acts 13:1-3 and Acts 15. It is time to see the fulfillment of the ?Laser-Telescope Vision of 1967? to function.* *One of the chief conditions to make this possible is the publication of God?s Bible Numeric ?Outlined Interlinear New Testament? - based on the discoveries of Russian Ivan Panin in 1890. Not only is this possible through its publication in Book Form in December of 2012, 70 years following the death of Panin in 1942, - but it is about to come forth in Digital E-book format also.* *However, though this Publication is designed to expedite ?Bible Meditation? in the successful example of Joshua 1:8 and Psalm 19:14 - yet there are ?seven? prior conditions to release this. Bible Meditation wasdemonstrated through the full discipleship and surrendered walk with the Lord of George Whitefield and George Muller. They knew ?Hudson Taylor?s Spiritual Secret? of Galatians 2:20, Romans 6 and John 15:1-16. They knew the unusual secrets of Charles H. Spurgeon, Oswald Chambers and Rees Howells. * *Bible Meditation only reveals its secrets and power to those who know and walk with God intuitively.* *Do a ?Google-Search? on Charles Spurgeon. Check out there ?A Biography? by W.Y. Fullerton - excellent. See chapter 9, ?A Word Portrait.? See also under Spurgeon: U-Tube, a 90 minute free DVD - also excellent.* *When Oswald Chambers was 15, with his father he visited a mid-week service at Metropolitan Tabernacle, London, England. Pastor Spurgeon was preaching. Oswald that night found Christ because of the preaching challenge. Spurgeon also found Christ at the age of 15 through a Wesleyan Methodist preacher.* *Here?s a C.H. Spurgeon Quote: THE FREEDOM OF THE WILL AND PREDESTINATION. ?The grace of God constrains men to become Christians, and yet only constrains them consistently with the laws of their mind. The freedom of the will is as great a truth as the predestination of God. The grace of God, without violating our wills, makes men willing in the day of God?s power, and they give themselves to Jesus Christ. You cannot be a Christian against your will. How could it be? A servant of God against his will! A child of God against his will! Nay, it never was so, and it never shall be so.?* *In 1951 in Chicago we hosted a French Canadian Roman Catholic priest with 4 earned doctorate degrees, who had trained some 40 young men through to the priesthood in all required subjects. For his doctorate in Theology, he wrote his dissertation on ?The Balance of power between the Free-will of man and the Sovereign Grace of God?. Like Spurgeon above, he believed he hadsolved the balance! * *Between men like the above, I believe we too can find the Secret to become **effective** Bible **Mediators** through the ?Outlined Interlinear New Testament.? See** ** to **o**rd**e**r either the printed copy or the Digital E-book copy. Together** we c**a**n ** fin**d o**urs**el**ves **a**b**l**e **t**o **e**nt**e**r **a **p**l**ace in G**od - **t**h**at **both i**n**d**i**vi**du**a**lly an**d c**o**r**po**r** at**el**y **- **wi**l**l enab**l**e **us **t**o **s**e**e t**h**e **h**ea**r **t **of G**od fu**lf**ill**ed p**r**i**or **t**o t**he soo**n r**etur**n o* *f Christ - **m**any Ci**t**y Chu**rc**h**e**s e**a**ch **with a**n Eldership in **i**ts Gate - and s**u**ch **e**l**de**rshi**p**s and **pr**ayer grou**ps **function**in**g **as **true ?O**r**g**a**nic Las**e**r Telescopes **? **t**o **e**n**able **J**esu**s **t**hrough** **us **in **de**cimati**n* *g the e**n**e**m**y **- and **b**r**in**g**ing **r**eviva**l **to ou**r **c **itie**s. See t**h**e Pre**f**ac**e **of the ?O**u**tlined **I**n**te**rl** i**nea**r **N**T? **f**o**r mor**e **d**e**t**a**i**l**ed **in**f**or**m**a* *t**ion **on t**h**e ?Org**an**ic La**s**er-**T**elesco**p**e? wit**h **a di **a**g**r**am, a**nd **ho**w **you an**d I **can be in**te**gral par**t**s of th**i**s 7-f**o**ld **c**h**alleng**e.* *I have personally found that Arnold Dallimore?s biographies on Spurgeon, 1999 Reprint, and on George Whitefield, both available on Amazon as used books - undergird the above. * *And lastly, at the recommendation of my wife Marie, through Netflix - check out ?Hachi - A Dog?s Tale? - a very moving story of the binding loyalty of a lost Japanese dog in America - with a professor training ballet groups. Your friend - Jim Watt* *P.S. So that you may know the significance of **the **God of ?God?s Bible Numerics? as revealed to Russian Ivan Panin, turn to our Website < www.2rbetter.org>, click on ?Archives? - and scroll down to ?20**1**1.01.02 - Cutting Edge Ministries on Panin?. There one can receive insight concerning the uniqueness and importance of this Discover**y** for our Last Days! J.* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Tue Jan 8 11:20:02 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Tue, 8 Jan 2013 11:20:02 -0800 Subject: Jeremiah 43-44 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* January 8, 2013 *AUG 9 - JEREMIAH 43-44 - JUDGMENT ON THE REMNANT* *1. 43:4 (43:1-4, ESV) JUDGMENT: BECAUSE OF REBELLION IN THE REMNANT. ?So Johanan the son of Kareah and all the commanders of the forces and all the people did not obey the voice of the LORD, to remain in the land of Judah.? *Father, let us obey Your voice; we *will* obey Your voice. We hear Your voice in Jeremiah and John the Baptist! *Hallowed be your :name!* *2. 43:7 (43:5-7) JUDGMENT: BECAUSE OF FLIGHT TO EGYPT. ?And they came into the land of Egypt, for they did not obey the voice of the LORD. And they arrived at Tahpanhes.? *Your will is done O Father, by obeying Your voice. We will not go back down to Egypt! The love of the world and its lusts is not in us. The power of Your redemptive blood cleanses our blood, and looses us to walk in Your will. *Your :kingdom come!* *3. 43:12 (43:8-13) JUDGMENT: SIGN OF THE HIDDEN STONES. ?I shall kindle a fire in the temples of the gods of Egypt, and he shall burn them and carry them away captive. And he shall clean the land of Egypt as a shepherd cleans his cloak of vermin, and he shall go away from there in peace.? *Israel in Egypt and Egypt lost their bread. But we receive food Father, for we obey Your voice! *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.* *4. 44:4 (44:1-10) JUDGMENT ON JUDAH: BECAUSE OF IDOLATRY. ?Yet I persistently sent to you all my servants the prophets, saying ?Oh, do not do this abomination that I hate!?? *Father, rip out of our hearts all spirits of idolatry and covetousness. Forgive us all our sins in any such areas. Give us contrite hearts. We repent of all such wickedness. Reconcile us to Yourself through Jesus? blood. *Our :daily :bread Give us this day!* *5. 44:16-17 (44:11-19) JUDGMENT: BECAUSE DEEPER IDOLATRY DETERMINED. ?As for the word that you have spoken to us in the name of the LORD, we will not listen to you. 17 But we will do everything that we have vowed, make offerings to the queen of heaven and pour out drink offerings to her, as we did, both we and our fathers, our kings and our officials, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. For then we had plenty of food, and prospered, and saw no disaster.? *What perverted thinking! *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 44:26 (44:20-28) JUDGMENT: BECAUSE OF WIVES? PART IN IDOLATRY. ?Therefore hear the word of the LORD, all you of Judah who dwell in the land of Egypt: Behold, I have sworn by my great name, says the LORD, that my name shall no more be invoked by the mouth of any man of Judah in all the land of Egypt, saying, ?As the Lord GOD lives.??* Deliver us from the evil one Father, that we fall not into his devices, and bring upon ourselves Your judgments. *And bring us not into temptation.* *7. 44:29-30a (44:29-30) JUDGMENT: SIGN OF NEBUCHADNEZZAR OVER PHARAOH. ?This shall be the sign to you, declares the LORD, that I will punish you in this place, in order that you may know that my words will surely stand against you for harm: 30 Thus says the LORD, Behold, I will give Pharaoh Hophra king of Egypt into the hand of his enemies, and into the hand of those who seek his life.? *You are a *Sovereign God*, O Father! *Nothing* is too difficult for You! *But deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE: C.H. Spurgeon Quotes: *We have seen men with money, who were not happy; we have seen men with honor, who were not happy; we have seen persons in power, with the command of empires, who were not happy; but we never saw, and never shall see, the individual who has Jesus with him, not happy. *Our Psalm for the day: 39:3-5 (39) WHAT IS THE MEANING OF MY DAYS? My heart became hot within me. As I mused, the fire burned; then I spoke with my tongue: 4 ?O LORD, make me know my end and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am! 5 Behold, you have made my days a few handbreadths, and my lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath!? **Selah. *Father, when we know ourselves as You see us, then we will be able more fully to *hallow your :name! Such* truths as this keep us humble, poor and contrite in spirit, and trembling at Your Word. So will we keep our eyes upon You! The Psalmist, bowed down with sickness and sorrow, is burdened with unbelieving thoughts he resolves to stifle, lest any evil should come from their expression (39:1-2). But silence creates an insupportable grief, which at last demands utterance and obtains it in the prayers of 39:3-6, which is almost a complaint and a sigh for death, or at least a very despondent picture of human life. In 39:7-17 the tone is more submissive,, and the recognition of the divine hand more distinct; the cloud has evidently passed, and the mourner?s heart is relieved. 37:1. *That I sin not with my tongue*. Tongue sins are great sins; like sparks of fire, ill-words spread and do great damage. If believers utter hard words of God in times of depression, the ungodly will take them up and use them as a justification for their sinful courses. If a man?s own children rail at him, no wonder his enemies? mouths are full of abuse. *I will keep my mouth with a bridle,* or more accurately, with a muzzle. The original does not so much mean a bridle to check the tongue as a muzzle to stop it altogether. David was not quite so wise as our translation would make him; if he had resolved to be very guarded in his speech, it would have been altogether commendable; but when he went so far as to condemn himself to entire silence, ?even from good,? there must have been at least a little sullenness in his soul. In trying to avoid one fault, he fell into another. To use the tongue against God is a sin of commission, but not to use it at all involves an evident sin of omission. Commendable virtues may be followed so eagerly that we may fall into vices; to avoid Scylla we run into Charybdis. *While the wicked is before me. *This qualifies the silence and almost screens it from criticism, for bad men are so sure to misuse even our holiest speech that it is as well not to cast any of our pearls before such swine. The firmest believers are exercised with unbelief, and it would be doing the devil?s work with a vengeance if they were to publish abroad all their questionings and suspicions. If I have the fever myself, there is no reason why I should communicate it to my neighbors. If any on board the vessel of my soul are diseased, I will put my heart in quarantine and allow none to go on shore in the boat of speech till I have a clean bill of health. 39:4. *Make me to know my end.* The Psalmist would know more of the shortness of life that he might better bear its transient ills, and herein we may safely kneel with him, uttering the same petition. That there is no end to its misery is the hell of hell; that there is an end to life?s sorrow is the hope of all who have a hope beyond the grave. God is the best teacher of the divine philosophy, which looks for an expected end. They who see death through the Lord?s glass see a fair sight, which makes them forget the evil of life in foreseeing the end of life. *That I may know how frail I am, or when I shall cease to be.* Alas, poor human nature, dear as life is, man quarrels with God at such a rate that he would sooner cease to be than bear the Lord?s appointment. Such pettiness in a saint! Let us wait till we are in a like position, and we shall do no better. The ship on the stocks wonders that the barque springs a leak, but when it has tried the high seas, it marvels that its timbers hold together in such storms. David?s case is not recorded for our imitation but for our learning. 39:5. *Verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. *This is the surest truth, that nothing about man is either sure or true. Take man at his best, he is but a man, and man is a mere breath, unsubstantial as the wind. Man is settled, as the margin has it, and by divine decree it is settled that he shall not be settled. He is constant only in inconstancy. His vanity is his only verity; his best, of which he is vain, is but vain. 39:8. *Deliver me from all transgressions. *How fair a sign it is when the Psalmist no longer harps upon his sorrows but begs freedom from his sins! What is sorrow when compared with sin! Let but the poison of sin be gone from the cup, and we need not fear its gall, for the bitter will act medicinally. None can deliver a man from his transgression but the blessed One Who is called Jesus, because He saves His people from their sins. 39:12. *Hold not Your peace at my tears.* Tears speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues; they act as keys upon the wards of tender hearts, and mercy denies them nothing, if through them the weeper looks to richer drops, even to the blood of Jesus. *For I am a stranger with You, and a sojourner.* Not *to* You, but *with* You. Like You, my Lord, a stranger among the sons of men, an alien from your mother?s children. God made the world, sustains it, and owns it, and yet men treat Him as though He were a foreign intruder; and as they treat the Master, so do they deal with the servants. ??Tis no surprising thing that we should be unknown.? These words may also mean, ?I share the hospitality of God,? like a stranger entertained by a generous host. *(From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Wed Jan 9 13:12:34 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Wed, 9 Jan 2013 13:12:34 -0800 Subject: Jeremiah 45 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* January 10, 2013 *AUG 10 - JEREMIAH 45 - WORD TO BARUCH* *1. 45:1a BARUCH: JEREMIAH?S WORD TO HIM. ?The word that Jeremiah the prophet spoke to Baruch the son of Neriah,? *Father, we will wait for You for Your word. We will receive it through whomever You are pleased to send it. We will always acknowledge and act upon Your truth, Lord Jesus, as King of Your Kingdom! *Hallowed be your :name.* *2. 45:1b BARUCH: JEREMIAH?S SECRETARY. ?when he wrote these words in a book at the dictation of Jeremiah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah:? *Your will O Father - is *in Your Word*. The Holy Spirit Who gave this word, *never* speaks contrary to it in His gifts! *Your :kingdom come.* *3. 45:2-3 BARUCH: HIS WOE AND FAINTING. ?Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, to you, O Baruch: 3 You said, ?Woe is me! For the LORD has added sorrow to my pain. I am weary with my groaning, and I find no rest.?? *You O Father, know our down-sitting and our uprising. Nothing is hidden from You! We know that in Your faithfulness You will *always* do right by us! *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.* *4. 45:4 BARUCH: GOD?S WORD TO HIM. ?Thus shall you say to him, Thus says the LORD: Behold, what I have built I am breaking down, and what I have planted I am plucking up - that is, the whole land.? *Our sins bring Your righteous and merciful judgment upon us. You Father, chastise us to prove that we are not bastards. *Our :daily :bread Give us this day!* *5. 45:5a BARUCH: HIS DESIRE FOR HIMSELF. ?And do you seek great things for yourself? Seek them not,? *Our only desire Father, is to please You. We delight to do Your pleasure. You become our inward and outer defense. *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 45:5b BARUCH: GOD?S PREPARED JUDGMENT UPON ALL FLESH. ?for behold, I am bringing disaster upon all flesh, declares the LORD.? *Yes, You are a righteous Father! You judge if by any means You can save some. In eternity we will vindicate every one of Your righteous judgments. You are a hedge of protection around us. *And bring us not into temptation!* *7. 45:5c BARUCH: GOD?S PROMISE TO HIM. ?But I will give you your life as a prize of war in all places to which you may go.? *In the midst of Your righteous judgments, Your Name for the righteous is a Strong Tower; they shall run into it and be safe. No wonder we rest in the safety of Your Kingdom! *But deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE**: C.H. Spurgeon Quotes: JUSTIFICATION - *We shall grow in grace, but we shall never be more completely pardoned than when we first believed: we shall one day stand before the glorious presence of God in his own sacred courts, and see the Well-beloved and wear his likeness, but we shall not even then be more perfectly forgiven than we are at this present moment. *Our Psalm for the day: 40:7-8 (40) MY HELP AND MY DELIVERER. ?Then I said, ?Behold, I have come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me: 8 I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.? *This is the true expression of our heart! Jesus *always* had this expression as Son of man for You, Father. We let His Spirit in us always express the same sentiments. *40:16 ?But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you; may those who love your salvation say continually, ?Great is the LORD!?? *Yes Father, we will seek You continually, and we will rejoice in You. We will grow more and more in love with Your salvation, *and* we will *hallow your :name* all the day long! Subject of Psalm 40: *Jesus* is evidently here, and although it might not be a violent wrestling of language to see both David and his Lord, both Christ and the church, the double comment might involve itself in obscurity, and therefore we shall let the sun shine even though this should conceal the stars. Even if the New Testament were not so express upon it, we should have concluded that David spoke of our Lord in 40:6-9, but the apostle in Hebrews 10:5-9 puts all conjecture out of court and confines the meaning to Him Who came into the world to do the Father?s will. 40:1. *I waited patiently for the Lord*. Patient waiting upon God was a special characteristic of our Lord Jesus. Impatience never lingered in His heart, much less escaped His lips. All through His agony in the Garden, His trial of cruel mockings before Herod and Pilate, and His passion on the tree, He waited in omnipotence of patience. No glance of wrath, no word of murmurings no deed of vengeance came from God?s patient Lamb; He waited and waited on; was patient, and patient to perfection, far excelling all others who have according to their measure glorified God in the fires. Job on the dunghill does not equal Jesus on the cross. The Christ of God wars the imperial crown among the patient. Did the Only Begotten wait, and shall we be petulant and rebellious? 40:3. *And He has put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God. *At the Passover, before His passion, our Lord sang one of the grand old Psalms of praise; but what is the music of His heart now, in the midst of His redeemed! What a song is that in which His glad heart forever leads the chorus of the elect! Not Miriam?s tabor, nor Moses? triumphant hymn o?er Miriam?s chivalry can for a moment rival that ever new and exulting song. Just magnified and grace victorious; hell subdued and heaven glorified; death destroyed and immortality established; sin o?erthrown and righteousness resplendent; what a theme for a hymn in that day when our Lord drinks the red wine new with us all in our heavenly Father?s kingdom! 40:4. *Blessed is the man that makes the Lord his trust.* Faith obtains promises. A simple, single-eyed confidence in God is the sure mark of blessedness. A man may be as poor as Lazarus, as hated as Mordecai, as sick as Hezekiah, as lonely as Elijah, but while his hand of faith can keep its hold on God, none of his outward afflictions can prevent his being numbered among the blessed. *Nor such as turn aside to lies. *We must never pay deference to apostates, time-servers, and false teachers; they are an ill leaven, and the more we purge ourselves of them the better; they are blessed whom God preserves from all error in creed and practice. Verily, were the archfiend of hell to start a carriage and pair, and live like a lord, he would have thousands who would court his acquaintances. 40:6. Here we enter upon one of the most wonderful passages in the whole of the Old Testament, a passage in which the incarnate Son of God is seen not through a glass darkly, but as it were face to face. *Sacrifice and offering You did not desire.* In themselves considered, and for their own sakes, the Lord saw nothing satisfactory in the various offerings of the ceremonial law. Neither the victim pouring forth its blood, nor the fine flour rising in smoke from the altar, could yield content to Jehovah?s mind; He cared not for the flesh of bulls or of goats, neither had He pleasure in corn and wine and oil. Typically these offerings had their worth, but when Jesus, the Antitype, came into the world, they ceased to be of value, as candles are of no estimation when the sun has arisen. *Burnt offering and sin offering You have not required. *We learn from this verse that Jehovah values far more the obedience of the heart than all the imposing performances of ritualistic worship; and that our expiation from sin comes not to us as the result of an elaborate ceremonial, but as the effect of our great Substitutes obedience to the will of Jehovah. 40:7. *Lo, I come. *Behold, O heavens, and you earth, and you places under the earth! Here is something worthy of your intensest gaze. Sit you down and watch with earnestness, for the invisible God comes in the likeness of sinful flesh, and as an infant the Infinite hangs at a virgin?s breast! Immanuel did not send, but *came; *He came in His own personality, in all that constituted His essential self. He came forth from the ivory palaces to the abodes of misery; He came promptly at the destined hour; He came with sacred alacrity as one freely offering Himself. 40:8. *Yes, Your law is within my heart.* No outward, formal devotion was rendered by Christ; His heart was in His work, holiness was His element, the Father?s will His meat and drink. We must each of us be like our Lord in this, or we shall lack the evidence of being His disciples. Where there is no heart work, no pleasure, no delight in God?s law, there can be no acceptance. *Lo, I have not refrained my lips, O Lord, You know.* Never either from love of ease, or fear of men, did the Great Teacher?s lips become closed. He was instant in season and out of season. The poor listened to Him, and princes heard His rebuke; Publicans rejoiced at Him, and Pharisees raged, but to them both He proclaimed the truth from heaven. 40:10. *I have not concealed Your lovingkindness and Your truth from the great congregation. *The tender as well as the stern attributes of God, our Lord Jesus fully unveiled. Concealment was far from the Great Apostle of our confession. Cowardice He never exhibited, hesitancy never weakened His language. He Who as a child of twelve years spoke in the temple among the doctors, and afterwards preached to five thousand at Gennesaret, and to the vast crowds at Jerusalem on the great day, the last day of the feast, was always ready to proclaim the name of the Lord and could never be charged with unholy silence. 40:12. *My iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up. *He had no sin, but sins were laid on Him, and He took them as if they were His. ?He was made sin for us.? O my soul, what would your sins have done for you eternally if the Friend of sinners had not condescended to take them all upon Himself? 40:14. *Let them be ashamed and confounded together that seek after my soul to destroy it. *It is to the infinite confusion of Satan that his attempts to destroy the Savior destroyed himself; the diabolical conclave who plotted in council are now all alike put to shame, for the Lord Jesus has met them at all points and turned all their wisdom into foolishness. 40:16. *Let all those that seek You rejoice and be glad in You. *He groaned that we might sing and was covered with a bloody sweat that we might be anointed with the oil of gladness. *(From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Thu Jan 10 12:12:06 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Thu, 10 Jan 2013 12:12:06 -0800 Subject: Jeremiah 46-48 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* January 10, 2012 *AUG 11 - JEREMIAH 46-48 - THREE PROPHECIES UPON GENTILE NATIONS* *1. 46:10 (46:1-12, ESV) PROPHETIC JUDGMENT: AGAINST EGYPT. ?That day is the day of the Lord GOD of hosts, a day of vengeance, to avenge himself on his foes. The sword shall devour and be sated and drink its fill of their blood. For the Lord GOD of hosts holds a sacrifice in the north country by the river Euphrates.? *Your Kingdom Father, has principles: reward for the obedience of faith; judgment upon individuals and nations for rebels and the unbelieving! *Hallowed be your :name!* *2. 46:13 (46:13-26) PROPHETIC JUDGMENT: THROUGH NEBUCHADNEZZAR. ?The word that the LORD spoke to Jeremiah the prophet about the coming of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon to strike the land of Egypt.? *Yes Father, You even use the heathen to do Your will and be Your servants. Nebuchadnezzar and Cyrus were both Your servants. How much more should we as you saints do your will! *Your :kingdom come!* *3. 46:28 (46:27-28) PROPHETIC WORD: ISRAEL ENCOURAGED. ?Fear not, O Jacob my servant, declares the LORD, for I am with you. I will make a full end of all the nations to which I have driven you, but of you I will not make a full end. I will discipline you in just measure, and I will by no means leave you unpunished.? *What a gracious word! How wise yet loving You are, O Father! *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.* *4. 47:1 (47:1-7) PROPHETIC WORD: AGAINST THE PHILISTINES. ?The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning the Philistines, before Pharaoh struck down Gaza.? *Father, our sins bring Your judgment whether the sins of Israel, the nations or the church. You are no respecter of persons. *Our :daily :bread Give us this day!* *5. 48:11 (48:1-25) PROPHETIC JUDGMENT: AGAINST MOAB. ?Moab has been at ease from his youth and has settled on his dregs; he has not been emptied from vessel to vessel, nor has he gone into exile; so his taste remains in him, and his scent is not changed.? *Father, You desire troubles, trials, suffering and persecution to purge us and make our hearts sweet. Give us a thankful and joyful heart for trials. *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 48:42 (48:26-46) PROPHECY: MOAB?S HUMILIATION AND DESTRUCTION. ?Moab shall be destroyed and be no longer a people, because he magnified himself against the LORD.? *Loftiness, arrogance, pride and haughtiness of heart - will destroy us even as they did Moab! O Father, keep our hearts; make us like David: people after Your own heart. *And bring us not into temptation!* *7. 48:47 PROPHETIC WORD: MOAB?S RESTORATION. ?Yet I will restore the fortunes of Moab in the latter days, declares the LORD.? Thus far is the judgment of Moab. *How gracious You are O Father, even unto sinners! How much more will You show mercy to repentant saints! *But deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE**: C.H. Spurgeon Quotes: ?The Older The More Calvinistic? - *I always find that the older saints become more Calvinistic as they ripen in age; that is to say, they get to believe more and more that salvation is all of grace; and whereas, at first, they might have had some rather loose ideas concerning free-will, and the power of the creature, the lapse of years and fuller experience gradually blow all that kind of chaff away. *Our Psalm for the day: 41:1 (41) O LORD, BE GRACIOUS TO ME. ?Blessed is the one who considers the poor! In the day of trouble the LORD delivers him.? *Father, we hallow Your Name when we consider the poor. We are discerning Christ?s spiritual body! We are doing it as unto one of the least of Christ?s brothers, and He accepts it as unto Himself! 41:4 *As for me, I said, ?O LORD, be gracious to me; heal me, for I have sinned against you!? *Father, let this be our immediate prayer as soon as we sin. Let us remember Your Word, and the many occasions when in wrath You remembered mercy! Introduction: Jesus Christ, betrayed of Judas Iscariot, is evidently the great theme of this Psalm but, we think, not exclusively. He is the antitype of David, and all His people are in their measure like Him, hence words suitable to the Great Representative are most applicable to those who are in Him. Such as receive a vile return for long kindness to others may read this song with much comfort, for they will see that it is, alas, too common for the best of men to be rewarded for their holy charity with cruelty and scorn; and when they have been humbled by falling into sin, advantage has been taken of their low estate, their good deeds have been forgotten, and the vilest spite has been vented upon them. 41:1. *The Lord will deliver him in time of trouble. *The promise is not that the generous saint shall have no trouble but that he shall be preserved in it and in due time brought out of it. How true was this of our Lord! never trouble deeper nor triumph brighter than His, and glory be to His name, He secures the ultimate victory of all His blood-bought ones. Selfishness bears in itself a curse; it is a cancer in the heart; while liberality is happiness, and makes fat the bones. In dark days, we cannot rest upon the supposed merit of almsgiving, but still the music of memory brings with it no mean solace when it tells of widows and orphans whom we have succored and prisoners and sick folk to whom we have ministered. 41:3. *The Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing.* The everlasting arms shall stay up his soul as friendly hands and downy pillows stay up the body of the sick. How tender and sympathizing is this image; how near it brings our God to our infirmities and sicknesses! Who ever heard this of the old heathen Jove, or of the gods of India, or China? This is the language peculiar to the God of Israel; He it is Who deigns to become nurse and attendant upon good men. If He smites with one hand, He sustains with the other. Oh, it is blessed fainting when one falls upon the Lord?s own bosom and is upborne thereby! 41:4. *For I have sinned against Thee. *Sin and suffering are inevitable companions. Observe that by the Psalmist, sin was felt to be mainly evil because directed against God. This is of the essence of true repentance. Applying the petition to David and other sinful believers, how strangely evangelical is the argument: heal me, not for I am innocent, but *I have sinned*. How contrary is this to all self-righteous pleading! How consonant with grace! How inconsistent with merit! Even the fact that the confessing penitent had remembered the poor is but obliquely urged, but a direct appeal is made to Mercy on the ground of great sin. O trembling reader, here is a divinely revealed precedent for you, be not slow to follow it. 41:6. *And if he come to see me, he speaks vanity. *His visits of sympathy are visitations of mockery. When the fox calls on the sick lamb, his words are soft but he licks his lips in hope of the carcass. *His heart gathered iniquity to itself.* Like will to like. The bird makes its nest of feathers. Out of the sweetest flowers, chemists can distill poison, and from the purest words and deeds malice can gather groundwork for calumnious report. It is perfectly marvelous how spite spins webs out of no materials whatever. 41:9. *Yes, my own familiar friend. * ?The man of my peace,? so runs the original, with whom I had no differences, with whom I was in league, who had aforetime ministered to my peace and comfort. This was Ahithophel to David, and Iscariot with our Lord. Judas was an apostle, admitted to the privacy of the great Teacher, bearing His secret thoughts, and, as it were, allowed to read His very heart. *Et tu Brute? *said the expiring Caesar. The kiss of the traitor wounded our Lord?s heart as much as the nail wounded His hand. 41:13. The Psalm ends with a doxology. *Blessed be the Lord, **i**.e.* let Him be glorified. The blessing at the beginning from the mouth of God is returned from the mouth of His servant. We cannot add to the Lord?s blessedness, but we can pour out our grateful wishes, and these He accepts, as we receive little presents of flowers from children who love us. *(From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* HERE ENDS THE FIRST BOOK OF THE PSALMS P.S. Mike Huckabee recommended ?*Last Ounce of Courage?, 2012 - *a DVD on how to preserve the ?Freedom? that our veterans have given their lives for on our behalf. Through the ?Tyranny of the Minority?, our freedoms such as ?Christmas?, Nativity Scenes, Christmas Carols, Prayer in our schools, The Ten Commandments as plaques in our City Halls - all these and more - perhaps because of one atheistic family, have been robbed from us. Our Constitution has been perverted by a wrong application by our government. Time we retrieved our freedom. By all means check out the above DVD through Netflix or other sources. You will not be disappointed. My wife Marie felt it would be good for me to alert you to this opportunity. Jim Watt *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Fri Jan 11 10:06:47 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Fri, 11 Jan 2013 10:06:47 -0800 Subject: Romans 4:16-22 - Sermon Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* January 11, 2013 *2013-01-13 - ROMANS 4:16-22 - ABRAHAM: EXAMPLE HOW FAITH ACTS* 4. 4:16-22 ABRAHAM: AN EXAMPLE OF HOW FAITH ACTS a. 4:16-17 FAITH'S BASIS *For this cause it is of faith, that it be according to grace;* DiA TOUto ek PIste-*o*s, HIna kaTA CHArin; *to the end that the promise be sure to all the seed;* eis to EInai beBAIan [949] t*e*n e-pag-geLIan panTI t*o* SPERma-ti; *not to that only of the law, but to that also* ou t*o* ek tou NOmou MOnon, alLA kai t*o* *which is **of Abraham's faith (who is father of us all *17* as it is written [that],* ek PIste-*o*s A-braAM (HOS es-tin paT*E*R PANt*o*n h*e*M*O*N kaTH*O*S GEgrap-tai, [HOti], *I have made you father of many nations), before him whom he believed, God,* PaTEra polLON ethNON TEtheiKA [5087] se), kaTEnan-ti hou ePIsteu-sen, TheOU, *who makes alive the dead, and calls the things that are not, as though they are.* tou z*o*-o-poiOUNtos [2227] tous neKROUS [3498], kai kaLOUNtos [2227] ta m*e * ONta, h*o*s ONta. b. 4:18 FAITH'S BATTLE *Who in hope believed against hope, to the end that he become father of many nations,* hos par elPIda ep' elPIdi ePIsteu-sen, eis to geNESthai auTON paTEra polL*O*N ethN*O*N, *according to what had been spoken, So shall your :seed be.* kaTA to ei-r*e*MEnon, HOUt*o*s EStai to SPERma [4690] sou. c. 4:19-21 FAITH'S METHOD *And without weakening in the faith he considered his own :body* kai m*e* as-theN*E*sas [770] t*e* PIstei ka-teNO*e*-sen [2657] to he-auTOU S *O*ma *now as good as dead (being about a hundred years old),* *E*d*e* ne-ne-kr*o*MEnon [3499] (e-ka-ton-taEt*e*s pou huPARch*o*n), *and the deadness of the womb of Sarah;* kai t*e*n NEkr*o*-sin t*e*s M*E*tras [3388] SARras; 20* yet, looking unto the promise of :God, he doubted not through :unbelief, * eis de t*e*n e-pag-geLIan tou TheOU, ou di-eKRIth*e* [1252] t*e* a-pisTIa [570], *but waxed strong through :faith, giving glory to :God,* alLA e-ne-du-naM*O*th*e* [1743] t*e* PIstei, dous DOxan t*o* The*O*, 21* and being fully assured that what he had promised, he was able also to perform.* kai pl*e*-ro-pho-r*e*THEIS [4135] HOti ho eP*E*Ggel-tai, du-naTOS es-tin kai poi*E*sai. d. 4:22 FAITH?S RESULT *Wherefore also it was reckoned to him for righteousness.* di' HO kai e-loGISth*e* auT*O* eis di-kai-oSUn*e*n. INTRODUCTION: In 1944 I heard Pastor Ern Baxter preach from the above passage in Victoria, B.C. He was at the time pastor of Evangelistic Tabernacle of Vancouver. It made such a deep impression upon me as a new convert, that I have used it a number of times since. I surmise that a number of you reading this sermon will feel as I did 69 years ago. Of all men of the Bible, God has set forth Abraham as the ?father of our faith? - for both Jew and Gentile. Like us, he was not perfect, and had several lapses. That should encourage us that we too, as imperfect beings, can *also* receive mercy and grace from God. Ern Baxter died at 79 in 1993. He too like the rest of us was not perfect, but like Charles Spurgeon, he was a ?Prince of Preachers.? I called him ?Chrysostom? - the ?golden-tongued?. I said that if you had ever been ?told off? by Baxter - at least you could say you were more eloquently told off than ever before! I know - I had an experience of this! He like Spurgeon had a large library - 17,000 volumes, including a ?working library? of 1500 volumes, which he had mastered. He like Spurgeon had preached completely through the Bible in an expository manner, with much fruit. He too like Spurgeon started out as an Arminian, with a Scottish Presbyterian father of Saskatchewan - but he ended up as a Calvinist. In the beginning when I was yet in the Arminian stage, he said to me - ?Are you still believing that? Ah well - there?s forgiveness for you - and one day you?ll see the light.? He was correct. Later on in October 1948 in Edmonton, Alberta, we struck up a close friendship because of the North Battleford Visitation of that year. When he saw me as one of their leaders at that time handling the Word of God effectively to solve a knotty problem - he said to me, ?I am neither a prophet, nor the son of a prophet - but I prophesy that you have too much of the Word in you to stay too long with this movement.? He was correct. When the leaders started to depart from the Word in 6 different areas - and in the spirit of the ?New Order? of the Latter Rain - putting the Gifts of the Spirit above the Word of God - then in early 1949 Marie and I left this movement to find a more ?Word-oriented? fellowship. We were accused of being ?Old Order?, putting the Bible and the Word above revelation! ?Thank you,? I said, ?I consider that to be a compliment!? This is the place Jesus as Son of Man put the Word and His Father in His 33 year earthly sojourn! Just check out prophecy, churches, fellowships and denominations with the ?Plumbline? of the Word of God - and like Spurgeon in his day, you will find the ?Evolution and Higher Criticism? of his day now infiltrating the church as ?*New Order* of Revelation? - above the Old Order of the Word of God. So now let us examine God?s wonderful Word by the Spirit through the Apostle Paul in the Book of Romans. If you like the sample at the beginning of this sermon on Romans 4:16-22, you can now receive the entire New Testament in this format through in both Book and E-book format. Ivan Panin discovered ?God?s Bible Numerics? in 1890. In 1944 God put his discovery in my hands, and commissioned me to put together Panin?s two Bible Numeric NT texts into an ?*Outlined Interlinear New Testament*? format. This is unique - not because of Panin and myself - but because God thousands of years ago laid in the Hebrew and Greek languages the Bible Numerics that makes this *Outlined* Interlinear product possible. And He said to me in 1967 when I had completed the rough MS draft for this - ?This Bible Numeric ?Outlined Interlinear NT? is not Panin?s, nor yours, nor the Team who has assisted you in its production - It is *Mine*, for My Last Days? purposes. It will be the basis for *Bible Meditation* in the spirit of George Muller and George Whitefield, Joshua and David - and will help prepare for the soon Triumphant Return of My Son!? *A. Romans 4:16-17. FAITH?S BASIS! *The Promise is by *Grace* through * Faith* - *not* of works, lest any man should boast! It is through Abraham for both Jew and Gentile. It was promised to Abraham *before* he was circumcised, making it clear for all Gentiles like you and me. God by His act of Sovereign Grace *chose* Abraham for this ?basis?, while he was yet an idol worshiper in Ur of the Chaldees! By His Sovereign Grace He chose Saul the blasphemer - to become Paul the apostle to us Gentiles, and expound the basis of ?Grace through faith? in the Book of Galatians and Romans. Before Jeremiah was conceived - God by Sovereign Grace chose him to be a prophet unto the nations. Before I was born, He chose my parents for me; my Methodist step-grandfather to give me my first witness; His own revelation to have me in 1942 to join the Navy where He had chosen to reveal Himself to me on Passover of 1944; and in July of that year to saddle me with the work of Russian Ivan Panin - to complete it and ready it for production. Faith?s Basis? *Not* of works then, but of God?s divine Sovereign grace. This was true also of George Muller, Rees Howells, Oswald Chambers, Andrew Murray - and countless others. In his early 20?s as a new convert, George Muller in a sermon - called ?predestination? a devilish doctrine! An older lady challenged him, ?Have you ever done a systematic study on this subject?? He confessed that he had not. ?Then do yourself a favor,? she said, ?and say nothing more on this subject till you *have*!? He systematically went through the entire Bible on this subject, and to his surprise found that 80% of all scripture referring to this subject, confirm Predestination. Then in the light of this, further research brought the other 20% of references in line. Muller was a Lutheran minister, proficient in Hebrew and Greek (which he often used in his devotions) plus also proficiency in 7 languages. He was a scholar indeed! And - his faith, based on God?s Sovereign Grace like Abraham?s - produced that outstanding proof of his faith in a 10,000 member orphanage, every need supplied by prayer and faith alone - no man ever having knowledge of a need in his 60 years of many-project faith ministry! *B. 4:18. FAITH?S BATTLE. Who in hope believed against hope, to the endthat he become father of many nations, according to what had been spoken, So shall your :seed be. *God had given Abraham an outstanding promise. Problem? Physically, both he and Sarah were past the age of child-bearing. In the natural, a two-fold impossibility. Thirdly - the promise was for a boy, not a girl. So the very situation in the natural produced *Faith?s Battle*. What was Abraham to do in this naturally impossible situation? *C. 4:19-21. FAITH?S METHOD. *Here we find 7 steps of faith used by Abraham to overcome the impossible, and release God to do a 2-fold miracle in their 2 bodies, plus bring forth a boy from this promise. *1. 4:19a. And without weakening in the faith *- ?as-theN*E*sas? [770] spells out Abraham?s example. He did *not* allow his faith to weaken in the face of a natural impossibility. When we like Abraham can see the promise of God - meditate upon it - rehearse it vocally - and maintain our hope in what God has said in spite of circumstances - *then* the example of Abraham becomes ours! *2. 4:19b.* *he considered his own :body now **as good as **dead (being about a hundred years **old), **and the deadness of the womb of Sarah; *Abraham fully faced the exact situation he was in. He didn?t hide from it. He faced *Reality*. He did not hide from this fact. God wants us to fully understand what He must do to deliver us from our impossible situation. *3. 4:20a. **yet, looking unto the promises of :God, **This* is the correct attitude to take. First look at the problem. Then look away from it to God?s promises. By a deliberate choice - *make* your choice. This is an important step of faith. Not only look to God?s promise - *meditate* upon it through God?s ?Outlined Interlinear NT.? You will discover the importance of this product as you read the Introductory Notes to this text. It is *the Word of God* that must be the basis of our faith. See Romans 10:17 - ?*The **faith** therefore is by **hearing**, and hearing by Christ?s word.? *Here it is the R*E*ma-word of Christ - the transformed LOgos-word - through meditation. The miracle of transformation form LOgos to R*E*ma is through Bible Meditation, as in Joshua 1:8 and Psalm 19:14. *4. 4:20b. **he doubted not through :unbelief, *Look at the Greek word for ?doubted not? and its Strong?s counterpart [1252]. He *refused* to continue looking at the impossible situation of the bodies of himself and Sarah at 90 and 99 years! Consider this example. Put yourself in this same situation. You will *then* surely come through like Abraham. *5. 4:20c. but waxed strong through :faith, *See the word for ?waxed strong? [1743]. This is a *powerful* concept. It is the indwelling Holy spirit who empowers us to walk in this challenging pathway. Only those who like Paul have experienced Galatians 2:20 - can follow Abraham in this challenging example. *6. 4:20d. giving glory to :God, *By all means - do not omit this sixth step. This is a step that enables us to maintain a strong and living relationship with God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This makes all of John 15:1-16 come alive. John 15:7 *- ?If you abide in me, and my :words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done to you.? *Again, it must be the R*E*ma word that abides! It now becomes ours! And John 15:16 shows that *we* are chosen of Christ, not us trusting in our own weak and failing choice! *7. 4:21. and being fully assured that what he had promised, he was able also to perform. *This is our final step of assurance. It is the apex - of this 7-fold progression. Our trust is fully on God for *His* performance of His promise. George Muller experienced this again and again. As did Rees Howells and Charles Spurgeon. Let *us* join this triumphant group. *D. 4:22. FAITH?S RESULT. Wherefore also it was reckoned to him for righteousness. *This word ?reckoned? (e-loGISth*e*) appears again and again in Paul?s writings. The Holy spirit leads him to use it again and again. When you and I master the above passage, we too will find ourselves joining in this successful train. God is no respecter of persons. All those of us who will master and walk in these steps and principles - will find our ?miracle-working God? performing for us what He did for Abraham! *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Sat Jan 12 10:51:12 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Sat, 12 Jan 2013 10:51:12 -0800 Subject: Jeremiah 52 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* January 13, 2013 *AUG 13 - JEREMIAH 52 - JERUSALEM OVERTHROWN* *1. 52:4 (52:1-11, ESV) ZEDEKIAH, JUDAH AND JERUSALEM OVERTHROWN. ?And in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came with all his army against Jerusalem, and laid siege to it. And they built siegeworks all around it.? *How faithful is Your Word, O Father! You pronounced this judgment to Josiah years before hand because of the sins of Manasseh. What went forth from Your mouth, You fulfilled! *Hallowed be your :name!* *2. 52:13-14 (52:12-14) JERUSALEM DESTROYED. ?And he burned the house of the LORD, and the king?s house and all the houses of Jerusalem; every great house he burned down. 14 And all the army of the Chaldeans, who were with the captain of the guard, broke down all the wall around Jerusalem.? *Sentiment does not bind You Father, when the fire of Your wrath is kindled! O may Your fear sink deep into our hearts! *Your :kingdom come!* *3. 52:16 (52:15-16) THE CAPTIVITY. ?But Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left some of the poorest of the land to be vinedressers and plowmen.? *How compassionate, long-suffering and full of pity You are, O Father! We throw ourselves upon You, the God of all mercies. Our trust in You is complete! *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.* *4. 52:17 (52:17-23) TEMPLE RICHES TAKEN. ?And the pillars of bronze that were in the house of the LORD, and the stands and the bronze sea that were in the house of the LORD, the Chaldeans broke in pieces, and carried all the bronze to Babylon.? *How complete are Your judgments, O Father! How awesome Your ways! How fearful Your acts! O teach us wisdom and instruct us with Your eye in their light! Humble our hearts! *Our :daily :bread Give us this day.* *5. 52:27 (52:24-27) EXECUTION OF PRIESTS AND PRINCES. ?And the king of Babylon struck them down, and put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah was taken into exile out of the land.? *Your judgments are terrible and complete, O Father. Your Word is very sure. Yet in wrath You remember mercy. *And forgive us our :debt, as we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 52:28-30 THREE DEPORTATIONS. ?This is the number of the people whom Nebuchadnezzar carried away captive: in the seventh year, 3,023 Judeans; 29 in the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar he carried away captive from Jerusalem 832 persons; 30 in the twenty-third year of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive of the Judeans 745 persons; all the persons were 4,600.? *Father, we see the thoroughness of Your ways. Nothing escapes Your eye. We lean hard upon You in Jesus! *And bring us not into temptation!* *7. 52:31 (52:31-34) EVIL-MERODACH?S KINDNESS TO JEHOIACHIN. ?And in the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-fifth day of the month, Evil-merodach king of Babylon, in the year that he became king, graciously freed Jehoiachin king of Judah and brought him out of prison.? *Praise be unto Your great and worthy Name, O Jehovah Father! What mercy in the midst of judgment! *But deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE**: C.H. Spurgeon Quotes: *So, being himself a waiting God, he loves a waiting people; he loves a man who can take the promise, and say, ?I believe it; it may never be fulfilled to me in this life, but I do not want that it should be. I am perfectly willing that it should be fulfilled when God intends that it should be.? *Our Psalm for the Day: 43:3-5 (43) SEND OUT YOUR LIGHT AND YOUR TRUTH. ?Send out your light and your truth: let them lead me; let them bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling; 4 Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy, and I will praise you with the lyre, O God, my God. 5 Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.? *Father, one thing we desire of You, O great Jehovah: grant unto us a heart after You as David had. Then can we cry unto You and know You in the secret place. Your fiery trials will cleanse us from all defilement of flesh and spirit. Praise be unto Your Holy Name! Subject: On account of the similarity of the structure of this Psalm to that of Psalm 42, it has been supposed to be a fragment wrongly separated form the preceding song; but it is always dangerous to allow these theories of error in Holy Scripture and in this instance it would be very difficult to show just cause for such an admission. 43:1. *Judge me, O God. *I can laugh at human misrepresentation if my conscience knows that You are on my side. *And plead my cause against an ungodly nation. *When people are ungodly, no wonder that they are unjust; those who are not true to God Himself cannot be expected to deal rightly with His people. Hating the King, they will not love His subjects. Popular opinion weighs with many, but divine opinion is far more weighty with the gracious few. One good word from God outweighs ten thousand railing speeches of men. He bears a brazen shield before him whose reliance in all things is upon his God; the arrows of calumny fall harmlessly from such a buckler. 43:2. *Why do You cast me off? *There are many reasons why the Lord might cast us off, but no reason shall prevail to make Him do so. He has not cast off His people, though He for awhile treats them as cast-offs. Learn from this question that it is well to inquire into dark providences, but we must inquire of God, not of our own fears. He Who is the Author of a mysterious trial can best expound it to us. 43:3. *Let them lead me.* Be these my star to guide me to my rest. Be these my Alpine guides to conduct me over mountains and precipices to the abodes of grace. *Let them bring me unto Your holy hill, and to Your tabernacles. *We seek not light to sin by nor truth to be exalted by it, but that they may become our practical guides to the nearest communion with God. 43:4. *Unto God my exceeding joy. *It was not the altar as such that the Psalmist cared for; he was no believer in the heathenism of ritualism: his soul desired spiritual fellowship, fellowship with God Himself in very deed. What are all the rites of worship unless the Lord be in them; what, indeed, but empty shells and dry husks? *(From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Sun Jan 13 11:40:24 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Sun, 13 Jan 2013 11:40:24 -0800 Subject: 2 Corinthians 1-2 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* January 13, 2013 *AUG 14 - 2 CORINTIANS 1-2 - PAUL?S MINISTRY* *1. 1:2 (1:1-2, NNT) PAUL: APOSTOLIC GREETINGS. ?Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.? *Your highest form ofgovernment on earth Father, is Your apostles. Prophets declare Your mind; apostles make Your mind practical to Your church. Hence these two offices are Your foundation for Your church, Jesus Christ the Chief Cornerstone! Therefore we pray, *Hallowed be your :name!* *2. 1:3-4 (1:3-11) PAUL: COMFORTED TO BE A COMFORT. ?Blessed the God and Father of our :Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of :mercies and God of all comfort; 4 who comforts us in all our :affliction, that we be able to comfort those in any :affliction, through the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted of :God.? *How wise Your ways, Father! We rejoice and rest in Your wisdom. *Your :kingdom come!* *3. 1:12 (1:12-14) PAUL: BASIS OF HIS REJOICING. ?For our :glorying is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in holiness and sincerity of :God, and not in fleshly wisdom but in God?s grace, we behaved in the world, and more abundantly toward you.? *What a gift of wisdom You gave Your church in Paul, Father! He truly let You have Your way in him. His words are the words of our Lord through him! *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth!* *4. 1:19-20 (1:15-22) PAUL: NOT FICKLE IN HIS PROMISES. ?For the Son of :God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you through us, through me and Silvanus and Timothy, was not yes and no, but in him is yes. 20 For however many the promises of God, in him is the yes: therefore also through him isthe Amen, unto glory to :God through us.? *Yes Father, and one word in Jesus is the word of *forgiveness*, and its paramount necessity! We embrace His teaching! *Our :daily :bread Give us this day!* *5. 2:4 (1:23-2:4) PAUL?S DESIRE: NOT TO CAUSE SORROW. ?For out of much tribulation and anguish of heart I wrote you with many tears; not that you be made sorry, but that you might know the love which I have more abundantly unto you.? *We bless You Father, for the compassionate heart of Paul. We see Your heart in him. Out of the great compassion in Jesus he speaks. *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors!* *6. 2:10-11 (2:5-11) PAUL?S FORGIVENESS: DEFEATS SATAN! ?But to whom you forgive anything, I also: for what I also have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, it is for your sakes in Christ?s person; 11 that no advantage be gained over us by :Satan: for we are not ignorant of his :devices.? ** Unforgiveness* gives a strong open door to Satan. Father, seal this truth in our hearts. Help us not to speak against a stumbling member of Your body; help us to love our enemies and persecutors. *And bring us not into temptation!* *7. 2:14 (2:12-17) PAUL: HIS TRIUMPH CONTINUALLY IN CHRIST. ?But thanks to :God, who always leads us in triumph in the Christ, and makes manifest through us the savor of his :knowledge in every place.? *Hallelujah! We rejoice in Your favor unto us in Christ, Father! What triumph You manifest * after* leading us into the crucified life. *But deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE**: 1:21-22 (1:15-22) PAUL?S REVELATION FOR US. **?Now who establishes us with you unto Christ, and anointed us, is God; 22 who also sealed us, and gave the earnest of the Spirit in our :hearts.? *Blessed be Your holy Name for ever Father, for the Gift of the Holy Spirit, the d*o*-reA. Through *this* we are *sealed*, and have the *down-payment* of the fullness which is yet to come! *C.H. Spurgeon Quotes: Young People and Prayer: *Dear young people, take care that you start right in your Christian life by being much in prayer! A profession of faith that does not begin with prayer will end in disgrace. If you come to join the Church, but do not pray to God to uphold you in consistency of life, and to make your profession sincere, the probability is that you are already a hypocrite! *Our Psalm for the day: 44:4-5 (44) COME TO OUR HELP. ?You are my King, O God; ordain salvation for Jacob! 5 Through you we push down our foes; through your name we tread down those who rise up against us.? *Father, we bless You that through intercession Your purposes forge ahead! Saints are lifted up; enemies are defeated; Your Name is glorified! *Hallowed be your :name!* *Title*: ?To the Chief Musician for the sons of Korah, Maschil.? The title is similar to the Forty-Second, and although this is no proof that it is by the same author, it makes it highly probable. No other writer should be sought for to father any of the Psalms when David will suffice, and therefore we are loath to ascribe this sacred song to any but the great Psalmist; yet as we hardly know any period of his life which it would fairly describe, we feel compelled to look elsewhere. The last verses remind us of Milton?s famous lines on the massacre of the Protestants among the mountains of Piedmont. 44:1. *We have heard with our ears, O God. *To hear with the ears affects us more sensitively than to read with our eyes; we ought to note this and seize every possible opportunity of telling abroad the gospel of our Lord Jesus *viva voce, *since this is the most telling mode of communication. *Our fathers have told us. *When fathers are tongue-tied religiously with their offspring, need they wonder if their children?s hearts remain sin-tied? Religious conversation need not be dull, and indeed it could not be if, as in this case, it dealt more with facts and less with opinions. 44:2. *How you did afflict the people and cast them out. *How fair is Mercy when she stands by the side of justice! Bright beams the star of grace amid the night of wrath! It is a solemn thought that the greatness of divine love has its counterpart in the greatness of His indignation. 44:3. *For they got not the land in possession by their own sword. *The passage may be viewed as a beautiful parable of the work of salvation; men are not saved without prayer, repentance, etc., but none of these save a man; salvation is altogether of the Lord. Canaan was not conquered without the armies of Israel, but equally true is it that it was not conquered by them; the Lord was the conqueror, and the people were but instruments in His hands. 44:5. *Through Your Name will we tread them under that rise up against us. *Mark well that all the conquests of these believers are said to be ?through You,? ?through Your Name?; never let us forget this, lest going a warfare at our own charges, we fail most ignominiously. Let us not, however, fall into the equally dangerous sin of distrust, for the Lord can make the weakest of us equal to any emergency. 44:6. *For I will not trust in my bow, neither shall my sword save me.*Arm of flesh, how dare I trust you? How dare I bring upon myself the curse of those who rely upon man? 44:8. *In God we boast all the day long. *What a blessed boasting is this! It is the only sort of boasting that is bearable. All other manna bred worms and stunk except that which was laid up before the Lord, and all other boasting is loathsome save the glorying in the Lord, which is laudable and pleasing. 44:11. *And has scattered us among the heathen. *All this is ascribed to the Lord, as being allowed by Him, and even appointed by His decree. It is well to trace the hand of God in our sorrows, for it is surely there. 44:14. *You make us a byword among the heathen, a shaking of the head among the people.* The world knows not its nobility; it has no eye for true excellence: it found a cross for the Master and cannot be expected to award crowns to His disciples. 44:17. *All this is come upon us; yet have we not forgotten You. *When in the midst of many griefs, we can still cling to God in loving obedience, it must be well with us. True fidelity can endure rough usage. Those who follow God for what they get will leave Him when persecution is stirred up, but not so the sincere believer; he will not forget his God, even though the worst come to the worst. 44:22. *We are counted as sheep for the slaughter. *From Piedmont and Smithfield, from St. Bartholomew?s massacre and the dragoonades of Claverhouse, this appeal goes up to heaven, while the souls under the altar continue their solemn cry for vengeance. Not long shall the church plead in this fashion; her shame shall be recompensed, her triumph shall dawn. *(From ?The Treasury of David by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Mon Jan 14 12:26:39 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Mon, 14 Jan 2013 12:26:39 -0800 Subject: 2 Corinthians 3-5 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* January 14, 2013 *AUG 15 - 2 CORINTHIANS 3-5 - PAUL?S MOTIVE* *1. 3:2-3 (3:1-3, NNT) MOTIVE: PRODUCES LIVING LETTERS. ?YOU are our :epistle, written in our :hearts, known and read of all men: 3 being made manifest that you are Christ?s Epistle, ministered by us, and written not with ink, but with the living God?s Spirit; not in tables of stone, but on tables of hearts of flesh.? *Now Father, we see Your Kingdom manifested! Paul?s converts in his heart, and Your Kingdom written in their hearts by Your Spirit! O may Your glory cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. * Hallowed by your :name!* *2. 3:17 (3:4-18) MOTIVE: MINISTRY OF VEIL-REMOVAL. ?Now the Lord is the Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, is liberty.? *Father, we bless You that Your Spirit rends the veil between You and us! We can now enter the holiest of all. What grace! What condescension! How can we say thanks? *Your :kingdom come!* *3. 4:3-4 (4:1-6) MOTIVE: OVERCOME DARKNESS BY LIGHT. ?And if our :gospel is veiled, it is veiled in the perishing: 4 in whom the god of this :age, has blinded the thoughts of the unbelieving, that the enlightenment of the gospel of the glory of the Christ, who is God?s image, should not dawn upon them.? *Father, You also enlighten our darkened hearts! You enlighten our minds. You undo the works of the prince of darkness. * Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.* *4. 4:7, 11 (4:7-5:10) MOTIVE: PREPARE FOR JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST. **?For we have this :treasure in earthen vessels, that the exceeding greatness of the power be of :God, and not from us; **11 **For we who live are always delivered unto death for Jesus, that the life also of :Jesus be manifested in our mortal :flesh.? *Father, You in Christ have condescended to come and live in us Your house, a people of low degree. You have exalted us above the heavens. *Our :daily :bread Give us this day!* *5. 5:13-14a (5:11-15) MOTIVE: MINISTRY OF CONSTRAINING LOVE. ?For whether we were beside ourselves, it is to God; whether we are of sober mind, it isto you. 14a For the love of the Christ constrains us.? *Thank You Father, for this opening of a heart burning for You! We see the goal and ideal to which You are leading us. *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 5:17 (5:16-19) MOTIVE: MINISTRY OF RECONCILIATION. ?So that if any isin Christ, he is a new creature: the old are passed away; lo, they are become new.? *Legally Father, we see what You have accomplished for us through Christ at Calvary. Now vitally, we apprehend this by working out our own salvation with fear and trembling! *And bring us not into temptation!* *7. 5:21 (5:20-21) MOTIVE: MINISTRY AS AN AMBASSADOR. ?Him who knew no sin he made sin on our behalf; that WE might become righteousness of God in him.? *What a encapsulation of the Gospel in a nutshell! Father, what a work You have performed in Christ on our behalf! *But deliver us from the evil one.* *NOTE**: 3:18 (3:4-18) MOTIVE: PROGRESSIVE GLORY! **?But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit.? *Let this take place unceasingly, Father. We submit to You as the Potter. O take us as the clay, and work this truth fully into us! *C.H. Spurgeon Quotes: DAILY PRAYER - *The habit of daily prayer must be maintained. It is well to have regular hours of devotion and to resort to the same place for prayer, as far as possible. Still, the spirit of prayer is better than the habit of prayer. It is better to be able to pray at all times that to make it a rule to pray at certain times and seasons. *Our Psalm for the day: 45:6-7 (45, ESV) YOUR THRONE, O GOD, IS FOREVER. ?Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of uprightness; 7 you have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.? *Father, in our Lord Jesus we see Your highest pleasure. We give You our utmost for His highest! * **We hallowYour :name! * Special singers are appointed for so divine a hymn. King Jesus deserves to be praised not with random, ranting ravings, but with the sweetest and most skillful music of the best trained choristers. Subject: Some here see Solomon and Pharaoh?s daughter only - they are short-sighted; others see both Solomon and Christ - they are cross-eyed; well-focused spiritual eyes see here Jesus only, or if Solomon be present at all, it must be like those hazy shadows of passers-by which cross the face of the camera and therefore are dimly traceable upon a photographic landscape. ?The King,? the God Whose throne is forever and ever, is no mere mortal, and His everlasting dominion is not bounded by Lebanon and Egypt?s river. This is no wedding song of earthly nuptials, but an epithalamium for the heavenly Bridegroom and His elect spouse. 45:1. *My heart is inditing a good matter.* It is a sad thing when the heart is cold with a good matter, and worse when it is warm with a bad matter, but incomparably well when a warm heart and a good matter meet together. 45:2. *You. *As though the King Himself had suddenly appeared before him, the Psalmist lost in admiration of His Person, turns from his preface to address his Lord. A loving heart has the power to realize its object. The eyes of a true heart see more than the eyes of the head. Moreover, Jesus reveals Himself when we are pouring forth our affections towards Him. It is usually the case that when we are ready, Christ appears. If our heart is warm, it is an index that the sun is shining, and when we enjoy his heat, we shall soon behold his light. *You are fairer than the children of men. *In Person, but especially in mind and character, the King of saints is peerless in beauty. The Hebrew word is doubled, ?Beautiful, beautiful, are You.? Jesus is so emphatically lovely that words must be doubled, strained, yes, exhausted before He can be described. *Grace is poured into Your lips. *One word from Himself dissolved the heart of Saul of Tarsus and turned him into an Apostle; another word raised up John the Divine when fainting in the Isle of Patmos. Oftentimes a sentence from His lips has turned our own midnight into morning, our winter into spring. 45:3. *With Your glory and Your majesty. *Our precious Christ can never be made too much of. Heaven itself is but just good enough for Him. All the pomp that angels and archangels, and thrones, and dominions, and principalities, and powers can pour at His feet is too little for Him. Only His own essential glory is such as fully answers to the desire of His people, who can never enough extol Him. 45:5. *In the heart of the King?s enemies.* Our Captain aims at men?s hearts rather than their heads, and He hits them, too; point-blank are His shots, and they enter deep into the vital part of man?s nature. Whether for love or vengeance, Christ never misses sin, and when His arrows stick, they cause a smart not soon forgotten, and wound which only He can hear. Jesus? arrows of conviction are sharp in the quiver of His Word and sharp when on the bow of His ministers. *Whereby the people fall under You.* There is no standing against the Son of God when His bow of might is in His hands. Terrible will be that hour when His bow shall be made quite naked and bolts of devouring fire shall be hurled upon His adversaries; then shall princes fall and nations perish. 45:6. *Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. *To whom can this be spoken but our Lord? The Psalmist cannot restrain his adoration. His enlightened eyes see in the royal Husband of the church, God,God to be adored, God reigning, God reigning everlastingly. Blessed sight! Blind are the eyes that cannot see God in Christ Jesus! *The scepter of Your kingdom is a right scepter*. He is the lawful monarch of all things that be. His rule is founded in right, its law is right, its result is right. Our King is no usurper and no oppressor. Even when He shall break His enemies with a rod of iron, He will do no man wrong; His vengeance and His grace are both in conformity with justice. Hence we trust Him without suspicion; He cannot err; no affliction is too severe, for He sends it; no judgment too harsh, for He ordains it. O blessed hands of Jesus! The reigning power is safe with you. All the just rejoice in the government of the King Who reigns in righteousness. 45:11. *So shall the King greatly desire Your beauty. *No great and lasting revival of religion can be granted us till the professed lovers of Jesus prove their affection by coming out from an ungodly world, being separated, and touching not the unclean thing. 45:12. *And the daughter of Tyre shall be there with a gift. *The power of missions abroad lies at home: a holy church will be a powerful church. Nor shall there be lack of treasure in her coffers when grace is in her heart; the free gifts of a willing people shall enable the workers for God to carry on their sacred enterprises without stint. *(From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* *P.S. The ?notes? of Spurgeon on Psalm 45 reach a climax that excels his notes on the preceding 44 Psalms! Spurgeon?s relationship with the Lord Jesus from the beginning of his conversion - was exceedingly close. O that * *all of us** had such a close relationship with our Lord! J.* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Tue Jan 15 13:32:44 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Tue, 15 Jan 2013 13:32:44 -0800 Subject: 2 Corinthians 6-7 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* January 15, 2013 *AUG 16 - 2 CORINTHIANS 6-7 - PAUL?S EXAMPLE* *1. 6:2 (6:1-10, NNT) EXAMPLE: OF GIVING NO OFFENSE. ?For he says, At an acceptable season I listened to you: lo, now is an acceptable season; lo, now is a day of salvation.? *We live in Your day of grace, Father. Righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit flows forth because of Calvary. Whoever will may call upon You for this blessing! *Hallowed be your :name!* *2. 6:11-12 (6:11-13) EXAMPLE: HIS EMOTIONAL LONGING. ?Our mouth is open unto you, Corinthians, our :heart enlarged. 12 You are not straitened in us, but you are straitened in your :affections.? *How difficult and sad to offer help to those unaware of their need! Father, we begin to experience Your heart sorrow over a lost world. We would not add to Your sadness. Rather, we joyfully and triumphantly proclaim Your way of Sovereign Grace! *Your :kingdom come!* *3. 6:14 (6:14-18) EXAMPLE: OF SEPARATION. ?Be not unequally yoked with unbelievers: for what fellowship have righteousness and iniquity? or what communion has light with darkness? * How stubborn and unwise we so often are, Father! O forgive us our blindness and rebellion! *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.* *4. 7:1 EXAMPLE: OF HOLINESS OF FLESH AND SPIRIT. ?Having therefore these :promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in fear of God.? *Not just our *flesh*Father, but our *spirit* too! We would present ourselves to You a living sacrifice: body, soul and spirit, for continual cleansing until either our death or resurrection! *Our :daily :bread Give us this day!* *5. 7:4 (7:2-4) EXAMPLE: OF BOLDNESS IN GLORYING. ?Great my boldness toward you, great my glorying on your behalf. Am filled with :comfort, overflowed with :joy in all our :tribulation.? *Thank You Father, for such a people in whom Paul could glory on Your behalf! Thank You for testing and sorrow and suffering that drives us closer to You. How wise and compassionate You are! *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors!* *6. 7:10 (7:5-13a) EXAMPLE: OF SUFFERING. ?For the sorrow, according to God, works a regretless repentance unto salvation: but the sorrow of the world works death.? *Blessed be You, O God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who grants us the gift of repentance that leads to salvation! We bless You for trials that lead to this gift. *And bring us not into temptation.* *7. 7:14 (7:13b-16) EXAMPLE: OF COMMENDING FELLOW-WORKERS. ?For if in anything I have gloried to him on your behalf, I was not shamed; but as we spoke all things to you in truth, so our glorying also before Titus came to be in truth.? *How marvelous that the power of Your Gospel Father, works such transformation in human lives! Our hearts are full of thanksgiving and awe! *But deliver us from the evil one!* *Our Psalm for the day: 46:4-5, 10 (46, ESV) GOD IS OUR FORTRESS. ?There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High. 5 God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved; God will help her when morning dawns.? *O Father, what grace and comfort we find in Your Promises! We cling to and confess these marvelous words, and though aware of problems, we do not focus upon them. *10 ?Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.? *We would carry Your fear in our hearts, O Father! We would truly know that Your Name is *Jealous*! *Burn* this truth upon our hearts! You are such a *Great* God! *Hallowed be your :name!* *Title: *?To the Chief Musician.? He who could sing other Psalms so well was fitly entrusted with this noble ode. Trifles may be left to commoner songsters, but the most skillful musicians in Israel must be charged with the due performance of this song, with the most harmonious voices and choicest music. *Subject: * ?Happen what may, the Lord?s people are happy and secure; this is the doctrine of the Psalm, and it might, to help our memories, be called ?The Son of Holy Confidence,? were it not that from the great Reformer?s love this soul-stirring hymn it will probably be best remembered as Luther?s Psalm. ?We sing this Psalm to the praise of God because God is with us and powerfully and miraculously preserves and defends His church and His Word against all fanatical spirits, against the gates of hell, against the implacable hatred of the devil, and against all the assaults of the world, the flesh, and sin.? Martin Luther. 46:1. *God is our refuge and strength. *Not our armies or our fortresses. Israel?s boast is in Jehovah, the only living and true God. Others vaunt their impregnable castles placed on inaccessible rocks and secured gates of iron, but God is a far better refuge from distress than all these: and when the time comes to carry the war into the enemy?s territories, the Lord stands His people in better stead than all the valor of legions or the boasted strength of chariot and horses. ?He is my refuge and strength.? Do not forget the fact that God is our refuge just now, in the immediate present, as truly as when David penned the word. God alone is our all in all. All other refuges are refuges of lies, all other strength is weakness, for power belongs unto God: but as God is all-sufficient, our defense and might are equal to all emergencies. 46:4. *There is a river. *Divine grace like a smoothly flowing, fertilizing, full and never-failing river, yields refreshment and consolation to believers. *The streams thereof, *in their various influences, for they are many, *shall make glad the city of God* by assuring the citizens that Zion?s Lord will unfailingly supply all their needs. The streams are not transient, like Cherith; nor muddy, like the Nile; nor furious, like Kishon; nor treacherous, like Job?s deceitful brooks; neither are their waters ?naught? like those of Jericho - they are clear, cool, fresh, abundant, and gladdening. The great fear of an Eastern city in time of war was lest the water supply should be cut off during a siege; if that were secured the city could hold out against attacks for an indefinite period. In this verse, Jerusalem, which represents the church of God, is described as well supplied with water, to set forth the fact that in seasons of trial all-sufficient grace will be given to enable us to endure unto the end. *The holy place of the tabernacles of the Most High.* To be a temple for the Holy Spirit is the delightful portion of each saint; to be the living temple for the Lord our God is also the high honor of the church in her corporate capacity. We have not a great God in nature and a little God in grace; no, the church contains as clear and convincing a revelation of God as the works of nature, and even more amazing in the excellent glory which shines between the cherubim overshadowing that mercy-seat which is the center and gathering place of the people of the living God. 46:5. *God shall help her, and that right early. *The Lord is up betimes. We are slow to meet Him, but He is never tardy in helping us. Impatience complains of divine delays, but in very deed the Lord is not slack concerning His promise. Man?s haste is often folly, but God?s apparent delays are ever wise, and, when rightly viewed, are no delays at all. 46:6. *The heathen raged. *The nations were in a furious uproar; they gathered against the city of the Lord like wolves ravenous for their pray; they foamed and roared and swelled like a tempestuous sea. *The kingdoms were moved. *A general confusion seized upon society; the fierce invaders convulsed their own dominions by draining the population to urge on the war, and they desolated other territories by their devastating march to Jerusalem. Crowns fell from royal heads, ancient thrones rocked like trees driven of the tempest, powerful empires fell like pines uprooted by the blast: everything was in disorder, and dismay seized on all who knew not the Lord. *He uttered His voice, the earth melted. *How mighty is a word from God! How mighty the Incarnate Word. Oh, that such a word would come from the excellent glory even now to melt all hearts in love to Jesus and to end forever all the persecutions, wars, and rebellions of men! 46:8. *Come, behold the works of the Lord.* It were well if we also carefully noted the providential dealings of our covenant God and were quick to perceive His hand in the battles of His church. Whenever we read history, it should be with this verse sounding in our ears. We should read the newspaper in the same spirit, to see how the Head of the church rules the nations for His people?s good, as Joseph governed Egypt for the sake of Israel. *What desolations He has made in the earth.* The destroyers He destroys, the desolaters He desolates. How forcible is the verse at this date! The ruined cities of Assyria, Babylon, Petra, Bashan, Canaan, are our instructors, sand in tables of stone record the doings of the Lord. In every place where His cause and crown have been disregarded, ruin has surely followed; sin has been a blight on nations and left their palaces to lie in heaps. 46:10. *Be still, and know that I am God. *Hold off your hands, you enemies! Sit down and wait in patience, you believers! Acknowledge that Jehovah is God, you who feel the terrors of His wrath! Adore Him, and Him only, you who partake in the protections of His grace. Since none can worthily proclaim His nature, let ?expressive silence muse His praise.? The boasts of the ungodly and the timorous forebodings of the saints should certainly be hushed by a sight of what the Lord has done in past ages. *(From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Wed Jan 16 11:19:41 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Wed, 16 Jan 2013 11:19:41 -0800 Subject: 2 Corinthians 8-9 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* January 16, 2013 *AUG 17 - 2 CORINTHIANS 8-9 - PAUL ON GIVING* *1. 8:5 (8:1-6, NNT) GIVING: MARKED BY LIBERALITY. ?And, not as we had hoped, but first they gave their own selves to the Lord, and to us through God?s will.? *What a testimony of full commitment! Father, we would join the Corinthian believers at this point! We would be unto You and Your servants this same thing. We would have Your rule and reign over us. *Hallowed be your :name.* *2. 8:7 GIVING: AN ABOUNDING GRACE. ?But just as you abound in everything, in faith, and word and knowledge, and all diligence and our :love in you, see that you abound in this :grace also.? *Father, we marvel at the fullness of desire the apostle had for these believers. We look at this catalog, and recognize that *this* is Your will for us also. *Your :kingdom come!* *3. 8:9 (8:8-15) GIVING: CHRIST?S EXAMPLE. ?For you know the grace of our :Lord Jesus Christ, that, being rich, for you he became poor, that you by his :poverty might become rich.? *What condescension! What a *personal*gift is Jesus to us! Father, we love You, because You in Christ first loved us. It is right that we continually think and pray along these lines. *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.* *4. 8:20-21 (8:16-24) GIVING: SOMETHING TO BE PROVEN. ?Avoiding this, that any man should blame us in this :bounty :ministered by us: 21 for we take thought for things honorable, not only in the Lord?s sight, but also in men?s sight. *O Father, grant grace to Your ministers and leaders to walk honestly, sincerely and righteously before us Your people. Forgive us for judging our disappointments in them, rather than thanking You for them and praying for them. *Our :daily :bread Give us this day.* *5. 9:1 (9:1-5) GIVING: CAUSE FOR PAUL?S BOASTING. ?For as touching the ministry :unto the saints it is superfluous for me :to write you.? *Father, with wonder we marvel at the hilarious giving of the Corinthians. They loved You! Their gifts were gifts of heart-felt thanksgiving. They went beyond the call of duty! *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 9:7 (9:6-14) GIVING: ADMINISTERED BY GRACE. ?Let each do according as he has purposed in his :heart: not grudgingly, or of necessity: for :God loves a cheerful giver.? *What victory there is in such a heart attitude! What consternation this must arouse in Satan! We should continually walk in this grace of giving. *And bring us not into temptation.* *7. 9:15 GIVING: MOTIVATED BY HOLY SPIRIT. ?Thanks to :God for his unspeakable :gift (do-reA).? *It is Your Holy Spirit Father, who so deeply motivates us to give. First the blood of Calvary - then the oil of Pentecost. Your Spirit is a well of water springing up into eternal life. The Kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. *But deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE**: 9:8 (9:6-14) GIVING: FLOWS OUT OF GRACE! **?And :God is able to make all grace abound unto you; that you, having always all sufficiency in everything, may abound unto every good work.? *What a statement of comfort and assurance! We lean hard on You Father, in Jesus. *Americanism: Thomas Jefferson Quote, **First Inaugural Address - *?Freedom of religion; freedom of the press; freedom of person under the protection of the habeas corpus; and trial by juries impartially selected, - these principles form the bright constellation which has gone before us, and guided our steps through an age of revolution and reformation.? *Our Psalm for the day: 47:1-2 (47, ESV) GOD IS KING OVER ALL THE EARTH. ?Clap your hands, all peoples! Shout to God with loud songs of joy! 2 For the LORD, the Most High, is to be feared, a great king over all the earth.? *O Great Jehovah Father, there is *none* like You in all the earth! You are to be magnified above *all* the earth. *Nothing* is too good for You. We give You extravagant praise in Jesus. *Hallowed be your :name!* *Title*: ?To the Chief Musician.? Many songs were dedicated to this leader of the chorus, but he was not overloaded thereby. God?s service is such delight that it cannot weary us; and that choicest part of it, the singing of His praises, is so pleasurable that we cannot have too much of it. Our ear has grown accustomed to the ring of David?s compositions, and we are morally certain that we hear it in this Psalm. Every expert would detect here the autograph of the Son of Jesse, or we are greatly mistaken. 47:1. *Clap your hands, all you people. *The most natural and most enthusiastic tokens of exultation are to be used in view of the victories of the Lord and His universal reign. Our joy in God may be demonstrative, and yet He will not censure it. The joy is to extend to all nations; Israel may lead the van, but all the Gentiles are to follow in the march of triumph, for they have an equal share in that kingdom where there is neither Greek nor Jew, but Christ is all in all. 47:2. *For the Lord, *or Jehovah, the Self-existent and only God; *Most High*, most great in power, lofty in dominion, eminent in wisdom, elevated in glory, *is terrible*. Omnipotence, which is terrible to crush, is almighty to protect. *He is a great King over all the earth.* Our God is no local deity, no petty ruler of a tribe; in infinite majesty He rules the mightiest realm as absolute Arbiter of destiny, sole Monarch of all lands, King of kings, and Lord of lords. Not a hamlet or an islet is excluded from His dominion. How glorious will that era be when this is seen and known of all; when in the person of Jesus all flesh shall behold the glory of the Lord! 47:4. *He shall choose our inheritance for us. *We submit our will, our choice, our desire, wholly to Him. Our heritage here and hereafter we leave to Him, let Him do with us as seems good to Him. 47:5. *God is gone up with a shout. *Faith hears the people already shouting. The command of the first verse is here regarded as a fact. The fight is over, the conqueror ascends to His triumphal chariot, and rides up to the gates of the city which is made resplendent with the joy of His return. The words are fully applicable to the ascension of the Redeemer. We doubt not that angels and glorified spirits welcomed Him with acclamations. He came not without song, shall we imagine that He returned in silence? *The Lord with the sound of a trumpet. *Jesus is Jehovah! The joyful strain of the trumpet betokens the splendor of His triumph. 47:7. *For God is the King of all the earth. *The Jews of our Savior?s time resented this truth, but had their hearts been right they would have rejoiced in it. They would have kept their God to themselves, and not even have allowed the Gentile dogs to eat the crumbs from under His table. Alas! how selfishness turns honey into wormwood. *Sing you praises with understanding*. It is to be feared from the slovenly way in which some make a noise in singing that they fancy any sound will do. On the other hand, from the great attention paid by some to the mere music, we feel sadly sure that the sense has no effect upon them. Is it not a sin to be tickling men?s ears with sounds when we profess to be adoring the Lord? What has a sensuous delight in organs, anthems, etc., to do with devotion? Do not men mistake physical effects for spiritual impulses? Do they not often offer to God strains far more calculated for human amusement than for divine acceptance? And understanding enlightened of the Holy Spirit is then and then only fully capable of offering worthy praise. 47:8. *He sits upon the throne of His holiness.* Unmoved, He occupies an undisputed throne, Whose decrees, acts, and commands are holiness itself. What other throne is like this? Never was it stained with injustice, or defiled with sin. Neither is He Who sits upon it dismayed nor in a dilemma. He sits in serenity, for He knows His own power and sees that His purposes will not miscarry. Here is reason enough for holy song. *(From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Thu Jan 17 10:52:55 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Thu, 17 Jan 2013 10:52:55 -0800 Subject: 2 Corinthians 10 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* January 17, 2013 *AUG 18 - 2 CORINTHIANS 10 - PAUL ON WARFARE* *1. 10:1 (10:1-2, NNT) WARFARE: NOT TO BE TURNED ON SAINTS. ?Now I Paul myself entreat you by the meekness and gentleness of the Christ, who in person am lowly among you, but absent show courage toward you.? *Father, we thank You for Paul, who in maturity in You, sets us an example how to deal with one another. We want to know You intimately as Paul did. We want You to take control and keep control of our lives. *Hallowed be your :name.* *2. 10:3-5 (10:3-6) WARFARE: ITS WEAPONS AGAINST WRONG THOUGHTS. ?For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh 4 (for the weapons of our :warfare are not of flesh, but mighty before :God unto casting down of strongholds); 5 casting down reasonings, and every high thing that is exalted against the knowledge of :God, and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of the Christ.? *Our battle is *in the mind*. We acknowledge and confess it. We thank You Father, for providing us with the weapons that bring our thoughts into captivity to Christ: the Word, the Blood, the Name, the Spirit. *Your :kingdom come!* *3. 10:7 WARFARE CAPABILITY: NOT BASED ON OUTWARD APPEARANCE. ?Do you look at the things pertaining to appearance? If any trusts in himself that he is Christ?s, let him consider this again with himself, that, even as he is Christ?s, so also we.? *Father, we acknowledge that our faith is communal. You are *our* Father, not just *my* Father! We have many brothers and sisters in Your family. We are a gift from You to one another. *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.* *4. 10:8 (10:8-10) WARFARE AUTHORITY: INTENDED FOR LETTERS OF EDIFICATION. ?For though I should glory somewhat more abundantly concerning our :authority (which the Lord gave for building up, and not for casting you down), I shall not be shamed.? *Father, we thank You for Your gentleness in Christ which You are working into each of us. You are bringing *many* sons and daughters into *glory*! *Our :daily :bread Give us this day.* *5. 10:12 (10:11-12) WARFARE AUTHORITY: CAN ALSO BE MANIFESTED BY PRESENCE. ?For we are not bold to judge among, or to judge ourselves with certain of them that commend themselves: but themselves measuring themselves by themselves, and judging themselves with themselves, are without understanding.? *There is a time Father, when You lead our leaders to confront us sternly in love. But how glad we are that it is tempered in mercy! *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 10:13 (10:13-16) WARFARE BOASTING: BASED ON ACTUAL ACCOMPLISHMENTS. ?But WE will not glory beyond :measure, but according to the measure of the measuring-rod which God apportioned to us as a measure, to reach even unto you.? *Teach us honesty Father, first of all before You, in *every* aspect of our lives. Then before our fellow man may we wear no masks, but be transparent. *And bring us not into temptation.* *7. 10:17-18 WARFARE GLORYING: FOCUSED ON THE LORD. ?But who glories in theLord let him glory. 18 For not that man is approved who commends himself but he whom the Lord commends. *We hear You, O Great Jehovah Father! We hear You through Your servant Paul. Again, we see Your insistence upon absolute honesty, sincerity, truthfulness and integrity in the inward parts. We accept Your challenge. *But deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE**: 10:6 (10:3-6, ES**V) WARFARE: ITS TIMING. ?And being in readiness to avenge all disobedience, when your :obedience shall be made full.? ** Mercy* is Your way of dealing with us, Father. We bless You for this. *C.H. Spurgeon Quotes: ?Dying Life or Living Death.? *St. Augustine used to say he did not know whether to call it a dying life or a living death, and I leave you the choice between those two expressions. This is certainly a dying life; its march is marked by graves. Nothing but a continuous miracle keeps any one of us from the sepulcher. Were omnipotence to stay its power but for a moment, earth would return to earth, and ashes to ashes. It is a dying life: and equally true is it that it is a living death. We are always dying. Every beating pulse we tell leaves but the number less: the more years we count in our life, the fewer remain in which we shall behold the light of day. *Our Psalm for the day: 48:1-2 (48) ZION, THE CITY OF OUR GOD. ?Great is the LORD and greatly to be praised in the city of our God! His holy mountain, 2 beautiful in elevation, is the joy of all the earth, Mount Zion, in the far north, the city of the great King.? *Father, You are the God of Zion, the house of Your people. We are Your people Father - Your house, Your workmanship. *Hallowed be your :name!* *Title*: ?A Song and Psalm for the Sons of Korah.? A song for joyfulness and a Psalm for reverence. Alas! every song is not a Psalm, for poets are not all heaven-born; and every Psalm is not a song, for in coming before God we have to utter mournful confessions as well as exulting praises. *Subject: *It would be idle dogmatically to attribute this song to any one event of Jewish history. Its author and date are unknown. It records the withdrawal of certain confederate kings from Jerusalem, their courage failing them before striking a blow. 48:1. *Great is the Lord. *How great Jehovah is essentially none can conceive; but we can all see that He is great in the deliverance of His people, great in their esteem who are delivered, and great in their hearts of those enemies whom He scatters by their own fears. Instead of the mad cry of Ephesus, ?Great is Diana,? we bear the reasonable, demonstrable, self-evident testimony, ?Great is Jehovah!? 48:2. *The joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion. *Jerusalem was the world?s star; whatever light lingered on earth was borrowed from the oracles preserved by Israel. 48:5. *They saw it, and so they marveled. *They came, they saw, but they did not conquer. There was no *veni, vidi, vici* for them. No sooner did they perceive that the Lord was in the Holy City than they took to their heels. Before the Lord came to blows with them, they were faint-hearted and beat a retreat. 48:7. *You break the ships of Tarshish with an east wind.* Speculative heresies, pretending to bring us wealth from afar, are constantly assailing the church, but the breath of the Lord soon drives them to destruction. The church too often relies on the wisdom of men, and these human ships are soon ship-wrecked; yet the church itself is safe beneath the care of her God and King. 48:9. *We have thought. *Holy men are thoughtful men; they do not suffer God?s wonders to pass before their eyes and melt into forgetfulness, but they meditate deeply upon them. *Of Your lovingkindness, O God. *What a delightful subject! Devout minds never tire of so divine a theme. *In the midst of Your temple. *Memories of mercy should be associated with continuance of praise. Hard by the table of show-bread commemorating His bounty, should stand the altar of incense denoting our praise. 48:10. *According to Your Name, O God, so is Your praise unto the ends of the earth. *Great fame is due to His great Name. The glory of Jehovah?s exploits overleaps the boundaries of earth; angels behold with wonder, and from every star delighted intelligences proclaim His fame beyond the ends of the earth. What if men are silent, yet the woods, and seas, and mountains, with all their countless tribes, and all the unseen spirits that walk them, are full of the divine praise. As in a shell we listen to the murmurs of the sea, so in the convolutions of creation we hear the praises of God. *Your right hand is full of righteousness. *Your scepter and Your sword, Your government and Your vengeance, are altogether just. Your hand is never empty, but full of energy, of bounty, and of equity. Neither saint nor sinner shall find the Lord to be an empty-handed God; He will in both cases deal out righteousness to the full: to the one, through Jesus, He will be just to forgive, to the other just to condemn. 48:14. *Mark you well her bulwarks. *The security of the people of God is not a doctrine to be kept in the background. It may be safely taught, and frequently pondered. Only to base hearts will that glorious truth prove harmful. The sons of perdition make a stumbling-stone even of the Lord Jesus Himself; it is little wonder that they pervert the truth of God concerning the final perseverance of the saints. *(From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Fri Jan 18 16:40:54 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Fri, 18 Jan 2013 16:40:54 -0800 Subject: 2 Corinthians 11:1-15 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* January 18, 2013 *AUG 19 - 2 CORINTHIANS 11:1-15 - PAUL?S AIM* *1. 11:2 (11:1-2, NNT) AIM: TO PRESENT SAINTS IN HOLINESS. ?For I am zealous over you with a zeal of God; for I espoused you to one husband, that I might present you a pure virgin to Christ.? *We thank You Father, that Your Name is *Jealous*. You are Jealous for Your Son, that we keep ourselves pure for *Him*! You are Jealous for Your Spirit. You are Jealous for *Your Word*. *Hallowed be your :name!* *2. 11:3 AIM: TO PREVENT CORRUPTION OF MINDS BY SATAN. ?But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent beguiled Eve in his :craftiness, your :thoughts should be corrupted from the simplicity and the purity that is toward the Christ.? *We would love Your Son Jesus Father, from our heart. We would understand what You are pleased to reveal concerning Him in our mind and heart. For Him, we offer ourselves as daily, living sacrifices. *You :kingdom come!* *3. 11:5-6 (11:4-6) AIM: TO CONTRAST HIMSELF WITH FALSE APOSTLES. ?For I reckon that I am behind the chief apostles in nothing. 6 But though rude in :speech, yet am I not in :knowledge; no, in every way have we made thismanifest unto you in all things. *How we bless You Father, for Your gift to us of true apostles. We magnify You for Your work of grace through Paul. *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.* *4. 11:7 (11:7-9) AIM: TO PREACH THE GOSPEL FREELY. ?Or did I commit a sin in abasing myself that you be exalted, because I preached to you the gospel of :God for nothing? *How humbling for the Corinthians that they could not supply the monetary needs of Your apostle, Father. How different Paul?s example from many 20th Century counter-parts. O forgive us for setting such a high monetary price to the Gospel, which Christ provided to us freely! *Our :daily :bread Give us this day.* *5. 11:10-11 AIM: TO EXPLAIN REASON FOR HIS BOASTING. *?*Christ?s truth is in me, that this :glorying in the regions of :Achaia shall not be closed against me. 11 Why? because I do not love you? :God knows.? *What temptation there is in making known the Gospel of Christ! How Satan seeks to pervert the way we present it. Father, we commit ourselves to become living letters of the Gospel in Jesus! *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors!* *6. 11:12 AIM: TO CUT OFF BOASTING OF FALSE APOSTLES. ?But what I do, I also will do, that I may cut off the occasion of them that desire occasion that wherein they glory, they be found even as we.? *Thank You Father, for Paul?s sacrificial giving of the Gospel. How his humble living example undercut the carnal lives and methods of false apostles. *And bring us not into temptation.* *7. 11:13-14 (11:13-15) AIM: TO EXPOSE FALSE APOSTLES AS ONE WITH SATAN. ?For :such are false apostles, deceitful workers, fashioning themselves into apostles of Christ. 14 And no marvel; for the very Satan fashions himself into an angel of light.? *Help us Father, to discern clearly in the realm of false ministers. Help us to see their kinship with Satan. *But deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE**: 11:15 (11:13-15) AIM: FURTHER EXPOSURE. **?No great thingtherefore if his :ministers also fashion themselves as ministers of righteousness; whose :end shall be according to their :works.? *Father, we would not be na?ve. We would be wise as serpents, yet harmless as doves. We would not be ignorant of Satan?s devices. *C.H. Spurgeon Quotes: ?No Time to Die?. *We have heard of one who, when the morning paper brought him news that a friend in business had died, was drawing on his boots to go to his counting-house, and observed with a laugh that as far as he was concerned, he was so busy he had no time to die. Yet, ere the words were finished, he fell forward and was a corpse. *Our Psalm for the Day: 49:3-4 (49) WHY SHOULD I FEAR IN TIMES OF TROUBLE? ?My mouth shall speak wisdom; the meditation of my heart shall be understanding. 4 I will incline my ear to a proverb; I will solve my riddle to the music of the lyre.? *Father, we thank You for parables, especially those from Your Son Jesus! Teach us by Your Spirit how to emulate Your Son this way. When we think of Your wisdom through Jesus in parables, we *hallow your :name!* *BREAK-THROUGH**. In 2005 Marie and I attended our 4**th Conference in Israel on Mt. Carmel with David and Karen Davis. It was an outstanding conference because of its fresh insights on Israel. One of the speakers was Asher Intrater, a Messianic Israeli. Mike Bickle of Kansas City IHOP invited Asher to bring a 4 part series on the significance of Jesus and the Book of Revelation. I listened to Lecture I today, 2013-01-18, and it is in my sight and estimation so important, that I am breaking into my series on the Psalms with Spurgeon - to bring to you this Break-through, and how you can with me see these 4 lectures.* *Asher initiated these lectures by apologizing that as a Messianic Jew he has majored too much in the past on Messianic Jews and their land, instead of majoring on Jesus as the coming King of Israel as His choice of nation for His soon-coming world-rule - and as Head of His Church International. Israel is His army on land to defeat Satan, and the Church is His air-force to unite with Israel for this victory.* *I agree. We should all major on Jesus, with all other interests coming under His Headship!* *As you no doubt have noted, Charles Spurgeon always majored on Jesus in all things. He is Sovereign through His Word. This is the major reason I believe God was able to bless him in such an extraordinary way in the late 1800?s. So Spurgeon is confirmation to Asher Intrater.* *To watch on ?You Tube? - ?Victory in Tribulation? and how to become an ?Overcomer? for these last times - visit Asher Intrater at ?Revive Israel.? Revive Israel North America can be reached by Tel: (301) 695-5544. His Website is . * *This 4-fold lecture series is recorded at IHOP Kansas City. * *This is one of the clearest messages I have heard on the Place of Israel and the Church in the immediate time before the Return of our Lord.* *An added confirmation to this is the publication both in ?Book? and ?E-book? format - the ?Outlined Interlinear New Testament?, based on the Bible Numeric discovery in 1890 by Ivan Panin. In the Introduction, the vision of God?s ?Organic Laser-Telescope? appears, with an explanation of the importance of its 7-fold component parts. This could well be a helpful working-part to Asher Intrater?s lectures. See for further information and place of ordering. * *Should you wish to order Asher Intrater?s lectures on ?Victory in Tribulation?, they will be available through International House of Prayer, Kansas City, . Jim Watt* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Sat Jan 19 11:41:53 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Sat, 19 Jan 2013 11:41:53 -0800 Subject: 2 Corinthians 11:16-13:14 Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* January 19, 2013 *AUG 20 - 2 CORINTHIANS 11:16-13:14 - PAUL?S WEAKNESS: FURTHERS THE GOSPEL* *1. 11:30-31 (11:16-33, NNT) PAUL: GLORIED IN HIS INFIRMITIES. ?If I must glory, I will glory of the things of my :weakness. 31 The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, who is blessed unto the ages, knows that I lie not.? *Father, You are King of Your Kingdom, the King?s Domain! Like Paul we will glory in our weaknesses, and magnify Your grace! *Hallowed be your :name!* *2. 12:1 (12:1-9a) PAUL: GLORIES IN VISIONS AND REVELATIONS. ?I must glory, though it is not expedient; but I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord.? *If it is Your will, like Paul we will receive visions and revelations. If thorns in the flesh are necessary to keep us humble, we will receive them with thanksgiving. *Your :kingdom come!* *3. 12:9b (12:9b-10) PAUL: TAKES PLEASURE IN WEAKNESS. ?Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in :weaknesses, that the power of the Christ may spread a tabernacle over me.? *Your power Father, rests upon us in Christ as we rejoice like Paul and Silas in prison following beatings. *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.* *4. 12:12 (12:11-21) PAUL: VINDICATES HIS APOSTLESHIP. ?Indeed the signs of the apostle were wrought among you in all patience, both by signs and wonders and powers.? *Father, we see the forgiveness of Paul toward the unfaithful Corinthians. We see his faithfulness in supernaturally working among them as an apostle. *Our :daily :bread Give us this day.* *5. 13:1 (13:1-10) PAUL?S LETTER : TO SPARE THEM HIS PRESENCE. ?This is thethird time I am coming unto you. At the mouth of two witnesses or three shall every word be established.? *We arm ourselves with Yourself Father, as our armor. We will not be reprobates, but prove our life in You. We will save ourselves from judgment by heeding Your words. *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 13:11 (13:11-13) PAUL: HIS FAREWELL SALUTATION. ?For the rest, brethren, farewell. Be perfected; be comforted; be of the same mind; be at peace: and the God of :love and peace shall be with you.? *Father, You are our hedge round about. Keeping Your words is our protection. We rejoice in Your words of life. *And bring us not into temptation.* *7. 13:14 PAUL: HIS TRIUNE APOSTOLIC BENEDICTION. ?The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of :God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.? *What a triune Benediction! What a triune God! We are made in Your image: body, soul and spirit. Our body is for *You*, blessed Holy Spirit! Jesus, You have saved our souls! Father, our spirit is for You. *But deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE**: 12:8-9a (12:1-9a) PAUL: GOD?S WISDOM IN PAUL?S THORN. **?Concerning this thorn I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. 9a And he said to me, My :grace is sufficient for you: for the power is made perfect in weakness.? *Father, what a passage! What a truth! Open our eyes that we may increasingly see our lives from Your perspective. And for *Your pleasure*, we are created! *C.H. Spurgeon Quotes: ?Desires?. *Why, the Christian, above all men, should have what the world calls his, ?holidays and bonfire nights? - his days of rejoicing, times of holy laugher, seasons of overflowing delight. No, I think he should strive to have them always, for we are told, ?Delight yourself in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart!? *Our Psalm for the day: 50:23 (50, ESV) GOD HIMSELF IS JUDGE. ?The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me; to one who orders his way rightly I will show the salvation of God.? *Father, our life is Yours: it is our sacrifice of thanksgiving for You and Calvary. We embrace our White Funeral! Now we can *hallow your :name!* *Title: *?A Psalm of Asaph.? This is the first of the Psalms of Asaph, but whether it was the production of that eminent musician, or merely dedicated to him, we cannot tell. The titles of twelve Psalms bear his name, but it could not in all of them be meant to ascribe their authorship to him, for several of these Psalms are of too late a date to have been composed by the same writer as the others. 50:5. *Gather My saints together unto Me.* Go, you swift-winged messengers, and separate the precious from the vile. Gather out the wheat of the heavenly garner. Let the long-scattered, but elect people, known by My separating grace to be My sanctified ones, be now assembled in one place. All are not saints who seem to be so - a severance must be made; therefore let all who profess to be saints be gathered before My throne of judgment, and let them hear the Word which will search and try the whole, that the false may be convicted and the true revealed. *Those that have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice: *this is the grand test, and yet some have dared to imitate it. The covenant was ratified by the slaying of victims, the cutting and dividing of offerings; this the righteous have done by accepting with true faith the great propitiatory sacrifice, and this the pretenders have done in merely outward form. Let them be gathered before the throne for trial and testing, and as many as have really ratified the covenant by faith in the Lord Jesus shall be attested before all worlds as the objects of distinguishing grace, while formalists shall learn that outward sacrifices are all in vain. Oh, solemn assize, how does my soul bow in awe at the prospect thereof! The address which follows, beginning with 50:7, is directed to the professed people of God. It is clearly, in the first place, meant for Israel; but is equally applicable to the visible church of God in every age. It declares the futility of external worship when spiritual faith is absent - the mere outward ceremonial is rested in. 50:9. *I will take no bullock out of Your house.* Foolishly they dreamed that bullocks with horns and hoofs could please the Lord, when indeed He sought for hearts and souls. Impiously they fancied that Jehovah needed these supplies, and that if they fed His altar with their fat beasts, He would be content. What He intended for their instruction, they made their confidence. They remembered not that ?to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.? 50:15. *And call upon Me in the day of trouble. *O blessed verse! Is this then true sacrifice? Is it an offering to ask an alms of heaven? It is even so. The King Himself so regards it. For herein is faith manifested, herein is love proved, for in the hour of peril we fly to those we love. Who shall say that Old Testament saints did not know the gospel? Its very spirit andessence breathes like frankincense all around this holy Psalm. *And you shall glorify Me. *Thus we see what is true ritual. Here we read inspired rubrics. Spiritual worship is the great, the essential matter; all else without it is rather provoking than pleasing to God. As helps to the soul, outward offerings were precious, but when men went not beyond them, even their hallowed things were profaned in the view of heaven. 50:16. *But unto the wicked God says, What have you to do to declare My statutes? *You violate openly My moral law, and yet are great sticklers for My ceremonial commands! What have you to do with them? What interest can you have in them? Do you dare to teach my law to others and profane it yourselves? What impudence, what blasphemy is this! You count up your holy days, you contend for rituals, you fight for externals, and yet the weightier matters of the law you despise! You blind guides, you strain out gnats and swallow camels; your hypocrisy is written on your foreheads and manifest to all. *Or that you should take My covenant in your mouth.* You talk of being in covenant with Me and yet trample My holiness beneath your feet as swine trample upon pearls; do you think I can brook this? Your mouths are full of lying and slander, and yet you mouth My words as if they were fit morsels for such as you! How horrible an evil it is that to this day we see men explaining doctrines who despise precepts! They make grace a coverlet for sin and even judge themselves to be sound in the faith, while they are rotten in life. We need the grace of the doctrines as much as the doctrines of grace, and without it an apostle is but a Judas, and a fair-spoken professor is an arrant enemy of the cross of Christ. 50:21. *You thought that I was altogether such a one as yourself. *The inference drawn from the Lord?s patience was infamous; the respited culprit thought his Judge to be one of the same order as himself. He offered sacrifices, and deemed it accepted; he continued in sin, and remained unpunished, and therefore he rudely said, ?Why need believe these crazy prophets? God cares not how we live so long as we pay our tithes. Little does He consider how we get the plunder, so long as we bring a bullock to His altar.? What will not men imagine of the Lord? At one time they liken the glory of Israel to a calf, and anon unto their brutish selves. (*From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Mon Jan 21 13:18:11 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Mon, 21 Jan 2013 13:18:11 -0800 Subject: Ezekiel 1-3 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* January 21, 2013 *AUG 21 - EZEKIEL 1-3 - PREPARATION AND CALL OF EZEKIEL* *1. 1:1 (1:1-3, ESV) EZEKIEL: FIRST TIME FOR THE WORD OF THE LORD. ?In the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I was among the exiles by the Chebar canal, the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.? *How can we be instrumental in manifesting Your Kingdom Father, except we daily walk in Romans 12:1-2, Mark 8:34 and Galatians 2:20? We choose *this* daily walk for us each day! *Hallowed be your :name!* *2. 1:10 (1:4-25) EZEKIEL: THE FACES OF THE CHERUBIM. ?As for the likeness of their faces, each had a human face. The four had the face of a lion on the right side, the four had the face of an ox on the left side, and the four had the face of an eagle.? *Father, we see Christ in the cherubim, with the four faces representing the four Gospels. We would manifest You through us on earth in the fullness of the Four Gospels, as You are in heaven. *Your :kingdom come!* *3. 1:28 (1:26-28) EZEKIEL: JEHOVAH AND HIS THRONE. ?Like the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud on the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness all around. Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. And when I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard the voice of one speaking.? *In Ezekiel?s day, *he* was your Sovereign choice of grace to reveal your Word to Israel at this time! Lord, *Your will * is for us supreme! *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth!* *4. 3:1 (2:1-3:3) EZEKIEL: HIS COMMISSION. And he said to me, ?Son of man, eat whatever you find here. Eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.? *To be Your ambassador, spokesman and prophet Father - like Ezekiel we need to love and *forgive our persecutors*. We need to rejoice in these opportunities of glorifying You. *Our :daily :bread Give us this day.* *5. 3:11 (3:4-11) EZEKIEL: DIFFICULT CHALLENGE TO ?HARD? ISRAEL. ?And go to the exiles, to your people, and speak to them and say to them, ?Thus says the Lord GOD,? whether they hear or refuse to hear.? *Father, Your commissions are not always easy. They tax us beyond both our abilities and our capabilities. Yet *You* are sufficient! * And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 3:15 (3:12-21) EZEKIEL: GOD?S WATCHMAN. ?And I came to the exiles at Tel-abib, who were dwelling by the Chebar canal, and I sat where they were dwelling. And I sat there overwhelmed among them seven days.? *We choose to identify ourselves with You and Your people Father. We choose to see You as a hedge of protection round about us as we do Your will. We choose to trust You, though we do not always understand You! *And bring us not into temptation.* *7. 3:27 (3:22-27) EZEKIEL: SIGN OF DUMBNESS. ?But when I speak with you, I will open your mouth, and you shall say to them, ?Thus says the Lord GOD.? He who will hear, let him hear; and he who will refuse to hear, let him refuse, for they are a rebellious house.? *Your ways Father, are past finding out. But we choose to believe Your wisdom behind all Your leadings and commands! *But deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE: 3:16-17 (3:12-21) EZEKIEL: COMMISSIONED AS A WATCHMAN! ?And at the end of seven days, the word of the LORD came to me: 17 ?Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me.? *A *watchman* is an intercessor. He is chosen and commissioned of God. All are not called to this high calling. It is the same as for apostles and prophets - all of the 5-fold ministries. Like some Gentiles in a Messianic Jewish congregation - you will find some ?wanna-Be's?. See ?Rees Howells, Intercessor? - to look at a true intercessor! *C.H. Spurgeon Quotes: ?Christ?s Servant? - *You cannot be Christ?s servant if you are not willing to follow him, cross and all. What do you crave? A crown? Then it must be a crown of thorns if you are to be like him. Do you want to be lifted up? So you shall, but it will be upon a cross. *Our Psalm for the day: 51:3-4 (51) CREATE IN ME A CLEAN HEART, O GOD. ?For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. 4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.? *Father, when we acknowledge Your Word that it is true, we *hallow your :name. *When we perceive and confess our sins, we *hallow your :name. *Evermore let us *hallow your :name!* *Title: *?To the chief Musician.? Therefore, not written for private meditation only, but for the public service of song. Suitable for the loneliness of individual penitence, this matchless Psalm is equally well adapted for an assembly of the poor in spirit. ?A Psalm of David.? It is a marvel, but nevertheless a fact, that writers have been found to deny David?s authorship of this Psalm but their objections are frivolous; the Psalm is David-like all over. It would be far easier to imitate Milton, Shakespeare, or Tennyson, that David. His style is altogether *sui generis*, and it is as easily distinguishable as the touch of Rafael or the coloring of Rubens. The great sin of David is not to be excused, but it is well to remember that his case has an exceptional collection of specialties in it. He was a man of very strong passions, a soldier, and an Oriental monarch having despotic power; no other king of his time would have felt any compunction for having acted as he did, and hence there were not around him those restraints of custom and association which, when broken through, render the offense the more monstrous. He never hints at any form of extenuation, nor do we mention these facts in order to apologize for his sin, which was detestable to the last degree; but for the warning of others, that they reflect that the licentiousness in themselves at this day might have even a graver guilt in it than in the erring King of Israel. When we remember his sin, let us dwell most upon his penitence, and upon the long series of chastisements which rendered the after part of his life such a mournful history. 51:1. Have* mercy upon me, O God.** *He appeals at once to the mercy of God, even before he mentions his sin. The sight of mercy is good for eyes that are sore with penitential weeping. Pardon of sin must ever be an act of pure mercy, and therefore to that attribute the awakened sinner flies. 51:2. *Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity. *The dye is in itself immovable, and I, the sinner, have lain long in it, till the crimson is ingrained; but, Lord, wash, and wash, and wash again, till the last stain is gone and not a trace of my defilement is left. The hypocrite is content if his garments be washed; but the true suppliant cries, ?Wash me.? The one sin against Bathsheba, served to show the Psalmist the whole mountain of his iniquity, of which that foul deed was but one falling stone. He desires to be rid of the whole mass of his filthiness, which though once so little observed, had then become a hideous and haunting terror to his mind. *And cleanse me from my sin. *This is a more general expression; as if the Psalmist said, ?Lord, if washing will not do, try some other process; if water avails not, let fire, let anything be tried, so that I may but be purified. Rid me of my sin by some means, by any means, by every means, only do purify me completely, and leave no guilt upon my soul.? It is not the punishment he cries out against, but the sin. Many a murderer is more alarmed at the gallows than at the murder which brought him to it. The thief loves the plunder, though he fears the prison. Not so David: he is sick of sin as sin; his loudest outcries are against the evil of his transgression and not against the painful consequences of it. When we deal seriously with our sin, God will deal gently with us. When we hate what the Lord hates, He will soon make an end of it, to our joy and peace. 51:3. *For I acknowledge my transgressions. * He seems to say, ?I make a full confession of them? Not that this is my plea in seeking forgiveness, but it is a clear evidence that I need mercy and am utterly unable to look for any other quarter for help. *And my sin is ever before me. *My sin as a whole is never out of my mind; it continually oppresses my spirit. I lay it before You because it is ever before me: Lord, put it away both from You and me. To an awakened conscience, pain on account of sin is not transient and occasional, but intense and permanent, and this is no sign of divine wrath but rather a sure preface of abounding favor. 51:5 *Behold, I was shaped in iniquity. *He is thunderstruck at the discovery of his inbred sin and proceeds to set it forth. This was not intended to justify himself, but it rather meant to complete the confession. It is as if he said, ?Not only have I sinned this once, but I am in my very nature a sinner. The fountain of my life is polluted as well as its streams. My birth-tendencies are out of the square of equity; I naturally lean to forbidden things. Mine is a constitutional disease, rendering my very person obnoxious to Your wrath.? *And in sin did my mother conceive me. *He goes back to the earliest moment of his being, not to traduce his mother, but acknowledge the deep taproots of his sin. It is a wicked wresting of Scripture to deny that original sin and natural depravity are here taught. Surely men who cavil at this doctrine have need to be taught of the Holy Spirit what be the first principle of the faith. 51:7. *Purge me with hyssop. *Give me the reality which legal ceremonies symbolize. This passage may be read as the voice of faith as well as a prayer, and so it runs - ?You will purge me with hyssop, *and I shall be clean*.? Foul as I am, there is such power in the divine propitiation that my sin shall vanish away. *And I shall be whiter than snow. *None but Yourself can whiten me, but You can in grace outdo nature itself in its purest state. Snow soon gathers smoke and dust; it melts and disappears; You can give me an enduring purity. Though snow is white below as well as on the surface, You can work the like inward purity in me and make me so clean that only a hyperbole can set forth my immaculate condition. Lord, do this; my faith believes You will, and well she knows You can. Scarcely does Holy Scripture contain a verse more full of faith than this. Considering the nature of the sin and the deep sense of the Psalmist had of it, it is a glorious faith to be able to see in the blood sufficient, no, all-sufficient merit entirely to purge it away. 51:9. *Blot out all my iniquities. *If God hide not His face from our sin, He must hide it forever from us; and if He blot not out our sins, He must blot our names out of His book of life. 51:10. *Create*. What! has sin so destroyed us that the Creator must be called in again? What ruin then does evil work among mankind! *Create in me. * I, in my outward fabric, still exist; but I am empty, desert, void. Come, then, and let Your power be seen in a new creation within my old fallen self. You did make a man in the world at first; Lord, make a new man in me. *A clean heart. *In the seventh verse he asked to be clean; now he seeks a heart suitable to that cleanliness; but he does not say, ?Make my old heart clean?; he is too experienced in the hopelessness of the old nature. He would have the old man buried as a dead thing, and a new creation brought in to fill its place. None but God can create either a new heart or a new earth. 51:11. *Cast me not away from Your presence. *Throw me not away as worthless; banish me not, like Cain, from Your face and favor. Permit me to sit among those who share Your love, though I only be suffered to keep the door. I deserve to be forever denied admission to Your courts; but, O good Lord, permit me still the privilege which is dear as life itself to me. 51:12. *Restore unto me the joy of Your salvation. *None but God can give back this joy; He can do it; we may ask it; He will do it for His own glory and our benefit. This joy comes not first, but follows pardon and purity: in such order is it safe, in any other it is vain presumption or idiotic delirium. 51:13. *Then will I teach transgressors Your ways. *Reclaimed poachers make the best gamekeepers. Huntingdon?s degree of S.S., or Sinner Saved, is more needful for soul-winning evangelists than either M.A. or D.D. The pardoned sinner?s matter will be good, for he has been taught in the school of experience, and his manner will be telling, for he will speak sympathetically, as one who has felt what he declares. The audience the Palmist would choose is memorable - he would instruct transgressors like himself; others might despise them, but ?a fellow-feeling makes us wondrous kind.? If unworthy to edify saints, he would creep in along with the sinners and humbly tell them of divine love. *(From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller.)* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Tue Jan 22 20:44:16 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Tue, 22 Jan 2013 20:44:16 -0800 Subject: How to Apply the Blood - Derek Prince Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* January 22, 2013 *2013-01-27 - ?How to Apply the Blood? - Derek Prince* *A Personal Testimony* *Theme: The Cross - Not a symbol - but what was accomplished for us by Christ on the Cross! * *The Price: The Precious Blood of Christ* ?*The 7-fold Sprinkling of the Precious Blood?* *Background and context: The 7-fold shedding of the Blood in the Gospels* *1. Gethsemane: His sweat - like great drops of blood.* *2. House of High Priest: Blood from being beaten on His face by rods.* *3. Hairs of Beard pulled out - blood.* *4. Scourged by Pilate - whipped with thongs - tore flesh open.* *5. Mocked as King with Crown of Thorns: long, hard and sharp -* * beaten on the head on the thorns - blood - on face - coagulated on His beard.* * Isaiah 53 - visage so marred - not recognized as a man.* *6. Nailed to the Cross - hands and feet - blood.* *7. Spear in side - near heart: blood and water.* * The 7-fold Sprinkling - came from this 7-fold shedding.* *Isaiah 53:12 - He poured out His soul unto death - Soul is in the blood.* * A sin offering for the whole human race - a final sin-offering.* *By one man sin entered the human race - by one man, the Second Adam, sin was atoned for!* *All the 7-fold shedding is true - But - how apply the 7-fold Sprinkling?* *How does one have this full effect in one?s life?* *A Key: Revelation 12:11 - Here is the end-time conflict lying ahead.* * Many angelic powers and demons are with Satan - while we are on earth.* *What is our statement?* *They (us) overcame him (Satan) - in direct conflict - between us and Satan -* * by the Blood of the Lamb - and - the Word of our Testimony.* *- and this is based on our not loving our lives unto the death - based on total commitment!* * This type of life frightens Satan.* *In our national army, a volunteer has no promise of returning alive. Same for God?s Kingdom!* *So - Priority #1 - Doing the will of God - whether alive or dead* *Now - See a prophetic picture. Exodus 12:21-23 - the Passover Lamb - a true picture of Christ our Passover! In Israel, the father was responsible for choosing the size of the lamb to fit his family or families. Today - the father is responsible to present Jesus our Passover Lamb to his children. There are no delinquent children - just delinquent fathers and parents, who fail to do in the NT what Jewish fathers did in the OT. Israel would not have been redeemed had fathers failed to lead their families in this heavenly task. And - God had no plan B - just this Plan ?A?. The fathers took a bowl to catch the lamb?s blood, and with hyssop - an Israeli weed, sprinkled the door-posts and lintel of the door with blood - but none on the threshold. And - once the blood was sprinkled, all had to stay in the house, so they would be safe when the Passover angel passed over all homes in Egypt. See 1 Peter 1:12 - addressed to the elect, the chosenaccording to the foreknowledge of God according to obedience and sprinkling of blood of Jesus Christ. This blood is not for the disobedient!* *Christ our Passover was sacrificed nearly 20 centuries ago. According to Revelation 12:11 our testimony transfers the Blood of the Lamb for the salvation of our souls - and defeats Satan.* *Our Testimony = Our Protection. See Hebrews 3:1 - Jesus - is the High Priest of our Confession. If we do not confess (say the same thing as God in His Word) with our mouth, our High Priest has nothing to act upon. Therefore we must master, meditate upon and confess God?s Word. Our testimony is absolutely indispensable. By our words (God?s Word spoken and confessed) are we justified. Our Destiny is settled by our true words spoken. Just as a small rudder directs a large ship - so our tongue with spoken words, good or bad, determines our destiny. Don?t say, ?I?m dying to see you!? or ?I?m tickled to death to see you!? Don?t under-valuate yourself - You are precious, and God?s Workmanship. To under-valuate yourself - is to under-valuate God who made you! So to transfer the blood of the Lamb to ?the place you live? - you must know the Word of God - especially about the Blood of Jesus.* *Now - here is ?The 7-fold Application of the 7-fold Sprinkling of the Blood!* *1. REDEMPTION. Ephesians 1:7. Redemption through His Blood - Bought us backfrom the hands of the devil! 1 Peter 1:18-19 - we are redeemed by a Lamb - without spot or blemish - see the Passover Lamb - here our original sin is dealt with.* *Psalm 107 - ?Let the redeemed of the Lord Say So! No ?say so? - ?no redemption!? Blood must be taken from the basin, which is done by our confession.* * So say - ?Through the Blood of the Lamb* *I have been redeemed - out of the hand of the devil!? Don?t be embarrassed or religious - Say it!* *2. CLEANSING. 1 John 1:7 - His Blood cleanses us from all sin - upon confession of sin. We then walk in the light - and have fellowship continually. If we are out of fellowship, we are out of the Light, and the Blood doesn?t cleanse in the dark!* *Psalm 51:7 - a Penitential Psalm for adultery and murder. David says, ?Purge me with hyssop - back to Exodus 12, the Passover and hyssop.* *Say, ?While I walk in the light the Blood of Jesus cleanses me now - and continually -* * from all sin!?* *3. JUSTIFICATION. - to make righteous - + many other shades of meaning:* * not guilty, acquitted, rendered righteous, Just as if I never sinned -* *Because Jesus never sinned, and I am now one with Him! The devil now has no way to accuse me - for I am covered, wrapped around with righteousness.* *Romans 5:9 - Say ?Through the Blood of Jesus* * I am justified, acquitted, not guilty, reckoned righteous, made righteous -* * just as if I had never sinned.?* *Agree with Satan in his accusations of your past, but tell him - Now I am righteous in the righteousness of Jesus - so what do you want to do about that?* *4. SANCTIFICATION. Hebrews 13:12 - equivalent to holiness - done with His Precious Blood.* *Negative - set apart from sin.* *Positive - Made holy with God?s own holiness!* *Hebrews 12:10 - God?s chastisement - better than that of human fathers - because leads to holiness - we then partake of His holiness! - through the Blood of Jesus.* *Apply: ?I am sanctified - made holy - separated from sin - set apart to God - made holy with God?s holiness.?* *- All done by transferring the Blood from the basin by dipping the hyssop and sprinkling!* *5. LIFE. Leviticus 17:11 - for the life of the flesh is in the blood, which makes atonement for the soul. The Life of God is in the blood of Jesus. This potential is infinite.* * There is more power in one drop of the blood of Jesus than all that Satan is!* *- John 6:53-57. Amen, Amen = Most Assuredly! To eat of Jesus? flesh and drink His blood = Eternal Life! This is true food, and true drink! In Arabic Christian Communion services, they say, ?Let us drink the Blood of Jesus!? It is not just a Memorial - it is that - but by faith - we are actually partaking.* *- 1 Corinthians 10:16 - as often - Christians called the Brethren, do this weekly. Baptists, usually monthly. - Some quarterly or annually. A few - daily. But as often as you do so - do it Till He comes!* *Say - ?I break the bread, Lord Jesus - We remember the bread as Your flesh! * *We see this cup as Your Blood. As we do this, We proclaim Your death - till You come!?* * No past - but the Cross - No future - but His coming! * *Another said, I live as if ?Jesus died yesterday, rose today, and is coming tomorrow!* *When we receive Jesus? blood - it is the life of God - divine, eternal, endless life.* *Thank You, Lord.* *6. INTERCESSION. Hebrews 12:22-24. We have come to Mount Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem, to angels in festal array, to the Church of the first-born (the born again), to spirits of just men made perfect (OT saints), to Jesus, Mediator or the New Covenant - to the Blood of Sprinkling (7-fold) better than Abel.* *Say and confess: ?Thank You Lord, that even when I cannot pray - the Blood of Jesus is pleading for me in heaven.?* *7. ACCESS. Hebrews 10:19. Therefore brethren - have boldness and confidence with freedom of speech - our testimony - to enter fullness by the Blood of Jesus - through the veil (His flesh) into the Holiest of all!* *So - hold fast your confession of hope. Is there Turbulence? Fasten without wavering your seat-belts - both natural and spiritual, by remember Hebrews 3:1. Keep making your confession according to God?s positive Word. Because God?s Word is True! * *Leviticus 16 - once a year - the High Priest entered the Holiest - and sprinkled the blood 7 times before the Mercy Seat, and smeared the East side with blood.* *And we - approach the throne of Almighty God - because of the blood of Jesus.* *Apply: - ?Thank You Lord - that the Sprinkled Blood of Jesus provides access * * into the Presence of Almighty God, into the Holiest Place of the Universe.?* *Recapitulate - The 7-fold Sprinkling of Jesus? Blood - 7 times - in 7 different ways - according to Revelation 12:11 - witnesses this - defeats Satan - and in thanksgiving we make our total life available to God!* *REDEMPTION - CLEANSING - JUSTIFICATION - SANCTIFICATION - LIFE - INTERCESSION - ACCESS.* *NOTE**: I sensed that out of the 100?s and 1000?s of messages and teachings of Derek Prince over the years of his teaching commission - that * *he counted the above revelation as one of the key insights he has received from God. (Do a Google-search on Derek Prince, and many more of his teachings will come up, including many on ?You Tube.? A fairly recent 2 ? hour biography is there.)* *I heard Derek?s amazing testimony in 1963, which started for him in 1944. We met in 1964, and when he left the Seattle church he mentioned in his testimony, he asked if I would consider taking his place there, as he had to return to England because of his ailing parents. God led me to do so, and we maintained contact until his home-going in 2003. - Jim Watt* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Wed Jan 23 15:37:58 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Wed, 23 Jan 2013 15:37:58 -0800 Subject: Ezekiel 4-24 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* January 23, 2013 *AUG 22 - EZEKIEL 4-24 - JERUSALEM TO BE JUDGED* *1. 4:8 (4-7, ESV) SIGNS: PROPHECIES OF BABYLONIAN CAPTIVITY. ?And behold, I will place cords upon you, so that you cannot turn from one side to the other, till you have completed the days of your siege.? *As King of Your dominion, O Jehovah, You punish disobedience for our good. Thank You for Your faithfulness as a wise, firm and loving Father. Your chastisements are a mark of Your love and favor! *Hallowed be your :name.* *2. 11:19-20 (8-11) VISIONS: PROPHECY OF RESTORATION. ?And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, 20 that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God.? *We hear Your Word, O Father; we submit to Your will. *Your :kingdom come!* *3. 12:28 (12-17) SIGNS: PROPHECIES OF BABYLONIAN CAPTIVITY. ?Therefore say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: None of my words will be delayed any longer, but the word that I speak will be performed, declares the Lord GOD.? *There is a time in Your Kingdom O Father, for fulfillment of Your prophecies. As judgment for Israel then, so restoration for Your church now! * **Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.* *4. 18:31 (18:1-20:44) SERMONS. ?Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed, and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why will you die, O house of Israel?? *Father how patient and longsuffering You are to Your people! How You plead with us to meet the conditions that permit Your blessing! *Our :daily :bread Give us this day!* *5. 22:30 (20:45-22:31) SIGNS OF JUDGMENT. ?And I sought for a man among them who should build up the wall and stand in the breach before me for the land, that I should not destroy it, but I found none.? *O Father, find among us today for Your Church and Israel, what You could not find for Israel in days gone by! In judgment remember mercy, for it is time to complete Your restoration. *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 23:4 (23) PARABLE OF OHOLAH AND OHOLIBAH. ?Oholah was the name of the elder and Oholibah the name of her sister. They became mine, and they bore sons and daughters. As for their names, Oholah is Samaria, and Oholibah is Jerusalem.? *Your patience and longsuffering O Father, were tested beyond limits. Only judgment was left! *And bring us not into temptation.* *7. 24:24 (24) PROPHECIES AGAINST JERUSALEM. ?Thus shall Ezekiel be to you a sign; according to all that he has done you shall do. When this comes, then you will know that I am the Lord GOD.? *Father, You *are* the Lord Jehovah! You *are* Sovereign Lord! You *are* the everlasting Covenant God! *But deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE**: 14:20 (12-17) THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD?S WILL IN JUDGMENT! **?Even if Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, as I live, declares the Lord GOD, they would deliver neither son nor daughter. They would deliver but their own lives by their righteousness.? *O Father, how terrible are Your judgmentsin all the earth, and how righteous. Teach us to apply our hearts unto wisdom in the light of the times in which we live.? *C.H. Spurgeon Quotes: ?Spurgeon Eschatology?. *Some think that this descent of the Lord will be post-millennial - that is, after the thousand years of his reign. I cannot think so. I conceive that the advent will be pre-millennial; that he will come first; and then will come the millennium as the result of his personal reign upon earth. Notice, next, dear friends, that it is not good for you to know the times and the seasons. That is what the Savior means when he says, ?It is not for you to know.? For, first, it would distract your attention from the great things of which you have to think. *Our Psalm for the day: 52:8-9 (52) THE STEADFAST LOVE OF GOD ENDURES. ?But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God. I trust in the steadfast love of God forever and ever. 9 I will thank you forever, because you have done it. I will wait for your name, for it is good, in the presence of the godly.? *Father, You are the One Who delivers us from our enemies, gives retribution, and makes us rest in You! *Hallowed be your :name!* *Title: *?To the Chief Musician.? Even short Psalms, if they record but one instance of the goodness of the Lord, and rebuke but briefly the pride of man, are worthy of our best minstrelsy. When we see that each Psalm is dedicated to ?the chief musician,? it should make us value our Psalmody and forbid us to praise the Lord carelessly. ?Maschil.? An instructive. Even the malice of a Doeg may furnish instruction to a David. ?A Psalm of David.? He was the prime object of Doeg?s doggish hatred, and therefore the most fitting person to draw from the incident the lesson concealed within it. 52:1. *Why do you boast yourself in mischief, O mighty man? ** *Doeg had small matter for boasting in having procured the slaughter of a band of defenseless priests. A mighty man indeed to kill men who never touched a sword! He ought to have been ashamed of his cowardice. He had no room for exultation! Honorable titles are but irony where the wearer is mean and cruel. 52:3. *Selah*. Let us pause and look at the proud, blustering liar. Doeg is gone, but other dogs bark at the Lord?s people. Saul?s cattle-master is buried, but the devil still has his drovers, who fain would hurry the saints like sheep to the slaughter.?? 52:4. *You love. *You have a taste, a gusto for evil language. *All devouring words. *There are words that, like boa-constrictors, swallow men whole, or like lions, rend men to pieces; these words evil minds are fond of. Their oratory is evermore furious and bloody. That which will most readily provoke the lowest passions that are sure to empty, and they think such pandering to the madness of the wicked to be eloquence of a high order. *O you deceitful tongue. *Men can manage to say a great many furious things and yet cover all over with the pretext of justice. They claim that they are jealous for the right, but the truth is they are determined to put down truth and holiness and craftily go about it under this transparent pretense. 52:7. *Lo.* Look you here, and read the epitaph of a mighty man, who lorded it proudly during his little hour and set his heel upon the necks of the Lord?s chosen. *This is the man that made not God his strength. *Behold the man, the great, vainglorious man! He found a fortress, but not in God; he gloried in his might, but not in the Almighty. Where is he now? How has it fared with him in the hour of his need? Behold his ruin, and be instructed. *But trusted in the abundance of his riches, and strengthened himself in his wickedness. *The substance he had gathered and the mischiefs he had wrought were his boast and glory. Wealth and wickedness are dreadful companions; when combined they make a monster. When the devil is master of money-bags, he is a devil indeed. Beelzebub and Mammon together heat the furnace seven times hotter for the child of God, but in the end they shall work out their own destruction. Wherever we see today a man great in sin and substance, we shall be well to anticipate his end and view this verse as the divine in memoriam. *(From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* * * *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Thu Jan 24 14:30:33 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Thu, 24 Jan 2013 14:30:33 -0800 Subject: Ezekiel 25-32 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* January 24, 2013 *AUG 23 - EZEKIEL 25-32 - JUDGMENT ON SEVEN ADJOINING NATIONS* *1. 25:14 (25, ESV) PROPHECIES: AGAINST AMMON, MOAB, EDOM AND PHILISTIA. ?And I will lay my vengeance upon Edom by the hand of my people Israel, and they shall do in Edom according to my anger and according to my wrath, and they shall know my vengeance, declares the Lord GOD.? *You are not mocked, O Father: whatever men sow, they reap! Rebellion to Your Lordship inexorably brings upon us judgment. *Hallowed be your :name!* *2. 26:14 (26-27) PROPHECIES: AGAINST TYRE. ?I will make you a bare rock. You shall be a place for the spreading of nets. You shall never be rebuilt, for I am the LORD; I have spoken, declares the Lord GOD.? *How You know the end from the beginning, O Jehovah! Therefore do we Your people submit to You, and gladly desire Your will to be manifested. *Your :kingdom come!* *3. 28:15 (28:1-19) PROPHECIES: AGAINST BOTH EARTHLY AND ANGELIC TYRE. ?You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created, till unrighteousness was found in you.? *O Father, Who symbolizes Lucifer by the prince of Tyre; keep back Your servants from presumptuous sin. Keep us humble and contrite of heart before You. May we not become proud like Lucifer and Solomon in the face of great riches and glory. *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.* *4. 29:14 (28:20-29:14) PROPHECIES: AGAINST ZIDON AND EGYPT. ?And I will restore the fortunes of Egypt and bring them back to the land of Pathos, the land of their origin, and there they shall be a lowly kingdom.? *We see and acknowledge O Father, Your covenant love and faithfulness in forgiving the sins of Egypt, and our sins. *Our :daily :bread Give us this day.* *5. 30:24 (30) PROPHECIES: EGYPT IN THE DAY OF THE LORD. ?And I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, and put my sword in his hand, but I will break the arms of Pharaoh, and he will groan before him like a man mortally wounded.? *But judgment must first come upon us before deliverance. Father, You are with us when our pride has been humbled. *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 31:11 (31) PROPHECIES: AGAINST PHARAOH. ?I will give it (Egypt) into the hand of a mighty one of the nations. He shall surely deal with it as its wickedness deserves. I have cast it out.? *How faithful You are O Father, in dealing with our sins and rebellion. You desire none to perish, but all to come to repentance. And you unmask the evil in our lives. *And bring us not into temptation.* *7. 32:18 (32) PROPHECIES: THOSE IN SHEOL WITH EGYPT. ?Son of man, wail over the multitude of Egypt, and send them down, her and the daughters of majestic nations, to the world below, to those who have gone down to the pit.? *Your fear O Father, strikes our hearts as we contemplate Your righteous judgment. In wrath remember mercy. *But deliver us from the evil one.* *NOTE**: **C.H. Spurgeon Quotes: ?Suffering For The Church?. *Every sufferer who bears pain. or slander, or loss, or personal unkindness for Christ?s sake, is filling up that amount of suffering which is necessary to the bringing together of the whole body of Christ, and the upbuilding of His elect Church. *Our Psalm for the Day: 53:1 (53) THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD. The fool says in his heart, ?There is no God.? They are corrupt, doing abominable iniquity; there is none who does good. *O Father, we accept this judgment upon ourselves, our flesh: in our flesh dwells no good thing; only You in us are good! *53:6 ?Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion! When God restores the fortunes of his people, let Jacob rejoice, let Israel be glad.? *Salvation is in You O God, only in You! Without You, our Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer, we would never make it! *Title: ?To the Chief Musician.? *If the leader of the choir is privileged to sing the jubilates of divine grace, he must not disdain to chant the miseries of human depravity. This is the second time he has had the same Psalm entrusted to him (see Psalm 14), and he must, therefore, be the more careful in singing it. ?Upon Mahalath.? The word ?Mahalath? appears to signify, in some forms of it, ?disease,? and truly the Psalm is ?The Song of Man?s Disease? - the mortal, hereditary taint of sin. It is not a copy of the Fourteenth Psalm emended and revised by a foreign hand; it is another edition by the same author emphasized in certain parts and rewritten for another purpose. *Subject: *The evil nature of man is herebrought before our view a second time in almost the same inspired words. All repetitions are not vain repetitions. We are slow to learn and need line upon line. David, after a long life, found men no better than they were in his youth. 53:1. *The fool has said in his heart, There is no God*. And this he does because he is a fool. Being a fool, he speaks according to his nature; being a great fool, he meddles with a great subject and comes to a wild conclusion. The atheist is, morally as well as mentally, a fool, a fool in the heart as well as in the head; a fool in morals as well as in philosophy. With the denial of God as a starting-point, we may well conclude that the fool?s progress is a rapid, riotous, raving, ruinous one. He who begins at impiety is ready for anything. ?No God,? being interpreted, means no law, no order, no restraint to lust, no limit to passion. *Corrupt are they. They are rotten. *It is idle to compliment them as sincere doubters and amiable thinkers - they are putrid. There is too much dainty dealing nowadays with atheism; it is not a harmless error, it is an offensive, putrid sin, and righteous men should look upon it in that light. All men being more or less atheistic in spirit are also in that degree corrupt; their heart is foul, their moral nature is decayed. *And have done abominable iniquity. *If all men are not outwardly vicious, it is to be accounted for by the power of other and better principles, but left to itself the ?No God? spirit so universal in mankind would produce nothing but the most loathsome actions. *There is none that does good. *The one typical fool is reproduced in the whole race; without a single exception men have forgotten the right way. This accusation twice made in the Psalm, and repeated a third time by the inspired Apostle Paul, is an indictment most solemn and sweeping, but He Who makes it cannot err, He knows what is in man; neither will He lay more to man?s charge than He can prove. 53:2. *God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God. *He did so in ages past, and He has continued His steadfast gaze from His all-surveying observatory. Had there been one understanding man, one true lover of his God, the divine eye would have discovered him. Those pure heathens and admirable savages that men talk so much of do not appear to have been visible to the eye of Omniscience, the fact being that they live nowhere but in the realm of fiction. The Lord did not look for great grace but only for sincerity and right desire, but these He found not. He saw all nations, and all men in all nations, and all hearts in all men, and all motions of all hearts, but He saw neither a clear head nor a clean heart among them all. Where God?s eyes see no favorable sign we may rest assured there is none. 53:3. *There is none that does good, no, not one. *The fallen race of man, left to its own energy, has not produced a single lover of God or doer of holiness, nor will it ever do so. Grace must interpose or not one specimen of humanity will be found to follow after the good and true. This is God's verdict after looking down upon the race. Who shall gainsay it? 53:5. *There were they in great fear, where no fear was. *David sees the end of the ungodly and the ultimate triumph of the spiritual seed. The rebellious march in fury against the gracious, but suddenly they are seized with a causeless panic. The once fearless boasters tremble like the leaves of the aspen, frightened at their own shadows. In this sentence and this verse, this Psalm differs much from the fourteenth. *(From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Fri Jan 25 15:46:29 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Fri, 25 Jan 2013 15:46:29 -0800 Subject: Ezekiel 33-34 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* January 25, 2013 *AUG 24 - EZEKIEL 33-34 - FALSE SHEPHERDS VERSUS GOOD SHEPHERDS* *1. 33:7 (33:1-20, ESV) SERMON ON THE WATCHMAN. ?So you, son of man, I have made a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me.? *We are like Ezekiel, O Father; we are like Habakkuk. Make us a corporate prophetic voice like Samuel! Make us a body of intercessors! *Hallowed be your :name!* *2. 33:22 (33:21-22) CAPTURE OF JERUSALEM. ?Now the hand of the LORD had been upon me the evening before the fugitive came; and he had opened my mouth by the time the man came to me in the morning, so my mouth was opened, and I was no longer mute.? *There is a time O Father, when you command us to hide ourselves like Elijah. Then the time comes and You say, Show yourself to My enemy, and speak the word I command you to say. Whatever Your command and timing, we will obey. *Your :kingdom come!* *3. 33:29 (33:23-29) PROPHECY TO THE REMNANT. ?Then they will know that I am the LORD, when I have made the land a desolation and a waste because of all their abominations that they have committed.? *Father, You are a holy, Jealous, righteous God! Punishment from Your hand eventually is meted out upon the rebellious and disobedient. Yet, in the midst of wrath, You remember mercy! *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.* *4. 33:32 (33:30-33) EZEKIEL: DERIDED BY BACKSLIDDEN ISRAEL. ?And behold, you are to them like one who sings lustful songs with a beautiful voice and plays well on an instrument, for they hear what you say, but they will not do it.? *O forgive us Father, for hearing Your voice, but taking it so lightly. Make us as those who hear and tremble at Your Word, with poor and contrite spirits (Isaiah 66:2; Matthew 5:3). * Our :daily :bread Give us this day.* *5. 34:2 (34:1-10) PROPHECY AGAINST SHEPHERDS. ?Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy, and say to them, even to the shepherds, Thus says the Lord GOD: Ah, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep?? *O forgive us Father, that as parents we feed not our children wholesomely on the bread of heaven; and for leaders of churches for slipping into professionalism and selfishness. *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 34:23-24 (34:11-22) FLOCK RESTORED: REMOVAL OF FALSE SHEPHERDS. ?And I will set up one shepherd over them, and He shall feed them, even My servant David. He shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd. 24 And I, the LORD, will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them. I am the LORD; I have spoken.? *Father, we honor You by believing and receiving Your Word. We will follow Your True Shepherd, even without the camp! We will share His reproach. *And bring us not into temptation!* *7. 34:25 (34:23-31) DAVID?S GREATER SON: GOD?S TRUE SHEPHERD. ?I will make with them a covenant of peace and banish wild beasts from the land, so that they may dwell securely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods.? *Father, we glorify You for Your tender watch-care toward Your people. You are married to the backslider. In wrath, You remember mercy! *But deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE**: 33:17 (3**3:1-20) GOD RECIPROCATES WITH CORRECTION! ?Yet your people say, ?The way of the Lord is not just,? when it is their own way that is not just.? *Father, may we never impute unto You our shortcomings! Forgive us this sin and ungrateful, immature act! We may not always understand You and Your ways, but we *will trust* You always in naked faith! *C.H. Spurgeon Quotes: ?Suffering for the Church? - *Every sufferer who bears pain, or slander, or loss, or personal unkindness for Christ's sake, is filling up that amount of suffering which is necessary to the bringing together of the whole body of Christ, and the upbuilding of His elect Church. *This Word of the Lord* came unto me in February, 1946 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan: ?He came as a burning, flaming fire - to dwell in the hearts of His people.? At the time, I was a relatively new believer, and thought the Spirit was reminding me of a verse in Scripture. I discovered this was not literally correct, although it was entirely consistent with the general tenor of Scripture. And how does Jesus fulfill this? Through the Holy Spirit! Read the biography of ?Derek Prince? by Stephen Mansfield, 2005, and you will find extraordinary confirmation through the interpretation of personal, devotional tongues. *Our Psalm for the Day: 54:6-7 (54) THE LORD UPHOLDS MY LIFE. ?With a freewill offering I will sacrifice to you; I will give thanks to your name, O LORD, for it is good. 7 For he has delivered me from every trouble, and my eye has looked in triumph on my enemies.? **Faithfulness* is Your Name, O Jehovah Father! And *Jealous* is Your Name also on behalf of Your Son, Your Spirit, Your Word, Your People! *Hallowed be your :name!* Monotony is often the death of congregational praise. Providence is varied and so should our recording songs be. From 54:1-3, where the *Selah* makes a pause for us, the Psalmist pleads with God, and then in the rest of the song, laying aside all doubt of anxiety and the birth of security. 54:1. *Save me, O God.* You are my Savior; all around me are my foes and their eager helpers. No shelter is permitted me. Every land rejects me and denies me rest, But You, O God, will give me refuge, and deliver me from all my enemies. 54:2. *He**ar** my prayer, O God. *This has ever been the defense of saints. As long as God has an open ear, we cannot be shut up in trouble. All other weapons may be useless, but all-prayer is evermore available. But what is prayer if God hear not? 54:3. *For strangers are risen up against me. *Let them leave off meddling and mind their own concerns. *And oppressors seek after my soul. *Kings generally coin their own likeness. *They have not set God before them. *They had no more regard for right and justice than if they knew no God or cared for none. David felt that atheism lay at the bottom of the enmity which pursued him. Good men are hated for God?s sake, and this is a good plea for them to urge in prayer. *Selah. *Enough of this. 54:4. *Behold, God is my helper. *He saw enemies everywhere, and now to his joy as he looks upon the band of his defenders, he sees One Whose aid is better than all the help of men; he is overwhelmed with joy at recognizing his divine Champion and cries, *Behold*. And is not this a theme for pious exultation in all time, that the great God protects us, His own people: what matters the number of violence of our foes when He uplifts the shield of His omnipotence to guard us and keep the sword of His power to aid us? Little care we for the defiance of the foe while we have the defense of God. *The Lord is with them that uphold my soul. *It is a great mercy to have some friends left us, but a greater mercy still to see the Lord among them, for like so many cyphers, our friends stand for nothing till the Lord sets Himself as a great Unit in the front of them. 54:6. *I will freely sacrifice unto you. *Spontaneously will I bring my free-will offerings. So certain is he of deliverance, that he offers a vow by anticipation. His overflowing gratitude would load the altars of God with victims cheerfully presented. The more we receive, the more we ought to render. The spontaneousness of our gifts is a great element in their acceptance; ?the Lord loves a cheerful giver.? *(From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Sat Jan 26 12:07:33 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Sat, 26 Jan 2013 12:07:33 -0800 Subject: Ezekiel 35-37 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* January 26, 2013 *AUG 25 - EZEKIEL 35-37 - VALLEY OF DRY BONES* *1. 35:15 (35, ESV) PROPHECY AGAINST EDOM. ?As you rejoiced over the inheritance of the house of Israel, because it was desolate, so I will deal with you; you shall be desolate, Mount Seir, and all Edom, all of it. Then they will know that I am the LORD.? *When Your judgments are upon earth, O Great Jehovah Father, then shall we learn righteousness. *Hallowed be your :name!* *2. 36:12 (36:1-15) PROPHECY TO THE MOUNTAINS OF ISRAEL. ?I will let my people walk on you, even my people Israel. And they shall possess you, and you shall be their inheritance, and you shall no longer bereave them of children.? *In Your time Father, a righteous remnant shall inherit their inheritance, both naturally and spiritually. *Your :kingdom come.* *3. 36:26-27 (36:16-38) PROPHECY TO ISRAEL: RESTORATION AND INCREASE. ?And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.? *What grace! What *great* grace! This is *Your* promise Father, and will be fulfilled in fullness both in Israel and Your Church! *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.* *4. 37:10 (37:1-10) VISION: THE VALLEY OF DRY BONES. ?So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.? *We marvel at Your great power and patience, Father. All that Your prophets and apostles have spoken shall find fulfillment at the time of the restitution of all things. O forgive us our unbelief and slowness of heart to believe. *Our :daily :bread Give us this day.* *5. 37:13-14a (37:11-14) VISION-WORK AND INTERPRETATION. ?And you shall know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people. 14a And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land.? *What a marvelous picture, O Father! We are weak, but You are strong! *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 37:22 (37:15-25) SIGN OF THE TWO STICKS. ?And I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel. And one king shall be king over them all, and they shall be no longer two nations, and no longer divided into two kingdoms.? *Yes Father, and James wrote to the reunited 12 tribes scattered abroad! And the 12 apostles will sit on 12 thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel! *And bring us not into temptation.* *7. 37:26 (37:26-28) GOD?S COVENANT OF PEACE. ?I will make a covenant of peace with them. It shall be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will set them in their land and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in their midst forevermore.? *Father, forgive us for scarcely being able to comprehend and receive such great and exceeding precious promises! *But deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE**: 36:37 (36:16-38) A STARTLING PRAYER CONDITION! **?Thus says the Lord GOD: This also I will let the house of Israel ask me to do for them (I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them - ASV-01); to increase their people like a flock.? *Teach us this, Father! Write it upon our hearts! Show us the importance of acting upon this truth as did Daniel (9 & 10). *Spring of 1944: * The Word of the Lord came unto me: ?In the last days I will restore My church with apostles and prophets - and if you are faithful, you may have part in this.? This word came in response to my question - ?Why Lord, out of some 500 friends and acquaintance, have You chosen to reveal Yourself to me?? In June of 1962 in round Lake, Illinois, He again spoke to me - ?You have been faithful to Me for the past 18 years. Now, resign as pastor from this church, and move out to the Seattle area. There I am about to lay a foundation for a strategic last day move, and there you may have a part in it.? *Our Psalm for the day: 55:16-17 (55) CAST YOUR BURDEN ON THE LORD. ?But I call to God, and the LORD will save me. 17 Evening and morning and at noon I utter my complaint and moan, and he hears my voice.? *Yes Father, it is always right that we seek Your face morning, noon and night! We gratefully and thankfully come to You! *Hallowed be your :name!* 55:2. *Attend unto me, and hear me. *This is the third time David prays the same prayer. He is in earnest, in deep and bitter earnest. If his God does not hear, he feels that all is over with him. He begs for his God to be a Listener and an Answerer. *I mourn in my complaint and make a noise. *What a comfort that we may be thus familiar with our God! We may not complain of Him, but we may complain to Him. Our rambling thoughts when we are distracted with grief, we may bring before Him, and that too in utterances rather to be called ?a noise? than language. ?Groanings that cannot be uttered? are often prayers which cannot be refused. Our Lord Himself used strong crying and tears and was heard in that He feared. 55:4. *And the terrors of death are fallen upon me. *Think of our Lord in the garden, with His ?soul exceeding sorrowful even unto death,? and you have a parallel to the griefs of the Psalmist. Perchance, dear reader, if as yet you have not trodden this gloomy way, you will do so soon; then be sure to mark the footprints of your Lord in this miry part of the road. 55:6. *And I said, Oh, that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away, and be at rest. *It is cowardly to shun the battle which God would have us fight. We had better face the danger, for we have no armor for our backs. He had need of a swifter conveyance than doves? pinions who would out-fly slander; he may be at rest who does not fly but commends his case to his God. Some of the most astounding sermons ever delivered have been preached on this text, which was a very favorite one with the old divines. 55:12. *For it was not an enemy that reproached me; then could I have borne it**. *None are such real enemies as false friends. Reproaches from those who have been intimate with us, and trusted by us, cut us to the quick; and they are usually so well acquainted with our peculiar weaknesses that they know how to touch us where we are most sensitive, and to speak so as to do us most damage. We can bear from Shimei what we cannot endure from Ahithophel. 55:17. *Evening and morning and at noon, will I pray. *Often, but none too often. Seasons of great need call for frequent seasons of devotion. The three periods chosen are most fitting: to begin, continue, and end the day with God is supreme wisdom. Where time has naturally set up a boundary, there let us set up an altar-stone. The Psalmist means that he will always pray; he will run a line of prayer right along the day and track the sun with his petitions. Day and night he saw his enemies busy (55:10), and therefore he would meet their activity by continuous prayer. *(From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Wed Jan 30 16:51:43 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Wed, 30 Jan 2013 16:51:43 -0800 Subject: God's Medicine Bottle - Derek Prince Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* January 30, 2013 *2013-01-29 - GOD?S MEDICINE BOTTLE - DEREK PRINCE* *Jim & Marie Watt - Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *The Biography of Derek Prince by Stephen Mansfield could be ?a must? for anyone interested in the Word of God - as the clear basis for a Teacher or practicer! * *Derek was born in India in 1915, but educated in England at Eton and Cambridge after the age of 5. At the age of 24 he became a Cambridge Don in the field of Philosophy, majoring on the life of Plato. In 1941 he was conscripted into the British Army as a medical attendant. Because space was limited for a soldier, he restricted himself to God?s Bible of 66 books. At the age of 26, God supernaturally revealed Himself to Prince both in salvation - and the baptism of the Holy Spirit.* *Soon he was drafted to North Africa, and there contracted a very serious foot problem. A Salvation Army woman heard of him, and introduced him to the blessing of devotional tongues and interpretation, both for the individual, family and small groups. In line with this insight he was led to Proverbs 4:20-23, ESV. ?My son, be attentive to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. 21 Let them not escape from your sight; keep them within your heart. 22 For they are life to those who find them, and healing to all their flesh. 23 Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.? As he meditated upon this revelation, he saw it as ?God?s Medicine Bottle?, with a 4-fold method of application. With further meditation it occurred to him - ?How then should I practically act upon this revelation?? He thought that often one received medicine following the 3 meals of the day. Why not then, he thought shouldn?t I read appropriate passages on healing after my 3 meals of the day - as God?s medicine?* *He did so, and in a very short period of time he found his foot problem righting itself, and soon he was fully recovered.* *It occurred to me that this would be good for me to take advantage of on a 3-fold daily basis - to maintain good health - and to pass along to friends undergoing serious physical problems.* *Here then are a few related Scripture portions - that could be meditated upon following our 3 daily meals. One. Exodus 15:25b-26 - *GOD IS ?JEHOVAH RAPHA? - THE LORD OUR HEALER!* There the LORD made for them a statute and a rule, and there he tested them, 26 saying, ?If you will diligently listen to the voice of the LORD your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, your healer.?* *Two. Psalm 103:**2-3** (103:1-5) **DAVID EXPERIENCED THIS! **?**Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, **3** wh**o* *forgives all your iniquity, **who heals all your diseases**,?** * *Three. Isaiah 53:**4-**5 (53:4-6) *JESUS? ATONING DEATH: BROUGHT *THIS*ALSO! * Surely he has has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. **5** But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, **and with his stripes we are healed**.?* *Four. Matthew 8:16-17, **NNT **ISAIAH FULFILLED BY DEMON DELIVERANCE AND HEALINGS!** ?And when even was come, they brought to him many demoniacs: and he cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all that were ill: **17* * that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through Isaiah the prophet saying, **Himself took our :infirmities, and bore the sicknesses.?* *Five. Mark 16:15-18 (16:9-18) **AN INTEGRAL PART OF SALVATION: EXPELLING DEMONS AND HEALING. **?And he said to them, Go into all the world, **and**preach the gospel to the whole creation. **16** Who has believed and is baptized shall be saved; but who has disbelieved shall be condemned. **17 **And these signs shall follow them that have believed: **in my name shall they cast out demons**, speak with tongues; **18** and in the**ir** hands they shall take up serpents, and if they drink anything deadly, it shall in not wise hurt them; **and they shall lay hands on **the** sick, and they shall recover**.? * *Six. Acts 10:38 (10:23b-43) **THE ANOINTING OF JESUS: BROUGHT **HEALING**FROM DEMON OPPRESSION! **?Jesus :of Nazareth, how :God anointed him with **the** Holy Spirit and with power: who went about doing good, **and healing all th**os**e **o**ppressed of the devil; **for :God was **with him.?* *Seven. James 5:14-16 (5:13-20) **FIVE** CONDITIONS FOR HEALING! **?**Is any among you sick**? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, having anointed **him** with oil in the name of the Lord: **15** **and the prayer of :faith shall save the weary one**, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, it shall be forgiven him. **16** Confess therefore **your** :sins one to another, and pray one for another, **that you be healed*.? *Eight. 1 Peter 2:24 (2:18-25) SINS AND HEALING: DEALT WITH THROUGH JESUS? DEATH! ?who himself carried our :sins in his :body up to the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live unto righteousness; by whose bruise you were healed.?* *Nine. 1 Corinthians 12:8-11 (12:4-11) HEALING: AMONG GOD?S GRACIOUS GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT! ?For to one is given through the Spirit a word of wisdom; and to another a word of knowledge, according to the same Spirit: 9 to another faith, in the same Spirit; and to another gifts of healings, in the one Spirit; 10 and to another workings of powers; and to another prophecy; and to another discernings of spirits: to another kinds of tongues; and to another interpretation of tongues; 11 but all these works the one and the same Spirit, dividing to each severally even as he wills.? * *Ten. 1 Corinthians 12:28 (12:12-31) GOD?S SOVEREIGNTY OF GRACE: GRACIOUSLY GRANTS HEALING! ?And :God has set some in the church, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then powers, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, kinds of tongues.?* *There are three friends of mine that I am committed myself to pray for thrice daily this way. But I have written this encouragement firstly on their behalf, trusting that they will join with me on their behalf for their complete healing. I am sending this to you also, and trusting that the Holy Spirit may lead some of you to join with me on their behalf. One has had a very serious flu attack, that even caused him to wonder of this were the time for his home-call. The other has had extreme head-aches, and in a medical brain-probe, has had partial blindness brought on.* *But God! God is able! With the 10 passages above, I am encouraged to believe for all three of them for complete recoveries, for God is no respecter of persons. If he did this for Derek Prince - he can do it for them also. And if necessary, for you and me too.* *By all means take a Strong?s or other Concordance, and do a further search for relevant and helpful passages.* *Lastly - do a Google-Search on Derek Prince You-Tube Sermons. ?God?s Medicine Bottle? by Derek Prince at present appears on the top of page 2, an 11-minute presentation. This will greatly enhance the above write-up. Jim Watt* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Thu Jan 31 10:19:39 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Thu, 31 Jan 2013 10:19:39 -0800 Subject: Ezekiel 38-39 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* January 31, 2013 *AUG 26 - EZEKIEL 38-39 - GOD & MAGOG DESTROYED - ISRAEL EXALTED* *1. 38:2-3a (38:1-7, ESV) PROPHECY: GOG TO BE REPULSED. ?Son of man, set your face toward God, of the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him 3 and say, Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I am against you.?* And whom You are against Father, shall *surely* fall. Yet a little while, and the wicked shall be seen no more. *Hallowed be your :name.* *2. 38:10 (38:8-13) GOD?S INVASION PURPOSE. ?Thus says the Lord GOD; On that day, thoughts will come into your mind, and you will devise an evil scheme.? *Father, You are the only God Who can tell a man?s thoughts before He has even thought them! What a *great God* You are! Humble us before Your might and power! *Your :kingdom come.* *3. 38:16 (38:14-17) GOD?S PURPOSE IN THE INVASION. ?You will come up against my people Israel, like a cloud covering the land. In the latter days I will bring you against my land, that the nations may know me, when through you, O God, I vindicate my holiness before their eyes.? *Yes Father, You make even the wrath of man praise You! You use man?s evil purposes to fulfill Your will. *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.* *4. 39:2 (38:18-39:7) DESTRUCTION OF GOG AT ARMAGEDDON. ?And I will turn you about and drive you forward, and bring you up from the uttermost parts of the north, and lead you against the mountains of Israel.? *Father, we tremble at Your might and omnipotence! You are also omniscient! *Our :daily :bread Give us this day.* *5. 39:12 (39:8-20) GOG: SPOIL AND CARNAGE. ?For seven months the house of Israel will be burying them, in order to cleanse the land.? *What devastation! What fulfillment of Your Word, Father! O how we need You! O make us like the deer panting after the the water brook, that we thirst after *You*! *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 39:21 (39:21-24) THE PURPOSE OF GOD. ?And I will set my glory among the nations, and all the nations shall see my judgment that I have executed, and my hand that I have laid on them.? *We see Your power Father, when Your judgments are upon earth. Then Your Glory shines forth. *And bring us not into temptation.* *7. 39:28 (39:25-29) ISRAEL: TO BE REGATHERED AND CONVERTED. ?Then they shall know that I am the LORD their God, because I sent them into exile among the nations and then assembled them into their own land. I will leave none of them remaining among the nations anymore.? *Greater than Your deliverance of Israel through the Red Sea Father, is Your returning them to their land after Babylon, and after 70 A.D. *But deliver us from the evil one.* *NOTE**: 39:29 (39:25-29) GOD?S FINAL SMILE UPON ISRAEL. **?And I will not hide my face anymore from them, when I pour out my Spirit upon the house of Israel, declares the Lord GOD.? *This is Your Sovereign choice, Father. The Potter is working on His clay! We cannot say You, No! *Our Psalm for the Day: 56:10 (56) IN GOD WE TRUST. ?In God whose word I praise, in the LORD, whose word I praise.? *Yes Father, we will bless You for Your Word! For Your *promises* are backed by all the honor of Your Name (Psalm 138:3, L.B.)! How *great* is Your Name. No wonder we say, *Hallowed be your :name!* We have here the songs of God?s servant, who rejoices once more to return from banishment and to leave those dangerous places where he was compelled to hold his peace even from good. There is such deep, spiritual knowledge in this Psalm that we might say of it, ?Blessed are you, David Bar-Jesse, for flesh and blood has not revealed this unto you.? 1:1. *For man would swallow me up. *He is but Your creature, a mere man, yet like a monster he is eager for blood; he pants, he gapes for me; he would not merely wound me, or feed on my substance, but he would fain swallow me altogether, and so make an end of me. The open mouths of sinners when they rage against us should open our mouths in prayer. 1:3. *What time I am afraid, I will trust in You. *David was no braggart; he does not claim never to be afraid; he was no brutish Stoic free from fear because of the lack of tenderness. David?s intelligence deprived him of the stupid needlessness of ignorance; he saw the immanence of his peril and was afraid. We are men, and therefore liable to overthrow; we are feeble, and therefore unable to prevent it; we are sinful men, and therefore deserving it, and for all these reasons we are afraid. But the condition of the Psalmist?s mind was complex - he feared, but that fear did not fill the whole area of his mind, for he adds, *I will trust in You.* It is possible, then, for fear and faith to occupy the mind at the same moment. We are strange beings, and our experience in the divine life is stranger still. We are often in a twilight, where light and darkness are both present, and it is hard to tell which predominates. It is a blessed fear which drives us to trust. Unregenerate fear drives from God; gracious fear drives to Him. If I fear man, I have only to trust God, and I have the best antidote. 1:4. *In God I will praise His word.* Faith brings forth praises. He who can trust will soon sing. 1:5. *Every day they wrest my words. *This is a common mode of warfare among the ungodly. They put our language on the rack; they extort meanings from it which it cannot be made fairly to contain. Thus our Savior?s prophecy concerning the temple of His body, and countless accusations against His servants, were founded on willful perversions. They who do this every day become great adepts in the art. A wolf can always find in a lamb?s discourse a reason for eating him. Prayers are blasphemies if you choose to read them the wrong way upwards. *All their thoughts are against me for evil. *No mixture of good will tone down their malice. Whether they viewed him as a king, a Psalmist, a man, a father, a warrior, a sufferer, it was all the same - they saw through colored glass and could not think a generous thought towards him. Even those actions of his which were an undoubted blessing to the commonwealth they endeavored to undervalue. O, foul spring, from which never a drop of pure water can come! 6:13. *That I may walk before God in the light of the living.* Here is the loftiest reach of a good man?s ambition, to dwell with God, to walk in righteousness before Him, to rejoice in His presence, and in the light and glory which it yields. *(From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Fri Feb 1 12:32:51 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Fri, 1 Feb 2013 12:32:51 -0800 Subject: Ezekiel 40-48 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* February 1, 2013 *AUG 27 - EZEKIEL 40-48 - FINAL TEMPLE, WORSHIP AND CITY* *1. 40:2 (40:1-4, ESV) VISION: THE FUTURE JERUSALEM. ?In visions of God he brought me to the land of Israel, and set me down on a very high mountain, on which was a structure like a city to the south.? *There is *nothing* too difficult for You, Father! You can do *all* things, and You do all things * well*. *Hallowed be your :name!* *2. 41:4 (40:5-42:20) GATES, COURTS, CHAMBERS AND ROOMS. ?And he measured the length of the room, twenty cubits, and its breadth, twenty cubits, across the nave. And he said to me, ?This is the Most Holy Place?.? *Here You would bring us, Father! Here is found the people of the 100-fold! Here we would dwell with You. *Your :kingdom come!* *3. 43:11 (43:1-12) GATE AND THRONE OF MESSIAH. ?And if they are ashamed of all that they have done make known to them the design of the temple, its arrangement, its exits and its entrances, that is, its whole design; and make known to them as well all its statutes and its whole design and all its laws, and write it down in their sight, so that they may observe all its laws and statutes and carry them out.? *Then how easy it will be for us to pray: *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth!* *4. 44:15 (43:13-44:31) MINISTRY OF THE INNER AND OUTER COURT. ?But the Levitical priests, the sons of Zadok, who kept the charge of my sanctuary when the people of Israel went astray from me, shall come near to me to minister to me. And they shall stand before me to offer me the fat and the blood, declares the Lord GOD.? *Father, we would choose the inner court ministry to You as first priority (Acts 13:1-2), and then the outer court ministry as an outflow to our fellows man. O forgive us for putting You second instead of first! *Our :daily :bread Give us this day.* *5. 45:9 (45-46) HOLY OBLATION AND TEMPLE LAWS. ?Thus says the Lord GOD: Enough, O princes of Israel! Put away violence and oppression, and execute justice and righteousness. Cease your evictions of my people, declares the Lord GOD.? *These leaders Father, failed in the time of authority and failure. *And forgive us our :debts, as we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 47:12 (47:1-12) RIVER OF THE SANCTUARY. ?And on the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither, nor their fruit fail, but they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the water for them flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for healing? (REV 22:2; PSA 1:3; JER 17:5-9). *Father, *such* a God of fruitfulness! *And lead us not into temptation!* *7. 48:35 (47:13-48:35) THE CITY: ITS PORTIONS AND DIVISIONS. ?The circumference of the city shall be 18,000 cubits. And the name of the city from that time on shall be, The LORD is There? (Jehovah Shammah). *We are Your City, Father! We are Your Zion! Your Name is written upon us. We are one with Your Son. *But deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE**: 44:4 (43:13-44:31) THE GLORY OF GOD FILLS HIS TEMPLE! **?Then he brought me by way of the north gate to the front of the temple, and I looked, and behold, the glory of the LORD filled the Temple of the LORD. And I fell on my face.? *Father, we remove the *image of jealousy* (8:5), that You Whose Name is *Jealous*, may be at peace. We remove all abominations from flesh, spirit and heart, that *Your Glory* might come in! *Our Psalm for the day: 57:5 (57) LET YOUR GLORY BE OVER ALL THE EARTH! ?Be exalted, O God, above the heavens! Let your glory be over all the earth!? *Yes, we say like David, Amen. Let it be so! Let all the earth know Your Glory, O Great Jehovah Father! There is none other like You! *Hallowed be your :name! * This petition is a very sententious prayer, as full as it is brief, and well worthy to be the motto for a sacred song. David had said, ?Destroy not,? in reference to Saul, when he had him in his power, and now he takes pleasure in employing the same words in supplication to God. We may infer from the spirit of the Lord?s prayer that the Lord will spare us as we spare our foes. There are four of these ?Destroy not? Psalms, namely, the 57 th, 58th, 59th and 75th. 57:3. *And save me from the reproach of him that would swallow me up.* O dog of hell, I am not only delivered from your bite but even from your bark. Our foes shall not have the power to sneer at us, their cruel jests and taunting gibes shall be ended by the message from heaven, which shall forever save us. *God shall send forth His mercy and His truth.* He asked for mercy, and truth came with it. Thus evermore does God give us more than we ask or think. His attributes, like angels on the wing, are ever ready to come to the rescue of His chosen. 57:4. *And I lie even among them that are set on fire. *Like the bush in Horeb, the believer is often in the midst of flames, but never consumed. It is a mighty triumph of faith when we can lie down even among firebrands and find rest, because God is our defense. 57:6. *They have dug a pit before me, into whose midst they are fallen themselves. Selah. *Evil is a stream which one day flows back to its source. *Selah*. We may sit down at the pit?s mouth and view with wonder the just retaliations of providence. 57:7. *My heart is fixed. *One would have though he would have said, ?My heart is fluttered?; but no, he is calm, firm, happy, resolute, established. When the central axle is secure, the whole wheel is right. If our great bower anchor holds, the ship cannot drive. *O God, my heart is fixed*. I am resolved to trust You, to serve You, and to praise You. Twice does he declare this to the glory of God, Who thus comforts the souls of His servants. Reader, it is surely well with you if your once roving heart is now firmly fixed upon God and the proclamation of His glory. *I will sing and give praise.* Vocally and instrumentally will I celebrate Your worship. With lip and with heart will I ascribe honor to You. Satan shall not stop me, nor Saul, nor the Philistines. I will make Adullam ring with music, and all the caverns of it echo with joyous song. Believer, make a firm decree that your soul in all seasons shall magnify the Lord. 57:10. *And Your truth unto the clouds. *Upon the cloud, He sets the seal of His truth, the rainbow, which ratifies His covenant; in the cloud He hides His rain and snow, which prove His truth by bringing to us seedtime and harvest, cold and heat. *(From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* * * *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Sat Feb 2 10:50:39 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Sat, 2 Feb 2013 10:50:39 -0800 Subject: Galatians 1:1-9 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* February 2, 2013 *AUG 28 - GALATIANS 1:1-9 - LIBERTY: THREATENED BY FALSE GOSPEL* *1. 1:1-2, NNT. PAUL: ESTABLIISHES HIS AUTHENTIC APOSTLESHIP. ?Paul, apostle (not from men, neither through man, but through Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead), 2 and all the brethren with me, to the churches of :Galatia:? *Father, in Your Kingdom, Jesus gave apostles to the church (EPH 4:11-12), and You by Your purpose set them in the church for Christ to give (1 COR 12:28). May Christ build His church through apostolic teams. *Hallowed be your :name.* *2. 1:3. PAUL: BRINGS APOSTOLIC GREETINGS. ?Grace to you and peace from God the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ,? *We thank You O God, for Paul! We thank You for Your grace and call which made him what he was. Now O Lord, grant that we might let Your will be done through us as effectively in our day, as was done in the days of the early church. Yes, and because Christ made the best wine last, Let the glory of Your latter house exceed the former! *Your :kingdom come!* *3. 1:4. PAUL: SETS FORTH CHRIST?S REDEMPTIVE WORK. ?Christ, who gave himself for our :sins, that he deliver us from the present evil :age, according to the will of :God and our Father:? *Not only have You looked after our deliverance through Christ O Father, but you have covenanted to meed our daily needs. How faithful You are! We have made ourselves bought-slaves of Christ, and You have bound Yourself to meet our needs. *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.* *4. 1:5. PAUL: GLORIFIES THE FATHER. ?God our Father: to whom the glory unto the ages of the ages. Amen.? *It was Your will Father, that Christ should come, humble Himself, identify Himself with us, die for our sins as our substitute, redeem us, reconcile us, justify us, sanctify us, glorify us, and propitiate Your wrath against Adam?s race. Now You can freely forgive our sins, and by Christ's nature in us, we can forgive those who sin against us, and love our enemies. *Our :daily :bread Give us this day.* *5. 1:6-7. PAUL: POWERFULLY SCORES GOSPEL PERVERSION. ?I marvel that you are so quickly removing from him that called you in Christ?s grace unto a different gospel; 7 which is not another; only there are some that trouble you, and wish to pervert the gospel of the Christ.? *Perversion: what an ugly word! Mixture: what an abomination! Your Gospel of the Kingdom O Lord, we pledge not to pervert, add to, or corrupt. In this You will guide us by the inward Spirit! *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 1:8. PAUL: CURSES FALSE PREACHERS OF THE GOSPEL. ?But though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel other than what we preached to you, let him be anathema.? *How evil it is to preach another gospel! How Satan seeks to destroy Kingdom foundations! If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do? O give us discernment against the devices of the devil. *And bring us not into temptation!* *7. 1:9 PAUL: REPEATS HIS CURSE. ?As we have said before, so say I now again, If any preaches to you a gospel other than what you received, let him be anathema.? *How sober Your double affirmations, O Lord! O may we never deserve Your wrath, Your curse, Your anathema! We would relate to You in a responsible way. *But deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE**: Our Psalm for the day: 58:3, 11 (58, ESV) **GOD WHO JUDGES THE EARTH. ?The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray from birth, speaking lies.? *Apart from Your revelation O Lord, we would not understand the deceitfulness and utter corruption of the human heart. Natural man recoils at this true revelation. But we humbly receive it, and trust Christ only in us as our righteousness. *11 Mankind will say, ?Surely there is a reward for the righteous: surely there is a God who judges on earth.? *Righteousness belongs unto You O God, and You observe with pleasure those who walk in righteousness on earth. Your wrath is upon the lawless who persecute the righteous, and You vindicate the righteous for your name?s sake! This is the fourth of the Psalms of the Golden Secret and the second of the ?Destroy Nots.? These names, if they serve for nothing else, may be useful to aid the memory. Men give names to their horses, jewels, and other valuables, and these names are meant not so much to describe as to distinguish them, and in some cases to set forth the owner?s high esteem of his treasure; after the same fashion, the Oriental poet gave a title to the song he loved, and so aided his memory, and expressed his estimation of the strain. We are not always to look for a meaning in these superscriptions but to treat them as we would the titles of poems of the names of tunes. 58:1. * Do you indeed speak righteousness, O congregation? *?What everybody says must be true? is a lying proverb based upon the presumption which comes of large combinations. Have we not all agreed to hound the man to the death, and who dare hint that so many great ones can be mistaken: Yet the persecuted one lays the axe at the root by requiring his judges to answer the question whether or not they were acting according to justice. It were well if men would sometimes pause and candidly consider this. Some of those who surrounded Saul were rather passive than active persecutors; they held their tongues when the object of royal hate was slandered. He who refrains from defending the right is himself an accomplice in the wrong. 58:2. *Yes, in heart you work wickedness; you weight the violence of your hands in the earth.* See what a generation saints have to deal with! Such were the foes of our Lord, a generation of vipers, an evil and adulterous generation; they sought to kill Him because He was righteousness itself, yet they masked their hatred to His goodness by charging Him with sin. 58:3. *The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies. *It is small wonder that some men persecute the righteous seed of the woman, since all of them are of the serpent?s brood, and enmity is set between them. No sooner born than alienated from God - what a condition to be found in! He who starts early in the morning will go far before night. To be untruthful is one of the surest proofs of a fallen state, and since falsehood is universal, so also is human depravity. 58:5. *Which will not listen to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely.* Ungodly men are not to be won by arguments the most logical or appeals the most pathetic. Try all your arts, you preachers of the Word! Lay yourselves out to meet the prejudices and tastes of sinners, and you shall yet have to cry, ?Who has believed our report?? It is not in your music but in the sinners? ear that the cause of failure lies, and it is only the power of God that can remove it. 58:8. *As a snail which melts, let every one of them pass away. *As the snail makes its own way by its slime, and so dissolves as it goes, or as its shell is often found empty, as though the inhabitant had melted away, so shall the malicious eat out their own strength while they proceed upon their malevolent designs, and shall themselves disappear. *Like the untimely birth of a woman, that they may not see the sun. *They are as if they had never been. Their character is shapeless, hideous, revolting. They are fitter to be hidden away in an unknown grave than to be reckoned among men. Their life comes never to ripeness, their aims are abortive, their only achievement is to have brought misery to others and horror to themselves. Such men as Herod, Judas, Alva, Bonner, had it not been better for them if they had never been born? Better for the mothers who bore them? Better for the lands they cursed? Better for the earth in which their putrid carcasses are hidden from the sun? Every unregenerate man is an abortion. He misses the true form of God-made manhood; he corrupts in the darkness of sin; he never sees or shall see the light of God in purity in heaven. *(From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by C.O. Fuller)* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Mon Feb 4 10:50:27 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Mon, 4 Feb 2013 10:50:27 -0800 Subject: Galatians 2:10-2:21 Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* February 4, 2013 *AUG 29 - GALATIANS 1:10-2:21 - PAUL?S GOSPEL* *1. 1:11-12 (1:10-12, ESV) PAUL?S GOSPEL: BY REVELATION. ?But I make known to you, brethren, as to the gospel which was preached by me, that it is not after man. 12 For neither did I receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but through revelation of Jesus Christ.? *Father, the Good News of the Kingdom of God as preached by Paul is by grace through faith, not of works! And this Kingdom of Good News is a revelation from You. *Hallowed be your :name.* *2. 1:15-16 (1:13-2:2) PAUL?S GOSPEL: ITS BACKGROUND THROUGH PAUL. ?But when it was God?s good pleasure who separated me from my mother?s womb and called me through his :grace, 16 to reveal his :Son in me, that I preach him among the nations; straightway I conferred not with flesh and blood.? *Father, here we see Paul as our example, doing the will of God. Paul said, Follow me, as I follow Christ. We commit ourselves to his example. * **Your :kingdom come.* *3. 2:8 (2:3-10) PAUL?S GOSPEL: PARTICULARLY FOR THE UNCIRCUMCISION. ?(for who worked for Peter unto apostleship of the circumcision worked for me also unto the* *nations);? *To the Gentiles O Father, You met their needs in Paul! You * always* meet the total needs of Your people! *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.* *4. 2:11-12 (2:11-14) PAUL?S GOSPEL: PROTECTED FROM PETER. ?But when Cephas came to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was condemned. 12 For before that certain came from James, he ate with the nations; but when they came, he drew back and separated himself, fearing the m of the circumcision.? *Father, forgive us the sin of the fear of man. We replace it with *Your* fear Father, for You are a *Jealous* God: Jealous for Your Name, Your Son, Your Holy Spirit, Your Word, Your Fear! *Our :daily :bread Give us this day.* *5. 2:16 (2:15-19) PAUL?S GOSPEL: PROTECTS FAITH FROM WORKS. ?Yet knowing that a man is not justified by works of law except through faith in Jesus Christ, even we :believed unto Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by works of law: because by works of law shall no flesh be justified.? *Father, we receive Christ?s faith as *our* faith. We commit ourselves to the Exchanged Life! Lord Jesus - we make *You* our Lord! *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 2:20. PAUL?S GOSPEL: EXEMPLIFIED BY CHRIST IN HIM. ?I have been crucified with Christ; and no longer I live, but Christ lives in me: and what I now live in the flesh I live by faith which is in the Son of :God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me.? *Hallelujah! Here Father we see the possibility and reality of the Exchanged Life in Christ! Here is our victory! Here we overcome! *And bring us not into temptation.* *7. 2:21. PAUL?S GOSPEL: EXALTS GRACE. ?I make not void the grace of :God: for if righteousness is through law, then Christ died for nothing.? *O Father, how gladly and thankfully we avail ourselves of Your Gospel of grace in Christ! For this, Your Name is worthy to be praised. *But deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE**: 1:10 (1:10-12) PAUL?S GOSPEL: HONORING TO GOD SUPREMELY! **?For am I now seeking men?s favor, or God?s? or am I seeking to please men? if I were still pleasing men, I should not be Christ?s bondman.? *The pride of man O Father, despises Your Good News of the Kingdom of God by *grace alone*. Thank You Father, that in the Gospel, Paul pleased You and not us! *C.H. Spurgeon Quotes: ?Succeed? - *No man ever succeeds in anything who does not give himself wholly to it: it matters not what it is, concentration is essential to perfection in any pursuit. He who would be eminent in any one direction must forego a great many other things which are perfectly allowable; those he must renounce for the sake of his one object. He will not succeed unless he sacrifices all other things to the one chief thing. *Our Psalm for the day: 59:16 (59, ESV). DELIVER ME FROM MY ENEMIES. ?But I will sing of your strength; I will sing aloud of your steadfast love in the morning. For you have been to me a fortress and a refuge in the day of my distress.? *And as David did not have Saul triumph over him, neither shall we have self-will and pride triumph over us! *Hallowed be your :name! * Whom God preserves, Satan cannot destroy. The Lord can even preserve the lives of His prophets by the very ravens that would naturally pick out their eyes. David always found a friend to help him when his case was peculiarly dangerous, and that friend was in his enemy?s household; in this instance it was Michal, Saul?s daughter, as on former occasions it had been Jonathan, Saul?s son. ?Michtam of David.? This is the fifth of the Golden Secrets of David: God?s chosen people have many such. c. 10:17* The faith therefore is by hearing, and :hearing by Christ?s word. * Ara h*e* PIStis ex a-ko*E*S, h*e* de a-ko*E* diA 'R*E*ma-tos [4487] ChrisTOU. Romans 10:16-21 spells out ?God?s Strategy? for the Gospel as it applies specifically to Israel. The majority of Israel refused to hear the Gospel in Jesus - yet there was a remnant whose hearts opened to God?s message: the apostle Paul was one of these. Israel could read the Gospel promises in the Old Testament and entirely miss the ?thrust? of God. But when God by His Spirit caused the written ?LOgos-word? to be transformed into the living, spoken ?R*E*ma-word? - then faith would grow, and Jesus would be seen as the promised Messiah, who came in Jehovah?s Name! Jesus made this real to Paul on the Damascus Road! Now apply this to ?God?s Medicine Bottle? in Proverbs 4:20-22 - as revealed to Derek Prince in World War II in Africa. He wondered - How can faith come to cause these 3 verses to work? And the Spirit then gave him Romans 10:17 - Faith *grows* when the LOgos-word is transformed into the R*E *ma-word by meditation! To make use of the ?Outlined Interlinear New Testament? based on God?s Bible Numerics as revealed to Ivan Panin in 1890 - is a simple and practical method to effect this. Check out *< www.OutlinedInterlinear.com> *to see how you can obtain this either in book or ?E-book? form. In 2005, two years following the death of Derek Prince, Stephen Mansfield wrote his biography. In it he recounts Prince?s experience with ?God?s Medicine Bottle?. This biography could be one of your most valuable library possessions. Here?s what Mansfield says concerning it. *?**Derek Prince - a Biography** is not just a preacher puff piece. This is a down-and-dirty, cut-to-the-chase biography of a great man in our time. Many of the truths we now enjoy freely - like breaking generational curses and deliverance - were largely pioneered in the West by Derek. I think he will be remember**ed ** as a hero of spiritual renewal in the latter part of the twentieth century.?* ?*The honesty portrayed in Stephen Mansfield?s biography deeply affected me as a Christian. I found myself overwhelmed and proud to have met this great man in my lifetime.? *Phil Keaggy, Christian Artist ?*Derek Prince was a pioneer and father of the faith to millions. Similar to that of the prophet Elisha, his death has been a seed in the ground that continues to breed life.? *Kim Daniels, Overseer, Spoken Word Ministries, Jacksonville, Florida ?*Derek Prince had an inner fortitude that was without limit. Derek was my spiritual mentor and teacher in the field of spiritual warfare.? *John Hagee, Senior Pastor, Cornerstone Church, San Antonio, Texas I, Jim Watt, first heard Derek Prince in 1963 in Seattle, Washington, and felt it was more than worth-while to travel up early on a morning in January from Portland to hear him. In 1964 at his request, I met with him 5 times for him to prepare me to take over his Seattle pastorate, so that he could be released for a traveling and teaching ministry. His ?Shaping History through Prayer and Fasting?, and ?The Marriage Covenant? have among others of his books, challenged me. I encourage all readers who are interested, to do a ?Google-search? under ?Derek Prince You-tube? - and check out the dozens of teachings that are freely available to us there. His biography by Stephen Mansfield can also be heard there, as well as his teaching on ?God?s Medicine Bottle?. *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Tue Feb 5 08:52:25 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Tue, 5 Feb 2013 08:52:25 -0800 Subject: Galatians 3:1-6 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* February 5, 2013 * * *AUG 30 - GALATIANS 3:1-6 - THE HOLY SPIRIT AND FAITH* *1. 3:1a. FAITH DISOBEYED: THROUGH DECEPTION. ?O foolish Galatians, who bewitched you?? *Father, You permit us to be tested. You permit the Judaizers to come amongst us. But Your word is our standard, and it only is our Plumbline! We beware of the Judaizers. *Hallowed be your :name!* *2. 3:1b. FAITH: SEES THE NECESSITY OF CHRIST CRUCIFIED. ?(Galatians) before whose eyes Jesus Christ was openly set forth crucified?? *We thank You Father, for Your servant Paul and his faithfulness. He did not pervert nor water down Your pure Gospel. *Your :kingdom come!* *3. 3:2. FAITH: BASIS FOR RECEIVING GIFT OF HOLY SPIRIT. ?This only would I learn from you, Received you the Spirit from works of law, or from hearing of faith?? *We do not merit nor deserve the least of Your mercies, O Father; they are all in Christ by grace. *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.* *4. 3:3. FAITH: WILL NOT PERFECT WHAT SPIRIT BEGINS. ?Are you so foolish? having begun in Spirit, are you now perfected in flesh?? *O the subtleties of the enemy! O the frailty of our flesh! Father, we ask Your forgiveness wherein we have failed and fallen short. *Our :daily :bread Give us this day!* *5. 3:4. FAITH: ITS LACK MAKES SUFFERING IN VAIN. ?Did you suffer so many things in vain? if indeed in vain.? *Father, we would not suffer needlessly, and fail to learn the lessons of the testing. We would profit from each trial You so wisely and lovingly place in our pathway. We wouldlet trials make us more like Jesus. *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 3:5. FAITH: BASIS FOR SPIRIT MINISTRY. ?Who therefore supplies you the Spirit, and works miracles among you, is it from works of law, or from thehearing of faith?? *Teach us this truth, Father. By Your Spirit write its lessons deep on our hearts. Circumcise our ears and hearts, and anoint our eyes with salve. *And bring us not into temptation.* *7. 3:6. FAITH: JUSTIFIED ABRAHAM. ?Even as Abraham believed :God, and it was reckoned to him for righteousness.? *Thank You Father, for the wonderful example of Abraham. Thank You that the Holy Spirit through human writers painted him with warts and all. Thank You for being such a wonderful God that we can unreservedly praise you with *all** *of our hearts!* And bring us not into temptation.* *NOTE**: **C.H. Spurgeon Quotes: ?Knowing the Bible? - *Do we need to understand everything? Are we to be all brain, and no heart? What should we be the better if we did understand all mysteries? I believe God. I bow before his Word. Is not this better for us than conceit of knowing and understanding? We are as yet mere children. We know in part. *Our Psalm for the Day: 60:4, 12 (60, ESV) HE WILL TREAD DOWN OUR FOES. ?You have set up a banner for those who fear you, that they may flee to it from the bow. Selah.? *Yes Father, You are Jehovah-Nissi, Jehovah our banner! You are our standard when the enemy comes in like a flood. 12 *?With God we shall do valiantly; it is he who will tread down our foes.? *You use our enemies Father, to chasten us. Then when we repent and turn back to You, You judge them! Yes, You completely overturn them, and tread them down. What a wonderful Father You are! *Title. *Here is a lengthy title, but it helps us very much to expound the Psalms. ?To the Chief Musician upon Sushan-eduth, or the Lily of Testimony.? The Forty-Fifth was on the lilies and represented the kingly warrior in His beauty going forth to war; here we see Him dividing the spoil and bearing testimony to the glory of God. 60:1. David found himself the possessor of a tottering throne, troubled with the double evil faction at home and invasion from abroad. He traced at once the evil to its true source and began at its fountainhead. His were politics of piety, which after all are the wisest and most profound. *You have scattered us.* These first two verses, with their depressing confession, must be regarded as greatly enhancing the power of the faith, which in the after verses rejoices in better days through the Lord?s gracious return unto His people. *You have been displeased. *Had we pleased You, You would have pleased us; but as we have asked contrary to You, You have walked contrary to us. 60:4. *You have given a banner to them that fear You, that it may be displayed because of the truth.* The Lord has given us the standard of the gospel; let us live to uphold it, and if needful die to defend it. To publish the gospel is a sacred duty, to be ashamed of it a deadly sin. The truth of God was involved in the triumph of David?s armies. He had promised them victory; and so in the proclamation of the gospel we need feel no hesitancy, for as surely as God is true, He will give success to His own word. 60:6. *God has spoken in His holiness. *Faith is never happier than when it can fall back upon the promise of God. She sets this over against all discouraging circumstances; let outward providences say what they will, the voice of a faithful God drowns every sound of fear. God has promised Israel victory, and David the kingdom; the holiness of God secured the fulfillment of His own covenant, and therefore the King spoke confidently. The goodly land had been secured to the tribes by the promise made to Abraham, and that divine grant was an abundantly sufficient warrant for the belief that Israel?s arms would be successful in battle. Believer, make good use of this and banish doubts while promises remain. *I will rejoice, *or, ?I will triumph.? Faith regards the promise not as fiction, but fact, and therefore drinks in joy from it and grasps victory by it. ?God has spoken; I will rejoice?; here is a motto fit for every soldier of the cross.* I will divide Shechem, and mete out the Valley of Succoth.* When God has spoken, His divine *shall*, our *I will*, becomes no idle boast, but the fit echo of the Lord?s decree. Believer, up and take possession of covenant mercies; *Divide Shechem, and mete out the Valley of Succoth.* Let not Canaanitish doubts and legalisms keep you out of the inheritance of grace. 60:8. *Moab is my washpot.* A mere pot to hold the dirty water after my feet have been washed in it. Once she defiled Israel, according to the counsel Balaam, the son of Beor; but she shall be no longer able to perpetrate such baseness; she shall be a washpot for those whom she sought to pollute. *Over Edom will I cast out my shoe. *He need not draw a sword to smite his now crippled and utterly despondent adversary, for if he dared revolt, he would only need to throw his slipper at him, and he would tremble. Easily are we victors when Omnipotence leads the way. *Philistia, triumph because of me. *So utterly hopeless is the cause of hell when the Lord comes forth to the battle, that even the weakest daughter of Zion may shake her head at the enemy and laugh him to scorn. *(From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Wed Feb 6 09:21:58 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Wed, 6 Feb 2013 09:21:58 -0800 Subject: Galatians 3:7-4:7 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* February 6, 2013 *AUG 31 - GALATIANS 3:7-4:7 - TWO CONTRASTS* *1 3:7 (3:7-9, NNT) FAITH: LINKS NATIONS WITH ABRAHAM. ?Know then that who are from faith, these are sons of Abraham.? *Father, You have grafted us into Jesus, the Root and Trunk of Israel, and made us living wild olive branches because of our faith and Your foreknowledge! Your Kingdom of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit has come. May it openly manifest itself throughout all the earth among all nations! *Hallowed be your :name!* *2. 3:11-13 (3:10-14) FAITH AND WORKS OF LAW CONTRASTED. ?Now that no one is justified by law before :God, is evident: because, The righteous shall live by faith; 12 and the law is not of faith: but, Who does them shall live in them. *We commit ourselves to the Gospel of God by Grace through faith, with works following to prove our faith. *Your :kingdom come!* *3. 3:17 (3:15-18) COVENANT: BASIS FOR PROMISE OF SPIRIT. Now this I say: A covenant confirmed before by :God, the law, which came to be four hundred and thirty years after, does not disannul, to make the promise void.? *We hear and receive this word, Father! We do not receive it in vain. *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.* *4. 3:19 (3:19-22) LAW: CONTROLLED SIN TILL FAITH CAME. ?What therefore is the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed come to whom the promise has been made: ordained through angels by a mediator?s hand.? *We bless You Father, for the law, Your Plumbline, Your Schoolmaster, to convict us of our sin! Because of this grace, we can look to Christ?s Atoning work and pray! *Our :daily :bread Give us this day.* *5. 3:24-25 (3:23-25) LAW: SCHOOLMASTER LEADING TO CHRIST AND FAITH. ?So that the law is become our tutor unto Christ, that we be justified from faith. 25 But the faith having come, we are no more under a tutor.? *The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has *freed* us from the law of sin and death! We glorify You for this, Father! *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 3:29 (3:26-29) FAITH IN CHRIST: BRINGS ONENESS TO ABRAHAM?S SEED. ?And if you are Christ?s, then are you :Abraham?s seed, heirs according to promise.? *Your Covenant Father, has placed us Gentiles into the root of Israel, into Christ, into Abraham. How privileged we are! What grace on our behalf! *And bring us not into temptation.* *7. 4:4-5 (4:1-7) CHILD UNDER LAW CONTRASTED WITH SONSHIP THROUGH SPIRIT. ?But when the fullness of time came, :God sent forth his :son, born of woman, born of law, 5 that he might redeem those under law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.? *Father, we can scarce believe and receive such grace! How You have favored us! Jew and Gentile are now equal in Christ! No wall of partition! * But deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE: 3:13-14 (3:10-14) THE NECESSITY OF CHRIST BECOMING A CURSE. ?Christ redeemed us from the curse of he law, having become a curse for us; because it is written, Accursed every one hanging on a tree: 14 that unto the nations might come the blessing of Abraham in Christ Jesus; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through :faith.? *Our souls are chastened before this revelation of the *great grace* of our Lord Jesus. Father, receive our humble thanks! *4:6-7 (4:1-7) GENTILE BLESSING THROUGH CHRIST. ?And because you are sons, :God sent forth the Spirit of his :Son into our :hearts, crying, Abba, the Father. 7 So that you are no longer bondman, but son; and if son, then heir through God.? *Sonship equals heirship. Sonship qualifies us for warfare. Sonship comes with the seventh beatitude. For sonship Father, we *hallow your :name!* *C.H. Spurgeon Quotes - ?Believe in the Bible? - *I am perfectly satisfied myself to believe what he writes to me; and if it be so written in his Book, it seems to me to be quite as true and sure as if he had actually come from heaven, and had talked with me, or had appeared to me in the visions of the night. *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Thu Feb 7 10:43:13 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Thu, 7 Feb 2013 10:43:13 -0800 Subject: Galatians 4:8-5:12 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* February 7, 2013 *SEP 1 - GALATIANS 4:8-5:12 - LOVE-SERVICE ENDS LAW-BONDAGE* *1. 4:10-11 (4:8-11, NNT) GALATIANS: TURNED BACK TO LAW-BONDAGE. ?You observe days and months and seasons and years. 11 I am afraid of you, lest somehow I have toiled over you in vain.? *Away with picayunish dabbling with carnal, unprofitable law-traditions! Father, help us to grow in maturity in Christ! *Hallowed be your :name!* *2. 4:16 (4:12-18) GALATIANS: REMINDED BY PAUL OF FIRST-LOVE. ?So then am I become your enemy, by telling you truth?? *Your Gospel of the Kingdom Father, frees us from legalism and convicts of sin. Our self-will rebels at Your Good News, all of grace, none of works! Father, *Jesus redeemed* us from self-will. We join Him in saying Yes! - to all Your will! *Your :kingdom come!* *3. 4:19-20. GALATIANS: CAUSE PAUL A SECOND TRAVAIL. ?My little children, of whom I am again in travail until Christ be formed in you - 20 but I could wish to be present with you now, and to change my :voice; for I am perplexed about you.? *How can You meet our daily needs if we are double-minded, ambivalent, like sea-waves tossed? Father, we renounce carnality, and choose *Your way* of maturity! We desire You not only to use us, but also to *endorse* us! *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth!* *4. 4:26-27 (4:21-31) GALATIANS: PAUL WOULD PERSUADE BY ALLEGORY. ?But the Jerusalem above is free, which is our mother, 27 For it is written, Rejoice, you barren that does not bear; Break forth and cry, you that do not travail: For more are the children of the desolate than of her that has the husband.? *Forgive us our low state of faith, Father! We believe: help our * unbelief*. Help us to forsake Hagar and choose Sarah. Help us to identify with Isaac, not Ishmael. We choose to forgive those who also walk the lowlands of little faith. *Our :daily :bread Give us this day.* *5. 5:1. GALATIANS: EXHORTED BY PAUL UNTO LIBERTY. ?For :freedom did Christ set us free: stand fast therefore, and be not entangled again in a yoke of bondage.? *What a carnal temptation! How prone we are to lapse into this low level! Father, lift our sights to heaven?s table-land. *And forgive our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 5:4 (5:2-6) GALATIANS: LAW CONTRASTED WITH FAITH WORKING BY LOVE. ?You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by law; you are fallen away from :grace.? *What an indictment! May none of us deserve such words. Only in the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus will we cling. *And bring us not into temptation.* *7. 5:9 (5:7-12) GALATIANS: WARNED AGAINST THE LEAVEN OF CIRCUMCISION. ?A little leaven leavens the whole lump.? *We would beware of the very * beginnings* of compromise with the pure Gospel of the grace of God. Father, clearly write on our hearts this truth, that we may truly honor You! *But deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE**: 5:6 (5:2-6) GALATIANS: NEED TO KNOW THIS TRUTH! **?For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision avails anything, nor uncircumcision; but faith working through love.? *This is one of the most significant verses of Scripture! Hear this: ?If you love Me, you *will* keep My commandments.? These are Your words of the Father, Lord Jesus! Father, in love we commit ourselves to walk in Your words in Christ! *SPECIAL OPPORTUNITY: *God has planned that each one of us be stewards over our own bodies. And if God has our bodies: our soul and spirit are automatically included, for our body is house for them. Perhaps a key verse for this is Romans 12:1. Jesus as Son of man offered His body to His Father as a Holocaust, a whole burnt offering. We, as members of His spiritual body, the One New Man, the church - need to join Him in this act, and offer our bodies to Him, not as a Levitical offering to be killed, but as a * living* offering, over which we reign as stewards on God?s behalf. One hears little of this teaching in the church, but it is God?s will in His Word, His Bible. One of the clearest messages on this challenge was given by Derek Prince back in the 80?s entitled, ?How Do You View Your Body?? You can see this sermon freely by doing a ?Google-search? on ?Derek Prince Youtube? - and clicking on the above title. It had a profound effect on a Fort Lauderdale congregation - perhaps 60% positively responding. It goes along with another of his messages there, ?God?s Medicine Bottle?. Between the two of them, you and I should not only end up in much better bodily health - but also be vibrant, active, productive, fruitful members of Christ?s spiritual body! I believe a number of you will respond. J.A.W. *C.H. Spurgeon Quotes: ?Christ Loves His Church and Let Us Do the Same.? *The church is not perfect, but woe to the man who finds pleasure in pointing out her imperfections. Christ loved his church, and let us do the same. I have no doubt that the Lord can see more fault in his church than I can; and I have equal confidence that he sees no fault at all. Because he covers her faults with his own love - that love which covers a multitude of sins; and he removes all her defilement with that precious blood which washes away all the transgressions of his people. *Our Psalm for the day: 61:5 (61, ESV) LEAD ME TO THE ROCK. ?For you, O God, have heard my vows; you have given me the heritage of those who fear your name.? *What more can we say Father, than David has said in this Psalm? Our hearts are filled with gratefulness to You. We see Your love unto us in Christ. Therefore with all of our hearts we say, *Hallowed be your :name!* *Subject and Division: *This Psalm is a pearl. It is little but precious. To many a mourner, it has furnished utterance when the mind could not have devised a speech for itself. It was evidently composed by David after he had come to the throne (see 61:6). The second verse leads us to believe that it was written during the Psalmist?s enforced exile from the tabernacle, which was the visible abode of God: if so, the period of Absalom?s rebellion has been most suitably suggested as the date of its authorship, and Delitzsch is correct in entitling it, ?Prayer and thanksgiving of an expelled King on his way back to his throne.? C.H.S. *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Fri Feb 8 12:08:58 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Fri, 8 Feb 2013 12:08:58 -0800 Subject: Galatians 5:13-6:10 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* February 8, 2013 *SEP 2 - GALATIANS 5:13-6:10 - SPIRIT-WALK TRIUMPHS OVER FLESH-WALK* *1. 5:13 (5:13-15, NNT) LOVE: FULFILLS THE LAW. ?For you, brethren, were called for freedom: only use not the freedom for an occasion to the flesh, but through love be bondmen one to another.? *Let God?s Kingdom come through righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Through contrition of heart, repentance and reconciliation, ever make us walk in Your ways of righteousness. Cursed be all deception that blurs this truth. *Hallowed be your :name!* *2. 5:16 (5:16-18) SPIRIT-WALK TRIUMPHS OVER FLESH-WALK. ?But I say, Walk in Spirit, and you shall in no wise fulfill the lust of the flesh.? *Here is Your will O Father, and Your provision and gracious promise. Your Spirit-walk is a Spirit-controlled life. We declare it! Your remnant shall surely walk in the pure truth. *Your :kingdom come!* *3. 5:19-21. FLESH-WALK: EXCLUDES FROM GOD?S KINGDOM! ?Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are: fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, wraths, factions, divisions, heresies, 21 envyings, drunkennesses, revelings, and the like of these: of which I forewarn you, as also I did forewarn, that they who practice such things shall not inherit God?s kingdom.? *We curse, repudiate and remove this evidence of the flesh-walk from our lives, that * You* Father might be vindicated and glorified. *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth!* *4. 5:22-23. SPIRIT-WALK: A REALM ABOVE LAW. ?But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness, self-control; against :such there is no law.? *O Father, blessed are *You*, who have infused Yourself into our spirit and heart through the Spirit of Your Son! Yes, and forgiven our sins, and granted us the grace through the fruit of the Spirit not only to forgive one another?s sins, but to love our enemies! *Our :daily :bread Give us this day!* *5. 5:24. FLESH CRUCIFIXION: PROVES CHRIST?S OWNERSHIP. ?And they of Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with the passions and the lusts.? *Father, open our eyes to see the walk of the man identified with Christ in His crucifixion. Tear away from our eyes deceptive blindness. As Nathan confronted David of his adulterous and murderous heart, strip us of all delusion and seduction of Satan, and bring us to the heart contrition of Psalm 51. *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors. * *6. 5:25 (5:25-26) SPIRIT-WALK: ITS LIFE AND NATURE. ?If we live by theSpirit, by the Spirit let us also walk.? *Father, we love righteousness and hate iniquity. Let not the enemy deceive, seduce and delude us into calling black, white. Show us that the same Spirit who gave us the Living Word, also gave the written Word, and that the two *always agree*! Show us that we listen to a lying spirit, an angel of light, when our unrighteousness is called holiness. *And bring us not into temptation.* *7. 6:1 (6:1-10) SPIRITUAL PEOPLE: MEEKLY RESTORE FALLEN ONES. ?Brethren, even if a man be overtaken in any trespass, you the spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; looking to yourself, lest you also be tempted.? *Father, we see our brother and sister deceived by Satan like Eve in the garden. Breaking Your Word will surely cause us to die! Then You give us up (Romans 1:24, 26, 28). As you sought the one lost sheep: seek, save and restore the lost through us! *But deliver us from the evil one.* *NOTE**: 6:7-8 (6:1-10) A REAPING OF CONTRAST! **?Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatever a man sows, that shall he also reap. 8 Because who sows unto his own :flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but who sows unto the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap eternal life.? *We humble ourselves in heart-contrition, repent, and like the prodigal, return to You! *C.H. Spurgeon Quotes: ?He Cares for the Little?. *To suppose that temporal things are too little for our condescending God, is to forget that he observes the flight of sparrows, and counts the hairs of his people?s heads. Besides, everything is so little to him, that, if he does not care for the little, he cares for nothing. *Our Psalm for the day - 62:8 (62, ESV) THE SOUL WAITS FOR GOD ALONE. ?Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us.? *Father, You alone understand the human heart and the ways of man. Reveal how prone to deception we are! Show us that in our flesh dwells *no good thing*. Teach us to have *no confidence in the flesh*. Father, we *hallow Your :name* by resolving *always* to walk in the paths of righteousness. *Title: *?To the Chief Musician, to Jeduthun.? This is the second Psalm which is dedicated to Jeduthun, or Ethan, the former one being the Thirty-Ninth, a Psalm which is almost a twin with this in many respects, containing in the original the word translated *only* four times as this does six. 62:7. *In God is my salvation and my glory. *Wherein should we glory but in Him Who saves us? Our honor may well be left with Him who secures our souls. To find all in God and to glory that it is so is one of the sure marks of an enlightened soul. 62:8. *Trust in Him at all times.* Faith is an abiding duty, a perpetual privilege. We should trust when we can see as well as when we are utterly in the dark. 62:9. *To be laid in the balance, they are altogether lighter than vanity.*A feather has some weight in the scale; vanity has none, and creature confidence has less than that: yet such is the universal infatuation that mankind prefer an arm of flesh to the power of the invisible but almighty Creator; and even God?s own children are too apt to be bitten with this madness. 62:10. *If riches increase, set not your heart upon them. *To bow an immortal spirit to the constant contemplation of fading possessions is extreme folly. Shall those who call the Lord their glory, glory in yellow earth? Shall the image and superscription of Caesar deprive them of communion with Him Who is the image of the invisible God? As we must not rest in men, so neither must we repose in money. Gain and fame are only so much foam of the sea. 62:12. *Also unto You, O Lord, belongs mercy.* God is so full of mercy that it belongs to Him, as if all the mercy in the universe came from God and still was claimed by Him as His possession. *(From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller) * * * *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Sat Feb 9 10:40:07 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Sat, 9 Feb 2013 10:40:07 -0800 Subject: God's Medicine Bottle - Part "B" Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* February 9, 2013 *2013-02-08 - GOD?S MEDICINE BOTTLE - PART B* *PROVERBS 4:20-23, ESV - GOD?S MEDICINE BOTTLE* *My son, be attentive to my words;* beNIH lid-b*a*RAY hakSHEYv*a*h; *incline your ear to my sayings.* la-a-m*a*RAY hat - *a*-zeN*E*ch*a*. *21 Let them not escape from your sight;* al - yalLIYz*u* m*e*-*e*yNEYch*a;* *keep them within your heart.* sh*a*-meR*E*M beTH*O*CH le-v*a*VEcha. *22 For they are life to those who find them,* CIY - chayYIYM h*e*m le-m*o*ts-*e*yHEM, *and healing (medicine) to all their flesh.* V*U*le-c*a*l - be-s*a*R*O* marP*E*. *23 Keep your heart with all vigilance,* MIc*a*l - mishM*A*R neTS*O*R libBEc*a*, *for from it flow the springs of life.* CIY - mimMENn*u* t*o*-tse*O*TH chayYIYM. *GOD?S MEDICINE BOTTLE - PART A - was mailed out on January 30, 2013. * *Derek Prince was saved in the British Army in 1941, and baptized in the Holy Spirit at approximately the same time. He was a Cambridge Don at the time he was drafted, and had recently written his Master?s dissertation on the works of Plato, having read every word of this author in the original Latin. He had turned philosopher because religion in the Church of England of his day was dry and theological.* *He was soon drafted from England to North Africa. There he contracted Chronic Eczema, and was so crippled, that he went through 4 military hospitals, none of which could help him.* *As a new believer, he then turned to God?s Bible to see if there might be any help there. He had plenty of time to read. When he came across Proverbs 4:20-22, he knew he had found definite hope.* *In ?God?s Medicine Bottle? Part A - I gave an overview how he found full healing in just a few months? time. I added 10 Scriptures on healing to meditate upon three times a day following meals to help others to receive the same help Prince received. Now in Part ?B? I am giving in more detail the 4 steps on the ?Bottle? how to activate this truth for you and me too.* *It would be good to memorize these verses if you too are looking to God through His Word to receive physical help of some nature. They encourage one how to take God?s Word as Medicine. The directions are on the Bottle - 4 steps three times a day following meals.* *One. Be attentive to my words! In a few months, Derek was totally healthy in every part of his body! He understood that he must give his undivided attention to this discipline. He was not to do two things at the same time. Children often do homework with the TV on! No! Or some use background music with reading. Not Derek. This one thing he did. All of the Bible is engaged in this, and is the key to healing. We are to take heed what and how we listen. * *Exodus 15:26 - God tells Israel that if they will diligently listen. The Hebrew would say - ?Listen while listening? - a double emphasis. We are to listen with both ears - to concentrate - a key. * *Romans 10:17 came with power to Derek. He didn?t know how to grow faith, but here he saw - faith comes! We are to listen carefully - then faith develops. It all depends how one apprehends God?s Word - it is to be with both ears. Many read the Bible and never hear God - because they are divided in their hearing. But if we develop hearing - then we can also develop faith! We are to have the right attitude to the Word of God! By this we attend!* *Two. Incline your ear to my sayings! This means to bend down. But to bend the ear, one must first bend the head! This is an attitude of humility, of teach-ability! Or - we could listen, but shake our head at God?s promises. We could read Psalm 103:3, where God promises to heal all our diseases, but think - ?Too good to be true? - and shake our head. We could also think- ?Impossible - not even God could do that!* *God spoke to Derek when he shook his head and said, ?Who is the pupil and who is the Teacher?? ?You are the Teacher,? Derek replied. ?Then let Me teach you,? said the Lord. ?Give up your prejudices, and bend your head.?* *James 1:18-21 - Here we read that God of His own will begot us into a living faith. He initiated this. So we ought to be swift to hear, but slow to speak (2 ears, but one mouth). In meekness we should receive the en-grafted word! A naughty child talks back - we are not to do this with God?s Word. Most of us have ?barriers? when we read the Bible. We judge and choose from the Bible. No - we are to take it all! All Scripture is inspired of God - and is profitable! We are to be open - the age of miracles is not past. Nowhere in Scripture does it say this. True - denominations and theologians say so - but this is contrary to Scripture! * *Or take Job - should we be holy and poor? But if like Job God wants you to be rich, accept it. Bend the stiff neck. It is essential we receive God?s Word and not reject it. God is bigger than our understanding!* *Three**. Let **them not escape from your sight. Focus with both eyes on the object. Some animals can?t - but we humans can! It is healthy to focus both eyes on one image, and not have a blurred vision. Some of us have blurred spiritual vision. Derek Prince started out this way and saw a ?mist?. This was the way religion appeared to him, and he tended to carry this over into his Christian life.* *Luke 11:34 tells us that the light of the body is the eye. We are to have a single eye - that is a single image by focusing both eyes. Then health can come to the whole body. Then there is no darkness and the body is full of light. Sickness is in the dark - but this flees away in the light. Righteousness and healing come because of light! So - let us bow down our stiff neck to receive. Prejudice and preconceptions must go! Jesus didn?t quote experts as did the rabbis. We are to respond to Scripture simply - accept them for what they say! We are to be unsophisticated, unphilosophical and untheological. Let God in His Word mean what He wants to mean, and say what He wants to say!* *Or - we can choose to remain clever - and sick. Or- be simple - and get healed. Let our eye be simple - not too profound - and have a better chance with God. There is a way that doesn?t help our faith!* *1 Corinthians 1:25 - The foolishness of God is wiser than men! The Cross of Christ - is the Wisdom of God! 1 Corinthians 3:18 - Don?t deceive yourself. Are we wise? better to be a fool. A valley of humility is between God and us. Application: Don?t let the Word depart from your eyes!* *Four**. **Keep them within your heart (that is, God?s words). And - in wise teaching techniques - use all available Gates. A child needs to hear(ear Gate); see (eye Gate); and do (action Gate). The Word won?t activate - till it moves from the head to the heart! Medicine won?t help the body till it moves into the blood stream. So all the above 3 directions are necessary for effective learning. We depend on this. And Proverbs 4:23 is possibly the most powerful verse in the Bible. Guard your heart with all your strength - for - all things in life come out of the heart! This is profound! It is essential to have a right heart! The course of life depends on this.* *So - get the Word into the heart - and - keep it there - in the midst of the heart. Let God?s Word be always in the central part of the heart!* *Now - see a parallel New Testament verse - Hebrews 4:12, which shows the nature of God?s Word and how it acts. The Word of God is living and active(NAS). It judges thoughts and intentions of the heart. It PENETRATES! Only God?s Word does this. It divides between soul and spirit, and not even we can do this - and of the joints and marrow - the most special part of the body, where red blood cells are manufactured. The Word penetrates the entire physical body, as well as our two-fold spiritual make-up. There is no area of man that can?t be touched by the Word!Don?t quibble and theorize - or rationalize. Accept God?s Word at face value - and see what it can do!* *Conclusion**: So - take ?Part B? of God?s Medicine Bottle, and add it to ?Part A?. Together they will launch each one of us into a dimension for our body that is entirely consistent with the Bible. Do all accept this? Of course not! But the wise in heart will hear, will apply, and will reap! The others will watch, but will not profit. **J.A.W.* *P.S. By all means do a ?Google-Search? on ?Derek Prince YouTube?. Then find and click on ?God?s Medicine Bottle?. There you will both hear and see Derek Prince delivering this presentation in a 5-fold way of about 12 minutes for each section. If it does for you what it has done for me and Derek, I know that you too will enter into the ?Halls of Highest Human Happiness? and experience healing for your body in areas where you need it. * *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Sun Feb 10 10:34:03 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Sun, 10 Feb 2013 10:34:03 -0800 Subject: Galatians 6:11-18 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* February 10, 2013 *SEP 3 - GALATIANS 6:11-18 - FINAL DOCTRINAL APPEAL* *1. 6:11, NNT. PAUL: POINTS OUT HIS LETTER?S PERSONAL NATURE. ** ?See with how large letters I have written you with my own hand.? * Not often O Lord, did your servant write in his own hand. Let our love and concern for Your people and Kingdom, be as Paul?s! O may we give ourselves to You and others in self-denial, cross-bearing, and following as Your Kingdom servants.* **Hallowed be your :name! * *2. 6:12 (6:12-13) PAUL: POINTS OUT TRUE NATURE OF CIRCUMCISION. ** ?As many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh, compel you to be circumcised; only that they be not persecuted for the cross of :Christ Jesus.? *O let us not hold back from full surrender because of fear of identification with the complete message of the Gospel of the Kingdom. *Your :kingdom come!* *3. 6:14. PAUL?S GLORYING: THE CROSS OF CHRIST. **?But far be it from me to glory, save in the cross of our :Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.? * We renounce the right of the world to rule over us! We identify ourselves with Your cause and Your Cross, O Lord! *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.* *4. 6:15. PAUL: MAGNIFIES CHRIST?S NEW CREATION. ** ?For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.?* Thank you Lord for what You accomplished for us legally at Calvary. Thank You that through the Holy Spirit You work this in us and through us vitally. Thank You Father, that this lays the righteous base for Your great gift of ?forgiveness? to each of us upon our repentance and faith. * **Our :daily :bread Give us this day!* *5. 6:16. PAUL: BLESSES THOSE WHO WALK BY THIS RULE. ** ?And as many as shall walk by this rule, peace upon them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of :God.? * How great is Your mercy O Lord: to the Jews, to the Gentiles, and to the Church of God. You have not forgotten nor forsaken Israel, for a remnant even now honors You, and more to come! O may we all walk in New Creation truths! *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors!* *6. 6:17. PAUL: AN ODD CONCLUSION.** ?Henceforth let no one trouble me; for I bear on my :body the marks of :Jesus.?* And now, what shall we say? Persecution for the Gospel of the Kingdom came to Paul physically. Not all experienced this. But Lord, if Your will leads some of us this same way, Your will be done! *And lead us not into temptation!* *7. 6:18. PAUL: APOSTOLIC BENEDICTION**. ?The grace of our :Lord Jesus Christ be with your :spirit, brethren. Amen.?* O Father, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, blessed be Your Name. But deliver us from the evil one! *NOTE: C.H. Spurgeon Quotes: *?Regeneration? - Those who are saved by God the Holy Spirit are created anew according to Scripture; but who ever dreamed of creation creating itself? God spoke the world out of nothing, but nothing did not aid in the creation of the universe. Divine energy can do everything, but what can nothing do? Now if we have a new creation, there must have been a creator, and it is clear that being then spiritually created, we could not have assisted in our own new creation, unless, indeed, death can assist life, and non-existence aid in creation. *Our Psalm for the day: 63:1-2 (63, ESV) MY SOUL THIRSTS FOR YOU. * *?O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. 2 So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory.? * Lord, as our hearts reach out after You as men like David, people after Your own heart: so shall we be people who hallow your :name! 63:3-4. *?Because your steadfast love (CHEsed) is better than life, my lips will praise you. 4 So I will bless you as long as I live; in your name I will lift up my hands.? *Praise becomes You, O Jehovah! Your Covenant love is better than the life of body, soul and spirit; for if we die, yet shall we live again! Amen and Amen! *Title:* ?A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah.? This was probably written while David was fleeing from Absalom; certainly at the time he wrote it he was king (verse 11), and hard pressed by those who sought his life. The distinguishing word of this Psalm is ?Early.? When the bed is the softest, we are most tempted to rise at lazy hours, but when comfort is gone, and the couch is hard, if we rise the earlier to seek the Lord, we have much for which to thank the wilderness. 63:1 *Early will I seek You. * Possession breeds desire. Full assurance is no hindrance to diligence but is the mainspring of it. How can I seek another man?s God? But it is with ardent desire that I seek after Him Whom I know to be my own. Observe the eagerness implied in the time mentioned; he will not wait for noon or the cool eventide; he is up at cock-crowing to meet his God. *My soul thirsts for You.* Thirst is an insatiable longing after that which is one of the most essential supports of life; there is no reasoning with it, no forgetting it, no despising it, no overcoming it by stoical indifference. Thirst will be heard; the whole man must yield to its power; even thus is it with that divine desire which the grace of God creates in regenerate men. 63:3. *Because Your lovingkindness is better than life.* To dwell with God is better than life at its best; life at ease, in a palace, in health, in honor, in wealth, in pleasure; yes, a thousand lives are not equal to the eternal life which abides in Jehovah?s smile. 63:4 *I will lift up my hands in Your name. ** *No hands need hang down when God draws near in love. The name of Jesus has often made lame men leap as a hart and it has made sad men clap their hands for joy. 63:11 *But the mouth of them that speak lies shall be stopped.* And the sooner the better. If shame will not do it, nor fear, nor reason, then let them be stopped with the sexton?s shove-full of earth; for a liar is a human devil, he is the curse of men, and accursed of God, who has comprehensively said, ?All liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone.? See the difference between the mouth that praises God and the mouth that forges lies: the first shall never be stopped, but shall sing on forever; the second shall be made speechless at the bar of God. *(From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Tue Feb 12 12:58:34 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2013 12:58:34 -0800 Subject: Issachar Update Message-ID: *ISSACHAR UPDATE - Fruit of the Spirit - First Nations People - 2011-06-22* *1. Galatians 5:22-23 (5:16-24) ISSACHAR LINKED WITH FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT. ?But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against :such there is no law.? *When members of the First Nations People walk in the fullness of Christ, this 9-fold fruit of the Spirit shines through their lives in a special manner. Each of Israel's 12 tribes have a particular and unique manifestation. Each of us as individuals are likewise linked, as well as individual local churches, city churches, areas and nations. *Hallowed be your :name.* *2. Matthew 21:2 (21:1-7) ISSACHAR LINKED WITH A DONKEY. ?Jesus said to them, Go into the village that is over against you, and straightway you shall find an ass (donkey) tied, and a colt with her: loose them, and bring to me.? *In the high Andes of South America - nightfall comes suddenly. Often a missionary then has not the time to direct his donkey home. Instead he loosens the reins, and the wise little beast safely brings his master home in the dark over narrow and precipitous trails. *Your :kingdom come.* *3. Genesis 49:14-15 (49:1-27) ISSACHAR AND HIS FATHER'S PROPHETIC WORD. ?Issachar is a strong ass (donkey), Couching down between the sheepfolds: 15And he saw a resting-place that it was good, And the land that it was pleasant; And he bowed his shoulder to bear, and became a servant under task-work.? *A donkey has a servant spirit, and is a faithful beast of burden. So too is Issachar. So too are the First Nations People. So too are those of us who are genetically matched with these two spirits. Jesus too was a *perfect* servant as Son of man to His Heavenly Father. *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.* *4. Deuteronomy 33:18 (33:1-29) ISSACHAR & ZEBULUN CONTRASTED. ?And of Zebulun he said, Rejoice, Zebulun, in your going out; And, Issachar, in your tents.? *Though Issachar and Zebulun were full brothers, yet their genetic constitution produced two entirely different sons to Jacob! The younger Zebulun was a traveler, and Issachar one who stayed at home. It is interesting to note that just as Issachar dwelt in tents, so the First Nations People lived in tents or tipis. *Our :daily :bread Give us this day. * *5. Exodus 28:17 (28:15-30) ISSACHAR AND THE YELLOW TOPAZ. ?And you shall set in the breast-plate of judgment settings of stone, four rows of stones: a row of sardius, topaz, and carbuncle shall be the first row.? *The yellow saffron robes of many Asian monks set forth the wisdom with which they were supposed to be endowed. This *certainly* applied to Issachar. His history shows forth his inherent wisdom. And the First Nations People likewise have this potential deposit. *And forgive us our :debts, As we have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 1 Chronicles 12:32 (12:23-37) ISSACHAR: ONE WITH UNDERSTANDING OF TIMES. ?And of the children of Issachar, men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do, the heads of them were two hundred; and all their brethren were at their commandment.? *It is not everyone that can look at the times, and be enabled to interpret for others the significance of the specific times in which one lives. Issachar could! And the members of the First Nations People have this insight. See ?Dances with Wolves?, and how the elder leaders had this wisdom for their tribe! * **And bring us not into temptation.* *7. Judges 10:1-2 ISSACHAR: PRODUCED ONE OF THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL. ?And after Abimelech there arose to save Israel Tola the son of Puah, the son of Dodo, a man of Issachar; and he lived in Shamir in the hill-country of Ephraim. 2 And he judged Israel twenty and three years, and died, and was buried in Shamir.? *For 23 years Tola of Issachar rose up to judge Israel. He saved Israel in the days of judgment brought on because of the sins of the people. 7 major times in the book of Judges, God brought on judgment because of sin; and 7 times he raised up judges for deliverance. *But deliver us from the evil one.* *NOTE**:* Everything in the OT God has designed in the form of types and shadows for us in NT times, both Jews and Gentiles in the One New Man. How blessed we are by our God for this 4000 years of pre-Christian history! As I have studied the 12 tribes of Israel since 1949, I have noted the rich lessons built into their history. Dr. C.W. Slemming of England introduced this challenge to us in Chicago, by coming dressed in the full garb of Aaron the High Priest. It was especially the Breastplate of Judgment with its 12 stones inscribed upon with the names of Israel's 12 tribes - that captivated me. His book, ?These Are the Garments,? opened my eyes to a treasure that has remained with me to this day - howbeit with many additions. In 1963 through the works of Dr. Tim LaHaye I added the 12 Temperaments to this. In 1967 I found the 12 NT Greek Word series for each of them. And Later I divided the world into its 5 major continents, 4 major countries and 3 major cultural division, making up another segment of 12. It was at this time I felt led to see Issachar linked with the First Nations People. It seems to me that God has reserved them for these last days like Benjamin of old in the latter part of the Book of Judges. When they like Benjamin are restored to both a giving and receiving role in our world of 12, I believe we will see God's last great Visitation taking place just prior to the return of His Son our Savior Jesus - as Lord of lords and King of kings. As a help in understanding God's purposes and thinking in this direction, let me recommend the reading of ?One Church, Many Tribes? by Richard Twiss - <*www.wiconi.com**> *- and ?Warfare by Honor?, a Handbook on Protocol by Suuqiina and Quamaniq, PO Box 1088, Victorville CA 92393; Tel: 615-424-7448; * - *- Jim Watt 2013-02-12 - I have a sad note to add to this mailing. Last Wednesday Richard Twiss at the age of approximately 59 I believe, suffered a massive heart attack. There was hope however for a while by his doctors that they might pull him through. However last Saturday 2013-02-09 - Richard went Home to His eternal rest and reward. Thursday & Friday, August 20/21, 2009, I spoke to leaders at Vancouver WA for the 4 kay Cascadia cities: SeaTac; Vancouver, B.C., Portland/Vancouver and Spokane. Jerry Chapman of the Chinook tribe led in "First Nations Protocol", and presented to me as the Key-Note speaker a handmade Indian necklace, and "Dancing Our Prayers" by Richard L. Twiss, Rosebud Lacota/Sioux. I suppose I have read it some dozen times. It is "Perspective on Syncretism, Critical Contextualization and Cultural Practices in First Nations Ministry." It is worth its weight in gold. I followed up by procuring his "One Church - Many Tribes" - also a most valuable insight. I did not make actual acquaintanceship with Richard. My prayers are with his wife Katherine and 4 sons, plus leaders of so many tribes that he had helped into the balanced approach that he so ably presented. Heaven is richer, but we are the poorer. May God raise up a mighty army to take his place. As you can observe in the above study on "Issachar" - I have a very warm place in my heart and prayers for "First Nations People". I know a number of you will join with me in entreating our Triune God to fill up the gap left by Richard. J. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Wed Feb 13 11:14:39 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Wed, 13 Feb 2013 11:14:39 -0800 Subject: Ephesians 1:1-14 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* *SEP 4 - EPHESIANS 1:1-14 - NINE BLESSINGS IN CHRIST* *1. 1:1-2 (NNT). BLESSINGS OF AN APOSTLE: GRACE AND PEACE. ?Paul, apostle of Christ Jesus through God?s will, to the saints that are at Ephesus and faithful in Christ Jesus: 2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father andthe Lord Jesus Christ.? *Praise be unto You our Father, Ruler of the universe, Who has so abundantly blessed us with grace and peace. *Hallowed be your :name.* *2. 1:3-4. BLESSING OF GOD: HIS PURPOSES. ?Blessed the God and Father of our :Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ: 4 even as he chose us in him before the world?s foundation, that we be holy and without blemish before him in love? *This is Your will, Father. We humbly and joyfully submit. *Your :kingdom come!* *3. 1:5-6. BLESSING OF SONSHIP. ?having foreordained us unto adoption as sons through Jesus Christ unto himself, according to the good pleasure of his :will, 6 to the praise of the glory of his :grace, which he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved:? *Father, all good things You have given us in Christ Jesus! *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.* *4. 1:7-8. BLESSING OF UNITY. ?in whom we have the redemption through his :blood, the forgiveness of :trespasses, according to the riches of his :grace, 8 which he made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence,? *O Father, our hearts are chastened within us at the picture of the Atoning work of Jesus Christ on Calvary! *Our :daily :bread Give us this day!* *5. 1:9-10. BLESSING OF REDEMPTION. ?having made known to us the mystery of his :will, according to his :good pleasure which he purposed in him 10 unto a dispensation of the fullness of the seasons, to sum up :all things in the Christ, those upon the heavens, and those upon the earth; in him? *O the majesty and fullness of Your purpose on behalf of all creation, Father! What confidence we have in you! *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 1:11-12. BLESSING OF INHERITANCE. ?in whom also we were made a heritage, foreordained according to the purpose of him who works :all things after the counsel of his :will; 12 that we be unto praise of his glory, we who had before hoped in the Christ:? *What is Satan in the light of Your Glorious Majesty, Father? You make even the wrath of man to praise You! *And bring us not into temptation!* *7. 1:13 (1:13-14) BLESSING OF THE PLEDGE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. ?in whom you also, having heard the word of the truth, the gospel of your :salvation, - in whom, having also believed, you were sealed with the Holy :Spirit of the promise,? *Father, in Christ You provide first the blood; then secondly in the Holy Spirit You give the oil. *But deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE**: 1:14 (1:13-14) GOD?S DOWN-PAYMENT ON OUR BEHALF: THE HOLY SPIRIT! **?which is an earnest of our :inheritance, unto redemption of the possession, unto praise of his :glory.? *Father, You dwell in us in Christ through the Holy Spirit. We are sealed with Your ownership. We are Your house. We are Your temple, Christ?s body, building, bride, One New Man, army! *Hallowed be your :name!* *C.H. Spurgeon Quotes: ?Majority?. *Some people say, ?Why, you are in such a small minority!? Yes, yes; but as a general rule minorities are right. Up until now, the majority has never been on the side of Christ, the majority has never been for God, the majority has never been with the truth. *Our Psalm for the day: 64:10 (64, ESV) HIDE ME FROM THE WICKED. ?Let the righteous one rejoice in the LORD and take refuge in him! Let all the upright in heart exult!? *Our confidence is not misplaced in You, O Father! You in Christ have provided for all our needs as sons and daughters of the Most High. You are bringing *many* sons into Glory! *Hallowed be your :name! * A Psalm of David. His life was one of conflict, and very seldom does he finish a Psalm without mentioning his enemies; in this instance his thoughts are wholly occupied with prayer against them. 64:1. *Hear my voice, O God, in my prayer.* We do not read that Moses had spoken with his lips at the Red Sea, and yet the Lord said to him, ?Why do you cry unto Me?? Prayers which are unheard on earth may be among the best heard in heaven. It is our duty to note how constantly David turns to prayer; it is his battle axe and weapon of war. 64:3. *And bend their bows to shoot their arrows, even bitter words.* They studiously and with force prepare their speech as bended bows, and then with cool, deliberate aim, they let fly the shaft which they have dipped in bitterness. To sting, to inflict anguish, to destroy, is their one design. 64:3-4. We saw in the Museum at Venice an instrument with which one of the old Italian tyrants was accustomed to shoot poisoned needles at the objects of his wanton malignity. We thought of gossips, backbiters, and secret slanderers, and wished that their mischievous devices might come to a speedy end. Their weapons of innuendo, shrug, and whisper, appear to be as insignificant as needles; but the venom which they instill is deadly to many a reputation. ?*Feathers for Arrows.?* 63:4. *That they may shoot in secret at the perfect. *Sincere and upright conduct will not secure us from the assaults of slander. The devil shot at our Lord Himself, and we may rest assured he has a fiery dart in reserve for us. *Suddenly do they shoot at him, and fear not.* We have seen in daily life the arrow of calumny wounding its victim sorely; and yet we have not been able to discover the quarter from which the weapon was shot, nor to detect the hand which forged the arrowhead or tinged it with poison. Is it possible for justice to invent a punishment sufficiently severe to meet the case of the dastard who defiles my good name and remains himself in concealment? An open liar is an angel compared with this demon. Vipers and cobras are harmless and amiable creatures compared with such a reptile. The devil himself might blush at being the father of so base an offspring. 63:5. *They encourage themselves in an evil matter. *Good men are frequently discouraged and not infrequently discourage one another, but the children of darkness are wise in their generation and keep their spirits up, and each one has a cheering word to say to his fellow villain. *They commune of laying snares privately. *They know the benefit of cooperation and are not sparing in it; they pour their experience into one common fund; they teach each other fresh methods. *They say, Who shall see them? *They forget the all-seeing eye and the all-discovering hand, which are ever hard by them. Therefore, fear not, you tremblers; for the Lord is at your right hand, and you shall not be hurt by the enemy. 64:8. *All that see them shall flee away. *Who cares to go near to Herod when the worms are eating him? or to be in the same chariot with Pharaoh when the waves roar around him? Those who crowded around a powerful persecutor and cringed at his feet are among the first to desert him in the day of wrath. Woe unto you, you liars! Who will desire fellowship with you in your seething lake of fire? 64:9. *And all men shall fear, and shall declare the work of God. *So strange, so pointed, so terrible shall be the Lord?s overthrow of the malicious, that it shall be spoken of in all companies. *(From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* * * *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Mon Feb 18 13:06:38 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Mon, 18 Feb 2013 13:06:38 -0800 Subject: Ephesians 1:1-15-2:10 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* * * *SEP 5 - EPHESIANS 1:15-2:10 - VISION MOTIVATES* *1. 1:17-18 (1:15-18, NNT) VISION OF OUR VALUE IN GOD?S EYES. ?that the God of our :Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of the glory, give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in knowledge of him; 18 having the eyes of the heart :enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of his :calling, what the riches of the glory of his :inheritance in the saints.? *We wait upon Your Kingdom Father, the revelation of Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit. *Hallowed be your :name!* *2. 1:19-20 (1:19-23) VISION OF CHRIST AND HIS POWER. ?and what the exceeding greatness of his :power toward us who believe, according to that working of the strength of his :might 20 which we worked in the Christ, when he raised him for the dead, and made him to sit at his right in the heavenlies.? *We submit to your purpose Father, even as You have revealed it by Your Spirit through Paul. *Your :kingdom come.* *3. 2:3 (2:1-3) VISION: OUR FORMER CONDITION. ?Among whom we also all once lived in the lusts of our :flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the thoughts, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.? *Father, You have lifted us *all* out of a miry pit, and set out feet on a solid Rock, even Christ Jesus our Lord! In Him You meet *all* of our spiritual needs! *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.* *4. 2:4-5. VISION: GOD HAS MADE US ALIVE IN CHRIST. ?But :God, being rich in mercy, for his great :love which which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead through the trespasses made us live together with the Christ (by grace have you been saved),? *Forgiveness belongs unto You Father. We were dead in sin and trespasses, but now in Christ we are alive! Praise be unto you, O Lord! *Our :daily :bread Give us this day.* *5. 2:6-7. VISION: WE ARE WITH CHRIST ON HIS THRONE! ?and raised us up with him, and made us to sit with him in the heavenlies, in Christ Jesus: 7 that in the ages :to come he might show the exceeding riches of his :grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus:? *Our hearts are overwhelmed at such grace! Who are we that You should in Christ lavish such mercy and grace upon us? *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 2:8-9. VISION: SALVATION IS ALL OF GRACE. ?for by :grace have you been saved through faith; and this not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not of works that no one should glory.? *Sovereign Grace: *This* is Your gift Father, and this is our *heritage* in Christ. We are of all people least deserving. But *You* have chosen to love us in our unworthy state! *And bring us not into temptation.* *7. 2:10. VISION: WE ARE GOD?S WORKMANSHIP UNTO GOOD WORKS. ?For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus upon good works, which :God afore prepared that we should walk in them.? *We are nothing apart from Christ. In Him You have made us a new creation, Father. What more can we do but give You all praise and glory and honor and power! *But deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE**: 1:21-23 (1:15-2:10) VISION: THE MAJESTY GIVEN TO CHRIST BY THE FATHER! **?Now he is far above all rule, and authority, and power, and dominion, and every name named not only in this :age, but also in the oneto come: 22 and he put all things in subjection under his :feet, and gave him for a head over all things to the church, 23 which is his :body, the fullness of him that fills :all in all.? **Majesty*! Worship His *Majesty*! That is all we can do in the light of such revelation! *C.H. Spurgeon Quotes: ?No Sin Whatsoever? - *Even if a man had no other sin whatever, it is quite sufficient to condemn him for ever, that he neglects his God and turns away from his Savior; for unbelief is an act of high treason against the divine majesty, plucking at the crown jewel of Jehovah?s truthfulness. *?Can God Change?? - *We read in Scripture of several instance where God apparently changed, but I think the observation of the old Puritan explains all these: he says, ?God may will a change, but he cannot change his will.? *?Mothers ? ? - *You are as much serving God in looking after your own children, and training them up in God?s fear, and minding the house, and making your household a church for God, as you would be if you had been called to lead an army to battle for the Lord of hosts.? *Our Psalm for the Day: 65:2 (65, ESV) O GOD OF OUR SALVATION. ?O you who hears prayer to you shall all flesh come.? *First of all Father, we can * absolutely* depend on You as the One who answers prayer! And then, there are no atheists in fox-holes! When any one of us of flesh find we are up against the end, we come to You, and are *not* turned away! You give your rain and sun to the just and unjust alike - you are good to Your enemies, and command us to do the same. *Hallowed be your :name!* 64:1. *Praise waits for You, O God, in Zion. *Those who have seen in Zion the blood of sprinkling, and know themselves to belong to the church of the first-born, can never think of her without presenting humble praise to Zion?s God. We shall continue to wait on, tuning our harps, amid the tears of earth; but, oh, what harmonies will those be which we will pour forth when the home-bringing is come and the King shall appear in His glory. Certainly when the soul is most filled with adoring awe, she is least content with her own expressions and feels most deeply how inadequate are all mortal songs to proclaim the divine goodness. 65:2. *O You that hears prayer. *This is Your name, Your nature, Your glory. God not only has heard, but is now hearing prayer, and always must hear prayer, since He is an immutable Being and never changes in His attributes. David evidently believed in a personal God and did not adore a mere idea or abstraction. *Unto you shall all flesh come. *To come to God is the life of true religion; we come weeping in conversion, hoping in supplication, rejoicing in praise, and delighting in service. False gods must in due time lose their deluded votaries, for man when enlightened will not be longer be-fooled; but each one who tries the true God is encouraged by his own success to persuade others also, and so the kingdom of God comes to men, and men come to it. 65:4. *Blessed is the man who You choose, and cause to approach unto You. *Christ, Whom God chose, and of Whom He said, ?This is My beloved Son in Whom I am well pleased,? is, indeed, ?over all, God blessed forever?; but in Him His elect are blessed, too. For His sake, not for our own, are we chosen; in Him, not in ourselves, are we received by God, being accepted in the Beloved; and, therefore, in Him are we blessed: He is our blessing. To crown all, we do not come nigh in peril of dire destruction, as Nadab and Abihu did, but we approach as chosen and accepted ones, to become dwellers in the divine household: this is heaped-up blessedness, vast beyond conception. *(From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Tue Feb 19 11:34:35 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Tue, 19 Feb 2013 11:34:35 -0800 Subject: Ephesians 2:11-2:21 Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* February 19, 2013 *SEP 6 - EPHESIANS 2:11-3:21 - REVELATION: THE MYSTERY CHURCH* *1. 2:12 (2:11-12, NNT) CHURCH: ONCE UNATTAINABLE FOR NATIONS. ?that you were at that :season apart from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of :Israel, and strangers to the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world.? *You have Sovereignly set Israel aside temporarily Father, until the fullness of Gentiles is grafted into Your Tree of Life. Today in the Church, Jew and Gentile are one. *Hallowed be your :name.* *2. 2:13. CHURCH: MADE POSSIBLE FOR NATIONS THROUGH CHRIST. ?But now in Christ Jesus you that once were far off are become nigh in the blood of the Christ.? **Reconciliation*: through the blood of Your Son, Father! Then alive in the Holy Spirit! First the blood; then the oil! *Your :kingdom come.* *3. 2:14-15 (2:14-18) CHURCH: BOTH JEW AND NATIONS RECONCILED IN CHRIST. For HE is our :peace, who made :both one, and broke down the middle wall of the partition, 15 having abolished in his :flesh the enmity, the law of the commandments contained in ordinances; that he might create in himself of the two one new man, making peace;? *Father, You have made Jesus our peace, reconciling both Jew and Gentile in Himself. *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.* *4. 2:19-20 (2:19-22) CHURCH: FOUNDED ON APOSTLES AND PROPHETS. ?So then you are no more strangers and sojourners, but are fellow-citizens with the saints, and of :God?s household, 20 being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being chief corner stone;? *What grace, Father! *Jesus*, the chief cornerstone, builds Jew and Gentile together into *one* holy habitation for God! We all share in the Covenant of God. *Our :daily :bread Give us this day!* *5. 3:10-11 (3:1-13) CHURCH MYSTERY: NATIONS FELLOW-HEIRS WITH JEWS. ?in order that now unto the principalities and the powers in the heavenlies be made known through the church the manifold wisdom of God, 11 according to a plan of the ages which he made in the Christ, Jesus our Lord:? *Father, Satan and all his princes and demons shall know Your wisdom through us, Your Church! You will not suffer them to tempt us above what we are able to bear, but will make a way of escape for us. *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 3:14-15 (3:14-19) CHURCH: INDWELT BY FULLNESS OF GOD. ?For this cause I bow my :knees unto the Father, 15 from whom all fatherhood in heavens and on the earth is named.?* What power You manifest on our behalf, Father. *And bring us not into temptation.* *7. 3:20-21. CHURCH: CUSTODIAN OF GOD?S GLORY IN CHRIST. **?**Now to the ** one** able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, **21 **to him the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus unto all the generations of the age of the ages. Amen.? *Our hearts are dumb Father, before such a revelation of grace! *But deliver us from the evil **one!* *NOTE**: 3:16-19. CHURCH: THE REVELATION GOD EXPECTS US TO ENVISION! **?That he give you, according to the riches of his :glory, to be made mighty through his :Spirit unto the inward man; **17 **that the Christ dwell in your :hearts through :faith in love, rooted and grounded, **18 **so that you be strong to apprehend with all the saints what the breadth and length and depth and height, **19 **and to know the love of the Christ which passes :knowledge, that you be filled unto all the fullness of :God.? *The close of the second great prayer of Paul in Ephesians. *C.H. Spurgeon Quotes: ?The Atonement is Essential?. *What the sun is to the heavens, that the doctrine of a vicarious satisfaction is to theology. Atonement is the brain and spinal cord of Christianity. Take away the cleansing blood, and what is left to the guilty? Deny the substitutionary work of Jesus, and you have denied all that is precious in the New Testament. *Our Psalm of the Day: 66:12 (66) HOW AWESOME ARE YOUR DEEDS. ?You let men ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water; yet you have brought us out to a place of abundance.? *Father, we choose to loose Your Niagara Falls through our lives, removing every hindrance because of Christ?s Redemption! *Hallowed be your :name!* He has need to be a man of great skill, worthily to sing such a Psalm as this: the best music in the world would be honored by marriage with such expressions. We do not know who is its author, but we see no reason to doubt that David wrote it! 66:1. *Make a joyful noise unto God, all you lands. *We need not so much no ise as *joyful* noise. God is to be praised with the voice, and the heart should go therein with holy exultation All praise from all nations should be rendered unto the Lord. Happy the day when no shouts shall be presented to Juggernaut or Boodh, but all the earth shall adore its Creator. 66:3. * Say unto God. *Devotion, unless it be resolutely directed to the Lord, is no better than whistling to the wind. *Through the greatness of Your power shall Your enemies submit themselves unto You. *Power brings a man to his knee, but love alone wins his heart. Pharaoh said he would let Israel go, but he lied unto God; he submitted in word but not in deed. Tens of thousands, both in earth and hell, are rendering this constrained homage to the Almighty; they only submit because they cannot do otherwise; it is not their loyalty, but His power which keeps them subjects of his boundless dominion. 66:10. *For You, O God, have proved us. *God had one Son without sin, but He never had a son without trial. The day may come when we shall make hymns out of our grief and sing all the more sweetly because our mouths have been purified with bitter draughts. 66:12. *We went through fire and water. *The fires of the brick-kiln and the waters of the Nile did their worst to destroy the chosen race; hard labor and child-murder were both tried by this tyrant, but Israel went through both ordeals unharmed, and even thus the church of God has outlived, and will outlive, all the artifices and cruelties of man. The fire is not kindled which can burn the woman's seed, neither does the dragon know how to vomit a flood which shall suffice to drown it. 66:18. *If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. *Nothing hinders prayer like iniquity harbored in the breast; as with Cain, so with us - sin lies at the door, and blocks the passage. If you listen to the devil, God will not listen to you. If you refuse to hear God?s commands, He will surely refuse to hear your prayers. An imperfect petition God will hear for Christ?s sake, but not one which is willfully miswritten by a traitor?s hand. For God to accept our devotions while we are delighting in sin would be to make Himself the God of hypocrites, which is a fitter name for Satan than for the Holy One of Israel. *(From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Thu Feb 21 17:37:21 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Thu, 21 Feb 2013 17:37:21 -0800 Subject: Timothy Team Update Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* February 21, 2013 *2013-02-21 - TIMOTHY TEAM - UPDATE* e. 5:16-18 (NNT) PRAYER AND THANKSGIVING *Rejoice alway; *17* pray without ceasing; *18* in everything give thanks:* PANto-te CHAIre-te [5463]; a-di-aLEIPt*o*s [89] proSEUches-the; en panTI eu-cha-risTEIte [2168]: *for this is God's will in Christ Jesus toward you.* TOUto gar THEl*e*-ma [2307] TheOU en ChrisT*O* I*e*SOU eis huMAS. *Very early this morning as I was awake - but in prayer - the familiar words above came to me from the Holy Spirit - with power. Jesus told His disciples that it was better that He make an Atonement for our sins in death, be resurrected by the Father, ascend to be at His right hand as our Intercessor, and with the Father send the Holy Spirit as our Helper, Teacher, Remembrancer and Life. He enabled Paul and us to quote Galatians 2:20 with understanding. Jim Ray pointed out that we can associate ?Rejoice alway? with the Holy of Holies; ?pray without ceasing? with the Holy Place; and ?in everything give thanks? with the Tabernacle Outer Court.* *The above 3 verses are in a group of pithy statements in the context of Christ?s return in the Name of Jehovah. He will return when a remnant of Israel will say - ?Blessed is He who comes in the Name of Jehovah.? They failed at His first coming to say, ?Blessed is He who came in the Name of Jehovah.? They can correct the first error by walking in the truth of the Second Coming.* *These 3 verses are proof for each one of us that by faith we are restingin the ?Finished Word of Calvary? - and see ourselves as members of His Spiritual Body, and as branches in Him as the Vine, having the life of the Holy Spirit coursing through our beings in Divine Fruitfulness. In this manner we are fulfilling that we are indeed part of John 15:16. We have notchosen Him - but He has chosen us and appointed us to bear fruit that shall remain, and find that whatever we ask in prayer in Jesus? Name, the Father will fulfill. Thisis resting in the ?Finished Work? of Jesus. This is the ?Exchanged Life?. This is fulfilling Revelation 12:11, for we are overcoming Satan by the Blood of the Lamb, and by the positive ?word of our confession? according to God?s Bible - inspired by the Holy Spirit through chosen writers.* *Like Hudson Taylor, I have not found it an easy walk to apprehend the victory and overcoming life of the above. But I choose to walk daily, hourly, and yes - even momentarily in ?Rejoicing always; praying withoutceasing; and in everything giving thanks? - even for trials and testings, for through them we are made stronger in Christ!* *You might ask - ?How can we pray without ceasing?? Billy Bray of England was asked this, and his reply was interesting and helpful. ?You see that brass door-knob there? If I pass it regularly without touching it, it becomes corroded. Then when I decide to polish it, it takes considerable time. But if every time I pass it I give it ?a dab? - it continues in a bright and shiny state. Apply this to praying - and every time you see a need or cause for thanksgiving - take time immediately to pray and give thanks - and you will be fulfilling this exhortation!?* *There are some 60 of us (for I count myself as one with you) on this ?Timothy Team?. See how marvelously Timothy turned out because of Paul?s love, care and prayer on his behalf. You and I can receive this same care and help by reading and meditating periodically on 1 & 2 Timothy and Titus. This will help us keep our brass door-knob bright and shiny!* *I believe we on this ?Timothy Team? are indeed personally loved and chosenby our Lord Jesus to be part of His spiritual body, His Church. Jesus is very careful to inform the apostle John that you and I have not chosen Christ - but HE has chosen and appointed us to live the ?Exchanged Life?. It is all by seeing this, and by faith accepting and resting in this truth! Only then does the Holy Spirit surge through us like a Niagara Falls. In his early years, George Muller called this a ?devilish? doctrine. A wise, discerning and bold sister confronted him and asked, ?Have you ever done a systematic study through the Bible on this subject?? He confessed that he had not. ?Then?, she continued, ?please say nothing more again about it - until you have done so!?* *He did not take exception about this confronting word - but followed through. To his amazement he discovered from Genesis to Revelation, that 80% of all scriptures on the subject clearly confirmed John 15:16 and this teaching. Then as he matured, he found the other 20% fitted in also!* *I started out my Christian life like George Muller. But as I matured and set myself to outline the entire Bible according to God?s ?Bible Numeric? miracle in both Hebrew and Greek - I like Muller discovered the same truth, and also accepted the Holy Spirit teaching. Charles Spurgeon says that we all start out majoring on the supremacy of our free-will. But as we mature we discover the God of ?Sovereign Grace?, and find that He, not us, is the source and originator of all good in us. We like Paul start out with no goodin our flesh (Romans 7:18); Christ in us by Sovereign Grace alone - is our only goodness.* *I have many friends who I love and accept who do not yet see or receive this - but God in His boundless love still receives them as He did me prior to my enlightenment in this regard.* *On Monday February 18 our Pilot Prayer Team of 8 convened for the first time a wider type of gathering. Members from the Gig Harbor Eldership, the Korean ?Resting Place? in Auburn, the First Nations People represented by Dennis Katzeek, and the Russian New Testament people represented by Victor Lebed - met in the latter?s church.* *Our PPT leader Jim Ray - let the Holy Spirit have leadership in the meeting. As a result - He led that His thrilling work among the First Nations People in Washington, some 62 tribes, came to us through Dennis Katzeek. His likewise thrilling work through the many Russian people in our area, was shared with us by Pastor Victor Lebed. Other encouraging reports came from Gig Harbor, and God?s progress in making available His ?Outlined Interlinear New Testament? as the basis for high level meditation and victory.* *We are believing for 70 cities in Canada, and 70 in the USA to break through with an Eldership in the Gate of each of the City Churches. God?s functioning Organic Laser-Telescope will be a critical part in accomplishing this. To see further along this line, check the Introduction in the ?Outlined Interlinear NT? ; or check our Website under ?Archives.? Scroll down to ?An Undergirding Bibliography, 2011-02-08?; click on Number I ?The Component Parts for the Laser-Telescope.?* *Under Interlinear, the entire NT appears in Outlined Interlinear format with my notes. The latter have been omitted from the Printed Book and E-Book form. The Interlinear format has not been updated and proof-read as it appears in the published Book and E-book format.* *I count it a daily privilege to pray for the 60 of us on the ?Timothy Team?. I do believe we are individually chosen of the Lord for His purposes as in John 15:16. But I further believe that we are corporately put together to lift each other by faith - into a release of the Spirit in any direction the Lord is pleased to point us for His purposes.* *I trust many of you will also put each of us down on your daily prayer list for a similar goal. The Lord bless you each one to His Divine Sovereign Goal and End.* *Your brother and friend - Jim Watt * *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Sat Feb 23 10:26:46 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Sat, 23 Feb 2013 10:26:46 -0800 Subject: Breaking Generational Curses Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* February 23, 2013 *2013-02-24 - BREAKING GENERATIONAL CURSES - DEREK PRINCE* *(I found this message on ?Derek Prince You Tube? - and made notes on it.)* *600 times, blessings are mentioned in the Bible. Half that number of times curses are mentioned.* *Both are supernatural powers!* *They continue on up to 4 generations until they are cut off.* *Many endure the consequences of past generations.* *Trace through to the sources of your problem.* *They are usually words: spoken, written, or spoken inwardly.* *They can be transmitted by objects which are also physical.* *Deuteronomy 28 deals with 14 verses of blessing - but 54 verses of curses* *Following is D.P.?s summation of this chapter.* *1. Exaltation (lifted up) 1. Humiliation* *2. Reproductiveness (fruitful) 2. Barrenness* *3. Health 3. Sickness of all kinds* *4. Prosperity (success) 4. Poverty or failure* *5. Victory 5. Defeat* *6. Authority (Head) 6. Helplessness (Tail) - dragged around - usually a curse* *7. Above (strength) 7. Beneath (weakness) - under the circumstances?* *The Holy Spirit is the only expert to help you discern your particular problem* *7 marks of a curse, or probable curse - drawn up by D.P.* *1. Mental/Emotional breakdown - to fall apart* *2. Repeated/Chronic sickness - especially if hereditary - if cause unknown - even by doctors* *3. Female problems - barrenness - abortions - menstruation problems - (often a curse)* *4. Breakdown of Marriage - family alienation - children alienated from parents - brings a curse* *5. Continual financial insufficiency - if always short - likely a curse* *6. Being accident-prone - insurance companies watch this* *7. History of suicide - unnatural deaths - frequency? - a long evil arm from past? dark shadows form the past?* *- If several of the above 7, don?t pray for the sick - until generational curses taught and acted upon.* *Primary Causes of a curse - Deuteronomy 28:1-2 - Diligently listen - Really listen in your listening* *1. Not listening to God - primary* *2. Not Doing what He says - exactly opposite to verse 16.* *2 Root Causes of Curses. - Curses proceeding from God Himself - 1st part of 10 commandments.* *Breaking the first 2 commandments - brings you under a curse.* *1. No other gods beside Me - Exodus 20:3-5* *2. Idolatry - Because God is a Jealous God - even to the 3rd and 4thgeneration * * Also, go to the source apart from God. - fortune tellers - become our god - Ouija boards -* *- occult experiences - curses come from every form of the occult* *We can find 12 personal causes of curses - through disobedience* *Summation of Sources of Curses - Deuteronomy 27:15 * *1. False gods - Exodus 20:3-6 - no other besides 6. Unnatural sex. ? girls and 1/5 boys have been* * molested - incest - Leviticus 20:10-16* *2. Idolatry - Deut. 17:15 7. Anti-Semitism - Gen. 12:3, 27-29* * A curse for individual - or - a nation!* *3. Disrespect for parents - Proverbs 20:17 - 8. Depending on flesh - Jeremiah 17:6-7* *Something will always be missing in child who See King Asa and disease of feet* *violates this, even though parents have failed. No* *delinquent children, just fathers. Child doesn?t* *have to agree - but respect - this truth - inviolable* *4. Treachery against neighbors - Prov. 17:13 9. Stealing, perjury - Zach. 5:1-4* *Evil never departs for the above* *5. Injustice to the weak, poor or helpless 10. Stinginess toward God - Mal. 3:8-10* *Prov. 28:27 Grace of NT - should give more than law of OT!* *- baby in mother?s womb - any abortion - brings Stinginess to God = a curse.* *a curse - there is a solution* *7. Anti-Semitism - so important needs repetition. See Genesis 12:3 again - blessing Versus curse!* *this is necessary - because when God chooses to bless - then assaults on whom He would bless, are against Him! and - this does apply to individuals or nations. Check out nations of the past who have sinned this way. Our own nation is moving in this direction in our leadership, not so much the people.* *Men who speak on behalf of God can deliver a curse. - Joshua 6:26 re rebuilding of Jericho.* *In King Ahab?s reign, 500 years later 1 Kings 16:34 - Hiel of Bethel - at the cost of 2 of his sons!* *Other sources of curses - persons with relational authority - is still real - proceeds from God -* *- husband over wife* *- parents over children* *- leaders over people* *- pastors over congregation* *- words spoken - have special supernatural power - whether blessing or curse.* *Blessing of a father - very important. Children should do all to obtain his blessing* *A father usually hardest on child most like to himself* *- a teacher can speak down to a dyslectic child, whose word may follow the child throughout life.* *There is authority behind a statement - even when wrong.* *Self-imposed curses - very important - Genesis 27 - Yiddish mama Rebekah to Jacob - your curse be upon me, my son. Life for her from then on was likened to death. - Your father?s curse on me!* *- Don?t make negative statements about self! brings one under a curse - and often invites the spirit of death. - serious.* *- Rather take Psalm 118:17 - ?I shall not die - but live - and declare the works of the Lord.* *- Revoke negative statements by this above!* *- See Peter and his 3 denials - took Jesus 3 questions to him - to revoke what his denials brought.* *Unscriptural covenants** - Exodus 23:32 - To make a covenant with idol worshipers, is to bind one to the spirits behind the idols of these idol-worshipers. * *- Free-masonry - a covenant with masonry is not secret - the darkness is visible - masons make a covenant of terrible self-curse if they make known their secrets.* *- a self-imposed curse for 32nd degree masons - to Ja - Bal - On - the Royal Arch degreee* *- this vow unites Jehovah, Baal and Osiris - God is here joined with idols in masonry!* *- tribal societies - with unscriptural rites - often exposes to the curse of idolatry of that tribe.* *- servants of Satan - can be paid to make curses - there is supernatural reality here. Africa understands.* *- they can cause death - this is not ordinary murder - but it is witchcraft .* *But Jesus** has all authority over **all power of the enemy* *See David and Goliath - both used the authority of their gods. Goliath cursed David in the name of his gods - But David claimed absolute authority over him and his gods through Jehovah!* *- this was a battle between the gods - not between David and Goliath.* *Deuteronomy 7:26 - Burn in your house all carved images of gods* *- God calls these abominations in your home - accursed things - they give legal right for demons to enter.* *- frequently search home so that none of these have place there - check your home - that there is no other god there but our Lord Jesus Christ.* *- children in fear at night with bad dreams etc. - often because of ungodly objects in the home.* *- no occult objects such as New Age might use - clear all out.* *HOW BE RELEASED FROM CURSES **- this is an ongoing process* *1. Have a clear scriptural basis for release* *- best - Galatians 3:13-14 - Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law!* *- Ephesians 1:7 - We have redemption through the blood.* *- Colossians 1:12-14 - we have been translated from the kingdom of darkness - into the Kingdom of God?s dear Son! - through the Cross* *- 1 John 3:8b - destroy works of devil - why Jesus manifested* *- Luke 10:19 - authority over all power of enemy* *2. Confess faith in Christ - Hebrew 3:1 - High Priest of our confession* *3. Commit self to obedience - hear and do* *4. Confess any known sin - either by self - or ancestors* *- not guilty of latter - but affected!* *5. Forgive all other persons - and - if anything against anyone - Matthew 5:23-25 - make it right* *- this a decision - not an emotion - this is tearing up the IOU* *6. Remove all contact with the occult - and ancestors - because it affects * *7. All contact-objects - remove* ? *THEN release self from all curses in the Name of Jesus* *- Bind and loose.* *When released - confess and expect the blessing of Abraham* *Confession - on the basis of Jesus ?Finished Work? on the Cross* *Then - the Blessing of the Holy Spirit - HE does it - Honor Him - Don?t grieve Him* *- He has the key to God?s Storehouse* *- Now all things are qualified - but it takes time - Take the U-turn - now one way for God* *Keep** hearing and doing - and - the right confession - keep on* *- Still a shadow of a curse? - lead in prayer and release!* *D.P. at this point had all under a shadow of curse to stand, and repeat the following points of prayer* *- Confess and forgive - takes a little time.* *- Release self in Name of Jesus - all contact with the occult - Pray to the Lord Jesus Christ -* *Lord Jesus Christ - I do believe You are the Son of God - and the only way to God.* *- that You died on the Cross for me - and rose again - having destroyed the curse on the Cross,* *because You became a curse for me and us.* *- that I have been redeemed from the curse into Your blessing* *- Lord, I confess my sins - and those of my ancestors that relate to me -* *- and I ask for forgiveness from You.* *- I also forgive all those who have harmed or - wronged me -* *I forgive them - as God has forgiven me.* *- I also forgive myself* *- I renounce all contact with the occult - and rid my home of all contact objects* *- and - I have received by faith full forgiveness from God -* *with authority from Him for this - as a child of God* *- I now release myself - and those under my authority -* *for any and all curses - and declare release right now.* *- I claim it - and overcome - in the Name of Jesus!* *- and - I thank Jesus - by faith!* *NOTE**: Derek Prince, 1915-2003. He was born in India, of English high military officers. He came to England at the age of 5, and was educated at Eton and Cambridge, with the highest grades and scholarship. At the age of 24 he was made a University Don - the youngest faculty member in the field of philosophy. He qualified for the above position by writing a thesis on Plato, have read every word of Plato in Latin. He was proficient in over 7 languages, including Hebrew, Aramaic and Arabic.* *But when at 26 God revealed Himself to Derek as an Army draftee, he immediately became a Bible student first of all, leaving behind his philosophy honors. He went on to become a world Bible teacher through his many books, conference, tapes, videos and daily radio broadcasts.* *The above lecture on ?curses? reveal the thoroughness of his study before bringing such a teaching for the benefit of his hearers. May this teaching still be the means of freeing many readers from the strategies of our spiritual enemy. Jim Watt* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Sun Feb 24 09:28:28 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Sun, 24 Feb 2013 09:28:28 -0800 Subject: Ephesians 4:17-5:14 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* *SEP 8 - EPHESIANS 4:17-5:14 - SANCTIFICATION: INEVITABLE COROLLARY* *1. 4:17 (4:17-19, NNT) OUR WALK: NOT LIKE THE NATIONS. ?This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you no longer should walk as the nations also walk, in the vanity of their :mind.? *Your Kingdom Father, is not apart from holiness. You appoint a *walk* for us that is according to Your Word, Your Spirit and our profession. *Hallowed be your :name!* *2. 4:23-24 (4:20-24) OUR WALK: THROUGH THE NEW MAN. ?And that you be renewed in the spirit of your :mind, 24 and put on the new man, that after God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.? *In Jesus we see and experience Your Kingdom of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, Father! We are a new creation in Christ! *Your :kingdom come!* *3. 4:26-27 (4:25-29) OUR WALK: REMOVED FROM NEGATIVE SINS. ?Be angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: 27 neither give place to the devil.? *Father, you equate anger here with Satan! We renounce Satan and all his works. We make no provision to walk in his ways! *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.* *4. 4:30. OUR WALK: NOT GRIEVING THE HOLY SPIRIT. ?And grieve not the Holy :Spirit of :God, in whom you were sealed unto a day of redemption.? *Father, forgive us that so often we grieve the Holy Spirit by a sinful walk. O show us Calvary love in Jesus, and lift us into grateful and thankful hearts. Lead us to be compassionate and forgiving toward our fellow man! *Our :daily :bread Give us this day.* *5. 5:1-2 (4:31-5:2) OUR WALK: ONE OF LOVE. ?Be therefore imitators of :God, as beloved children; 2 and walk in love, even as the Christ also loved you, and gave himself up for you, an offering and sacrifice to God for an odor of a sweet smell.? *Father, we see Jesus washing His disciples? feet! We see Him propitiating You for our sins. We see Him redeeming us from the hand of the enemy and *reconciling* us to You by His blood! *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.?* *6. 5:5 (5:3-5) OUR WALK: APART FROM SINS OF THE BODY. ?For this you know and perceive that no fornicator, nor unclean, nor covetous man (which is an idolater), has any inheritance in the kingdom of the Christ and God.? *Write these things upon our hearts, O Father! Teach us the fear of the Lord, which is to depart from evil! Bring us into a close *walk* with You. *And bring us not into temptation!* *7. 5:14 (5:6-14) OUR WALK: A REPROOF TO DARKNESS. ?Wherefore it says, Awake, you that sleep, And arise from the dead, And the Christ shall shine upon you.? *Father, You shine forth through those who walk in righteousness. You *love* those in a special way who *walk* in ways pleasing to You! Put in our hearts the desire to please You in our *walk*! *But deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE**: 4:31-32 (4:31-5:2) OUR WALK: BOTH NEGATIVE AND POSITIVE. **?Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and railing, be put away from you, with all malice: 32 and be kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, even as :God also in Christ forgave you.? *This strikes a responsive chord in our hearts, Father. We want our relationships with one another to be the same as Christ?s to us. Yes, let it be so Father, by the blessing of your Grace! *C.H. Spurgeon Quotes: ?Every Christian?s Call? - *It has come to be a dreadfully common belief in the Christian Church that the only man who has a ?call? is the man who devotes all his time to what is called ?the ministry,? whereas all Christian service is ministry, and every Christian has a call to some kind of ministry or another. *Our Psalm for the Day: 68:5-6 (68, ESV) ?Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation. 6 God settles the solitary in a home; he leads out the prisoners to prosperity, but the rebellious dwell in a parched land.? *O Your justice and compassion, Father! How You balance them! Mercy and truth kiss each other! *Hallowed be your :name!* It is a most soul-stirring hymn. The first verses were often the battle-song of the Covenanters and Ironsides; and the whole Psalm fitly pictures the way of the Lord Jesus among His saints and His ascent to glory. The Psalm is at once surpassingly excellent and difficult. Its darkness in some stanzas is utterly impenetrable. Well does a German critic speak of it as a Titan very hard to master. 68:1. *Let God arise.* The ark would have been a poor leader if the Lord has not been present with the symbol. Before we move, we should always desire to see the Lord lead the way. *Let His enemies be scattered. *Our glorious Captain of the vanguard clears the way readily, however many may seek to obstruct it; He has but to arise, and they flee. He has easily overthrown His foes in days of yore, and will do so all through the ages to come. Sin, death, and hell know the terror of His arm; their ranks are broken at His approach. Our enemies are His enemies, and in this is our confidence of victory. * Let them also that hate Him flee before Him. *To hate the infinitely good God is infamous, and the worst punishment is not too severe. He comes, He sees, He conquers. How fitting a prayer is this for the commencement of a revival! How it suggests the true mode of conducting one: the Lord leads the way, His people follow, the enemies flee. 68:4. *Sing unto God, sing praises to His name. *Sing not for ostentation, but devotion; not to be heard of men, but of the Lord Himself. *And rejoice before Him. *We ought to avoid dullness in our worship. Our songs should be weighty with solemnity, but not heavy with sadness. Angels are nearer the throne than we, but their deepest awe is consonant with the purest bliss. 68:11. *The Lord gave the word: great was the company of those that published it.* The ten thousand maids of Israel, like good handmaids of the Lord, aroused the sleepers, called in the wanderers, and bade the valiant men hasten to the fray. Oh, for the like zeal in the church of today, that when the gospel is published, both men and women may eagerly spread the glad tidings of great joy. 68:18. *You have ascended on high. *The ark was conducted to the summit of Zion. The antitype of the ark, the Lord Jesus, has ascended into the heavens with signal marks of triumph. *You have led captivity captive. *As great conquerors of old led whole nations into captivity, so Jesus leads forth from the territory of His foe a vast company as the trophies of His grace. The Lord Jesus destroys His foes with their own weapons; He puts death to death, entombs the grave, and leads captivity captive. 68:28. *Strengthen, O God, that which You have wrought for us. *We expect God to bless His own work. He has never left any work unfinished yet, and He never will. ?When we were without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly?; and now, being reconciled to God, we may look to Him to perfect that which concerns us, since He never forsakes the work of His own hands. 68:32. *Sing unto God, you kingdoms of the earth. *Happy are men that God is One Who is consistently the object of joyous worship, for not such are the demons of the heathen. *O sing praises unto the Lord. *Again and again is God to be magnified; we have too much sinning against God but cannot have too much singing to God. 68:34. *Ascribe you strength unto God. *Let us never by our doubts or our* *daring defiances appear to deny power unto God; on the contrary, by yielding to Him and trusting in Him, let our hearts acknowledge His might. When we are reconciled to God, His omnipotence is an attribute of which we sing with delight. *(From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Mon Feb 25 12:16:54 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2013 12:16:54 -0800 Subject: Ephesians 5:15-6:9 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* February 25, 2013 *SEP 9 - EPHESIANS 5:15-6:9 - RELATIONSHIPS IN OUR WALK* *1. 5:15-16 (5:15-17, NNT) OUR WALK: ACCORDING TO GOD?S PURPOSES. ?Look therefore carefully how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise; 16 redeeming the season, because the days are evil.? *Father, we are sons and daughters of Your Kingdom! We are not of this world. We have been delivered out of the authority of Satan and translated in the Kingdom of Your dear Son! *Hallowed be your :name!* *2. 5:18-19 (5:18-21) OUR WALK: BY THE SPIRIT. ?And be not drunk with wine, wherein is riot, but be filled with the Spirit; 19 speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and psalming with your :heart to the Lord.? *We thank You Father, for the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus Your Son. We thank You that Your Spirit through Your Son enables us to sing a new song, the song of the soul set free, the song of the redeemed. * Your :kingdom come!* *3. 5:22-24. OUR WALK: FOR OUR WIVES. ?:Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord, 23 because the husband is the wife?s head as also the Christ is head of the church, himself savior of the body. 24 But as the church is subject to the Christ, so the wives be also to their husbands in everything.? *In the Spirit, we submit ourselves one to another in Your fear, Father, without respect of persons. In divine order, we submit to this order, and rejoice that wives can portray the love and respect of the church to Christ. *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.* *4. 5:25-26 (5:25-30) OUR WALK: FOR HUSBANDS. :Husbands, love the wives, even as the Christ also loved the church, and gave himself up for it; 26 that he might sanctify it, having cleansed it by the washing of the water with the word.? *O Father, we who are husbands quake at our high calling. Forgive us as husbands for failing so often to portray the love and self-giv int of Christ to His church. May our wives too forgive us for falling short. By Your Grace we resolve to live up to Your purposes. *Our :daily :bread Give us this day.* *5. 5:33 (5:31-33) OUR WALK: AN ANALOGY OF THE CHURCH. ?Nevertheless you love also severally each his own :wife, even as himself: and the wife seethat she fear the husband.? *Mutually, we commit ourselves as husbands and wives to *walk* in our order and responsibility. We marvel how Your standard in the home Father, is just now being restored. O that present helps were in existence a few decades ago! *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 6:1, 4 (6:1-4) OUR WALK: FOR CHILDREN AND FATHERS. ?Children, obey your :parent in the Lord: for this is right. 4 And, you, the fathers, provoke not your :children to wrath: but nurture them in the Lord?s chastening and admonition.? *How we have let the enemy in by the failure both of children and fathers. Heavenly Father, forgive us our blindness and disobedience. *And bring us not into temptation.* *7. 6:5 (6:5-9) OUR WALK: FOR EMPLOYEES AND EMPLOYERS. ?:Bondmen, be obedient to the lords, according to the flesh, with fear and trembling in singleness of your :heart, as unto the Christ.? *Employees, apprentices, modern workers, slaves in other countries - we submit Father, to Your wisdom in these words. We know it worked in the days of Paul. We know Your eternal principles still work today. *But deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE**: 5:20-21 (5:18-21) **OUR WALK: AN ETERNAL PRINCIPLE IN CHRIST. ?Thanking always for all in our Lord Jesus Christ?s name the God and Father; 21 subjecting yourselves one to another in fear of Christ.? *Father, we accept and obey these Your words through Paul. *C.H. Spurgeon Quotes: ?Charismatic in Excess? - *Some, I know, fall into a very vicious habit, which habit they excuse in themselves - namely, that of ordering their steps according to impressions. Every now and then I met with people whom I think to be rather weak in the head, who will journey from place to place, and will perform follies by the gross under the belief that they are doing the will of God, because some silly whim of their diseased brains is imagined to be an inspiration from above. *Our Psalm for the Day: 69:10-11 (69, ESV) SAVE ME, O GOD. ?When I wept and humbled my soul with fasting, it became my reproach. 11 I am the talk of those who sit in the gate, and the drunkards make songs about me.? *Father, In David You show us David?s greater Son by Your Spirit. You O LORD, show us David?s Lord! And in Jesus we see prophetically the suffering He endured on our behalf. You Father, were in Christ reconciling the world to Yourself. *Hallowed be your :name!* In the Forty-First they were golden lilies, dropping sweet-smelling myrrh, and blooming in the fair gardens which skirt the ivory palaces: in this we have the lily among thorns, the lily of the valley, fair and beautiful, blooming in the Garden of Gethsemane. If any inquire, ?Of whom speaks the psalmist this? of himself, or of some other man?? we would reply, ?Of himself and of some other man.? Who that other is, we need not be long in discovering; it is the Crucified alone Who can say, ?In My thirst they gave Me vinegar to drink.? His footprints all through this sorrowful song have been pointed out by the Holy Spirit in the New Testament, and therefore we believe, and are sure, that the Son of man is here. Yet it seems to be the intention of the Spirit, while He gives us personal types and so shows the likeness to the firstborn which exists in the heirs of salvation, to set forth also the disparities between the best of the sons of men and the Son of God, for there are verses here which we dare not apply to our Lord; we almost shudder when we see our brethren attempting to do so, as for instance, verse 5. 69:1. *Save me, O God.* ?He saved others, Himself He cannot save.? With strong cryings and tears, He offered up prayers and supplications unto Him that was able to save Him from death, and was heard in that He feared. Thus David had prayers, and here his Son and Lord utters the same cry. It is remarkable that such a scene of woe should be presented to us immediately after the jubilant ascension hymn of the last Psalm, but this only shows how interwoven are the glories and the sorrows of our ever-blessed Redeemer. *For the waters are come in unto My soul. *Bodily anguish is not His first complaint; He begins with the gall which embittered His lips, but with the mighty griefs which broke into His heart. All the sea outside a vessel is less to be feared than that which finds its way into the hold. In all this, He has sympathy with us and is able to succor us when we, like Peter, beginning to sink, cry to Him, ?Lord, save, or we perish.? 69:3. *My throat is dried. *Few, very few, of His saints follow their Lord in prayer so far as this. We are, it is to be feared, more likely to be hoarse with talking frivolities to men than by pleading with God; yet our sinful nature demands more prayer than His perfect humanity might seems to need. His prayers should shame us into fervor. *My eyes fail while I wait for my God.* There are times when we should pray till the throat is dry, and watch till the eyes grow dim. Only thus can we have fellowship with Him in His sufferings. What! can we not watch with Him one hour? Does the flesh shrink back? O cruel flesh, to be so tender of yourself and so ungenerous to your Lord? 69:4. *They that hate Me without a cause are more than the hairs of My head.* ?This is the heir, let us kill Him that the inheritance may be ours,? was the unanimous resolve of all the keepers of the Jewish vineyard; while the Gentiles outside the walls of the Garden furnished the instruments for His murder and actually did the deed. 69:8. *I am become a stranger unto My brethren.* The Jews, His brethren in race, rejected Him; His family, His brethren by blood, were offended at Him; His disciples, His brethren in spirit, forsook Him and fled; one of them sold Him and another denied Him with oaths and cursings. *And an alien unto My mother?s children. *May none of us ever act as if we were strangers to Him; never may we treat Him as if He were an alien to us: rather let us resolve to be crucified with Him, and may grace turn the resolve into fact. 69:9*. For the zeal of your house has eaten me up. *Zeal for God is so little understood by men of the world that it always draws down opposition upon those who are inspired with it; they are always sure to be accused of sinister motives, or of hypocrisy, or of being out of their senses. When zeal eats us up, ungodly men seek to eat us up, too, and this was preeminently the case with our Lord, because His holy jealousy was preeminent. 69:10. *When I **wept, and chastened my soul with fasting, that was to my reproach. *Our Savior wept much in secret for our sins, and no doubt His private soul-chastenings on our behalf were very frequent. Lone mountains and desert places saw repeated agonies, which, if they could disclose them, would astonish us indeed. The emaciation which these exercises sought in our Lord made Him appear nearly fifty years old when He was but little over thirty; this which was to His honor was used as a matter of reproach against Him. 69:21. *And in My thirst they gave Me vinegar to drink. * A criminal?s draught was offered to our innocent Lord, a bitter portion to our dying Master. Sorry entertainment had earth for her King and Savior. How often have our sins filled the gall-cup of our Redeemer! While we blame the Jews, let us not excuse ourselves. 69:29. *But I am poor and sorrowful. *No man was ever poorer or more sorrowful than Jesus of Nazareth, yet His cry out of the depths was heard, and He was uplifted to the highest glory. *Let Your salvation, O God, set me up on high. *O you poor and sorrowful ones, lift up your heads, for as with your Lord, so shall it be with you. You are trodden down today as the mire of the streets, but you shall ride upon the high places of the earth ere long; and even now you are raised up together and made to sit together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. 69:31. *This also shall please the Lord better than an ox or bullock that has horns and hoofs. *The *opus operatum, *which our ritualists think so much of, the Lord puffs at. The horning and hoofing are nothing to Him, though to Jewish ritualists these were great points, and matters for critical examination; our modern rabbis are just as precise as to the mingling of water with their wine, the baking of their wafers, the cut of their vestments, and the performance of genuflections towards the right quarter of the compass. O fools, and slow of heart to perceive all the the Lord has declared. *(From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller.?)* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Tue Feb 26 11:00:49 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Tue, 26 Feb 2013 11:00:49 -0800 Subject: Ephesians 4:1-16 Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* February 26, 2013 Dear Friends - Through some computer glitch, this mailing failed to go out in its regular order. Later mailings went out correctly. I sent this out to a smaller group, and consulted them whether I should yet mail it out to our larger company. I received strong encouragement to do so - so here 'tis! I personally count Ephesians 4:1-16 as one of the key NT readings. *SEP 7 - EPHESIANS 4:1-16 - CHIROPRACTIC ADJUSTMENT: EQUIPPING * *1. 4:1-3, **(**NNT**)**. UNITY OF SPIRIT: BASIS FOR EQUIPPING. **?I therefore, the prisoner in **the** Lord, beseech you to walk worthily of the calling in which you were called, **2 **with all lowliness and gentleness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love; **3 **giving diligence to keep the **unity of the Spirit** in the bond of :peace.? *Father, we see one body, with each of us as members in particular! We discern Your body in one another. We cannot make it apart from You in us *corporately*. *Hallowed be your :name.* *2. **4:**4-6. SEVEN UNITIES: ESSENTIAL FOR EQUIPPING. ?**There is **body, and one Spirit, even as also you were called in one hope of your :calling: * *5 **one Lord, one faith, one baptism, **6 **one God and Father of all, who **is** over all, **and** through all, and in all.? *We bless You Father, for these 7 Unities! We embrace them, and corporately commit ourselves to them. They are the common denominator. *Your :kingdom come!* *3. 4:7. GRACE FROM HOLY SPIRIT: POWER FOR EQUIPPING. **?But to each of us was the grace given according to the measure of the gift of the Christ.? *Father, we bless You for the ?d*o*-reA?, God?s Artesian Well, the Gift of the Holy Spirit. We thank You that through Him, You with Christ meet all our needs. *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.* *4. 4:8. **MESSIAH?S ASCENSION GIFTS: PROVISION FOR EQUIPPING. **?Wherefore he says, When he ascended on high, he led captivity captive, And gave gifts to :men.? *Psalm 66:18. Without the foundation-ascension offices operating in Your Church, none of us will develop, as we ought. Unless we as Your corporate Body accept them without respect of persons, we will lose out. *Our :daily :bread Give us this day.* *5. 4:9. MESSIAH?S INCARNATION: ATONEMENT FOR EQUIPPING. **?(Now the He ascended, what is it but that he also descended into the lower parts of the earth? *Lord Jesus, for us and the departed dead, You ministered and gave forth the Evangel! Father, we trust You and Your Son in all Your purposes. Where we do not understand, we still trust. *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 4:10. MESSIAH?S ASCENSION: AUTHORITY FOR EQUIPPING. **?Who descended is the same also that ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill :all **things**.) *O the glory of Your workings in Your Son, our Lord Jesus, Father! You are omnipotent! There is *nothing* too hard for You, for You are Almighty! *And bring us not into temptation!* *7. 4:11-12 (4:11-16) MESSIAH?S OFFICE GIFTS: TOOLS FOR EQUIPPING. **?And HE gave some as apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, shepherds and teachers; **12 **for the **perfecting** of the saints, unto a work of ministry, unto a building of the body of the Christ.? *Father, we bless You for the gracious office gifts flowing from Your Son. We submit to these equipping ministries. *But deliver us from the evil **one!* *NOTE**: 4:13 (4:11-16) MESSIAH?S GOAL FOR US: **UNITY OF THE FAITH**. **?till we :all attain unto **the unity of the faith**, and of the knowledge of the Son of :God, unto a perfect man, unto a measure of stature of the fullness of the Christ.? *We move from the *unity of the Spirit* (4:3) to the *unity of the faith (4:13)*. The times of restitution of all things will come as we move through this transitional stage. (?E-no-chos,? unity, appears only twice in the NT, both times in this chapter!) *C.H. Spurgeon Quotes: ?Beware of Beauty?: *But men fight against God with God?s own gifts. A woman endowed with beauty, the rare gift of God, uses it to ensnare others into sin. God gives us garments, and there are some who use their very garments for nothing else but pride, and who go through the world with no motive but display. *Our Psalm for the day: 67:1-2 (67, ESV) MAKE YOUR FACE SHINE UPON US. ?May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us, Selah- 2 that your way may be known on earth, your saving power among all nations.? *Father, when Your face looks upon us with favor, we live. When You hide Your face from us, we walk in night. Yet like Job, we trust You by faith even in the night, and *Hallow your :name!* No author?s name is given, but he would be a bold man who should attempt to prove that David did not write it. 67:1. *God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause His face to shine upon us. *Forgiveness of sin is always the first link in the chain of mercies experienced by us. Mercy is a foundation attribute in our salvation. 67:2. *Th**at** Your way may be known upon earth, Your saving health among all nations. *Despite the gloomy notions of some, we cling to the belief that the kingdom of Christ will embrace the whole habitable globe and that all flesh shall see the salvation of God: for this glorious consummation we agonize in prayer. 67:4. *O let the nations be glad and sing for joy*. Nothing creates gladness so speedily, surely, and abidingly as the salvation of God. Nations never will be glad till they follow the leadership of the great Shepherd. Some sing for form, others for show, some as a duty, others as an amusement, but to sing from the heart because overflowing joy must find a vent, this is to sing indeed. Whole nations will do this when Jesus reigns over them in the power of His grace. 67:6. *Then shall the earth yield her increase; and God, even our own God, shall bless us.* We never love God aright till we know Him to be ours, and the more we love Him the more we long to be fully assured that He is ours. What dearer name can we give to Him than ?My own God?! The spouse in the song has no sweeter canticle than ?My Beloved is mine and I am His.? *(From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Wed Feb 27 14:20:36 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Wed, 27 Feb 2013 14:20:36 -0800 Subject: Ephesians 6:10-24 Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* February 27, 2013 *SEP 10 - EPHESIANS 6:10-24 - MYSTERY OF EVIL* *1. 6:10-11, (NNT). WARFARE: DEPENDENT UPON ARMOR. ?For the rest, be strong in the Lord, and in the might of his :strength. 11 Put on the whole armor of :God, that you be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.? *Father, corporately we receive this word! Your armor is primarily for Your body! We as individuals share protection as we move as *one*. *Hallowed be your :name.* *2. 6:12. WARFARE: ITS TRUE OBJECTIVE. ?For our :wrestling is not against blood and flesh, but against the principalities, against the authorities, against the world-rulers of this :darkness, against the spirituals of the wickedness in the heavenlies.? *Wipe from our understanding all naivety, Father! We would not be ignorant of Satan and his devices. We would make prayer and the ministry of Your Word of high priority. *Your :kingdom come!* *3. 6:13. WARFARE: PURPOSE OF ARMOR. ?Wherefore take up the whole armor of :God, that you be able to withstand in the evil :day, and, having done all thoroughly, to stand.? *Father, we will not depend upon the arm of flesh in spiritual warfare. We will lean hard upon You, Lord Jesus. In our weakness we will find You to be our strength. *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.* *4. 6:14-16. WARFARE: FIRST FOUR PIECES OF ARMOR. ?Stand therefore, having girded your :loin with truth, and put on the breastplate of :righteousness, 15 and shod your :feet with preparation of the gospel of :peace; 16 in all things taking up the shield of the faith, by which you shall be able to quench all the fiery :darts of the evil one.? *We are a many-membered soldier, Father. Each city body of believers is like one of the resurrected soldiers of Ezekiel?s vision. *Our :daily :bread Give us this day.* *5. 6:17 (6:17-20) LAST THREE PIECES OF ARMOR. ?And receive the helmet of :salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is God?s word.? *Blessed be Your Name Father, King of the universe; Who gives bread to the eater, and drink to the thirsty; Who arms us corporately, both defensively and offensively. With Your protection, we radically obey Your forward command! *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 6:21 (6:21-22) TYCHICUS: TO SHARE PAUL?S PERSONAL AFFAIRS. ?But that you also may know my :affairs, how I do, Tychicus, the beloved brother and faithful minister to the Lord, shall make known to you all things.? *We bless You Father, for giving protection to Your warring servants. We hail Your mighty men of valor. The day swiftly approaches for Satan?s final downfall. *And bring us not into temptation.* *7. 6:23-24. BENEDICTION OF PEACE, LOVE, FAITH AND GRACE. ?Peace to the brethren, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 24 The grace be with all that love our :Lord Jesus Christ in incorruption.? *We receive this benediction. We let it work in our hearts. We submit to Your ways, Father. You alone are worthy. *But deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE: 6:18 (6:17-20) WARFARE: CONSUMMATED WITH ?ALL-PRAYER?! ?With all prayer and supplication praying at every season in the Spirit, and watching to it in all perseverance and supplication for all the saints.? *Prayer! The First Apostolic Priority! We recognize that individual members of Your body the church profit, as the body corporately prospers through prayer! *C.H. Spurgeon Quotes, ?You Will Not Come To Me? - *This is the sternest blow against free-will of which I know; what a free-willer can make out of that text I cannot tell. He says that any man can come to Christ, yet Christ said to some, ?You will not come to me;? and both observation and experience prove that this is still true. Never yet did a soul come to Christ till Christ came to it. *Our Psalm for the Day: 70:4 (70) O LORD, DO NOT DELAY! ?May all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you! May those who love your salvation say evermore, ?God is great!? *In Your presence O God our Father, is fullness of joy, and at Your right hand are joys for evermore! We are safe from the enemy when we hide in Your Name. *Such* a Name. *Hallowed be your :name!* *Title:* ?To the Chief Musician, A Psalm of David.? So far the title corresponds with Psalm 40, of which this is a copy with variations. David appears to have written the full-length Psalm and also to have made this excerpt from it and altered it to suit the occasion. It is a fit pendant to Psalm 69 and a suitable preface to Psalm 71. To bring to remembrance: this is the poor man?s memorial. 70:3. *For a reward of their shame that say, Aha, aha. *They thought to shame the godly, but it was their shame and shall be their shame forever. How fond men are of taunts, and if they are meaningless aha?s, more like animal cries than human words, it matters nothing, so long as they are a vent for scorn and sting the victim. Rest assured, the enemies of Christ and His people shall have wages for their work; they shall be paid in their own coin; they loved scoffing, and they shall be filled with it - yes, they shall become a proverb and a by-word forever. *(From: ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Thu Feb 28 10:36:39 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Thu, 28 Feb 2013 10:36:39 -0800 Subject: Ephesians 6:10-24 Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* February 28, 2013 *SEP 10 - EPHESIANS 6:10-24 - MYSTERY OF EVIL* *1. 6:10-11, (NNT). WARFARE: DEPENDENT UPON ARMOR. ?For the rest, be strong in the Lord, and in the might of his :strength. 11 Put on the whole armor of :God, that you be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.? *Father, corporately we receive this word! Your armor is primarily for Your body! We as individuals share protection as we move as *one*. *Hallowed be your :name.* *2. 6:12. WARFARE: ITS TRUE OBJECTIVE. ?For our :wrestling is not against blood and flesh, but against the principalities, against the authorities, against the world-rulers of this :darkness, against the spirituals of the wickedness in the heavenlies.? *Wipe from our understanding all naivety, Father! We would not be ignorant of Satan and his devices. We would make prayer and the ministry of Your Word of high priority. *Your :kingdom come!* *3. 6:13. WARFARE: PURPOSE OF ARMOR. ?Wherefore take up the whole armor of :God, that you be able to withstand in the evil :day, and, having done all thoroughly, to stand.? *Father, we will not depend upon the arm of flesh in spiritual warfare. We will lean hard upon You, Lord Jesus. In our weakness we will find You to be our strength. *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.* *4. 6:14-16. WARFARE: FIRST FOUR PIECES OF ARMOR. ?Stand therefore, having girded your :loin with truth, and put on the breastplate of :righteousness, 15 and shod your :feet with preparation of the gospel of :peace; 16 in all things taking up the shield of the faith, by which you shall be able to quench all the fiery :darts of the evil one.? *We are a many-membered soldier, Father. Each city body of believers is like one of the resurrected soldiers of Ezekiel?s vision. *Our :daily :bread Give us this day.* *5. 6:17 (6:17-20) LAST THREE PIECES OF ARMOR. ?And receive the helmet of :salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is God?s word.? *Blessed be Your Name Father, King of the universe; Who gives bread to the eater, and drink to the thirsty; Who arms us corporately, both defensively and offensively. With Your protection, we radically obey Your forward command! *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 6:21 (6:21-22) TYCHICUS: TO SHARE PAUL?S PERSONAL AFFAIRS. ?But that you also may know my :affairs, how I do, Tychicus, the beloved brother and faithful minister to the Lord, shall make known to you all things.? *We bless You Father, for giving protection to Your warring servants. We hail Your mighty men of valor. The day swiftly approaches for Satan?s final downfall. *And bring us not into temptation.* *7. 6:23-24. BENEDICTION OF PEACE, LOVE, FAITH AND GRACE. ?Peace to the brethren, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 24 The grace be with all that love our :Lord Jesus Christ in incorruption.? *We receive this benediction. We let it work in our hearts. We submit to Your ways, Father. You alone are worthy. *But deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE: 6:18 (6:17-20) WARFARE: CONSUMMATED WITH ?ALL-PRAYER?! ?With all prayer and supplication praying at every season in the Spirit, and watching to it in all perseverance and supplication for all the saints.? *Prayer! The First Apostolic Priority! We recognize that individual members of Your body the church profit, as the body corporately prospers through prayer! *C.H. Spurgeon Quotes, ?You Will Not Come To Me? - *This is the sternest blow against free-will of which I know; what a free-willer can make out of that text I cannot tell. He says that any man can come to Christ, yet Christ said to some, ?You will not come to me;? and both observation and experience prove that this is still true. Never yet did a soul come to Christ till Christ came to it. *Our Psalm for the Day: 70:4 (70) O LORD, DO NOT DELAY! ?May all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you! May those who love your salvation say evermore, ?God is great!? *In Your presence O God our Father, is fullness of joy, and at Your right hand are joys for evermore! We are safe from the enemy when we hide in Your Name. *Such* a Name. *Hallowed be your :name!* *Title:* ?To the Chief Musician, A Psalm of David.? So far the title corresponds with Psalm 40, of which this is a copy with variations. David appears to have written the full-length Psalm and also to have made this excerpt from it and altered it to suit the occasion. It is a fit pendant to Psalm 69 and a suitable preface to Psalm 71. To bring to remembrance: this is the poor man?s memorial. 70:3. *For a reward of their shame that say, Aha, aha. *They thought to shame the godly, but it was their shame and shall be their shame forever. How fond men are of taunts, and if they are meaningless aha?s, more like animal cries than human words, it matters nothing, so long as they are a vent for scorn and sting the victim. Rest assured, the enemies of Christ and His people shall have wages for their work; they shall be paid in their own coin; they loved scoffing, and they shall be filled with it - yes, they shall become a proverb and a by-word forever. *(From: ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Fri Mar 1 11:50:10 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Fri, 1 Mar 2013 11:50:10 -0800 Subject: Hosea 8-10 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* March 1, 2013 *SEP 12 - HOSEA 8-10 - ISRAEL SHALL BE PUNISHED: GOD IS JUST* *1. 8:1 (8:1-4, ESV) ISRAEL: JUDGMENT FOR INIQUITY. ?Set the trumpet to your lips! One like a vulture is over the house of the LORD, because they have transgressed my covenant and rebelled against my law.? *Father, plant Your fear in our heart, and write there that You are a Jealous God. Clarify in our minds and hearts that Your Kingdom is in truth and power! that judgment comes for violation of Kingdom principles. *Hallowed be your :name! * *2. 8:7 (8:5-10) ISRAEL: IDOLATRY. ?For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind. The standing grain has no heads; it shall yield no flour; if it were to yield, strangers would devour it.? *Your judgments Father, are Your strange acts of mercy, to bring us to true contrition and repentance. We bow and submit to Your ways. *Your :kingdom come!* *3. 8:14 (8:11-14) ISRAEL: JUDGMENT. ?For Israel has forgotten his Maker and built palaces, and Judah has multiplied fortified cities; so I will send a fire upon his cities, and it shall devour his strongholds.? *O the tragedy of forgetting Your former times of goodness and mercy, Father! Forgive us for forgetting You and growing lukewarm and cold so soon. Awaken us to the truthfulness and soberness of Your warnings. *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.* *4. 9:8 (9:1-9) ISRAEL: JUDGMENT FOR INIQUITY. ?The prophet is the watchman of Ephraim with my God; yet a fowler?s snare is on all his ways, and hatred in the house of his God.? *How sad that we have false prophets in the land, who have perverted the right ways of Jehovah. Turn the prophets back to true watchmen and intercessors once again! *Our :daily :bread Give us this day!* *5. 9:15 (9:10-17) ISRAEL: BEREAVEMENT AND JUDGMENT. ?Every evil of theirs is in Gilgal; there I began to hate them. Because of the wickedness of their deeds I will drive them out of my house. I will love them no more; all their princes are rebels.? *With You Jehovah Father, comes a time in our sinning when the die is cast! Judgment no longer can be averted. *And forgive us our :debt, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 10:8 (10:1-8) ISRAEL: JUDGMENT FOR INIQUITY. ?The high places of Aven, the sin of Israel, shall be destroyed. Thorn and thistle shall grow up on their altars, and they shall say to the mountains, ?Cover us,? and to the hills, ?Fall on us.?? *O God our Father, we tremble in our blindness to the reality of Your judgment in the light of our rebellion, disobedience and ungratefulness! In judgment remember mercy! *And bring us not into temptation!* *7. 10:12 (10:9-15) ISRAEL: ADMONITION. ?Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love; break up your fallow ground, for it is the time to seek the LORD, that he may come and rain righteousness upon you.? *Open our ears that we may hear Your voice, O Jehovah Father, and tremble at Your Word, for You are a Jealous God! Put Your fear in our hearts. *But deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE**: C.H. Spurgeon Quotes: ?Glorified in us.? *We endeavor to glorify him now by our actions, but then he will be glorified in our own persons, and character, and condition. He is glorified by what we do, but he is at the last to be glorified in what we are. *Our Psalm for the day: 72:8; 18-19 (72) GIVE THE KING YOUR JUSTICE. ?May he have dominion from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth! *Blessed be Your holy Name Father, for triumph in the end is decreed by You. This verse was selected by the Premier of New Brunswick, Canada in 1867 - for naming the Dominion of Canada! ?*Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who alone does wondrous things. 19 Blessed be his glorious name forever; may the whole earth be filled with his glory! Amen and Amen!? *Wisdom comes forth from Your anointed, O Father! Wisdom from Solomon; wisdom from Your Son Jesus; wisdom from Christ?s body. *Hallowed be your :name!* It is pretty certain that the title declares Solomon to be the author of this Psalm, and yet from verse 20 it would seem that David uttered it in prayer before he died. Jesus is here, beyond all doubt, in the glory of His reign, both as He now is and as He shall be revealed in the latter-day glory. 72:3. *And the little hills by righteousness. *In a spiritual sense, peace is given to the heart by the righteousness of Christ; and all the powers and passions of the soul are filled with a holy calm, when the way of salvation, by a divine righteousness, is revealed. Then do we go forth with joy, and are led forth with peace; the mountains and the hills break forth before us into singing. 72:5. *They fear You as long as the sun and moon endure.* His kingdom, moreover, is no house of cards, or dynasty of days; it is as lasting as the lights of heaven; days and nights will cease before He abdicates His throne. Neither sun nor moon as yet manifest any failure in their radiance, nor are there any signs of decrepitude in the kingdom of Jesus; on the contrary, it is but in its youth, and is evidently the coming power, the rising sun. *Throughout all generations. *Each generation shall have a regeneration in its midst, let pope and devil do what they may. Even at this hour we have before us the tokens of His eternal power; since He ascended to His throne, eighteen hundred years ago, His dominion has not been overturned, though the mightiest of empires have gone like visions of the night. We see on the shore of time the wrecks of the Caesars, the relics of the Moguls, and the last remnants of the Ottomans. Charlemagne, Maximilian, Napoleon, how they flit like shadows before us! They were and are not; but Jesus forever *is*. And for the houses of Hohenzollern, Guelph, or Hapsburg, they have their hour; but the Son of David has all hours and ages as His own. 72:6. *He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass: as showers that water the earth. *Each crystal drop of rain tells of heavenly mercy which forgets not the parched plains: Jesus is all grace, all that He does is love, and His presence among men is joy. We need to preach Him more, for no shower can so refresh the nations. Philosophic preaching mocks men as with a dust shower, but the gospel meets the case of fallen humanity, and happiness flourishes beneath its genial power. Come down, O Lord, upon my soul, and my heart shall blossom with Your praise. 72:8 *He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth. *We are encouraged by such a passage as this to look for the Savior?s universal reign; whether before or after His personal advent, we leave for the discussion of others. In this Psalm, at least, we see a personal monarch, and He is the central figure, the focus of all the glory; not His servant, but Himself do we see possessing the dominion and dispensing the government. Personal pronouns referring to our great King are constantly occurring in this Psalm; *He* has dominion, kings fall down before *Him,* and serve *Him; *for *He* delivers, *He* spares, *He* saves, * He* lives, and daily is *He* praised. 72:18-19. As Quesnel well observes, these verses explain themselves. They call rather for profound gratitude and emotion of heart than for an exercise of the understanding; they are rather to be used for adoration than for exposition. It is, and ever will be, the acme of our desires and the climax of our prayers, to behold Jesus exalted King of kings and Lord of lords. *(From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* *HERE ENDS BOOK II OF THE BOOK OF PSALMS* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Sat Mar 2 11:10:16 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Sat, 2 Mar 2013 11:10:16 -0800 Subject: Hosea 11-14 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* March 2, 2013 *SEP 13 - HOSEA 11-14 - ISRAEL SHALL BE RESTORED: GOD IS LOVE* *1. 11:8 (11:1-11, ESV) ISRAEL: MERCY TRIUMPHS OVER JUDGMENT. ?How can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I treat you like Zeboiim? My heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warm and tender.? *Father, we see judgment and mercy seeking balance in Your heart. We see Your bowels of compassion yearning over us in our rebellion. *Hallowed be your :name.* *2. 11:12 (11:12-12:1) ISRAEL: CONTRASTED WITH JUDAH. ?Ephraim has surrounded me with lies, and the house of Israel with deceit, but Judah still walks with God and is faithful to the Holy One.? *Thank God for Your * remnant*, Father! We would praise You for the 7000 who would not bow to Baal in Elijah?s day. O we would be part of Your present day remnant, and gladden Your heart! *Your :kingdom come.* *3. 12:3-5 (12:2-8) ISRAEL: POWER FOR TRANSFORMATION. ?In the womb he (Jacob) took his brother by the heel, and in his manhood he strove with God. 4 He strove with the angel and prevailed; he wept and sought his favor. He met God at Bethel, and there God spoke with us - 5 the LORD, the God of hosts, the LORD is his memorial name.? *Jehovah Father, like Jacob, our trust is in you! *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.* *4. 12:10 (12:9-14) ISRAEL: THOUGH UNWORTHY, YET TO BE CONVERTED! ?I spoke to the prophets; it was I who multiplied visions, and through the prophets gave parables.? *Yes Father, You have given Your people Your true and tried Word. All the faithfulness of Your Name backs Your Word! We trust You and what You have spoken. *Our :daily :bread Give us this day!* *5. 13:4 (13:1-8) ISRAEL: SIN AND JUDGMENT. ?But I am the LORD your God from the land of Egypt; you know no God but me, and besides me there is no savior.? *Your judgments are faithful, O Father! We submit to Your righteousness. Take not Your hand off our lives! *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 13:10-11 (13:9-16) ISRAEL: JUDGMENT AND DESOLATION PRECEDES REDEMPTION. ?Where now is your king, to save you in all your cities? Where are all your rulers - those of whom you said, ?Give me a king and princes?? 11 I gave you a king in my anger, and I took him away in my wrath.? *Morning follows night. Your wrath Father, lasts but a season. Joy then comes in the morning. You are no respecter of persons - who restored Israel. You will restore us also. *And bring us not into temptation.* *7. 14:4 (14:1-9) ISRAEL: RETURN AND RESTORATION. ?I will heal their apostasy; I will love them freely, for my anger has turned from them.? *O what grace! O what a God we love and serve! Father, like Mary Magdalene of old, we lavish upon You our thanksgiving, worship and praise! *But deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE**: 13:14 (13:9-16) ISRAEL: GOD?S PROMISE OF REDEMPTION. **?Shall I ransom them from the power of Sheol? Shall I redeem them from Death? O death, where are your plagues? O Sheol, where is your sting? Compassion is hidden from my eyes. *What more can we say than what we have said? There is *none* like You, Father, and we worship You in Christ! *C.H. Spurgeon Quotes: ?We Err On Both Sides? - *Brethren, we have two faults. We do not think God to be so great as he is, and we do not think God can be so little as he can be. We err on both sides, and neither know his height of glory nor his depth of grace. *Our Psalm for the Day: 73:16-17 (73) GOD IS MY STRENGTH AND PORTION FOREVER. ?But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task, 17 until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end.? *Father, You have made us the wisdom of God in Jesus (1 COR 1:30). We bless You for our inheritance from You in Him. By this wisdom, we understand Your purposes in part, and the *truth* of the principle above! *Hallowed be your :name!* *Subject: *Curiously enough, this Seventy-Third Psalm corresponds in subject with the Thirty-Seventh: it will help the memory of the young to notice the reverse figures. The theme is that ancient stumbling-block of good men, which Job?s friends could not get over; viz., the present prosperity of wicked men and the sorrows of the godly. Heathen philosophers have puzzled themselves about this, while to believers it has too often been a temptation. 73:1. *Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart. *Whatever may or may not be the truth about mysterious and inscrutable things, there are certainties somewhere; experience has placed some tangible facts within our grasp; let us, then, cling to these, and they will prevent our being carried away by these hurricanes of infidelity which still come from the wilderness, and like whirlwinds, smite the four corners of our house and threaten to overthrow it. O my God, however puzzled I may be, let me never think ill of You. If I cannot understand You, let me never cease to believe in You. It must be so; it cannot be otherwise; You are good to those whom You have made good; and where You have renewed the heart, You will not leave it to its enemies. 73:2. *My feet were almost gone. *Errors of heart and head soon affect the conduct. There is an intimate connection between his heart and the feet. Asaph could barely stand, his uprightness was going, his knees were bowing like a falling wall. When men doubt the righteousness of God, their own integrity begins to waver. 73:3. *For I was envious at the foolish. *It is a pitiful thing that an heir of heaven should have to confess, ?I was envious,? but worse still that he should have to put it, ?I was envious at the foolish.? Yet this acknowledgement is, we fear, due from most of us. 73:12. *Behold these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world.* Look! See! Consider! Here is the standing enigma! The crux of Providence! The stumbling-block of faith! Here are the unjust rewarded and indulged, and that not for a day or an hour, but in perpetuity. From their youth up these men, who deserve perdition, revel in prosperity. They deserve to be hung in chains, and chains are hung about their necks; they are worthy to be chased from the world, and yet the world becomes all their own. Poor, purblind sense cries, ?Behold this! Wonder and be amazed, and make this square with providential justice, if you can.? *They increase in riches*; or, strength. Both wealth and health are their dowry. No bad debts and bankruptcies weigh them down, but robbery and usury pile up their substance. Money runs to money; gold pieces fly in flocks; the rich grow richer; the proud grow prouder. Lord, how is this? Your poor servants who become yet poorer and groan under their burdens, and made to wonder at Your mysterious ways. 73:17. *Then I understood their end*. No envy gnaws now at his heart, but a holy horror both of their impending doom, and of their present guilt fills his soul. He recoils from being dealt with in the same manner as the proud sinners, whom he just now regarded with admiration. 73:18. *You cast them down into destruction. *Eternal punishment will be all the more terrible in contrast with the former prosperity of those who are ripening for it. Taken as a whole, the case of the ungodly is horrible throughout; and their worldly joy instead of diminishing the horror, actually renders the effect the more awful, even as the vivid lightning amid the storm does not brighten but intensify the thick darkness which lowers around. The ascent to the fatal gallows of Haman was an essential ingredient in the terror of the sentence - ?hang him on it.? If the wicked had not been raised so high they could not have fallen so low. 73:22. The original has in it no word of comparison; it ought to be rather translated, *I was a very beast before You, *and we are told that the Hebrew word being in the plural number, gives it a peculiar emphasis, indicating some monstrous or astonishing beast. It is the word used by Job which is interpreted ?behemoth.? ?I was a very monster before You,? not only a beast, but one of the most brutish of all beasts, one of the most stubborn and intractable of all beasts. I think no man can go much lower than this in humble confession. This is a description of human nature and of the old man in the renewed saint which is not to be excelled. 73:27. *For, lo, they that are from You shall perish. You have destroyed all them that go a whoring from You. *Mere heathens, who are far from God, perish in due season; but those who, being His professed people, act unfaithfully to their profession, shall come under active condemnation, and be crushed beneath His wrath. We read examples of this in Israel?s history; may we never create fresh instances in our own persons. *(From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Sun Mar 3 09:17:55 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Sun, 3 Mar 2013 09:17:55 -0800 Subject: 2013-03-03 - Fasting: Derek Prince Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* * * *2013-03-01 - WHEN YOU FAST, NOT IF - Derek Prince* ?*SECRETS TO ANSWERED PRAYER?* *See the one specific key - The majority of believers - unaware it exists!* *Failure to use this key - one more source of ineffectiveness in the body of Christ.* *To hear this key - will not necessarily bring forth a ?Praise the Lord!?* *The Sermon on the Mount has 2 parallel passages concerning this.* *Matthew 6:5-6 - When you prayer - be not as the hypocrites* *- but when you pray - be like this!* *See how it starts with a negative, but ends with a positive.* *- Now see Matthew 6:17-18 - another dimension of prayer -* *Moreover - when you fast - be not as the hypocrites - starts with a negative -* *- but when you fast - positive - how to be acceptable to God* *A close parallel between what Jesus says about praying and fasting* *Most** will agree we **will pray - not if* *But - the next stage - when you fast - God expects us to fast in the same manner in which we pray!* *Will we? Do we agree? Perhaps reluctantly? Don?t be reluctant.* *- For when this key is discovered - then we will say ?Praise the Lord!?* *These 2 passages are exactly parallel* *Jesus puts praying and fasting on exactly the same level!* *If He expects us to pray - then He in the same manner expects us to fast!* *See predecessors in this truth - Luther and Wesley among many others* *Wesley?s Journal - he says - if Christians understand Bible teaching on fasting - and don?t -* *they will backslide just as one who won?t pray. He would not ordain Methodist preachers * *unless they committed themselves to fast each Wednesday and Friday till tea time.* *Why? what purpose? to take pleasure from us? No* *One**. - Because it is ?God?s appointed way? to **humble ourselves!* *The greatest single barrier to getting answers to prayer is pride!* *Whatever** reverses pride will be a key to answered prayer.* *We need to see the awful danger of pride!* *Andrew Murray in his ?The Humility of Our Lord? spoke to Derek in this. * *He hates pride - it is vicious and evil - it keeps one back from all blessings.* *This message** runs through the Bible.* *Pride didn?t start on earth - but in heaven - with Lucifer, a created archangel.* *How much more** are we then susceptible to pride on earth!* *3 passages of Scripture on Pride and Humility* *1. Luke 14:11 - how to act when invited to a banquet* *Don?t ask God to humble you - He leaves it entirely to us to humble ourselves!* *He will humiliate us, so that we come to ourselves to see the necessity of humbling ourselves!* *At a banquet - take the lowest place - else we will most likely be humiliated.* *John Bunyan saw this very clearly and said - ?He that is down - needs fear no fall;* *he that is low - need fear no pride; He that is humble - shall always love God!?* *When you are on the floor in prayer - you are always safe* *Luke 14:11 - He that exalts himself - shall always be abased* *Who humbles himself - will be exalted. * *See the contrast between Lucifer Versus Jesus.* *The created one wanted to be like God* *Jesus had equality with God - but humbled Himself - Philippians 2 - and Godhighly exalted Him! * *Exaltation is promised if we humble ourselves - no exceptions.* *Humility: an essential condition for answered prayer.* *2. James 4:10 - humble yourself (with fasting) - and God will lift you up! * *3. 1 Peter 5:6 - therefore humble yourself (with fasting) that He may exalt you. God resists the proud - but He gives grace to the humble* *The Lord knows the proud afar off, and prevents them from coming into His presence, * *and **fasting** - is **most effectual** **to break our pride, **so we can * *then** come into His Presence!* *Psalm 35:13 - a simple statement by David - **I humbled my soul with fasting**!* *Why? because the ?soul? is the **arrogant** part of us - self-assertive - egoistic* *It contains our will, intellect and emotions - I **want** - I **think** - I **feel**!* *But - the **only** important thing is **God?s will**!* *So - we **must** deal with our soul with **fasting**!* *Our stomach is a wonderful servant - but a **terrible** master. Rees Howells ha**d** a **terrible** time with his stomach when he commenced fasting. Punish your stomach with **more fasting**!* *A Few Examples of the tremendous effectiveness of fasting.* *1. Leviticus 16:29-31 - the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur). The most sacred day in the Jewish calendar. A response is required - it affects the soul.* *There is sacrifice on this day outside of the people - **but** - no benefit to the people for the sacrifice - except they **fast**. They **must* * meet God?s condition of fasting.* *It is a statute forever on the 7**th** month, the 10**th** day of the month - to afflict the soul with fasting, so that they could then receive cleansing through the atonement.* *It was a sabbath of rest to afflict the soul - forever.* *The Jewish people understand this - **no food** - FAST - and for them - no water.* *Derek?s definition for fasting: **abstaining from food for spiritual purposes**.* *For Israel - it was **required** - to receive benefit.* *For 3400 years - all Jews know - they are to fast on this day - and **all**do it * *In Acts 27:9 this day is called **The Fast** - afflicting their souls - bringing the soul into subjection -* *submitting to God. God here is down to earth - very practical* *This is **one way** to humble one?s self - by fasting.* *2. Ezra 8:21 **- the story of the returning exiles from Babylon - a 4 month journey through enemy territory - with women and children - and very valuable temple vessels.* *And Ezra committed himself to the Emperor, by telling him that God would look after them.* *So he couldn?t ask for soldiers to guard. So what was the solution?* *FAST - humble themselves - a **public** fast - at the river Ahava - Had to live up to his testimony!* *We cannot be carnal like the world - must do things **God?s** way!* *So - they fasted - and **God** answered their prayers! * *Derek Prince testimony - when married, was father of 8 adopted daughters in Israel* *- **followed Ezra?s example - fasted and prayed - in the midst of war and famine - and **received** - just like Ezra - every member of family of 10 miraculously save**d**. Fasting **works**!* *When people are under God?s impending judgment because of sin - **FAST**. - It **can** be averted!* *See Ahab - confronted by Elijah with complete destruction to his family - Jezebel egged him on.* *But - 1 Kings 21 - when confronted - he feared the Lord - tore his clothes - put on sackcloth and **fasted**. Word of Lord came to Elijah - God because of this, delayed judgment until his son?s day!* *If fasting could do this for wicked Ahab - **what** for **us**? See the potential* *Jonah and Nineveh - a wicked Gentile city - proclaimed judgment in 40 days.* *Response: Jonah 3 - **king** put on sackcloth - whole city called to fast - even the **animals* *God saw - and relented - and the city was preserved for 100 years! Amazing. Shaping History through Prayer and Fasting! Indeed!* *See book of Esther! Under Haman - all Jews in 127 provinces of Persia slated for destruction, from India to Ethiopia. But - Esther - a secret Jewess in the palace and wife of the Emperor. But - not called for for 30 days - to appear apart from a call - death. Her cousin Mordecai said - If you fail to request deliverance - you will perish too - but - who knows - perhaps you have come to the empire for such a time as this. So Esther responded: call a fast by every Jew in Shushan - for 3 days - without water as well as food - then I will go in to the king unannounced - and if I perish, I perish.* *But - God heard the Jewish prayers of the entire city - and the King received her - and Haman?s device was defeated and overturned - and he and his 10 sons all perished on the very scaffold he had prepared to hang Mordecai on! - **Poetic Justice**!* *- All Christ?s ministers should take a page out of Esther?s book and the whole Bible* *2. See 2 COR 6:4-5 - Paul?s list of heavy trials - hungerings and thirstings one of them, but this was of necessity - **Fasting** was ** voluntary** - and by Paul done **often**! See a similar list in 2 COR 11:23-27.* *If we preach these things like Paul - then we ought to **practice** them!* *- When Derek saved in 1941, within a month he was led to fast **every Wednesday**. For 4 ? years he faithfully did this in Africa, with 10 other soldiers. Impossible to hide this decision. They called his Wednesday ?Ramadan?. Derek felt this was perhaps the key reason why he moved so rapidly in the principle of the Kingdom of God! I agree with him!* *- Later as a teacher of a college in Kenya, he felt he was to**o** busy to fast, so he dropped it for 2 weeks. Such a disaster followed, that he immediately resumed this habit, and maintained it to the end.* *So - Derek believes in the efficacy of fasting **passionately**!* *3. Acts 13:1-3. The above with Paul was individual fasting. Now see ** corporate** fasting* *Derek counts this passage as one of the most significant moments in the book of Acts.* *Here at Antioch certain prophets and teachers - 5 men - ministering to the Lord. How? by **fasting**. No agenda of their own - waiting on God for **His ** agenda. If only the church of today could follow **this** example! We come to God with **our** agenda. God is only committed to fulfill the agenda **He** initiates - **not** what we initiate. We say - ?Now Lord, bless these decisions **we** have made!? Forget it!* *- So after a few days, God the Holy Spirit spoke, and gave **His** agenda - Separate for me Barnabas and Saul for the ministry **I** have ordained. The first missionaries? Not really - but the first **apostolic** delegation sent out. Whoever **God** sends out are **apostle**s**. Unless God has sent out ministries following fasting and prayer, He is not obligated to bless and use them.* *And note - following this word from the Holy Spirit, these 5 did not immediately obey God - but spen**t** **another** session in fasting and prayer for confirmation - and **then** from Antioch launched the first truly apostolic ministry. Are there prophets and teachers in the church today? Indeed. Are there apostles? Indeed - if **God** has sent them forth following fasting and prayer and **His** direction.* *And apostles are given for the **perfecting** of the church. Only ** God-sent** apostles can effectively do this. And what did they do? Following **fasting** and prayer in the churches they founded in modern Turkey - they under God?s direction appointed **elders** to rule over the 3 main churches there.* *- **God-ordained** apostles for founding churches and maturing disciples, and **God-ordained** elders following fasting and prayer for His **election* * - not man?s - for the governing of these disciples into churches - **this* * is the pattern set forth in this passage and Acts 14.* *Derek Prince is absolutely committed to **this** method of apostolic church planting, followed by God?s elective process in pointing out **His**choice of elders! - No nominating committee! * *Have we a **better** way? God isn?t looking for our better ways - but for leaders like in Acts 13:1-3 and Acts 14 who will **follow** **His pattern and way**! And **fasting** is basic to these 2 steps!* *2 Conclusions. 2 Chronicles 7:14 - **?Hope For A Nation**?* *If my people - will **humble** themselves - **How** - by **Fasting**! - Because **pride** must be broken **before** we come to **prayer**! * *Then **prayer** - but **not** till we have **fasted** to humble ourselves and deal with **pride**!* *Seek my face - that is - till **in His presence**.* *Turn from wicked ways. One may say - but I have no wicked ways - Ah - that is because you haven?t first come into His Presence. There - **every one of us** - will see extraordinary wicked ways!* *One church in Florida of which Derek was one of the elders had an elder?s wife give a Joel 2 challenge. The elders decided to call the church to a daily 5:00 am prayer meeting until revival came. 13 the first morning; 7 the next; 4 the next! typical charismatic church of 500 members. But **then* * a non-elder had the Spirit come upon him. He wept and prayed for 24 hours - then the Spirit started to fall on the church. Derek and his wife Ruth returned from meetings and joined them. Even the children and babies were brought. If parents did not wake them and bring them they were disappointed. Terrible sins were now confessed, because in **God?s Presence* * - these were no**w** revealed, so that the last of the 4 conditions of 2 Chronicles 7:14 started to be fulfilled: adultery, fornication, abortions, thefts - etc. Just like the Korean revivals and many others.* *- The responsibility of leadership is to **lead**! One pastor said, ?I have to run to keep up with my people.? **That** is not leading - and will * *never** lead to revival.* *- then Joel 2:28. Afterwards, God says, I will pour out of My Spirit on ** all** flesh. This did not happen at Pentecost - that was but a sprinkling - an anticipation - to what God will do before His Son returns.* *Islam is impenetrable in the natural. But there are some who **are**seeing much fruit with our Islamic friends. But **they** are the ones who with prayer and **fasting** are breaking through the strongholds of Satan, and wresting his prisoners from him! * *- There is **no other** solution but that which follows through all of Scripture - linking prayer and fasting together. Prayer without fasting doesn?t cut the mustard.* *- Derek challenged his hearers of this message to **ask God** for confirmation whether this message was of Him! Derek believed i**t** was. David and Dale Garrett in Hawaii sent Derek and Ruth to New Zealand with faith that there would be a break-through. Derek believed it was **this fasting message** that God ordained as the **key** to break through on their behalf.* *- **But** - God is **no respecter of nations**. Australia, South Africa, Britain, Canada, the USA, and **all other countries** could just as easily use this key and see the results that God intends for the earth before the return of His Son!* *Go to on the Net - and this message on fasting - is at the very beginning of dozens of messages by Derek found there. I have made rough notes on this one - but you will benefit by listening to him yourself.* *To meditate on the parts of the Word he uses in this message, you will find it a help to make use of our ?Outlined Interlinear New Testament? - go to for information.** * * * *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Mon Mar 4 09:29:28 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Mon, 4 Mar 2013 09:29:28 -0800 Subject: Joel - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* March 4, 2013 *SEP 14 - JOEL: THE DAY OF JEHOVAH COMES* *1. 1:7 (1:1-12, ESV) BABYLON: GOD?S INSTRUMENT AGAINST JUDAH. ?It has laid waste my vine and splintered my fig tree; it has stripped off their bark and thrown it down; their branches are made white.? **For Revival*: Before additions - must *first* come subtractions! Father, You use a remnant to pray through, before the multitudes come to the valley of decision - this is the way of Your Kingdom. We remember Gideon and his 300! *Hallowed be your :name!* *2. 1:14 (1:13-14) JUDAH: AN APPROPRIATE RESPONSE. ?Consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly. Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land to the house of the LORD your God, and cry out to the LORD.? *Lord Jesus, You assumed Your disciples would *fast* (Matthew 6:16-18). Father, those with a heart after You follow Your Son in *fasting* (Psalm 69:10). We follow Paul in *fastings* often (2 Corinthians 11:27), as he followed Jesus! *Your :kingdom come!* *3. 2:1 (1:15-2:11) DAY OF JEHOVAH: INCENTIVE TO REPENTANCE. ?Blow a trumpet in Zion; sound an alarm on my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the LORD is coming; it is near.? *What a fearful day is this! Let us not follow the siren-call of false prophets who heal Your people slightly, and preach a watered-down Gospel! In the midst of judgment we read Psalm 91, while 1000?s and 10,000?s fall on either side. *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth!* *4. 2:17 (2:12-27) REPENTANCE PRAYER & FASTING: KEY TO RESTORATION! **?Between the vestibule and the altar let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep and say, ?Spare your people, O LORD, and make not your heritage a reproach, a byword among the nations.? Why should they say among the peoples, ?Where is their God??? *O forgive us Father, for being so calloused, hardened and blind! May we understand the times in which we live, and as a godly remnant press in to qualify as ministers first to You in the inner court! *Our :daily :bread Give us this day**.* *5. 2:28-29 (2:28-32) HOLY SPIRIT AND REPENTANCE. ?And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see vision. 29 Even on the male and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit.? *Now Father, we see Your great faithfulness! In Christ Jesus you have blessed us abundantly with all heavenly blessings. We respond to this upward calling in Christ Jesus. *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 3:14 (3:1-16) ARMAGGEDON. ?Multitudes, multitudes, in the valley of decision! For the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.? *But first Father, You need a godly remnant who will pay the price, and go in beyond the veil to minister to You. *Then* the Spirit will bring true contrition and repentance to the multitudes. *And bring us not into temptation.* *7. 3:17 (3:17-21) JUDAH: RESTORATION FOLLOWING ARMAGEDDON. ?So you shall know that I am the LORD your God, who dwells in Zion, my holy mountain. And Jerusalem shall be holy, and strangers shall never again pass through it.? *Hallelujah! *This* is the word of the Lord! Father, we bless You for Your final chapter. We know the end from the beginning. It was all legally won at Calvary. Soon it will be vitally appropriated! * But deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE**: 2:23 (2:12-27) AN EXTRAORDINARY PROMISE! **?Be glad, O children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God, for he has given the early rain for your vindication; he has poured down for you abundant rain, the early and the latter rain, as before.? * - or ?The early and the latter rain? (A.V.). Our times Father, are in Your hands. Some may ask, ?But what motivated you to prepare this Daily Devotional of ?Through the Bible in a Year? Actually it was because of Larry Lea. He read in Matthew 26:40 the words of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane to Peter, James and John: ?Could you not watch with me one hour?? This so challenged him that he prepared a one hour devotional based on the 7 Jehovah Names of God. The problem was, he only had this one devotional. After using it each day for several months, one wife told her husband, ?If you use the words from this devotional, ?You will become the head and not the tail? once more, I?ll scream! This gave me the thought - If I prepare a Daily Devotional of ?Through the Bible in a Year? where one can pray an hour with a different setting 365 times a year - then it would no longer be aggravating. Hence - the above, as one of 365. *C.H. Spurgeon Quotes: ?Heaven Is Hidden In The Gospel? - *And so, within the simple Gospel, how much lies concentrated? Look at it! Within that truth lie regeneration, repentance, faith, holiness, zeal, consecration, perfection. Heaven hides itself away within the Gospel. *Our Psalm for the Day: 74:20 (74) ARISE, O GOD, DEFEND YOUR CAUSE. ?Have regard for the covenant, for the dark places of the land are full of the habitations of violence.? *O Father, forgive us for not understanding Your timing! 1000 of our years - but a day to You! Jesus raising Lazarus: Your Timing! We will *Hallow your :name*, and in our patience preserve our souls. *Title: ?Maschil of Asaph.? An instructive Psalm by Asaph. *The history of the suffering church is always edifying; when we see how the faithful trusted and wrestled with their God in times of dire distress, we are thereby taught how to behave ourselves under similar circumstances; we learn, moreover, that when the fiery trial befalls us, no strange things have happened unto us, we are following the trail of the host of God. 74:1. *O God, why have You cast us off forever? *To cast us off at all were hard, but when You do for so long a time desert Your people, it is an evil beyond all endurance - the very chief of woes and abyss of misery. Sin is usually at the bottom of all the hidings of the Lord?s face; let us ask the Lord to reveal the special form of it to us, that we may repent of it, overcome it, and henceforth forsake it. 74:8. *They said in their hearts, Let us destroy them together.* Pharaoh?s policy to stamp out the nation has been a precedent for others, yet the Jews survive, and will: the bush though burning has not been consumed. Even thus the church of Christ has gone through baptisms of blood and fire, but it is all the brighter for them. 74:18. *And that the foolish people have blasphemed Your name. *The meanness of the enemy is here pleaded. Sinners are fools, and shall fools be allowed to insult the Lord and oppress His people; shall the abjects curse the Lord and defy Him to His face? When error grows too bold, its day is near and its fall certain. Arrogance foreshadows ripeness of evil, and the next step is rottenness. Instead of being alarmed when bad men grow worse and more audacious, we may reasonably take heart, for the hour of their judgment is evidently near. 72:20. Much of this Psalm has passed over our mind while beholding the idolatries of Rome (the author visited Rome in November and December, 1871, while this portion of the ?Treasury of David? was in progress), and remembering her bloody persecution of the saints. O Lord, how long shall it be ere You will ease Yourself of those profane wretches, the priests, and cast the harlot of Babylon into the ditch of corruption? May Your church never cease to plead with You till judgment shall be executed and the Lord avenged upon Antichrist. *(From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Wed Mar 6 09:25:52 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Wed, 6 Mar 2013 09:25:52 -0800 Subject: Amos 7-9 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* March 6, 2013 *SEP 16 - AMOS 7-9 - FIVE VISIONS* *1. 7:2-3 (7:1-3, ESV) VISION: JUDGMENT BY GRASSHOPPERS. ?When they had finished eating the grass of the land, I said, ?O Lord GOD, please forgive! How can Israel stand? He is so small!? 3 The LORD relented concerning this: ?It shall not be,? said the LORD.? *We see the power of intercession, Father! Make us like Abraham and Amos in intercession. *Hallowed be your :name!* *2. 7:4 (7:4-6) VISION: JUDGMENT BY FIRE. ?This is what the Lord GOD showed me: behold, the Lord GOD was calling for a judgment by fire, and it devoured the great deep and eating up the land.? *Your judgments Father, can be held back only so long. Not even Noah, Daniel and Job can hold back Your judgment, when Your people have reached the point of no return. *Your :kingdom come!* *3. 7:8 (7:7-9) VISION: SIGN OF THE PLUMB LINE. ?And the LORD said to me, ?Amos, what do you see?? And I said, ?A plumb line.? Then the Lord said, ?Behold, I am setting a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel; I will never again pass by them.?? *At last You send Your full judgment, Father! And this is done in mercy, and for the honor of Your Name. We vindicate Your righteousness in this! *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.* *4. 7:14-15 (7:10-17) AMAZIAH: PRE-JUDGED BY AMOS. ?Then Amos answered and said to Amaziah, ?I was no prophet, nor a prophet?s son, but I was a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore figs. 16 But the LORD took me from following the flock, and the LORD said to me, ?Go, prophesy to my people Israel.?? *Father, hold us back from rebelling at Your Word through Your true prophets. We see Your judgment upon Amaziah for His rebellion. O bring us to contrition and repentance when we rebel! *Our :daily :bread Give us this day.* *5. 8:11 (8) VISION: BASKET OF SUMMER FRUIT AND MEANING. ?Behold, the days are coming,? declares the Lord GOD, ?when I will send a famine on the land - not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD.? *Father, we have gone through a famine of Your word these last decades, but now You speak clearly through Your prophets once again! *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 9:8 (9:1-10) VISION: JEHOVAH THE SIFTER. ?Behold, the eyes of the Lord GOD are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from the surface of the ground, except that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob,? declares the LORD. **Righteous* are Your judgments, O Father, and done in truth and mercy. For *many* turn to righteousness, when Your judgments are upon the earth. *And bring us not into temptation.* *7. 9:11 (9:11-15) THE TABERNACLE OF DAVID. ?In that day I will raise up the booth of David that is fallen and repair its breaches, and raise up its ruins and rebuild it as in the days of old.? *Through Jesus You have restored the tabernacle of David Father, for *He* is the Son of David! His Kingdom invisible commenced with His first coming. His Kingdom *visible*manifests at His Second Coming! *But deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE**: 9:13 (9:11-15) VISION: GOD?S SPEED-UP OF TIME! **?Behold, the days are coming,? declares the LORD, ?when the plowman shall overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes him who sows the seed; the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it.? *Father, we believe it and receive it! *C.H. Spurgeon Quotes: ?Questions Are Out Of the Question.? *If the Lord has done it, questions are out of the question; and truly the Lord has done it. There may be a secondary agent, there probably is; the devil himself may be that secondary agent, yet the Lord has done it. *Our Psalm for the Day: 76:10 (76) GOD WILL JUDGE WITH EQUITY. ?Surely the wrath of man shall praise you; the remnant of wrath you will put on like a belt.? *Father, You are Jehovah, and Sovereign Lord indeed! What is man in Your sight? but a vapor, a cloud that soon passes. Help us to see ourselves as You see us! *Hallowed be your :name!* Here faith sings of triumphs achieved. The present Psalm is a most jubilant war song, a paean to the King of kings, the hymn of a theocratic nation to its Divine Ruler. We have no need to mark divisions in a song where the unity is so well preserved. 76:1. *In Judah is God known: His name is great in Israel. *Dark is the outer world, but within the favored circle of Jehovah is revealed and is the adoration of all who behold Him. The world knows Him not, and therefore blasphemes Him, but His church is full of ardor to proclaim His fame unto the ends of the earth. 76:4. *You are more glorious and excellent than the mountains of prey. *What are the honors of war but brags of murder? What the fame of conquerors but the reek of manslaughter? But the Lord is glorious in holiness, and His terrible deeds are done in justice for the defense of the weak and the deliverance of the enslaved. Mere power may be glorious, but it is not excellent: when we behold the mighty acts of the Lord, we see a perfect blending of the two qualities. 76:7. *You, even You, are to be feared. *Not Sennacherib, nor Nisroch his god, but Jehovah alone, Who with a silent rebuke had withered all the monarch?s host. *Fear Him, you saints, and then you shall Have nothing else to fear. *The fear of man is a snare, but the fear of God is a great virtue and has great power for good over the human mind. God is to be feared profoundly, continually, and alone. 76:8. *You did cause judgment to be heard from heaven. *So complete an overthrow was evidently a judgment from heaven; those who saw it not, yet heard the report of it, and said, ?This is the finger of God.? Man will not hear God?s voice if he can help it, but God takes care to cause it to be heard. The echoes of that judgment executed on the haughty Assyrian are heard still, and will ring on down all the ages, to the praise of divine justice. 76:10. *Surely the wrath of man shall praise You. *It shall not only be overcome, but rendered subservient to Your glory. Man, with his breath of threatening, is but blowing the trumpet of the Lord?s eternal fame. Furious winds often drive vessels the more swiftly into port. The devil blows the fire and melts the iron, and then the Lord fashions it for His own purposes. Let men and devils rage as they may; they cannot do otherwise that sub-serve the divine purposes. *The remainder of wrath shall You restrain. *Malice is tethered and cannot break its bounds. The fire which cannot be utilized shall be dampened. Some read it ?You shall gird,? as if the Lord girded on the wrath of man as a sword to be used in the hand of God to scourge others. The verse clearly teaches that even the most rampant evil is under the control of the Lord, and will in the end be overruled for His praise. 76:12. *He shall cut off the spirit of princes. *Their courage, skill, and life are in His hands, and He can remove them as a gardener cuts off a slip from a plant. None are great in His hand. Caesars and Napoleons fall under His power as the boughs of the tree beneath the woodman?s axe. *He is terrible to the kings of the earth. *While they are terrible to others, He is terrible to them. If they oppose themselves to His people, He will make short work of them; they shall perish before the terror of His arm, ?for the Lord is a man of war, the Lord is His name.? Rejoice before Him, all you who adore the God of Jacob. *(From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Thu Mar 7 09:10:04 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Thu, 7 Mar 2013 09:10:04 -0800 Subject: Obadiah - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* March 7, 2013 *SEP 17 - OBADIAH: PROPHET OF POETIC JUSTICE* *1. 1. (ESV) EDOM: THE WORD OF JEHOVAH. ?Thus says the Lord GOD concerning Edom: We have heard a report from the LORD, and a messenger has been sent among the nations: ?Rise up! Let us rise against her for battle!?? *Though You delay Your judgments from our point of view Father, they are really right on divine schedule! You use nations to judge a nation! *Hallowed be your :name.* *2. 2. EDOM: HER SMALL ESTATE. ?Behold, I will make you small among the nations; you shall be utterly despised.? *A big frog in a little puddle is bloated in false-esteem. From heaven?s point of view we are all as nothing. O purge from us the deception and delusion of Edom. *Your :kingdom come!* *3. 3 (3-9) EDOM: HER OVER-WEANING PRIDE. ?The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who live in the clefts of the rock, in your lofty dwelling, who say in your heart, ?Who shall bring me down to the ground??? *The first sin of Satan (Lucifer) is so often our first sin also! How can we become so self-deceived? How different from the spirit of Jesus! *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth!* *4. 10 (10-14) EDOM: HER UNPARDONABLE SIN. ?Because of the violence done to your brother Jacob, shame shall cover you, and you shall be cut off forever.? *Teach us Father, that we are our brother?s keeper! Hold us back from the sin of Cain! Show us that we can break the power of sin by receiving Jesus as our *sin*-offering! Forgive us for seeking to get around our responsibilities and avoiding Your way of Salvation! *Our :daily :bread Give us this day!* *5. 15 (15-16) EDOM: IN THE DAY OF THE LORD. ?For the day of the LORD is near upon all the nations. As you have done, it shall be done to you; your deeds shall return on your own head.? *Your judgments Father, are just and righteous altogether. We remember Adoni-bezek (Judges 1:5-7)! *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors!* *6. 17 (17-18) EDOM: HER EXTERMINATION. ?But in Mount Zion there shall be those who escape, and it shall be holy, and the house of Jacob shall possess their own possessions.? *This will be true for Your Church also Father, in the last days. And as this Millennium ends, we are in the last days. We are in the end of the 120th Jubilee! *And bring us not into temptation!* *7. 21 (19-21) ISRAEL: HER RESTORATION. ?Saviors shall go up to Mount Zion to rule Mount Esau, and the kingdom shall be the LORD?s.? *O God our Father, *Great* is Your faithfulness, and *Great* is the faithfulness of Your Word! You and Your Word are *one* (John 1:1)! *But deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE**: C.H. Spurgeon Quotes: ?Afflictions and Education? - *Some of you people of God, when you get bitter waters, want to throw them away. Do not throw a drop of it away, for that is the water you have yet to drink. Accept your afflictions. They are a part of your education. *Our Psalm for the Day: 77:10-11 (77). IN THE DAY OF TROUBLE I SEEK THE LORD. ?Then I said, ?I will appeal to this, to the years of the right hand of the Most High?. 11 I will remember the deeds of the LORD; yes, I will remember your wonders of old.? *Your deliverance at the Red Sea was great; Your restoration of Israel to their land was greater; Salvation through Jesus was a greater deliverance yet; but the restitution of all things at Jesus? second coming shall supersede them all, Father! The Feast of Tabernacles! *77:19-20. ?Your way was through the sea, your path through the great waters; yet your footprints were unseen. 20 You led your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.? *There is much of mystery, awe and grandeur about You, O Jehovah Father, Great God of Might! We tremble at Your presence and Word; Your fear grips our heart, and we *Hallow Your :name!* ?*A Psalm of Asaph.? *Asaph was a man of exercised mind and often touched the minor key; he was thoughtful, contemplative, believing, but withal there was a dash of sadness about him and this imparted a tonic flavor to his songs. 77:1. *I cried unto God with my voice.* This Psalm has much sadness in it, but we may be sure it will end well, for it begins with prayer, and prayer never has an ill issue. Asaph did not run to man but to the Lord, and to Him he went, not with studied, stately, stilted words, but with a cry, the natural, unaffected, unfeigned expression of pain. He used his voice also, for though vocal utterance is not necessary to the life of prayer it often seems forced upon us by the energy of our desires. Sometimes the soul feels compelled to use the voice, for thus it finds a freer vent for its agony. It is a comfort to hear the alarm-bell ringing when the house is invaded by thieves. 77:6. *I call to remembrance my song in the night.* He did not cease from introspection, for he was resolved to find the bottom of his sorrow and trace it to its fountain-head. He made sure work of it by talking, not with his mind only, but with his inmost heart; it was heart work with him. He was no idler, no melancholy trifler; he was up and at it, resolutely resolved that he would not tamely die of despair but would fight for his hope to the last moment of life. 77:10. *And I said, This is my infirmity. *He has won the day; he talks reasonably now and surveys the field with a cooler mind. He confesses that unbelief is an infirmity, a weakness, a folly, a sin. He may also be understood to mean, ?This is my appointed sorrow,? I will bear it without complaint. When we perceive that our affliction is meted out by the Lord and is the ordained portion of our cup, we become reconciled to it and no longer rebel against the inevitable. Why should we not be content if it be the Lord?s will? What He arranges, it is not for us to cavil at. 77:11. *I will remember the works of the Lord: surely I will remember Your wonders of old. *Whatever else may glide into oblivion, the marvelous works of the Lord in the ancient days must not be suffered to be forgotten. Memory is a fit handmaid for faith. When faith has its seven years of famine, memory like Joseph in Egypt opens her granaries. 77:20. *You led Your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.*What a transition from tempest to peace, for wrath to love! Quietly as a flock, Israel was guided on, by human agency which veiled the excessive glory of the divine presence. The smiter of Egypt was the shepherd of Israel. He drove His foes before Him but went before His people. Heaven and earth fought on His side against the sons of Ham, but they were equally subservient to the interests of the sons of Jacob. Therefore, with devout joy and full of consolation, we close this Psalm; the song of one who forgot how to speak and yet learned to sing far more sweetly than his fellows. *(From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Fri Mar 8 10:25:07 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Fri, 8 Mar 2013 10:25:07 -0800 Subject: Philippians 1 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* March 8, 2013 *SEP 18 - PHILIPPIANS 1 - RELATIONSHIP OF GOSPEL TO SUFFERING* *1. 1:1-2, (NNT). PAUL AND TIMOTHY: TO OVERSEERS AND DEACONS. ?Paul and Timothy bondmen of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus that are at Philippi, with overseers and deacons: 2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.? *We love Your servants, Father! We love their heart expression! We see Your heart manifested through Paul?s heart. *Hallowed be your :name!* *2. 1:6 (1:3-8) PAUL: BASIS FOR HIS THANKSGIVING. ?Confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will perfect it unto Jesus Christ?s day.? *What comfort! What confidence! What a basis for hope and faith! We will end up like Jesus! We will be like Him! Already He is *living * and *growing* in us. Soon He will be fully manifested through us. *Your :kingdom come!* *3. 1:9-11. PAUL: NATURE OF HIS PRAYER. ?And this I pray, that your :love abound yet more and more in knowledge and all discernment; 10 so that you may approve the things excellent; that you be sincere and void of offense unto Christ?s day; 11 filled with fruit of righteousness, which is through Jesus Christ, unto God?s praise and glory.? * We believe for the fulfillment of Paul?s prayer, Father! *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.* *4. 1:12 (1:12-14) PAUL: HIS BONDS OVERRULED. ?Now I would have you know, brethren, that the happenings unto me have come out rather unto progress of the gospel.? *Forgive us Father, for ever doubting the wisdom of Your Providential dealings and circumstances. *All* things work together for good to those in You, and walking in Your love! *Our :daily :bread Give us this day!* *5. 1:20 (1:15-20) PAUL: REJOICES IN ALL WHO PREACH CHRIST. ?According to my earnest :expectation and hope, that in nothing shall I be shamed, but with all boldness, as always, now also Christ shall be magnified in my :body, whether by life, or by death.? *Paul?s faith didn?t take him out of prison, nor cause him to escape martyrdom. For Paul?s faith was *Jesus?*faith, and he walked in *Your will* Father, and You walked with him in his testing! *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 1:21 (1:21-26) PAUL: HIS DELEMMA. ?For to me :to live is Christ, and to :die gain.? *What victory! What overcoming! What can Satan do with a saint who walks on this level? All he can do is be greatly cast down, as He watches You Father, overcome through Your saints! *And bring us not into temptation!* *7. 1:29 (1:27-30) PAUL: EXHORTATION TO SUFFER. ?Because to you it has been granted in the behalf of Christ, not only :to believe unto him, but also :to suffer in his behalf.? *This Father, is the glory of all saints! O may we not be deluded by a partial Gospel, and seek to escape the path thatJesus and Paul and all the saints have trod! May American culture not infiltrate the Gospel, but may we always let *Your* pattern have precedence! *But deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE**: 1:23-24 (1:21-26) PAUL: HIS DECISION OF GRACE. **?But I am in a strait betwixt the two, having the desire :to depart and be with Christ; for it is very far better: 24 yet to abide in the flesh is more needful for you.? *Plant this heavenly spirit in each of us, Father! *C.H. Spurgeon Quotes: ?Angels Are Humble!? *The angels in heaven are humble because they remember who made them and kept them angels, for they would have been devils in hell if God had not preserved them in their first estate. *Our Psalm for the Day: 78:72 (78, ESV) TELL THE COMING GENERATION. ?With upright heart he shepherded them and guided them with his skillful hand.? *Integrity! Yes, this is You too Father, who guards us from false enthusiasm and deception! *Hallowed be your :name!* 78:1. *Give ear, O my people, to My law: incline your ears to the words of My mouth.* When God gives His truth a tongue and sends forth His messengers trained to declare His word with power, it is the least we can do to give them our ears and the earnest obedience of our hearts. As the officer of an army commences his drill by calling for ?attention,? even so every trained soldier of Christ is called upon to give ear to His words. Men lend their ears to music; how much more then should they listen to the harmonies of the gospel; they sit enthralled in the presence of an orator; how much rather should they yield to the eloquence of heaven! 78:2. *I will utter dark sayings of old*; enigmas of antiquity, riddles of yore. The mind of the poet-prophet was so full of ancient lore that he poured it forth in a copious stream of song, while beneath the gushing flood lay pearls and gems of spiritual truth capable of enriching those who could dive into the depths and bring them up. The letter of this song is precious, but the inner sense is beyond all price. Whereas the first verse called for attention, the second justifies the demand by hinting that the outer sense conceals an inner and hidden meaning, which only the thoughtful will be able to perceive. 78:14. *And all the night with a light of fire. *So constant was the care of the Great Shepherd that all night and every night the token of His presence was with His people. That cloud which was a shade by day was as a sun by night. Even thus the grace which cools and calms our joys, soothes and solaces our sorrows. What a mercy to have a light of fire with us amid the lonely horrors of the wilderness of affliction. Our God has been all this to us, and shall we prove unfaithful to Him? We have felt Him to be both shade and light, according as our changing circumstances have required. 78:18. *And they tempted God in their heart. *He was not tempted, for He cannot be tempted by any, but they acted in a manner calculated to tempt Him, and it is always just to charge that upon men which is the obvious tendency of their conduct. Christ cannot die again, and yet many crucify Him afresh, because such would be the legitimate result of their behavior if its effects were not prevented by other forces. The sinners in the wilderness would have had the Lord change His wise proceedings to humor their whims, hence they are said to tempt Him. 78:32. *For all this they sinned still, and believed not for His wondrous works. *Continuance in sin and in unbelief go together. Had they believed they would not have sinned, had they not been blinded by sin they would have believed. There is a reflex action between faith and character. How can the lover of sin believe? How, on the other hand, can the unbeliever cease from sin? God?s ways with us in providence are in themselves both convincing and converting, but unrenewed nature refuses to be either convinced or converted by them. 78:41. *And limited the Holy One of Israel. *Doubted His power and so limited Him, dictated to His wisdom, and so did the same. To chalk out a path for God is arrogant impiety. The Holy One must do right, the covenant God of Israel must be true, it is profanity itself to say unto Him You shall do this or that, or otherwise I will not worship You. Not thus is the eternal God to be led by a string by His impotent creature. He is the Lord, and He will do as seems good to Him. 78:57. *And dealt unfaithfully like their fathers, *proving themselves legitimate by manifesting the treachery of their sires. They were a new generation, but not a new nation - another race yet not another. Evil propensities are transmitted; the birth follows the progenitor; the wild ass breed wild asses; the children of the raven fly to the carrion. Human nature does not improve; the new editions contain all the errata of the first, and sometimes fresh errors are imported. *(From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Sat Mar 9 08:36:36 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Sat, 9 Mar 2013 08:36:36 -0800 Subject: Philippians 2-3 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* March 9,2013 *SEP 19 - PHILIPPIANS 2-3 - EXAMPLE OF CHRIST?S SUFFERINGS* *1. 2:5-8 (2:1-11) HUMILITY: LED CHRIST?S EXALTATION. ?Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: 6 who, existing in God?s form, counted not the being on an equality with God anything to be grasped at, 7 but emptied himself, taking a bondman?s form, being made in likeness of men; 8 and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, yes, death of the cross.? *Father, here we see the outworking of Your Kingdom in Jesus! *Hallowed be your :name.* *2. 2:12-13 (2:12-18) HUMILITY: RELEASES THE FRUIT OF CHRIST?S SALVATION. ?So that, my beloved, even as you have always obeyed, not as in my :presence only, but now much rather in my :absence, work our your own :salvation with fear and trembling; 13 for it is God who works in you both :to will and :to work, for his good :pleasure.? *We bless You for this truth, Father. We submit to it. *Your :kingdom come!* *3. 2:20-21 (2:19-30) HUMILITY: DEMONSTRATED IN TIMOTHY AND EPAPHRODITUS. ?For I have no one likeminded, who will genuinely care for your state. 21 For they all seek their :own, not the things of Jesus Christ.? *Now we see again the high outworking of Your Kingdom in Timothy. We too desire this selflessness in us for the sake of Your Kingdom, will and Glory. *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.* *4. 3:1 JOY: ALWAYS A RIGHT RESPONSE. ?For the rest, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you, to me indeed is not irksome, but for you is safe.? **Joy* is the most infallible sign of the presence of God (Pierre Teilhard de Chardin)! So You revealed by Your Spirit to one of Your saints. O forgive us for living on such a low level that Your *joy* is not more manifested through us! *Our :daily :bread Give us this day!* *5. 3:2-3 JOY IN JESUS: A MARK OF HEART CIRCUMCISION. ?Look out for the dogs, look out for the evil workers, look out for the concision: 2 for we are the circumcision, who worship by God?s Spirit, and glory in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in flesh.? **This* is our place of safety, Father! We guard it. We know how the enemy would draw us out of this abiding place! *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 3:10, 12 (3:4-16) JOY: A MARK OF PAUL?S PRESSING ON. ?That I may know him, and the power of his :resurrection, and fellowship of his sufferings, becoming conformed to his :death. 12 Not that I have already received, or am already made perfect: but I follow on, if so be that I may apprehend that for which also I was apprehended by Christ Jesus.? *We bless You Father, for the example of Paul. He is our living letter. Out of identification in death with You, Lord Jesus, flowed forth this incredible joy. The joy of Jehovah is our strength! *And bring us not into temptation.* *7. 3:17 (3:17-21) PAUL: AN EXAMPLE FOR ALL BELIEVERS. ?Brethren, become imitators together of me, and mark them that so walk even as you have us for an example.? *Again Father, we bless You for Paul?s example. You gave him to us Your church for our encouragement and direction. *But deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE: 3:13-14 (3:4-16) * *PAUL: EVER PRESSING ON! ?Brethren, I reckon not myself yet to have apprehended: but one thing, forgetting the thingsbehind, and stretching forward to th ose before, 14 I follow on toward the mark unto the prize of the upward calling of :God in Christ Jesus.? *Father, we take Paul?s goal, and make it ours. *C.H. Spurgeon Quotes: ?You cannot carry a bad temper into heaven?. *Do not say, ?I cannot help having a bad temper.? Friend, you must help it. Pray God to help you to overcome it at once; for either you must kill it, or it will kill you. You cannot carry a bad temper into heaven. *Our Psalm for the Day: 79:9 (79). HOW LONG, O LORD? ?Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of your name; deliver us, and atone for our sins, for your name's sake!? *Father, Your Name is threatened when You chastise Your people. Yet You chastise only in measure, and that such a short time with eternity's values in view! We know that You regard the glory of Your Name! Psalm 79 - A Psalm of complaint such as Jeremiah might have written amid the ruins of the beloved city. It evidently treats of times of invasion, oppression, and national overthrow. 79:1. *O God, the heathen are come into Your inheritance. *It is with the cry of amazement at sacrilegious intrusion; as if the poet were struck with horror. *Your holy Temple have they defiled. *It is an awful thing when wicked men are found in the church and numbered with her ministry. *They have laid Jerusalem in heaps.* It is sad to see the foe in our own house, but worse to meet him in the house of God; they strike hardest who smite at our religion. 79:8. *O remember not against us former iniquities. *Sins accumulate against nations. Generations lay up stores of transgressions to be visited upon their successors; hence this urgent prayer. In Josiah?s days, the most earnest repentance was not able to avert the doom which former long years of idolatry had sealed against Judah. 79:9. *And deliver us, and purge away our sins, for Your names? sake.*Sin, the root of the evil, is seen and confessed; pardon of sin is sought as well as removal of chastisement, and both are asked not as matter of right but as gifts of grace. God?s Name is a second time brought into the pleading. Believers will find it their wisdom to use very frequently this noble plea: it is the great gun of the battle, the mightiest weapon in the armory of prayer. 79:11. *According to the greatness of Your power preserve You those that are appointed to die. *Men and devils may consign us to perdition, while sickness drags us to the grave, and sorrow sinks us in the dust; but, there is One who can keep our soul alive, yes, and bring it up again from the depths of despair. A lamb shall live between the lion?s jaws if the Lord wills it. Even in the sharnel, life shall vanquish death if God be near. *(From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Sun Mar 10 08:56:59 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Sun, 10 Mar 2013 08:56:59 -0700 Subject: Philippians 4 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* March 10, 2013 *SEP 20 - PHILIPPIANS 4 - JOY AND PEACE: FRUIT OF THE GOSPEL* *1. 4:1 (NNT) JOY OF PAUL: BASED ON ENDURANCE OF CONVERTS. ?So that, my brethren beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, thus stand fast in theLord, beloved.? *Here is the desire of Your heart also Father, from Your throne! We too open ourselves to the fulfillment of this truth. *Hallowed be your :name.* *2. 4:2 (4:2-3) PEACE OF MIND: NECESSITY FOR FELLOW WORKERS. ?I exhort Euodia, and exhort Syntyche, to be of the same mind in the Lord.? *How sad when we hurt Your Name Father, by our contentious behavior. Help us to walk in the paths of righteousness for Your Name?s sake. *Your :kingdom come!* *3. 4:6-7 (4:4-7) JOY AND PEACE: BASIS FOR PRAYER. ?In nothing be anxious; but in everything by :prayer and :supplication with thanksgiving let your :requests be made known unto :God. 7 And the peace of :God, which passes all understanding, shall guard your :hearts and your :thoughts in Christ Jesus.? *All our need You will supply, Father! In Christ all provision has been made. *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.* *4. 4:8 (4:8-9) THINGS OF PEACE: BASIS OF EXHORTATION. ?For the rest, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever are honorable, whatever arejust, whatever are pure, whatever are lovely, whatever are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if any praise, take account thereof.? *Forgive us Father, for neglecting the above so greatly! *Our :daily :bread Give us this day!* *5. 4:13, 19 (4:10-20) CARING: A MARK OF LOVE. ?I can do all things in him that strengthens me. 19 And my :God shall supply your every need according to his :riches in glory in Christ Jesus.? *Only in Christ Jesus are we overcomers, Father. Apart from Him, we can do nothing well-pleasing in Your sight! *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors!* *6. 4:21-22. SAINTHOOD: BASIS FOR SALUTATIONS. ?Salute every saint in Christ Jesus. The brethren :with me salute you. 22 All the saints salute you, and specially they of the household of Caesar.? *Father, we are brothers and sisters who highly regard one another in the Lord. We are one body, and members in particular. Use this truth to unite us! *And bring us not into temptation!* *7. 4:23. GRACE IN JESUS: BASIS FOR BENEDICTION. ?The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your :spirit.? *Grace and truth, You give us in Jesus, Father. Every good and perfect gift flows out of His Grace! *But deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE**: 4:4, 9. IMPORTANT CLOSING WORDS FROM PAUL. **?Rejoice in the Lord always: again I will say, Rejoice. 9 What things you both learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do: and the God of :peace shall be :with you.? *Our conditions: Your promises, Father; we embrace *both* in Jesus? Name! *C.H. Spurgeon Quotes: ?God is Angry? - *You have offended God and he is angry. This is not my word: it is written here:- ?He is angry with the wicked every day. If he turn not, he will whet his sword. He has bent his bow and made it ready.? You are in the hands of the God whom you have offended. *Our Psalm for the Day: 80:3, 7, 19 (80, ESV) RESTORE US, O GOD. ?Restore us, O God; let your face shine, that we may be saved! 7 Restore us, O God of hosts; let your face shine, that we may be saved. 19 Restore us, O LORD of hosts! Let your face shine, that we may be saved! *Salvation comes from * Your* initiative, Father! You are our Sovereign Lord, and work all things after the counsel of Your own will. While we were yet sinners, *Christ*died for us the ungodly! *Hallowed be your :name!* *Title: *?To the Chief Musician upon Shoshannim-Eduth.? For the fourth time we have a song upon Shoshannim, or the lilies; the former ones being Psalms 45, 60 and 69. Why this title is given it would be difficult to say in every case, but the delightfully poetical form of the present Psalm may well justify the charming title. The Psalm is a testimony of the church as a ?lily among the thorns.? 80:2. *Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh stir up Your strength, and come and save us. *It is wise to mention the names of the Lord?s people in prayer, for they are precious to Him. Jesus bears the names of His people on His breast-plate. Just as the mention of the names of his children has power with a father, so is it with the Lord. 80:6. *And our enemies laugh among themselves. *They find mirth in our misery, comedy in our tragedy, salt for their wit in the brine of our tears, amusement in our amazement. It is devilish to sport with another?s griefs; but it is the constant habit of the world which lies in the wicked one to make merry with the saints? tribulations; the seed of the serpent follow their progenitor and rejoice in evil. 80:17. *Let Your hand be upon the man of Your right hand, upon the Son of man Whom You made strong for Yourself. *Nations rise or fall largely through the instrumentality of individuals: by a Napoleon the kingdoms are scourged, and by a Wellington nations are saved from the tyrant. It is by the Man Christ Jesus that fallen Israel is yet to rise, and indeed through Him, Who deigns to call Himself the Son of man, the world is to be delivered from the domain of Satan and the curse of sin. O Lord, fulfill Your promise to the Man of Your right hand, who participates in Your glory, and give Him to see the pleasure of the Lord prospering in His hand. 80:19. *Cause Your face to sine; and we shall be saved.* Even we who were so destroyed. No extremity is too great for the power of God. He is able to save at the last point, and that, too, by simply turning His smiling face upon His afflicted. Men can do little with their arm, but God can do all things with a glance. Oh, to live forever in the light of Jehovah?s countenance. *(From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Mon Mar 11 10:34:40 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Mon, 11 Mar 2013 10:34:40 -0700 Subject: Colossians 1:1-2:5 Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* March 11, 2013 *SEP 21 - COLOSSIANS 1:1-2:5 - PRE-EMINENCE OF CHRIST: WORTHY OF SUFFERING* *1. 1:1-2 (NNT) PAUL: HIS GREETING OF GRACE AND PEACE. ?Paul, apostle of Christ Jesus through God?s will, and Timothy the brother, 2 to the saints atColossae and faithful brethren in Christ: Grace to you and peace from God our Father.? *Grace and peace: these are Your gifts unto us Father, that by walking in them we manifest Your Kingdom. Then we can pray in open manifestation. *Hallowed be your :name!* *2. 1:3-4 (1:3-8) PAUL: BASIS FOR THANKSGIVING. ?We thank :God the Father of our :Lord Jesus Christ always praying for you, 4 having heard of your :faith in Christ Jesus, and the love which you have toward all the saints.? *How we thank You Father for such saints at Colosse who merit this commendation from the apostle Paul. *Your :kingdom come.* *3. 1:12-14 (1:9-17) PAUL: PRAYER FOR REVELATION OF CHRIST?S PRE-EMINENCE. ?Giving thanks to the Father, who fitted you to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in :light; 13 who delivered us out of the power of :darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his :love; 14 in whom we have the redemption, the forgiveness of :sins.? *You have done so much for us in Christ already, Father! *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth!* *4. 1:18-20. PAUL: REASON FOR CHRIST?S PRE-EMINENCE. ?And HE is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, firstborn from the dead; that in all HE might have pre-eminence. 19 For the whole fullness was pleased to dwell in him; 20 and through him to reconcile :all things unto him, having made peace through the blood of his :cross: through him, whether the things upon the earth, or those in the heavens.? *Father, forgive us for having such a low regard for Your Son, our Lord Jesus. *Our :daily :bread Give us this day.* *5. 1:21-22 (1:21-23) PAUL?S MINISTRY OF RECONCIATION: HOLY, UNBLAMABLE, UNREPROVABLE. ?And you, being alienated before and enemies in :mind in the evil :works, yet now has he reconciled 22 in the body of his :flesh through :death, to present you holy and without blemish and unreprovable before him.? *Thank You Father, for such a work in Christ on our behalf! Sin, fault and failure on our part, You have *overcome*! You see us through Christ?s atoning work and His Covenant as Holy, unblamable and unreprovable! *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 1:24-25a (1:24-29) PAULS SUFFERINGS: THE NECESSITY FOR THEM. ?Now I rejoice in my :sufferings for you, and fill up on my part what are lacking of the afflictions of the Christ in my :flesh for his :body, which is the church; 25a whereof I became a minister.? *Father, we too would enter into Paul?s ministry in this respect! *And bring us not into temptation!* *7. 2:2-3 (2:1-5) PAUL: HIS EXTRAORDINARY DESIRE FOR THE COLOSSIANS. ?That their :hearts be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the fullness of the understanding, unto full knowledge of the mystery of :God, Christ, 3 in whom are all the treasures of :wisdom and knowledge hidden.? *We too would be receivers of this prayer, Father! We too would acknowledge the riches in both You and Christ! *But deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE**: 1:27 (1:24-29) PAUL: UNFOLDS THE MYSTERY IN CHRIST. **?To whom :God was pleased to make known what is the riches of the glory of this :mystery among the nations, which is Christ in you, the hope of :glory.? **Christ in us*, the hope of Glory! We magnify You for this purpose, plan and desire, Father! *C.H. Spurgeon Quotes: ?Well, Sir, you seem to be a fatalist!? *I hear one say, ?Well, sir, you seem to be a fatalist!? No, far from it. There is just this difference between fate and providence. Fate is blind; providence has eyes. Fate is blind, a thing that must be; it is just an arrow shot from a bow, that must fly onward, but has no target. Not so, providence; providence is full of eyes. There is a design in everything, and an end to be answered; all things are working together, and working together for good. *Our Psalm for the Day: 81:13-14 (81, ESV) OH, THAT MY PEOPLE WOULD LISTEN TO ME. ?Oh, that my people would listen to me, that Israel would walk in my ways! 14 I would soon subdue their enemies and turn my hand against their foes.? *How foolish we are Father, to miss Your proper way of doing things! Help us to walk in Your ways, and then we can truly *hallow your :name!* 81:1. *Sing aloud*. No dullness should ever stupefy our Psalmody or halfheartedness cause it to limp along. Sing aloud, you debtors to sovereign grace. Your hearts are profoundly grateful; let your voices express your thankfulness. *Make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob. *It is to be regretted that the niceties of modern singing frighten our congregations from joining lustily in the hymns. For our part, we delight in full bursts of praise and had rather discover the ruggedness of a want of musical training than miss the heartiness of universal congregational song. The gentility, which lisps the tune in well-bred whispers or leaves the singing altogether to the choir, is very like a mockery of worship. The gods of Greece and Rome may be worshiped well enough with classical music, but Jehovah can only be adored with the heart, and that music is best for His service which gives the heart most play. 81:4. *For this was a statute for Israel, and a law of the God of Jacob. *When it can be proved that the observance of Christmas, Whitsunday and other Popish festivals was ever instituted by a divine statute, we also will attend to them, but not till then. It is as much our duty to reject the traditions of men as to observe the ordinances of the Lord. We ask concerning every rite and rubric, ?Is this a law of the God of Jacob?? and if it be not clearly so, it is of no authority with us who walk in Christian liberty. 81:7. *I proved you at the waters of Meribah. *The story of Israel is only our own history in another shape. God has heard us, delivered us, liberated us, and too often our unbelief makes the wretched return of mistrust, murmuring, and rebellion. Great is our sin; great is the mercy of our God: let us reflect upon both and pause a while. *Selah. *Hurried reading is of little benefit; to sit down a while and meditate is very profitable. 81:9. *There shall no strange god be in you.* No alien god is to be tolerated in Israel?s tents. *Neither shall you worship any strange god. *Where false gods are, their worship is sure to follow. Man is so desperate an idolater that the image is always a strong temptation: while the nests are there the birds will be eager to return. 81:12. *So I gave them up unto their own hearts? lust, and they walked in their own counsels. *No punishment is more just or more severe than this. If men will not be checked, but madly take the bit between their teeth and refuse obedience, who shall wonder if the reins are thrown upon their necks and they are let alone to work out their own destruction. It were better to be given up to lions than to our hearts? lusts. Men, deserted of restraining grace, sin with deliberation; they consult, and debate, and consider, and then elect evil rather than good, with malice aforethought and in cool blood. It is remarkable obduracy of rebellion when men not only run into sin through passion but calmly ?walk in their own counsels? of iniquity. *(From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Tue Mar 12 09:21:34 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Tue, 12 Mar 2013 09:21:34 -0700 Subject: Colossians 2:6-2:4 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* March 12, 2013 *SEP 22 - COLOSSIANS 2:6-3:4 - PRE-EMINENT CHRIST: REASON FOR THIS* *1. 2:6-7 (NNT) CHRIST: AS RECEIVED, SO TO BE WALKED IN! ?As therefore you received the Christ, Jesus the Lord, walk in him, 7 rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith, even as you were taught, abounding therein in thanksgiving.? *Father, Your Kingdom in Christ is Righteousness, and Peace, and Joy in the Holy Spirit! We love Your Kingdom! *Hallowed be your :name!* *2. 2:8-10 (2:8-12) CHRIST: NOT TO BE WATERED DOWN BY PHILOSOPHY. ?Look out, lest any shall be that makes spoil of you through the philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of :men, after the elements of the world, and not after Christ: 9 for in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, 10 and in him you are made full, who is the head of all principality and power.? *True bread is in Christ, *not* a gospel of mixture. We choose the pure word of Christ: we trust You, Father! *Your :kingdom come!* *3. 2:13-15. CHRIST?S CROSS: AN EXTRAORDINARY FREEING. ?And you, being dead by the trespasses and the uncircumcision of your :flesh, you did he make alive together with him, having forgiven us all :trespasses; 14 having blotted out the handwriting against us, in :ordinances, which was contrary to us: and he has taken it out of the midst, nailing it to the cross; 15 having despoiled the principalities and the powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.? *Having done all this in Christ, Father - *how much more* will you *continue* to do for us! *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth!* *4. 2:16-17. CHRIST?S BODY: FREES US FROM SYMBOLS. ?Let no one therefore judge you in meat, and in drink, or in respect of a feast day or new moon or sabbaths: 17 which are a shadow of the things to come: but the body is the Christ?s.? *Father, forgive us the sin of putting man?s traditions ahead of the pure word of Christ. In contrition of heart we repent of this sin, and resist those who judge our freedom! *Our :daily :bread Give us this day!* *5. 2:18-19. CHRIST: TO BE ADHERED TO ABOVE ANGELS. ?Let no one rob you of a prize by voluntary humility and worship of the angels, dwelling in what things he has seen, vainly puffed up by the mind of his :flesh 19 and not holding to the Head, from whom all the body, being supplied and knit together through the joints and bands, increases with the increase of :God.? *Angels would not let the Apostle John worship them! *And forgive us our :debts, as we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 2:20 (2:20-23) CHRIST?S DEATH: FREES US FROM OUTWARD ORDINANCES! ?If you died with Christ from the elements of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you submit to ordinances?? *We are free in Christ from man?s traditions! Father, we fear You and Your Word more than the fear of man! *And bring us not into temptation.* *7. 3:1-4. CHRIST?S RESURRECTION: ELEVATES US THROUGH IDENTIFICATION. ?If then you were raised together with the Christ, seek the things above, where the Christ is, seated at God?s right. 2 Set your mind on the things above, not on those upon the earth. 3 For you died, and your :life is hid with the Christ in :God. 4 When the Christ, our :life, shall be manifested, then shall you also with him be manifested in glory.? *Hallelujah! *But deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE**: 2:11-12 (2:8-12) CHRIST: THE CIRCUMCISER IN HEART! **?In whom you were also circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of the Christ; 12 having been buried with him in :baptism, wherein you were also raised with himthrough the faith of the working of :God, who raised him from the dead.? *Father, deep on our hearts, *write this*! *C.H. Spurgeon Quotes: ?Grow in Grace but never more pardoned? - *We shall grow in grace, but we shall never be more completely pardoned than when we first believed: we shall one day stand before the glorious presence of God in his own sacred courts, and see the well-beloved and wear his likeness, but we shall not even then be more perfectly forgiven than we are at this present moment. *Our Psalm for the Day: *82:6-7 (82, ESV) *RESCUE THE WEAK AND NEEDY. I said, ?You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you; 7 nevertheless, like men you shall die, and fall like any prince.? *O Father, You have made us in Your image, sons of God, but we are not yet perfected in this mortal body. But when this mortal puts on immortality, in our resurrection and glorified bodies, we shall indeed *hallow your :name!* *Title and Subject: ?A Psalm of Asaph.? *This poet of the Temple here acts as a preacher to the court and to the magistracy. Men who do one thing well are generally equal to another; he who writes good verse is not unlikely to be able to preach. What preaching it would have been had Milton entered the pulpit, or had Virgil been an apostle! 82:4. *Deliver the poor and needy: rid them out of the hand of the wicked. *It is a brave thing when a judge can liberate a victim like a fly from the spider?s web, and a horrible case when magistrate and plunderer are in league. Law has too often been an instrument for vengeance in the the hand of unscrupulous men, an instrument as deadly as poison or the dagger. It is for the judge to prevent such villainy. 82:7. *But you shall die like men. *What sarcasm it seems! Great as the office made the men, they were still but men, and must die. To every judge this verse is a memento mori! He must leave the bench to stand at the the bar and on the way must put off the ermine to put on the shroud. *And fall like one of the princes. *How quickly death unrobes the great. What a leveler he is. He is no advocate for liberty, but in promoting equality and fraternity, he is a masterly democrat. Great men die as common men do. As their blood is the same, so the stroke which lets out their life produces the same pains and throes. No places are too high for death?s arrows: he brings down his birds from the tallest trees. It is time that all men considered this. *(From ?The Treasury of David? by C.S. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Wed Mar 13 09:13:48 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Wed, 13 Mar 2013 09:13:48 -0700 Subject: Colossians 3:5-17 Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* March 13, 2013 *SEP 23 - COLOSSIANS 3:5-17 - RESURRECTION: LEADS US TO PUT ON CHRIST* *1. 3:5-7 (NNT) RESURRECTION: ENABLES US TO PUT OFF WORKS OF FLESH. ?Put to death therefore the members which are upon the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and :covetousness, which is idolatry; 6 for which comes the wrath of :God: 7 wherein you also once walked, when you lived in these;? *Father, we hear Your Word: we see what You have delivered us from. We will *not* be as the dog which returns to its vomit. We are new creations. We will walk in Your Kingdom. *Hallowed be your :name!* *2. 3:8-10a (3:8-11) RESURRECTION: ENABLES US TO PUT ON THE NEW MAN. ?But now do you also put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, railing, shameful speaking out of your :mouth: 9 lie not one to another; seeing you have put off the old man with his :doings, 10a and have put on the new.? *This is a picture of us, Father. You see us perfect and perfected in Christ. This is Your will for our proper behavior! *Your :kingdom come!* *3. 3:12-13. RESURRECTION: FREES US TO PUT ON CHRIST?S FRUIT AND FORGIVENESS. ?Put on therefore, as chosen of :God, holy and beloved, bowels of compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, longsuffering; 13 forbearing one another, and forgiving each other, if any one have a compliant against any; even as the Lord forgave you, so also do you.? *Yes Father, Your nature and character we would have shine out from us, especially the forgiving spirit of Jesus. *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.* *4. 3:14. RESURRECTION: FREES US TO PUT ON PERFECT LOVE. ?And above all these things put on :love, which is the bond of perfectness.? *We Father, are sons of the Resurrection. The Resurrection Spirit of Jesus abides in us! Agap*e*-love is the unique manifestation of Resurrection life, and bonds us together in maturity. *Our :daily :bread Give us this day.* *5. 3:15. RESURRECTION: FREES US INTO BODY PEACE AND THANKSGIVING. ?And let the peace of the Christ arbitrate in your :hearts, to which all you were called in one body; and be you thankful.? **Peace*! by this we know we are walking well-pleasing to you, Father! May we never walk in a way that causes Your peace to flee away! *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 3:16. RESURRECTION: FREES US INTO SINGING CHRIST?S WORD! ?Let the word of the Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing yourselves with psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, with :grace singing in your :hearts unto :God.? *Father, it is the rich Word of Christ indwelling us that births the Song of the Lord! As we walk in and experience this truth, how You can then expand our life! *And bring us not into temptation.* *7. 3:17. RESURRECTION: FREES US IN USE OF JESUS? NAME. ?And whatever you do in word or in deed, do all in the Lord Jesus? name, thanking :God theFather through him.? *Father, we rejoice in this word. We immerse ourselves in it and in You. You in us, we in You: by this we apprehend all You would have us perceive. *But deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE**: 3:10-11 **(3:8-11) RESURRECTION: BASIS FOR NEW MAN RENEWAL. ?And have put on the new, who is being renewed after the image of him that created him: 11 where is no Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond, free; but Christ is all, and in all.? *We accept this state of oneness, Father. We receive one another as fellow members of Christ?s spiritual body. *C.H. Spurgeon Quotes: ?Always Forgiving? - *You are often sinning, but he is always forgiving you; you are often wandering, often erring, often grieving him, but ?he forgives all your iniquities.? I do not feel like preaching when I touch this text. I heartily wish I could sit down and have a happy cry over this blessed truth that my God is at this moment forgiving me. *Our Psalm for the Day: 83:17-18 (83, ESV). O GOD, DO NOT KEEP SILENCE. ?Let them be put to shame and dismayed forever; let them perish in disgrace, 18 that they may know that you alone, whose name is the LORD, are the Most High over all the earth.? *Father, You confounded Your enemies who crucified Your Son. Out of it You made the wrath of man and Satan to praise You. *You*are the Master chess player! *Hallowed be your :name!* *Title: ?A Psalm, or Song of Asaph.? *This is the last occasion upon which we shall meet with this eloquent writer. Asaph the seer is well aware of the serious dangers arising from the powerful confederate nations, but his soul in faith stays itself upon Jehovah, while as a poet-preacher he excites his countrymen to prayer by means of this sacred lyric. 83:2. *Your enemies make a tumult. *The adversaries of the church are usually a noisy and a boastful crew. Their pride is a brass which sounds, a symbol which is ever tinkling. 83:4. *They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation.*Easier said than done. Yet it shows how thorough-going are the foes of the church. Theirs was the policy of extermination. They laid the axe at the root of the matter. Rome has always loved this method of warfare, and hence she has gloated over the massacre of Bartholomew and the murders of the Inquisition. 83:9. *As to Sisera, as to Jabin, at the brook of Kison. *When God wills it, a brook can be as deadly as a sea. Kison was as terrible to Jabin as was the Red Sea to Pharaoh. How easily can the Lord smite the enemies of His people! God of Gideon and of Barak, will You not again avenge Your heritage of their bloodthirsty foes? 83:11. *Make their nobles like Oreb, and like Zeeb: yes, all their princes as Zebah and Zalmunna. *The Psalmist, seeing these four culprits hanging in history upon a lofty gallows, earnestly asks that others of a like character may, for truth and righteousness? sake, share their fate. 83:17. *Let them be confounded and troubled forever; yes, let them be put to shame, and perish. *What a terrible doom it will be to the enemies of God to be ?confounded, and troubled forever? - to see all their schemes and hopes defeated, and their bodies and souls full of anguish without end: from such a shameful perishing, may our souls be delivered. *(From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Thu Mar 14 10:45:30 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Thu, 14 Mar 2013 10:45:30 -0700 Subject: Lincoln's Step-mother Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* March 14, 2013 ?*HE LOVED ME TRULY? ? Lincoln?s Step-mother.* *By Bernadine Bailey & Dorothy Walworth* *The Reader?s Digest Association, Inc. (February 1945 issue)* *THE BRIDE rode with her husband on the high front seat of the jolting wagon. She was 31 years old, and, in 1819, that was middle-aged, for most pioneer women died early. It was a December day, cold for Kentucky, and they were headed north toward forest country. ?I reckon it?ll be fine weather,? she said, for she was the sort to make the best of things.* *Yesterday Tom had arrived on horseback, all the way from his Indiana farm, at her house in Elizabethtown. He had come straight to the point: ?Miss Sally, I have no wife and you no husband. I came a-purpose to marry you. I knowed you from a girl and you knowed me from a boy. I?ve no time to lose. If you?re willin?, let it be done straight off.?* *That morning they had been married at the Methodist parsonage. The preacher wrote down that she, Sarah Bush Johnston, had been three years a widow and Tom?s wife had died last winter. The horses and wagon Tom had borrowed waited outside. The wagon was piled high with her household goods, so that there was scarcely room for her three children. Tom had two children of his own; he hadn?t told them he was bringing back a new mother. There was a shadow in her blue-gray eyes when she thought about that. Maybe they?d feel she didn?t belong.* *A raft ferried the wagon across the half-frozen Ohio River. The air sharpened; the wheels sank to their hubs in snow. After five days they came to a log cabin in a small clearing on Little Pigeon River. It had no windows, and the door was only a deerskin-covered opening. A stick chimney plastered with clay ran up the outside.* *Tom hallooed and a little boy ran out of the door. He was thin as a scarecrow, and wore a ragged shirt and tattered deerskin pants. But it was the look in his eyes that went to Sarah?s heart, although it was a look she couldn?t put a name to. She got down from the wagon, opened her arms and folded him close.* ?*I reckon we?ll be good friends,? she said. ?Howdy, Abe Lincoln.?* *She had never been in the wilderness before; she had known small-town comfort. This was a one-room cabin, with no real floor, only packed dirt. The bedstead was a makeshift of boards laid on sticks against the wall, with a mattress of loose cornhusks. The bedcovers were skins and cast-off clothing. Ten-year-old Abe and his 12-year-old sister had always slept on piles of leaves up in the loft, to which they climbed by pegs fastened to the wall. The furniture was some three-legged stools and a table axed smooth on top, bark side under. Dennis Hanks, an 18-year-old cousin of Tom?s first wife, Nancy Hanks, was living with the family and had been trying to cook with the help of a Dutch oven, one battered pot, and a couple of iron spoons. Although she must have expected a place far better than this, all Sarah said was, ?Tom, fetch me a load of firewood. I aim to heat some water.?* *This new stepmother with the rosy face and the bright curly hair wasted no time. As soon as the water steamed, she brought out of her own belongings a gourd full of homemade soap. Then, in front of the hot fire, she scrubbed Abe and his sister and combed their matted hair with her own clean shell comb. When the wagon was unpacked, little Abe, who had not said a word, ran his bony fingers over such wonderful things as a walnut bureau, a clothes chest, a loom and real chairs. And that night, when he went to bed in the loft, he did not find the leaves; she had thrown them outdoors. He had a feather mattress and a feather pillow, and enough blankets so he was warm all night.* *In a couple of weeks, a body wouldn?t have known the place. Sarah had what folks called ?faculty?; she worked hard and she could make other people work, too. Even Tom, who meant well but was likely to let things slide. She never said he must do thus and so; she was too wise and too gentle. But somehow Tom found himself making a real door for the cabin and cutting a window, like she wanted. He put down a floor, chinked up the cracks between the logs, white-washed the inside walls. Abe couldn?t get over how sightly it was. And she wove Abe shirts out of homespun cloth, coloring them with dye she steeped out of roots and barks. She made him deerskin breeches that really fitted, and moccasins, and a coonskin cap. She had a mirror and she rubbed it bright and held it up so?s he could see himself ? it was the first time he had ever seen himself ? and he said, ?Land o?Goshen, is that me??* *Sometimes, in the early mornings, when Sarah laid a new fire in the ashes, she got to thinking it was queer how things come about. When Tom Lincoln had courted her, 14 years ago, she had turned him down for Daniel Johnston. Tom had been 12 years married to Nancy Hanks, who died so sudden from the ?Milk sick.? And now, after all these years, Tom and she were together again, with his children and her children to feed and do for.* *The cabin was 18 feet square and there were eight people under its flimsy roof. Sarah was taking what was left of two households, along with the orphan boy, Dennis Hanks. Somehow she must make them into a family of folks who loved each other; she wanted them to feel like they had always been together. There was plenty of chance for trouble, what with the two sets of young?uns who had never laid eyes on each other till now, and all the stories Abe and his sister had heard folks tell about stepmothers. Those first weeks, Sarah felt mighty anxious. Especially about Abe, though he did what she said and never answered her back. Once she saw him looking at her real serious when she was putting some johnnycake into the oven. ?All my life I?m goin? to like johnnycake best,? he said suddenly, and then scooted through the door. You couldn?t figure Abe out. As Dennis said, ?There?s somethin? peculiarsome about Abe.?* *Maybe, if it hadn?t been for her, he wouldn?t have lived to be a man. He had always grown so fast and never had enough to eat. But now, when he had eaten enough johnnycake and meat and potatoes that were cooked through and not just burned on top, he stopped looking so pinched and putty-color. And he wasn?t so quiet any more. Now he had some flesh on his bones, he wasn?t solemn. Why, he was fuller of fun than anybody. He learned to tell yarns, like his father, but he tried them out on Sarah first, and she laughed in the right places. She stood up for him, too, when he?d laugh out loud, all of a sudden, at things nobody else could understand, and Tom thought he was being sassy. ?Abe?s got a right to his own jokes,? Sarah said.* *Sometimes Sarah thought, all to herself, that she loved Abe more than her own children. But she didn?t really. It was just that she knew, deep down in her heart where she told nobody but God, that Abe was somebody special, who didn?t belong to her but was hers to keep for a while.* *When Abe was little, Tom hadn?t minded his walking nine miles to the ?blab school? where the scholars learned their letters by saying them over and over out loud. But now Abe was older and stronger, Tom didn?t see why he shouldn?t stay home and chop down trees and cradle wheat or hire out to the neighbors for husking corn at 30 cents a day. Of course, he felt kind of proud when the neighbors came to have Abe write their letters with the pen he had made out of a buzzard?s quill and the brier-root ink. But Abe was ?reachin? too fur? when he kept reading books instead of clearing swamps; Tom told Abe you didn?t need to know so almighty much to get along.* *If Sarah hadn?t taken Abe?s part against his father, Abe wouldn?t have got as much schooling as he did, though goodness knows it wasn?t much. He learned, as the folks said, ?by littles.? But through the years she held out against Tom, no matter if Tom said she was plumb crazy.* *Abe would rather read than eat. He?d read in the morning, soon?s it was light enough to see; he?d read in the evening when the chores were done; he?d read when he plowed, while the horse was resting at the end of the row. He walked 17 miles to borrow books from Lawyer Pitcher at Rockport. Aesop?s Fables. Robinson Crusoe. Pilgrim?s Progress. Shakespeare. The Statutes of Indiana. When his borrowed Weeks? Life of Washington got rained on, he worked three full days to pay for it. Once he gave a man 50 cents for an old barrel and found Blackstone?s Commentaries at the bottom of it, and you?d think he?d found a gold mine. He began reading late at night by the fire, and when Tom complained, Sarah said, ?Leave the boy be.? She always let him read until he quit of his own accord, and if he fell asleep there on the floor she would get a quilt and wrap it gently around him.* *He did his ciphering on a board, and when the board got too black, he?d plane it off and start again. If he read something he liked a lot, he?d write it down. He was always writing, and was most always out of paper. He?d put charcoal marks on a board, for a sign of what he wanted to write, and when he got paper he?d copy it all down. And he?d read it out loud to Sarah by the fire, after Tom and the rest had gone to bed. ?Did I make it plain?? he always asked her. It made her real proud when he asked her about his writing, and she answered him as well as anybody could who didn?t know how to read or write.* *They told each other things they told nobody else. He had dark spells when nobody but her could make him hear. Spells when he thought it was no use to hope and to plan. Abe needed a lot of encouraging.* *In 1830, Tom decided to look for better farm land in Illinois, and the family moved to Coles County on Goose Nest Prairie. There Abe helped his father build the two-room cabin where Sarah and Tom were to spend the rest of their lives. The place was hardly built when the day came that Sarah had foreseen, the day when Abe would leave home. He was a man grown, 22 years old, and he had a chance to clerk in Denton Offut?s store over in New Salem. There was nothing more she could do for Abe; for the last time she had braved out Tom so?s Abe could learn; for the last time she had kept the cabin quiet so?s Abe could do his reading.* *At first he came back often, and, later on, after he got to be a lawyer, he visited Goose Nest Prairie twice a year. Every time Sarah saw him, it seemed like his mind was bigger. Other folks? minds got to a place and then stopped, but Abe?s kept on growing. He told her about his law cases, and, as time went on, he told her about his going to the state legislature and his marrying Mary Todd. After Tom died, in 1851, Abe saw to it that she didn?t want for anything.* *When she heard Abe was going to Charleston for his fourth debate with Stephen A. Douglas, she went there, too, without saying a word to Abe. It would be enough ? it had always been enough ? just to watch him. She was one of the crowd on the street as the parade went by. There was a big float drawn by a yoke of oxen, carrying three men splitting rails, and a big sign, ?Honest Abe, the Rail Splitter, the Ox Driver, the Giant Killer.? Was that her Abe? And now here he came, riding in a shiny black carriage, and tipping his tall black hat right and left. Was that her Abe? She tried to make herself small, but he saw her and made the carriage stop. Then, right in front of everybody, he got out of the carriage and came over and put his arms around her and kissed her. Yes, that was her Abe.* *She wasn?t the crying kind, but she cried when he was elected President. Alone, where nobody could see her. In the winter of 1861, before he went to Washington, he crossed the state to see her, coming by train and carriage in the mud and slush to say good-bye. He brought her a present, a length of black alpaca for a dress; it was too beautiful to put scissors into; after Abe went she?d just take it out and feel of it once in a while.* *Abe looked tired, and he had a lot on his mind, but they had a fine talk. Even when they were silent, they still said things to each other, and he still set store by what she thought. When he kissed her good-bye, he said he?d see her soon, but she knew somehow that she would not see him again.* *Four years later, they came and told her he was dead. The newspapers wrote the longest pieces about his real mother, and that was like it should be, but some folks came and asked her what sort of boy Abe had been. And she wanted to tell them, but it was hard to find the words. ?Abe was a good boy,? she said. ?He never gave me a cross word or look. His mind and mine, what little I had, seemed to run together.? And then she added, ?He loved me truly, I think.?* *Often, during the four years that remained to her, she would sit of an evening and think of Abe. Being a mother, she did not think about him as President, as the man about whom they sang, ?We are coming, Father Abraham, three hundred thousand strong.? She remembered him as a little boy. She was baking johnnycake for him; she was weaving him a shirt; she was covering him with a blanket when he had fallen asleep over his books, trying to keep him safe from the cold.* *Sarah Bush Lincoln was buried beside her husband in Shiloh Cemetery. Her death, on December 10, 1869, passed unnoticed by the nation. For many years she was not even mentioned by historians and biographers. Not until 1924 were the graves of Thomas and Sarah Bush Lincoln marked with a suitable stone. More recently, their Goose Nest Prairie home site has been made into a state park, with a reproduction of the two-room cabin which Abraham Lincoln helped to build. And only in the last few years have Americans come to know that, when Abraham Lincoln said, ?All that I am I owe to my angel mother,? he was speaking of his stepmother.* *NOTE: So how does the above touch you? It shows a side of Lincoln that is most real, and that meant much to him ? to the depths of his being. I trust it touched you as deeply as it touched me. Jim Watt* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Fri Mar 15 09:40:06 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2013 09:40:06 -0700 Subject: Jonah 1-2 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* March 15, 2013 *SEP 25 - JONAH 1-2 - REBELLION, PRAYER AND DELIVERANCE* *1. 1:1-2 (ESV) JONAH?S FIRST COMMISSION. ?Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2 ?Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.?? *Father, we bless You for having compassion even on a wicked heathen city. *This* is the kind of God You are! And Nineveh *responded*! *Hallowed be your :name!* *2. 1:3. JONAH?S DISOBEDIENCE. ?But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went on board, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the LORD.? *Your will for Jonah Father, was Nineveh. His rebellious will was to flee and go down from Your will. We flee from the rebellious example of Jonah, and choose Your will as done by Jesus. *Your :kingdom come!* *3. 1:7 (1:4-9). JONAH: REVEALS REASON FOR THE STORM. ?And they said to one another, ?Come, let us cast lots, that we may know on whose account this evil has come upon us.? So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah.? *You provided revelation for heathen sailors, Father. How much more will You give answers for saints! *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth. * *4. 1:15-16 (1:10-16) JONAH: CAST OVERBOARD. ?So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. 16 Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows.? *Forgive us Father, for having less fear of You than did these heathen sailors. O grant us hearts of the fear of Jehovah, a trembling at Your Word, a *delight* to do Your will, and like David, hearts after Your own heart! *Our :daily :bread Give us this day!* *5. 1:17. JONAH: SWALLOWED BY JEHOVAH?S FISH. ?And the LORD appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.? *Thank God You were with Jonah Father, in the belly of the great fish. Thank You from the depths of our heart that You are *always* with us in temptation?s hour. *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 2:1-2 (2:1-9) JONAH?S PRAYER. ?Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the belly of the great fish, 2 saying, ?I called out to the LORD, out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice.?? *Jehovah Father, You are a great God of deliverance! You delivered Daniel; You delivered His three friends; You delivered Jonah; and You will always deliver us. *And bring us not into temptation!* *7. 2:10. JONAH DELIVERED. ?And the LORD spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.? *Your word Father, is obeyed by nature, the fish and animal kingdom, the sea, the plants, and sometimes by man. Forgive us that usually only man is vile. *But deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE**: 2:6 (2:1-9) JONAH?S DELIVERANCE. **?Jonah at the roots of the mountains. I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever; yet you brought up my life from the pit, O LORD my God.? *Jonah?s experience is a parable of Your death, burial and Resurrection, Lord Jesus! Father, we reckon ourselves identified with Your Son in this. *C.H. Spurgeon Notes: ?Proverbs and Laziness? - *The Book of Proverbs deals very hard blows against sluggards, and Christian ministers do well frequently to denounce the great sin of idleness, which is the mother of a huge family of sins. *Our Psalm for the Day: 85:1-2 (85) REVIVE US AGAIN. ?LORD, you were favorable to your land; you restored the fortunes of Jacob. 2 You forgave the iniquity of your people; you covered all their sin. Selah *Lovingkindness (CHEsed, Covenant love) and Truth meet together in You, O Jehovah Father, on behalf of Your people. Through Revival You heal our land and set us in the way of Your steps. * Hallowed be your :name!* *Subject and Occasion: *It is the prayer of a patriot for his afflicted country, in which he pleads the Lord?s former mercies and by faith foresees brighter days. We believe that David wrote it, but many question that assertion. Certain interpreters appear to grudge the Psalmist David the authorship of any of the Psalms and refer the sacred songs by wholesale to the times of Hezekiah, Josiah, the Captivity, and the Maccabees. It is remarkable that, as a rule, the more skeptical a writer is, the more resolute is he to have done with David; while the purely evangelic annotators are for the most part content to leave the royal poet in the chair of authorship. 85:2. *You have forgiven the iniquity of Your people.* Often and often had He done this, pausing to pardon even when His sword was bared to punish. Who is a pardoning God like You, O Jehovah? Who is so slow to anger, so ready to forgive? Every believer in Jesus enjoys the blessing of pardoned sin, and he should regard this priceless boon as the pledge of all other needed mercies. 85:6. *That Your people may rejoice in You.* A genuine revival with out joy in the Lord is as impossible as spring without flowers or day-dawn without light. If, either in our own souls or in the hearts of others, we see declension, it becomes us to be much in the use of this prayer, and if on the other hand we are enjoying visitations of the Spirit and bedewings of grace, let us abound in holy joy and make it our constant delight to joy in God. 85:8. *But let them not turn again to folly. *Backsliders should study this verse with the utmost care; it will console them and yet warn them, draw them back to their allegiance, and at the same time inspire them with a wholesome fear of going further astray. To turn again to folly is worse than being foolish for once; it argues willfulness and obstinacy, and it involves the soul in sevenfold sin. There is no fool like the man who will be a fool, cost him what it may. 85:10. *Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other. *God is as true as if He had fulfilled every letter of His threatenings, as righteous as if He had never spoken peace to a sinner?s conscience; His love in undiminished splendor shines forth, but no other of His ever-blessed characteristics is eclipsed thereby. It is the custom of modern things (?) to make sport of this representation of the result of our Lord?s substitutionary atonement; but had they ever been themselves made to feel the weight of sin upon a spiritually awakened conscience, they would cease from the vain ridicule. Their doctrine of atonement has well been described by Dr. Duncan as the admission ?that the Lord Jesus Christ did something or other, which somehow or other, was in some way or other connected with man?s salvation.? This is their substitute for substitution. Our facts are infinitely superior to their dreams, and yet they sneer. It is but natural that natural men should do so. We cannot expect animals to set much store by the discoveries of science, neither can we hope to see unspiritual men rightly estimate the solution of spiritual problems - they are far above and out of their sight. Meanwhile it remains for those who rejoice in the great reconciliation to continue both to wonder and adore. 85:11. *And righteousness shall look down from heaven, *as if it threw up the windows and leaned out to gaze upon a penitent people, whom it could not have looked upon before without an indignation which would have been fatal to them. This is a delicious scene. Earth yielding flowers of truth, and heaven shining with stars of holiness; the spheres echoing to each other, or being mirrors of each other?s beauties. ?Earth carpeted with truth and canopied with righteousness? shall be a nether heaven. When God looks down in grace, man sends his heart upward in obedience. *(From ?The Treasury of David by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Sat Mar 16 09:25:05 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Sat, 16 Mar 2013 09:25:05 -0700 Subject: Jonah 3-4 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* March 16, 2013 *SEP 26 - JONAH 3-4 - OBEDIENCE, COMPAINT AND REBUKE* *1. 3:1-2 (ESV) JONAH: RECOMISSIONED. ?Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time, saying, 2 ?Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.?? *Your Kingdom Father, is Righteousness, Peace and Joy in the Holy Spirit! You desired forthe people of Nineveh to experience this. For this You commissioned Jonah the second time. *Hallowed be your :name.* *2. 3:3-4 JONAH: PREACHES TO NINEVEH. ?So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days? journey in breadth. 4 Jonah began to go into the city, going a day?s journey. And he called out, ?Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!?? *Sometimes Father, we do Your will from a grudging heart - even Your servants! O forgive us for such an ununited heart! * Your :kingdom come!* *3. 3:5 (3:5-9) NINEVEH REPENTS. ?And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.? *We marvel Father, at this city-repentance by a wicked city! And we marvel too at this revelation of Your heart! In the light of this, we can more easily see why we with our faith can so pray. *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.* *4. 3:10. NINEVEH SPARED BY GOD. ?When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.? *How our works prove our faith! O forgive us Father, for failing to comprehend Your forgiving heart. Give us a heart like Your heart. Make us like David, people after Your heart. *Our :daily :bread Give us this day.* *5. 4:2b (4:1-4) JONAH?S ANGER AND COMPLAINT. ?That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster.? *Ah, here we hear Jonah: true testimony concerning You Father, even though he did not approve. He had the spirit of James and John before Pentecost. But *we know* what You are like! *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 4:5 (4:5-8) JONAH?S SORROW. ?Jonah went out of the city and sat to the east of the city and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, till he should see what would become of the city.? *O Father, our hearts our sorrowful for Jonah?s hard sorrow. May we rather rejoice in Your heart of mercy, compassion and forgiveness. *And bring us not into temptation.* *7. 4:11 (4:9-11) JONAH?S LESSON. ?And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?? *We bless You for Your last word, Father. We vindicate You and justify You. We choose to side with Your way of doing things. *But deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE**: 3:8-9 (3:5-9) NINEVEH?S KING: HIS DECREE. **?But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. 9 Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we many not perish.? *Father, we marvel at the heart of this wicked, heathen king! May it never be said that we have less faith and trust than him! *C.H. Spurgeon Quotes: ?Committees Waste Their Time?* - While committees waste their time over resolutions, do something. While Societies and Unions are making constitutions, let us win souls. Too often we discuss, and discuss, and discuss, while Satan only laughs in his sleeve. It is time we had done planning, and sought something to plan. *Our Psalm for the Day: 86:10-12 (86) GREAT IS YOUR STEADFAST LOVE! ?For you are great and do wondrous things; you alone are God. 11 Teach me your way, O LORD, that I may walk in your truth; unite my heart to fear your name. 12 I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart, and I will glorify your name forever.? *Yes Father, by this confession, we *hallow your :name!* *Title: ?A Prayer of David.? *We have here one of the five Psalms entitled Tephillahs, or prayers. This Psalm consists of praise as well as prayer, but it is in all parts so directly addressed to God that it is most fitly called ?a prayer.? A prayer is none the less but all the more a prayer because veins of praise run through it. This Psalm would seem to have been specially known as David?s prayer; even as the Nineteenth is ?the prayer of Moses.? The name of God occurs very frequently in this Psalm. Sometimes it is Jehovah, but more commonly Adonai, which it is believed by many learned scholars was written by the Jewish transcribers instead of the sublimer title, because their superstitious dread led them to do so: we, laboring under no such tormenting fear, rejoice in Jehovah, our God. It is singular that those who were so afraid of their God, that they dared not write His name, had yet so little godly fear, that they dared to alter His Word. 86:1. *Bow down Your ear, O Lord, hear me. *In condescension to my littleness, and in pity to my weakness, ?bow down Your ear, O Lord.? When our prayers are lowly by reason of our humility, or feeble by reason of our sickness, or without wing by reason of our despondency, the Lord will bow down to them, the infinitely exalted Jehovah will have respect unto them. *For I am poor and needy. *Of all the despicable sinners, those are the worst who use the language of spiritual poverty while they think themselves to be rich and increased with goods. 86:2. *For I am holy: O You my God, save Your servant that trusts in You. *Lest any man should suppose that David trusted in his own holiness he immediately declared his trust in the Lord, and begged to be saved as one who was not holy in the sense of being perfect, but was even yet in need of the very elements of salvation. 86:4. *Unto You, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. *As the heliotrope looks to the sun for its smile, so turn I my heart to You. You are as the brazen serpent to my sick nature, and I lift up my soul?s eye to You, that I may live. I know that the nearer I am to You the greater is my joy; therefore be pleased to draw me nearer while I am laboring to draw near. It is not easy to lift up a soul at all; it needs a strong shoulder at the wheel when a heart sticks in the miry clay of despondency: it is less easy to lift a soul up to the Lord, for the height is great as well as the weight oppressive; but the Lord will take the will for the deed and come in with a hand of Almighty grace to raise His poor servant out of the earth and up to heaven. 86:6. *Attend to the voice of my supplications. *Here are repetitions, but not vain repetitions. When a child cries, it repeats the same note, but it is equally in earnest every time, and so was it with the suppliant here. 86:10. *You are God alone. *Alone were You God before Your creatures were; alone in Godhead still are You now that You have given life to throngs of beings; alone forever shall You be, for none can ever rival You. True religion makes no compromises; it does not admit Baal or Dagon to be a god; it is exclusive and monopolizing, claiming Jehovah nothing less than all. The vaunted liberality of certain professors of modern thought is not to be cultivated by believers in the truth. ?Philosophic breadth: aims at building a Pantheon and piles a Pandemonium; it is not for us to be be helpers in such an evil work. 86:12. *I will praise You, O Lord my God, with all my heart. **When my heart is one*, I will give you all of it. Praise should never be rendered with less than all our heart, and soul, and strength, or it will be both unreal and unacceptable. 86:13. *And You have delivered my soul from the lowest hell. *There are some alive now who can use this language unfeignedly, and he who pens these lines most humbly confesses that he is one. Left to myself to indulge my passions, to rush onward with my natural vehemence, and defy the Lord with recklessness of levity, what a candidate for the lowest abyss should I have made myself by this time. For me, there was but one alternative, great mercy or the lowest hell. With my whole heart do I sing, ?Great is Your mercy towards me, and You have delivered by soul from the lowest hell.? *(From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Sun Mar 17 08:49:28 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Sun, 17 Mar 2013 08:49:28 -0700 Subject: Micah 1-2 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* March 17, 2013 *SEP 27 - MICAH 1-2 - THREATS OF COMING JUDGMENT* *1. 1:2 (1:1-4, ESV) JUDGMENT: THROUGH JEHOVAH. ?Hear, you peoples, all of you; pay attention, O earth, and all that is in it, and let the Lord GOD be a witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple.? *Jehovah Father, You are Sovereign Lord! You can do *all* things. You can chastise, judge and purge Your people. You *do* so! And in wrath, You remember mercy! *Hallowed be your :name.* *2. 1:5 (1:5-9) JUDGMENT: FOR THE TRANSGRESSION OF JACOB. ?All this is for the transgression of Jacob and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the transgression of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? And what is the high place of Judah? Is it not Jerusalem?? *Samaria first - then Judah! What man sows, he *must* reap! Your judgments Father, are necessary, righteous and just. We deserve *more* than You mete out! *Your :kingdom come!* *3. 1:12 (1:10-16) JUDGMENT: UPON JUDAH AND JERUSALEM. ?For the inhabitants of Maroth (bitterness) wait anxiously for good, because disaster has come down from the LORD to the gate of Jerusalem.? *How blind we are, Father! We think judgment will fall on every one else but ourselves. We think that as Your chosen ones Your grace covers all our sins and rebellion, and that the law of sowing and reaping is lifted for us. How blind! How foolish! *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.* *4. 2:3 (2:1-3) WOE TO OPPRESSORS. ?Therefore thus says the LORD: behold, against this family I am devising disaster, from which you cannot remove your necks, and you shall not walk haughtily, for it will be a time of disaster.? *Father, forgive us for our willful, obdurate and determined blindness! Forgive us our oppressions, and grant contrition and repentance of heart! Forgive us our sins in the home against spouse and family. Forgive us our sin against believer and unbeliever alike. Forgive us for sullying Your Name! *Our :daily :bread Give us this day.* *5. 2:4 (2:4-5) LAMENTATION FOR THOSE JUDGED. ?In that day they shall take up a taunt song against you and moan bitterly, and say, ?We are utterly ruined; he changes the portion of my people; how he removes it from me! To an apostate he allots our fields.?? *O Father, be with us when temptation?s hour is necessary. *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 2:11 (2:6-11) JUDGMENT OF JUDAH: FALSE PROPHETS. ?If a man should go about and utter wind and lies, saying, ?I will preach to you of wine and strong drink,? he would be the preacher for this people!? *God help us! We deserve the prophets and leaders over us: women and children (ISA 3:12)! We want it so and love it so. Like Daniel, we pray for our sins and the sins of our fathers. O Father, hear our confession and heal our land. *And bring us not into temptation.* *7. 2:12 (2:12-13) JUDGMENT BY BREAKER: RESTORATION BY MESSIAH. ?I will surely assemble all of you, O Jacob; I will gather the remnant of Israel; I will set them together like sheep in a fold, like a flock in its pasture, a noisy multitude of men.? *Righteous, Just and Holy art Thou, O Father, King of the universe! *But deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE: C.H. Spurgeon Quotes: ?A Little Sin? - *For a little sin, or for a sin, however great, which had but little of evil in its consequences, we might have been saved by some finite being; but if God himself must quit his high abode, and sojourn here to be our Saviour, then was our ruin terrible in the extreme. *Our Psalm for the Day: 87:1-3; 5-7 (87) GLORIOUS THINGS OF YOU ARE SPOKEN. ?On the holy mount stands the city he founded; 2 the LORD loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwelling places of Jacob. 3 Glorious things of you are spoken, O city of God.? *Father, You take pleasure in us, Your holy city, Your habitation, Your Zion! We bless You that You have chosen us as Your dwelling place. *87:5-7 ?And of Zion it shall be said, ?This one and that one were born in her?; for the Most High himself will establish her. 6 The LORD records as he registers the peoples, ?This one was born there.? Selah 7 Singers and dancers alike say, ?All my springs are in you.?? *Father, faithfully You chastise us as sons, that this might come to pass! *Subject and Division*: The song is in honor of Zion, or Jerusalem, and it treats of God?s favor to that city among the mountains, the prophecies which made it illustrious, and the honor of being a native of it. Many conceive that it was written at the founding of David?s city of Zion, but does not the mention of Babylon imply a later date? It would seem to have been written after Jerusalem and the Temple had been built and had enjoyed a history of which glorious things could be spoken. 87:1. *His foundation is in the holy mountains. *Sudden passion is evil, but bursts of holy joy are most precious. Not on the sand of carnal policy, nor in the morass of human kingdoms, has the Lord founded His church, but on His own power and godhead, which are pledged for the establishment of His beloved church, which is to Him the chief of all His works. Rome standson her seven hills and has never lacked a poet?s tongue to sing her glories, but more glorious far are You, O Zion, among the eternal mountains of God: while pen can write or mouth can speak, Your praises shall never lie buried in inglorious silence. 87:7. *All my springs are in You. *The springs of my faith and all my graces; the springs of my life and all my pleasures; the springs of my activity, and all its right doings; the springs of my hope, and all its heavenly anticipations, all lie in You, my Lord. Without Your Spirit I should be as a dry well, a mocking cistern, destitute of power to bless myself or others. O Lord, I am assured that I belong to the regenerate whose life is in You, for I feel that I cannot live without You; therefore, with all Your joyful people will I sing Your praises. *(From: ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Mon Mar 18 09:05:04 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Mon, 18 Mar 2013 09:05:04 -0700 Subject: Micah 3-5 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* March 18, 2013 *SEP 28 - MICAH 3-5 - PROPHECY OF PROMISED DELIVERANCE* *1. 3:6-7 (3:1-7, ESV) PROPHECY: AGINST RULERS AND PROPHETS. ?Therefore it shall be night to you, without vision, and darkness to you, without divination. The sun shall go down on the prophets, and the day shall be black over them; 7 the seers shall be disgraced, and the diviners put to shame; they shall all cover their lips, for there is no answer from God.? ** Righteous* are Your judgments Father, against false rulers and prophets. *Hallowed be your :name.* *2. 3:12 (3:8-12) PROPHET MICAH: CONTRASTED WITH PROPHETS AND RULERS. ?Therefore because of you Zion shall be plowed as a field; Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins, and the mountain of the house a wooded height.? *For Adam?s sake You drove him out of Eden, Father. For *Judah?s* sake Your brought chastisement in judgment. *Judgment* is Your strange work, and works for our good when all else fails. Micah spoke a true word. *Your :kingdom come!* *3. 4:2 (4:1-8) RESTORATION: PEACE, PROSPERITY AND POWER FOR ISRAEL. ?And many nations shall come, and say: ?Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.? For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.? *O what a comforting word! After the weeping of night follows morning. After the purging of judgment comes blessing. *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.* *4. 4:10 (4:9-10) RESTORATION OF TRAVAIL AND INTERCESSION. ?Writhe and groan, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in labor, for now you shall go out from the city and dwell in the open country; you shall go to Babylon. There you shall be rescued; there the LORD will redeem you from the hand of your enemies.? *O Father, forgive us for ever doubting Your love and restoration-faithfulness during the times of judgment! Your design during such times is but to purge us, bring us to contrition and repentance, and restore us to Your blessing once again! *Our :daily :bread Give us this day! * *5. 4:12 (4:11-13) RESTORATION: ISRAEL NOW AN INSTRUMENT OF JUSTICE. ?But they do not know the thoughts of the LORD; they do not understand his plan, that he has gathered them as sheaves to the threshing floor.? *Father, You restore us through judgment, that we might be merciful instruments of judgment to restore others! O the depths of Your wisdom! Your ways are past finding out! *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors!* *6. 5:2 (5:1-6) MESSIAH: HIS FIRST AND SECONG COMING. ?But you, O Bethlehem Ephratha, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.? *Always You have foreseen and determined the coming of Your Son *Jesus*, Father! He is Your instrument, Whose obedience perfected through suffering, enables You to accomplish all You have fore-ordained! *And bring us not into temptation!* *7. 5:7 (5:7-15) MESSIAH: RESTORER OF ISRAEL. ?Then the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many peoples like dew from the LORD, like showers on the grass, which delay not for a man nor wait for the children of man.? *What a word of Grace: Covenant Love and Faithfulness, O Father! Your word is more sure than the heavens! *But deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE**: 3:8 (3:8-12) PROPHET MICAH: **HIS GOD-GIVEN PREPARATION. ?But as for me, I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the LORD, and with justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin.? *Done through anointing and empowerment! *C.H. Spurgeon Quotes: ?You are no Lover of Christ? - *You are no lover of Christ if you do not love his children. As soon as ever the heart is given to the master of the house it is given to the children of the house. Love Christ and you will soon love all that love him. *Our Psalm for the Day: 88:1-2 (88) I CRY OUT DAY AND NIGHT BEFORE YOU. ?O LORD, God of my salvation; I cry out day and night before you. 2 Let my prayer come before you; incline your ear to my cry! *Father, Your Son Jesus shared these afflictions in common with all mankind. In all our temptations He was afflicted even as we, yet without sin. We *hallow your :name* for sending such a wonderful, self-sacrificing Son! And *You* were in Him, reconciling the world unto Yourself! *Title: ?A Song or Psalm for the sons of Korah.? *This sad complaint reads very little like a Son, nor can we conceive how it could be called by a name which denotes a song of praise or triumph; yet perhaps it was intentionally so called to show how faith ?glories in tribulations also.? Assuredly, if ever there was a song of sorrow and a Psalm of sadness, this is one. 88:1. *O Lord God of my salvation. *While a man can see God as his Savior, it is not altogether midnight with him. While the living God can be spoken of as the life of our salvation, our hope will not quite expire. It is one of the characteristics of true faith that she turns to Jehovah, the saving God, when all other confidences have proved liars unto her. *I have cried day and night before You. *Day and night are both suitable to prayer; it is no work of darkness, therefore let us go with Daniel and pray when men can see us; yet, since supplication needs no light, let us accompany Jacob and wrestle at Jabbok till the day breaks. Evil is transformed to good when it drives us to prayer. 88:4. *I am as a man that has no strength.* I have but the name to live; my constitution is broken up; I can scarce crawl about my sickroom, my mind is even weaker than my body, and my faith weakest of all. The sons and daughters of sorrow will need but little explanation of these sentences; they are to such tried ones as household words. 88:7. *Your wrath lies hard upon me. *Dreadful plight this, the worst in which a man can be found. Wrath is heavy in itself; God?s wrath is crushing beyond conception, and when that presses hard, the soul is oppressed indeed. The wrath of God is the very hell of hell, and when it weighs upon the conscience, a man feels a torment such as only that of damned spirits can exceed. 88:8. *You have made me an abomination unto them. *The mass of men who gather around a man and flatter him are like tame leopards; when they lick his hand, it is well for him to remember that with equal gusto they would drink his blood. 88:14. *Why do You hide Your face from me? *Will You not so much as look upon me? Can You not afford me a solitary smile? Why this severity to one who has in brighter days basked in the light of Your favor? We may put these questions to our Lord, nay, we ought to do so. It is not undue familiarity, but holy boldness. It may help us to remove the evil which provokes the Lord to jealousy, if we seriously beg Him to show us why He contends with us. He cannot act towards us in other than a right and gracious manner, therefore for every stroke of His rod there is a sufficient reason in the judgment of His loving heart; let us try to learn that reason and profit by it. 88:15. *While I suffer Your terrors I am distracted. *How near akin to madness soul-depression sometimes may be it is not our province to decide; but we speak what we do know when we say that a feather-weight might be sufficient to turn the scale at times. Thank God, O you tempted ones who yet retain your reason! Thank him that the devil himself cannot add that feather while the Lord stands by to adjust all things 88:16. *Lover and friend You have put far from me. *Lonely sorrow falls to the lot of not a few; let them not repine, but enter herein into close communion with that dearest Lover and Friend Who is never far from His tried ones. (We have not attempted to interpret this Psalm concerning our Lord, but we fully believe that where the members are, the Head is to be seen preeminently. To have given a double exposition under each verse would have been difficult and confusing; we have therefore left the Messianic references to be pointed out in the Notes, where, if God, the Holy Spirit, be pleased to illustrate the page, we have gathered up more than enough to lead each devout reader to behold Jesus, the Man of sorrows and the acquaintance of grief.) *(From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Tue Mar 19 09:15:10 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Tue, 19 Mar 2013 09:15:10 -0700 Subject: Micah 6-7 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* March 19, 2013 *SEP 29 - MICAH 6-7 - EXHORTATIONS WITH PROMISED RESTORATION* *1. 6:5 (6:1-5, ESV) THE NEED OF RESTORATION. ?O my people, remember what Balak king of Moab devised, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him, and what happened from Shittim to Gilgal, that you may know the saving acts of the LORD.?* Your Kingdom of *Righteousness*, Joy and Peace was known Father, even in Your dealings with Israel, Balaam and Balak! We rejoice that You are Jehovah of both covenants. *Hallowed be your :name. * *2. 6:8 (6:6-8) THE REQUIREMENTS OF RESTORATION. **?He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?? *It is not our outward service and lip worship that delights You Father, but what proceeds out of our heart in oneness with You through Christ. *This* we aspire after! A heart like David?s, after Your heart! *Your :kingdom come!* *3. 6:9 (6:9-16) JUDGMENTS LEADING TO RESTORATION. **?The voice of the LORD cries to the city - and it is sound wisdom to fear your name: ?Hear of the rod and of him who appointed it!?? *The sin of Samaria has contaminated and polluted Judah. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. Nothing for Judah at this time can hold back Your judgment, Father! Write this truth on our hearts. We would not walk carelessly or high-minded. *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.* *4. 7:5-6 (7:1-6) DESOLATIONS ARGUING FOR RESTORATION. **?Put no trust in a neighbor; have no confidence in a friend; guard the doors of your mouth from her who lies in your arms; **6 **for the son treats the father with contempt, the daughter rises up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; a man?s enemies are the men of his own house.? ** Woe* is upon us when we turn from You Father, and walk in our own sinful ways. *All* betray us, and You engineer it, and let it be so. We deserve it, and yet more. But in wrath You remember mercy. Awaken us to our senses through Your judgments. Make us wise like the prodigal. *Our :daily :bread Give us this day.* *5. 7:8 (7:7-10) REPENTANCE LEADING TO RESTORATION. **?Rejoice not over me, O my enemy; when I fall, I shall rise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD will be a light to me.? *We bless You Father, with all our hearts: for when we repent and turn to You, You draw nigh to us! *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors!* *6. 7:11 (7:11-17) ISRAEL?S REGATHERING: SIGN OF RESTORATION. **?A day for the building of your walls! In that day the boundary shall be far extended.? *O Your Majesty Father, in the day You restore Your people! Your fear then comes upon the peoples! *And bring us not into temptation!* *7. 7:18 (7:18-20) THE GOD OF RESTORATION! **?Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love (CHEsed).? *O Father, our hearts are overwhelmed at this revelation of Your heart! *You* are our great Jehovah Father! *But deliver us from the evil **one!* *NOTE**: 7:19-20 (7:18-20) GOD?S COMPASSION LEADING TO RESTORATION. **?He will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities underfoot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. **20 **You will show faithfulness to Jacob and steadfast love to Abraham, as you have sworn to our fathers from the days of old.? *O Father, our hearts are melted at Your grace! *Our Psalm for the Day: 89:3, 33-34 (89) I WILL SING OF THE STEADFAST LOVE OF THE LORD. You have said, ?I have made a covenant with my chosen one; I have sworn to David my servant: 33 but I will not remove from him my steadfast love or be false to my faithfulness. 34 I will not violate my covenant or alter the word that went forth from my lips.? **Great* is Your faithfulness, O God our Father! What goes forth out of Your mouth, You bring to pass. We have now reached the majestic Covenant Psalm, which, according to the Jewish arrangement, closes the third book of the Psalms. It is the utterance of a believer in presence of great national disaster, pleading with his God, urging the grand argument of covenant engagements and expecting deliverance and help because of the faithfulness of Jehovah. 89:3. *I have made a covenant with my chosen, I have sworn unto David my servant. *In Christ Jesus, there is a covenant established with all the Lord?s chosen, and they are by grace led to be the Lord?s servants and then are ordained kings and priests by Christ Jesus. How sweet it is to see the Lord, not only making a covenant but owning to it in after days, and bearing witness to His own oath; this ought to be solid ground for faith, and Ethan, the Ezrahite, evidently thought it so. 89:14. *Mercy and truth shall go before Your face. *Thus has the poet sung the glories of the covenant God. It was meet that before he poured forth his lament he should record his praise, lest his sorrow should seem to have withered his faith. Before we argue our case before the Lord, it is most becoming to acknowledge that we know Him to be supremely great and good, whatever may be the appearance of His providence; this is such a course as every wise man will take who desires to have an answer of peace in the day of trouble. 89:19. *I have exalted one chosen out of the people. *David was God?s elect, elect out of the people as one of themselves, and elect to the highest position in the state. In his extraction, election, and exaltation, he was an eminent type of the Lord Jesus, Who is the Man of the people, the chosen of God, and the King of His church. Whom God exalts, let us exalt. Woe unto those who despise him; they are guilty of contempt of court before the Lord of Hosts, as well as of rejecting the Son of God. 89:29. *His seed also will I make to endure forever*. David?s seed lives on in the person of the Lord Jesus, and the seed of Jesus in the persons of believers. Saints are a race that neither death nor hell can kill. Rome and its priests, with their inquisition and other infernal cruelties, have labored to exterminate the covenant seed, but ?vain is their rage, their efforts vain.? As long as God lives, His people must live. 89:51. *Wherewith they have reproached the footsteps of Your anointed. *Tracking Him and finding occasion to blaspheme at every turn; not only watching His words and actions, but even His harmless steps. Neither Christ nor His church can please the world, whichever way we turn scoffers will rail. Does this verse refer to the oft-repeated sarcasm, ?Where is the promise of His coming?? Is the reproach aimed at the delays of the Messiah, those long-expected footfalls which as yet are unheard?? O Lord, how long shall this threadbare taunt continue? How long? How long? *(From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* *HERE ENDS BOOK III OF THE BOOK OF PSALMS* *O SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Wed Mar 20 09:06:18 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Wed, 20 Mar 2013 09:06:18 -0700 Subject: Nahum 1-3 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* March 20, 2013 *SEP 30 - NAHUM 1-3 - VENGEANCE ON NINEVEH: A CONTRAST* *1. 1:2-3 (1:1-8, ESV) THE GOD WHO OBSERVES NINEVEH. ?The LORD is a jealous and avenging God; the LORD takes vengeance on his adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies. 3 The LORD is slow to anger and great in power, and the LORD will by no means clear the guilty. His way is in whirlwind and storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.? *Father, we tremble in awe at this aspect of Your Holiness and Righteousness. We all fall short of Your Glory. Your day of wrath, O Jehovah, comes! *Hallowed be your :name!* *2. 1:9 (1:9-11) THE ?OVERSTEPPING? OF NINEVEH. ?What do you plot against the LORD? He will make a complete end; trouble will not rise up a second time.? *We remember Father, that You have a ?point of no return? with us. There is a time ?when the die is cast?. Like Nineveh, we can sin away our day of grace! *Your :kingdom come!* *3. 1:15 (1:12-2:2) JUDAH DELIVERED FROM NINEVEH. ?Behold, upon the mountains, the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace! Keep your feasts, O Judah; fulfill your vows, for never again shall the worthless pass through you: he is utterly cut off.? *Thank You Father for Your Justice and Faithfulness. We can depend upon You. The Judge of all the earth *shall* do right! *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.* *4. 2:13 (2:3-13) THE FALL OF NINEVEH. ?Behold, I am against you, declares the LORD of hosts, and I will burn your chariots in smoke, and the sword shall devour your young lions. I will cut off your prey from the earth, and the voice of your messengers shall no longer be heard.? *Forgive us Father, that we forget You are a God without respect of persons! We cast ourselves upon You mercy. We know You are both righteous and merciful. Grant us compassion and forgiveness for one another. *Our :daily :bread Give us this day.* *5. 3:1 (3:1-4) CRIMES AND WAR: BROUGHT RUIN ON NINEVEH. ?Woe to the bloody city, all full of lies and plunder - no end to the prey!? *O Father, our hearts melt within us at such fullness of wickedness, and the inevitability of Your judgment upon such! May we not be high-minded, but profit from this revelation. *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 3:7 (3:5-13) GOD?S JUDGMENT ON NINEVEH. ?And all who look at you will shrink from you and say, Wasted is Nineveh; who will grieve for her? Where shall I seek comforters for you? *Not only wicked man Father, but Satan and his angels and demons shall suffer similar fate. You are just! You are holy! It cannot be otherwise. *And bring us not into temptation.* *7. 3:19 (3:14-19) INEVITABILITY OF RUIN FOR NINEVEH. ?There is no easing your hurt; your wound is grievous. All who hear the news about you clap their hands over you. For upon whom has not come your unceasing evil?? *O Father, we groan within us. We take no pleasure in the death of the wicked. We join Your heart in desiring *all* to come to repentance. *This* is the kind of God You are! *But deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE**: 1:7-8 (1:1-8) **GOD?S CONTRAST FOR NINEVEH. ?The LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him. 8 But with an overflowing flood he will make a complete end of the adversaries, and will pursue his enemies into darkness.? *In You Father, Truth and Mercy meet! Holiness and Love balance each other. We cannot understand it all, but we do trust You! *Our Psalm for the Day: 90:3-4 (90) FROM EVERLASTING TO EVERLASTING. ?You return man to dust and say, ?Return, O children of man!? 4 For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night.? *O Father, what is man in the light of Yourself? Yet You created us; in Christ You redeemed us; *and* You have chosen us and *loved*us! *Hallowed be your :name!* *Title: ?A Prayer of Moses the man of God.? *Many attempts have been made to prove that Moses did not write the Psalm, but we remain unmoved in the conviction that he did so. The condition of Israel in the wilderness is so preeminently illustrative of each verse, and the turns, expressions, and words are so similar to many in the Pentateuch, that the difficulties suggested are, to our mind, light as air in comparison with the internal evidence in favor of its Mosaic origin. Moses was mighty in word as well as deed, and this Psalm we believe to be one of his weighty utterances worthy to stand side by side with his glorious oration recorded in Deuteronomy. This is the oldest of the Psalms and stands between two books of Psalms as a composition unique in its grandeur and alone in its sublime antiquity. Many generations of mourners have listened to this Psalm when standing around the open grave, and have been consoled thereby even when they have not perceived its special application to Israel in the wilderness and have failed to remember the far higher ground upon which believers now stand. 90:1. *Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations. *Moses, in effect, says - wanderers though we be in the howling wilderness, yet we find a home in You, even as our forefathers did when they came out of Ur of the Chaldees and dwelt in tents among the Canaanites. Not in the tabernacle or the temple do we dwell, but in God Himself; and this we have always done since there was a church in the world. We have not shifted our abode. Kings? palaces have vanished beneath the crumbling hand of time - they have been burned with fire and buried beneath mountains of ruins, but the imperial race of heaven has never lost its regal habitation. 90:4. *And as a watch in the night, *a time which is no sooner come than gone. There is scarce time enough in a thousand years for the angels to change watches; when their millennium of service is almost over, it seems as though the watch were newly set. We are dreaming through the long night of time, but God is ever keeping watch, and a thousand years are as nothing to Him. A host of days and nights must be combined to make up a thousand years to us, but to God, that space of time does not make up a whole night but only a brief portion of it. If a thousand years be to God as a single night-watch, what must be in the life-time of the Eternal! 90:8. *You have set our iniquities before You. *Hence these tears! Sin seen by God must work death; it is only by the covering blood of atonement that life comes to any of us. When God was overthrowing the tribes in the wilderness, He had their iniquities before Him, and therefore dealt with them in severity. He could not have their iniquities before Him and not smite them. *Our secret sins in the light of Your countenance. *Rebellion in the light of justice is black, but in the light of love it is devilish. How can we grieve so good a God? The children of Israel had been brought out of Egypt with a high hand, fed in the wilderness with a liberal hand, and guided with a tender hand and their sins were peculiarly atrocious. We, too, having been redeemed by the blood of Jesus and saved by abounding grace, will we be truly guilty if we forsake the Lord. What manner of persons ought we to be? How ought we to pray for cleansing from secret faults? 90:9. The Vulgate translation has, ?Our years pass away like those of a spider.? It implies that our life is as frail as the thread of a spider?s web. Constituted most curiously the spider?s web is: but what more fragile? In what is there more wisdom than in the complicated frame of the human body; and what more easily destroyed? Glass is granite compared with flesh; and vapors are rocks compared with life. 90:11. *Even according to Your fear, so is Your wrath. *Holy Scripture, when it depicts God?s wrath against sin, never uses a hyperbole; it would be impossible to exaggerate it. Whatever feelings of pious awe and holy trembling may move the tender heart, it is never too much moved; apart from other considerations, the great truth of the divine anger, when most powerfully felt, never impresses the mind with a solemnity in excess of the legitimate result of such a contemplation. What the power of God?s anger is in hell and what it would be on earth, were it not in mercy restrained, no man living can rightly conceive. Modern thinkers rail at Milton and Dante, Bunyan and Baxter, for their terrible imagery; but the truth is that no vision of poet, or denunciation of holy seer, can ever reach to the dread height of this great argument, much less go beyond it. 90:12. *That we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. *A short life should be wisely spent. We have not enough time at our disposal to justify us in misspending a single quarter of an hour. Neither are we sure of enough of life to justify us in procrastinating for a moment. If we were wise in heart, we should see this, but mere head wisdom will not guide us aright. 90:14. *O satisfy us early with Your mercy.* Since they must die and die so soon, the Psalmist pleads for speedy mercy upon himself and his brethren. Good men know how to turn the darkest trials into arguments at the throne of grace. He who has but the heart to pray need never be without pleas in prayer. The only satisfying food for the Lord?s people is the favor of God; this Moses earnestly seeks for, and as the manna fell in the morning, he beseeches the Lord to send at once His satisfying favor, that all through the little day of life they might be filled therewith. 90:15. *Make us glad according to the days wherein You have afflicted us, and the years wherein we have seen evil. *None can gladden the heart as You can, O Lord; therefore as You have made us sad, be pleased to make us glad. Fill the other scale. Proportion Your dispensations. Give us the lamb, since You have sent us the bitter herbs. Make our days as long as our nights. The prayer is original, childlike, and full of meaning; it is, moreover, based upon a great principle in providential goodness by which the Lord puts the good over against the evil in due measure. Great trial enables us to bear great joy and may be regarded as the herald of extraordinary grace. God, Who is great in justice when He chastens, will not be little in mercy when He blesses; He will be great all through; let us appeal to Him with unstaggering faith. 90:16. *And Your glory unto their children. *How eagerly do good men plead for their children! They can bear very much personal affliction if they may but be sure that their children will know the glory of God and thereby be led to serve Him. We are content with the work if our children may but see the glory which will result from it: we sow joyfully if they may reap. 90:17. *And establish You the work of our hands upon us; yes, the work of our hands establish You it. *We come and go, but the Lord?s work abides. We are content to die so long as Jesus lives and His kingdom grows. Since the Lord abides forever the same, we trust our work in His hands and feel that since it is far more His work than ours, He will secure it immortality. When we have withered like grass, our holy service, like gold, silver, and precious stones, will survive the fire. *(From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Thu Mar 21 08:52:08 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Thu, 21 Mar 2013 08:52:08 -0700 Subject: Nahum 1-3 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* March 21, 2013 *SEP 30 - NAHUM 1-3 - VENGEANCE ON NINEVEH: A CONTRAST* *1. 1:2-3 (1:1-8, ESV) THE GOD WHO OBSERVES NINEVEH. ?The LORD is a jealous and avenging God; the LORD takes vengeance on his adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies. 3 The LORD is slow to anger and great in power, and the LORD will by no means clear the guilty. His way is in whirlwind and storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.? *Father, we tremble in awe at this aspect of Your Holiness and Righteousness. We all fall short of Your Glory. Your day of wrath, O Jehovah, comes! *Hallowed be your :name!* *2. 1:9 (1:9-11) THE ?OVERSTEPPING? OF NINEVEH. ?What do you plot against the LORD? He will make a complete end; trouble will not rise up a second time.? *We remember Father, that You have a ?point of no return? with us. There is a time ?when the die is cast?. Like Nineveh, we can sin away our day of grace! *Your :kingdom come!* *3. 1:15 (1:12-2:2) JUDAH DELIVERED FROM NINEVEH. ?Behold, upon the mountains, the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace! Keep your feasts, O Judah; fulfill your vows, for never again shall the worthless pass through you: he is utterly cut off.? *Thank You Father for Your Justice and Faithfulness. We can depend upon You. The Judge of all the earth *shall* do right! *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.* *4. 2:13 (2:3-13) THE FALL OF NINEVEH. ?Behold, I am against you, declares the LORD of hosts, and I will burn your chariots in smoke, and the sword shall devour your young lions. I will cut off your prey from the earth, and the voice of your messengers shall no longer be heard.? *Forgive us Father, that we forget You are a God without respect of persons! We cast ourselves upon You mercy. We know You are both righteous and merciful. Grant us compassion and forgiveness for one another. *Our :daily :bread Give us this day.* *5. 3:1 (3:1-4) CRIMES AND WAR: BROUGHT RUIN ON NINEVEH. ?Woe to the bloody city, all full of lies and plunder - no end to the prey!? *O Father, our hearts melt within us at such fullness of wickedness, and the inevitability of Your judgment upon such! May we not be high-minded, but profit from this revelation. *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 3:7 (3:5-13) GOD?S JUDGMENT ON NINEVEH. ?And all who look at you will shrink from you and say, Wasted is Nineveh; who will grieve for her? Where shall I seek comforters for you? *Not only wicked man Father, but Satan and his angels and demons shall suffer similar fate. You are just! You are holy! It cannot be otherwise. *And bring us not into temptation.* *7. 3:19 (3:14-19) INEVITABILITY OF RUIN FOR NINEVEH. ?There is no easing your hurt; your wound is grievous. All who hear the news about you clap their hands over you. For upon whom has not come your unceasing evil?? *O Father, we groan within us. We take no pleasure in the death of the wicked. We join Your heart in desiring *all* to come to repentance. *This* is the kind of God You are! *But deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE**: 1:7-8 (1:1-8) **GOD?S CONTRAST FOR NINEVEH. ?The LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him. 8 But with an overflowing flood he will make a complete end of the adversaries, and will pursue his enemies into darkness.? *In You Father, Truth and Mercy meet! Holiness and Love balance each other. We cannot understand it all, but we do trust You! *Our Psalm for the Day: 90:3-4 (90) FROM EVERLASTING TO EVERLASTING. ?You return man to dust and say, ?Return, O children of man!? 4 For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night.? *O Father, what is man in the light of Yourself? Yet You created us; in Christ You redeemed us; *and* You have chosen us and *loved*us! *Hallowed be your :name!* *Title: ?A Prayer of Moses the man of God.? *Many attempts have been made to prove that Moses did not write the Psalm, but we remain unmoved in the conviction that he did so. The condition of Israel in the wilderness is so preeminently illustrative of each verse, and the turns, expressions, and words are so similar to many in the Pentateuch, that the difficulties suggested are, to our mind, light as air in comparison with the internal evidence in favor of its Mosaic origin. Moses was mighty in word as well as deed, and this Psalm we believe to be one of his weighty utterances worthy to stand side by side with his glorious oration recorded in Deuteronomy. This is the oldest of the Psalms and stands between two books of Psalms as a composition unique in its grandeur and alone in its sublime antiquity. Many generations of mourners have listened to this Psalm when standing around the open grave, and have been consoled thereby even when they have not perceived its special application to Israel in the wilderness and have failed to remember the far higher ground upon which believers now stand. 90:1. *Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations. *Moses, in effect, says - wanderers though we be in the howling wilderness, yet we find a home in You, even as our forefathers did when they came out of Ur of the Chaldees and dwelt in tents among the Canaanites. Not in the tabernacle or the temple do we dwell, but in God Himself; and this we have always done since there was a church in the world. We have not shifted our abode. Kings? palaces have vanished beneath the crumbling hand of time - they have been burned with fire and buried beneath mountains of ruins, but the imperial race of heaven has never lost its regal habitation. 90:4. *And as a watch in the night, *a time which is no sooner come than gone. There is scarce time enough in a thousand years for the angels to change watches; when their millennium of service is almost over, it seems as though the watch were newly set. We are dreaming through the long night of time, but God is ever keeping watch, and a thousand years are as nothing to Him. A host of days and nights must be combined to make up a thousand years to us, but to God, that space of time does not make up a whole night but only a brief portion of it. If a thousand years be to God as a single night-watch, what must be in the life-time of the Eternal! 90:8. *You have set our iniquities before You. *Hence these tears! Sin seen by God must work death; it is only by the covering blood of atonement that life comes to any of us. When God was overthrowing the tribes in the wilderness, He had their iniquities before Him, and therefore dealt with them in severity. He could not have their iniquities before Him and not smite them. *Our secret sins in the light of Your countenance. *Rebellion in the light of justice is black, but in the light of love it is devilish. How can we grieve so good a God? The children of Israel had been brought out of Egypt with a high hand, fed in the wilderness with a liberal hand, and guided with a tender hand and their sins were peculiarly atrocious. We, too, having been redeemed by the blood of Jesus and saved by abounding grace, will we be truly guilty if we forsake the Lord. What manner of persons ought we to be? How ought we to pray for cleansing from secret faults? 90:9. The Vulgate translation has, ?Our years pass away like those of a spider.? It implies that our life is as frail as the thread of a spider?s web. Constituted most curiously the spider?s web is: but what more fragile? In what is there more wisdom than in the complicated frame of the human body; and what more easily destroyed? Glass is granite compared with flesh; and vapors are rocks compared with life. 90:11. *Even according to Your fear, so is Your wrath. *Holy Scripture, when it depicts God?s wrath against sin, never uses a hyperbole; it would be impossible to exaggerate it. Whatever feelings of pious awe and holy trembling may move the tender heart, it is never too much moved; apart from other considerations, the great truth of the divine anger, when most powerfully felt, never impresses the mind with a solemnity in excess of the legitimate result of such a contemplation. What the power of God?s anger is in hell and what it would be on earth, were it not in mercy restrained, no man living can rightly conceive. Modern thinkers rail at Milton and Dante, Bunyan and Baxter, for their terrible imagery; but the truth is that no vision of poet, or denunciation of holy seer, can ever reach to the dread height of this great argument, much less go beyond it. 90:12. *That we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. *A short life should be wisely spent. We have not enough time at our disposal to justify us in misspending a single quarter of an hour. Neither are we sure of enough of life to justify us in procrastinating for a moment. If we were wise in heart, we should see this, but mere head wisdom will not guide us aright. 90:14. *O satisfy us early with Your mercy.* Since they must die and die so soon, the Psalmist pleads for speedy mercy upon himself and his brethren. Good men know how to turn the darkest trials into arguments at the throne of grace. He who has but the heart to pray need never be without pleas in prayer. The only satisfying food for the Lord?s people is the favor of God; this Moses earnestly seeks for, and as the manna fell in the morning, he beseeches the Lord to send at once His satisfying favor, that all through the little day of life they might be filled therewith. 90:15. *Make us glad according to the days wherein You have afflicted us, and the years wherein we have seen evil. *None can gladden the heart as You can, O Lord; therefore as You have made us sad, be pleased to make us glad. Fill the other scale. Proportion Your dispensations. Give us the lamb, since You have sent us the bitter herbs. Make our days as long as our nights. The prayer is original, childlike, and full of meaning; it is, moreover, based upon a great principle in providential goodness by which the Lord puts the good over against the evil in due measure. Great trial enables us to bear great joy and may be regarded as the herald of extraordinary grace. God, Who is great in justice when He chastens, will not be little in mercy when He blesses; He will be great all through; let us appeal to Him with unstaggering faith. 90:16. *And Your glory unto their children. *How eagerly do good men plead for their children! They can bear very much personal affliction if they may but be sure that their children will know the glory of God and thereby be led to serve Him. We are content with the work if our children may but see the glory which will result from it: we sow joyfully if they may reap. 90:17. *And establish You the work of our hands upon us; yes, the work of our hands establish You it. *We come and go, but the Lord?s work abides. We are content to die so long as Jesus lives and His kingdom grows. Since the Lord abides forever the same, we trust our work in His hands and feel that since it is far more His work than ours, He will secure it immortality. When we have withered like grass, our holy service, like gold, silver, and precious stones, will survive the fire. *(From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Fri Mar 22 09:11:59 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Fri, 22 Mar 2013 09:11:59 -0700 Subject: Habakkuk - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* March 22, 2013 *OCT 1 - HABAKKUK: THE MYSTERIES OF PROVIDENCE* *1:1-2 (1:1-4, ESV) HABAKKUK: HIS PRAYER AGAINST ISRAEL. ?The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet saw. 2 O LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you ?Violence!? and you will not save?? *Father, You are not na?ve, nor unaware of our weakness, rebellion and sin. Every son You receive You chasten and discipline for his good. This is part of Your Kingdom principles. *Hallowed be your :name!* *2. 1:5-6a (1:5-11) HABAKKUK: HIS PROPHECY OF DISPERSION. ?Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told. 6a For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans.? *Nothing can stay Your will, Father! If we submit, it comes more easily; if we resist, it breaks us. *Your :kingdom come!* *3. 2:1 (1:12-2:1) HABAKKUK: HIS TESTIMONY OF GOD?S CHARACTER. ?I will take my stand at my watchpost and station myself on the tower, and look out to see what he will say to me, and what I will answer concerning my complaint.? *Great is Your Faithfulness, O Father! You are a God Who *speaks * to Your people! We can *know* Your mind, heart and purposes. You do not hide them from the asking, seeking, knocking soul. *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.* *4. 2:2-3 (2:2-20) HABAKKUK: GOD?S VISION TO HIM. And the LORD answered me: ?Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it. 3 For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end - it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come, it will not delay.? *Father, forgive us for our impatience and lack of endurance. Work into us by Your Spirit and Word the *character* of Jesus! Let the beauty of Jesus shine forth through us. Make us people of love and compassion for one another, and for our fellow man! *Our :daily :bread Give us this day.* *5. 3:2 (3:1-2) HABAKKUK: HIS PRAYER FOR REVIVAL. ?O LORD, I have heard the report of you, and your work, O LORD, do I fear. In the midst of the years revive it; in the midst of the years make it known; in wrath remember mercy.? *Hallelujah! We join Habakkuk in praying this prayer, Father. We join the Holy Spirit Who gave it to Habakkuk. *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors!* *6. 3:3-4 (3:3-16) HABAKKUK: HIS REVELATION OF GOD. ?God came from Teman, and the Holy One from Mount Paran. His splendor covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise. Selah 4 His brightness was like the light; rays flashed from his hand; and there he veiled his power.? *We bless You Father with all our soul, and all that is within us! We loose Christ Jesus and His abiding anointing within us, that as His body, *rays of healing and blessing* may flow from our hands also. *And bring us not into temptation.* *7. 3:17-19. HABAKKUK: HIS JOY IN GOD! ?Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield not food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, 18 yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. 19 GOD, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer?s; he makes me tread on my high places.? But deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE**: 2:4, 14 (2:2-20) HABAKKUK: **TWO REVELATIONS. ?Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by faith. 14 For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.? *We believe this, Father. We justify You by receiving it. *C.H. Spurgeon Quotes: ?Are we saved if we do not ? ?? *I remember one who spoke on the missionary question one day saying, ?The great question is not ?Will not the heathen be saved if we do not send them the gospel?? but ?are we saved ourselves if we do not send them the gospel??? *Our Psalm for the Day: 91:1-2 (91) MY REFUGE AND MY FORTRESS. ?He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. 2 I will say to the LORD, ?My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.?? *We do not look to the gods of the hills, or nature, of Satan, or any other gods. We come to You alone, O Jehovah Father, and with all our heart we *hallow your :name!* This Psalm is without a title, and we have no means of ascertaining either the name of its writer or the date of its composition with certainty. The Jewish doctors consider that when the author?s name is not mentioned, *we may assign the Psalm to the last-named writer*; and, if so, this is another Psalm of Moses, the man of God. Many expressions here used are similar to those of Moses in Deuteronomy, and the internal evidence, from the peculiar idioms, would point towards him as the composer. In the whole collection, there is not a more cheering Psalm; its tone is elevated and sustained throughout - faith is at its best - and speaks nobly. A German physician was wont to speak of it as the best preservative in times of cholera, and in truth it is a heavenly medicine against plague and pest. He who can live in its spirit will be fearless, even if once again London should become a lazar-house and the graves be gorged with carcases. 91:1. *He that dwells in the secret place of the Most High. * The blessings here promised are not for all believers but those who live in close fellowship with God. Every child of God looks towards the inner sanctuary and the mercy-seat, yet all do not dwell in the most holy place; they run to it at times and enjoy occasional approaches, but they do not habitually reside in the mysterious presence. 91:3. *I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress. *It is but poor comfort to say, ?The Lord is a refuge,? but to say He is *my* refuge is the essence of consolation. Those who believe should also speak - ?I will say,? for such bold avowals honor God and lead others to seek the same confidence. Men are apt to proclaim their doubts, and even to boast of them; indeed there is a party nowadays of the most audacious pretenders to culture and thought who glory in casting suspicion upon everything; hence it becomes the duty of all true believers to speak out and testify with calm courage to their own well-grounded reliance upon their God. *My God; in Him will I trust. *Now he can say no more; ?my God? means all, and more than all, that heart can conceive by way of security. We have trusted in God; let us trust Him still. He has never failed us; why then should we suspect Him? To trust in man is natural to fallen nature; to trust in God should be as natural to regenerated nature. *And from the noisome pestilence. *He Who is a Spirit can protect us from evil spirits. He Who is mysterious can rescue us from mysterious dangers. He Who is immortal can redeem us from mortal sickness. There is a deadly pestilence of error; we are safe from that if we dwell in communion with God of truth; there is a fatal pestilence of sin, we shall not be infected by if if we abide with the thrice Holy One; there is also a pestilence of disease, and even from that calamity our faith will win immunity if it be of that high order which abides in God, walks on in calm serenity, and ventures all things for duty?s sake. 91:4. *He shall cover you with His feathers, and under His wings shall you trust. *A wonderful expression! Had it been invented by an uninspired man, it would have verged upon blasphemy, for who should dare to apply such words to the infinite Jehovah? But as He Himself authorized, yes, dictated the language, we have here a transcendent condescension such as it becomes us to admire and adore. Does the Lord speak of His feathers as though He likened Himself to a bird? Who will not see herein a matchless love, a divine tenderness, which should both woo and win our confidence? Even as a hen covers her chickens, so does the Lord protect the souls which dwell in Him. *His truth* - His true promise, and His faithfulness to His promise, *shall be your shield and buckler. *To quench fiery darts, the truth is a most effectual shield, and to blunt all swords, it is an equally effectual coat of mail. Let us go forth to battle thus harnessed for the war, and we shall be safe in the thickest of the fight. 91:6. *Nor for the destruction that wastes at noonday. *Famine may starve or bloody war devour, earthquake may overturn and tempest may smite, but amid all, the man who has sought the mercy seat and is sheltered beneath the wings which overshadow it, shall abide in perfect peace. Remember that the voice which says, ?You shall not fear,? is that of God Himself, Who hereby pledges His Word for the safety of those who abide under His shadow, nay, not for their safety only, but for their serenity. So far shall they be from being injured that they shall not even be made to fear the ills which are around them, since the Lord protects them. 91:7. *It shall not come nigh you.* How true is this of the plague of moral evil, of heresy, and of backsliding. Whole nations are infected, yet the man who communes with God is not affected by the contagion; he holds thetruth when falsehood is all the fashion. Professors all around him are plague-smitten, the church is wasted, the very life of religion decays, but in the same place and time, in fellowship with God, the believer renews his youth, and his soul knows no sickness. In a measure, this also is true of physical evil; the Lord still puts a difference between Israel and Egypt in the day of His plagues. Sennacherib?s army is blasted, but Jerusalem is in health. 91:11. *For He shall give His angels charge over you. *Not one guardian angel, as some fondly dream, but all the angels are here alluded to. They are the body-guard of the princes of the blood imperial of heaven, and they have received commission from their Lord and ours to watch carefully over all the interests of the faithful. 91:14. *Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore will I deliver him. * When the heart is enamored of the Lord, all taken up with Him, and intensely attached to Him, the Lord will recognize the sacred flame and preserve the man who bears it in his bosom. 91:15. *I will deliver him and honor him. *Believers are not delivered or preserved in a way which lowers them, and makes them feel themselves degraded; far from it, the Lord?s salvation bestows honor upon those it delivers. God first gives us conquering grace, and then rewards us for it. *(From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From myongsookim at gmail.com Thu Mar 21 14:23:31 2013 From: myongsookim at gmail.com (myong soo kim) Date: Thu, 21 Mar 2013 14:23:31 -0700 Subject: Updates - Resting Place church In-Reply-To: <7D7D01F9-0989-4330-931E-3F42C633AA98@gmail.com> References: <88854FD0-7087-4940-A95D-A8760A353572@gmail.com> <7D7D01F9-0989-4330-931E-3F42C633AA98@gmail.com> Message-ID: <8ED079E8-F5EF-42B4-825C-B29095860193@gmail.com> ????? Hope you all had great time fasting yesterday. I tried all day fasting two weeks in a row. New AppleBee opened up right by my store so the sweet aroma was very tempting but the Lord provided enough grace and sweetness to endure :) -Let's continually cover everyone with prayer and expect great things from the Lord. -Push forth with reading Bible everyday with meditation. This has to become our "habit" and habit eventually becomes our character. -Let's pray that God will give us creative ideas to serve our Muckleshoot brothers. For example.. *Irene is thinking about simple cooking session with the Muckleshoot ladies. Maybe start with some simple baking? *Anna is planing some kind of craft session *Luke can possibly teach YoYo? :) *Fill in the blank ___________________________ * * You can come up with new idea or contribute to the existing idea to make it even more fun? These are tools to break the ice and forming some bonds so we can have open each others hearts to share. Thank you. On Mar 19, 2013, at 2:54 PM, myong soo kim wrote: > Hello Everyone > What a great time we had last weekend? Sat. evening at Muckleshoot and Sunday service with friends from Kansas ? sharing time?. We have witnessed beginning stage of God miracles in Muckleshoot youth and among us. > Lord is truly dong something amazing in everyone's life. Servant leadership team firmly believes that true break through is happening in our church. > > -Please continue on with prayer and supplication for God's continual blessing and empowerment to push back the darkness in Muckleshoot and our lives. > -Pray for God's divine protection for all of us. Enemy will not sit back and let His people go.. > > Few announcements: > -More kids are signing up for the basketball league so we would like to bless them with the jersey. As a church we are contributing total $1000 for the jersey. Initially $500 and now additional $500. Muckleshoot church is covering for most of the cost and we are helping out. > -Thank you everyone for helping out Sat opening night with many different things. (food prep and serving, worship, clean up, prayer?.) Lord will bless you with double double portion. > -Since Muckleshoot church asked us to help out on their Easter service, we will participate with them on Sunday. So our Easter service will be at Muckelshoot. > -I strongly encourage your participation in our Wednesday fasting. This is one of very critical components to bring His Kingdom down here. You will experience God's sweetness and power through this fasting. > - We're planning on regular prayer meeting and sharing via "Go to meeting". Please talk to John or Ryan Kim about the computer set up. > > Lord bless you. > Myong soo > > > > On Mar 11, 2013, at 1:12 AM, Irene Yim wrote: > >> ?????. >> >> ??? ???????. >> >> ???? ?? ???? ????. >> >> Sorry about that download link is changed and please download sermons at the below link. >> >> >> >> https://www.dropbox.com/sh/rd4i6ks90xgi7f1/EvL8kA3t6B >> >> >> >> >> Thanks, >> >> Ryan >> >> >> > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Sat Mar 23 08:58:22 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Sat, 23 Mar 2013 08:58:22 -0700 Subject: Invisible Barriers to Healing Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* March 23, 2013 *2013-03-24 - INVISIBLE BARRIERS TO HEALING - Derek Prince* k. 16:13 THE COMFORTER: WILL NOT REPRESENT HIMSELF *But when that one comes, the Spirit of the Truth,* HOtan de ELth*e* eKEInos, to PNEUma [4151] t*e*s a-l*e*THEIas, *he shall guide you into all the truth: for he shall not speak from himself; * ho-d*e*G*E*sei [3594] huMAS eis t*e*n aL*E*thei-an PAsan: ou gar laL*E*sei aph? he-auTOU; *but what things soever he hears, these shall he speak: * all? HOsa aKOUei, laL*E*sei: *and he shall declare to you the things to come.* kai ta erCHOme-na a-nag-geLEI huMIN. l. 16:14 * HE shall glorify me: for he shall take of :mine, and shall declare it to you.* eKEInos eME doXAsei: HOti ek tou eMOU L*E*Mpse-tai, kai a-nag-geLEI [312] huMIN. m. 16:15 THE REASON FOR THIS *All things whatever the Father has are mine: therefore said I,* PANta HOsa Echei ho paT*E*R eMA es-tin: diA TOUto EIpon, *that he takes of :mine, and shall declare it to you.* *HOti ek tou eMOU lamBAnei, kai a-nag-geLEI huMIN.* *The Holy Spirit could not come until Jesus met the condition for His coming on the Cross. He then came to dwell in us both corporately and individually. The Church, the Body of Christ - is the Temple of the Holy Spirit - and our individual bodies are also His temple! He comes to indwell us as the Comforter, the Helper, God?s Steward of all - and the Keeper of God?s Storehouse. Through Him Jesus is no longer straitened - but can minister to individuals at the same time all over the earth. He then, is at the basis for the removal of all hindrances to healing.* *But in spite of this, all people are not healed. Even worthy and good people often miss being healed. And Derek Prince has no answer for this. However, God gave him a verse in Deuteronomy 29:29 that helps him press on: ?The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.? *In the light of this, Derek simply ministered the Word, and didn?t pry into what is secret with God. Over the years, if there were any barriers to healing, he was assured they were *not* on God?s side - but *we*do have barriers to healing, and must deal with them. There are common barriers preventing healing, and it saves endless time to deal with them first. This can be done collectively, not individually. *1. IGNORANCE *of God?s Word and will, is tremendously common, concerning clear and simple truths. Isaiah 5:13 - *?Therefore my people go into exile for lack of knowledge*. Hosea 4:6 - *?My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge*. This is very similar, and should encourage us to remove ignorance. So it is altogether proper for us to be led in a prayer to confess our ignorance - because we have not taken time to know and understand God?s Word and will! *2. UNBELIEF. *Is this harmless? No, but it is fearfully common. The New Testament calls unbelief a sin. We are to get rid of it, because it is evil. Believers need to confess this sin. Revelation 21:8 says that the fearful, and *unbelieving* will have their part in the lake of fire. Unbelief is an act of will, to reject belief in what God says in His Word! One man told me he couldn?t help his unbelief. ?No?, I said, ?you are entirely accountable for your unbelief, and God will at the last day hold you accountable.? He told me that I was making him very angry by these words. All of us need to know that *all* unbelief is an act of our will, and is sin! I choose to *believe*! Hebrews 3:12-13 is a word to Christians - to believers - ?*Look, brethren, lest haply an evil heart of unbelief shall be in any one of you, in :falling away from a living God: 13 but exhort one another each day, so long as it is called To-day; lest any one of you be hardened by deceitfulness of :sin.?* We should confess this sin - and proclaim faith *positively*, replacing the negative with the positive. Do both. You can *change the atmosphere* of a meeting in this manner. Unfortunately, the remaining 5 barriers do not appear on a Derek Prince you tube. But Derek points out that sometimes sickness is caused by evil spirits. Most pastors and churches do not deal in this area, but Jesus constantly did. See Luke 4:40-41 - *?And when the sun was setting, all that had any weak with diverse sicknesses brought them unto him; and HE laid :hands on every one of them, and cured them. And demons also came out from many, crying out, and saying [that] You are the Son of :God. And rebuking them, he suffered them not to speak, because they knew he was the Christ.?* Evil spirits couldn?t stand it when Jesus laid hands on the sick, and they got out. There are two ways that spirits can move in this way: a. They can be the *direct cause* of sickness - a spirit of infirmity - a deformity of the spine - a crippling spirit - must drive such out - as in the woman bent over double - not a sickness - must loose her from a spirit. b. Then there is a spirit of death - often in one infirm and weakly - one who has a morbid outlook on life - wish they could die an untimely death - often wear dark clothes. Derek has seen 100?s of such cases. Replace this with a positive confession. Revoke the negative confession. Quote Psalm 118:17 - *I shall not die, but live and declare the works of the Lord! Stand* and say it - don?t live down under the devil. Say it to your neighbor. Then make a proclamation of *praise*! Claim victory. Quote Revelation 12:11! Proclaim in the spirit. In the first 2 hindrances, Derek leads the congregation to confess that they have had a negative reaction to ignorance and unbelief - and they then replace it with a *positive* confession. This is good! I will now note 5 other hindrances of my own - that likewise can have both a negative and positive confession. *3. FAILURE TO ACTIVATE GOD?S MEDICINE BOTTLE, Proverbs 4:20-22 - ?My son, be attentive to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. 21 Let them not escape from your sight; keep them within your heart. 22 For they are life to those who find them, and healing (medicine) to all their flesh.? * And - *Jesus* *is* *the* *the Word*! - See John 1:1. 3 times a day following each meal, like Daniel read a portion from the Word and prayed. In 2-3 months Derek saw God completely heal him from a foot problem that 4 hospitals could not do. God is no respecter of persons. Pray over the Word in meditation and the spirit, and God will do the same for us! Confess it when you fail to do so, replacing the negative with the positive. And then *see*what God will do for *you*! *4. FAILURE TO MOVE INTO THE ?EXCHANGED LIFE?. *On ?Amazon? under ?books?, you can obtain a used ?Hudson Taylor?s Spiritual Secret? by Mrs. Howard Taylor for a very reasonable price. In chapter 14 he tells how he entered in to a rest with God, that transformed his missionary life in China after 20 years of somewhat frustration. He uses Galatians 2:20 - *?I have been crucified with Christ; and no longer I live, but Christ lives in me: and what I now live in the flesh I live by faith which is in the Son of :God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me.? *Meditate on this much. Pray over it. Ask the Holy Spirit to make it living to you. It can transform you. Read all of Romans 6, especially 6:4 - *?We were buried therefore with him through :baptism into :death*: *that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, thus we also might walk in newness of life.? *Watchman Nee was completely transformed like Hudson Taylor by this verse. And finally, look at John 15:16 - *?You did not choose me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that you go and bear fruit, and that your :fruit abide: that whatever you shall ask the Father in my :name, he give you.? *By Sovereign Grace you and I are in God - not by free-will. Jesus initiated His call for us, just like He called His first disciples. This makes all the difference in the world to see our Omnipotent God! Once Hudson Taylor saw that he was *one* with Jesus, the Father and the Holy Spirit - everything changed! Healings took place. *5. FAILURE TO ACTIVATE THE FIRST AND SECOND COMMANDMENTS. Matthew 22:37-40 - ?And Jesus said to him, You shall love the Lord your :God with all your heart, and with all your :soul, and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second like it is this, You shall love your :neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments hang the whole law and prophets.? *Jesus the Son of God, *one* with the Father, *one*with the Spirit, said this! Is this the way we truly love God? Is it the way we love our neighbor *as ourself*? Could this be a hindrance to our healing? Is a lack along this line something we could confess? And by starting to do this, could we be replacing a serious negative with a powerful positive? *6. FAILURE TO WALK DAILY THROUGH THE TRUTHS OF THE TABERNACLE FURNITURE. *In the summer of 1944 through a man from California, Lee Ellenwood, I was first introduced to this in Victoria, BC, and then Port Alberni. It made a deep impression upon me as a new believer. When I come to the Brazen Altar, I sing - ?I feed on the Merits of Calvary, through You Christ Jesus my Lord?: and I think of how at that time He was the Grain Offering for us, so that from His one grain, all we have come; then the *whole burnt *offering; next the *peace offering*, when He became the propitiation for the wrath of the Father. Jesus took the wrath of God due us, and made *His righteousness*available for us. *We* have *nothing* we can add to this! Nor for the *sin offering* to atone for Adam?s sin ? nor for the trespass offering to look after our personal sins! At the Laver I think of how He prepared for His Church - us - and an Eldership in the Gate of each city church. For the Menorah, I look at ?Prayer Multiplication? based on the Covenant; at the Table of Bread, I see the 12 Embryonic Revival principles of 1948 represented by the 12 loaves representing the 12 tribes of Israel; at the Altar of Incense, I sing Psalm 40:16 - *?Let all those who seek Thee - Rejoice and be glad in Thee. Let such as love Thy salvation say continually: The LORD be magnified - be magnified - be magnified - Let all those that seek Thee rejoice - and be glad in Thee!? *This leads me into Worship and Intercession like Rees Howells and Andrew Murray; then at the ark of the Covenant I focus on Jesus. Karen Davis on Mount Carmel in Israel wrote a wonderful chorus using just the Name - ?Yeshua? - the Hebrew name for Jesus. It has been a rich blessing to me ever since Marie and I visited there in 2005. Finally at the Golden Mercy Seat overshadowed by the Cherubim I sing: ?I camp round the Throne of God?s Heaven above, through You Christ Jesus my Lord!? For we are not to camp around the Cross, for it is now empty, and Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father on High! We are to start out at the Cross daily - but we are always to end up at the Throne. I also sing at the Menorah which represents the 7-fold Holy Spirit - ?I live by the life of the Spirit within - through You, Christ Jesus my Lord! It was Jesus? death on Calvary that prepared for the Coming of the Holy Spirit - Who is better * in* us, than Jesus *with* us! It is the work of the Triune God on our behalf that enriches us and exalts us in Him - the Tabernacle is merely an Old Testament type and shadow to help make our God real to us New Testament saints! But to understand this and walk in it, is indeed to remove a hindrance from our healing! *7. FAILURE TO RECOGNIZE THAT CASTING OUT DEMONS MUST OFTEN PRECEDE HEALING. *We have already quoted Luke 4:40-41 above, showing the normal 3 year ministry of Jesus in this regard. It always brought amazement to the people of Israel. It brought huge crowds to avail themselves of this great mercy. * *Brother Yun, the Heavenly Man of China, was asked for his favorite Bible verse. He gave Matthew 24:14 - *?This gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached, in all the world for a witness - a witness unto all nations - and then shall the end come!? *This is the word of Jesus. A sister put this verse to music in one of our churches, and the children learned it and taught the congregation to sing it. I still do. But Brother Yun said that is only *half* the Gospel - the other half is - that it must have with it the *confirmation* of Mark 16:17-18 - *?And these signs shall follow them that have believed: in my :name shall they cast out demons, speak with tongues; 18 and in their hands they shall take up serpents, and if they drink anything deadly, it shall in no wise hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.? *Because this took place from the 1970?s on in China with Brother Yun and his fellow leaders, there are today - from nothing to now over 130 million believers who are disciples - and growing at the rate of 30,000 daily! The Word *confirmed*with signs following makes all the difference in the world. This is what America needs. This is what the world needs. As you and I through fasting and prayer and faith press into this area that has never been taken from the Church - then you and I too will individually and nationally see what God is pleased to do in other parts of the world. God?s Word is for whoever will believe. Where our faith and ignorance has brought us short - let us confess our lack - *press in* - and see our unchanging God do again through His Church just the way He started! Let us replace our negatives - with positive* confession and action!* In 1964 Derek Prince asked me if I would succeed him as pastor at a Seattle Church, as he needed to return to England on behalf of his ailing parents. He had me meet with him 5 times to help prepare me for this transition. Later we took part together in a conference in BC, and in 1971 and 1972, 2 conferences in Seattle. He was a real encouragement to me at that time. It is good once again to have fellowship with him in his teaching. He being dead (10 years ago) yet speaks! I trust what I have replaced is in the same spirit in which he would have spoken. - Jim Watt *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Sun Mar 24 09:12:18 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Sun, 24 Mar 2013 09:12:18 -0700 Subject: 1 Thessalonians 1-3 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* March 24, 2013 *OCT 2 - 1 THESSALONIANS 1-3 - SAVED BY CONVERSION, EVANGELISM, WATCH-CARE* *1. 1:1, (ESV) PAUL: GREETING OF GRACE AND PEACE. ?Paul and Silvanus, and Timothy, to the church of Thessalonians in God the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace.? *We bless You Father, that we are in both You and our Lord Jesus Christ. We bless You for Your grace and peace. Your Kingdom become manifested through us because of this. We yield to Your way! *Hallowed be your :name!* *2. 1:5 (1:2-10) THANKSGIVING: FOR WAY GOSPEL RECEIVED. ?Because our :gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit, and much assurance; even as you know what manner of men we became among you for your sake.? *The Thessalonians lived Your will on earth as lived in heaven! We would follow their example. We would walk in their steps. We would follow them as they followed Christ. *Your :kingdom come!* *3. 2:3-4 (2:1-12) PAUL: PERSONAL WITNESS OF HIS CONDUCT. ?For our :exhortation is not of error nor of uncleanness, nor in guile: 4 but even as we have been approved of :God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak; not as pleasing men, but God who proves our :hearts.? *Father, we thank You for the Pure Gospel, and its Pure Messengers, as it was originally given. We pledge to share it in this same purity and power. *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.* *4. 2:13 (2:13-16) PAUL: THANKFULNESS FOR THEIR STEADFASTNESS IN PERSECUTION. ?And for this we also thank :God without ceasing, that, when you received from us the word of :God?s message, you accepted it not asmen?s word, but, as it is in truth, God?s word, which also works in you that believe. *O forgive us Father, for sometimes receiving Your Word carelessly, as ordinary words, or even in unbelief with no acting upon it. Besides Your Word, there is nothing greater except Yourself. Beyond the sacred page, we see *You*, Lord! *Our :daily :bread Give us this day!* *5. 2:19-20 (2:17-20) PAUL?S DESIRE AND CROWN: CONVERTS FAITHFUL TO THE END. ?For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of glorying? Are not even you, before our :Lord Jesus at his :presence? 20 For you are our :glory and our :joy.? *Father, we bless You for converts who *stand*! We bless You for Finney?s converts who stood to the end. We would impart to our converts this power of endurance. *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 3:9-10 (3:1-10) PAUL: COMFORTED THROUGH TIMOTHY?S GOOD REPORT. ?For what thanksgiving can we render again to God for you, for all the joy with which we joy for you before our :God; 10 night and day praying exceedingly that we may see your :face, and may perfect what are lacking in your :faith?? *O give us the maturing desire of the soul-winner for his converts, Father. May we see the value of a soul. May we have the passion of the soul-winner! *And bring us not into temptation!* *7. 3:12-13 (3:11-13) PAUL?S PRAYER ON THEIR BEHALF. ?And the Lord make you to increase and abound in :love one toward another, and toward all, even as we also do toward you; 13 to the establishing of your :hearts unblamable in holiness before our :God and Father, at the presence of our :Lord Jesus with all his :saints.? **Love*: the Bonding Power of Unity! Evermore grant this to us, Father! *But deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE**: 1:9-10 (1:2-10) NEW CONVERTS: AWAITING THE RETURN OF CHRIST! **?For THEY report concerning us what manner of entering in we had unto you; and how you turned unto :God from :idols, to be bondmen of a living and true God, 10 and to wait for his :Son from the heavens, whom he raised from the dead: Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath :to come.? *We bless You Father for the apostolic example of coming to new places and people. *C.H. Spurgeon Quotes: ?Wouldn?t Give a Penny for Temporary Salvation? - *I confess that I would hardly give a penny for any salvation that I could lose; I would not go across the street to pick up a quarterly or yearly salvation. *Our Psalm for the Day: 92:13-14 (92) HOW GREAT ARE YOUR WORKS. ?They are planted in the house of the LORD; they flourish in the courts of our God. 14 They still bear fruit in old age; they are ever full of sap and green.? *Paul saw You to be most faithful to the Thessalonians, Father; and we see You to be faithful to *all* groups: the weak, the vulnerable, the widow, the orphan, the poor, the old. *Faithfulness* becomes Your Name! *Hallowed be your :name!* *Title: ?A Psalm or Song for the Sabbath Day.? *This admirable composition is both a Psalm and a Song, full of equal measures of solemnity and joy; and it was intended to be sung upon the day of rest. The subject is the praise of God; praise is Sabbatic work, the joyful occupation of resting hearts. No one acquainted with David?s style will hesitate to ascribe to him the authorship of this divine hymn; the ravings of Rabbis who speak of it being composed by Adam only need to be mentioned to be dismissed. Adam in paradise had neither harps to play upon nor wicked men to contend with. 92:1. *It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, or Jehovah. *It is good ethically, for it is the Lord?s right; it is good emotionally, for it is pleasant to the heart; it is good practically, for it leads others to render the same homage. We thank men when they oblige us: how much more ought we to bless the Lord when He benefits us! Devout praise is always good; it is never out of season, never superfluous, but it is especially suitable to the Sabbath; a Sabbath without thanksgiving is a Sabbath profaned. 92:3. *Upon an instrument of ten strings, and upon the psaltery; upon the harp with a solemn sound. *In Augustine to Ambrose there is the following passage bearing on this same subject: ?Sometimes, from over jealousy, I would entirely put from me and from the church the melodies of the sweet chants that we use in the Psalter, lest our ears seduce us; and the way of Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, seems the safe one, who, as I have often heard, made the reader chant with so slight a change of voice, that it was more like speaking than singing. And yet, when I call to mind the tears I shed when I heard the chants of Your church in the infancy of my recovered faith, and reflect that I was affected, not by the mere music, but by the subject, brought out as it were by clear voices and appropriate tune, in turn, I confess how useful is the practice.? 92:6. *A brutish man knows not; neither does a fool understand this. *In this and the following verses, the effect of the Psalm is heightened by contrast; the shadows are thrown in to bring out the lights more prominently. What a stoop from the preceding verse; from the saint to the brute, from the worshiper to the boor, from the Psalmist to the fool! Yet, alas, the character described here is no uncommon one. The boorish, or boarish man, for such is almost the very Hebrew word, sees nothing in nature; and if it be pointed out to him, his foolish mind will not comprehend it. He may be a philosopher and yet be such a brutish being that he will not own the existence of a Maker for the ten thousand matchless creations around him which wear, even upon their surface, the evidences of profound design. The unbelieving heart, let it boast as it will, does not know; and with all its parade of intellect, it does not understand. A man must either be a saint or a brute, he has no other choice; his type must be the adoring seraph or the ungrateful swine. So far from paying respect to great thinkers who will not own the glory or being of God, we ought to regard them as comparable to the beasts which perish, only vastly lower than mere brutes, because their degrading condition is of their own choosing. O God, how sorrowful a thing it is the man whom You have so largely gifted, and made in Your own image, should so brutify themselves that they will neither see nor understand what You have made so clear. Well might an eccentric writer say, ?God made man a little lower than the angels at first, and he has been trying to get lower ever since.? 92.12. *The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree*. This song now contrasts the condition of the righteous with that of the graceless. The wicked ?spring as the grass? but *the righteous shall flourish like the palm tree*, whose growth may not be so rapid but whose endurance for centuries is in fine contrast with the transitory verdure of the meadow. When we see a noble palm standing erect, sending all its strength upward in one bold column, and growing amid the dearth and drought of the desert, we have a fine picture of the godly man, who in his uprightness aims alone at the glory of God; and, independent of outward circumstances, is made by divine grace to live and thrive where all things else perish. *(From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Mon Mar 25 09:24:18 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Mon, 25 Mar 2013 09:24:18 -0700 Subject: 1 Thessalonians 4:1-12 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* March 25, 2013 *OCT 3 - 1 THESSALONIANS 4:1-12 - A LIFE OF CONDUCT AND CALLING* *1. 4:1, (NNT) EXHORTATION: TO AN ABOUNDING WALK. ?For the rest, brethren, I ask and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that, as you received of us :how you ought to walk and to please God, even as you do walk, - that you abound more. *Father, we bless You for *growth* in the Kingdom of God. How we please You today, we can do it more abundantly tomorrow! Our capacity for a well-pleasing walk increases. *Hallowed be your :name!* *2. 4:2. CHARGES: GIVEN BY THE LORD JESUS. ?For you know what charges we gave you through the Lord Jesus.? *Father, it was *Jesus* through the apostles giving charges. Your Kingdom is *more* than the word of man (1 Corinthians 14:37). Yes, we *glory* in the privilege of walking out these truths! *Your :kingdom come!* *3. 4:3-4 (4:3-6) SANCTIFICATION: CHIEFLY CONCERNING FORNICATION. ?For this is the will of :God, your :sanctification; that you abstain from :fornication; 4 that each of you know how to possess himself of his own :vessel in sanctification and honor.? *Father, we would keep our bodies free from sexual sin. All sin is apart from the body except fornication and perversion. We hear your word. *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.* *4. 4:7. SANCTIFICATION: CONTRASTED WITH UNCLEANNESS. ?For :God called us not for uncleanness, but in sanctification.? *Circumcise our ears and hearts Father, that we may hear this word. Your wave of *holiness* precedes Your Kingdom wave. May we not only be *used* of You, but may we also be * approved* of You! O forgive us the smallness of our commitment to You! We give *our utmost* for *Your highest*! *Our :daily :bread Give us this day.* *5. 4:8. UNCLEANNESS: DESPISES GOD AND HOLY SPIRIT. ?Therefore who rejects, rejects not man, but :God, who gives his :Holy :Spirit unto you.? *Anoint our eyes with eye-salve Father, that we may see! He who despises a servant of the Lord despises *You* (1 Samuel 8:7). Cleanse us from all hindrances that prevent us from seeing. *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 4:9-10a. BROTHERLY LOVE: TAUGHT BY GOD. ?But concerning brotherly :love you have no need that one write you: for you yourselves are taught of God :to love one another; 10a for indeed you do it toward all the brethren :in all :Macedonia.? *We bless You Father, that in this teaching You give us through the apostles, *brotherly love* is Your emphasis. We receive Your Word, Father! We embrace it! We love one another with Philadelphia love. *And bring us not into temptation.* *7. 4:10b-11 (4:10b-12) GOAL: A QUIET BUT INDUSTRIOUS SPIRIT. ?But we exhort you, brethren, that you abound more; 11 and that you be ambitious to be quiet, and to do your :own business, and to work with your :hands, even as we charged you.? *Brotherly love must increase. Good work habits must increase. You said so Father, through Your apostles. And You above all have the right to do this! *But deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE**: 4:5-6 (4:3-6) GOD SPELLS OUT YET MORE CLEARLY AREAS OF FORNICATION. **?Not in passion of lust, even as the nations who know not :God; 6 that no one transgress, and wrong his :brother in the matter: because the Lord is avenger in all these, as also we forewarned you and testified.? *Keep fornication thought out of our minds, Father. We curse pornography in Jesus? Name! Let it not once be named amongst us! *C.H. Spurgeon Quotes: ?Conduct is Character? - *Should everything seem to go amiss with us after we have done the right thing, there is no cause for regret. Remember that our conduct is the maker of our character. *Our Psalm for the Day: 93:1 (93, ESV) THE LORD REIGNS. ?The LORD reigns; he is robed in majesty; the LORD is robed; he has put on strength as his belt. Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved.? *Kings of earth are not arrayed with Majesty such as You, O Jehovah Father! Their pomp and splendor palls into insignificance before You. Concerning *You alone* we say, *Hallowed be your :name!* This brief Psalm is without title or name of author, but its subject is obvious enough, being stated in the very first line. It is the Psalm of Omnipotent Sovereignty: Jehovah, despite all opposition, reigns supreme. :Possibly at the time this sacred ode was written, the nation was in danger from its enemies, and the hopes of the people of God were encouraged by remembering that the Lord was still King. What sweeter and surer consolation could they desire? 93:1. *The Lord is clothed with strength. *May the Lord appear in His church, in our day, in manifest majesty and might, saving sinners, slaying errors, and honoring His own Name. Oh, for a day of the Son of man, in which the King immortal and almighty shall stand upon His glorious high throne, to be feared in the great congregation, and admired by all them that believe. 93:3. *The floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their waves. *Sometimes men are furious in words - they lift up their voice, and at other times they rise to acts of violence - they lift up their waves; but the Lord has control over them in either case. The ungodly are all foam and fury, noise and bluster, during their little hour, and then the tide turns or the storm is hushed, and we hear no more of them; while the kingdom of the Eternal abides in the grandeur of power. The whole Psalm is most impressive and is calculated to comfort the distressed, confirm the timorous, and assist the devout. O You Who are so great and gracious a King, reign over us forever! We do not desire to question or restrain Your power; such is Your character that we rejoice to see You exercise the rights of an absolute monarch. All power is in Your hands, and we rejoice to have it so. Hosanna! Hosanna! *(From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Tue Mar 26 09:34:22 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Tue, 26 Mar 2013 09:34:22 -0700 Subject: 1 Thessalonians 4:13-5:11 Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* March 26, 2013 *OCT 4 - 1 THESSALONIANS 4:13-5:11 - A LIFE OF COMFORT AND CHALLENGE* *1. 4:13-14, (NNT) THE DEAD IN CHRIST: THEIR STATUS. ?But we would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning them that are asleep; that you sorrow not, even as the rest, who have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose, even so them also that are fallen asleep will God :through Jesus bring with him.? *Your Kingdom Father, is one of certainty, comfort and enjoyment. It is a joy both inward and outward in the Holy Spirit. *Hallowed be your :name!* *2. 4:15-16 (4:15-18) THE COMING OF THE LORD. ?For this we say to you by the Lord?s word, that we that are alive, that are left unto the presence of the Lord, shall in no wise precede them that are fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with an archangel?s voice, and with God?s trump: and the dead in Christ shall rise first;?* Father, we bless You for Your promise to the righteous dead. *Your :kingdom come.* *3. 5:1-2 (5:1-3) TIMES AND SEASONS. **?But concerning the times and the season, brethren, you have no need that **anything** be written you. **2 **For yourselves know perfectly that **the** Lord?s day comes as a thief in the night.? *Father, make us like spiritual Issachars (1 Chronicles 12:32). May we know clearly *Your* times and seasons. May we walk carefully in *Your*ways! *Your :will be done, As in heaven, **so** on earth!* *4. 5:4-5 (5:4-7) SONS OF LIGHT: WHAT CHARACTERIZES THEM! **?**But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day should overtake you as thieves * *5 **for you are all sons of light, and sons of day: we are not of night, nor of darkness.? *Forgive us Father, that we do not grow into the maturity of Sonship, and as *young men* become strong, the word of God abiding in us, and overcoming the evil one (1 John 1:14). Bring us into the tenth city gate of Naphtali (GEN 49, REV 21), the gate of wrestling overcomers! *Our :daily :bread Give us this day.* *5. 5:8. SONS OF THE DAY: THEIR ARMOR. **?But let us, since we are of the day, be sober, putting on a breastplate of faith and love; and for a helmet, salvation?s hope.? *Father, we receive Your exhortation through Your apostle Paul. We thank You for the wisdom, safety and comfort of it. *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 5:9-10. SALVATION VERSUS WRATH: OUR DESTINY. **?For :God appointed us not unto wrath, but unto **the** obtaining of salvation through our :Lord Jesus Christ, **10 **who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.? *Father, we see how You cause us to overcome in Christ, and how to be victorious over Satan. It is all through the ?finished atoning work? of Calvary! *And bring us not into temptation!* *7. 5:11. THIS TRUTH: A SOURCE OF COMFORT. **?**Wherefore exhort one another, and build each other up, even as also you do.? *We reason together from Your word Father, and sense the same encouragement from these truths as did the Thessalonians. Yes, Your Word is true. Yes, we stand upon its promises. Yes, You back Your Word! *But deliver us from the evil **one!* *NOTE**: 4:17-18 (4:15-18) THE CONCLUSION OF THE MATTER! **?Then we that are alive, that are left, shall together with them be caught up in clouds, to meet the Lord into **the** air. and so shall we ever be with **the**Lord. **18 **Wherefore comfort one another with these :words.? *Our dead in You Father, are as safe and secure as we are! One day we with them look forward to a glad reunion! *C.H. Spurgeon Quotes: ?False Profession? - *Let them get home to their knees and pray God to give them manliness enough at least to be damned honestly, and not go down to perdition wearing the name of Christian when Christians they are not. *Our Psalm for the Day: 94:1-2 (94, ESV) THE LORD WILL NOT FORSAKE HIS PEOPLE. ?O LORD, God of vengeance, O God of vengeance, shine forth! 2 Rise up, O judge of the earth; repay to the proud what they deserve! *Jehovah Father, You are the One Who righteously punishes the wicked and chastises Your sons. There is no respect of persons with You. Righteous are You in * all* Your ways! *Hallowed be your :name!* *Subject*: The writer sees evil-doers in power and smarts under their oppression. His sense of the divine sovereignty, of which he had been singing in the previous Psalm, leads him to appeal to God as the great Judge of the earth; this he does with much vehemence and importunity, evidently tingling under the lash of the oppressor. Confident in God?s existence, and assured of His personal observation of the doings of men, the Psalmist rebukes his atheistic adversaries and proclaims his triumph in his God: he also interprets the severe dispensation of Providence to be in very deed most instructive chastisements, and so he counts those happy who endure them. The Psalm is another pathetic form of the old enigma: ?Wherefore do the wicked prosper?? It is another instance of a good man perplexed by the prosperity of the ungodly, cheering his heart by remembering that there is, after all, a King in heaven, by Whom all things are overruled for good. 94:1. *O Lord God, to Whom vengeance belongs; O God, to Whom vengeance belongs, show Yourself**: *or, God of retributions, Jehovah, God of retributions, shine forth! A very natural prayer when innocence is trampled down and wickedness exalted on high. If the execution of justice be a right thing - and who can deny the fact? - then it must be a very proper thing to desire it; not out of private revenge, in which case a man would hardly dare to appeal to God, but out of sympathy with right, and pity for those who are made wrongfully to suffer. 94:4. *How long shall they utter and speak hard things? *The ungodly are not content with deeds of injustice, but they add hard speeches, boasting, threatening, and insulting over the saints. Will the Lord forever endure this? Will He leave His own children much longer to be the prey of their enemies? Will not the insolent speeches of His adversaries and theirs at last provoke His justice to interfere? Words often wound more than swords; they are as hard to the heart as stones to the flesh; and these are poured forth by the ungodly in redundance, for such is the force of the word translated *utter*; and they use them so commonly that they become their common speech (they utter and speak them) - will this always be endured? 94:8. *Understand, you brutish among the people. *When a man has done with God, he has done with his manhood, and has fallen to the level of the ox and the ass, yes, beneath them, for ?the ox knows his owner, and the ass his master?s crib.? Instead of being humbled in the presence of scientific infidels, we ought to pity them; they affect to look down upon us, but we have far more cause to look down upon them. 94:9. *He that planted the ear, shall He not hear? *He fashioned that marvelous organ and fixed it in the most convenient place near to the brain, and is He deaf Himself? Is He capable of such design and invention, and yet can He not discern what is done in the world which He made? He made you hear; can He not Himself hear? Unanswerable question! It overwhelms the skeptic and covers his confusion. 94:10. *He that teaches man knowledge, *and then it comes to a pause, which the translators have supplied with the words, *?shall not He know?? *but no such words are in the original, where the sentence comes to an abrupt end, as if the inference were too natural to need to be stated and the writer had lost patience with the brutish men which whom he had argued. The earnest believer often feels as if he could say, ?Go to, you are not worth arguing with! If you were reasonable men, these things would be too obvious to need to be stated in your hearing. I forbear.? Man?s knowledge comes from God. Science in its first principles was taught to our progenitor Adam, and all after advances have been due to divine aid; does not the Author and Revealer of all knowledge Himself know? 94:12. *Blessed is the man whom You chasten, O Lord. *The Psalmist?s mind is growing quiet. He no longer complains to God or argues with men but tunes his harp to softer melodies, for his faith perceives that with the most afflicted believer all is well. 94:16. *Who will rise up for me against the evildoers? or who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity? ** *Where are the Luthers and our Calvins? A false charity has enfeebled the most of the valiant men of Israel. Our John Knox would be worth a mint at this hour, but where is he? Our grand consolation is that the God of Knox and Luther is yet with us and in due time will call out His chosen champions. 94:21. *And condemn the innocent blood. *They are great at slander and false accusation, nor do they stick at murder; no crime is too great for them, if only they can trample on the servants of the Lord. This description is historically true in reference to persecuting times; it has been fulfilled in England, and may be again if popery is to advance in future time at the same rate as in the past few years. *(From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Wed Mar 27 09:01:58 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Wed, 27 Mar 2013 09:01:58 -0700 Subject: 1 Thessalonians 5:12-28 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter. * March 27, 2013 *OCT 5 - 1 THESSALONIANS 5:12-28 - A LIFE OF CONCORD AND CONSTANCY* *1. 5:12-13 (NNT) THOSE WHO LABOR: ATTITUDE TOWARD THEM. ?But we ask you, brethren, to know them that labor among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you; 13 and to esteem them exceeding highly in love for their :work. Be at peace among yourselves.? *We bless You Father for the ministries, leaders and laborers You have given the church of Christ. We receive them as from Christ. We receive one another as fellow members of Christ?s body. *Hallowed be your name.* *2. 5:14-15. GENERAL EXHORTATIONS. ?And we exhort you, brethren, admonish the disorderly, encourage the fainthearted, support the weak, be longsuffering toward all. 15 See that none render unto any one evil for evil; but always follow after what is good, one toward another, and toward all.? *We are *established* and *confirmed* when we walk in Your Words, Father! Apostolic words are Christ?s words. Christ?s words are Your words. We receive Your ?nouthetic? admonishments. *Your :kingdom come!* *3. 5:16-18 (5:16-21) JOY, PRAYER AND THANKSGIVING WITH PRECEPTS. ?Rejoice always; 17 pray without ceasing; 18 in everything give thanks: for this is God?s will in Christ Jesus toward you.? *Hosanna! We receive this, Father. We thank You for Your Kingdom of righteousness, joy and peace in the Holy Spirit. *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.* *4. 5:22-24. ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION: UNTO THE ?PAROUSIA?. ?Abstain from every form of evil. 23 And the God of :peace himself sanctify you wholly; and may your :spirit and :soul and :body be preserved entire, without blame at the presence of our :Lord Jesus Christ. 24 Faithful he that calls you, who will also do it.? **Holiness* becomes Your Name, Father! And You say to us, You too be holy, for ?I? am holy! Spirit, soul and body: all holy for You - till Jesus returns. *Our :daily :bread Give us this day!* *5. 5:25. A REQUEST: PRAY FOR APOSTOLIC MINISTRIES. ?Brethren, pray for us also.? *We are humbled by the humility of Paul! What a privilege we have - to pray for our leaders! Father, give us a revelation of the importance of this! *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 5:26-27. COMMAND: AFFECTION, WITH HEED TO THIS LETTER. ?Salute all the brethren with a holy kiss. 26 I adjure you by the Lord that the letter be read to all the brethren.? *Sanctification - holiness for us: body, soul and spirit; this is a high priority in Your heart for us, Father. May we not betray Your hope and trust in us. May our relationship with one another be holy and pure. *And bring us not into temptation.* *7. 5:28. BENEDICTION OF GRACE. ?The grace of our :Lord Jesus Christ bewith you.? *Joy! This is Your basic nature, Father! Out of Your heart of joy flows * forgiveness*. Thank God! This forgiveness is expressed in Your Grace! This in turn is manifested through Charismatic* gifts*. Our response is * thanksgiving*! *But deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE: 5:19-21 (5:16-21) FOUR POWERFUL EXHORTATIONS. ?Quench not the Spirit; 20 despise not prophesyings; 21 but prove all things; hold fast what is good.? *We will not throw the baby out with the water. We will hold fast that which is good. We will not quench the Spirit by despising prophecy. We honor Your way of doing things Father, even if some abuse it. *Our Psalm for the Day: 95:6-7 (95, ESV) LET US SING SONGS OF PRAISE. ?Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker! 7 For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.? *Father, David knew You and worshiped you* as a man after Your own heart. We would have a united heart like David. Hallowed be your :name!* This Psalm has no title, and all we know of its authorship is that Paul quotes it as ?in David? (Hebrews 4:7). It is true that this may merely signify that it is to be found in the collection known as David?s Psalms; but if such were the Apostle?s meaning, it would have been more natural for him to have written, ?saying in the Psalms?; we therefore incline to the belief that David was the actual author of this poem. We will call it ?The Psalm of the Provocation.? 95:1. *O come, let us sing unto the Lord. *Other nations sing unto their gods; let us sing unto Jehovah. We love Him, we admire Him, we reverence Him; let us express our feelings with the choicest sounds, using our noblest faculty for its noblest end. 95:2. *Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving. *Here is probably a reference to the peculiar presence of God in the Holy of Holies above the mercy-seat, and also to the glory which shone forth out of the cloud which rested above the tabernacle. Everywhere God is present, but there is a peculiar presence of grace and glory into which men should never come without the profoundest reverence. Our worship should have reference to the past as well as to the future; if we do not bless the Lord for what we have already received, how can we reasonably look for more? *And make a joyful noise unto Him with Psalms.* We should shout as exultingly as those do who triumph in war and as solemnly as those whose utterance is a Psalm. It is not always easy to unite enthusiasm with reverence, and it is a frequent fault to destroy one of these qualities while straining after the other. It is to be feared that this is too much overlooked in ordinary services. People are so impressed with the idea that they ought to be serious that they put on the aspect of misery and quite forget that joy is as much a characteristic of true worship as solemnity itself. 95:6. *O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. *As suppliants must we come; joyful, but not presumptuous; familiar as children before a father, yet reverential as creatures before their Maker. Posture is not everything, yet is it something; prayer is heard when knees cannot bend, but it is seemly that an adoring heart should show its awe by prostrating the body and bending the knee. 95:8. *Harden not your heart*. If you will hear, learn to fear also. The sea and the land obey Him; do not prove more obstinate than they! We cannot soften our hearts, but we can harden them, and the consequences will be fatal. Today is too good a day to be profaned by the hardening of our hearts against our own mercies. While mercy reigns, let not obduracy rebel. 95:9. *Proved me.* If we were for ever testing the love of our wife or husband, and remained unconvinced after years of faithfulness, we should wear out the utmost human patience. Friendship only flourishes in the atmosphere of confidence; suspicion is deadly to it: shall the Lord God, true and immutable, be day after day suspected by His own people? Will not this provoke Him to anger? *And saw My work. *They test Him again and again, throughout forty years, though each time His work was conclusive evidence of His faithfulness. Nothing could convince them for long. Fickleness is bound up in the heart of man, unbelief is our besetting sin; we must for ever be seeing or we waver in our believing. This is no mean offense and will bring it no small punishment. 95:10. *Forty years long was I grieved with this generation. *The impression upon the divine Mind is most vivid. He sees them before Him now and calls them ?this generation.? He does not leave His prophets to upbraid the sin, but Himself utters the complaint and declares that He was grieved, nauseated, and disgusted. *And said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known My ways.** *The heart is the mainspring of the man, and if it be not in order, the entire nature is thrown out of gear. If sin were only skin deep, it might be a slight matter; but since it had defiled the soul, the case is bad* *indeed. Forty years of providential wisdom, yes, and even a longer period of experience, have failed to teach them serenity of assurance and firmness of reliance. * *There is ground for much searching of heart concerning this. Many treat unbelief as a minor fault; they even regard it rather as an infirmity than a crime. But the Lord thinks not so. Faith is Jehovah?s due, especially from those who claim to be the people of His pasture and yet more emphatically from those whose long life has been crowded with evidences of His goodness: unbelief insults one of the dearest attributes of Deity. It does so needlessly and without the slightest ground and in defiance of all-sufficient arguments, weighty with the eloquence of love. Let us, in reading this Psalm, examine ourselves and lay these things to heart. 95:11. *Unto whom I swore in My wrath that they should not enter into My rest. *There can be no rest to an unbelieving heart. If manna and miracles could not satisfy Israel, neither would they have been content with the land which flowed with milk and honey. Solemn warning this to all who leave the way of faith for paths of petulant murmuring and mistrust. The rebels of old could not enter in because of unbelief. ?Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into His rest, any of us should even seem to come short of it.? *(From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Thu Mar 28 09:03:45 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Thu, 28 Mar 2013 09:03:45 -0700 Subject: 1 Thessalonians 5:12-28 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* March 28, 2013 *OCT 5 - 1 THESSALONIANS 5:12-28 - A LIFE OF CONCORD AND CONSTANCY* *1. 5:12-13 (NNT) THOSE WHO LABOR: ATTITUDE TOWARD THEM. ?But we ask you, brethren, to know them that labor among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you; 13 and to esteem them exceeding highly in love for their :work. Be at peace among yourselves.? *We bless You Father for the ministries, leaders and laborers You have given the church of Christ. We receive them as from Christ. We receive one another as fellow members of Christ?s body. *Hallowed be your name.* *2. 5:14-15. GENERAL EXHORTATIONS. ?And we exhort you, brethren, admonish the disorderly, encourage the fainthearted, support the weak, be longsuffering toward all. 15 See that none render unto any one evil for evil; but always follow after what is good, one toward another, and toward all.? *We are *established* and *confirmed* when we walk in Your Words, Father! Apostolic words are Christ?s words. Christ?s words are Your words. We receive Your ?nouthetic? admonishments. *Your :kingdom come!* *3. 5:16-18 (5:16-21) JOY, PRAYER AND THANKSGIVING WITH PRECEPTS. ?Rejoice always; 17 pray without ceasing; 18 in everything give thanks: for this is God?s will in Christ Jesus toward you.? *Hosanna! We receive this, Father. We thank You for Your Kingdom of righteousness, joy and peace in the Holy Spirit. *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.* *4. 5:22-24. ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION: UNTO THE ?PAROUSIA?. ?Abstain from every form of evil. 23 And the God of :peace himself sanctify you wholly; and may your :spirit and :soul and :body be preserved entire, without blame at the presence of our :Lord Jesus Christ. 24 Faithful he that calls you, who will also do it.? **Holiness* becomes Your Name, Father! And You say to us, You too be holy, for ?I? am holy! Spirit, soul and body: all holy for You - till Jesus returns. *Our :daily :bread Give us this day!* *5. 5:25. A REQUEST: PRAY FOR APOSTOLIC MINISTRIES. ?Brethren, pray for us also.? *We are humbled by the humility of Paul! What a privilege we have - to pray for our leaders! Father, give us a revelation of the importance of this! *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 5:26-27. COMMAND: AFFECTION, WITH HEED TO THIS LETTER. ?Salute all the brethren with a holy kiss. 26 I adjure you by the Lord that the letter be read to all the brethren.? *Sanctification - holiness for us: body, soul and spirit; this is a high priority in Your heart for us, Father. May we not betray Your hope and trust in us. May our relationship with one another be holy and pure. *And bring us not into temptation.* *7. 5:28. BENEDICTION OF GRACE. ?The grace of our :Lord Jesus Christ bewith you.? *Joy! This is Your basic nature, Father! Out of Your heart of joy flows * forgiveness*. Thank God! This forgiveness is expressed in Your Grace! This in turn is manifested through Charismatic* gifts*. Our response is * thanksgiving*! *But deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE: 5:19-21 (5:16-21) FOUR POWERFUL EXHORTATIONS. ?Quench not the Spirit; 20 despise not prophesyings; 21 but prove all things; hold fast what is good.? *We will not throw the baby out with the water. We will hold fast that which is good. We will not quench the Spirit by despising prophecy. We honor Your way of doing things Father, even if some abuse it. *Our Psalm for the Day: 95:6-7 (95, ESV) LET US SING SONGS OF PRAISE. ?Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker! 7 For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.? *Father, David knew You and worshiped you* as a man after Your own heart. We would have a united heart like David. Hallowed be your :name!* This Psalm has no title, and all we know of its authorship is that Paul quotes it as ?in David? (Hebrews 4:7). It is true that this may merely signify that it is to be found in the collection known as David?s Psalms; but if such were the Apostle?s meaning, it would have been more natural for him to have written, ?saying in the Psalms?; we therefore incline to the belief that David was the actual author of this poem. We will call it ?The Psalm of the Provocation.? 95:1. *O come, let us sing unto the Lord. *Other nations sing unto their gods; let us sing unto Jehovah. We love Him, we admire Him, we reverence Him; let us express our feelings with the choicest sounds, using our noblest faculty for its noblest end. 95:2. *Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving. *Here is probably a reference to the peculiar presence of God in the Holy of Holies above the mercy-seat, and also to the glory which shone forth out of the cloud which rested above the tabernacle. Everywhere God is present, but there is a peculiar presence of grace and glory into which men should never come without the profoundest reverence. Our worship should have reference to the past as well as to the future; if we do not bless the Lord for what we have already received, how can we reasonably look for more? *And make a joyful noise unto Him with Psalms.* We should shout as exultingly as those do who triumph in war and as solemnly as those whose utterance is a Psalm. It is not always easy to unite enthusiasm with reverence, and it is a frequent fault to destroy one of these qualities while straining after the other. It is to be feared that this is too much overlooked in ordinary services. People are so impressed with the idea that they ought to be serious that they put on the aspect of misery and quite forget that joy is as much a characteristic of true worship as solemnity itself. 95:6. *O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. *As suppliants must we come; joyful, but not presumptuous; familiar as children before a father, yet reverential as creatures before their Maker. Posture is not everything, yet is it something; prayer is heard when knees cannot bend, but it is seemly that an adoring heart should show its awe by prostrating the body and bending the knee. 95:8. *Harden not your heart*. If you will hear, learn to fear also. The sea and the land obey Him; do not prove more obstinate than they! We cannot soften our hearts, but we can harden them, and the consequences will be fatal. Today is too good a day to be profaned by the hardening of our hearts against our own mercies. While mercy reigns, let not obduracy rebel. 95:9. *Proved me.* If we were for ever testing the love of our wife or husband, and remained unconvinced after years of faithfulness, we should wear out the utmost human patience. Friendship only flourishes in the atmosphere of confidence; suspicion is deadly to it: shall the Lord God, true and immutable, be day after day suspected by His own people? Will not this provoke Him to anger? *And saw My work. *They test Him again and again, throughout forty years, though each time His work was conclusive evidence of His faithfulness. Nothing could convince them for long. Fickleness is bound up in the heart of man, unbelief is our besetting sin; we must for ever be seeing or we waver in our believing. This is no mean offense and will bring it no small punishment. 95:10. *Forty years long was I grieved with this generation. *The impression upon the divine Mind is most vivid. He sees them before Him now and calls them ?this generation.? He does not leave His prophets to upbraid the sin, but Himself utters the complaint and declares that He was grieved, nauseated, and disgusted. *And said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known My ways.** *The heart is the mainspring of the man, and if it be not in order, the entire nature is thrown out of gear. If sin were only skin deep, it might be a slight matter; but since it had defiled the soul, the case is bad* *indeed. Forty years of providential wisdom, yes, and even a longer period of experience, have failed to teach them serenity of assurance and firmness of reliance. * *There is ground for much searching of heart concerning this. Many treat unbelief as a minor fault; they even regard it rather as an infirmity than a crime. But the Lord thinks not so. Faith is Jehovah?s due, especially from those who claim to be the people of His pasture and yet more emphatically from those whose long life has been crowded with evidences of His goodness: unbelief insults one of the dearest attributes of Deity. It does so needlessly and without the slightest ground and in defiance of all-sufficient arguments, weighty with the eloquence of love. Let us, in reading this Psalm, examine ourselves and lay these things to heart. 95:11. *Unto whom I swore in My wrath that they should not enter into My rest. *There can be no rest to an unbelieving heart. If manna and miracles could not satisfy Israel, neither would they have been content with the land which flowed with milk and honey. Solemn warning this to all who leave the way of faith for paths of petulant murmuring and mistrust. The rebels of old could not enter in because of unbelief. ?Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into His rest, any of us should even seem to come short of it.? *(From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Fri Mar 29 09:32:17 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Fri, 29 Mar 2013 09:32:17 -0700 Subject: 2 Thessalonians 2 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* March 29, 2013 *OCT 7 - 2 THESSALONIANS 2 - CAUTION: ON THE TIME OF CHRIST?S RETURN* *1. 2:1-2 (2:1-4, NNT) DAY OF MESSIAH: RELATED WITH MAN OF SIN REVELATION. ?Now we ask you, brethren, as to the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together unto him; 2 that you be not quickly shaken from your :mind, nor be troubled, either by spirit, or by word, or by epistle as from us, as that the day of the Lord is on;? *Father, make us like Issachar (1 Chronicles 12:32), who had understanding of Your times, and what to do. They understood Your Kingdom! *Hallowed be your :name!* *2. 2:5-6. PRESENT HINDRANCE. ?Remember you not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? 6 And now you know what restrains, so that he be revealed in his own :season.? *We thank You Father, that Satan is Your servant, who can *only* do that which You permit him! We remember Job (1:12; 2:6). With *You* Father, *there are no second causes*: You either do it, or permit it. We will not fight You. *Your :kingdom come!* *3. 2:7. SPIRIT OF WITHHOLDER: TO INCREASE UNTIL MANIFESTED. For the mystery of :lawlessness does already work: only there is :one that restrains now, until he become out of the midst.? *Satan is beholden to the Spirit of Christ. He is limited. He was defeated at Calvary. His head is crushed and his legal authority removed. Christ Jesus is his conqueror. He is a defeated for. You Father, spread a table for us in front of him! *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.* *4. 2:8 (2:8-10) LAWLESSNESS PERSONIFIED THROUGH SATAN: CHRIST?S OMNIPOTENCE! ?And then shall be revealed the lawless one, whom the Lord Jesus shall slay with the spirit of his :mouth, and bring to nothing by the manifestation of his :presence:? *Only for a *very* short time. Like Hitler, he will *soon* pass from the scene. His 1000 year reign will be cut short and end in ignominy! *Our :daily :bread Give us this day.* *5. 2:11-12. STRONG DELUSION. ?And for this cause :God sends them a working of error, that they should believe the lie: 12 that they all might be judge who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in :unrighteousness. *O we mourn for the blindness and rebellion of those who choose Satan and his servants rather than Christ and His prophets and apostles! Father, ever keep us alert to the deception, delusion and seduction of the enemy. *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 2:13-14 (2:13-15) THANKSGIVING: ITS EFFECTIVE BASIS. ?But WE are bound to thank :God always for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because :God chose you from the beginning unto salvation in sanctification of the Spirit and by belief of the truth: 14 thereunto he called you through our :gospel, to the obtaining of our Lord Jesus Christ?s glory.? *Thank You Father, for Your Sovereign choices (John 15:16).* *We have not chosen You, but You in Christ have chosen *us*. *You* loved us while we were still ungodly and sinners! *And bring us not into temptation!* *7. 2:16-17. A POWERFUL PRAYER. ?Now our :Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our :Father who loved us and gave eternal comfort and good hope in grace, 17 comfort your :hearts and establish in every good work and word.? *Father, we bless You that You and Jesus are teamed up to see us through and fulfill Your purpose: *bringing many sons unto glory* (Hebrews 2:10). *And deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE: 2:3-4 (2:1-4) FIRST ANTICHRIST: THEN THE LORD TO DEFEAT HIM. ?Let no one beguile you in any wise: for not unless the falling away come first, and the man of :lawlessness be revealed, the son of :destruction, 4 he that opposes and exalts himself against every one called God or an object of worship; so that he sits in the temple of :God, setting himself forth as being God.? *Two second comings of Christ including a secret rapture, had not been heard or taught in the church till the early 1800?s. George Muller, Joseph Tregelles and Charles Spurgeon stood strongly against this new revelation that came through a woman prophet, and picked up by John Darby of the Plymouth Brethren. H.A. Baker has written ?Through Tribulation? which accords with these three. Do an ?Amazon? book search on this latter, and you can receive a free preview. *Our Psalm for the Day: 97:10 (97, ESV) THE LORD REIGNS. ?O you who love the LORD, hate evil! He preserves the lives of his saints; he delivers them from the hand of the wicked.? *Your saints Father, are those who have experienced Your Covenant Love (CHEsed) and have drank deeply of it. *They*are Your holy ones (cha-saDIYM). Like Jesus, the Holy Spirit has taught them to hate evil. They do not pollute Your Name by an unholy walk. They *hallow your :name!* *Subject: *As the last Psalm sung the praises of the Lord in connection with the proclamation of the Gospel among the Gentiles, so this appears to foreshadow the mighty working of the Holy Spirit in subduing the colossal systems of error and casting down the idol gods. One Psalm in this series is said to be ?in David,? and we believe that the rest are in the same place and by the same author. The matter is not important, and we only mention it because it seems to be the pride of certain critics to set up new theories; and there are readers who imagine this to be a sure proof of prodigious learning. We do not believe that their theories are worth the paper they are written upon. 97:1. *The Lord reigns; let the earth rejoice; let the multitude of isles be glad thereof. *This is the watchword of this Psalm - Jehovah reigns. It is also the essence of the gospel proclamation and the foundation of the gospel kingdom. Jesus has come, and all power is given to Him in heaven and in earth; therefore men are bidden to yield Him their obedient faith. Saints draw comfort from these words, and only rebels cavil at them. 97:2. *Clouds and darkness are round about Him. *Around the history of His church, dark clouds of persecution hover, and an awful gloom at times settles down; still the Lord is there; and though men for a while see not the bright light in the clouds, it bursts forth in due season to the confusion of the adversaries of the Gospel. This passage should teach us the impertinence of attempting to pry into the essence of the Godhead, the vanity of all endeavors to understand the mystery of the Trinity in unity, the arrogance of arraigning the Most High before the bar of human reason, the folly of dictating to the Eternal One the manner in which He should proceed. Wisdom veils her face and adores the mercy which conceals the divine purpose; folly rushes in and perishes, blinded first, and by-and-by consumed by the blaze of glory. *Righteousness and judgment are the habitation of His throne. *When the roll of the decrees and the books of the divine providence shall be opened, no eye shall there discern one word that should be blotted out, one syllable of error, one line of injustice, one letter of unholiness. Of none but the Lord of all can this be said. 97:4. *The earth saw, and trembled. *Nothing ever caused such a shaking and commotion as the proclamation of the Gospel; nothing was more majestic than its course; it turned the world upside down, leveled the mountains, and filled up the valleys. Jesus came, He saw, He conquered. When the Holy Spirit rested upon His servants, their course was like that of a mighty storm, the truth flashed with the force and speed of a thunderbolt, and philosophers and priests, princes and people, were utterly confounded, and altogether powerless to withstand it. It shall be so again. Faith even now sets the world on fire and rocks the nations to and fro. 97:10. *You that love the Lord, hate evil. *For He hates it, His fire consumes it, His lightnings blast it, His presence shakes it out of its place, and His glory confounds all the lovers of it. We cannot love God without hating that which He hates. We are not only to avoid evil, and to refuse to countenance it, but we must be in arms against it, and bear towards it a hearty indignation. *He delivers them out of the hand of the wicked.* It is not consistent with the glory of His name to give over to the power of His foes those whom His grace has made His friends. He may leave the bodies of His persecuted saints in the hand of the wicked, but not their souls; these are very dear to Him, and He preserves them safe in His bosom. This foretells for the church a season of battling with the powers of darkness, but the Lord will preserve it and bring it forth to the light. 97:11. *And gladness for the upright in heart. ** *Those who are right-hearted shall also be glad-hearted. Right leads to light. In the furrows of integrity lie the seeds of happiness, which shall develop into a harvest of bliss. God has lightning for sinners and light for saints. The gospel of Jesus, wherever it goes, sows the whole earth with joy for believers, for these are the men who are righteous before the Lord. 97:12. *And give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness. *An unholy gospel is no gospel. The holiness of the religion of Jesus is its glory, it is that which makes it glad tidings, since while man is left in his sins no bliss can be his portion. Salvation from sin is the priceless gift of our thrice holy God; therefore let us magnify Him forever and ever. He will fill the world with holiness, and so with happiness; therefore let us glory in His holy name, world without end. Amen. (*From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Sat Mar 30 09:00:12 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Sat, 30 Mar 2013 09:00:12 -0700 Subject: 2 Thessalonians 3 Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* March 30, 2013 *OCT 8 - 2 THESSALONIANS 3 - COMMANDS: IN THE LIGHT OF CHRIST?S RETURN* *1. 3:1-2, (NNT) PAUL: REQUESTS THEIR PRAYERS. ?For the rest, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord run and be glorified, even as also it is unto you; 2 and that we be delivered from the unreasonable and evil men; for all have not the faith.? *We marvel Father, that the apostles and prophets need the prayers of the whole body, if Your Word and purposes are to have full sway. We submit to Your wisdom in this. *Hallowed be your :name.* *2. 3:3-4, PAUL: HIS CONFIDENCE IN THESSALONIAN BELIEVERS. ?But the Lord is faithful, who shall establish you, and guard from the evil one. 4 And we have confidence in the Lord as to you, that you both do and will do what things we command.? *We bless You Father, that the good work You begin in us, You mature and perfect it unto the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. You are no respecter of persons. You did it for Paul?s people. *Your :kingdom come!* *3. 3:5. PAUL: A PRAYER OF THE HEART. ?And the Lord direct your :hearts unto the love of :God, and unto the patience of the Christ.? *Love to God and the patience of Christ: *pour* them into our hearts, O Father! In You we have all things. You have blessed us with *all* spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ. *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.* *4. 3:6 (3:6-12) PAUL: HIS EXAMPLE A REBUKE TO DISORDERLY WALK. ?Now we command you, brethren, in the Lord Jesus Christ?s name, that you withdraw from every brother that walks disorderly, and not after the tradition which you received of us.? *Thank You Father, for being our example through Your apostles. Thank You for the triple Plumb line: Yourself, Your Word, and Your servants. *Our :daily :bread Give us this day.* *5. 3:13-15. PAUL: EXHORTS TO PERSEVERANCE AND BROTHERLY FIDELITY. ?But you, brethren, be not weary in well-doing. 14 And if any obeys not our :word by this :letter, note that one, that you have no company with him, so that he be ashamed. 15 And count him not as an enemy, but admonish as a brother.? *O we bless You Father for such balance of wisdom through Your apostles. (?Admonish? here is equivalent to Jay Adam?s book, ?Nouthetic Counseling.? It is a transliteration of 2 Greek words - ?nous? meaning ?mind,? and ?TIth*e*-mi? meaning ?place? or ?establish?. When a counselor * establishes* the *mind* of a patient by the ?Word of God? under the guidance of the Holy Spirit - *this* is an ?admonishment?). *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 3:16. PAUL: HIS APOSTOLIC BLESSING. ?Now the Lord of :peace himself give you :peace at all times in every way. The Lord be with you all.? *You who *are* peace - You alone can give peace! Our eyes are upon You alone, not unto the gods of the hills. *And bring us not into temptation.* *7. 3:17-18. PAUL: CLOSING SALUTATION AND BENEDICTION OF PEACE. ?The greeting of me Paul with my hand, which is a token in every epistle: so I write. 18 The grace of our :Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.? *We see You in Your Word, Father; we see You in Your servants. The law came through Moses but *grace* and *truth* came through or Lord Jesus Christ. What a difference between these two covenants! *And deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE**: 3:10, 12 (3:6-12) PAUL: INSTRUCTIONS HOW WE SHOULD WORK. **?For even when we were with you, this we commanded you that, If any will not work, neither let him eat. 12 Now the such we command and exhort in theLord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work, and eat their own :bread.? *How practical Your words, Father! We bless You for them. *Our Psalm for the Day: 98:1-2 (98, ESV) MAKE A JOYFUL NOISE TO THE LORD. ?Oh sing to the LORD a new song, for he has done marvelous things! His right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him. 2 The LORD has made known his salvation; he has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations.? *Father, You have given a *new song* for Your New Creations in Christ Jesus! *Hallowed be your :name! *We bless You for Your great redemption worked out through Christ. *Title and Subject: *The present Psalm is a sort of Coronation Hymn, officially proclaiming the conquering Messiah as Monarch over the nations, with blast of trumpets, clapping of hands, and celebration of triumphs. It is a singularly bold and lively song. The critics have fully established the fact that similar expressions occur in Isaiah, but we see no force in the inference that therefore it was written by him; on this principle half the books in the English language might be attributed to Shakespeare. 98:1. *O sing unto the Lord a new song; for He has done marvelous things. *Jesus, our King, has lived a marvelous life, died a marvelous death, risen by a marvelous resurrection, and ascended marvelously into heaven. By His divine power, He has sent forth the Holy Spirit doing marvels, and by that sacred energy His disciples have also wrought marvelous things and astonished all the earth. Idols have fallen, superstitions have withered, systems of error have fled, and empires of cruelty have perished. For all this, He deserves the highest praise. His acts have proved His Deity, Jesus is Jehovah, and therefore we sing unto Him as the Lord. *His right hand, and His holy arm, has gotten Him the victory. *Jesus never stops to use policy or brute force; His unsullied perfections secure to Him a real and lasting victory over all the powers of evil, and that victory will be gained as dexterously and easily as when a warrior strikes his adversary with his right hand and stretches him prone upon the earth. Glory be unto the Conqueror; let new songs be chanted to His praise. 98:3. *All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. *Pentecost deserves a new song as well as the passion and the resurrection; let our hearts exult as we remember it. Our God, our own forever blessed God, has been honored by those who once bowed down before dumb idols; His salvation has not only been heard of but seen among all people; it has been experienced as well as explained; His Son is the actual Redeemer of a multitude out of all nations. 98:5. *With the harp. *God, Who accepts the unlettered ditty of a plowman, does not reject the smooth verse of a Cowper or the sublime strains of a Milton. All repetitions are not vain repetitions; in sacred song there should be graceful repeats; they render the sense emphatic and help to fire the soul; even preachers do not amiss when they dwell on a word and sound it out again and again till dull ears feel its emphasis. The singing of these Psalms became so popular that D?Israeli suggests that ?it first conveyed to the sullen fancy of the austere Calvin in the project? of introducing the singing of Psalms into his Genevan discipline. ?This infectious frenzy of Psalm-singing,? as Warton almost blasphemously describes it, rapidly propagated itself through Germany as well as France, and passed over to England. D?Israeli says, with a sneer, that in the time of the Commonwealth, ?Psalms were now sung at Lord Mayor?s dinners and city feasts; soldiers sang them on their march and at parade; and a few houses which had windows fronting the streets, but had their evening Psalms.? We can only add, would to God it were so again. 98:9. *Before the Lord; for He comes to judge the earth. *Stiller music such as made the stars twinkle with their soft kind eyes suited His first coming at Bethlehem, but His second advent calls for trumpets, for He is a judge; and for all earth?s acclamations, for He has put on His royal splendor. The rule of Christ is the joy of nature. All things bless His throne, yes, and the very coming of it. As the dawn sets the earth weeping for joy at the rising of the sun till the dewdrops stand in her eyes, so should the approach of Jesus? universal reign make all creation glad. *With righteousness shall He judge the world, and the people with equity. *If ever there was a thing to rejoice in upon this poor, travailing earth, it is the coming of such a Deliverer, the ascension to the universal throne of such a Governor. All hail Jesus! all hail! Our soul faints with delight at the sound of Your approaching chariots, and can only cry, ?Come quickly. Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus!? *(From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon abridged by D.O. Fuller)* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Sun Mar 31 09:12:27 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Sun, 31 Mar 2013 09:12:27 -0700 Subject: Zephaniah - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* March 31, 2013 *OCT 9 - ZEPHANIAH: THROUGH JUDGMENT TO BLESSING* *1. 1:4 (1:1-6, ESV) ZEPHANIAH: PROPHESIES BABYLONIAN CAPTIVITY. ?I will stretch out my hand against Judah and against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and I will cut off from its place the remnant of Baal and the name of the idolatrous priests along with the priests.? *After much clear warning, with much longsuffering and patience, You let judgment come, Father. You *are* a God Who sees both good and evil, and punishes the evil! *Hallowed be your :name.* *2. 1:12 (1:7-18) DAY OF JEHOVAH: CLASSES TO BE PUNISHED. ?At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps, and I will punish the men who are complacent, those who say in their hearts, ?The LORD will not do good, nor will he do ill.?? *You will not have Your people like ?Christian Science?, Father. You *are* a God Who sees both good and evil, and punishes the evil. *Your :kingdom come.* *3. 2:3 (2:1-3) JUDAH: EXHORTED TO SEEK GOD. ?Seek the LORD, all you humble of the land, who do his just commands; seek righteousness; seek humility; perhaps you may be hidden on the day of the anger of the LORD. *King Manasseh delayed judgment because of repentance. Noah, Daniel and Job could be hidden because of *their* righteousness. You are a righteous Father: You do not punish the righteous with the wicked. *Your will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.* *4. 2:7 (2:4-15) JUDGMENT: ON FIVE NATIONS. ?The seacoast shall become the possession of the remnant of the house of Judah, on which they shall graze, and in the houses of Ashkelon they shall lie down at evening. For the LORD their God will be mindful of them and restore their fortunes. *Forgive us Father, for failing to understand Your nature: A God of Righteousness and Holiness, Jehovah of Truth and Equity. Purge us from humanistic thinking, for the bleeding-heart liberal! *Our :daily :bread Give us this day.* *5. 3:5 (3:1-7) JUDAH: BAD MORAL STATE. ?The LORD within her is righteous; he does no injustice; every morning he shows forth his justice; each dawn he does not fail; but the unjust knows no shame.? *Father, we bless You that You are in the midst of the city, *our particular city church*. *Burn it on our hearts*! *Anoint our eyes to see*! We root out *all* of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil! *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 3:13 (3:8-13) ARMAGEDDON: RESTORATION RESULTS. ?Those who are left in Israel; they shall do no injustice and speak no lies, nor shall there be found in their mouth a deceitful tongue. For they shall graze and lie down, and none shall make them afraid.? *We see and understand Your Restoration power on behalf of Your remnant! We bless You Father, for Your power to cleanse and keep Your people. *And bring us not into temptation.* *7. 3:17 (3:14-20) MESSIAH AND RESTORATION. ?The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.? *Following judgment, cleansing, chastisement, and discipline; comes rest, joy, reconciliation and fellowship with You, Father! Hosanna! And *You* work it all out! *But deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE**: 3:20 (3:14-20) **RESTORATION PROMISED! ?At that time I will bring you in, at the time when I gather you together; for I will make you renowned and praised among all the peoples of the earth, when I restore your fortunes before your eyes,? says the LORD. *O blessed be Your Name for evermore, Father; for *You* have declared it, and *You* will also do it! *Our Psalm for the Day: 99:6-8 (99) THE LORD OUR GOD IS HOLY! ?Moses and Aaron were among his priests, Samuel also was among those who called upon his name. They called to the LORD, and he answered them. 7 In the pillar of the cloud he spoke to them; they kept his testimonies and the statute that he gave them. 8 O LORD our God, you answered them; you were a forgiving God to them, but an avenger of their wrongdoings.? * This may be called the Sanctus, or ?The Holy, Holy, Holy Psalm,? for the word ?holy? is the conclusion and the refrain of its three main divisions. Its subject is the holiness of the divine government, the sanctity of the mediatorial reign. 99:1. *Let the people tremble.* Saints quiver with devout emotion and sinners quiver with terror when the rule of Jehovah is fully perceived and felt. It is not a light or trifling matter; it is a truth which, above all others, should stir the depths of our nature. 99:2. *And He is high above all the people; *towering above their highest thoughts and loftiest conceptions. The highest are not high to Him yet, blessed be His name, the lowliest are not despised by Him. In such a God we rejoice. His greatness and loftiness are exceedingly delightful in our esteem. The more He is honored and exalted in the hearts of men, the more exultant are His people. The more He is honored and exalted in the hearts of men, the more exultant are His people. If Israel delighted in Saul because he was head and shoulders above the people, how much more should we exult in our God and King, Who is as high above us as the heavens are above the earth? 99:3. *Let them praise Your great and terrible name.* Many profess to admire the milder beams of the sun of righteousness but burn with rebellion against its more flaming radiance: so it ought not to be: we are bound to praise a terrible God and worship Him Who casts the wicked down to hell. Did not Israel praise Him ?Who overthrew Pharaoh and his hosts in the Red Sea, for His mercy endures forever?! The terrible Avenger is to be raised as well as the loving Redeemer. Against this, the sympathy of man?s evil heart with sin rebels; it cries out for an effeminate God in whom pity has strangled Justice 99:5. *For He is holy*. Holiness is the harmony of all the virtues. The Lord has not one glorious attribute alone, or in excess, but all glories are in Him as a whole; this is the crown of His honor and the honor of His crown. His power is not His choicest jewel, nor His sovereignty, but His holiness. The gods of the heathen were, according to their own votaries, lustful, cruel, and brutish; their only claim to reverence lay in their supposed potency over human destinies; who would not far rather adore Jehovah, Whose character is unsullied purity, unswerving justice, unbending truth, unbounded love, in a word, perfect holiness? *For He is holy. *Holiness is the harmony of all virtues. The Lord a virtue all too rare in these our days; men run after their own views and opinions and make light of the truth of God; hence it is that they fail in prayer, and scoffers have even dared to say that prayer avails not at all. May the good Lord bring back His people to reverence His Word, and then will He also have respect unto the voice of their cry. *(From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Mon Apr 1 09:24:54 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Mon, 1 Apr 2013 09:24:54 -0700 Subject: Haggai - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* April 1, 2013 *OCT 10 - HAGGAI: PROPHET OF THE TEMPLE* *1. 1:2 (1:1-2, ESV) TEMPLE BUILDING: ENCOURAGED BY HAGGAI. ?Thus says the LORD of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the LORD.? *We would listen to Your true prophets Father, for through them we hear Your voice as to Your times and purposes. We can see those who miss the Issachar revelation (1 Chronicles 12:32). Your Kingdom comes as we walk in Your true Word. *Hallowed be your :name.* *2. 1:7-8 (1:3-11) TEMPLE: NEGLECT BRINGS JUDGMENT. ?Thus says the LORD of hosts: Consider your ways. 8 Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified, says the LORD.? *It is Your time and will to *fully* restore Your church, Father, the One New Man, composed of Jew and Gentile - and *then* the nation Israel - as You have promised in Romans 11, and *many other*portions of Your Word. We need Nehemiahs to rebuild the walls and gates of each city church. We need at least 12 local churches in each city to build the walls in front of them! *Your :kingdom come!* *3. 1:14 (1:12-15) TEMPLE: PROPHECY BRINGS MOTIVATION. ?And the LORD stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people. And they came and worked on the house of the LORD of hosts, their God.? *Father, unless You stir our spirits, we cannot accomplish Your purposes; except You build the house, we labor in vain. *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth!* *4. 2:6-7 (2:1-9) TEMPLE: TYPE OF A GREATER HOUSE! ?For thus says the LORD of hosts: Yet once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land. 7 And I will shake all nations, so that the treasures of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with glory, says the LORD of hosts.? *Forgive us Father, for walking afar off like Peter, and missing the significance of Your timing and purposes. We would cooperate by walking softly with You! *Our :daily :bread Give us this day.* *5. 2:13 (2 10-13) TEMPLE PRIESTS: QUERIED ON LAWS OF CLEANNESS. Then Haggai said, ?If someone who is unclean by contact with a dead body touches any of these, does it become unclean?? The priests answered and said, ?It does become unclean.? *We have walked in our own ways of uncleanness. But * now* Father, You command all men everywhere to repent, and walk in Your way of holiness and Kingdom power! *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 2:18-19 (2:14-19) TEMPLE WORK: BRINGS BLESSING. ?Consider from this day onward, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month. Since the day that the foundation of the LORD?s temple was laid, consider: 19 Is the seed yet in the barn? Indeed, the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree have yielded nothing. But from this day on I will bless you.? *We hear this word of Yours applied to us today, Father! Restoration of the new wineskin of the city church *has begun*. *And bring us not into temptation!* *7. 2:23 (2:20-23) MESSIAH?S COMING. ?On that day, declares the LORD of hosts, I will take you, O Zerubbabel my servant, the son of Shealtiel, declares the LORD, and make you like a signet ring, for I have chosen you, declares the LORD of hosts.? *He who was ?Sown in Babylon, is now to be birthed Your apostle of restoration in Jerusalem, Father! All praise to You, for *You* have done it! *But deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE**: 2:8-9 (2:1-9) **PROPHECY FOR THE RESTORED HOUSE! ?The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, declares the LORD of hosts. 9 The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the LORD of hosts. And in this place I will give peace, declares the LORD of hosts.? *Restored Temple: for Jesus? first coming! Restored City Churches: for Jesus? Second Coming! *E.M. Bounds Quote from Power through Prayer - *The past has not exhausted the possibilities nor the demands for doing great things for God. The church that is dependent on its past history for its miracles of power and grace is a fallen church. . . . The greatest benefactor this age could have is the man who will bring the teachers and the church back to prayer. *Our Psalm for the Day: 100:1-2 (100) HIS STEADFAST LOVE ENDURES FOREVER. ?Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth! 2 Serve the LORD with gladness! Come into his presence with singing.? *Father, with joyful hearts we come into the outer court of Your temple. We acknowledge You as our great Creator and Redeemer, the Lover of our souls. In Christ Jesus we bless You, and *hallow your :name!* *Title*: *?A Psalm of Praise?; *or rather, of thanksgiving. This is the only Psalm bearing this precise inscription. It is all ablaze with grateful adoration, and has for this reason been a great favorite with the people of God ever since it was written. 100:1. *Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all you lands. *Our happy God should be worshiped by a happy people; a cheerful spirit is in keeping with His nature, His acts, and the gratitude which we should cherish for His mercies. 100:2. *Serve the Lord with gladness.* The invitation to worship here given is not a melancholy one, as though adoration were a funeral solemnity, but a cheery, gladsome exhortation, as though we were bidden to a marriage feast. 100:3. *Know you that the Lord He is God. *?Man, know yourself,? is a wise aphorism, yet to know our God truer wisdom; and it is very questionable whether a man can know himself until he knows his God. Jehovah is God in the fullest, most absolute, and most exclusive sense. He is God alone; to know Him in that character and prove our knowledge by obedience, trust, submission, zeal, and love is an attainment which only grace can bestow. *It is He that has made us, and not we ourselves. *To disclaim honor for ourselves is as necessary a part of true reverence as to ascribe glory to the Lord. For our part, we find it far more easy to believe that the Lord made us than that we were developed by a long chain of natural selections from floating atoms which fashioned themselves. 100:5. *For the Lord is good. *This sums up His character and contains a mass of reasons for praise. He is good, gracious, kind, bountiful, loving; yes, God is love. *His mercy is everlasting. *God is not mere justice, stern and cold; He has bowels of compassion and wills not the sinner?s death. *And His truth endures to all generations.* It were well if the truth of divine faithfulness were more fully remembered by some theologians; it would overturn their belief in the final fall of believers and teach them a more consolatory system. *(From ?The Treasury of David? by C.S. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Tue Apr 2 09:39:58 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Tue, 2 Apr 2013 09:39:58 -0700 Subject: Zechariah 1-6 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* April 2, 2013 * * *OCT 11 - ZECHARIAH 1-6 - EIGHT VISIONS* *1. 1:2-3 (1:1-6, ESV) ZECHARIAH: CALLS JUDAH BACK TO GOD. ?The LORD was very angry with your fathers. 3 Therefore say to them, Thus declares the LORD of hosts: Return to me, says the LORD of hosts, and I will return to you, says the LORD of hosts.? *Repentance follows heart contrition, leading unto *reconciliation* with You again: *this* is Your call unto us, Father. We submit and return. *Hallowed be your :name.* *2. 1:16 (1:7-21) VISIONS: HORSES, HORNS AND CARPENTERS. ?Therefore, thus says the LORD, I have returned to Jerusalem with mercy; my house shall be built in it, declares the LORD of hosts and the measuring line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem.? *We bless You for Your Plumb line, Father. We bless You for Your promise to rebuild the city churches of the world. We bless You for Jerusalem, the type of the City of God! *Your :kingdom come.* *3. 2:10 (2:1-13) VISION: MAN WITH THE MEASURING LINE. ?Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion, for behold, I come and I will dwell in your midst, declares the LORD.? *Jehovah Father, You are *Jehovah Shammah* (Ezekiel 48:25). Your Name is upon the Restored City, the New Wineskin! You are also Jehovah Jireh, the LORD our Provider! *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.* *4. 3:9 (3:1-10) VISIONS: JOSHUA AND THE BRANCH. ?For behold, on the stone that I have set before Joshua, on a single stone with seven eyes, I will engrave its inscription, declares the LORD of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of this land in a single day.? *Reconciliation to You, Jehovah Father, comes only through Jesus and Your seven-fold Spirit! Your Name Jehovah is engraved upon Your Son! Forgive us for being so blind and dim of vision, in that we fail to perceive the awesome majesty of this act! *Our :daily :bread Give us this day.* *5. 4:10 (4:1-5:4) VISIONS: CANDLESTICK AND FLYING SCROLL. ?For whoever has despised the day of small things shall rejoice, and shall see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel. ?These seven are the eyes of the LORD, which range through the whole earth.? *Your plumb line Jehovah Father, has come to the Church, and we are found wanting. We acknowledge and confess it. But *You* Lord Jesus, are rebuilding and restoring Your church by Your Spirit. We submit to the purging and pruning, that we might be found worthy of Your last day army. *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 6:4-5 (5:5-6:8) VISIONS: EPHAH AND CHARIOTS. ?Then I answered and said to the angel who talked with me, ?What are these, my lord?? 5 And the angel answered and said to me, ?These are going out to the four winds of heaven, after presenting themselves before the LORD of all the earth.?? *Father, how Great and Majestic You are! You?ve got the whole, wide world *in Your hands*! Satan is a squatter. Jesus stripped him of legal authority at Calvary. Open our eyes that we may see! *And bring us not into temptation.* *7. 6:15 (6:9-15) PROPHECY: SIGN OF JOSHUA CROWNED. ?And those who are far off shall come and help to build the temple of the LORD. And you shall know that the LORD of hosts has sent me to you. And this shall come to pass, if you will diligently obey the voice of the LORD your God.? *Father, we bless You for Joshua the high priest, Type and Forerunner of Christ Jesus the * Branch*, Who triumphantly builds His church today! *But deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE**: 4:6-7 (4:1-5:4) GOD?S SPIRIT: CAUSE OF HIS TRIUMPH. **Then he said to me, ?This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of hosts. 7 Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain. And he shall bring forward the top stone amid shouts of ?Grace, grace to it!?? *What a revelation! *Quote by Abraham Lincoln, Speech, Republican State Convention, 1858 - *I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. *Our Psalm for the Day: 101:1-2 (101) I WILL WALK WITH INTEGRITY. ?I will sing of steadfast love and justice; to you, O LORD, I will make music. 2 I will ponder the way that is blameless. Oh when will you come to me? I will walk with integrity of heart within my house.? *We bless You Father, O Great Jehovah, for the heart of Your servant David. He loved righteousness and hated iniquity. He desired Your judgment on lawlessness. *Title: ?A Psalm of David.? *This is just such a Psalm as the man after God?s own heart would compose when he was about to become a king in Israel. It is David all over, straight-forward, resolute, devout; there is not trace of policy or vacillation - the Lord has appointed him to be king, and he knows it; therefore he purposes in all things to behave as becomes a monarch whom the Lord Himself has chosen. If we call this *?The Psalm of Pious Resolutions,?* we shall perhaps remember it all the more readily. After songs of praise a Psalm of practice not only makes variety but comes in most fittingly. We never praise the Lord better than when we do those things which are pleasing in His sight. 101:1. *I will sing of mercy and judgment. *We ought as much to bless the Lord for the judgment with which He chastens our sin as for the mercy with which He forgives it; there is as much love in the blows of His hand as in the kisses of His mouth. 101:2. *O when will You come unto me? *If God be with us, we shall neither err in judgment nor transgress in character; His presence brings us both wisdom and holiness; away from God, we are away from safety. *I will walk with my house with a perfect heart. *Reader, how fares it with your family? Do you sing in the choir and sin in the chamber? Are you a saint abroad and a devil at home? For shame! What we are at home, that we are indeed. He cannot be a good king whose palace is the haunt of vice, nor he a true saint whose habitation is a scene of strife, nor he a faithful minister whose household dreads his appearance at the fireside. 101:5. *Whoever privately slanders his neighbor, him will I cut off. *To give one?s neighbor a stab in the dark is one of the most atrocious of crimes and cannot be too heartily reprobated, yet such as are guilty of it often find patronage in high places and are considered to be men of penetration, trusty ones who have a keen eye and take care to keep their lords will posted up. 101:6. *He that walks in a perfect way, he shall serve me. *What I wish myself to be, that I desire my servant to be. Employers are to a great degree responsible for their servants, and it is customary to blame a master if he retains in his service persons of notorious character; therefore, lest we become partakers of other men?s sins, we shall do well to decline the services of bad characters. *(From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Wed Apr 3 09:31:37 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Wed, 3 Apr 2013 09:31:37 -0700 Subject: Zechariah 7-8 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* April 3, 2013 *OCT 12 - ZECHARIAH 7-8 - FASTS UNTO FESTIVALS* *1. 7:4-5 (7:1-7, ESV) FASTING: ITS TRUE NATURE UNTO JEHOVAH. Then the word of the LORD of hosts came to me: 5 ?Say to all the people of the land and the priests, When you fasted and mourned in the fifth month and in the seventh, for these seventy years, was it for me that you fasted?? *We should bring proper attitudes and motivations when we come unto You, O Great Jehovah Elohim! *Hallowed be your :name!* *2. 7:14 (7:8-14) FASTING: ITS TRUE NATURE UNTO THE NEEDY. ?And I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations that they had not known. Thus the land they left was desolate, so that no one went to and fro, and the pleasant land was made desolate.? *Father, we would hear You say, *I will heal your land*, because our words and works flow out of a right heart. *Your :kingdom come!* *3. 8:3 (8:1-8) BLESSING: GOD?S UNCHANGING PURPOSE FOR JERUSALEM. ?Thus says the LORD: I have returned to Zion and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, and Jerusalem shall be called the faithful city, and the mountain of the LORD of hosts, the holy mountain.? *You will meet all our needs, Father: daily bread for the land, our body; the Word as soul-food for our city; and Your own dear presence for Zion, the mountain of the LORD, our spirit! *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.* *4. 8:13 (8:9-17) BLESSING: ITS CONDITIONAL NATURE. ?And as you have been a byword of cursing among the nations, O house of Judah and house of Israel, so will I save you, and you shall be a blessing. Fear not, but let your hands be strong.? *O Your timing, Father! How right and just and wise! O make us like Issachar to perceive the times of refining, followed by times of blessing (1 Chronicles 12 32). We put Your fear *above* the fear of man - the expulsive power of a new affection. *Our :daily :bread Give us this day.* *5. 8:18-19. FASTING: JOY TO BE ITS MARK. And the word of the LORD of hosts came to me, saying, 19 ?Thus says the LORD of hosts: The fast of the fourth month and the fast of the fifth and the fast of the seventh and the fast of the tenth shall be to the house of Judah seasons of joy and gladness and cheerful feasts. Therefore love truth and peace.? *What a turn-around! Normally Your fasts, Father, are times of affliction of soul; now they are seasons of refreshing! *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 8:22 (8:20-22) BLESSING: TO BE CENTERED IN JERUSALEM. ?Many peoples and strong nations shall come to seek the LORD of hosts in Jerusalem and to entreat the favor of the LORD.? *How amazing! The king?s heart is indeed in Your hands, Father. You turn it in whatever direction it pleases You. O may we know You as the God of Sovereign power! *And bring us not into temptation.* *7. 8:23. BLESSING OF NATIONS: RELATED TO JEWS. ?Thus says the LORD of hosts: In those days ten men from the nations of every tongue shall take hold of the robe of a Jew, saying, ?Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.?? *Yes, and the day will come when the spiritual Jew, the Christian believer, will be treated in the same manner. *But deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE**: 8:7-8 (8:1-8) GOD?S PROPHETIC BLESSING TO ISRAEL. **?Thus says the LORD of hosts: behold, I will save my people from the east country and from the west country, 8 and I will bring them to dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God, in faithfulness and in righteousness.? * *Quote from Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address - *With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in. *Our Psalm for the Day: 102:16-17 (102) DO NOT HIDE YOUR FACE FROM ME. ?For the LORD builds up Zion; he appears in his glory; 17 he regards the prayer of the destitute and does not despise their prayer.? *Your time to favor Zion, yes *the set time* is come. This is that generation, and that Jubilee (the 120th), when final judgment comes on the enemy, Father, and Your people are fully set free! *Hallowed be your :name!* *Subject*: This is a patriot?s lament over his country?s distress. He arrays himself in the griefs of his nation as in a garment of sackcloth and casts her dust and ashes upon his head as the ensigns and causes of his sorrow. He has his own private woes and personal enemies; he is, moreover, sore afflicted in body by sickness, but the miseries of his people cause him a far more bitter anguish, and this he pours out in an earnest, pathetic lamentation. Not, however, without hope does the patriot mourn; he has faith in God and looks for the resurrection of the nation through the omnipotent favor of the Lord. The word rendered ?complaint? has in it none of the idea of fault-finding or repining, but should rather be rendered ?moaning? - the expression of pain, not of rebellion. To help the memory, we will call this Psalm ?The Patriot?s Plaint.? 102:1. *Hear my prayers, O Lord. Or, O Jehovah. *Sincere suppliants are not content with praying for praying?s sake; they desire really to reach the ear and heart of the great God. It is a great relief in time of distress to acquaint others with our trouble., We are eased by their hearing our lamentation. But it is the sweetest solace of all to have God Himself as a sympathizing listener to our plaint. That He is such is no dream, or fiction, but an assured fact. It would be the direst of all woes if we could be indisputably convinced that with God there is neither hearing nor answering; he who could argue us into so dreary a belief would do us no better service than if he had read us our death-warrants. Better die than be denied the mercy-seat. As well be atheists at once as believe in an unhearing, unfeeling God. 102:2. *In the day when I call answer me speedily. *It is a proverb concerning favors from human hands that ?he gives twice who gives quickly,? because a gift is enhanced in value by arriving in a time of urgent necessity; and we may be sure that our heavenly Patron will grant us the best of gifts in the best manner, granting us grace to help in time of need. When answers come upon the heels of our prayers, they are all the more striking, more consoling, and more encouraging. 102:13. *For the time to favor her, yes, the set time, is come*. When God?s own time is come, neither Rome, nor the devil, nor persecutors, nor atheists, can prevent the kingdom of Christ from extending its bounds. It is God?s work to do it - He must ?arise?; He will do it, but He has His own appointed season; and meanwhile we must, with holy anxiety and believing expectation, wait upon Him. 102:21. *To declare the Name of the Lord in Zion, and His praise in Jerusalem.* To communicate to others what God has done for us personally and for the church at large is so evidently our duty that we ought not to need urging to fulfill it. God has ever an eye to the glory of His grace in all that He does, and we ought not willfully to defraud Him of the revenue of His praise. 102:24. *Your years are throughout all generations.* You live, Lord; let me live also. A fullness of existence is with You; let me partake therein. Note the contrast between himself pining and ready to expire, and his God living on in the fullness of strength forever and ever; this contrast is full of consolatory power to the man whose heart is stayed upon the Lord. Blessed be His Name, He fails not, and, therefore, our hope shall not fail us; neither will we despair for ourselves or for His church. *Conclusion: * We have passed through the cloud, and in the next Psalm we shall bask in the sunshine. Such is the checkered experience of the believer. Paul, in the seventh of Romans, cries and groans, and then in the eighth rejoices and leaps for joy; and so, from the moaning of the Hundred and Second Psalm, we now advance to the songs and dancing of the Hundred and Third, blessing the Lord, that ?though weeping may endure for a night, joy comes in the morning. *(From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* * * *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Thu Apr 4 09:51:00 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Thu, 4 Apr 2013 09:51:00 -0700 Subject: Zechariah 9-14 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* April 4, 2013 *OCT 13 - ZECHARIAH 9-14 - ULTIMATE TRIUMPH OF GOD?S KINGDOM* *1. 9:10 (9:1-17, ESV) MESSIAH: DOMINION FROM SEA TO SEA. ?I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall speak peace to the nations; his rule shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.? *O Father, we honor Your choice of Jesus as Messiah, Savior and Lord. *He* is Jehovah the Savior. Your Kingdom in the Spirit finds expression in Him. *Hallowed be your :name!* *2. 10:1 (10:1-12) MESSIAH: RAIN FOR JUDAH AND JOSEPH. ?Ask rain from the LORD in the season of the spring rain, from the LORD who makes the storm clouds, and he will give them showers of rain, to everyone the vegetation in the field.? *It?s the moving of Your Spirit, Lord, we need! Without You Father, we are nothing. Let Your face shine upon us, and we live. Your will is that we drink of Latter Rain. *Your :kingdom come.* *3. 11:12-13 (11:1-17) MESSIAH REJECTED AT FIRST COMING. Then I said to them, ?If it seem good to you, give me my wages, but if not, keep them.? And they weighed out as my wages thirty pieces of silver. 13 Then the LORD said to me, ?Throw it to the potter? - the lordly price at which I was priced by them. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the LORD, to the potter.? *Father, our hearts are grieved at the treatment of Your Son. But - You gave Him for our *Redemption*! *Your will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.* *4. 12:1-2a (12:1-3) ISRAEL AND JERUSALEM BESIEGED. ?The burden of the word of the LORD concerning Israel. Thus declares the LORD, who stretched out the heavens and founded the earth and formed the spirit of man within. 2a ?Behold, I am about to make Jerusalem a cup of staggering to all the surrounding peoples.? *Our spirits come from You, Father. We are made in Your image, after Your likeness - You who are *spirit*. Because we are Yours by creation and Yours by Redemption, and Yours by sustaining power, we acknowledge Your lordship. *Our :daily :bread Give us this day.* *5. 12:8 (12:4-14) MESSIAH: SUPERNATURAL DELIVERANCE FOR JUDAH AND JERUSALEM.* ?*On that day the LORD will protect the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the feeblest among them on that day shall be like David, and the house of David shall be like God, like the angel of the LORD, going before them.? *Saul slew his 1000?s, but David his 10,000?s. But if we be strong as the angel of Jehovah,what would You expect of us, Father? And if we walk in prayer multiplication (Deuteronomy 32:30; Ecclesiastes 4:9-12; Matthew 18:19), what might You expect of us? We are staggered! *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 13:7 (13:1-9) MESSIAH: REVEALED AS CRUCIFIED SAVIOR. ?Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the man who stands next to me,? declares the LORD of hosts. ?Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered; I will turn my hand against the little ones.? **Jesus* was born to *die*. * Redemption* was the great work for which He came, with Justification, Propitiation and Reconciliation: *All* through His blood! *And bring us not into temptation.* *7. 14:12 (14:1-21) MESSIAH: CONSUMMATES HIS KINGDOM. ?And this shall be the plague with which the LORD will strike all the peoples that wage war against Jerusalem: their flesh will rot while that are still standing on their feet, their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongues will rot in their mouths.? *It sounds like atomic disaster! But whatever it is, You send Jesus Father, to judge the world and reward Your saints. *But deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE: 12:10 (12:4-14) MESSIAH: HOW HE WILL OPEN EYES! ?And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and [pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn.? *This is when the nation of Israel will be born in a day! *Quote from Abraham Lincoln, Speech at Gettysburg - *That this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom; and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. *Our Psalm for the Day: 103:7 (103) BLESS THE LORD, O MY SOUL. ?He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel.? *Father, we would choose to be like Moses and know Your *ways*. Before it comes to pass we would know Your purposes, so we can work with and under You. Especially we would let Christ live in us as the Truth. *Hallowed be your :name! * 103:1. *And all that is within me, bless His holy name.* Halfhearted, ill-conceived, unintelligent praises are not such as we should render to our loving Lord. If the law of justice demanded all our heart and soul and mind for the Creator, much more may the law of gratitude put in a comprehensive claim for the homage of our whole being to the God of grace. 103:2. *And forget not all His benefits. *Remember how the Persian king, when he could not sleep, read the chronicles of the empire, and discovered that one who had saved his life had never been rewarded. How quickly did he do him honor! The Lord has saved us with a great salvation; shall we render no recompense? The name of *ingrate* is one of the most shameful that a man can wear; surely we cannot be content to run the risk of such a brand. Let us awake then and with intense enthusiasm bless Jehovah. 103:3. *Who forgives all your iniquities. *Here David begins his list of blessings received, which he rehearses as themes and arguments for praise. He selects a few of the choicest pearls from the casket of divine love, threads them on the string of memory, and hangs them about the neck of gratitude. *God gives efficacy to medicine for the body* and His grace sanctifies the soul. Spiritually we are daily under His care, and He visits us, as the surgeon does his patient; healing still (for that is the exact word) each malady as it arises. No disease of our soul baffles His skill; He goes on healing all; and He will do so till the last trace of taint has gone from our nature. The two *alls* of this verse are further reasons for * all* that is within us praising the Lord. 103:4. *Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies. *Our sin deprived us of all our honors, a bill of attainder was issued against us as traitors; but He Who removed the sentence of death by redeeming us from destruction restores to us more than all our former honors by crowning us anew. Shall God crown us and shall we not crown Him? Up, my soul, and cast your crown at His feet, and in lowliest reverence worship Him, Who has so greatly exalted you as to lift you from the dunghill and set you among princes. 103:5. *Who satisfies you mouth with good things, *or rather ?filling with good your soul.? No man is ever filled to satisfaction but a believer, and only God Himself can satisfy even him. *So that your youth is renewed like the eagle?s. *He who sat moping with the owl in the last Psalm here flies on high with the eagle: the Lord works marvelous changes in us, and we learn by such experiences to bless His holy name. To grow from a sparrow to an eagle and leave the wilderness of the pelican to mount among the stars is enough to make any man cry, ?Bless the Lord, O my soul.? 103:10. *He has not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. *Else had Israel perished outright, and we also had long ago been consigned to the lowest hell. We ought to praise the Lord for what He has not done as well as for what He has wrought for us; even the negative side deserves our adoring gratitude. Up to this moment, at our very worst estate, we have never suffered as we deserved to suffer; our daily lot has not been apportioned upon the rule of what we merited, but on the far different measure of undeserved kindness. Shall we not bless the Lord? Every power of our being might have been rent with anguish instead of which we are all in the enjoyment of comparative happiness, and many of us are exceedingly favored with inward joy; let then every faculty, yes, all that is within us, bless His holy name. 103:12. *As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.* O glorious verse, no word even upon the inspired page can excel it! Sin is removed from us by a miracle of love! What a load to move, and yet is it removed so far that the distance is incalculable. Fly as far as the wing of imagination can bear you, and you journey through space eastward, you are farther from the west at every beat of your wing. If sin be removed so far, then we may be sure that the scent, the trace, the very memory of it must be entirely gone. If this be the distance of its removal, there is no shade of fear of its every being brought back again; even Satan himself could not achieve such a task. Our sins are gone; Jesus has borne them away. Far as the place of sunrise is removed from yonder west, where the sun sinks when his day?s journey is done, so far were our sins carried by our scapegoat nineteen centuries ago, and now if they be sought for, they shall not be found, yes, they shall not be, says the Lord. Come, my soul, awaken yourself thoroughly and glorify the Lord for this richest of blessings. Hallelujah. The Lord alone could remove sin at all, and He has done it in a godlike fashion, making a final sweep of all our transgressions. 103:17. *But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear Him.* Blessed *but*! How vast the contrast between the fading flower and the everlasting God! How wonderful that His mercy should link our frailty with His eternity and make us everlasting, too! From old eternity the Lord viewed His people as objects of mercy, and as such chose them to become partakers of His grace; the doctrine of eternal election is most delightful to those who have light to see it and love wherewith to accept it. It is a theme for deepest thought and highest joy. *(From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Fri Apr 5 14:26:30 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Fri, 5 Apr 2013 14:26:30 -0700 Subject: Daily Devotional of Proclamations - Free till April 6 Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* *April 5, 2013* *2013-04-05 - Prayers & PROCLAMATIONS, 1990 - Derek and Ruth Prince* *We present within these pages some of the ?treasures? we have found in the Scriptures over the years. These particular Scriptures have upheld us when under pressure, strengthened us when weak, brought us healing when sick, and guidance when perplexed. Above all they have enabled us to build up our faith. Derek and Ruth Prince* *About the authors - Derek and Ruth Prince have been married and serving the Lord together since 1978. Derek has published more than 30 books, which have been translated into 50 foreign languages. (The above was written in 1990. Derek died in 2003, and by then well over 50 of his books had been published.)* *INTRODUCTION - God had commissioned Moses to deliver Israel out of their slavery in Egypt, but Moses felt he was not equipped for the task.* ?*What is that in your hand?? God asked. ?A rod,? Moses replied. He saw no special significance in it. God proceeded to demonstrate to him the miraculous potential in that seemingly insignificant rod - and Moses actually fled in terror from his own rod! But when God showed him how to use the rod as an instrument of divine authority, it was all he need to fulfill his task.* *With that rod Moses defeated the magicians of Egypt - stripped Pharaoh of his power - humiliated Egypt?s gods - and brought Israel out from slavery to freedom.* *You, too, have a rod in your hand**: **your Bible! If you can understand its unlimited potential, you can use your Bible as Moses used his rod: to extend God?s authority into any situation where Satan opposes the people and the purposes of God.* *Over the past three years Ruth and I have been fighting a continuing war against Satan, who has opposed us and our ministry in many different ways. His primary goal has been to kill Ruth. In this war the Holy Spirit has taught us how to take the Bible as our rod and extend God?s authority through it into every area where Satan has been opposing us.* *The Holy Spirit has led us systematically to Scripture after Scripture, and has shown us how to direct them to each area where Satan has been opposing. The strategy which the Holy Spirit has taught us is:* *PROCLAIM!* *THANK!* *PRAISE!* *First, PROCLAIM the appropriate Scripture with bold, unwavering confidence. To make this fully effective, we often personalize the passage we quote, making any grammatical changes needed to apply it personally to ourselves. For instance, where the Bible says, ?you,? we change it to ?I? or ?we.?* *The second step is to accept the Scripture we have proclaimed as true, even before we see its actual outworking in any situation. The natural result of this is to THANK God for it.* *This leads logically to the third step: loud, jubilant PRAISE. In Song of Solomon 6:4, Solomon depicts Christ?s Bride, the Church, as ?awesome as an army with banners.? Under these three banners - PROCLAMATION, PRAISE, THANKSGIVING - we have been able to drive out the hosts of darkness and enter into the freedom which God has appointed for as His believing people.* *The scriptural proclamations in this booklet have been tested and tried in our own experience. The passages we have memorized have been taken from the particular version that the Holy Spirit has made ?alive? to us. Unless otherwise indicated, this is The New King James. Where we have felt it appropriate to make significant changes in the wording, this has been indicated by an asterisk (*).* *At the end, there are three comprehensive proclamations which are ?special favorites? of ours. To receive the maximum benefit for these Scriptures, here are three simple steps to follow:* *1. Ask the Holy Spirit to make ?alive? to you the special Scriptures which are appropriate to your particular situation.* *2. Read these Scripture through many times - out loud if possible.* *3. Gradually proceed from reading aloud to systematic memorization. This is a natural step. The Hebrew expression for ?to learn by heart? is ?to learn by mouth.? As you read the words aloud, they gradually become imprinted on your memory.* *After a while, you will probably find other Scriptures, which the Holy Spirit makes ?alive? for you in a special way. * *Here is an example under ?Health and Strength? - ?I can do all things through the One who * *empowers** me within.? - Philippians 4:13.* ?*Spiritual Conflict? - ?No weapon that is formed against us shall prosper; and every tongue which rises against us in judgment we do condemn. This is our heritage as servants of the Lord, and our righteousness is from You O Lord of hosts.? - Isaiah 54:17, KJV* ?*Serving God? - ?And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.? - Matthew 24:14.* ?*THE EXCHANGE MADE AT THE CROSS?* *Jesus was punished* *that we might be forgiven. Isaiah 53:4-5* *Jesus was wounded* *that we might be healed. Isaiah 53:4-5* *Jesus was made sin with our sinfulness* *that we might be made righteous with His righteousness. Isaiah 53:10, 2 COR 5:21* *Jesus died our death* *that we might receive His life. Hebrews 2:9* *Jesus was made a curse* *that we might enter into the blessing. Galatians 3:13-14* *Jesus endured our poverty* *that we might share His abundance. 2 Corinthians 8:9, 9:8* *Jesus bore our shame* *that we might share His glory. Matthew 27:35-36; Hebrews 12:2; 2:9* *Jesus endured our rejection* *that we might have His acceptance with the Father. MATT 27:46-51; EPH 1:5-6 * *Jesus was cut off by death* *that we might be joined to God eternally. Isaiah 53:8; 1 Corinthians 6:17* *Our old man was put to death in Him* *that the new man might come to life in us. Romans 6:6; Colossians 3:9-10* *Ruth and I pray that these Scriptures will do as much for you as they have done for us.* *Much of the above plus more - can be found under ?The Power of Proclamation? on ?Derek Prince you tube?. I heartily recommend your listening to this challenge. Scores of other video messages by Derek are also here. * *NOTE**: I have just received an unusual offer made known to me by a friend. It is an update upon the above booklet referred to, and concerns a ?Daily Devotional of Proclamations? by Derek Prince. This has been prepared five years following Derek?s Home-going by the Derek Prince Ministries. I have made this offer known to first a small group, then a larger one, and now I felt my whole mailing list ought to know of this unusual offer. Four have already availed themselves of it.* *I am enclosing the notice on this that was sent to me. I trust many of you will avail yourselves of this generous and free offer. It is perhaps of the over 50 books authored by Derek - the very basis of all his teachings. Your friend - Jim Watt* *Anyone familiar with the ministry of Derek Prince would be aware that one of his most regular practices was to apply the Word of God by personalizing it?and then make proclamations based on the Scriptures cited.* *In 2008, the International Publishing Team of Derek Prince Ministries compiled and published the book Declaring God?s Word: A 365-Day Devotional, distributed through Whitaker House Publishers. As a foundation, we used Derek Prince?s proclamations?ones like: ?I overcome Satan by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of my testimony and I love not my life to the death??taken from Revelation 12:11. Using just this one line of proclamation, we would then search out seven segments of Derek?s teachings centered on that principle, so that the proclamation could be made for a full week to have its greatest impact. Our team selected a different proclamation of Derek?s for each of the fifty-two weeks in the year, drawing from the extensive collection of his teaching materials?print, audio, and video. The book that resulted from this approach provides a well-rounded glimpse into Derek?s teaching?beginning in one Scripture, then built upon with other Scriptures and through Derek?s sharing of his personal experiences. It is a wonderful tool for you to use in your daily devotions?adding the powerful component of personal proclamations that relate to your own life. We are pleased to let you know that Whitaker House Publishers is now making Declaring God?s Word available in its entirety?all 365 devotions?for FREE download to your e-book reader or computer from April 1 through 6. To avail yourself of this offer, go to one of these websites: Amazon, Barnes & Noble Nook, Christian Book Distributor eReader, and Koorong eBooks. Please make sure to take advantage of this wonderful added chance to acquaint yourself with the broad spectrum of Derek?s teaching and then apply it to your life. But don?t miss this window of opportunity for the free download! The offer is for these SIX DAYS only?April 1 through April 6, 2013. Blessings to you, **- Derek Prince Ministries?USA* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Sat Apr 6 08:43:58 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Sat, 6 Apr 2013 08:43:58 -0700 Subject: Malachi 1-2 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* April 6, 2013 *OCT 14 - MALACHI 1-2 - A PICTURE OF DARKNESS* *1. 1:2-3a (1:1-5, ESV) JEHOVAH: HIS SOVEREIGN CHOICE BY PREDESTINATION. ?I have loved you,? says the LORD. But you say, ?How have you loved us?? ?Is not Esau Jacob?s brother?? declares the Lord. ?Yet I have loved Jacob 3 but Esau I have hated.? *You are a Sovereign God, O Father, and as the Potter You do as You will with us, the clay. Your choices are hidden in the mystery of Your will and purposes. Your ways are past finding out. This is the nature of Your eternal Kingdom. We do not always understand, but we do trust You implicitly, without reservation. *Hallowed be your :name!* *2. 1:6 (1:6-10) PRIESTS: DISHONOR JEHOVAH?S NAME. ?A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is my fear? says the LORD of hosts to you, O priests, who despise my name. But you say, ?How have we despised your name?? *Shame on us Father, that we too pollute Your Name. So often we as leaders are guilty of this. We would offer You *our best*! *Your :kingdom come!* *3. 1:11 (1:11-14) PRIESTS: OFFERINGS OF HYPOCRISY AND CORRUPTION. ?For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering. For my name will be great among the nations, says the LORD of hosts.? *There is no name like Your Name in all the earth, Father! To give inferior and unacceptable gifts unto You, dishonors Your great Name! Pure praise and worship glorifies You. Where required, we amend our ways! *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.* *4. 2:6 (2:1-9) PRIESTS: JUDGMENT OF JEHOVAH UPON THEM. ?True instruction was in his mouth, and no wrong was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many from iniquity.? *In the beginning Levi was jealous for Your Name, O great Jehovah Father. But he departed from this carefulness. Eli is a picture of the contrast with Phineas (Numbers 25:10-13). O forgive us wherein we have walked carelessly like Eli. *Our :daily :bread Give us this day.* *5. 2:10 (2:10-13) JUDAH: SINS OF THE PEOPLE. ?Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us? Why then are we faithless to one another, profaning the covenant of our fathers?? *Friendship with the world is * fornication* against God! Father forgive us for letting this enmity against You enter our hearts and churches. Help us discern the enemy?s devices. *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our debtors!* *6. 2:14-15 (2:14-16) JUDAH: SIN OF DIVORCE AMONG MEN. But you say, ?Why does he not?? Because the LORD was witness between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant. 15 Did he not make them one, with a portion of the Spirit in their union? And what was the one God seeking? Godly offspring. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and let none of you be faithless to the wife of your youth.? *Father guard us from this ungodly sin. *And bring us not into temptation.* *7. 2:17. JUDAH: SIN OF HARD WORDS AGAINST JEHOVAH. You have wearied the LORD with your words. But you say, ?How have we wearied him?? By saying, ?Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and he delights in them.? Or by asking, ?Where is the God of justice?? *These are not words of Your Kingdom, Father: but Righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. *But deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE**: 2:16 (2:14-16) DIVORCE: HATED BY JEHOVAH. **?For the man who does not love his wife but divorces her, says the LORD, the God of Israel, covers his garment with violence, says the LORD of hosts. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not be faithless.? *Divorce - apart from fornication or an unbeliever leaving - verboten! *Quote by Thomas Reade - *When the Gospel was preached in these first ages of the Church, it was revealed to the hearts and consciences of sinner with great power. They deferred not their repentance one day. *Our Psalm for the Day: 104:33-34 (104) O LORD MY GOD, YOU ARE VERY GREAT. ?I will sing to the LORD as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have being. 34 May my meditation be pleasing to him, for I rejoice in the LORD.? *Father, we consider Your great creation; then all Your acts and deeds; then we meditate upon You and Your ways. As we rest in contemplation upon You, our hearts are awed! The poem contains a complete cosmos: sea and land, cloud and sunlight, plant and animal, light and darkness, life and death, are all proved to be expressive of the presence of the Lord. Traces of the six days of creation are very evident, and though the creation of man, which was the crowning work of the sixth day, is not mentioned,m this is accounted for from the fact that man is himself the singer. It is a poet?s version of Genesis. We have no information as to the author, but the Septuagint assigns it to David, and we see no reason for ascribing it to anyone else. His spirit, style, and manner of writing are very manifest therein, and if the Psalm must be ascribed to another, it must be to a mind remarkably similar, and we could only suggest the wise son of David - Solomon, the poet-preacher, to whose notes upon natural history in the Provers some of the verses bear a striking likeness. 104:1. *Bless the Lord, O my soul. *This Psalm begins and ends like the Hundred and Third. When we magnify the Lord, let us do it heartily:? our best is far beneath His worthiness; let us not dishonor Him by rendering to Him half-hearted worship. *O Lord my God, You are very great. *God was great on Sinai, yet the opening words of His law were, ?I am the Lord your God?; His greatness is no reason why faith should not put in her claim and call Him all her own. It is not ?the universe is very great!? but, ?You are very great.? Many stay at the creature, and so become idolatrous in spirit; to pass onward to the Creator Himself is true wisdom. 104:4. *Who makes His angels spirits. *God is a Spirit, and He is waited upon by spirits in His royal courts. Angels are like winds for mystery, force, and invisibility, and no doubt the winds themselves are often the angels, or messengers of God. *His ministers a flaming fire.* That the passage refers to angels, is clear from Hebrews 1:7; and it was most proper to mention them here in connection with light and the heavens, and immediately after the robes and palace of the Great King. 104:9. *You have set a bound that they may not pass over; that they turn not again to cover the earth.* That bound has once been passed, but it shall never be so again. The deluge was caused by the suspension of the divine mandate which held the floods in check: they knew their old supremacy and hastened to reassert it, but now the covenant promise forever prevents a return of that revolt of the waves. Jehovah?s Word bounds the ocean, using only a narrow belt of sand to confine it to its own limits: that apparently feeble restraint answers every purpose, for the sea is obedient as a little child to the bidding of its Maker. Destruction lies asleep in the bed of the ocean, and though our sins might well arouse it, yet are its bands made strong by covenant mercy, so that it cannot break loose again upon the guilty sons of men. 104:16. *The trees of the Lord are full of sap; the cedars of Lebanon, which He has planted. *The trees uncared for by man are yet so full of sap, we may rest assured that the people of God who by faith live upon the Lord alone shall be equally well sustained. Planted by grace, and owing all to our heavenly Father?s care, we may defy the hurricane and laugh at the fear of drought, for none that trust in Him shall ever be left unwatered. 194L28. *You take away their breath, they die, and return to their dust. *Note here that death is caused by the act of God, ?You take away their breath?; we are immortal till He bids us die, and so are even the little sparrows, who fall not to the ground without our Father. 104:34. *My meditation of Him shall be sweet. *Meditation is the soul of religion. It is the tree of life in the midst of the garden of piety, and very refreshing is its fruit to the soul which feeds thereon. *(From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Sun Apr 7 09:29:10 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Sun, 7 Apr 2013 09:29:10 -0700 Subject: Malachi 3-4 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* April 7, 2013 *OCT 15 - MALACHI 3-4 - A PICTURE OF LIGHT* *1. 3:1 (3:1-3, ESV) MESSIAH?S FIRST AND SECOND COMING. ?Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts.? *Your ways Father, are *sudden*. Restoration of Passover was this way (2 Chronicles 29:36 ). Pentecost was this way (Acts 2:4) Now comes Your visible Kingdom suddenly through Christ, and the Feast of Tabernacles Harvest! *Hallowed be your :name!* *2. 3:6 (3:4-6) JEHOVAH: RESTORES AND PURGES ISRAEL. ?For I the LORD do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed. *You do not reward us according to our desserts, O Jehovah Father! In wrath You remember mercy. Your longsuffering protects us. Intercessions of a Moses preserve us. *Your :kingdom come.* *3. 3:10 (3:7-12) JEHOVAH: REBUKES ISRAEL FOR TITHE FAILURE. ?Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the LORD of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.? *If under Old Covenant Israel tithed, *how much more* should the Church, the One New Man - do today under the Covenant of Grace! Grace from the Holy Spirit is more powerful than the rules and laws of the Old Testament. *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth!* *4. 3:13-14 (3:13-15) JEHOVAH REBUKES ISRAEL FOR VAIN WORDS. ?Your words have been hard against me, says the LORD. But you say, ?How have we spoken against you?? 14 You have said, ?It is vain to serve God. What is the profit of our keeping his charge or of walking as in mourning before the LORD of hosts?? *But this is false reasoning. Forgive us Father our sins, if we like Israel have let such thoughts lodge in our minds. *Our :daily :bread Give us this day.* *5. 3:16 (3:16-18) JEHOVAH: DESCRIBES HIS RIGHTEOUS PEOPLE. ?Then those who feared the LORD spoke with one another. The LORD paid attention and heard them, and a book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the LORD and esteemed his name.? *Blessed be Your Name Father, for such a word of comfort and consolation! You are the God Who is with us in hours of testing. *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 4:2 (4:1-3) JEHOVAH: FORETELLS JUDGMENT AND BLESSING. ?But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall.? *Final victory comes from *You*, Father! You in Christ will eventually overthrow Satan. We?ve read it in Your Book, *our* Rod of Moses! *And bring us not into temptation!* *7. 4:5-6 (4:4-6) JEHOVAH: REMINDER OF MOSES AND ELIJAH. ?Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. 6 And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of destruction.? *What a reconciliation! We rejoice in this powerful promise from You, Father! *But deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE**: 3:2-3 (3:1-3) **CHRIST: HIS WORK AT HIS COMING! ?But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner?s fire and like fullers? soap. 3 He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the LORD.? *Lord Jesus, we submit to Your purging ministry, for we are a Kingdom of priests, after the order of Levi. *Quote from Thomas Jefferson, Declaration of Independence - *We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights; that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. *Our Psalm for the Day: 105:8-10 (105) TELL OF ALL HIS WONDERFUL WORKS. ?He remembers his covenant forever, the word that he commanded, for a thousand generations, 6 the covenant that he made with Abraham, his sworn promise to Isaac, 10 which he confirmed to Jacob as a statute, to Israel as an everlasting covenant.? *For Your Covenant Father, we *Hallow your :name!* This historical Psalm was evidently composed by King David, for the first fifteen verses of it were used as a hymn at the carrying up of the ark from the house of Obed-edom, and we read in 1 Chron. 16:7, ?Then on that day David delivered first this Psalm to thank the Lord, into the hand of Asaph and his brethren.? Our last Psalm sang the opening chapters of Genesis, and this takes up its closing chapters and conducts us into Exodus and Numbers. We are now among the long Psalms, as at other times we have been among the short ones. These varying lengths of the sacred poems should teach us not to lay down any law either of brevity of prolixity in either prayer or praise. 105:5. *Seek the Lord, and his strength: seek his face evermore.* First we seek Him, then His strength, and then His face; from the personal reverence, we pass on to the imparted power, and then to the conscious favor. This seeking must never cease - the more we know the more we must seek to know. 105:6. *O you seed of Abraham His servant, you children of Jacob His chosen. *Election is not a couch for ease, but an argument for seven-fold diligence. If God has set His choice upon us, let us aim to be choice men. 105:8. *The word which He commanded to a thousand generations. *This is only an amplification of the former statement, and serves to set before us the immutable fidelity of the Lord during the changing generations of men. His judgments are threatened upon the third and fourth generations of them that hate Him, but His love runs on forever, even to ?a thousand generations.? 105:11-12. *When they were but a few men in number; yes, very few, and strangers in it. *The blessings promised to the seed of Abraham were not dependent upon the number of his descendants or their position in this world. The covenant was made with one man, and consequently the number could never be less, and that one man was not the owner of a foot of soil in all the land, save only a cave in which to bury the dead, and therefore his seed could not have less inheritance than he. The smallness of a church, and the poverty of its members, are not barriers to the divine blessing, if it be sought earnestly by pleading the promise. Were not the apostles few, and the disciples feeble when the good work began? Neither because we are strangers and foreigners here below, as our fathers were, are we in any the more danger; we are like sheep in the midst of wolves, but the wolves cannot hurt us, for our Shepherd is near. 105:17. *He sent a man before them, even Joseph. *He was the advance guard and pioneer for the whole clan. His brethren sold him, *but God sent him*. *Who was sold for a servant. *Joseph?s journey into Egypt was not so costly as Jonah?s voyage when he paid his own fare: his free passage was provided by the Midianites, who also secured his introduction to a great officer of state by handing him over as a slave. His way to a position in which he could feed his family lay through the pit, the slaver?s caravan, the slave market and the prison, and who shall deny but what it was the right way, the surest way, the wisest way, and perhaps the shortest way. Yet assuredly it seemed not so. Were we to send a man on such an errand we should furnish him with money - Joseph goes as a pauper; we should clothe him with authority - Joseph goes as a slave; we should leave him a full liberty - Joseph is a bondman: yet money would have been of little use when corn was so dear, authority would have been irritating rather than influential with Pharaoh, and freedom might not have thrown Joseph into connection with Pharaoh?s captain and his other servants, and so the knowledge of his skill in interpretation might not have reached the monarch?s ear. God?s way is the way. Our Lord?s path to His mediatorial throne ran by the cross of Calvary; our road to glory runs by the rivers of grief. 105:37. *And there was not one feeble person among all their tribes. *A great marvel indeed. The number of their army was very great, and yet there was not one in hospital, not one carried in an ambulance or limping in the rear. Poverty and oppression had not enfeebled them. Jehovah Rophi had healed them; they carried none of the diseases of Egypt with them, and felt none of the exhaustion which sore bondage produces. When God calls His people to a long journey, He fits them for it; in the pilgrimage of life, our strength shall be equal to our day. See the contrast between Egypt and Israel - in Egypt one dead in every house, and among the Israelites not one so much as limping. *(From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Mon Apr 8 14:05:45 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Mon, 8 Apr 2013 14:05:45 -0700 Subject: Job 1-2 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* April 8, 2013 *OCT 16 - JOB 1-2 - PROLOGUE* *1. 1:1 (1:1-5) JOB: HIS HISTORICAL BACKGROUND. ?There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil.? *What a testimony You give Your servant Job, Father! Righteousness in Your Kingdom is written all over him. May we too experience the peace and joy of Your Kingdom, even in greater measure than Job! *Hallowed be your :name!* *2. 1:8 (1:6-11) JOB: DISCUSSED BY JEHOVAH AND SATAN. And the LORD said to Satan, ?Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?? *O that you could boast to Satan for each one of us as You did with Job, Father! And Satan could not refute Your boast, Father! *Your :kingdom come!* *3. 1:12 (1:12-19) JOB: TURNED OVER TO SATAN WITH LIMITATIONS. And the LORD said to Satan, ?Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand.? So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD.? *With God there are no second causes. You Father, will either *do * it, or *permit* it! For Your Glory You permitted Satan to test Job. This cannot happen to *any* of us apart from Your permission. *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.* *4. 1:20-22. JOB: JUSTIFIES GOD?S CONFIDENCE IN HIM. ?Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. 21 And he said, ?Naked I came from my mother?s womb, and naked shall I return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.? 22 In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.? *O forgive us Father, for falling short of this magnificent example of Job! And to think he was entirely ignorant concerning this contest. Help us, Father. We would say, We do not always understand You, but we will *always* trust You! *Our :daily :bread Give us this day.* *5. 2:3 (2:1-8) JOB: TESTED BY SATAN MORE SEVERELY. And the LORD said to Satan, ?Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil? He still holds fast his integrity, although you incited me against him to destroy him without cause.? *Father, You were with Job in his first testing, and he vindicated Your trust in him! We too would be faithful to You in the times of darkness of soul, when we must walk entirely by faith! *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors!* *6. 2:9-10. JOB: RETAINS INTEGRITY IN THIS AND WITH WIFE. Then his wife said to him, ?Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die.? 10 But he said to her, ?You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?? In all this Job did not sin with his lips. *It is through chastisement that we may draw most closely to You, Father. Job chose to submit himself to Your inscrutable ways, and *realize* Your Kingdom! Through this he experienced Your *double portion*! *And bring us not into temptation!* *7. 2:11 (2:11-13) JOB: MOURNED OVER BY THREE FRIENDS. ?Now when Job?s three friends heard of all this evil that had come upon him, they came each from his own place, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. They made an appointment together to come to show him sympathy and comfort him.? *Their motives were good; their reactions were terrible. Father, give us comforters, *impregnated with Your Kingdom principles*! *But deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE**: 1:9-11 (1:6-11) JOB: NOT UNDERSTOOD BY SATAN! **Then Satan answered the LORD and said, ?Does Job fear God for no good reason? 10 Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. 11 But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.? * *Quote by Patrick Henry, Speech - *Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but, as for me, give me liberty, or give me death! *Our Psalm for the Day: 106:13-15 (106) GIVE THANKS TO THE LORD, FOR HE IS GOOD. ?But they soon forgot his works; they did not wait for his counsel. 14 But they had a wanton craving in the wilderness, and put God to the test in the desert; 15 he gave them what they asked, but sent a wasting disease among them.? *Forgive us Father, for our carnal ways! We suffer leanness of soul because of our lust. But we bless You for tempering Your wrath with * mercy*! This Psalm begins and ends with ?hallelujah? - ?Praise ye the Lord.? the space between these two descriptions of praise is filled up with the mournful details of Israel?s sin and the extraordinary patience of God; and truly we do well to bless the Lord both at the beginning and the end of our meditations when sin and grace are the themes. It was probably written by David - at any rate its first and last two verses are to be found in the sacred song which David delivered to Asaph when he brought up the ark of the Lord (1 Chronicles 16:34-36). While we are studying this holy Psalm, let us all along see ourselves in the Lord?s ancient people, and bemoan our own provocations of the Most High, at the same time admiring His infinite patience and adoring Him because of it. May the Holy Spirit sanctify it to the promotion of humility and gratitude. 106:1. *Praise ye the Lord. *If David were present in churches when quartets and choirs carry on all the singing, he would turn to the congregation and say, ?Praise *ye* the Lord.? Our meditation dwells upon human sin; but on all occasions and in all occupations, it is seasonable and profitable to praise the Lord. *O give thanks unto the Lord; for He is good.* To us needy creatures, the goodness of God is the first attribute which excites praise, and that praise takes the form of gratitude. 106:6. *We have sinned with our fathers. *Here begins a long and particular confession. Confession of sin is the readiest way to secure an answer to the prayer of verse 4; God visits with His salvation the soul which acknowledges its need of a Savior. Men may be said to have sinned with their fathers when they imitate them, when they follow the same objects, and make their own lives to be mere continuations of the follies of their sires. Moreover, Israel was but one nation in all time, and the confession which follows sets forth the national rather than the personal sin of the Lord?s people. They enjoyed national privileges, and therefore they shared in national guilt. *We have committed iniquity, we have done wickedly.* Thus is the confession repeated three times in token of the sincerity and heartiness of it. Sins of omission, commission, and rebellion we ought to acknowledge under distinct heads, that we may show a due sense of the number and heinousness of our offenses. 106:15. *But sent leanness into their soul. *Ah, that ?but?; It embittered all. The meat was poison to them when it came without a blessing; whatever it might do in fattening the body, it was poor stuff when it made the soul lean. How earnestly might Israel have unprayed her prayers had she known what would come with their answer! The prayers of lust will have to be wept over. We fret and fume till we have our desire, and then we have to fret still more because the attainment of it ends in bitter disappointment. 106:17. *The earth opened and swallowed up Dathan, and covered the company of Abiram. *Moses had opened the sea for their deliverance, and now that they provoke him, the earth opens for their destruction. It was time that the nakedness of their sins was covered and that the earth should open her mouth to devour those who opened their mouths against the Lord and His servants. 106:24. *They believed not His word. **This is the root sin*. If we do not believe the Lord?s Word, we shall think lightly of His promised gifts. ?They could not enter in because of unbelief? - this was the key which turned the lock against them. When pilgrims to the Celestial City begin to doubt the Lord of the way, they soon come to think little of the rest of the journey?s end, and this is the surest way to make them bad travelers. Israel?s unbelief demanded spies to see the land; the report of those spies was of a mingled character, and so a fresh crop of unbelief sprang up with consequences most deplorable. 106:30. *Then stood up Phineas, and executed judgments and so the plague was stayed.* His honest spirit could not endure that lewdness should be publicly practiced at a time when a fast had been proclaimed. Such daring defiance of God and of all law he could not brook and so with his sharp javelin, he transfixed two guilty ones in the very act. It was a holy passion which inflamed him, and no enmity to either of the persons whom he slew. 106:31. *And that was counted unto him for righteousness unto all generations forevermore. *He was impelled by motives so pure that what would otherwise have been a deed of blood was justified in the sight of God; nay, more, was made the evidence that Phineas was righteous. No personal ambition, or private revenge, or selfish passion, or even fanatical bigotry, inspire the man of God, but *zeal* for God, indignation at open filthiness, and true patriotism urged him on. 106:44. *Nevertheless He regarded their affliction, when He heard their cry.* His fiercest wrath towards His own people is only a temporary flame, but His love burns on forever like the light of His own immortality. *From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Tue Apr 9 14:31:31 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Tue, 9 Apr 2013 14:31:31 -0700 Subject: Job 3 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* April 9, 2013 *OCT 17 - JOB 3 - OPENING LAMENTATION* *1. 3:1 (ESV). JOB: CURSES HIS BIRTH DAY. ?After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth.? *Father, we will not judge Job in this, nor follow his example. We do not know what we would be tempted to do if we were in his position. Maligning comes naturally to us when we are in deep throes of testing. *Hallowed be your :name.* *2. 3:2-3 (3:2-10) JOB: ENLARGES ON THIS. And Job said, 3 ?Let the day perish on which I was born, and the night that said, ?A man is conceived.?? *Again we hear Job, Father, yet we refuse to follow at this time. The bitterness of unfathomable testing was upon him. Did his friends truly understand his situation? *Your :kingdom come!* *3. 3:11, 16 (3:11-16) JOB: LAMENTS HIS INFANCY. ?Why did I not die at birth, come out from the womb and expire? 16 Or why was I not as a hidden stillborn child, as infants who never see the light?? *O the bitterness of mysterious suffering! How ill it becomes us to judge those in the throes of it! *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth!* *4. 3:17. JOB: THE STATE OF DEATH. ?There the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary are at rest.? *Righteous and wicked alike are at rest in death: or at least so Job thought! Forgive us Father, for concluding that which is beyond our understanding. How easy to surmise and reason from imperfect understanding! *Our :daily :bread Give us this day!* *5. 3:18-19. JOB: THE COMMON STATE OF ALL IN DEATH. ?There the prisoners are at ease together; they hear not the voice of the taskmaster. 19 The small and the great are there, and the slave is free from his master.? *Father, remind us of Abraham and Lazarus in Sheol (Hades). Job did not have perfect understanding of this. The righteous in suffering, is better off than the wicked in blessing (Psalm 73). *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 3:23-24 (3:20-24) JOB: LAMENTS ALL MANHOOD. ?Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in? 24 For my sighing comes instead of my bread, and my groanings are poured out like water.? *No chastisement for the present is pleasant - but *afterwards*...! Help us Father, to live in this truth. *And bring us not into temptation.* *7. 3:25-26. JOB: HIS FEARFUL THOUGHTS FULFILLED. ?For the thing that I fear comes upon me, and what I dread befalls me. 26 I am not at ease, nor am I quiet; I have no rest, but trouble comes.? *Father, our hearts go out to Job in his trouble, and to him the *mystery* of his suffering. But our times are in Your hands! *But deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE**: **Quote from Benjamin Franklin (Remark during signing of Declaration of Independence.)* We must all hang together, else we shall all hang separately. *Our Psalm for the Day: 107:15-16; 23:24 (107) LET THE REDEEMED OF THE LORD SAY SO! ?Let them thank the LORD for his steadfast love (CHEsed), for his wondrous works to the children of man! 16 For he shatters the doors of bronze and cuts in two the bars of iron.? *Thank You Father, for this evidence of Your grace and Covenant Love! In the end, You did this for Job too! *107:23-24 ?Some went down to the sea in ships, doing business on the great waters; 24 they saw the deeds of the LORD, his wondrous works in the deep.? *Mysteries surround You like clouds, Father. But when we *pray* and * obey*, You reveal Yourself to us. O teach us the simplicity of walking with You! Teach us that through the *Atonement*, Jesus settled the ?sin? question. This is a choice song for the ?redeemed of the Lord? (Vs. 2). Although it celebrates providential deliverances, and therefore may be sung by any man whose life has been preserved in time of danger; yet under cover of this, it mainly magnifies the Lord for spiritual blessings, of which temporal favors are but types and shadows. The theme is thanksgiving and the motives for it. The construction of the Psalm is highly poetical, and merely as a composition it would be hard to find its compeer among human productions. The bards of the Bible hold no second place among the sons of song. 107:2. *Whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy. *What gratitude can suffice for a deliverance from the power of sin, death, and hell? In heaven itself there is no sweeter hymn that that whose burden, is, ?You have redeemed us unto God by Your blood.? 107:6. *Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble. *Some men will never pray till they are half-starved, and for their best interests it is far better for them to be empty and faint that to be full and stout-hearted. If hunger brings us to our knees, it is more useful to us than feasting; if thirst drives us to the fountain, it is better than the deepest draughts of worldly joys; and if fainting leads to crying, it is better than the strength of the mighty. 107:15. *Oh that men would praise the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men! *The sight of such goodness makes a right-minded man long to see the Lord duly honored, for His amazing mercy. When dungeon doors fly open and chains are snapped, who can refuse to adore the glorious goodness of the Lord? It makes the heart sick to think of such gracious mercies remaining unsung: we cannot but plead with men to remember their obligations and extol the Lord, their God. 107:24. *And His wonders in the deep. *All believers have not the same deep experience; but for wise ends, that they may do business for Him, the Lord sends some of His saints to the sea of soul-trouble, and there they see, as others do not, the wonders of divine grace. Sailing over the deeps of inward depravity, the waste waters of poverty, the billows of persecution, and the rough waves of temptation, they need God above all others, *and they find Him*! 107:39. *Again, they are diminished and brought low through oppression, affliction, and sorrow. *Trials are of various kinds; here we have three words for affliction, and there are numbers more: God has many rods, and we have many smarts, and all because we have many sins. *(From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Thu Apr 11 09:35:32 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Thu, 11 Apr 2013 09:35:32 -0700 Subject: Job 4-14 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* April 11, 2013 *OCT 18 - JOB 4-14 - FIRST TRIAD* *1. 5:26 (4-5, ESV) ELIPHAZ: APPEAL TO EXPERIENCE. ?You shall come to your grave in ripe old age, like a sheaf gathered up in its season.? *In this Eliphaz was truly prophetic concerning Job, though he badly missed Job?s true state before You, Father. Human thinking based on experience sells us short. You alone give true revelation, Father - not the pathetic conclusions of humanism. *Hallowed be your :name.* *2. 6:14-15 (6-7) JOB: PLEADS FOR TRUST. ?He who withholds kindness from a friend forsakes the fear of the Almighty. 15 My brothers are treacherous as a torrent-bed, as torrential streams that pass away.? *How sad Job?s complaint concerning his friends, their lack of understanding and lack of compassion! Father, *You alone* are our hope, even when we do not understand Your ways. *Your :kingdom come!* *3. 8:8-10 (8) BILDAD: APPEAL TO HISTORY. ?For inquire, please, of bygone ages, and consider what the fathers have searched out. 9 For we are but of yesterday and know nothing, for our days on earth are a shadow. 10 Will they not teach you and tell you and utter words out of their understanding?? *David said he was wiser than his teachers and elders because he kept Your Word, Father! So history *doesn?t do it*! *Your :will be done, as in heaven, so on earth.* *4. 9:1-2 (9-10) JOB: TRUSTS APART FROM UNDERSTANDING. Then Job answered and said: 2 ?Truly I know that it is so: But how can a man be in the right before God?? *History is just facts: Revelation of theology is practical application of facts, and that is Your domain alone, Father. In Jesus You proclaimed *justification by faith*, on the basis of *Grace alone*. Calvary was Job?s answer, not history through Bildad. *Our :daily :bread Give us this day.* *5. 11:1-2 (11) ZOPHAR: APPEAL TO REASON. Then Zophar the Naamathite answered and said: 2 ?Should a multitude of words go unanswered, and a man full of talk be judged right?* *Reason* missed the mark in coming at Job?s problem too! Only *You* Father, can look on the heart (1 Samuel 15:7). *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 12:1-2; 13:4-5 (12-13) JOB: PROVES THEIR REASON UNREASONABLE. Then Job answered and said: 2 ?No doubt you are the people, and wisdom will die with you. 13:4 As for you, you whitewash with lies; worthless physicians are you all. 5 Oh that you would keep silent, and it would be your wisdom.? *Job proved by reason that most reason is unreasonable! Father, we move to trust in You alone in the face of perplexing circumstances. *And bring us not into temptation.* *7. 14:14 (14) JOB: HIS PHILOSOPHY OF MAN. ?If a man dies, shall he live again? All the days of my service I would wait, till my renewal should come.? *Job had hope in the Resurrection of the body even in his present terrible condition! And he still trusted You Father, in his present! What an example! *But deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE**: 13:15 (12-13) JOB: A REMARKABLE CONFESSION. **?Though he slay me, I will hope in him; yet I will argue my ways to his face.? *May we take to ourselves the first part of his confession. *Quote from William McKinley - *The financial honor of this government is of too vast importance, is entirely too sacred to be the football of party politics. *Our Psalm for the Day: 108:3-5 (108) WITH GOD WE SHALL DO VALIANTLY. ?I will give thanks to you, O LORD, among the peoples; I will sing praises to you among the nations. 4 For your steadfast love (CHEsed) is great above the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the clouds. 5 Be exalted, O God, above the heavens! Let your glory be over all the earth! *Father, to David's ascription of praise, we add our Doxology: *Hallowed be your :name!* A Song, or Psalm, of David. To be sung jubilantly as a national hymn or solemnly as a sacred Psalm. We cannot find it in our heart to dismiss the Psalm by merely referring the reader first to Psalm 42:7-11 and then to Psalm 40:5-12, though it will be seen at once that those two portions of Scripture are almost identical with the verses before us. It is true that most of the commentators have done so, and we are not so presumptuous as to dispute their wisdom; but we hold for ourselves that the words would not have been repeated if there had not been an object for so doing, and that this object could not have been answered if every hearer of it had said, ?Ah, we had that before, and therefore we need not meditate upon it again.? The Holy Spirit is not so short of expressions that He needs to repeat Himself, and the repetition cannot be meant merely to fill the book: there must be some intention in the arrangement of two former divine utterances in a new connection; whether we can discover that intent is another matter. It is at least ours to endeavor to do so, and we may expect divine assistance therein. We have before us ?The Warrior?s Morning Song,? with which he adores his God and strengthens his heart before entering upon the conflicts of the day. As an old Prussian officer was wont in prayer to invoke the aid of ?his Majesty?s August Ally,? so does David appeal to his God and set up his banner in Jehovah?s name. Some expressions are so admirable that they ought to be used again; we would throw away a cup because he drank from it before? God should be served with the best words, and when we have them, they are surely good enough to be used twice. To use the same words continually and never utter a new song would show great slothfulness and would lead to dead formalism, but we need not regard novelty of language as at all essential to devotion, nor strain after it as an urgent necessity. 108:1. *Even with my glory. *With my intellect, my tongue, my poetic faculty, my musical skill, or whatever else causes me to be renowned and confers honor upon me. It is my glory to be able to speak and not to be a dumb animal, therefore my voice shall show forth Your praise; it is my glory to know God and not to be a heathen, and therefore my instructed intellect shall adore You; it is my glory to be a saint, and no more a rebel, therefore the grace I have received shall bless You; it is my glory to be immortal and not a mere brute which perishes, therefore my inmost life shall celebrate Your majesty. 108:5. *Be Thou exalted, O God, above the heavens: and Thy glory above all the earth. *Let Your praise be according to the greatness of Your mercy. Ah, if we were to measure our devotion thus, with what ardor should we sing! The whole earth with its overhanging dome would seem too scant an orchestra and all the faculties of all mankind too little for the hallelujah. Angels would be called in to aid us, and surely they would come. They will come in that day when the whole earth shall be filled with the praises of Jehovah. We long for the time when God shall be universally worshiped and His glory in the gospel shall be everywhere made known. This is a truly missionary prayer. David had none of the exclusiveness of the modern Jew or the narrow-heartedness of some nominal Christians. For God?s sake, that His glory might be everywhere revealed, he longed to see heaven and earth full of the divine praise. Amen, so let it be. 108:12. *Give us help from trouble: for vain is the help of man. *We ought to pray with all the more confidence in God when our confidence in man is altogether gone. When the help of man is vain, we shall not find it vain to seek the help of God. *(From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Fri Apr 12 13:56:50 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Fri, 12 Apr 2013 13:56:50 -0700 Subject: The Organic Laser-Telescope Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* April 12, 2013 *2013-04-12 - The Organic Laser-Telescope - 1967* *This vision came from the Lord at the request of my wife Marie. She wanted to know God?s specific thinking behind His will that led us to marry. So that like Isaac of old on behalf of his wife Rebekah and her request - I put it before the Lord.* *That night He gave me 2 visions - so vivid and real that I can still see them as clearly as 46 years ago. In the first, Marie and I were in an Observatory, with Marie on my right, and one of Derek Prince?s former members of a Seattle church on my left. The Director (who I knew was the Lord) told me: Because you have been instrumental in bringing to maturity two of these 7 ?component parts? of this instrument, you have the privilege to attend its assemblage, and then to see what it will do for Me.* *With that He pulled a lever, and a round globe covered with many dials - came and stood above the observatory floor. When I wondered how that could be, an angel behind us said,, ?Anti-gravity? . The next day I phoned the church member on my left and reported the vision to him. When he discovered I was ignorant of the ?anti-gravity? break-through, he explained that in Washington D.C. they had developed an anti-gravity device that could suspend in the air not just the 400 # of this first part, but up to 4 tons.* *The Director then informed us that this first component part represented His ?Bible Numerics? - and the NT Greek and English text through the 50-year life-work of Ivan Panin. The ?Outlined Interlinear NT? completed 70 years after Panin?s death in 1942, consummated the work begun by Panin.* *Next he pulled a second lever, and a ?pedestal? came out as a full support for the above part, representing Panin?s two-fold discovery and work. This He said, represents the restored City Church for each of the world?s cities, plus an Eldership in its Gate of some 8 members. (In the second vision He confirmed this by showing us in Canada 70 groups of Pilot Prayer Team members, with an elder over each team. (On page 9 of the ?Outlined Interlinear NT? - there is a diagram produced by two members of our Pilot Prayer Team, showing the 7 component parts of the Laser-Telescope, with a description of each.)* *The next 5 component parts that then came out to complete this instrument, He said nothing about - inasmuch as I had no direct part in bringing them to maturity. But in December 7, 2011, an intercessory prayer group in Minnesota had a break-through, 70 years following Pearl Harbor. They notified me that added revelation was about to come to me. This took place that very day in identifying the last 5 component parts of the Laser-Telescope. The 7th of these was ?Bible Meditation, linked with the ?Mercy Seat? of the Tabernacle. It would feed on the ?Outlined Interlinear NT? especially, plus areas of the OT not related directly to God?s laws for Israel under the Old Covenant. Here then are related Scriptures for each of these 7 component parts - plus a linkage with the 7 Tabernacle pieces of furniture.* *1. ?The Outlined Interlinear NT? - linked with the Brazen Altar - the right place to begin our daily devotions. Here ?we should feed on the Meritsof Calvary - through Jesus Christ our Lord!? - the 5 sacrifices of Leviticus 1-7 that Jesus there fulfilled. The whole burnt offering - His Holocaust - as a perfect servant, He did this for His Father in a human body by coming in humility to earth as a servant, and 33 years later dying on the Cross. We by identification with Christ in baptism - share His death and resurrection, and become an integral part of His Spiritual Body, the One New Man! We too can follow Him in this - Mark 8:34 and John 12:24. The ?Grain Offering? fulfills John 12:24, and we can share this with Jesus. But the next 3, only He could do for us, what we could not do for ourselves.* *Next is the ?Peace Offering?. This we have no part in, nor will we even be able to fully understand the price Christ paid to achieve this on our behalf. On the Cross (and cursed is every one who hangs on a tree) - He took the Wrath of God upon sinful humanity - upon Himself. When we put on the armor of God and come to our feet shod with the Gospel of peace - it is this part of the Gospel - that when proclaimed - frees us from the wrath of God that we, not Christ, deserved. He did this that we might share His life with the Father through all eternity. The Sin Offering by Jesus took care of the effects of Adam?s sin, that brought spiritual death upon all humanity, and later natural death. The ?Trespass Offering? also took place by Jesus on Calvary, and there He made Atonement for your personal sins and mine. Indeed then, we should daily and initially ?Feed on the Merits of Calvary?. Following is an insight by Derek Prince that clarifies this exchange:* ?*THE EXCHANGE MADE AT THE CROSS?* *You, Jesus were punished* *that we might be forgiven. Isaiah 53:4-5* *You, Jesus were wounded* *that we might be healed. Isaiah 53:4-5* *You, Jesus were made sin with our sinfulness* *that we might be made righteous with Your righteousness. Isaiah 53:10, 2 COR 5:21* *You, Jesus died our death* *that we might receive Your life. Hebrews 2:9* *You, Jesus were made a curse* *that we might enter into the blessing. Galatians 3:13-14* *You, Jesus endured our poverty* *that we might share Your abundance. 2 Corinthians 8:9, 9:8* *You, Jesus bore our shame* *that we might share Your glory. Matthew 27:35-36; Hebrews 12:2; 2:9* *You, Jesus endured our rejection* *that we might have Your acceptance with the Father. MATT 27:46-51; EPH 1:5-6* *You, Jesus were cut off by death* *that we might be joined to God eternally. Isaiah 53:8; 1 Corinthians 6:17* *Our old man was put to death in You* *that the new man might come to life in us. Romans 6:6; Colossians 3:9-10* *The above 10-fold declaration came to Derek Prince because of Matthew 24:14. He discovered that the translation ?preached? should more properly be ?proclaimed!? It should then read: ?This gospel of the Kingdom shall be proclaimed in all the world for a witness, and then shall the end come. We are more effective when we both preach and proclaim!* *2. The City Church and its Eldership in the Gate. One can link this with the ?Laver?. Here the priests (and we are a Kingdom of Priests!) maintained a continual cleansing from that which would defile and hinder. Repentance from dead works comes at the Brazen Altar, and this is deepened at the Laver. See Matthew 16:18 for a linkage with this in the City Church. ?I will build My Church, and the Gates (counsels) of hell shall not prevail against it. See Acts 13:1-3 and 15 as corroboration!* *3. **Prayer **Multiplication**: Pastor Ern Baxter developed an illustration for this. When we as individuals link up with God on His throne through ?Covenant? faith and submission, our lives take on increasing effectiveness from 10 - 100 - 1000 - 10,000 fold! When two of us unite in prayer under the leadership of the Holy Spirit - then this increases 10-fold. See Deuteronomy 32:30; Ecclesiastes 4:9-12; Matthew 18:19 and Zechariah 12:8. My wife Marie and I have seen this operate in behalf of our Clans and Households in remarkable salvation (Acts 16:31).* *I link this with the Menorah in the Holy Place. Here the Holy Spirit represented by the 7 lamps, lifts us by faith into a dimension that follows repentance and baptism by immersion: **then** comes the Gift (d**o**-reA) of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38). **We can sing here - ?We live by the Spirit who dwells within - through You, Christ Jesus our Lord!? **Following that immediately come the Gifts of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:8-11), which God uses as His confirmation when we proclaim the Gospel of the Kingdom (Mark 16:17-20).* *See Acts 1:8 how this takes place. ?But you shall receive **power**(DUna-mis), when the Holy Spirit comes **upon** (Epi) you, and you shall be witnesses unto Me!? **We receive the New Birth at conversion: at that time the Holy Spirit comes **into** (eis) us - so that He may abide **in** (en) us. But in Acts 1:8, the Holy Spirit comes **upon** (Epi) us - and this is when God can then confirm our ** proclamations** with signs following (Mark 16:17-20).* *4. **The ?12 Embryonic Revival Principles** that came together in 1948, I link with the Tabernacle ?Table of Bread,? with its 12 loaves representing the 12 tribes of Israel. Acts 2:42 basically summarizes these 12 principles in 4: ?And they were continuing steadfastly in the **teaching** and the ** fellowship** of the apostles, **the breaking of bread** and **the prayers**. See our Website and click on ?Embryonics? for more on this.* *5. **Worship and Intercession** - can be linked with the Tabernacle ?Altar of Incense?. ?Rees Howells, Intercessor? by Norman P. Grubb gives an insight into **true** Biblical Intercession - that can transform the life of anyone who aspires to be a fully God-pleasing intercessor. See Psalm 40:18 for a means to open one up to Intercession through **Worship** first: ?Let all those who seek You rejoice and be glad in You! Let all those who love Your salvation say continually - the LORD be magnified - be magnified - be magnified - Let all those who seek You rejoice and be glad in You!? Amy Hong Sit put this verse to the tune of the major them**e** of Brahm?s First Symphony.* *Andrew Murray joins with Rees Howells in demonstrating this 2-fold ministry, which all of **us **have the privilege of entering into.* *6. **Focus on Jesus**. This is an absolute Key to seeing all the 7 component parts work together effectively and in unity. Hudson Taylor?s Spiritual Secret? by Mrs. Howard Taylor marvelously shows an example of this. Charles Spurgeon and George Muller also wa**l**ked with Jesus in this spirit. I link this with the Tabernacle ?Ark of the Covenant?. The Law (Torah) is within the Ark. Jesus and His **Word** are **one** (John 1:1) - ?and the Word **was** God!? **When we rejoice in God?s Word, and act upon it in obedience - we are in truth glorifying Jesus! See Matthew 23:37-38 how Jesus desires to be recognized, believed on, and accepted. Then Matthew 11:28-30 takes place! Few in Jesus ?first coming? received Him this way. Nationally by leaders, He was rejected. And - He will not return until His people repent and say - ?Blessed is **He** that comes - in the Name of Jehovah!? And - it is good for us also to say - ?Blessed is He who **came**(2000 years ago) in the Name of Jehovah!? **Brother Yun, the Heavenly Man also walked this way, focusing on **Jesus**! * *7. **Biblical Meditation**. **This** is in diametrical contrast to New Age meditation; Eastern meditation; Yoga meditation. These latter invite in demonic powers. Biblical Meditation in contrast - invites in the fullness of the Spirit of God. To use the ?Outlined Interlinear NT? for daily Meditation, will be a great help. Also, to go on the ?net? under ?Derek Prince you tube? will introduce you to over 200 teaching messages by Derek that will aid in this endeavor. See especially his teaching on ?Prayer and PROCLAMATION**S?**. Positive Proclamation of God?s Word adds **much** to ** preaching**.* *I link Bible Meditation with the Tabernacle ?Mercy Seat?. The Cross is now **empty**. The crucifix doesn?t show this correctly. Jesus is on the Throne of heaven at the right hand of the Father. We are not to camp around the empty cross or crucifix - ?We are to camp round the Throne of God?s heaven above - through **You** Christ Jesus our Lord!? And as we meditate there on Your Word - we sing Psalm 19:14 - ?Let the words of our mouth - and the ** meditation** of our heart - be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD **our strength and our Redeemer. **O LORD, our strength; and our Redeemer! Let the words of our mouth and the meditation of our heart, be acceptable in Your sight, Ye-h**o**VAH!?* *So - when a group of 8 like our ?Pilot Prayer Team? (PPT) founded October 31, 2009 - begins to function as an ?Organic Laser-Telescope? **in the Gate of each City Church - **then** we must know - the Glorious Return of our Glorious Lord is at hand. For when the above functions, then Jesus can use us as **His** ?Organic Laser-Telescope?, and blast principalities and powers of Satan from over cities, regions and nations. At Christ?s return - **all nations** and all Kingdoms - shall become the Kingdoms of our Lord and **of **His Christ**!* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Sat Apr 13 14:54:07 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Sat, 13 Apr 2013 14:54:07 -0700 Subject: Job 15-21 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* April 13, 2013 *OCT 19 - JOB 15-21 - SECOND TRIAD* *1. 15:11 (15, ESV) ELIPHAZ: EXPOSES JOB THROUGH TRADITION. ?Are the comforts of God too small for you, or the word that deals gently with you?? *In Your Kingdom Father, both tares and wheat continue together unto the end, the harvest. Eliphaz insinuated sin in Job: secret sin, pride and arrogance. He sought to prove it by tradition. But Father, vindicate the righteous today as You did in Job?s day! *Hallowed be your :name.* *2. 16:1-2 (16-17) JOB: REPROVES HIS MISERABLE COMFORTERS. Then Job answered and said: 2 ?I have heard many such things; miserable comforters are you all.? *Job felt himself hopeless in the light of his circumstances and false comforters. O Father, give us merciful hearts toward the afflicted! Let us bring them true comfort. *Your :kingdom come.* *3. 18:1-3 (18) BILDAD: EXPOSES JOB THROUGH THE PAST. Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said: 2 ?How long will you hunt for words? Consider, and then we will speak. 3 Why are we counted as cattle? Why are we stupid in your sight?? *These are terrible words of false comfort. Let us not have such a hard insensitive heart, Father! *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.* *4. 19:25-27 (19) JOB: APPEALS TO HIS FRIENDS FOR PITY. ?For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. 26 And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, 27 whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints with me!? *One of the most sublime statements ever uttered by man! And out of what circumstances! O Father, forgive us for falling so far short of our potential and possibilities. We like Job would glorify You in the midst of temptation?s hour. *Our :daily :bread Give us this day.* *5. 20:1-2 (20) ZOPHAR HASTENS TO USE REASON AGAINST JOB. Then Zophar the Naamathite answered and said: ?Therefore my thoughts answer me, because of my haste within me.? *Who needs enemies, when he has such friends! What bitter enmity is here spewed forth! It is incredible that man can be so blind, unfeeling and cruel. O Father, be with us in temptation?s hour, when we might be tempted to act like Job?s false comforters. *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 21:1-3 (21:1-26) JOB: APPEALS FOR REASONABLENESS. Then Job answered and said: 2 ?Keep listening to my words, and this be your comfort. 3 Bear with me, and I will speak, and after I have spoken, mock on.? *Mockery! That?s what Job sensed he was receiving from his friends. How sad that when we need comfort, we so often receive abuse. But *You* are not this way, Father. *You* are the God of all comfort. *And bring us not into temptation. * *7. 21:34 (21:27-34) JOB: APPEALS FOR JUSTICE FROM HIS FRIENDS. ?How then will you comfort me with empty nothings? There is nothing left of your answers but falsehood.? *How can a man of falsehood comfort a man of righteousness? Impossible! But *You* Father, do *all* things well! *But deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE**: 19:20-22 (19) JOB: HIS PITEOUS REQUEST. **?My bones stick to my skin and to my flesh, and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth. 21 Have mercy on me, have mercy on me, O you my friends, for the hand of God has touched me! 22 Why do you, like God, pursue me? Why are you not satisfied with my flesh?? *O Father, our compassion yearns over Job. May we seek out the living and show pity. *Quote from Vance Havner - *?You can?t preach it like it was - if you don?t believe it like it was.? *Our Psalm for the Day: 109:4-5 (109) HELP ME, O LORD MY GOD. ?In return for my love they accuse me, but I give myself to prayer. 5 So they reward me evil for good, and hatred for my love.? *Man?s inhumanity to man, and man?s ingratitude to God! Father, we have so often despised Your lovingkindness, Your Covenant Love. Forgive us, and teach us to be grateful! (This Psalm of David ties in with the book of Job). ?*To the Chief Musician? *- intended therefore to be sung, and sung in the Temple service! Yet is it by no means easy to imagine the whole nation singing such dreadful imprecations. We ourselves, at any rate, under the gospel dispensation, find it very difficult to infuse into the Psalm a gospel sense or a sense at all compatible with the Christian spirit; and therefore one would think the Jews must have found it hard to chant such strong language without feeling the spirit of revenge excited; and the arousal of that spirit could never have been the object of divine worship in any period of time - under law or under gospel. At the very outset, this title shows that the Psalm has a meaning with which it is fitting for men of God to have fellowship before the throne of the Most High: but what is that meaning? This is a question of no small difficulty, and only a very childlike spirit will ever be able to answer it. *?A Psalm of David?* - not, therefore, the ravings of a vicious misanthrope, or the execrations of a hot, revengeful spirit. David would not smite the man who sought his blood; he frequently forgave those who treated him shamefully; and therefore these words cannot be read in a bitter, revengeful sense, for that would be foreign to the character of the son of Jesse. 109:2. *For the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful are opened against me. *The misery caused to a good man by slanderous reports no heart can imagine but that which is wounded by them: in all Satan?s armory there are no worse weapons than deceitful tongues. To have a reputation over which we have watched with daily care suddenly bespattered with the foulest aspersions is painful beyond description; but when wicked and deceitful men get their mouths fully opened, we can hardly expect to escape any more than others. 109:4. *For my love they are my adversaries. *They hate me because I love them. One of our poets says of the Lord Jesus, ?Found guilty of excess of love.? Surely it was His only fault. *But I give myself unto prayer. *He did nothing else but pray. He became prayer as they became malice. This was his answer to his enemies; he appealed from men and their injustice to the Judge of all the earth, Who must do right. True bravery alone can teach a man to leave his traducers unanswered and carry the case unto the Lord. Men cannot help but reverence the courage that walks amid calumnies unanswering. 109:13. *Let his posterity be cut off; and in the generation following let their name be blotted out.* Both from existence and from memory let them pass away till none shall know that such a vile brood ever existed. Who wishes to see the family of Domitian or Julian continued upon earth?Who would mourn if the race of Tom Paine or of Voltaire should come to an end? It would be undesirable that the sons of the utterly villainous and bloodthirsty should rise to honor, and if they did, they would only revive the memory of their father?s sins. 109:15. The passage is dark; and we musty leave it so. It must be right or it would not be here, but how, we cannot see. Why should we expect to understand all things? Perhaps it is more for our benefit to exercise humility, and reverently worship God over a hard text, than it would be to comprehend all mysteries. 109:20. Thousands of God?s people are perplexed with this Psalm, and we fear we have contributed very little towards their enlightenment, and perhaps the notes we have gathered from others, since they display such a variety of view, may only increase the difficulty. What then? Is it not good for us sometimes to be made to feel that we are not yet able to understand all the word and mind of God? A thorough bewilderment, so long as it does not stagger our faith, may be useful to us by confounding our pride, arousing our faculties, and leading us to cry, ?What I know not, teach Thou me.? 109:24. *My knees are weak through fasting. *Either religious fasting, to which he resorted in the dire extremity of grief, or else through loss of appetite occasioned by distress of mind. Who can eat when every morsel is soured by envy? This is the advantage of the slanderer, that he feels nothing himself, while his sensitive victim can scarcely eat a morsel of bread because of his sensitiveness. However, the good God knows all this and will succor His afflicted. 109:29. *Let my adversaries be clothed with shame. *It is a prophecy as well as a wish and may be read both in the indicative and the imperative. Where sin is the underclothing, shame will soon be the outer vesture. He who would clothe good men with contempt shall himself be clothed with dishonor. *(From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Mon Apr 15 12:40:39 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Mon, 15 Apr 2013 12:40:39 -0700 Subject: Job 22-37 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* April 15, 2013 * * *OCT 20 - JOB 22-37 - THIRD TRIAD* *1. 22:28 (22, ESV) ELIPHAZ: CHARGES JOB WITH HYPOCRISY. ?You will decide (decree) on a matter, and it will be established for you, and light will shine on your ways.? *This is a wicked, unfeeling surmising. To prove a theory, lies are made up. The *decrees* are dependent upon confession of wicked acts not done! Father, forgive us for imputing false acts upon one another. *Hallowed be your :name.* *2. 23:10, 12 (23-24) JOB: APPEALS TO GOD AGAINST HIS FRIENDS. ?But he knows the way I take; when he has tried me, I shall come out as gold. 12 I have not departed from the commandment of his lips; I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my portion of food.? *Job refutes the false charges of Eliphaz. Father, when we do right by You as far as we have light, our conscience does not condemn us. *Your :kingdom come.* *3. 25:4-6 (25) BILDAD: REPUDIATES JOB?S CONTENTIONS. ?How then can man be in the right before God? How can he who is born of woman be pure? 5 Behold, even the moon is not bright, and the stars are not pure in his eyes; 6 how much less man, who is a maggot, and the son of man, who is a worm!? *This is foolish talk. You Father, in Jesus, through type, shadow and prophecy, provided for justification by faith. *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.* *4. 28:28; 31:1 (26-31) JOB: LOOKS TO GOD ALONE. And he said to man, ?Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to turn away from evil is understanding. 31:1 I have made a covenant with my eyes; how then could I gaze at a virgin?? *Father, You have designed that the fear of Jehovah tends to separate us from evil. How we bless You for Your Wisdom in this! O forgive us for glossing over Your Way of pleasing You! *Our :daily :bread Give us this day.* *5. 32:1 (32:1-5) JOB?S THREE FRIENDS CEASE. ?So these three men ceased to answer Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes.? *Man has no answer to Your deep dealing, Father. It is not in our human understanding to understand You. We see the bankruptcy of wisdom in Job? three friends. O restrain us from sinning with our lips. *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 32:19-20 (32:6-22) ELIHU: ANSWERS JOB?S THREE FRIENDS. ?Behold, my belly is like wine that has no vent; like new wineskins ready to burst. 20 I must speak, that I may find relief; I must open my lips and answer.? *Youth sometimes has more wisdom than age, yet not as perfectly as its enthusiasm! Father, put restraint upon us, that we fall not into the enemy?s devious traps. *And bring us not into temptation.* *7. 33:14-18 (33-37) ELIHU: ANSWERS JOB. ?For God speaks in one way, and in two, though man does not perceive it. 15 In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on men, while they slumber on their beds, 16 then he opens the ears of men and terrifies them with warnings, 17 that he may turn man aside from his deed and conceal pride from a man; 18 he keeps back his soul from the pit, his life from perishing by the sword.? *A good word! Give us wisdom to discern the dreams of the second heaven and void them; and those of the third heaven - and *walk in them*. *But deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE: 29:12-13 (26-31) JOB: HIS TESTIMONY OF TRUTH CONCERNING HIMSELF. ?Because I delivered the poor who cried for help, and the fatherless who had none to help him. 13 The blessing of him who was about to perish came to me, and I caused the widow?s heart to sing for joy.? *Job 29 for a man, is parallel to Proverbs 31:10-31 for a godly woman. *Quote from Vance Havner - ?*When I pastored a country church, a farmer didn?t like the sermons I preached on hell. He said, ?Preach about the meek and lowly Jesus.? I said, ?That?s where I got my information about hell.? *Our Psalm for the Day: 110:2-3 (110) SIT AT MY RIGHT HAND. ?The LORD sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter. Rule in the midst of your enemies! 3 Your people will offer themselves freely on the day of your power, in holy garments, from the womb of the morning, the dew of the youth will be yours.? *We bless You Father, for Your Sovereignty in Jesus! You rule, and do what is right in the midst of mankind! *Hallowed be your :name! * ?*A Psalm of David.? *Of the correctness of this title there can be no doubt, since our Lord in Matthew 22 says, ?How then does David in spirit call Him Lord.? Yet some critics are so fond of finding new authors for the Psalms that they dare to fly in the face of the Lord Jesus Himself. To escape from finding Jesus here, they read the title, ?Psalm of (or concerning) David,? as though it was not so much written by him as of him; but he that reads with understanding will see little enough of David here except as the writer. He is not the subject of it even in the smallest degree, but Christ is all. How much was revealed to the patriarch David. How blind are some modern wise men, even amid the present blaze of light, as compared with this poet-prophet of the darker dispensation! May the Spirit Who spoke by the man after God?s own heart, give us eyes to see the hidden mysteries of this marvelous Psalm, in which every word has an infinity of meaning. 110:1. *The Lord said unto my Lord. *How greatly should we prize the revelation of His private and solemn discourse with the Son, herein made public for the refreshing of His people! Lord, what is man that You should thus impart Your secrets to Him! *Sit Thou at My right hand, until I make Your enemies Your footstool. *Away from the shame and suffering of His earthly life, Jehovah calls the Adonai, our Lord, to the repose and honors of His celestial seat. His work is done, and He may sit; it is well done, and He may sit at His right hand; it will have grand results, and He may therefore quietly wait to see the complete victory which is certain to follow. Therefore, let us never fear as to the future. While we see our Lord and Representative sitting in quiet expectancy, we, too, may sit in the attitude of peaceful assurance and with confidence await the grand outcome of all events. 110:4. We have now reached the heart of the Psalm, which is also the very center and soul of our faith. Our Lord Jesus is a Priest-King by the ancient oath of Jehovah. There has never arisen another like to Him since His days, for whenever the kings of Judah attempted to seize the sacerdotal office, they were driven back to their confusion: God would have no king-priest save His Son. Melchizedek?s office was exceptional: none preceded or succeeded him; he comes upon the page of history mysteriously; no pedigree is given, no date of birth, or mention of death; he blesses Abraham, receives tithe, and vanishes from the scene amid honors which show that he was greater than the founder of the chosen nation. He is seen but once, and that once suffices. Aaron and his seed came and went; their imperfect sacrifice continued for many generations, because it had no finality in it and could never make the comers thereunto perfect. Our Lord Jesus, like Melchizedek, stands forth before us as a Priest of divine ordaining; not made a priest by fleshly birth, as the sons of Aaron; He mentions neither father, mother, nor descent, as His right to the sacred office; He stands upon His personal merits, by Himself alone; as no man came before Him in His work, so none can follow after; His order begins and ends in His own Person, and in Himself it is eternal, ?having neither beginning of days nor end of years.? The King-Priest has been here and left His blessing upon the believing seed, and now He sits in glory in His complete character, atoning for us by the merit of His blood and exercising all power on our behalf. 110:6. *He shall wound the heads over many nations.* The monarch of the greatest nation shall not be able to escape the sword of the Lord; nor shall that dread spiritual prince who rules over the children of disobedience be able to escape without a deadly wound. Pope and priest must fall, with Mohamed and other deceivers who are now heads of the people. Jesus must reign, and they must perish. *(From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Tue Apr 16 10:11:41 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Tue, 16 Apr 2013 10:11:41 -0700 Subject: Job 38-41 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* April 16, 2013 *OCT 21 - JOB 38-41 - GOD?S CLOSING INTERVENTION* *1. 38:1-2 (38:1-40:2, ESV) JEHOVAH?S FIRST DISCOURSE. Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind and said: 2 ?Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?? *It is our wisdom in time of fiery trial and testing to hold our peace! But Job?s comforters should have done likewise, and not provoked him with faulty reasoning. *Hallowed be your :name!* *2. 40:3-5 JOB?S REPLY TO JEHOVAH. Then Job answered the LORD and said: 4 ?Behold, I am of small account; what shall I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth. 5 I have spoken once, and I will not answer; twice, but I will proceed no further.? *Thank You Father, for the answer of Job. O in temptation?s hour, may Your will be done in us in this same manner! *Your :kingdom come.* *3. 40:6-7 (40:6-9) JEHOVAH: QUESTIONS JOB. Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind and said: 7 ?Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me.? *Father, we are but dust; we are but clay. We will not seek to instruct You as the Potter. *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.* *4. 4:10-11 (40:10-14) JEHOVAH: CHALLENGES JOB. ?Adorn yourself with majesty and dignity; clothe yourself with glory and splendor. 11 Pour out the overflowings of your anger, and look on everyone who is proud and abase him.? *O forgive us Father, for speaking out of weakness, and human perspective! Teach us to humbly wait upon You for answers for the trials of this life. *Our :daily :bread Give us this day.* *5. 40:15, 19 (40:15-24) JEHOVAH: DESCRIBES BEHEMOTH. ?Behold, Behemoth, which I made as I made you; he eats grass like an ox. 19 He is the first of the works of God; let him who made him bring near his sword!? *Your power in creation Father, is *mighty*! Restrain our lips from premature judgment. *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 41:10-11 (41:1-14) JEHOVAH: DESCRIBES LEVIATHAN. ?No one is so fierce that he dares to stir Leviathan up. Who then is he who can stand before me? 11 Who has first given to me, that I should repay him? Whatever is under the whole heaven is mine.? *You Father, are the Creator, and *infinitely*greater than Your creation. Teach us to reason wisely in these areas. *And bring us not into temptation!* *7. 41:33-34 (41:15-34) JEHOVAH: ENLARGES ON LEVIATHAN. ?On earth there is none like Leviathan, a creature without fear. 34 He sees everything that is high; he is king over all the sons of pride.? *What power You demonstrate in creation, Father! How awesome! Yes, *Yours** *is the kingdom, and the power and the glory forever! *But deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE**: 40:1-2 (38:1-40:2) JEHOVAH: ANSWERS JOB. **And the LORD said to Job: 2 ?Shall a faultfinder contend with the Almighty? He who argues with God, let him answer it.? *Here is the end of the matter. Silence in the midst of testing is our wisdom! *Quote from A.W. Tozer - *?The victorious Christian neither exalts nor downgrades himself. His interests have shifted from self to Christ. What he is or is not no longer concerns him. He believes that he has been crucified with Christ and he is not willing either to raise or deprecate such a man.? *Our Psalm for the Day: 111:9-10 (111) GREAT ARE THE LORD?S WORKS. ?He sent redemption to his people; he has commanded his covenant forever. Holy and awesome is his name! 10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding. His praise endures forever!? *We bless You Father, for this word! We commit ourselves to walk in it! *Hallowed be your :name!* There is no title to this Psalm, but it is an alphabetical hymn of praise, having for its subject the works of the Lord in creation, providence, and grace. The sweet singer dwells upon the one idea that God should be known by His people, and that this knowledge when turned into practical piety is man?s true wisdom and the certain cause of lasting adoration. Many are ignorant of what their Creator has done, and hence they are foolish in heart and silent as to the praises of God: this evil can only be removed by a remembrance of God?s works and a diligent study of them; to this, therefore, the Psalm is meant to arouse us. It may be called ?The Psalm of God?s Works,? intended to excite us to the work of praise. 111:1. *Praise ye the Lord. *All you saints, unite in adoring Jehovah, Who works so gloriously. Do it now; do it always; do it heartily; do it unanimously; do it eternally. Even if others refuse, take care that you have always a song for your God. 111:2. *The works of the Lord are great. *In design, in size, in number, in excellence, all the works of the Lord are great. Even the little things of God are great. In some point of view or other, each one of the productions of His power or the deeds of His wisdom will appear to be great to the wise in heart. 111:3. *And His righteousness endures forever. *The bearing of guilt by our great Substitute proved that not even to effect the purposes of His grace would the Lord forget His righteousness; no future strain upon His justice can ever be equal to that which it has already sustained in the bruising of His dear Son; it must henceforth assuredly endure forever. 111:9. *Redemption. Praise our Triune Jehovah for His redemption. *Write it down where you may read it. Affix it where you may see it. Engrave it on your heart that you may understand it. It is a word big with importance. In it is enfolded your destinies and those of the church to all future ages. *Holy and reverend is His name. *Well may He say this. The whole name or character of God is worthy of profoundest awe, for it is perfect and complete, whole or holy. It ought not to be spoken without solemn thought and never heard without profound homage. His name is to be trembled at; it is something terrible; even those who know Him best rejoice with trembling before Him. How good men can endure to be call ?reverend,? we know not. Being unable to discover any reason why our fellow-men should reverence us, we half suspect that in other men there is not very much which can entitle them to be called reverend, very reverend, right reverend, and so on. It may seem a trifling matter, but for that very reason we would urge that the foolish custom should be allowed to fall into disuse. 111:10. *The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do His commandments. *Practical godliness is the test of wisdom. Men may know and be very orthodox; they may talk and be very eloquent; they may speculate and be very profound; but the best proof of their intelligence must be found in their actually doing the will of the Lord. *(From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller**)* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Wed Apr 17 09:30:08 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Wed, 17 Apr 2013 09:30:08 -0700 Subject: Job 42 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* April 17, 2013 *OCT 22 - Job 42 - EPILOGUE* *1. 42:1-2 (42:1-4, ESV) JOB: HIS REPLY TO JEHOVAH. Then Job answered the LORD and said: 2 ?I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.? *O forgive us, the clay! Write on our hearts the revelation of Truth and Majesty that is in You alone! *Hallowed be your :name.* *2. 42:5-6. JOB: THE CONTRITE NATURE OF HIS REPLY. ?I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you: 6 therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.? *True revelation brings deep contrition. It produces a poor and contrite spirit (Isaiah 66:2). O let this happen to us! *Your :kingdom come!* *3. 42:7 (42:7-8) JOB: COMMANDED BY GOD TO ATONE FOR HIS FRIENDS. After the LORD had spoken to Job, the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite: ?My anger burns against you and against your two friends, for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.? *This strikes Your fear into our hearts, O great Jehovah Father! Yet in Your wrath, remember mercy. *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.* *4. 42:9. JOB: ACCEPTED BY GOD WHEN HE SACRIFICED. ?So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went and did what the LORD had told them, and the LORD accepted Job?s prayer. *What grace! What forgiveness! What unmerited favor! This is *all* of You, Gracious Father! We thank You for being what You are! Lift us from our low estimation of You, and plant our feet on higher ground! *Our :daily :bread Give us this day.* *5. 42:10 (42:10-11) JOB: HIS CAPTIVITY TURNED AND PROSPERITY RESTORED. ?And the LORD restored the fortunes of Job, when he had prayed for his friends. And the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before.? *We can scarce believe Your *abundant* graciousness, Your munificence! When we forgive like Job, we are forgiven, and blessed abundantly. *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 42:12-13. JOB: HIS PROSPERITY DOUBLED. ?And the LORD blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning. And he had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys. 13 He had also seven sons and three daughters.? *How amazing! You make it up to us Father, when temporarily You permit Satan to tempt us. Hallelujah! *And bring us not into temptation!* *7. 42:16-17 (42:14-17) JOB: HIS DAUGHTERS AND DEATH. ?And after this Job lived 140 years, and saw his sons, and his sons? sons, four generations. 17 And Job died, an old man, and full of days.? *What a fitting ending. You are not mocked, Father; whatever a man sows, that shall he also reap. *But deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE**: Quote from Benjamin Harrison: *?No material greatness, no wealth, no accumulation of splendor, is to be compared with those humble and homely virtues which have generally characterized our American homes.? *Our Psalm for the Day: 112:1-3; 9 (112) THE RIGHTEOUS WILL NEVER BE MOVED. ?Praise the LORD! Blessed is the man who fears the LORD, who greatlydelights in his commandments! 2 His offspring shall be mighty in the land; the generation of the upright will be blessed. 3 Wealth and riches are in his house, and his righteousness endures forever.? *Surely this is a picture of Job! Father, may it be true for us also! *?He has distributed freely; he has given to the poor; his righteousness endures forever; his horn is exalted in honor.? *Again true of Job; and again, may it be true of us also, Father! The Hundred and Eleventh speaks of the great Father, and this describes His children renewed after His image. The Psalm cannot be viewed as the extolling of man, for it commences with *?Praise ye the Lord,?* and it is intended to give to God all the honor of his grace which is manifested in the sons of God. 112:2. *The generation of the upright shall be blessed. *The godly may be persecuted, but they shall not be forsaken; the curses of men cannot deprive them of the blessing of God, for the words of Balaam are true, *?He has blessed, and I cannot reverse it.? *To fear God and to walk uprightly is a higher nobility than blood or birth can bestow. 112:3. *Wealth and riches shall be in his house. *If we understand the passage spiritually, it is abundantly true. What wealth can equal that of the love of God? What riches can rival a contented heart? It matters nothing that the roof is thatched and the floor is of cold stone: the heart which is cheered with the favor of heaven is ?rich to all the intents of bliss.? 112:4. *He is gracious, and full of compassion, and righteous. *This is spoken of God in the fourth verse of the Hundred and Eleventh Psalm, and now the same words are used of His servant: thus we are taught that when God makes a man upright, He makes him like Himself. 112:5. *He will guide his affairs with discretion. *Alas, some professedly good men act as if they had taken leave of their senses; this is not religion, but stupidity. True religion is sanctified common sense. Attention to the things of heaven does not necessitate the neglect of the affairs of earth; on the contrary, he who has learned how to transact business with God ought to be best able to do business with men. The children of this world often are in their generation wiser than the children of light, but there is no reason why this proverb should continue to be true. 112:9. *He has dispersed, he has given to the poor. *What he received, he distributed; and distributed to those who most needed it. He was God?s reservoir, and forth from his abundance flowed streams of liberality to supply the needy. If this be one of the marks of a man who fears the Lord, there are some who are strangely destitute of it. They are great at gathering but very slow at dispersing; they enjoy the blessedness of receiving but seldom taste the greater joy of giving. *?It is more blessed to give than to receive? *- perhaps they think that the blessing of receiving is enough for them. 112:10. The tenth and last verse sets forth very forcibly the contrast between the righteous and the ungodly, thus making the blessedness of the godly appear all the more remarkable. Usually we see Ebal and Gerizim, the blessing and the curse, set the one over against the other, to invest both with the greater solemnity. *The wicked shall see it and be grieved.* The ungodly shall first see the example of the saints to their own condemnation and shall at last behold the happiness of the godly and to the increase of their eternal misery. The child of wrath shall be obliged to witness the blessedness of the righteous, though the sight shall make him gnaw his own heart. He shall fret and fume, lament and wax angry, but he shall not be able to prevent it, for God?s blessing is sure and effectual. *(From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Thu Apr 18 09:35:58 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Thu, 18 Apr 2013 09:35:58 -0700 Subject: Hebrews 1-2 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* April 18, 2013 *OCT 23 - HEBREWS 1-2 - NEW COVENANT: SUPERIOR TO OLD* *1. 1:1-2 (1:1-4, NNT) JESUS SPEAKS FOR - AND MANIFESTS GOD. ?:God, having spoken of old to the fathers in the prophets by divers portions and in divers manners, 2 has at the end of these :days spoken to us in a Son, whom he appointed heir of all, through whom also he made the ages.? *Your Kingdom Father, is most fully manifested in Jesus! In Him we know and see You! You and Jesus are *one*! You are in Christ reconciling the world unto Yourself. *Hallowed be your :name!* *2. 1:9 (1:5-14) JESUS: EXCEEDS ALL ANGELS. ?You have loved righteousness, and hated lawlessness; Therefore :God, your :God, has anointed you With oil of gladness above your :fellows.? *See Isaiah 45:6-7. Father, *this* is what You have done for the man Christ Jesus, because of His perfect behavior in His humanity. *Your :kingdom come!* *3. 2:2-3 (2:1-4) JESUS? SALVATION: TO BE NEGLECTED AT OUR PERIL. ?For if the word spoken through angels became firm and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward; 3 how shall WE escape, if we neglect so great a salvation? which having at first been spoken through the Lord, was confirmed unto us by them that heard.?* We will *hear* this word Father, even with trembling and actions that correspond. *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.* *4. 2:9-10 (2:5-10) JESUS: PERFECTED BY SUFFERING. **?But we behold him who has been made a little lower than the angels, Jesus, because of the suffering of :death crowned with glory and honor, that by God?s grace he should taste of death for every **one**. **10 **For it became him, for whom are :all **things**, and through whom are :all **things**, in **bringing many sons into glory**, to perfect the author of their :salvation through sufferings.? *Because of this Father, You forgive us, and give us grace to forgive others. *Our :daily :bread Give us this day.* *5. 2:11-12 (2:11-13) JESUS: ONE WITH THE SANCTIFIED. **?For both the sanctifier and sanctified **are** all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren, **12 **saying, I will declare your name to my :brethren, In midst of **the **church will I sing your praise.? *See Psalm 22:22. Through His many-membered body Father, the Spirit of Christ produces for You a *Heavenly Choir*! Sanctify us for this privilege. *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 2:14-15. JESUS: DEFEATED SATAN IN THE FLESH. **?Since then the little children are sharers in blood and flesh, himself also in like manner partook of the same; that through :death he might bring to nothing him that had the power of :death, that is, the devil; **15 **and might deliver all those who from fear of death were all their :lifetime subject to bondage.? *Powerful insights here, worthy for our meditation! *And bring us not into temptation. * *7. 2:17-18 (2:16-18) JESUS: VERY MAN OF VERY MAN. **?Whence it behooved ** him** in all **things** to made like his brethren, that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the **things** pertaining to :God, to make **propitiation** for the sins of the people. **18 **For wherein himself has suffered being tempted, **he is able to help th**os**e being tempted**.? *For this Father, we magnify You for loving us so much that You sent us Your Son! *But deliver us from the evil **one!* *NOTE**: 1:3-4 (1:1-4) JESUS: A PERFECT MANIFESTATION OF THE FATHER. **?Who being the Glory?s effulgence, and **the** very image of his :substance, and upholding :all **things** by the word of his :power, when he had made purification of :sins, sat down on **the** right of the Majesty on high; **4 **having become by so much better than the angels, as he has inherited a more superior name than they.? *What more can we say? *Quote from Theodore Roosevelt: *?The country?s honor must be upheld at home and abroad.? *Our Psalm for the Day: 113:5-6 (113, ESV) WHO IS LIKE THE LORD OUR GOD? ?Who is like the LORD our God, who is seated on high, 6 who looks far down on the heavens and the earth?? *Even the things of the heavens is a humbling for You to behold, Father! How much more that You observe us on earth! *Hallowed be your :name!* This Psalm is one of pure praise and contains but little which requires exposition; a warm heart full of admiring adoration of the Most High will best of all comprehend this sacred hymn. Its subject is the greatness and condescending goodness of the God of Israel, as exhibited in lifting up the needy from their low estate. It may fitly be sung by the church during a period of revival after it has long been diminished and brought low. With this Psalm begins the Hallel, or Hallelujah of the Jews, which was sung at their solemn feasts: we will therefore call it, *?The Commencement of the Hallel.?* 113:1. *Praise ye the Lord.* (Or, Hallelujah, praise to Jehovah). Praise is an essential offering at all the solemn feasts of the people of God. Prayer is the myrrh and praise is the frankincense, and both of these must be presented unto the Lord. How can we pray for mercy for the future if we do not bless God for His love in the past? If God?s own servants do not praise Him, who will? You are a people near unto Him and should be heartiest in your loving gratitude. While they were slaves of Pharaoh, the Israelites uttered groans and sighs by reason of their hard bondage; but now that they had become servants of the Lord, they were to express themselves in songs of joy. The name of Jehovah is thrice used in this verse, and may by us who understand the doctrine of the Trinity in unity be regarded as a thinly-veiled allusion to that holy mystery. Let Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, all be praised as the One, only, Living, and True God. 113:2. *Blessed be the name of the Lord. *By mentioning the name, the Psalmist would teach us to bless each of the attributes of the Most High, which are as it were the letters of His name; not quarreling with His justice or His severity, nor servilely dreading His power, but accepting Him as we find Him revealed in the inspired Word and by His own acts, and loving Him and praising Him as such. We must not give the Lord a new name nor invent a new nature, for that would be setting up a false god. 113:3. *From the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same the Lord?s name is to be praised.* It is a marvel of mercy that the sun should rise on the rebellious sons of men, and prepare for the undeserving fruitful seasons and days of pleasantness; let us for this prodigy of goodness praise the Lord of all. From hour to hour let us renew the strain, for each moment brings its mercy. 113:5. *Who is like the Lord our God? *The challenge will never be answered. None can be compared with Him for an instant; Israel?s God is without parallel; our own God in covenant stands alone, and none can be likened unto Him. Even those whom He has made like Himself in some respects are not like Him in Godhead, for His divine attributes are many of them incommunicable and inimitable. 113:6. *Who humbles Himself to behold the things that are in heaven, and in the earth! *He dwells so far on high that even to observe heavenly things He must humble Himself. He must stoop to view the skies and bow to see what angels do. What, then, must be His condescension, seeing that He observes the humblest of His servants upon earth and makes them sing for joy like Mary when she said, ?You have regarded the low estate of Your handmaiden.? 113:7. *He raises up the poor out of the dust. *When no hand but His can help He interposes, and the work is done. It is worth while to be cast down to be so divinely raised from the dust. *And lifts the needy out of the dunghill. *Whereon they lay like worthless refuse, cast off and cast out, left as they thought to rot into destruction, and to be everlastingly forgotten. How great a stoop from the height of His throne to a dunghill! How wonderful that power which occupies itself in lifting up beggars, all befouled with the filthiness in which they lay! For He lifts them out of the dunghill, not disdaining to search them out from amidst the base things of the earth that He may be their means to bring to nothing the great ones and pour contempt upon all human glorying. What a dunghill was that upon which we lay by nature! What a mass of corruption is our original estate! What a heap of loathsomeness we have accumulated by our sinful lives! What reeking abominations surround us in the society of our fellowmen! We could never have risen out of all this by our own efforts; it was a sepulcher in which we saw corruption and were as dead men. Almighty were the arms which lifted us, which are still lifting us, and will lift us into the perfection of heaven itself. Praise ye the Lord. 113:9. *He makes the barren woman to keep house, and to be a joyful mother of children. *The strong desire of the Easterners to have children caused the birth of offspring to be hailed as the choicest of favors, while barrenness was regarded as a curse; hence this verse is placed last as if to crown the whole and to serve as a climax to the story of God?s mercy. Nor is this all; each believer in the Lord Jesus must at times have mourned his lamentable barrenness; he has appeared to be a dry tree yielding no fruit to the Lord, and yet when visited by the Holy Spirit, he has found himself suddenly to be like Aaron?s rod, which budded, and blossomed, and brought forth almonds. Or ever we have been aware, our barren heart has kept house, and entertained the Savior, our graces have been multiplied as if many children had come to us at a single birth, and we have exceedingly rejoiced before the Lord. Then have we marveled greatly at the Lord Who dwells on high, that He has deigned to visit such poor, worthless things. *(From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Mon Apr 22 11:39:46 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Mon, 22 Apr 2013 11:39:46 -0700 Subject: Hebrews 3-4 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* April 22, 2013 *OCT 24 - HEBREWS 3-4 - CHRIST: SUPERIOR TO MOSES* *1. 3:1-2 (3:1-6, NNT) CHRIST JESUS: APOSTLE AND HIGH PRIEST OF OUR CONFESSION. ?Whence, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our :confession, Jesus; 2 who was faithful to him that appointed him, as also was Moses in all his :house.? *Father, we say *the same thing* as Your Word says about Jesus, and through our confession, partake of Him! *Hallowed be your :name!* *2. 3:12-13 (3:7-16) CHRIST?S VOICE: MUST BE HEARKENED TO. ?Look, brethren, lest haply an evil heart of unbelief shall be in any one of you, in :falling away from a living God: 13 but exhort one another each day, so long as it is called Today; lest any one of you be hardened by deceitfulness of sin.? *We hear this word, Father! We tremble at its truth (Isa 66:2)! *Your :kingdom come!* *3. 3:18-19 (3:17-19) UNBELIEF: THE MOST SERIOUS SIN! ?And to whom did he swear that they should not enter into his :rest, but to the disobedient? 19 And we see that they could not enter because of unbelief.? *Again, we tremble at the seriousness of these words. Help us not to water them down, Father. We would *not* be presumptuous, but walk softly. *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth!* *4. 4:2 (4:1-5) CHRIST?S REST: DEPENDENT ON WORD MIXED WITH FAITH. ?For indeed we have been evangelized even as also they: but the word of :hearing did not profit them, because they were not united by :faith with them that heard.? *We *choose* to believe, Father! We take the word *cannot* and *will not* out of our vocabulary at this point. O forgive us our light esteem of Your Word, to back it with all of our heart! *Our :daily :bread Give us this day.* *5. 4:9-10 (4:6-10) CHRIST?S REST: ITS NATURE. ?A sabbath rest remains therefore for the people of :God. 10 For who is entered into :his rest has himself also rested from his :work, as :God did from his :own.? *Reveal to us Father, the significance and meaning of this word! May we not take it for granted. Our utmost for *Jesus? highest*! Personal, passionate devotion to Jesus! Full discipleship! We choose it! *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors!* *6. 4:12 (4:11-13) CHRIST?S REST: OUR RELATIONSHIP TO BE DISCERNED BY THE WORD! ?For living is the word of :God, and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and a discerner of thoughts and intents of theheart.? *Father, we submit to the *full* searching of Your Word: *completely naked in soul and spirit* before You; *nothing* hidden; *no* excuses; *nothing*unsurrendered. *And bring us not into temptation.* *7. 4:16 (4:14-16) CHRIST OUR HIGH PRIEST: BASIS FOR OUR BOLDNESS. ?Let us therefore with boldness approach the throne of :grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.? *Ah Lord God, there is * nothing* too difficult for You in the fully surrendered soul! *Then* Your * complete* will can be done. *Then* we sing a paean of praise! *But deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE**: 4:14-15 (4:14-16) CHRIST OUR HIGH PRIEST: ITS SIGNICANCE. **?Having therefore a great high priest, who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of :God, let us hold fast the confession. For we have not a high priest that cannot sympathize with our :infirmities; but one in all pointstempted according to our likeness, without sin.? *O Father, we are humbled at this revelation of Your grace toward us in Christ Jesus! *Quote from Glover Cleveland - *?Public officers *are the servants and agents of the people*. Subordinates in public place should be selected and retained for their efficiency, and not because they may be used to accomplish partisan ends.? *Our Psalm for the Day: 114:1-2 (114, ESV) TREMBLE AT THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD. ?When Israel went out from Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of a strange language, 2 Judah became his sanctuary, Israel his dominion.? *Father, You chose Judah for David and Jesus, and gave unto David, Benjamin and Jerusalem. You alone are Sovereign Lord! This sublime ?Song of the Exodus? is one and indivisible. True poetry has here reached its climax: no human mind has ever been able to equal, much less to excel, the grandeur of this Psalm. God is spoken of as leading forth His people from Egypt to Canaan and causing the whole earth to be moved at His coming. Things inanimate are represented as imitating the actions of living creatures when the Lord passes by. They are apostrophized and questioned with marvelous force of language, till one seems to look upon the actual scene. The God of Jacob is exalted as having command over river, seas, and mountains, and causing all nature to pay homage and tribute before His glorious majesty. 114:1. *When Israel went out of Egypt.* The song begins with a burst, as if the poetic fury could not be restrained, but over-leaped all bounds. The soul elevated and filled with a sense of divine glory cannot wait to fashion a preface, but springs at once into the middle of its theme. They were as one man in their willingness to leave Goshen; numerous as they were, not a single individual stayed behind. Unanimity is a pleasing token of the divine presence, and one of its sweetest fruits. The language of foreign taskmasters is never musical in an exile?s ear. How sweet it is to a Christian who has been compelled to hear the filthy conversation of the wicked, when at last he is brought out from their midst to dwell among his own people! 114:2. *Judah was His sanctuary, and Israel His dominion. *The pronoun ?His? comes in where we should have looked for the name of God; but the poet is so full of thought concerning the Lord that he forgets to mention His name, like the spouse in the Song, who begins, ?Let Him kiss me,? or Magdalene when she cried, ?Tell me where you have laid Him.? The whole people were the shrine of the Egyptians to the holy worship and righteous rule of the great King in Jeshurun! They lived in a world of wonders, where God was seen in the wondrous bread they ate and in the water they drank, as well as in the solemn worship of His holy place. When the Lord is manifestly in a church, and His gracious rule obediently owned, what a golden age has come, and what honorable privileges His people enjoy! may it be so among us. 114:6. *Ye mountains, that you skipped like rams; and you little hills, like lambs. *What ailed you, that you were thus moved? There is but one reply: the majesty of God made you to leap. A gracious mind will chide human nature for its strange insensibility, when the sea and the river, the mountains and the hills, are all sensitive to the presence of God. Man is endowed with reason and intelligence, and yet he sees unmoved that which the material creation beholds with fear. God has come nearer to us than ever He did to Sinai, or to Jordan, for He has assumed our nature, and yet the mass of mankind are neither driven back from their sins nor moved in the paths of obedience. 114:8. *The flint into a fountain of waters. *Our deliverance from under the yoke of sin is strikingly typified in the going up of Israel from Egypt, and so also was the victory of our Lord over the powers of death and hell. The Exodus should therefore be earnestly remembered by Christian hearts. Did not Moses on the Mount of Transfiguration speak to our Lord of ?the exodus? which He should shortly accomplish at Jerusalem; and is it not written of the hosts above that they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and of the Lamb? Do we not ourselves expect another coming of the Lord, when before His face heaven and earth shall flee away and there shall be no more sea? We join then with the singers around the Passover table and make their Hallel ours, for we, too, have been led out of bondage and girded like a flock through a desert land, wherein the Lord supplies our wants with heavenly manna and water from the Rock of ages. Praise ye the Lord. *(**From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Tue Apr 23 09:55:14 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Tue, 23 Apr 2013 09:55:14 -0700 Subject: Hebrews 5-6 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* April 23, 2013 *OCT 25 - HEBREWS 5-6 - COVENANT: LEADS INTO SPIRITUAL CANAAN* *1. 5:1-2 (5:1-4, NNT) AARON: INFIRM MAN ORDAINED HIGH PRIEST. ?For every high priest, being taken from men, is appointed for men in things:pertaining to:God, that he offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins: 2 who can bear gently with the ignorant and erring, since himself also is compassed with infirmity.? *How wise You are, Father! You do not send angels to minister to us directly, but flesh and bone like ourselves. We commit ourselves to Your way of doing things. *Hallowed be your :name.* *2. 5:8-10 (5:5-10) CHRIST: ORDAINED HIGH PRIEST AFTER MELCHIZEDEK. ?Though he was a Son, yet learned :obedience by what he suffered; 9 and, perfected, he became unto all that obey him the cause of eternal salvation: 10 named of :God high priest after the order of Melchizedek.? *What an amazing revelation! In Your flesh, Lord Jesus, You grew into maturity through suffering. Father, You exalted Him because of this, far above Aaron! *Your :kingdom come!* *3. 5:12 (5:11-14) BABES: UNABLE TO HEAR THIS TEACHING. ?For when by reason of the time you ought to be teachers, you have need again that some one teach you the rudiments of the beginning of the oracles of :God; and are become such as need milk, not solid food.? *How dull of hearing we are, Father! Like the 12 disciples before Pentecost, we stumble to understand You. Yet You overlook our immaturity. *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.* *4. 6:1-2 (6:1-3) FOUNDATION TRUTHS: MILK FOR BABES. ?Therefore leaving the word of the beginning of the Christ, let us be borne on unto the perfection; not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, - 2 the teaching of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.? *Forgive us Father, for so often relaying foundations again and again, and not pressing on to maturity! *Our :daily :bread Give us this day.* *5. 6:4-6 (6:4-8) APOSTASY: HOPELESS. ?For as to those who were once enlightened and tasted of the heavenly :gift (do-reA), and became partakers of the Holy Spirit, 5 and tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the age to come, 6 and fell away, it is impossible to renew them again unto repentance; they crucifying again to themselves and openly shaming the Son of :God.? *Father, we choose not to be soil two or three; we choose to be soil four in great fruitfulness! *And forgive us our :debts, as we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 6:9-10 (6:9-12) SALVATION: WORKS WHICH ACCOMPANY IT. ?But of you, beloved, we are persuaded :better things and having salvation, even if we thus speak: 10 for :God is not unrighteous to forget your :work and the love which you showed toward his :name, in that you ministered unto the saints, and do minister. *Yes Father, we choose to walk in these things. *And bring us not into temptation.* *7. 6:17-18 (6:13-20) COVENANT AND OATH: BASIS FOR CANAAN. ?Wherein :God, intending to show more abundantly to the heirs of the promise the immutability of his :counsel, mediated with an oath; 18 that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we may have strong encouragement, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us.? *What a promise! *But deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE**: 5:7 (5:5-10) CHRIST: A KEY PART OF HIS EARTHLY MINISTRY. **?Who in the days of his :flesh, having offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto the one who could save him from death, and having heard him for his :godly fear.? *We would follow Jesus? example, Father! *Quote on ?Believing? by Thomas Carlyle - *?A man lives by *believing*something; not by debating and arguing about many things.? *Our Psalm for the Day: 115:1-3 (115, ESV) TO YOUR NAME GIVE GLORY. ?Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to Your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness! 2 Why should the nations say, ?Where is their God?? 3 Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.? *Like Job Father, we will not sin against You with our mouths, though we understand not Your Sovereign dealings. We choose to continually *hallow your :name!* In the former Psalm, the past wonders which God had wrought were recounted to His honor, and in the present Psalm He is entreated to glorify Himself again, because the heathen were presuming upon the absence of miracles, were altogether denying the miracles of former ages, and insulting the people of God with the question, ?Where is now their God? It grieved the heart of the godly that Jehovah should be thus dishonored, and treating their own condition of reproach as unworthy of notice, they beseech the Lord at least to vindicate His own name. The Psalmist is evidently indignant that the worshipers of foolish idols should be able to put such a taunting question to the people who worshiped the only living and true God; and having spent his indignation in sarcasm upon the images and their makers, he proceeds to exhort the house of Israel to trust in God and bless His name. 115:l. *Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Your name give glory. *The people undoubtedly wished for relief from the contemptuous insults of idolaters, but their main desire was that Jehovah Himself should no longer be the object of heathen insults. The saddest part of all their trouble was that their God was no longer feared and dreaded by their adversaries. When Israel marched into Canaan, a terror was upon all the people round about, because of Jehovah, the mighty God; but this dread the nations had shaken off since there had been of late no remarkable display of miraculous power. The repetition of the words, ?Not unto us,? would seem to indicate a very serious desire to renounce any glory which they might at any time have proudly appropriated to themselves, and it also sets forth the vehemence of their wish that God would at any cost to them magnify His own name. In these times, when the first victories of the gospel are only remembered as histories of a dim and distant past, skeptics are apt to boast that the gospel has lost its youthful strength and they even presume to cast a slur upon the name of God Himself. We may therefore rightly entreat the divine interposition that the apparent blot may be removed from His escutcheon, and that His own Word may shine forth gloriously as in the days of old. We may not desire the triumph of our opinions, for our own sakes, or for the honor of a sect, but we may confidently pray for the triumph of truth that God Himself may be honored. 115:2. *Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is now their God? *Or, more literally, ?Where, pray, is their God?? Why should the nations be allowed with a sneer of contempt to question the existence, and mercy, and faithfulness of Jehovah? They are always ready to blaspheme. In our case, by our own lukewarmness and the neglect of faithful gospel preaching, we have permitted the uprise and spread of modern doubt, and we are bound to confess it with deep sorrow of soul; yet we may not therefore lose heart, but may still plead with God to save His own truth and grace from the contempt of men of the world. Wherefore should the pretended wise men of the period be permitted to say that they doubt the personality of God? Wherefore should they say that answers to prayer are pious delusions, and that the resurrection and the deity of our Lord Jesus are moot points? Wherefore should they be permitted to speak disparagingly of atonement by blood and by price, and reject utterly the doctrine of the wrath of God against sin, even that wrath which burns forever and ever? They speak exceeding proudly, and only God can stop their arrogant blusterings: let us by extraordinary intercession prevail upon Him to interpose, by giving to His gospel such a triumphant vindication as shall utterly silence the perverse opposition of ungodly men. 115:3. *But our God is in the heavens. *Where He should be; above the reach of mortal sneers, overhearing all the vain janglings of men, but looking down with silent scorn upon the makers of the babel. Once they bade His Son come down from the cross and they would believe in Him; they they would have God overstep the ordinary bounds of His providence and come down from heaven to convince them: but other matters occupy His august mind besides the convincement of those who willfully shut their eyes to the superabundant evidences of His divine power and Godhead, which are all about them. *He has done whatever He has pleased. *We may well endure the jeering question, ?Where is now their God?? while we are perfectly sure that His providence is undisturbed, His throne unshaken, and His purposes unchanged. What He has done He will yet do, His counsel shall stand, and He will do all His pleasure, and at the end of the great drama of human history, the omnipotence of God and His immutability and faithfulness will be more than vindicated to the eternal confusion of His adversaries. 115:9. *O Israel, trust thou in the Lord. *Whatever our trouble may be, and however fierce the blasphemous language of our enemies, let us not fear nor falter, but confidentially rest in Him Who is able to vindicate His own honor, and protect His own servants. 115:18. *But we will bless the Lord from this time forth and forevermore. *We who are still living will take care that the praises of God shall not fail among the sons of man. Our afflictions and depressions of spirit shall not cause us to suspend our praises, neither shall old age and increasing infirmities damp the celestial fires, no, nor shall even death itself cause us to cease from the delightful occupation. The spiritually dead cannot praise God, but the life within us constrains us to do so. *(From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Wed Apr 24 12:11:18 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Wed, 24 Apr 2013 12:11:18 -0700 Subject: Hebrews 7-10 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* April 24, 2013 *OCT 26 - HEBREWS 7-10 - MELCHIZEDEK: SUPERIOR TO AARON* *1. 7:25 (7, NNT) JESUS: NATURE OF HIS MELCHEZEDEK PRIESTHOOD. ?Whence also he is able to save to the uttermost them that approach :God through him, he ever living to make intercession for them.? *Father, this is Your wonderful Son You are setting forth before us! He has a benign rule in the Spirit! His Kingdom is *not** *of this world, but a hidden, inner kingdom of the heart today. At His return it will become a glorious manifested Kingdom. The intercession of Jesus will release it. *Hallowed be your :name! * *2. 8:6 (8) JESUS: SUPERIOR TO AARON THROUGH NEW COVENANT. ?But now has he obtained a ministry the more superior, by so much as he is also mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted (constituted as Torah) upon better promises.? *Father, we rejoice in the more excellent ministry of Jesus. We rejoice that the *better* covenant has been constituted as Torah, so that it is now fully suitable for the Church, the One New Man composed of both Jew and Gentile. We rejoice that it is now *written on our hearts*by the Spirit! *Your :kingdom come!* *3. 9:22 (9) JESUS? BLOOD: SANCTIFIES THE HEAVENLY TABERNACLE! ?And according to the law, almost all things are cleansed with blood, and apart from shedding of blood is no remission.? *Here is the awe-inspiring heart of it all: the *death* of Jesus, and *the shedding of his blood*! Father, * this* is what spells defeat for Satan: *Calvary*! *There* his head was crushed. From there Jesus triumphantly rose again! *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth!* *4. 10:5-7 (10:1-18) MESSIAH: FULFILLS SHADOW OF LAW. ?Wherefore when he comes into the world, he says, Sacrifice and offering you would not, But a body did you prepare me; 6 In whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin you had no pleasure: 7 Then said I. Lo, I am come (in the roll of the book it is written of me) :To do your :will, O :God.? *Forgive us Father, for understanding so dimly, and walking so far off from the spirit of Jesus. O put in our heart the spirit to say - we *delight* to do Your will, O our God! *Our :daily :bread Give us this day.* *5. 10:24-25 (10:19-25) MESSIAH?S BLOOD: BASIS FOR OUR BOLDNESS. ?And let us consider one another unto provoking of love and good works: 25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is a custom of some, but exhorting; and so much the more, as you see the day drawing nigh.? *Exhortation is a work of the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete. He helps to make evangelists out of us. Hold us steady. *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 10:30-31 (10:26-38) LORD?S DISPLEASURE: UPON WILLFUL SINNERS. ?For we know him that said, Vengeance is mine, I will recompense. And again, TheLord shall judge his :people. 31 Fearful ?tis to fall into the living God?s hands.? *Help us not to water down Your fear, Father! (Isaiah 66:2). Help us to walk softly, knowing that You are a consuming fire! *And bring us not into temptation!* *7. 10:39. TRUSTING: THE WAY OF SALVATION! ?But we are not of them that shrink back unto destruction; but of those having faith unto saving of thesoul.? *Yes, we choose to walk in Your fear, Father! This is our spirit of safety. We take nothing for granted, and choose like Paul to keep our bodies under. *Then* we have free conscience! *But deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE: 8:10 (8) GOD DESCRIBES HIS NEW COVENANT! ?For this is the covenant that I will covenant for the house of Israel After those :days, says theLord; I will put my laws into their :mind, and on their heart also will I write them: And I will be God to them, and they shall be a people to me.? ** This* is what You have fulfilled for the One New Man: Jew and Gentile! *Quote on ?Books? by John Milton, Areopagitica - *?Who kills a man, kills a reasonable creature, God?s image; but he who destroys a good book kills reason itself.? *Our Psalm for the Day: 116:12-14 (116, ESV) I LOVE THE LORD. ?What shall I render to the LORD for all his benefits to me? 13 I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD, 14 I will pay my vows to the LORD in the presence of all his people.? *Father, Your Kingdom is one of righteous inward government of the heart. This is *good news, *to rule our heart! In thought, word and deed. What a wonderful way to say, Thank You for Your great salvation! * * Personal love fostered by a personal experience of redemption is the theme of this Psalm, and it it we see the redeemed answered when they pray, preserved in time of trouble, resting in their God, walking at large, sensible of their obligations, conscious that they are not their own but bought with a price, and joining with all the ransomed company to sing hallelujahs unto God. 116:1. *I love the Lord. *A blessed declaration: every believer ought to be able to declare with the the slightest hesitation, *?I love the Lord.?*It was required under the law, but was never produced in the heart of man except by the grace of God and upon gospel principles. It is a great thing to say, *?I love the Lord?;* for the sweetest of all graces and the surest of all evidences of salvation is love. It is great goodness on the part of God that He condescends to be loved by such poor creatures as we are, and it is a sure proof that He has been a work in our heart. 116:10. *I believed, therefore have I spoken. *Concerning the things of God, no man should speak unless he believes; the speech of the waverer is mischievous, but the tongue of the believer is profitable; the most powerful speech which has ever been uttered by the lip of man has emanated from a heart fully persuaded of the truth of God. Not only the Psalmist, but such men as Luther, and Calvin, and other great witnesses for the faith could each one most heartily say, *?I believed; therefore have I spoken.?* 116:15. *Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints. *They shall not die prematurely; they shall be immortal till their work is done; and when their time shall come to die, then their deaths shall be precious. The Lord watches over their dying beds, smooths their pillows, sustains their hearts, and receives their souls. Those who are redeemed with precious Blood are so dear to God that even their deaths are precious to Him. The death-beds of saints are very precious to the church; she often learns much from them. They are very precious to all believers, who delight to treasure up the last words of the departed. But they are most of all precious to the Lord Jehovah Himself, Who views the triumphant deaths of His gracious ones with sacred delight. If we have walked before Him in the land of the living, we need not fear to die before Him when the hour of our departure is at hand. 116:18. *I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all His people. *The mercy came in secret, but the praise is rendered in public; the company was, however, select; he did not cast his pearls before swine, but delivered his testimony before those who could understand and appreciate it. 116:19. *In the midst of thee, O Jerusalem. *God?s praise is not to be confined to a closet, nor His Name to be whispered in holes and corners, as if we were afraid that men should hear us: but in the thick of the throng, and in the very center of assemblies, we should lift up heart and voice unto the Lord and invite others to join with us in adoring Him. *(From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Wed Apr 24 17:28:42 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Wed, 24 Apr 2013 17:28:42 -0700 Subject: Prayer Request Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* April 24, 2013 *2013-04-23 - A PRAYER REQUEST - Jim Watt* *My ?Care doctor? at our local Federal Way clinic - felt I should see a specialist at the Tacoma Group Health Hospital, which I did at the beginning of this month. He discovered tumors in the bladder - quite possibly cancerous, and has set up surgery for Thursday May 2nd.* *However - in the mid 1990?s, Marie and I had prayer meetings in our home each Wednesday for 5 couples for 18 months. A Jewish husband of one of the couples on one occasion asked prayer for his wife, who was scheduled for surgery the following Monday for mastectomy. They felt the Lord wanted first try at it, so we anointed her with oil and prayed for her, aware of the presence of the Lord. That Monday the hospital took a pre-operative x-ray, and discovered no cancer. They knew the x-ray was wrong, so took 10 more! They finally acknowledged that the first x-ray must have been accurate, and had to discharge her without an operation!* *Marie and I have experienced this - many times in the past with our family and loved ones. In 1944, just after the Lord revealed Himself to me, I was swimming in one of the Vancouver Island lakes, and suddenly realized I had lost my glasses in some 20-30 feet of water - somewhere along the last mile of our swimming. When we arrived at our cabin, my pastor friend prayed for me. I hadn?t sensed anything, so when back at my naval ship - went to the hospital and had my glasses replaced. When I couldn?t see out of them properly, they checked my eyes, and discovered I now had 20/20 vision, though I had been forced to wear glasses since I was 4 years old.* *Three years ago Marie experienced extremely severe headaches. Her care-doctor at Group Health took down all her symptoms, and in 30 minutes after feeding this information into the computer, came up with a diagnosis of ?Temporal Arteritis? - which is inflammation of the left side temple artery. Prednisone is the only medication that controls this, and prevents blindness. It has however a number of very severe side-effects. This knocked Marie out of commission for over a year. But we put out a prayer challenge to a number of friends and intercessors. God has so remarkably answered prayer that she is off all these harmful medications - is swimming 3 days a week for just under an hour - is on a very healthy diet, and has lost 60 pounds. Our son Jim and son-in-law Garl share this testimony with amazement. Marie sustained similar severe attacks several decades ago, but at that time 8 specialists were unable to perform the diagnosis that is available today through computers.* *These are just two of the many times we have experienced God?s gracious hand on us.* *Derek Prince from England, who died in 2003 at 88, experienced a remarkable healing in Egypt as a World War II soldier. God gave him proverbs 4:20-22, which he called ?God?s Medicine Bottle.? Here?s the passage: ?My son, be attentive to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. 21 Let them not escape from your sight; keep them within your heart. 22 For they are life to those who find them, and healing (medicine) to all their flesh (body).? Here are 4 directives, plus 2 promises. 3 times a day after meals Derek read the word and meditated upon it as his medicine, and after over a year of serious foot problems that 4 hospitals were unable to help - yet in a few months of God, he was discharged from hospital. We are using God?s Medicine Bottle too, with many joining us.* *So as many of you will join us, this will give God His opportunity for ?The Exchanged Miracle at the Cross.? See Isaiah 53:5 - ?He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him and by His stripes we are healed.? Jesus was wounded that we might be healed. ?Thank you, Jesus, for Your work on the cross. I proclaim that for me to be thoroughly saved is to be perfectly healed and that Jesus was wounded that I might be healed. Amen.?* *There were times that out of the 1000?s who were healed through Derek?s ministry, yet there were also times when some worthy saints still went through surgery. He could never explain this - but he felt we still should always offer to all Christians the above ?Cross Exchange?, and without any condemnation or pressure, thank God for faithful surgeons who God also provided. Marie and I have also experienced this latter, as well as the former. Jesus also prayed for healing and demon deliverance for many who were not yet believers. Some of these believed upon being healed and delivered, some did not.* *Both Marie and I turn 90 this summer, so we are not ?spring chickens!? We are at perfect peace with the provision and faithfulness of God, and know we can count on your concern and prayers.* *Your friends - Jim and Marie* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Thu Apr 25 11:20:07 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Thu, 25 Apr 2013 11:20:07 -0700 Subject: Hebrews 11 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* April 25, 2013 *OCT 27 - HEBREWS 11 - FAITH: SWALLOWS UP DOUBT* *1. 11:1-2 (NNT) FAITH: ITS STARTLING DEFINITION. ?Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, conviction of things unseen. 2 For therein the elders had witness borne them.? *Assurance = *title-deed*! Your promises Father, begin to be fulfilled when we exercise faith in what You have said. We begin to submit to Kingdom principles when we do this. This is the beginning of the *Good News* of Your Kingdom. *Hallowed be your :name.* *2. 11:3. FAITH: REVEALS NATURE OF GOD?S CREATION. ?By faith we understand that the ages have been framed by God?s word, so that what is seen has not been made out of things which appear.? *Spiritual invisibility becomes materially visible when You speak, Father; and You spoke through Christ. Like Jesus, we commit ourselves to walk well-pleasing to You! *Your :kingdom come.* *3. 11:6 (11:4-12) FAITH EXAMPLES: ABEL THROUGH SARAH. ?And without faith it is impossible to be well-pleasing; for who comes to :God must believe that he is, and is rewarder of them that seek after him.? *Enoch believed this; Father, we too would follow in his footsteps. We would know You and Your Son intimately, love Your supremely, and look to You for our needs. *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.* *4. 11:16 (11:13-16) FAITH?S TESTIMONY: THE CITY OF GOD. ?But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly: wherefore :God is not ashamed of them, to be called their God; for he has prepared them a city.? *Father, forgive us for often falling short of the faith of these Old Covenant saints. Surely our faith because of the New Covenant, ought to surpass theirs! And we look for this same city! *Our :daily :bread Give us this day. * *5. 11:17-19 (11:17-31) FAITH EXAMPLES: ABRAHAM THROUGH RAHAB. ?By faith Abraham, being tried, has offered up :Isaac, and who had gladly received the promises was offering up his only begotten son; 18 he unto whom it was said [that], In Isaac shall your seed be called; 19 accounting that God isable to raise up, even the dead; from whence he did also in a parable receive him back.? *What a test of faith! But You Father, were with him in it! *And forgive us our debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 11:32 (11:32-38) FAITH EXAMPLES: GIDEON THROUGH THE MARTYRS. ?And what more shall I say? for the time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Sampson, Jephthah ; and of David and Samuel and the prophets: who through faith ?? *How weak and limited Satan appears in the light of this. He is subject to You Father, and as with Job can do nothing to us apart from your permission! Yes, we heartily accept this! *And bring us not into temptation! * *7. 11:39-40. FAITH?S PATIENCE: PERFECTION FOR ALL AT THE LAST DAY. ?And these all, witnessed to through their faith, received not the promise, 40 :God having foreseen something better concerning us, that apart from us they be not made perfect.? *At the last day, the day of resurrection of the body, the day of the judgment seat of Christ when the saints will be rewarded; at that day Father, shall saints *both living and dead* be *together*rewarded. *But deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE**: 11:7 (11:4-12) **FAITH OF NOAH! ?By faith Noah, warned concerning the things not seen as yet, with godly fear prepared an ark to the saving of his :house; through which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.? *Father, we too would follow the example of Noah! *Quote from William Ellery Channing, Self-Culture - *?God be thanked for books. They are the voices of the distant and of the dead, and make us heirs of the spiritual life of past ages.? *Our Psalm for the Day: 117 (ESV) THE LORD?S FAITHFULNESS ENDURES FOREVER. Praise the LORD, all nations! Extol him, all peoples! 2 For great is his steadfast love (CHEsed) toward us, and the faithfulness of the LORD endures forever. Praise the LORD! *Father, we join them in hallowing Your Name! We have all been created by You in Christ; just so have we also been redeemed and sustained. You indeed are worthy of our praise! This Psalm, which is very little in its letter, is exceedingly large in its spirit; for, bursting beyond all bounds of race of nationality, it calls upon all mankind to praise the name of the Lord. The same divine Spirit which expatiates in the One Hundred Nineteenth, here condenses His utterances into two short verses, but yet the same infinite fullness is present and perceptible. It may be worth noting that this is at once the shortest chapter of the Scriptures and the central portion of the whole Bible. 117:1. *O praise the Lord, all ye nations. *This is an exhortation to the Gentiles to glorify Jehovah and a clear proof that the Old Testament spirit differed widely from that narrow and contracted national bigotry with which the Jews of or Lord?s Day became so inveterately diseased. *(From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Fri Apr 26 13:59:53 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Fri, 26 Apr 2013 13:59:53 -0700 Subject: Declaring God's Word - Derek Prince Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* April 26, 2013 *2013-04-26 - DECLARING GOD?S WORD - Derek Prince* *- A 365-Day Devotional -* *Published by Derek Prince Ministries International, 2008, posthumously* *Many other fine Daily Devotionals have preceded this one through the years. ?My Utmost for His Highest? by Oswald Chambers was written posthumously by his wife Biddy Oswald - following his death in 1917. Well over a million copies have gone out. For this daily devotional, Biddy went through all his books and writings to select the 365 readings that have been such a challenge and blessing to so many through the years.* *In like manner, Derek Prince Ministries went through all of Derek Prince?s books, tapes, videos, CD?s and radio broadcasts to make the selection of the 52 weekly subjects, plus the 365 readings under them. In the Introduction to their selections, they make almost extraordinary claims of what they believe this devotional will do. This is because it not only leads the reader to prayer, but also to declaration and proclamation of the Word of God - in unison with the 1000?s of other daily readers.* *Islam since its founding by Mohamed in the 7th Century, has been making 5 proclamations a day from some ? million mosques. Over one billion believers could be engaged in this. From our viewpoint these are negative proclamations, yet their force is so strong that it makes conversion of Muslims extremely difficult. But, should we as Christians like Daniel, make prayers and proclamations 3 times a day throughout the earth, this will loose the power of all cults, and allow us to see their prisoners set free. This is already beginning to happen.* *The biography of Derek Prince in 2005 following his death in 2003 - by Stephen Mansfield, can also be purchased from Derek Prince Ministries, < www.derekprince.org>, and both can also be purchased through Amazon, < www.amazon.com>, and both used and new copies at reduced costs. On p. 107-109 of the biography, Derek as a new believer tells how one of his first converts was from the Sudan, a Muslim by the name of Ali. Derek at the time had been led to fast every Wednesday, waiting on God daily over His Word in meditation, and the Holy Spirit would guide him in extraordinary ways. It was Derek who shared the history of Muslim proclamations 5 times a day, and how we can offset this - because greateris He that is in us - than he that is in the world. * *Week 15 on page 121 - ?Jesus was wounded that we might be healed,? Isaiah 53:5, with its reading April 9-15 is powerful. Over 10 such weeks on the ?Exchanged Life? because of Christ?s work on the Cross on our behalf - will bring powerful blessings to all who need them. I am using them myself, plus ?God?s Medicine Bottle? from Proverbs 4:20-22.* *I highly recommend the purchase of both these books.* *Here is what the Derek Prince Ministries International says about this2008 publication: * *The International Publishing Team of Derek Prince Ministries is excited to bring you this unique book by renowned Bible scholar Derek Prince, Declaring God?s Word: A 365-Day Devotional. We believe it has the potential to change not only your life, but the world, as well.* *We realize that is a sweeping statement - one that might seem to ?oversell? the book. However, we stand by the statement, and here?s why. This book is far more than your ordinary devotional.* *Like you, we enjoy a variety of devotionals written by great men and women of God. Similar to this book, those works consist of daily entries with a brief insight into a passage from God?s Word, followed by a prayer designed to inspire the reader for that day. That?s where the similarity ends.* *One additional component makes this book powerfully unique. That component is ?proclamation? - Declaring God?s Word, as the title states. Proclamation turns this book into a powerful tool in your hands - actually, a weapon of spiritual warfare. Your proclamation will represent a daily declaration of war on the kingdom of Satan and a daily announcement of your intention to stand with the King of kings. But that?s only a part of it.* *The most exciting thought of all is that you will join with thousands of Christians all over the world in reading this book, declaring the same proclamations, and praying the same prayers - on the very same day, maybe even simultaneously. Take a moment to think about how powerful that will be! The impact of this corporate action will have positive spiritual implications far beyond what we can imagine.* *In a teaching on the release of authority when God?s Word is spoken by believers, Derek quoted Jeremiah 1:9 - ?Behold, I have put My words in your mouth? - then made this bold claim; when we declare the Word that God puts in our mouths, our proclamation carries as much authority as if God Himself were declaring it. That is the unique power and authority set in motion through Declaring God?s Word.* *Derek Prince was a man of prayer and proclamation - and He was practical. He always gave his listeners the opportunity to respond. This book is no different.* *Each day, you will have the chance to respond to the daily teaching, which begins with a proclamation Derek originated. (At the start of most of Derek?s teachings on CD, you will hear Derek and his wife begin in unison with a proclamation of a particular Scripture passage or scriptural thought. In this devotional, each entry begins the same way.)* *Each day?s teaching is pure Derek, in his exact words. Though Derek is no longer with us on earth, his powerful teaching remains, and, as Hebrews 11:4 says that ?...through faith, though he is dead, he still speaks? (NASB). How we thank the Lord for the legacy of teaching Derek has left us.* *The section that follows the teaching summarizes what Derek has taught with a prayer and proclamation related to the day?s topic. You will notice that each prayer begins with an expression of thanks to God. Along with Derek?s amazing teaching gift, one of the traits we most admired about him was his constant attitude of thanksgiving. At many of his teaching sessions, Derek would close his message by asking the audience to wait upon the Lord in silence. During those moments, it was very common to hear Derek uttering over and over again, ?Thank You, Lord. Thank You, Jesus. Oh, we thank You, Lord.? Derek was a thankful man, and the prayers reflect that fact.* *Rather than assuming you would naturally pray and proclaim on your own, we have provided specific responses as a help to you. Here is where you will experience the unique individual corporate power that comes from declaring the same prayer and proclamation with other people on the same day.* *Each entry ends with a repetition of the same proclamation that appears under the title of the entry at the top of the page. That?s no mistake. Repetition is a common yet powerful biblical principle, as well as a means of affirming the truth of God?s Word. An excellent scriptural example of the usefulness of repetition is found in Psalm 124:1-2: ?If it had not been the LORD who was on our side,? let Israel now say [in other words, ?Let?s have everyone repeat this together?], ?If it had not been the LORD who was on our side....?? For additional New Testament ?reminders by repetition,? see Philippians 3:1, Hebrews 2:1, and 2 Peter 1:12-15.* *May Declaring God?s Word be a daily source of spiritual power and growth for you. May its teachings establish a foundation of truth in your life, making you increasingly unshakable in these increasingly shaky modern times. May you grow in faith as you absorb Derek?s teachings, proclaim the truth of God?s Word, and pray to your Father in heaven, confident that you are joining with Christians everywhere , powerfully declaring God?s Word and advancing His gospel.* *And lastly, may this book fulfill the prayer Jesus Himself taught us: ?Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven? (Matthew 6:10 KJV).* *- The International PublishingTeam* *of Derek Prince Ministries* * * *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Sat Apr 27 10:33:35 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Sat, 27 Apr 2013 10:33:35 -0700 Subject: Hebrews 12 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* April 27, 2013 *OCT 28 - HEBREWS 12 - ENDURANCE: IN THE ARENA* *1. 12:2 (12:1-3, NNT) CHRIST: ENDURED THE CROSS THAT WE MIGHT RUN THE RACE. ?Looking unto Jesus the author and perfecter of the faith, who for the joy set before him endured a cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right of the throne of :God.? *Father, open our eyes that we may see. Show us Jesus as You would have us see Him! We *loose* His Spirit within us. *Hallowed be your :name!* *2. 12:10 (12:4-11) EARTHLY FATHER?S CHASTENING: EXAMPLE OF HEAVENLY CHASTENING. ?For our fathers indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed good to them; but he for :profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness.? *Father, we bless You for loving us enough as Your sons and daughters to discipline us! We submit to Your will in this respect. *Your :kingdom come!* *3. 12:12-13. EXHORTATION: DON?T CAVE IN! ?Wherefore straighten the hanging down hands, and the paralyzed knees; 13 and make straight paths for your :feet, that what is lame be not turned out of the way, but rather be healed.? *We endure discipline because through it, You Father, are making us like Jesus! *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.* *4. 12:14-15 (12:14-17) PEACE AND HOLINESS: SEEK THEM DILIGENTLY. ?Follow after peace with all, and the sanctification without which no one shall see the Lord: 15 looking carefully lest there be any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby the many be defiled.? *Forgive us Father, for being so na?ve concerning the way of sin and bitterness. O teach us the way of holiness! *5. 12:22-24 (12:18-24) MOUNT ZION VERSUS MOUNT SINAI. ?But you are come unto mount ion, and unto the city of the living God, heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, 23 a general assembly and church of firstborn enrolled in the heavens, and to God, Judge of all, and to spirits of perfect just men, 24 and to Jesus, mediator of a new covenant, and to blood of sprinkling that speaks better than :Abel.? *In the light of the above, *how blessed we are*! *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 12:25 (12:25-27) SOLEMN ADMONITION. ?See that you refuse not him that speaks. For if THEY escaped not when they refused him that warned on earth, much less we who turn away from him that is from the heavens.? *Yes Father, we choose to hear Your voice! *And bring us not into temptation!* *7. 12:28-29. SOBER EXHORTATION. ?Wherefore, receiving an unshakable kingdom, let us have grace, whereby we may offer service well-pleasing to :God with godly fear and awe: 29 For our :God is indeed a consuming fire.? *Father, You are the Spirit of the *fear of Jehovah*! We worship You for this! *But deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE**: 12:11 (12:4-11) DISCIPLINE: A BLESSING IN THE END. **?Now all chastening seems for the present to be not joyous but grievous; yet afterward yields to those exercised thereby peaceable fruit of righteousness.? *Amen! We receive this truth, Father! *Quote from Samuel Chadwick - *?There are blessing of The Kingdom that are only yielded to the violence of the vehement soul.? *Our Psalm for the Day: 118:22-24 (118, ESV) HIS STEADFAST LOVE ENDURES FOREVER. ?The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. 23 Those who fear you shall see me and rejoice, because I have hoped in your word. 24 This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.? *The great even of all history: You Father, sending Your Son as the beginning of the Church, Your New Creation! This is Reconciliation through Redemption! *Hallowed be your :name!* In the Book of Ezra (3:10-11) we read that *?when the builders laid the foundation of the Temple of the Lord**, they set the priests in their apparel with trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph with cymbals, to praise the Lord, after the ordinance of David, king of Israel. And they sang together by course in praising and giving thanks unto the Lord; because He is good, for His mercy endures forever toward Israel. And all the people shouted with a great shout, when they praised the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid.? *Now the words mentioned in Ezra are the first and last sentences of this Psalm, and we therefore conclude that the people chanted the whole of this sublime song; and, moreover, that the use of this composition on such occasions was ordained by David, whom we conceive to be the author*.* 118:1. *O give thanks unto the **Lord. *Grateful hearts are greedy of men?s tongues and would monopolize them all for God?s glory. We must never tolerate an instant?s unbelief as to the goodness of the Lord; whatever else may be questionable, this is absolutely certain, that Jehovah is good; His dispensations may vary, but His nature is always the same, and always good. It is not only that He was good, and will be good, but He is good; let His providence be what it may. Therefore, let us even at this present moment, though the skies be dark with clouds, yet give thanks unto His name. *Because His mercy endures forever. *Mercy is a great part of His goodness, and one which more concerns us than any other, for we are sinners and have need of His mercy. Angels may say that He is good, but they need not His mercy and cannot therefore take an equal delight in it; inanimate creation declares that He is good, but it cannot feel His mercy, for it has never transgressed; but man, deeply guilty and graciously forgiven, beholds mercy as the very focus and center of the goodness of the Lord. 118:4. *Let them now that fear the Lord say, that His mercy endures forever. *In each of the three exhortations, notice carefully the word ?now.? There is no time like time present for telling out the praises of God. The present exaltation of the Son of David now demands from all who are the subjects of His kingdom continual songs of thanksgiving to Him Who has set Him on high in the midst of Zion. Now, with us, should mean always. When would it be right to cease from praising God, Whose mercy never ceases? The fourfold testimonies to the everlasting mercy of God which are now before us speak like four evangelists, each one declaring the very pith and marrow of the gospel; and they stand like four angels at the four corners of the earth, holding the winds in their hands, restraining the plagues of the latter days that the mercy and long-suffering of God may endure towards the sons of men. Here are four cords to bind the sacrifice to the four horns of the altar, and four trumpets with which to proclaim the year of jubilee to every quarter of the world. Let not the reader pass on to the consideration of the rest of the Psalm until he has with all his might lifted up both heart and voice to praise the Lord, *?for His mercy endures forever.?* 118:5. *I called upon the Lord in distress. *(Or, ?out of anguish, I invoked Jah.?.) Nothing was left him but prayer, his agony was too great for anything beside; but having the heart and the privilege to pray, he possessed all things. Prayers which come out of distress generally come out of the heart. Prayer may be bitter in the offering, but it will be sweet in the answering. The man of God had called upon the Lord when he was not in distress, and therefore he found it natural and easy to call upon Him when in distress. Saul sought to slay David, but David outlived Saul and sat upon his throne. Scribe and Pharisee, priest and Herodian, united in opposing the Christ of God, but He is exalted on high none the less because of their enmity. The mightiest man is a puny thing when he stands in opposition to God, yes, he shrinks into utter nothingness. 118:14. *The Lord is my strength and song. *Thus can all the Lord?s redeemed say, ?Salvation is of the Lord.? We cannot endure any doctrine which puts the crown upon the wrong head and defrauds the glorious King of His revenue and praise. 118:22. *The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner. *They could see no excellence in Him that they should build upon Him; He could not be made to fit in with their ideal of a national church; He was a stone of another quarry from themselves, and not after their mind nor according to their taste; therefore they cast Him away and poured contempt upon Him even as Peter said, ?This is the stone which was set at naught of you builders:; they reckoned Him to be as nothing, though He is Lord of all. In raising Him from the dead, the Lord God exalted Him to be the head of His church, the very pinnacle of her glory and beauty. Since then He has become the confidence of the Gentiles, even of them that are afar off upon the sea, and thus He has joined the two walls of Jew and Gentile into one stately temple, and is seen to be the binding corner-stone, making both one. This is a delightful subject for contemplation. All this in a very emphatic sense true of our blessed Lord, *?The Shepherd, the Stone of Israel.? *God Himself laid Him where He is, and hid within Him all the precious things of the eternal covenant; and there He shall forever remain, the foundation of all our hopes, the glory of all our joys, the united bond of all our fellowship. He is *?the head over all things to the church,? *and by Him the church is fitly framed together, and grows unto a holy temple in the Lord. Still do the builders refuse Him: even to this day the professional teachers of the gospel are far too apt to fly to any and every new philosophy sooner than maintain the simple gospel, which is the essence of Christ: nevertheless, He holds His true position amongst His people, and the foolish builders shall see to their utter confusion that His truth shall be exalted over all. Those who reject the chosen stone will stumble against Him to their own hurt, and ere long will come His second advent, when He will fall upon them from the heights of heaven and grind them to powder. 118:26. *Blessed be He that comes in the name of the Lord. *In the Psalmist's days, He was the Coming One, and He is still the Coming One, though He has already come. We are ready with our hosannas both for His first and second advent; our inmost souls thankfully adore and bless Him and invoke upon His head unspeakable joys. *(From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Sat Apr 27 19:05:30 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Sat, 27 Apr 2013 19:05:30 -0700 Subject: Hebrews 13 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* April 27, 2013 *OCT 29 - HEBREWS 13 - LEADERSHIP: APPOINTMENT DEFEATING ANARCHY* *1. 13:4 (13:1-6, NNT) BOLD SPEAKING: BECAUSE OF THE LORD. ?Let marriage bein honor among all, and the bed undefiled: for fornicators and adulterers :God will judge.? **All* sexual sin outside of marriage, including adultery within marriage, is a violation against You Father, and against our bodies. This is a word to *believers*. *Hallowed be your :name!* *2. 13:7. RULERS HONORED: BECAUSE OF WORD, FAITH AND RESULTS. ?Remember those ruling over you, men that spoke to you the word of :God; considering the outcome of their behavior imitate their faith.? *You Father, have placed leaders over us. When we oppose them, we oppose *You*. *Your :kingdom come!* *3. 13:12-13 (13:8-16) STRANGE DOCTRINES: GUARDED FROM BY RULERS. ?Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people through his own :blood, suffered without the gate. 13 Let us therefore go forth unto him without the camp, bearing his :reproach.? *This is the teaching of Your appointed leaders Father, keeping us safe. We accept Your safeguards through them. *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.* *4. 13:17. OBEY RULERS: AS SOUL-WATCHERS. ?Obey those ruling over you, and submit: for THEY watch in behalf of your :souls, as they that shall give account; that they may do this with joy, and not groaning: for this isunprofit able for you.? *Forgive us Father, for resisting You by so often rejecting Your leaders over us. Israel did this to Moses and Samuel. We do it to Your apostles, prophets and pastors oftentimes today. *Our :daily :bread Give us this day.* *5. 13:18-19. GODLY PRAYERS: COVETED BY PAUL. ?Pray for us: for we are persuaded that we have a good conscience, desiring to behave honorably in all things. 19 And I exhort the more exceedingly to do this, that I be restored to you the sooner.? *Without prayer our leaders cannot function adequately. Father, You have ordained it this way. We are one body, team members, and dependent one upon another. *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 13:20-21. PAUL?S PRAYER: CHRIST-HONORING BENEDICTION. ?Now the God of :peace, who brought again from the dead the great :shepherd of the sheep in blood of an eternal covenant, our :Lord Jesus, 21 perfect you in every good to do his :will, to do in us what is well-pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom the glory unto the ages of the ages. Amen.? *In Jesus we conquer! *And bring us not into temptation.* *7. **13:24-25 (13:22-25) CLOSING EXHORTATION, NEWS AND SALUTATIONS. **?Greet all that are ruling over you, and all the saints. They of :Italy greet you. **25 **The grace **be** with you all.? *Father, we too move in the exchange of greetings. In all things we honor You. *But deliver us from the evil ** one!* *NOTE**: 13:5-6 (13:1-6) OUR APPROPRIATE RESPONSE. **?Let your :turn of mind be without love of money, content with what things you have; for himself has said, I will in no wise fail you, neither will I in any wise forsake you. 6 So that we boldly say, The Lord is my helper; I will not fear: What shall man do to me?? *O what a word of encouragement to your saints, Father! We receive it! *Quote from Frank Bartleman, Azusa Street - *?God has always sought a humble people. He can use no other... There is always much need of heart preparation, in humility and separation, before God can consistently come. The depth of any revival will be determined exactly by the spirit of repentance that is obtained. In fact, this is the key to every true revival born of God.? *Our Psalm for the Day: 119:130 (119, ESV) YOUR WORD IS A LAMP TO MY FEET. ?The unfolding of your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple. *We magnify You Father, for Your Word! Your promises are backed by all the honor of Your Name! There is no title to this Psalm; neither is any author?s name mentioned. It is the longest Psalm, and this is a sufficiently distinctive name for it. Nor is it long only; for it equally excels in breadth of thought, depth of meaning, and height of fervor. Many superficial readers have imagined that it harps upon one string and abounds in pious repetitions and redundancies; but this arises from the shallowness of the reader?s own mind: those who have studied this Divine hymn and carefully noted each line are amazed at the variety and profundity of the thought. The more one studies it, the fresher it becomes. It contains no idle word; the grapes of this cluster are almost to bursting full with the new wine of the kingdom. Again and again have we cried while studying it, ?Oh, the depths!? Yet these depths are hidden beneath an apparent simplicity, as Augustine has well and wisely said, and this makes the exposition all the more difficult. We believe that David wrote this Psalm. It is Davidic in tone and expression, and it tallies with David?s experience in many interesting points. The one theme is the Word of the Lord. ?The most,? says Martin Boos, ?read their Bible like cows that stand in the thick grass, and trample under their feet the finest flowers and herbs.? It is to be feared that we too often do the like. This sacred ode is a little Bible, the Scriptures condensed, a mass of Bibline, Holy Writ rewritten in holy emotions and actions. *NOTES RELATING TO THE PSALM AS A WHOLE* It is recorded of the celebrated St. Augustine, who among his voluminous works left a *Comment on the Book of Psalms, *that he delayed to comment on this one till he had finished the whole Psalter; and then yielded only to the long and vehement urgency of his friends, ?Because,? he says, ?as often as I essayed to think thereon, it always exceed the powers of my intent thought and the utmost grasp of my faculties.? Q. DeBurgh In Matthew Henry?s *Account of the Life and Death of His father, Philip Henry, *he says: ?Once, pressing the study of the Scriptures, he advised us to take a verse of this Psalm every morning to meditate upon, and so go over the Psalm twice in the year; and that, says he, will bring you to be in love with all the rest of the Scriptures. He often said, ?All grace grows as love to the Word of God grows.? George Wishart, the chaplain and biographer of *The Great Marquis of Montrose*, as he was called, would have shared the fate of his illustrious patron but for the following singular expedient. ?When upon the scaffold, he availed himself of the custom of the times, which permitted the condemned to choose a Psalm to be sung. He selected the One Hundred Nineteenth Psalm, and before two-thirds of the Psalm had been sung, a pardon arrived, and his life was preserved. It may not be out of place to add that the George Wishart, Bishop of Edinburgh, above referred to, has been too often confounded with the godly martyr of the same name who lived and died a century previously. It seems to me to be a collection of David?s pious and devout ejaculations, the short and sudden breathings of his soul to God, which he wrote down as they occurred, and towards the latter end of his time gathered them out of day-book where they lay scattered, added to them many like words, and digested them into this Psalm, in which there is seldom any coherence between the verses. M. Henry I know of no part of the Holy Scriptures where the nature and evidence of true and sincere godliness are so fully and largely insisted on and delineated as in the One Hundred Nineteenth Psalm. J. Edwards The name Jehovah occurs twenty-two times in the Psalm. Its theme is the Word of God, which it mentions under one of the ten terms: law, way, testimony, precept, statute, commandments, judgment, word, saying, truth, in every except verse one twenty-two. J.D. Murphy. EXPOSITION OF ITS VERSES 119:2. *Blessed are they that ke**e**p His testimonies. * What! A second blessing? Yes, they are doubly blessed whose outward life is supported by an inward zeal for God?s glory. Blessedness is ascribed to those who treasure up the testimonies of the Lord: in which is implied that they search the Scriptures, that the come to an understanding of them, that they love them, and then that they continue in the practice of them. God?s Word is His witness or testimony to grand and important truths which concern Himself and our relation to Him: this we should desire to know; knowing it, we should believe it; believing it, we should love it; and loving it, we should hold it fast against all comers. We cannot fight a good fight, nor finish our course, unless we keep the faith. To this end the Lord must keep us: only those who are kept by the power of God unto salvation will ever be able to keep his testimonies. God is not truly sought by the cold researches of the brain: we must seek Him with the heart. God is One, and we shall not know Him till our heart is one. A broken heart need not be distressed at this, for no heart is so whole in its seekings after God as a heart which is broken, whereof every fragment sighs and cries after the great Father?s face. A heart may be divided and not broken, and it may be broken but not divided; and yet again it may be broken and be whole, and it never can be whole until it is broken. 119:23. *But Your servant did meditate in Your statutes. *Who were these malignants that they should rob God of His servant?s attention or deprive the Lord?s chosen of a moment?s devout communion? The rabble of princes were not worth five minutes? thought if those five minutes had to be taken from holy meditation. It is very beautiful to see the two sittings: the princes sitting to reproach David, and David sitting with his God and his Bible, answering his traducers by never answering them at all. Those who feed upon the Word grow strong and peaceful and are by God?s grace hidden from the strife of tongues. 119:78. *I will **meditate** in your precepts. *The verb *asiach, *in the second clause of the verse, may be rendered as *I will speak of*, as well as *I will meditate upon*; implying that when he had obtained the victory, he would proclaim the goodness of God, which he had experienced. *To speak of God?s statutes* is equivalent to declaring out of the law how faithfully He guards His saints, how securely He delivers them, and how righteously He avenges their wrongs. J. Calvin 119:97. *It is my meditation. *Holy Scripture is not a book for the slothful; it is not a book which can be interpreted without, and apart from and by the deniers of the Holy Spirit by Whom it came. Rather it is a field, upon the surface of which, if sometimes we gather manna easily and without labor, and given, as were, freely to our hands, yet of which also, many portions are to be cultivated with pains and toil ere they will yield food for the use of man. This bread of life also is to be eaten in the wholesome sweat of our brow. 119:148. *My eyes prevent the night watches, that I might **meditate** in Your Word. *The Bible is a book in which we may continually meditate and yet not exhaust its contents. When David expressed himself in the language of our text, Holy Writ - the Word of God - was of course a far smaller volume than it now is, though even now, the Bible is far from a large Book. Yet David could not, so to speak, get to the end of the Book. He might have been studying the Book for years - no, we are sure that he had been - and yet, as though He were just entering on a new course of reading, with volume upon volume to peruse, he must rise before day to prosecute the study. *My eyes prevent the night watches, that I might **meditate** in Your Word. ** *Henry Melville *(From: ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* * * *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Mon Apr 29 11:19:29 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Mon, 29 Apr 2013 11:19:29 -0700 Subject: Song of Solomon 1:1-2:7 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* April 19, 2013 *OCT 30 - SONG OF SOLOMON 1:1-2:7 - SPIRITUAL COMMUNION: INITIAL LOVE* *1. 1:4 (1:1-8, ESV) SHULAMITE WITH VIRGINS, COURT LADIES AND LOVER. ?Draw me after you; let us run. The king has brought me into his chambers. OTHERS - We will exult and rejoice in you; we will extol your love more than wine; rightly do they love you.? *Lord Jesus, *You* are our King and our Lover. Father You have given Jesus unto us as King of Your Kingdom of love. We submit to You. *Hallowed be your :name.* *2. 1:9 (1:9-11) SOLOMON: EXPRESSES WHAT HE SEES IN HER. ?I compare you, my love, to a mare among Pharaoh?s chariots.? *Not yet Father, not yet are we broken, molded and disciplined. The champing horse nature must give way to the lowly, serving donkey nature. We submit. Change us. *Your :kingdom come!* *3. 1:12 (1:12-14) SHULAMITE: EXPRESSES HER LOVE FOR HIM. ?While the king was on his couch, my nard gave forth its fragrance.? *Incense and praise and worship begins to ascend unto You and Your Son, O Father! All that we have, all that we are, all we shall ever be; Cannot repay the love-debt we owe: We surrender to Thee! *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth!* *4. 1:15. SOLOMON: BEAUTIFUL AND GENTLE HE SEES HER. ?Behold, you are beautiful, my love; behold, you are beautiful; your eyes are doves.? *You Father, are the One Who call the things that are not as though they were! You see us justified, sanctified and *already* glorified! This is what You tell us in Messiah! *Our :daily :bread Give us this day!* *5. 1:16-17 (1:16-2:1) SHULAMITE: COMMENDS THEIR LOVE. ?Behold, you are beautiful, my beloved, truly delightful. Our couch is green; 17 the beams of our house are cedar; our rafters are pine.? *Father, You have given us seven things that are *ours*: and here are the first three! We are *Your habitation*, *Your dwelling place*! Make us more like Yourself. *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors!* *6. 2:2. SOLOMON: ELEVATES HER ABOVE ALL OTHERS. ?As a lily among brambles, so is my love among the young women.? *We bless You for seeing us as Your Father and our Father sees us! Father, we bless You for giving us Jesus, the Lover of our souls! We choose to abide in Him, and share His rest! *And bring us not into temptation.* *7. 2:4 (2:3-7) SHULAMITE: EXULTS IN HIS LOVE. He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love.? *Ah Father! there is * nothing* too difficult for You! You have given us Jesus, our Kinsman-Redeemer! There is *none* like unto Him! He has made us a New Creation, a Lover Creation! *But deliver us from the evil one!* *NONE**: 1:6 (1:1-8) SHE: HER LACK. **?Do not gaze at me because I am dark, because the sun has looked upon me My mother?s sons were angry with me; they made me keeper of the vineyards, but my own vineyard I have not kept!? *Father, deliver us from the striving vanity of man?s religious systems, and bring us into Your vineyard of rest! *Quote from C.H. Spurgeon - ?He Never Violates the Human Will? - *For it is not God?s way to make men His servants, except so far as they willingly yield themselves to Him. He never violates the human will, though He constantly and effectually influences it.? *Our Psalm for the Day: 120:1-2 (120) DELIVER ME, O LORD. ?In my distress I called to the LORD, and he answered me. 2 Deliver me, O LORD, from lying lips, from a deceitful tongue.? *Hidden in You Father, we become like Stephen before his persecutors. We too can say, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Suddenly we have left the continent of the vast Hundred and Nineteenth Psalm for the islands and islets of the Songs of Degrees. It may be well to engage in protracted devotion upon a special occasion, but this must cast no slur upon the sacred brevities which sanctify the godly life day by day. He Who inspired the longest Psalm was equally the Author of the short compositions which follow it. Subject: A certain author supposes that this hymn was sung by an Israelite upon leaving his house to go up to Jerusalem. He thinks that the good man had suffered from the slander of his neighbors and was glad to get away from their gossip and spend his time in the happier engagements of the holy feasts. It may be so, but we hope that pious people were not so foolish as to sing about their bad neighbors when they were leaving them for a few days. 120:1. * **In my distress**. * Slander occasions distress of the most grievous kind. Those who have felt the edge of a cruel tongue know assuredly that it is sharper than the sword. Calumny rouses our indignation by a sense of injustice, and yet we find ourselves helpless to fight with the evil or to act in our own defense. *I cried unto the Lord (or Jehovah**). ** *The wisest course that he could follow. It is of little use to appeal to our fellows on the matter of slander, for the more we stir in it the more it spreads. As well plead with panthers and wolves as with black-hearted traducers. However, when criest to man would be our weakness, cries to God will be our strength. To Whom should children cry but to their Father? 120:2. *Deliver my soul, O Lord, from lying lips.* It will need divine power to save a man from these deadly instruments. Lips are soft; but when they are lying lips, they suck away the life of character and are as murderous as razors. 120:3. *Or what shall be done unto you, you false tongue? *How shall you be visited? The law of retaliation can hardly meet the case, since none can slander the slanderer; he is too black to be blackened; neither would any of us blacken him if we could. Wretched being! He fights with weapons which true men cannot touch. Like the cuttlefish, he surrounds himself with an inky blackness into which honest men cannot penetrate. Like the foul skunk, he emits an odor of falsehood which cannot be endured by the true; and therefore he often escapes, unchastized by those whom he has most injured. His crime, in a certain sense, becomes his shield; men do not care to encounter so base a foe. But what will God do with lying tongues? He has uttered His most terrible threats against them, and He will terribly execute them in due time. 120:4. *Sharp arrows of the mighty. *What a crime is this to which the All-merciful allots a doom so dreadful! Let us hate it with perfect hatred. It is better to be the victim of slander than to be the author of it. The shafts of calumny will miss the mark, but not so the arrows of God: the coals of malice will cool, but not the fire of justice. Shun slander as you would avoid hell. *(From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Tue Apr 30 11:56:42 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Tue, 30 Apr 2013 11:56:42 -0700 Subject: Song of Solomon 2:8-3:5 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* April 30, 2013 *OCT 31 - SONG OF SOLOMON 2:8-3:5 - SPIRITUAL LONELINESS* *1. 2:9 (2:8-9, ESV) SHULAMITE: TELLS OF HIS COMING. ?My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag. Behold, there he stands behind our wall, gazing through the windows, looking through the lattice.? *Father, there are *no walls* in Your Kingdom! We Your Son?s bride may build walls, but Your servants tear down walls, leap over walls, dig through walls, and climb over walls. We join this enterprising band. *Hallowed be your :name!* *2. 2:10-12 (2:10-13) SHULAMITE: REPEATS HIS WORDS TO HER. **My beloved speaks and says to me: ?Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come away, **11 **for behold, the winter is past; the rain is over and gone. **12 **The flowers appear on the earth, the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in the land.? *O the blessedness of Spring! O the Glory of the last day, the day of Resurrection! We die daily, that the Resurrection Life You provided in Messiah, Father, might be our portion! *Your :kingdom com**e!* *3. 2:14-15. SOLOMON: TELLS OF HIS ARDENT LOVE FOR HER. **?O my dove, in the clefts of the rock, in the crannies of the cliff, let me see your face, let me hear your voice, for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely. **15 **Catch the foxes for us, the little foxes that spoil the vineyards, for our vineyards are in blossom.? *Father, You provide joy from the new wine of the Kingdom, to make glad the heart of man. *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.* *4. 2:16 (2:16-17) SHULAMITE: INVITES HIS LOVE. **?My beloved is mine, and I am his; he gra**z**es among the lilies.? *Hers is still a selfish love. Here the emphasis is like a child: she sees Him as primarily *hers*. This will change. O forgive us Father, for seeing things from our perspective, not Yours! As we follow on to know You better, this will change. *Our :daily :bread, Give us this day.* *5. 3:1 (3:1-3) SHULAMITE: COMMUNION BROKEN. **?**On my bed by night I sought him whom my soul loves; I sought him, but found him not.? *We cannot contain Your Son Father, but He can contain us! If we selfishly try and contain Him, He flees away. Thank You for being so patient with us till we learn! *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 3:4. SHULAMITE: COMMUNION RESTORED. **?Scarcely had I passed them when I found him whom my soul loves. I held him, and would not let him go until I had brought him into my mother?s house, and into the chamber of her who conceived me.? *When desire is wakened for Your Son, Father, nothing can hold us back till we find Him. When we seek Him with *all* our heart we find Him! *And bring us not into temptation.* *7. 3:5. SOLOMON: CHARGES REST FOR HIS BRIDE. **?I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or the does of the field, that you not stir up or awaken love until it pleases.? *O Father, the care and concern of our Lord Jesus for us, even in our immature state - perhaps *especially* in our immature state! *But deliver us from the evil **one.* *NOTE**: 7:13; 8:8. SHULAMITE: WORDS OF MATURITY. **?The mandrakes give forth fragrance, and beside our doors are all choice fruits, new as well as old, which I have laid up for you, O my beloved. 8:8 We have a little sister, and she has no breasts. What shall we do for our sister on the day when she is spoken for?? *Fruitfulness is at our doors! Care and concern is for *all* saints of other persuasions, no matter what their state of maturity! Can we share this concern with our Lord? *Quote from C.H. Spurgeon: ?You Must Be Willing? - *?You and I cannot be useful if we want to be sweet as honey in the mouths of men. God will never bless us if we wish to please men, that they may think well of us. Are you willing to tell them what will break your own heart in the telling and break theirs in the hearing? If not, your are not fit to serve the Lord. You must be willing to go and speak for God, though you will be rejected.? *Our Psalm for the Day: 121:7-8 (121) MY HELP COMES FROM THE LORD. ?The LORD will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. 8 The LORD will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.? *O the protection You provide us, Father! You send Your angels to keep us. You are a hedge round about us. Even in our sleep we are safe. No wonder we *Hallow your :name!* *Title: *It is a soldier?s song as well as a traveler?s hymn. There is an ascent in the Psalm itself, which rises to the greatest elevation of restful confidence. 121:1. *I will lift up my eyes unto the hills, from whence comes my help. *The holy man who here sings a choice sonnet looked away from the slanderers by whom he was tormented to the Lord, Who saw all from His high places and was ready to pour down succor for His injured servant. 121:2. *My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. *He will sooner destroy heaven and earth than permit His people to be destroyed, and the perpetual hills themselves shall bow rather than He shall fail Whose ways are everlasting. We are bound to look beyond heaven and earth to Him Who made them both: it is vain to trust the creatures: it is wise to trust the Creator. 121:3. *He will not suffer your foot to be moved. *Among the hills and ravines of Palestine, the literal keeping of the feet is a great mercy; but in the slippery ways of a tried and afflicted life, the boon of upholding is of priceless value, for a single false step might cause us a fall filled with awful danger. *He that keeps you will not slumber. *God is the convoy and bodyguard of His saints. When dangers are awake around us, we are safe, for our Preserver is awake also and will not permit us to be taken unawares. No fatigue or exhaustion can cast our God into sleep; His watchful eyes are never closed . 121:5. *The Lord is your Keeper. *What a mint of meaning lies here; the sentence is a mass of bullion, and when coined and stamped with the King?s Name it will bear all our expenses between our birthplace on earth and our rest in heaven. Here is a glorious person - Jehovah, assuming a gracious office and fulfilling it in person - Jehovah is your Keeper, in behalf of a favored individual - yours, and a firm assurance of revelation that it is even so at this hour - Jehovah is your Keeper. Can we appropriate the divine declaration? If so, we may journey onward to Jerusalem and know no fear; yes, we may journey through the valley of the shadow of death and fear no evil. 121:8. *The Lord shall preserve your going out and your coming in from this time forth, and even forevermore. *Three times have we the phrase, ?Jehovah shall keep,? as if the sacred Trinity thus sealed the Word to make it sure: ought not all our fears to be slain by such a threefold flight of arrows? What anxiety can survive this triple promise? None are so safe as those whom God keeps; none so much in danger as the self-secure. *(From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* * * *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Wed May 1 11:50:15 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Wed, 1 May 2013 11:50:15 -0700 Subject: Song of Solomon 3:6-8:14 Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* May 1, 2013 *NOV 1 - SONG OF SOLOMON 3:6-8:14 - SPIRITUAL MUTUAL SELF RESPECT* *1. 3:11 (3:6-11, ESV) SHULAMITE: MAGNIFIES HER BELOVED. ?Go out, O daughters of Zion, and look upon King Solomon, with the crown with which his mother crowned him on the day of his wedding, on the day of the gladness of his heart.? *Lord Jesus, we the church of overcomers are to be given to You as Your heavenly bride! Father, You planned it so! You Jesus will see the travail of Your soul and be satisfied. We will help You bring it to pass. *Hallowed be your :name!* *2. 4:16 (4) SOLOMON: LOVINGLY MAGNIFIES HER IN TURN. ?Awake, O north wind, and come, O south wind! Blow upon my garden, let its spices flow. SHE: Let my beloved come to his garden, and eat its choicest fruits. *Father, we too would welcome adversity and blessing, both north and south wind. Only with this mixture and balance can we mature and become well-pleasing for Your Son. *Your :kingdom come!* *3. 5:6 (5:1-8) SHULAMITE: FAILS TO RESPOND. ?I opened to my beloved, but my beloved had turned and gone. My soul failed when he spoke. I sought him, but found him not; I called him, but he gave no answer.? *Make us sensitive to Jesus, Father; may we be alert to meet *His* needs. Delay to respond on our part immediately, can bring great heartbreak and distress. *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.* *4. 5:16 (5:9-16) SHULAMITE: REMEMBERS WHOM SHE HAS LOST. ?His mouth is most sweet, and he is altogether desirable. This is my beloved and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.? *What a marvelous ten-fold eulogy! May we feel this way about Your Son Jesus, Father, as we press in to make ourselves fully available to Him. We give to Him, and He returns ten-fold to us! Whatever is necessary to make us acceptable to Him, we submit to it! Be with us in these times of purging. *Our :daily :bread Give us this day.* *5. 6:3 (6) SHULAMITE AND SOLOMON: A DUET OF MUTUAL LOVE. ?I am my beloved?s and my beloved is mine; he grazes among the lilies.? **Admiration love*! This is what we can have from Jesus, Father, as we press in to make ourselves fully available to Him! We give to Him, and He returns ten-fold to us. Whatever is necessary to make us acceptable to Him, we submit to it. *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 7:10 (7) SOLOMON AND SHULAMITE: MUTUAL PLEASURE IN EACH OTHER. ?I am my beloved?s, and his desire is for me.? *Abandonment love: Now she holds back nothing, nor makes any demands upon You, O Lord. This is the way we would be to Your Son Jesus, Father! * And bring us not into temptation.* *7. 8:6-7 (8) SHULAMITE AND SOLOMON: MOVE TOWARDS CONSUMMATION. ?Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm, for love is strong as death, jealousy is fierce as the grave. Its flashes are flashes of fire, the very flame of the LORD. 7 Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it. If a man offered for love all the wealth of his house, he would be utterly despised.? *The day comes, O Lord, when we will be fully one with You. We too long for that day, but we speed it for *Your* sake. *But deliver us from the evil one.* *NOTE**: 6:10 (6) HOW GOD SEES HIS SON?S BRIDE. **?Who is this who looks down like the dawn, beautiful as the moon, bright as the sun, awesome as an army with banners?? *This is the way You see us, Father. You call the things that are not, as though they were! You are preparing us for Your Son! *Quote from Leonard Ravenhill - *?America is not dying because of the strength of humanism but the weakness of evangelism.? *Our Psalm for the Day: 121:1-2 (121) MY HELP COMES FROM THE LORD. ?I lift up my eyes to the hills. From whence does my help come? 2 My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth.? *You Father as Creator, are * greater* than Your creation! Therefore we will not demean You by worshiping Your works. Rather we will look directly to *You*! (See yesterday?s reading for Spurgeon?s notes on this Psalm.) *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Mon May 6 14:58:17 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Mon, 6 May 2013 14:58:17 -0700 Subject: Marie's report on Jim Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* May 6, 2013 *2013-05-06 - Marie Watt to Email friends -* *To our Friends -* *Psalm 1:1-2 (KJ) - ?Blessed is the man - whose delight is in the law of the Lord; and in His law doth he meditate day and night.?* *We are so blessed by the faithfulness of our God, for ?Morning by morning new mercies we see.?* *Our hearts our overflowing with gratitude and praise for all who have been praying for us during this time of surgery and recuperation! Thank your for your Emails, phone calls and cards.* *Jim is rapidly recovering. He says it is so wonderful to feel whole again, after surgery has removed the stress and pain of the prostate and bladder problems.* *We are so grateful for the Urologist, Dr. Le (39 years old) who did the surgery. We told him everything went so well because so many people were praying for him. His response, ?There was such a strong presence there to help me do the right things? - So, Praise God.* *Some general news - Our daughter Anna came down Wednesday the 1st of May, to drive us to Group Health in Tacoma, for our 6:00 AM check in time Thursday - Surgery was at 8:00 AM. Fifty-five minutes it was over! PTL. Doctor spent 10 minutes talking to Anna and Marie, reporting on the Surgery. Wonderful. We had Jim home and in bed by Noon! Miraculous. How to pray: One. On Wednesday May 8th, Doctor?s appointment, and we?ll get the results of the tumors that were removed from the bladder.* *Two. Grace, patience and perfect healing for the next 14 days, till the Catheter is removed.* *Three. Give glory to God for Jim?s remarkable deliverance from pain, and that he will be better than ever before (Even as God has given me - Marie - such amazing health after the sickness I had over 3 years ago.) It?s all because you cared enough to pray! Thank you.* *Bless you, each one, for standing with us. Our gratitude!* *Your fellow-servants, rejoicing in God, loving you -* *Marie on Jim?s behalf.* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Tue May 14 15:48:33 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Tue, 14 May 2013 15:48:33 -0700 Subject: Marie Watt re Jim Watt Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* *2013-05-14 - Marie Watt re Jim Watt* *To: All Our Family and Friends* *Dear Everyone -* *Tomorrow, Wednesday May 15th at 1:00 PM Jim meets with Dr Le, the Urologist. The Catheter is also removed tomorrow, after 2 weeks. Praise the Lord!* *We know then what kind of healing has taken place in the bladder and prostate. We pray for a miracle.* *Our prayer is that the Surgeon was able to remove all the ?Aggressive Cancer?. After tomorrow?s visit with Dr. Le, we supposedly will have three weeks to decide what treatment is to follow.* *Jim is in bed most of the time, and is a good patient. He follows instructions, eats what he is supposed to: such as smoothies, nutritious soups, veggies, etc.* *Thank you for all your prayer, and offers to help. On Mother?s Day I (Marie) was blessed to be in church with our oldest son Jim. That was a most appreciated gift! * *Thanks for your phone calls and Emails. We are so grateful. We have been especially blessed by a group of Koreans. We normally minister with them every other Sunday. They are truly a gift from the Lord.* *Last Sunday, 5 of them visited; 2 pastors ministered with Jim while I was at church. Another Korean, Peter, and 2 young children, mowed our grass, doing a super job. Another young Korean man took me grocery shopping.* *So the family of God is a wonderful gift - including our natural family. Daughter Anna is truly a God-send. * *Anna will be driving down from Mt. Vernon (about 90 miles north of us) to drive us to the Doctor?s appointment in Tacoma tomorrow. Her Dad always enjoys her so much: she is a special gift from the Lord.* *We will send out a follow-up report after the Doctor?s visit tomorrow.* *Thank you for caring enough to pray for Jim and for me. You truly gift us by your love. Thank you. We are truly enriched. God bless each one of your with His love, His presence and most of all, His Peace. Each of you is very precious in His sight, and He has such special plans and purposes for you. Jeremiah 29:10-13.* *Much love, and our prayers -* *Marie, and Jim* * * *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Thu May 16 18:13:16 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Thu, 16 May 2013 18:13:16 -0700 Subject: Marie re Jim Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* *2013-05-16 - Marie re Jim - * *Dear Family and Friends -* *Jim is doing much better today after the Doctor?s visit yesterday. The Catheter has been removed, Praise God - and pain is minimal. The Doctor?s report is positive. Jim is up more now, even managing the stairs (13) 2 or 3 times a day.* *The 4 options for treatment suggested were:* *1. Do nothing.* *2. Introduce a wash into the bladder composed of TB germs.* *3. Remove the Bladder.* *4. Chemotherapy and Radiology.* *We skipped 1, 3 & 4, as not good, but #2 sounds promising, so that?s our choice. It is usually not possible to remove completely all the aggressive cancer germs by surgery - therefore the necessity of doing some follow-up. In answer to the prayer of faith, God can certainly remove all aggressive cancer cells, which will then not require the TB wash. A friend of ours is very active in the Tacoma and Seattle Veteran?s Affair Hospitals, and Option Two has been used in over 100 of their American Hospitals with over 90% success! However, there is a risk: TB germs hate cancer cells, and move aggressively in removing them, and at the same time mobilizing the body?s immune system to join in this endeavor. Rarely does this option cause TB to take place - but it is a risk that must be considered.* *There is a 3 week rest between the initial surgery and catheter removal - and the 6 weekly insertions of the TB wash. The first of these 6 week ?washes? would take place the first week in June, arriving at the Tacoma Hospital by 7:45 AM! (Ouch), leaving home before 7:15 AM.* *After the 6-week treatment plan, where hopefully, no cancer cells are left, there?ll be a 3 month break, and then another test to see how everything is.* *So, we are extremely hopeful, God has intervened, since so many are praying for us. Again, our thanks and gratitude for each one of you. We are so blessed! Since we have hope for a good, successful recovery, our faith abides. Praise God!* *Jim offered to drive me to my swimming pool on Monday: I think that?s a bit wishful dreaming! ?In every thing give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning us.? 1 Thessalonians 5:18.* *Be blessed. Praise God - you no longer live on Grumbling Street. Now you?re on Thanksgiving Avenue. Hallelujah! Love and enjoy one another. God is so good.* *Praising, thanking, and rejoicing in Him -* *Your friends - Marie and Jim Watt* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Fri May 17 11:23:10 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Fri, 17 May 2013 11:23:10 -0700 Subject: Ruth 1 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* May 17, 2013 *NOV 2 - RUTH 1 - LOVE?S RESOLVE: FAITHFUL DAUGHTER* *1. 1:1 (1:1-2, ESV) ELIMELECH?S FAMILY IN MOAB. ?In the days when the judges ruled there was a famine in the land, and a man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons.? *Father, help us to see lessons and Kingdom principles here. May we remember Your promises to Abraham in the *land*, not in Egypt. May famines not deter us from standing on the promises. *Hallowed be your :name.* *2. 1:3-4 (1:3-5) NAOMI: WIDOWED AND SONLESS. ?But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons. 4 These took Moabite wives; the name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. They lived there about ten years.? *This is the beginning of the downgrade of fortune: *leaving the land*. Father, forgive us for forsaking Your ordained place of blessing in the land. *Your :kingdom come!* *3. 1:6 (1:6-7) NAOMI: PLANS TO RETURN TO ISRAEL. ?Then she arose with her daughters-in-law to return from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the fields of Moab that the LORD had visited his people and given them food.? *We thank You Father, by Providential intimations that You have not forgotten us, even in our ill-advised wanderings. You are a God of grace and forgiveness! *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth!* *4. 1:8 (1:8-13) NAOMI?S PROPOSAL. ?But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, ?Go, return each of you to here mother's house. May the LORD deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me.?? *What a generous spirit on the part of Naomi! Father, You teach us not to coerce our fellow human beings, but to leave their decisions to their own free will, even if not in their own best interests. *Our :daily :bread Give us this day.* *5. 1:14-15 NAOMI URGES RUTH. ?Then they lifted up their voices and wept again. And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her. 15 And she said, ?See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods, return after your sister-in-law.?? *We hear Your voice in Naomi, Father: One who longs for us, yet will not infringe upon our free will! *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors!* *6. 1:16-17 (1:16-18) RUTH: CONSECRATION AND REPLY. But Ruth said, ?Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. 17 Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the LORD do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.? *How we praise You Father, for this revelation of the heart of Ruth! *And bring us not into temptation.* *7. 1:22 (1:19-22) NAOMI AND RUTH: RETURN TO BETHLEHEM. ?So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabite her daughter-in-law with her, who returned from the country of Moab. And they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest. *The cycle of the wheel is complete: back to the start again; empty by three souls, but full through Ruth! This is Your grace, Father! *But deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE**: 1:20-21a (1:19-22) **NAOMI: A BITTER TESTIMONY. She said to them, ?Do not call me Naomi (Pleasant); call me Mara (Bitter), 2 for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. 21a I went away full, and the LORD has brought me back empty.? *Thank You Father, that You proved Naomi wrong in her evaluation and conclusion. *C.H. Spurgeon Quote: The Tension of the Will and Predestination - *?The grace of God constrains men to become Christians, and yet only constrains them consistently with the laws of their mind. The freedom of the will is as great a truth as the predestination of God. The grace of God, without violating our will, makes men willing in the day of God?s power, and they give themselves to Jesus Christ. You cannot be a Christian against your will. How could it be? A servant of God against his will! Nay, it never was so, and it never shall be so.? *Our Psalm for the Day: 122:6-7 (122) LET US GO TO THE HOUSE OF THE LORD. ?Pray for the peace of Jerusalem! ?May they be secure who love you! 7 Peace be within your walls and security within your towers!?? *How can we glorify You, Father? By praying according to *Your* purposes. And surely one of Your purposes concerns Israel. We cannot spiritualize all Your promises to Israel and apply them only to the church! *Hallowed be your :name!* *Title and Subject*: David wrote it for the people to sing at the time of their goings up to the holy feasts at Jerusalem. When they stood within the triple walls, all things around the pilgrims helped to explain the words which they sang within her ramparts of strength. One voice led the Psalm with its personal ?I,? but ten thousand brethren and companions united with the first musician and swelled the chorus of the strain. 122:1. *I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord.* Good children are pleased to go home and glad to hear their brothers and sisters call them there. David?s heart was in the worship of God, and he was delighted when he found others inviting him to go where his desires had already gone: it helps the ardor of the most ardent to hear others inviting them to a holy duty. 122:3. *Jerusalem is built as a city that is compact together. *There is no joy in going up to a church which is rent with internal dissension: the gladness of holy men is aroused by the adhesiveness of love, the unity of life; it would be their sadness if they saw the church to be a house divided against itself. Some bodies of Christians appear to be periodically blown to fragments, and no gracious man is glad to be in the way when the explosions take place: thither the tribes do not go up, for strife and contention are not attractive forces. *(From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Sat May 18 11:07:40 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Sat, 18 May 2013 11:07:40 -0700 Subject: Ruth 2 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* May 18, 2013 *NOV 3 - RUTH 2 - LOVE?S RESPONSE: MOABITESS GLEANER* *1. 2:1 (ESV) BOAZ: THE KINSMAN. ?Now Naomi had a relative of her husband's, a worthy man of the clan of Elimelech, whose name was Boaz.? *How marvelous are Your providential plannings, O Father! How Boaz illustrates this! How he shows Your Sovereignty as it applies to *all* of us. We submit to Your benign rule. *Hallowed be your :name!* *2. 2:3 (2:2-3) RUTH: THE GLEANER. ?So she set out and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers, and she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the clan of Elimelech.? *Happenstance? Or Providential arrangement? We prefer to believe the latter, Father! With * You* there are no second causes! *Your :kingdom come!* *3. 2:5-6 (2:4-7) BOAZ: INQUIRES CONCERNING RUTH. ?Then Boaz said to his young man who was in charge of the reapers, ?Whose young woman is this??? 6 And the servant who was in charge of the reapers answered, ?She is the young Moabite woman, who came back with Naomi from the country of Moab.? *Provision is at hand, arranged by You, Father! *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth!* *4. 2:12 (2:8-14) RUTH: WINS FAVOR OF BOAZ. ?The LORD repay you for what you have done, and a full reward be given you by the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge!? *O Your graciousness Father, as realized through Boaz! May we ever remember Your * faithfulness* as manifested to Naomi and Ruth! *Our :daily :bread Give us this day.* *5. 2:15-16. BOAZ: PROVIDES FOR RUTH. ?When Ruth rose to glean, Boaz instructed his young men, saying, ?Let her glean even among the sheaves, and do not reproach her. 16 And also pull out some from the bundles for her and leave it for her to glean, and do not rebuke her.? *We are shamed when we find ourselves doubting You, Father! *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 2:18 (2:17-18) RUTH: SUPPORTS NAOMI. ?And she took it up and went into the city. Her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned. She also brought out and gave her what food she had left over after being satisfied.? *When we put You first Father, as did Ruth on Naomi?s behalf, You providentially move heaven and earth to meet our needs! *And bring us not into temptation.* *7. 2:22 (2:19-23) NAOMI: GUIDES RUTH. ?And Naomi said to Ruth, her daughter-in-law, ?It is good, my daughter, that you go out with his young women, lest in another field you be assaulted.?? *Hope is returning to Naomi?s heart, and wisdom is flowing as she guides Ruth. Thank God, that He can magnify us for our works! *But deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE*:* 2:20 (2:19-23) NAOMI: REVEALS TO RUTH GOD?S PROVIDENCE! And Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, ?May he be blessed by the LORD, whose kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead!? Naomi also said to her, ?The man is a close relative of ours, one of our redeemers.? *Naomi recognizes Your hand Father, and magnifies You! *C.H. Spurgeon Quote (1834-1892) - *?If you love anything better than God you are idolaters: if there is anything you would not give up for God it is your idol: if there is anything that you seek with greater fervor than you seek the glory of God, that is your idol, and conversion means a turning from every idol.? *Our Psalm for the Day: 123:2 (123) OUR EYES LOOK TO THE LORD OUR GOD. ?Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maidservant to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the LORD our God, till he has mercy upon us.? *In the midst of persecution and contempt, we look upon *You*, Father! *Hallowed be your :name!* *Title: ?A Song of Degrees.? *It has been conjectured that this brief song, or rather sigh, may have first been heard in the days of Nehemiah or under the persecutions of Antiochus. It may be so, but there is no evidence of it; it seems to us quite as probable that afflicted ones in all periods after David?s time found this Psalm ready to their hand. If it appears to describe days remote from David, it is all the more evident that the Psalmist was also a prophet and sang what he saw in vision. 123:3. *For we are exceedingly filled with contempt.* A little contempt they could bear, but now they were satisfied with it and weary of it. Do we wonder at the threefold mention of mercy when this master evil was in the ascendant? Nothing is more wounding, embittering, festering than disdain. When our companions make little of us, we are far too apt to make little of ourselves and of the consolations prepared for us. Oh, to be filled with communion, and then contempt will run off from us and never be able to fill us with its biting vinegar. 124:4. *Our soul is exceeding filled with the scorning of those that are at ease. *They are in easy circumstances; they are easy in heart through a deadened conscience, and so they easily come to mock at holiness; they are easy from needing nothing, and from having no severe toil exacted from them; they are easy as to any anxiety to improve, for their conceit of themselves is boundless. *And with the contempt of the proud. *Pride is both contemptible and contemptuous. The contempt of the great ones of the earth is often peculiarly acrid: some of them, like a well known statesman, are ?masters of gibes and flouts and sneers,? and never do they seem so much at home in their acrimony as when a servant of the Lord is the victim of their venom. It is easy enough to write upon this subject, but to be selected as the target of contempt is quite another matter. Great hearts have been broken and brave spirits have been withered beneath the accursed power of falsehood, and the horrible blight of contempt. For our comfort we may remember that our divine Lord was despised and rejected of men, yet He ceased not from His perfect service till He was exalted to dwell in the heavens. Let us bear our share of this evil which still rages under the sun, and let us firmly believe that the contempt of the ungodly shall turn to our honor in the world to come: even now it serves as a certificate that we are not of the world, for if we were of the world, the world would love us as its own. *(From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Schofield, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Mon May 20 10:22:11 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Mon, 20 May 2013 10:22:11 -0700 Subject: Ruth 3 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* May 20, 2013 *NOV 4 - RUTH 3 - LOVE?S REQUEST: VIRTUOUS SUPPLIANT* *1. 3:1-2a (3:1-2, ESV) NAOMI: CLAIMS RIGHT OF KINSMAN-REDEEMER FOR RUTH. ?Then Naomi her mother-in-law said to her, ?My daughter, should I not seek rest for you, that it may be well with you? 2 Is not Boaz our relative, with whose young women you were??? *How marvelous the ways of Your Kingdom, Father! How bountiful Your Kingdom wisdom! *Hallowed be your :name.* *2. 3:5 (3:3-5) NAOMI: PLANS KINSMAN-REDEEMER RIGHT FOR RUTH. And Ruth replied, ?All that you say I will do.? *Here it is Father: the same heart as was in Mary who said to Gabriel, ?Be it unto me according to your R*E*ma-word. Circumcise our hearts, and give us hearts of flesh. *Your :kingdom come!* *3. 3:6 (3:6-7) RUTH: FOLLOWS THROUGH ON NAOMI?S PLAN. ?So Ruth went down to the threshing floor and did just as her mother-in-law had commanded her.? *It isn?t enough to say, ?Yes!? We must follow through like Ruth, and act upon our resolution. Then You find pleasure in us, Father! *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.* *4. 3:9 (3:8-9) RUTH: PRESENTS OBLIGATION OF KINSMAN-REDEEMER. Boaz said, ?Who are you?? And she answered, ?I am Ruth, your servant. Spread your wings over your servant, for you are a redeemer.? *What marvelous understanding and obedience and faith on the part of Ruth! *Our :daily :bread Give us this day.* *5. 3:13 (3:10-13) BOAZ: PROMISES RUTH HIS HELP. ?Remain tonight, and in the morning, if he will redeem you, good; let him do it. But if he is not willing to redeem you, then, as the LORD lives, I will redeem you. Lie down until the morning.? *Father, You were with Ruth in the time of the testing of her faith! You made her an ancestress of King David and his greater son, Jesus! *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 3:14 (3:14-15) BOAZ: PRESENTS RUTH WITH A GIFT. ?So Ruth lay at his feet until the morning, but arose before one could recognize another. And he said, ?Let it not be known that the woman came to the threshing floor.?? *We see the wisdom of Boaz. He allowed no occasion for misunderstanding. He avoided all appearance of evil. *And bring us not into temptation!* *7. 3:18 (3:16-18) NAOMI: COUNSELS PATIENCE FOR RUTH. Naomi replied, ?Wait, my daughter, until you learn how the matter turns out, for the man will not rest but will settle the matter today.? *Now Naomi is restored to full faith. The years the locusts have eaten have been restored. Your Sovereign workings on her behalf have convinced her, Father! *But deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE**: 3:11 (3:10-13) THE COMPLETELY SATISFACTORY ASSURANCE OF BOAZ. **?And now, my daughter, do not fear. I will do for you all that you ask, for all my fellow townsmen know that you are a worthy woman.? *The leaders and the elders of the city sit in the Gate. Ruth has received a testimony of virtue from the highest in the land. For Your sake Father, we would have the same testimony. *Quote from Dr. Martin Lloyd Jones - *?Prayer is the highest activity of the human soul, and therefore it is at the same time the ultimate test of a man?s true spiritual condition (there is nothing so much as prayer life that tells the truth about us as Christian people). Everything we do in the Christ life is easier than prayer.? *Our Psalm for the Day: 124:6-8 (124) OUR HELP IS IN THE NAME OF THE LORD. ?Blessed be the LORD, who has not given us as prey to their teeth! 7 We have escaped like a bird from the snare of the fowlers; the snare is broken, and we have escaped. 8 Our help is in the name of the LORD, who made heaven and earth.? *Your deliverance Father, is right at hand in the midst of extremity. *Hallowed be your :name!* 124:1. *If it had not been the Lord Who was on our side, now may Israel say. *We murmur without being stirred up to it, but our thanksgiving needs a spur, and it is well when some warm-hearted friend bids us say what we feel. Imagine what would have happened if the Lord had left us, and then see what has happened because He has been faithful to us. 124:2. *If it had not been the Lord Who was on our side, when men rose up against us. *There is no doubt as to our Deliverer; we cannot ascribe our salvation less than Omnipotence and Omniscience could have wrought our rescue. We set every other claimant on one side and rejoice because the Lord was on our side. 124:3. *Then they had swallowed us up quick, when their wrath was kindled against us. *They were so eager for our destruction that they would have made only one morsel of us and have swallowed us up alive and whole in a single instant. The fury of the enemies of the church is raised to the highest pitch; nothing will content them but the total annihilation of God?s chosen. Their wrath is like a fire which is kindled and has taken such firm hold upon the fuel that there is no quenching it. Anger is never more fiery than when the people of God are its objects. Sparks become flames, and the furnace is heated seven times hotter when God?s elect are to be thrust into the blaze. 124:4. *The stream has gone over our soul. *When the world?s enmity obtains a vent it both rises and rushes, it rages and rolls along, and spares nothing. In the great water-floods of persecution and affliction, who can help but Jehovah? But for Him where would we be at this very hour? We have experienced seasons in which the combined forces of earth and hell must have made an end of us had not omnipotent grace interfered for our rescue. 124:7. *Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowler. ** * Fowlers have methods of taking small birds, and Satan has many methods of entrapping souls. Some are decoyed by evil companions; others are enticed by the love of dainties; hunger drives many into the trap, and fright impels numbers to fly into the net. Fowlers know their birds and how to take them; but the birds see the snare so as to avoid it, and they cannot break it so as to escape from it. Happy is the bird that has a deliverer strong, and mighty, and ready in the moment of peril: happier still is the soul over which the Lord watches day and night to pluck its feet out of the net. *(From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Tue May 21 11:18:12 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Tue, 21 May 2013 11:18:12 -0700 Subject: Ruth 4 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* May 21, 2013 *NOV 5 - RUTH 4 - LOVE?S REWARD: BELOVED WIFE AND MOTHER* *1. 4:1 (4:1-2, ESV) BOAZ: GAINS WITNESSES FOR THE TRANSACTION. ?Now Boaz had gone up to the gate and sat down there. And behold, the redeemer, of whom Boaz had spoken, came by. So Boaz said, ?Turn aside, friend; sit down here.? And he turned aside and sat down.? *Kingdom business requires Kingdom diligence. How we bless You Father, for the example of Boaz. May we too show the same diligence for Kingdom matters! *Hallowed be your :name.* *2. 4:6 (4:3-6) BOAZ: ELIMINATES THE NEARER KINSMAN. Then the redeemer said, ?I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I impair my own inheritance. Take my right of redemption yourself, for I cannot redeem it.? *This almost sounds like a chess game. Point by point Boaz moves forward; move by move he makes. He was careful to do Your will, Father. *Your :kingdom come!* *3. 4:8 (4:7-8) BOAZ: RECEIVES THE KINSMAN?S SANDAL. So when the redeemer said to Boaz, ?Buy it for yourself.? he drew off his sandal.? *Move by move Your purposes continue, Father! How sovereignly, wisely and inexorably Your will comes to pass! *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.* *4. 4:9. BOAZ: REDEEMS ELIMELECH?S INHERITANCE. Then Boaz said to the elders and all the people, ?You are witnesses this day that I have bought from the hand of Naomi all that belonged to Elimelech and all that belonged to Chilion and to Mahlon.? *Nothing was left to chance. Boaz had arranged for the ten witnesses. He did all things decently and in order. You and Your Kingdom deserve our best, Father. *Our :daily :bread Give us this day.* *5. 4:10. BOAZ: PURCHASES RUTH. ?Also Ruth the Moabite, the widow of Mahlon, I have bought to be my wife, to perpetuate the name of the dead in his inheritance, that the name of the dead may not be cut off from among his brothers and from the gate of his native place. You are witnesses this day.? *Move by move You continue to mastermind Your purposes, Father! We marvel at the greatness of Your wisdom and Sovereignty! *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 4:11 (4:11-12) BOAZ: BLESSED BY TEN WITNESSES. Then all the people who were at the gate and the elders said, ?We are witnesses. May the LORD make the woman, who is coming into your house, like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel. May you act worthily in Ephrathah and be renowned in Bethlehem.? *We hear this blessing, Father! *And bring us not into temptation!* *7. 4:14-15 (4:13-22) BOAZ: BLESSED WITH RUTH THROUGH DAVID. Then the women said to Naomi, ?Blessed be the LORD, who has not left you this day without a redeemer, and may his name be renowned in Israel! 15 He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age, for your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons, has given birth to him.? *What a proclamation of faithfulness to You, Father! *But deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE**: 4:17 (4:13-22) OBED: GRANDFATHER OF DAVID! **And the women of the neighborhood gave him a name, saying, ?A son has been born to Naomi.? Theynamed him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David. *What a testimony, and conclusion of the matter! How Your Name is glorified in it all, O Great Jehovah Father! *Quote by Smith Wigglesworth: *?I am not moved by what I see. I am not moved by what I feel. I am moved only by what I believe.? *Our Psalm for the Day: 125:1-2 (125) THE LORD SURROUNDS HIS PEOPLE. ?Those who trust in the LORD are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abides forever. 2 As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the LORD surrounds his people, from this time forth and forevermore.? *Hallelujah! You Father, are a stronger defense for us than the mountains about Jerusalem. What a comfort! We rest in this truth! *Hallowed be your :name!* Faith has praised Jehovah for past deliverances, and here she rises to a confident joy in the present and future safety of believers. She asserts that they shall forever be secure who trust themselves with the Lord. We can imagine the pilgrims chanting this song when perambulating the city walls. We do not assert that David wrote this Psalm, but we have as much ground for doing so as others for declaring that it was written after the captivity. It would seem probable that all the Pilgrim Psalms were composed, or at least compiled by the same writer, and as some of them are certainly by David, there is no conclusive reason for taking away the rest from him. 125:1. *They that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Zion. *What a privilege to be allowed to repose in God! How condescending is Jehovah to become the confidence of His people! To trust elsewhere is vanity; and the more implicit such misplaced trust becomes, the more bitter will be the ensuing disappointment; its result shall be its best vindication. 125:2. *As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about His people from henceforth even forever. * What a double security the two verses set before us! First, we are established and then entrenched; settled, and then sentineled; made like a mount, and then protected as if by mountains. This is no matter of poetry; it is so in fact; and it is no matter of temporary privilege, but it shall be so forever. The two verses together prove the eternal safety of the saints: they must abide where God has placed them, and God must forever protect them from all evil. It would be difficult to imagine greater safety than is here set forth. 125:3. *For the rod of the wicked shall not rest upon the lot of the righteous. *The people of God are not to expect immunity from trial because the Lord surrounds them, for they may feel the power and persecution of the ungodly. Isaac, even in Abraham?s family, was mocked by Ishmael. Assyria laid its scepter even upon Zion itself. The graceless often bear rule and wield the rod; and when they do so they are pretty sure to make it fall heavily upon the Lord?s believing people, so that the godly cry out by reason of their oppressors. Egypt?s rod was exceeding heavy upon Israel, but the time came for it to be broken. God has set a limit to the woes of His chosen: the rod may light on their portion, but it shall not *rest*upon it. 125:5. *As for such as turn aside unto their crooked ways, the Lord shall le**a**d them forth with the workers of iniquity.* Two kinds of men are always to be found - the upright and the men of crooked ways. Alas, there are some who pass from one class to another, not by a happy conversion, turning from the twisting lanes of deceit into the highway of truth, but by an unhappy declension leaving the main road of honesty and holiness for the by-paths of wickedness. Such apostates have been seen in all ages, and David knew enough of them; he could never forget Saul, and Ahithophel, and others. How sad that men who once walked in the right way should turn aside from it! All sin will one day be expelled from the universe, even as criminals condemned to die are led out of the city; then shall secret traitors find themselves ejected with open rebels. Divine truth will unveil their hidden pursuits, and lead them forth, and to the surprise of many they shall be set in the same rank with those who avowedly wrought iniquity. *(From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)** * *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Wed May 22 16:26:36 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Wed, 22 May 2013 16:26:36 -0700 Subject: Lamentations - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* NOV 5, 2013 *LAMENTATIONS: FOR DESTRUCTION AND HUMILIATION OF JERUSALEM* *1. 1:12 (1) JEREMIAH: HIS FIRST LAMENTATION. ?Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow, which was brought upon me, which the LORD inflicted on the day of his fierce anger.? *How fierce Your judgments upon continued sin and rebellion, Father, God of the FEAR OF JEHOVAH! May we never forget to balance Your love with Your fear! *Hallowed be your :name!* *2. 2:8 (2) JEREMIAH: HIS SECOND LAMENTATION. They cry to their mothers, ?Where is the bread and wine?? as they faint like a wounded man in the streets of the city, as their life is poured out on their mothers? bosom.? *When You destroy our wall, You cease to deliver us from the evil one, Father. He then comes in against us at will. *Your :kingdom come.* *3. 3:1 (3:1-20) JEREMIAH: HIS THIRD LAMENTATION. ?I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of his wrath.? *The righteous at times suffer with the wicked. The prophets see the fulfillment of their dread prophecies, and ourn and shudder. There is a time for jdgment, but thankGod there is also a time to heal. *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.* *4. 3:22-23 (3:21-38) JEREMIAH: HIS CONFIDENCE IN JEHOVAH. ?The steadfast love of the LORD is never ceasing, his mercies never come to an end; 23 they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.? *Thank God for this note. Following the dark night of the soul comes joy in the morning. O forgive us Father, for doubting You! Your chastisements are also in love, to bring us to our senses. Then You can restore us! *Our :daily :bread Give us this day!* *5. 3:40 (3:39-66) JEREMIAH: HIS CONFESSION AND PRAYER. ?Let us test and examine our ways, and return to the LORD!? *Yes, here is the right response to judgment and chastisement. Father, You but design such extreme times for our own good. *And forgive us our :debts, As we also hve forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 4:11 (4) JEREMIAH: HIS FOURTH LAMENTATION. ?The LORD gave full vent to his wrath; he poured out his hot anger, and he kindled a fire in Zion that consumed his foundtion.? *Yes, Your judgments O father have an end. You desire to perfect holiness in Your fear. The fear of Jehovah is the beginning of wisdom, the beginning of knowledge and turns us from sin! *And bring us not into temptation!* *7. 5:21 (5) JEREMIAH: HIS FIFTH LAMENTATION. ?Restore us to yourself, O LORD, that we may be restored! Renew our days as of old -? *We need to pray this, Father. We are so weak. Inour flesh dwells *no good thing*. Teach us to have *no confidence* in the flesh. We would only worship You in the Spirit and glory in Christ Jesus! *But deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE: 2:9 (2) JEREMIAH: A FURTHER WORD OF HIS PROPHECY. ?Her gates have sunk into the ground; he has ruined and broken her bars; her kings and princes are among the nations; the law is no more, andher prophets find no vision from the LORD.? *This is the ultimte in judgment and the fierce anger of JEHOVAH for His Name?s sake. Your holiness Father, has been violated by Your people who call themselves by Your Name. Write this judgment upon our hearts! This is the cry of Tisha B?Av! This is the response of a true *talmid teshuvah (disciple of return).** * *C.H. Spurgeon Quote: ?No Compulsion? - *?Mark that in the father?s drawing there is no compulsion whatever; Christ never compelled any man to come to him against his will. If a man be unwilling to be saved, Christ does not save him against his will.? *Our Psalm for the Day: 126:1-2a (126) RESTORE OUR FORTUNES, O LORD. ?When the LORD restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream. 2a Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy.? *Father, You are the One Who sets the captives free! Your restore us from prison and captivity! You return us to joy! *Hallowed be your :name!* This is the seventh step, and we may therefore expect to meet with some special perfection of joy in it; nor shall we look in vain. We see here not only that Zion abides but that her joy returns after sorrow. Abiding is not enough, fruitfulness is added. The pilgrims went from blessing to blessing in their Psalmody as they proceeded on their holy way. Happy people to whom every ascent was a song, every halt a hymn. Here the truster becomes a sower: faith works by love, obtains a present bliss, and secures a harvest of delight. The Psalm divides itself into a narrative (1-2), a song (3), a prayer (4), and a promise (5 and 6). 126:1 *When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream. *So sudden and so overwhelming was their joy that they felt like men out of themselves, ecstatic, or in a trance. The captivity had been great, and great was the deliverance; for the great God Himself had wrought it: it seemed too good to be actually true. Let us look to the prison-houses from which we have been set free. Ah, me, what captives we have been! At our first conversion, what a turning again of captivity we experienced! Never shall that hour be forgotten. Joy! Joy! Joy! Since then, from multiplied troubles, from depression of spirit, from miserable backsliding, from grievous doubt, we have been emancipated, and we are not able to describe the bliss which followed each emancipation. The people remembered this joy-flood for years after, and here is the record of it turned into song. 126:2. *Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing. *When at last the tongue could move more articulately, it could not be content simply to talk, but it must needs sing; and sing heartily, too, for it was full of singing. Doubtless the former pain added to the zest of the pleasure; the captivity threw a brighter color into the emancipation. The people remembered this joy-flood for years after, and here is the record of it turned into a song. Note the *when *and the *then*. God?s *when * is our *then*. At the moment when He turns our captivity, the heart turns from its sorrow; when He fills us with grace, we are filled with gratitude. We were made to be as them that dream, but we both laughed and sang in our sleep. We are wide awake now, and though we can scarcely realize the blessing, yet we rejoice in it exceedingly. *Then said they among the heathen, the Lord has done great things for them. *It is a blessed thing when saints set sinners talking about the loving-kindness of the Lord: and it is equally blessed when the saints, who are hidden away in the world, there of what the Lord has done for His church, and themselves resolve to come out from their captivity and unite with the Lord?s people. 126:3. *The Lord has done great things for us; whereof we are glad. *I heard one say the other day in prayer, ?whereof we desire to be be glad.? Strange dilution and defilement of Scriptural language! Surely if God has done great things for us we are glad and cannot be otherwise. No doubt such language is meant to be lowly, but in truth it is as loathsome. 126:5. *They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. *Our mouth has never been filled with holy laughter if it had not been first filled with the bitterness of grief. We must sow: we may have to sow in the wet weather of sorrow; but we shall reap, and reap in the bright summer season of joy. When a man?s heart is so stirred that he weeps over the sins of others, he is elect to usefulness. Winners of souls are first weepers for souls. As there is no birth without travail, so is there no spiritual harvest without painful tillage. When our own hearts are broken with grief at man?s transgression, we shall break other men?s hearts: tears of earnestness beget tears of repentance: ?deep call unto deep.? 126:6 *He that goes forth and weeps, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, binging his sheaves with him. He. *The general assurance is applied to each one in particular. That which is spoken in the previous verse in the plural - ?they? - is here repeated in the singular - ?he.? He leaves his couch to go forth into the frosty air and tread the heavy soil; and as he goes, he weeps because of past failures, or because the ground is so sterile, or the weather so unseasonable, or his corn so scarce, and his enemies so plentiful and so eager to rob him of his reward. He drops a seed and a a tear, a seed and a tear, and so goes on his way. In his basket, he has seed which is so precious to him, for he has little of it, and it is his hope for the next year. Each grain leaves his hand with anxious prayer that it may not be lost; he thinks little of himself but much of his seed, and he eagerly asks, ?Will it prosper? Shall I receive a reward for my labor?? Yes, good husbandman, *doubtless* you will gather sheaves from your sowing. Because the Lord has written *doubtless*, take heed that you do not doubt. It is somewhat singular to find this promise of fruitfulness in close contact with return from captivity; and yet it is so in our own experience, for when our own soul is revived, the souls of others are blessed by our labors. If any of us, having been once lonesome and lingering captives, have now returned home, and have become longing and laboring sowers, my true Lord, Who has already delivered us, soon transforms us into glad-hearted reapers, and to Him shall be praise forever and ever. Amen. *(From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Sat May 25 20:38:24 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Sat, 25 May 2013 20:38:24 -0700 Subject: NOV 7 Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* May 25, 2013 *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Tue May 28 13:13:22 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Tue, 28 May 2013 13:13:22 -0700 Subject: Ecclesiastes 3-5 Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* May 28, 2013 *NOV 8 - ECCLESIASTES 3-5 - QUEST BY GENERAL OBSERVATION* *1. 3:1-2a (3:1-8, ESV) VANITY: WEARY ROUND OF ALTERNATE TIMING. ?For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: 2a a time to be born, and a time to die;? *Give us the heart of Issachar O Father, with an understanding of the times and what to do (2 Chronicles 12:32)! Then we can give wise counsel to Your people. Then we will understand *Your rule* upon earth! *Hallowed be your :name.* *2. 3:11 (3:9-22) OBSERVATION: EXELLENCY BUT INSCRUTABILITY OF GOD?S WAY. ?He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man?s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.? *In this, man differs from all animals; for You Father, have made us in Your image. We are offspring of God, created by You, and redeemed by You: *twice bought*! In this light we pray, *Your :kingdom come!* *3. 4:6 (4:1-6) VANITY OF OPPRESSION AND SERVICE: CORRECT BY PEACE. ?Better is a handful of quietness than two hands full of toil and a striving after wind.? *Father, we embrace Your peace in our hearts! For in this gift and fruit of the Spirit we are able to walk through the contradictions of life and say with all our heart, Lord, we do not always understand You, but like Job *we do always trust *You! *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth. * *4:9-10 (4:7-12) VANITY OF ALONENESS: CORRECTED BY TWO. ?Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up!? *Help us not to be unilateral Christians, Father. Help us to understand body truth (1 Corinthians 12). Show us the power of Matthew 18:19, and Deuteronomy 32:30. Lead us into *Prayer Multiplication* through this principle. *Our :daily :bread Give us this day. * *5. 5:2 (4:13-5:9) VANITY OF LACK OF JUSTICE OR PLEASURE: ADVICE. ?Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore let your words be few.? *Father, forgive us for being so foolish ofttimes with our words. You do not hold us guiltless for rash words. May we heed your advice through Solomon. Yes, we recognize the wisdom of this advice. *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 5:12 (5:10-12) VANITY OF LOVE OF MONEY: CORRECT BY CONTENTMENT. ?Sweet is the sleep of a laborer, whether he eats little or much, but the full stomach of the rich will not let him sleep.? *Give us wise insight on these words, Father. May we not be foolish in multiplying to ourselves riches, goods and possessions. Help us to hold on to what we have *loosely*. *And bring us not into temptation!* *7. 5:18 (5:13-20) VANITY OF SAVING FOR OTHERS: CORRECT BY SELF-ENJOYMENT. ?Behold, what I have seen to be good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of his life that God has given him, for this is is lot.? *These are the words of the wealthiest man who ever lived. Surely he understood these principles of which he spoke! Surely then we can see dimly Your purposes in this Father, and boldly proclaim that *You deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE*: 4:11-12 (4:7-12) *THE POWER OF TWO. **?Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? **12 **And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him - and a three-fold cord is not quickly broken.? **Jesus* is this third strand: Then with Him - *You* vanquish our enemies, Father! *C.H. Spurgeon Quote: ?Sham Christians? - *Why these are sham Christians: they are of the world, and do the things of the world. We may conclude that their hearts and natures are worldly, for if they were spiritual they would love spiritual things, and their hearts would be engaged in spiritual exercises. *Our Psalm for the Day: 128:1 (128) BLESSED IS EVERYONE WHO FEARS THE LORD. ?Blessed is everyone who fears the LORD, who walks in his ways!? *Father, we marvel at the blessings of the one fearing You, walking in the knowledge that You are a *jealous* God: eats labor of his hands; he and his wife have many children; Jerusalem will be blessed; he will see his grandchildren, and Peace upon Israel. *Hallowed be your :name!* There is clearly an advance in age, for here we go beyond children to children?s children; and also a progress in happiness, for children which in the last Psalm were arrows are here olive plants, and instead of speaking ?with the enemies in the gate,? we close with ?peace upon Israel.? Thus we rise step by step and sing as we ascend. 128:1 *Blessed is every one that fears the Lord. *A man?s heart will be seen in his walk, and the blessing will come where heart and walk are both with God. Note that the First Psalm links the benediction with the walk in a negative way, ?Blessed is the man that walks *not*,? etc.; but here we find it in connection with the positive form of our conversation. To enjoy the Divine blessing, we must be active, and walk; we must be methodical, and walk in certain ways; and we must be godly, and walk in the Lord?s way. God?s way are blessed ways; they were cast up by the Blessed One; they were trodden by Him in Whom we are blessed; they are frequented by the blessed; they are provided with means of blessing; they are paved with present blessings, and they lead to eternal blessedness: who would not desire to walk in them? 128:3. *Thy wife. *To reach the full of earthly felicity a man must not be alone. A helpmeet was needed in Paradise, and assuredly she is not less necessary out of it. He that finds a wife finds a good thing. It is not every man that fears the Lord who has a wife; but if he has, she shall share in his blessedness and increase it. *By the sides of your house. She keeps at *home, and so keeps the house: It is her husband?s house, and she is her husband?s; as the text puts it - ?thy wife,? and ?thy house?; but by her loving care, her husband is made so happy that he is glad to own her as an equal proprietor with himself, for he is hers, and the house is hers, too. *Your children like olive plants round about your table. *Our children gather around our table to be fed, and this involves expenses: how much better is this than to see them pining upon beds of sickness, unable to come for their meals! It may help us to value the privileges of our home if we consider where we should be if they were withdrawn. What if the dear partner of our life were removed from the sides of our house to the recesses of the sepulcher? What is the trouble of children compared with the sorrow of their loss? Think, dear father, what would be your grief if you had to cry with Job, ?OH, that I were as in months past, as in the days when God preserved me; when my children were about me.? 128:6. *Yes, you shall see your children?s children. *This is a great pleasure. Men live their young lives over again in their grandchildren. Does not Solomon say that ?children?s children are the crown of old men?? So they are. The good man is glad that a pious stock is likely to be continued; he rejoices in the belief that other homes as happy as his own will be built up wherein altars to the glory of God shall smoke with the morning and evening sacrifice. This promise implies long life and that life rendered happy by its being continued in our offspring. It is one token of the immortality of man that he derives joy from extending his life in the lives of his descendants. *(From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Wed May 29 13:21:02 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Wed, 29 May 2013 13:21:02 -0700 Subject: Ecclesiastes 6-8 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* May 29, 2013 *NOV 9 - ECCLESIASTES 6-8 - QUEST BY PRACTICAL REALITY* *1. 6:12 (6:1-12, ESV) VARIOUS VANITIES: ATTEMPT AT UNDERSTANDING. ?For who knows what is good for man while he lives the few days of his vain life, which he passes like a shadow? For who can tell man what will be after him under the sun?? *Man apart from God lives in frustration and apprehension. There is no peace, says my God, for the wicked. Father, this is *not* the testimony of the man in Jesus! O teach us to submit to Your Son?s mild reign. *Hallowed be your :name!* *2. 7:2 (7:1-14) VARIOUS PROVERBS AND ADVICE. ?It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for this is the end of all mankind, and the living will lay it to heart.? *Unadvised festivity can be a snare. Life apart from trust in God is meaningless. Father, we will take these insights to heart. *Your :kingdom come!* *3. 7:20 (7:15-22) VARIOUS VANITIES: TEMPERED BY MODERATION. ?Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.? *In our flesh dwells *no good thing*! Only *You* in us is good, Father. We choose to have no confidence in the flesh, only in *You*, and the wisdom You give. *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.* *4. 7:29 (7:23-29) VARIOUS PROBLEMS: SOLVED BY WISDOM. ?See, this alone I found, that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes.? *It seems Father, that man purposes to wander from You from the moment of his birth. There is an innate rebellion in our heart that finds difficulty in submitting to Your Kingdom and the rule of Your Christ. Purge us from this spirit of rebellion. *Our :daily :bread Give us this day.* *5. 8:1 (8:1-5) VARIOUS WISE COUNSELS REGARDING LEADERS. ?Who is like the wise? And who knows the interpretation of a thing? A man's wisdom makes his face shine, and the hardness of his face is changed. *Our wisdom Father, is submitting to Your Kingdom and Lordship, whether heavenly or earthly. Blessed is the man who has this truth written on his heart. Purge us from the spirit of rebellion. *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 8:8 (8:6-8) VARIOUS PURPOSES: THEIR OWN TIME AND JUDGMENT. ?No man has power to retain the spirit, or power over the day of death. There is no discharge from war, nor will wickedness deliver those who are given to it.? *How weak and powerless we are in our humanity, Father! Even the strong rebel is weak before You. Blessed who understands these things and submits to Your wise rule. *And bring us not into temptation.* *7. 8:11 (8:9-17) VARIOUS VANITIES: THEIR UNDERSTANDING UNSEARCHABLE. ?Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil.? *The fear of JEHOVAH, that is wisdom, and knowledge and understanding. The heart right with You Father, is better than the head full of facts. We turn to You in our complete trust! *But deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE**: 7:8 (7:1-14) AN INSIGHT IN WISDOM. **?Better is the end of a thing than its beginning, and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.? *This is a strange but important book. Father: may we seek out till we understand Your purposes in it for us. May we walk in the truth of this verse! *C.H. Spurgeon Quote: ?Christians are sheep? - *?Some Christians try to go to heaven alone, in solitude; but believers are not compared to bears, or lions, or other animals that wander alone: but those who belong to Christ are sheep in this respect, that they love to get together. Sheep go in flocks, and so do God?s people.? *Our Psalm for the Day: 129:1-2 (129) THEY HAVE AFFLICTED ME FROM MY YOUTH. ?Greatly have they afflicted me from my youth? - let Israel now say - 2 ?Greatly have they afflicted me from my youth, yet they have not prevailed against me.? *Father, *rightly* we place our trust in You, for in *Your* right time you *always* deliver us! We may not always understand You, but we can *always* trust You! Title: *?A Song of Degrees.? *I fail to see how this is a step beyond the previous Psalm; and yet it is clearly the song of an older and more tried individual, who looks back upon a life of affliction in which he suffered all along, even from his youth. Inasmuch as patience is a higher, or at least more difficult, grace than domestic love, the ascent or progress may perhaps be seen in that direction. 129:1. *Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth, may Israel now say. *The song begins abruptly. The poet has been musing, and the fire burns; therefore speaks he with his tongue; he cannot help it; he feels that he must speak, and therefore ?many now say? what he has to say. The earliest years of Israel and of the church of God are spent in trial. Babes in grace are cradled in opposition. No sooner is the manchild born than the dragon is after it. ?It is,? however, ?good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth,? and he shall see it to be so when in after days he tells the tale. 129:2. *Yet they have not prevailed against me. *Cast down, but not destroyed,? is the shout of a victor. Israel has wrestled and has overcome in the struggle. Who wonders? If Israel overcame the angel of the covenant, what man or devil shall vanquish him? 129:4. *He has cut asunder the cords of the wicked. *Never has God used a nation to chastise His Israel without destroying that nation when the chastisements has come to a close: He hates those who hurt His people even though He permits their hate to triumph for a while for His own purpose. If any man would have his harness cut, let him begin to plough one of the Lord?s fields with the plough of persecution. The shortest way to ruin is to meddle with a saint: the Divine warning is, ?He that touches you touches the apple of His eye.? 129:5. *Let them all be confounded and turned back that hate Zion. *Study a chapter from the *Book of Martyrs* and see if you do not feel inclined to read an imprecatory Psalm over Bishop Bonner and Bloody Mary. It may be that some wretched nineteenth century sentimentalist will blame you: if so, read another *over him.* 129:6. *Let them be as the grass upon the housetops, which withers afore it grows up. *One of the fathers said of the Apostle Emperor Julian, ?That little cloud will soon be gone?; and so it was. Every skeptical system of philosophy has much the same history; and the like may be said of each heresy. Poor, rootless things, they are and are not: they come and go, even though no one rises against them. Evil carries the seeds of dissolution within itself. So let it be. 129:7. *Wherewith the mower fills not his hand; nor he that binds sheaves his bosom.* Easterns carry their corn in their bosoms, but in this case there was nothing to bear home. Thus do the wicked come to nothing. By God?s just appointment, they prove a disappointment. Their fire ends in smoke; their verdure turns to vanity; their flourishing is but a form of withering. No one profits by them, least of all are they profitable to themselves. Their aim is bad, their work is worse, their end is worst of all. 129:8. *Neither do they which go by say, The blessing of the Lord be upon you: we bless you in the Name of the Lord. *We dare not use pious expressions as mere compliments, and hence we dare not wish God-speed to evil men lest we be partakers of their evil deeds. See how godly men are roughly ploughed by their adversaries, and yet a harvest comes of it which endures and produces blessing; while the ungodly, though they flourish for a while and enjoy a complete immunity, dwelling, as they think, quite above the reach of harm, are found in a short time to have gone their way and to have left no trace behind. Lord, number me with Your saints. Let me share their grief if I may also partake of their glory. Thus would I make this Psalm my own, and magnify Your Name, because Your afflicted ones are not destroyed and Your persecuted ones are not forsaken. *(From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Thu May 30 14:49:50 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Thu, 30 May 2013 14:49:50 -0700 Subject: Ecclesiastes 9-12 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* May 30, 2013 *NOV 10 - ECCLESIASTES 9-12 - QUEST REVEIWED AND CONCLUDED.* *1. 9:9 (9:1-10, ESV) ADVICE ALTERNATING WITH VANITY. ?Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your vain life that he has given you under the sun, because that is your portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun.? *Thomas Edison and Andrew Carnegie believed this. Their prime time was spent with their wives, and the wives were their number one counselors! Father, this is what you meant Eve to be with Adam, and all wives to all husbands. This is a Kingdom priority, those most time violated. *Hallowed be your :name.* *2. 9:15-16 (9:11-18) ADVICE: UNDERSTANDING WEAKNESS AND STRENGTH OF WISDOM * ?*But there was found in a little city a poor, wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city. Yet no one remembered that poor man. 16 But I say that wisdom is better than might, though the poor man?s wisdom is despised and his words are not heard.? *Thank You Father that eternity straightens out all injustices, contradictions and unfairness. *Your :kingdom come.* *3. 10:8 (10:1-20) ADVICE: UNDERSTANDING FOLLY AND WISDOM. ?He who digs a pit will fall into it, and a serpent will bite him who breaks through a wall.? *Father, let none of us take holy safeguards from one another, nor make one another naked to sin by opening satanic doorways. May we stumble no little one! *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.* *4. 11:1 (11:1-3) ADVICE TO ALL MEN. ?Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days.? *We cannot begin to anticipate how You make this principle operate, Father. After 40 years You have shown Your faithfulness to this principle. You do not forget! You observe the falling sparrow. O forgive us for having such a low estimate of the wonder of Your Being, and Your awesome acts! *Our :daily :bread Give us this day.* *5. 11:5 (11:4-6) ADVICE TO FARMERS. ?As you do not know the way the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything.? *Father, we believe this. We hear and read of the secret life of the unborn child, right from conception. O forgive the hardness of heart and selfishness of this age that would callously take the life of such a little one. Better a millstone ? *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 12:1 (11:7-12:12) ADVICE TO YOUTH. ?Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say, ?I have no pleasure in them?.? *O Youth, hold well the words of this passage; flee evil and learn to know intimately Your God and Creator. Father, we bless You for the *clarity* and *simplicity* of this passage, and pray that it will be heeded. *And bring us not into temptation! * *7. 12:13-14. ADVICE TO CONCLUDE THE MATTER. ?The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. 14 For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.? *This is a sober conclusion, Father! Write it on our hearts. It comes from a man who blew it, and is coming back to you, and he from bitter experience knew the truth of his words. *But deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE**: 9:11 (9:11-18) ADVICE MOST TIMELY. **?Again I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to those with knowledge, but time and chance happen t them all.? *By faith we accept this! *A.W. Tozer Quote: *?Our Golden-calf Christianity? - ?Any objection to the carryings on of our present gold-calf Christianity is met with the triumphant reply. ?But we are winning them!? And winning them to what? To true discipleship? To cross-carrying? To self-denial? To separation from the world? To crucifixion of the flesh? To holy living? To nobility of character? To a despising of the world?s treasures? ...?? *Our Psalm for the Day: 130:5-6 (130) MY SOUL WAITS FOR THE LORD. ?I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I hope; 6 My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning.? *To whom else can we go Father? *You alone* in Christ are all our hope and expectation. Though You tarry in deliverance, we will wait for You. *Hallowed be your :name!* We name this the DeProfundis Psalm: ?Out of the depths? is the leading word of it: out of those depths we cry, wail, watch, and hope. In this Psalm we hear of the pearl of redemption (130:7-8): perhaps the sweet singer would never have found that precious thing had he not been cast into the depths. ?Pearls lie deep.? 130:1. *Out of the depths have I cried unto Thee, O Lord.? *Beneath the floods, prayer lived and struggled; yes, above the roar of the billows rose the cry of faith. It little matters where we are if we can pray; but prayer is never more real and acceptable than when it rises out of the worst places. Deep places beget deep devotion. Depths of earnestness are stirred by depths of tribulation. Diamonds sparkle most amid the darkness. He that prays in the depth will not sink out of his depth. He that cries out of the depths shall soon sing in the heights. 130:2. *Lord, hear my voice. *If the Lord were to make an absolute promise to answer all our requests, it might be rather a curse than a blessing, for it would be casting the responsibility of our lives upon ourselves, and we should be placed in a very anxious position: but now the Lord hears our desires, and that is enough; we only wish Him to grant them if His infinite wisdom sees that it would be for our good and for His glory. 130:3. *If You, Lord, should make iniquities, O Lord who shall stand? *If Jah, the All-seeing, should in strict justice call every man to account for every want of conformity to righteousness, where would any one of us be? Truly, He does record all our transgressions; but as yet He does not act upon the record, but lays it aside till another day. If men were to be judged upon no system but that of works, who among us could answer for himself at the Lord?s bar and hope to stand clear and accepted? 130:4. *But there is forgiveness with You, that You may be feared. *Blessed, but. Free, full, sovereign pardon is in the hand of the great King: it is his prerogative to forgive, and He delights to exercise it. Because His nature is mercy, and because He has provided a sacrifice for sin, therefore forgiveness is with Him for all that come to Him confessing their sins. If the Lord were to execute justice upon all, there would be none left to fear Him; if all were under apprehension of His deserved wrath, despair would harden them against fearing Him: it is grace which leads the way to a holy regard of God, and a fear of grieving Him. The man is about to be destroyed, to be swallowed up quick, when suddenly there comes this thrice-blessed ?but,?: which stops the reckless course of ruin, puts forth its strong arm bearing a golden shield between the sinner and destruction, and pronounces these words, ?But there is forgiveness with God, that He may be feared. 130:5. *I wait for the Lord, my soul does wait. *Expecting Him to come to me in love, I quietly wait for His appearing; I wait upon Him in service, and for Him in faith. For God I wait, and for Him only: if He will manifest Himself, I shall have nothing more to wait for; but until He shall appear for my help, I must wait on, hoping even in the depths. *And in His Word do I hope. *Waiting, we study the Word, believe the Word, hope in the word, and live on the Word; and all because it is ?His Word? - the Word of Him Who never speaks in vain. Jehovah's Word is a firm ground for a waiting soul to rest upon. 130:6. *My soul waits for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning.* God was no more dreaded by him than light is dreaded by those engaged in a lawful calling. He pined and yearned after his God. 130:7. *And with Him is plenteous redemption. *The attribute of mercy, and the fact of redemption, are two most sufficient reasons for hoping in Jehovah; and the fact that there is no mercy or deliverance elsewhere should effectually wean the soul from all idolatry. Are not these deep things of God a grand comfort for those who are crying out of the depths? Is it not better to be in the depths with helping with David, hoping in God?s mercy, than up on the mountain-tops, boasting in our own fancied righteousness? *From ?The Treasury of David? by C. H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* * * *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Fri May 31 12:55:26 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Fri, 31 May 2013 12:55:26 -0700 Subject: Esther 1-5 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* May 31, 2013 *NOV 11 - ESTHER 1-5 - CRISIS ANTICIPATED* *1. 1:12 (1, ESV) VASHTI DEPOSED. ?But Queen Vashti refused to come at the kings? command delivered by the eunuchs. At this the king became enraged, and his anger burned within him.? *Headship in the home is in the husband, not the wife. However the husband is to love his wife as his own flesh, and be willing to die for her. Husband and wife are joint-heirs of salvation, and jointly rule the household. There is a Kingdom principle here that can be violated in two ways. *Hallowed be your :name!* *2. 2:9 (2:1-11) MORDECAI PRESENTS ESTHER. ?And the young woman pleased him and won his favor. And he quickly provided her with her cosmetics and her portion of food, and with seven chosen young women from the king?s palace, and advanced her and her young women to the best place in the harem.? *Here we see Your Providence, Father: Esther and Mordecai. No doubt it was You also Father, Who inclined Hegai?s heart to Esther! May we too be as Mordecai and Esther, and do Your will on earth as it is in heaven. *Your :kingdom come.* *3. 2:17 (2:12-20) ESTHER CHOSEN. ?The king loved Esther more than all the women, and she won grace and favor in his sight more than all the virgins, so that he set the royal crown on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti.? *What wisdom of Mordecai! Father, behind all our wisdom is Your river of Life, empowering us to know and do Your purposes. This is marvelous in our sight. Providentially we acknowledge You! *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth!* *4. 2:22 (2:21-22) MORDECAI SAVES AHASUERUS. ?And this came to the knowledge of Mordecai, and he told it to Queen Esther, and Esther told the king in the name of Mordecai.? *Mordecai?s discovery of conspiracy against the king was important for Your future purposes, Father, though certainly not perceived by Mordecai at the time. O forgive us for not obeying You from the heart in whatever comes to hand, even though we understand not its future significance. *Our :daily :bread Give us this day.* *5. 3:6 (3) HAMAN PLOTS JEWISH DESTRUCTION. ?But he disdained to lay hands on Mordecai alone. So, as they had made known to him the people of Mordecai, Haman sought to destroy all the Jews, the people of Mordecai, throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus.? *This was a terrible day of testing and temptation. It was a Holocaust of complete proportions planned by an enemy of the LORD. You did not spare Your people the Jews from this trial, but You were with them in temptation?s hour Father, to deliver them. *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 4:13-14 (4) MORDECAI CHALLENGES ESTHER. Then Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, ?Do not think to yourself that in the king?s palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. 14 For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father?s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?? *Ah, here it is, and Mordecai dimly perceives it: Your Providential working, Father! Yes, You planned this to deliver the Jews from this evil one! *And bring us not into temptation.* *7. 5:2 (5) ESTHER PLANS: HAMAN PLOTS. ?And when the king saw Queen Esther standing in the court, she won favor in his sight, and he held out to Esther the golden scepter that was in his hand. Then Esther approached and touched the tip of the scepter.? *In this Providential favor, we see Father that Yours *is* the Kingdom, and the Power, and the Glory forever. *And deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE**: 4:15-16 (4) **THE BRAVERY OF ESTHER. Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai, 16 ?Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my young women will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish.? *Father, we bless You for this extraordinary example of Courage and Resignation! *Quote from Vance Havner: ?We?re suffering from a believism that never has believed and a receivism that never has received and it leads to deceivism.? * *Our Psalm for the Day: 131:2 (131) I HAVE CALMED AND QUIETED MY SOUL. ?But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me.? *Trust in You Father, requires a childlike humble spirit, and too few of us have it. But David did; and Moses did: Paul and Jesus too! O forgive us for our haughtiness, pride and rebellion. *Then* our lives can *hallow your :name!* Title: *?A Song of Degrees of David.? *It is both by David and of David: he is the author and subject of it, and many incidents of his life may be employed to illustrate it. Comparing all the Psalms to gems, we should liken this to a pearl: how beautifully it will adorn the neck of patience! It is one of the shortest Psalms to be read but one of the longest to learn. It speaks of a young child, but it contains the experience of a man in Christ. Lowliness and humility are here seen in connection with a sanctified heart, a will subdued to the mind of God, and a hope looking to God alone. Happy is the man who can without falsehood use these words as his own; for he wears about him the likeness of his Lord, Who said, ?I am meek and lowly in heart.? 131:1. *Lord, my heart is not haughty. *He begins with his heart, for that is the center of our nature, and if pride be there, it defiles everything; just as mire in the spring causes mud in all the streams. It is a grand thing for a man to know his own heart so as to be able to speak before the Lord about it. *Neither do I exercise myself in great matters. *As a private man, he did not usurp the power of the king or devise plots against him; he minded his own business and left others to mind theirs. As a thoughtful man, he did not pry into things unrevealed; he was not speculative, self-conceited, or opinionated. As a secular person, he did not thrust himself into the priesthood as Saul had done before him and Uzziah did after him. It is well so to exercise ourselves unto godliness that we know our true sphere and diligently keep to it. 131:2. *As a child that is weaned of his mother. * It is not every child of God who arrives at this weanedness speedily. Some are sucklings when they ought to be fathers; others are hard to wean, and cry, and fight, and rage against their Heavenly Parent?s discipline. When we think ourselves safely through the weaning, we sadly discover that the old appetites are rather wounded than slain. and we begin crying again for the breasts which we had given up. It is easy to begin shouting before we are out of the wood, and no doubt hundreds have sung this Psalm long before they have understood it. There is such a thing as wearing out the affections. Solomon appears to have done this at one period of his life. ?I have not a wish left,? said a well-known sensualist of our own country, who had drunk as deeply as he could drink of the world?s cup. ?Were all the earth contains spread out before me, I do not know a thing I would take the trouble of putting out my hand to reach.? *(From ?The Treasury of David? by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged by D.O. Fuller)* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Sat Jun 1 12:37:02 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Sat, 1 Jun 2013 12:37:02 -0700 Subject: Esther 6-10 Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* June 1, 2013 *NOV 12 - ESTHER 6-10 - CRISIS OVERRULED* *1. 6:11 (6:1-11, ESV) HAMAN: HIS FALL BEGINS. Haman took the robes and the horse, and he dressed Mordecai and led him through the square of the city, proclaiming before him, * ?*Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor.? *Here we see the beginning of the end; it is all of Your working Father, and it is marvelous in our sight. *Hallowed be your :name!* *2. 6:13 (6:12-14) HAMAN: HIS FALL PREDICTED. And Haman told his wife Zeresh and all his friends everything that had happened to him. Then his wise men and his wife Zeresh said to him, ?If Mordecai, before whom you have begun to fall, is of the Jewish people, you will not overcome him but will surely fall before him.? *What a prophetic word! It parallels the extraordinary prophecy of wicked Caiaphas (John 11:49-52). Thank You Father for Mordecai and Esther, who did Your will on earth as it is done in heaven. *Your :kingdom come!* *3. 7:10 (7) HAMAN: POETIC JUSTICE. And the king said, ?Hang him on that.? So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the wrath of the king abated. *What poetic justice! Sometimes Your ways of justice mover very swiftly, Father. But always You are watching over our total good! *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.* *4. 8:5 (8:1-6) HAMAN?S PLOT REVERSED. Esther rose and stood before the king. And she said, ?If it please the king, and if I have found favor in his sight, and if the things seems right before the king, and I am pleasing in his eyes, let an order be written to revoke the letters devised by Haman the Agagite, the son of Hammedatha, which he wrote to destroy the Jews who are in all the provinces of the king.? *How marvelous are Your ways, O Father! *Our :daily :bread Give us this day!* *5. 8:16-17 (5:7-9:19) ESTHER AND MORDECAI: TRIUMPH OVER HAMAN. ?The Jews had light and gladness and joy and honor. 17 And in every province and in every city, wherever the king?s command and his edict reached, there was gladness and joy among the Jews, a feast and a holiday. And many from the peoples of the country declared themselves Jews, for fear of the the Jews had fallen on them.? *This is the Good News of the Kingdom of God! *You *are reigning Father through Esther and Mordecai! *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 9:32 (9:20-32) FEAST OF PURIM INSTITUTED. ?The command of Queen Esther confirmed these practices of Purim, and it was recorded in writing.? *It is good to see the end of conflict confirmed and sealed. Then the enemy is completely defeated. *And bring us not into temptation.* *7. 10:3 (10) AHASUERUS AND MORDECAI. ?For Mordecai the Jew was second in rank to King Ahasuerus, and he was great among the Jews and popular with the multitude of his brothers, for he sought the welfare of his people and spoke peace to all his people.? *Joseph, Daniel and Mordecai: three Jews used to further Your purposes Father, in mighty nations, kingdoms and empires! But the greatest of all Kingdoms Father, is Yours, and the Power and the Glory forever. Amen! *But deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE**: 9:25 (9:20-32) HAMAN?S PLOT BOOMERANGED! **?But when it came before the king, he gave orders in writing that his evil plan that he had devised against the Jews should return on his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows.? *We are not ignorant of Satan?s devices (2 Corinthians 2:11), nor are You Father; and through us You overturn them! *Quote from Catherine Booth - ?If we are to better the future, we must disturb the present.?* *Our Proverb?s Verse for the Day: 1:33 (1) THE CALL OF WISDOM ?But whoever listens to me will dwell secure and will be at ease, without dread of disaster.? *What a helpful insight for *all* young people! *I. A new author, made use of by the Holy Spirit for making known the mind of God to us, is Solomon; through his hand came this book of Scripture and the two that follow it, Ecclesiastes and Canticles, a sermon and a song. Some think he wrote Canticles when he was very young, Proverbs in the midst of his days, and Ecclesiastes when he was old. 1. He was a king, and a king's son. The penmen of scripture, hitherto, were most of them men of rank in the world, as Moses and Joshua, Samuel and David, and now Solomon; but, after him, the inspired writers were generally poor prophets, men of no figure in the world, because that dispensation was approaching in which God would choose the weak and foolish things of the world to confound the wise and mighty and the poor should be employed to evangelize. Solomon was a very rich king, and his dominions were very large, and yet he was a prophet and a prophet?s son. 2. He was one whom God endued with extraordinary measures of wisdom and knowledge, in answer to his prayers at his accession to the throne. His prayer was exemplary: Give me a wise and an understanding heart; the answer to it was encouraging: he had what he desired and all other things were added to him. 3. He was one who had his faults, and in his latter end turned aside from those good ways of God. But let those who are most eminently useful take warning by this not to be proud or secure; and let us all learn not to think worse of good instructions though we have them from those who do not themselves altogether live up to them.* *II. a new way of writing, in which divine wisdom is taught us by Proverbs, or short sentences, which contain their whole design within themselves and are not connected with one another. We have had divine laws, histories, andsongs, and now divine proverbs; such various methods has Infinite Wisdom used for our instruction. Teaching by proverbs was, 1. An ancient way of teaching. It was the most ancient way among the Greeks; each of the seven wise men of Greece has some one saying that he valued himself upon, and that made him famous. These sentences were inscribed on pillars, and had in great veneration. 2. It was a plain and easy way of teaching. A proverb, which carries with its sense and its evidence a little compass, is quickly apprehended and easily retained. 3. It was a very profitable way of teaching, and served admirably well to answer the end. The world is governed by proverbs. As says the proverb of the ancients (1 Samuels 24:13), or (as we commonly express it), As the old saying is, goes very far with most men in forming their notions and fixing their resolves. Some think we may judge of the temper and character of a nation by the complexion of its vulgar proverbs. Yet there are many corrupt proverbs, which tend to debauch men's minds and harden them in sin. The devil has his proverbs, which reflect reproach on God and religion (as Ezekiel 12:22; 18:2;). These proverbs of Solomon were not merely a collection of the wise sayings that had been formerly delivered, as some have imagined, but were the dictates of the Spirit of God in Solomon. The very first of them (ch. 1:7) agrees with what God said to man in the beginning (Job 28:28,Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom); so that though Solomon was great, and his name may serve as much as any man?s to recommend his writings, yet, behold, a greater than Solomon is here. It is God, by Solomon, that here speaks to us. The first nine chapters of this book are reckoned as a preface, by way of exhortation to the study and practice of wisdom?s rules. We have then the first volume of Solomon?s proverbs (chapters 10-24); after that a second volume (chapter 25-29); and then Agur?s prophecy (chapter 30) and Lemuel?s, chapter 31. (From ?An Exposition, with Practical Observations, of THE PROVERBS? by Matthew Henry - New One Volume Edition COMMENTARY on the Whole Bible, Edited by Rev. Leslie F. Church, 1961, Zondervan - highly recommended by Wilbur M. Smith. Charles H. Spurgeon counted Matthew Henry as one of the outstanding Puritan Commentators of the 3 centuries preceding him.* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Mon Jun 3 10:31:30 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Mon, 3 Jun 2013 10:31:30 -0700 Subject: 1 Timothy 1 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* Jun 3, 2013 *NOV 13 - 1 TIMOTHY 1 - COUNSELS AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCES* *1. 1:1-2, NNT. PAUL TO TIMOTHY: GRACE, MERCY AND PEACE. ?Paul, apostle of Christ Jesus according to God our Savior?s commandment, and of Christ Jesus our :hope; 2 to Timothy, genuine child in faith: Grace, mercy, peace, from God the Father and Christ Jesus our :Lord.? *Because of Your effective call upon Paul Father, he was able to grant Timothy Your three-fold blessing: Grace, mercy and peace. And these three are all intimately related with Your Kingdom! *Hallowed be your :name.* *2. 1:3-4. PAUL: DOCTRINES TO BE GUARDED. ?As I, going into Macedonia, exhorted you to tarry at Ephesus, that you charge certain men not to teach otherwise, 4 neither to give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister to questionings, rather than God?s stewardship which is in faith; so now. **Father, **Your will* is *Your administration* and *government*. *Your :kingdom come!* *3. 1:5-6 (1:5-11) PAUL: END OF THE CHARGE AND USE OF THE LAW. ?But the end of the charge is love out of a pure heart and good conscience and faith unfeigned: 6 from which things some having swerved have turned aside unto vain talking.? *O write these words and truth upon our hearts, Father! Love flowing out of this three-fold service will *ground* us, *establish* us and *keep* us from unfruitful ministry. *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.* *4. 1:12-13 (1:12-14) PAUL: PATTERN OF DIVINE GRACE. ?I thank him that enabled me, Christ Jesus our :Lord, that he counted me faithful, appointing me to service; 13 though I was :before a blasphemer, and persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.? Father, we bless You for Jesus!* We thank You for His gracious dealings with Paul, and His wise understanding of the apostle's background. How just are His judgments! *Our :daily :bread Give us this day!* *5. 1:15-16. PAUL: CHIEF SINNER AND PATTERN OF LONGSUFFERING. ?Faithful the saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief: 16 howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me as chief might Jesus Christ show forth all the longsuffering, for an example of them that would thereafter believe on him unto eternal life.? *Your dealings in Christ are all-wise, and full of grace, Father! *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 1:17. PAUL: TO THE GLORY OF GOD. ?Now unto the King of the ages, incorruptible, invisible, only God, honor and glory unto the ages of the ages. Amen.? *This paeon of praise Paul ascribed to You Father, in the light of Your dealings of grace on His behalf. *And bring us not into temptation.* *7. 1:18-19a (1:18-20) PAUL: CHARGE TO TIMOTHY. ?This :charge I commit to you, Timothy child, according to the prophecies which led the way to you, that by them you war the good warfare; 19a having faith and a good conscience.? *We see here the basis of effective warfare (4:14; 2 TIM 1:6; ROM 1:11; 12:6-8). You impart through hands of man unusual blessings which enable us to ovecome (HAB 3:4; DEUT 34:9). * But deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE*: 1:9-10 (1:5-11) *THE TRUE PURPOSE OF THE LAW. ?But we know that the law is good, if one use it lawfully, as knowing that, that law is not made for a righteouss man, but for lawless and unruly, for ungodly and sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, 10 for fornicators, abusers of themselves with men,menstealerss, liars, false swearers, and if any other thing be contrary to sound teaching.? *Your saints Father, keep themselves *above* all these, not requiring the *law*! *Quote from George Whitefield - ?A true faith in Jesus Christ will not suffer us to be idle. No, it is an active, lively, restless principle; it fills the heart, so that it cannot be easy till it is doing something for Jesus Christ.? * *Our Chapter of Proverbs for the Day: 3:5-6 (3) TRUST IN THE LORD WITH ALL YOUR HEART. ?Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. 6 In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.? *Two favorite verses for many, memorized, and walked in. * * This chapter is one of the most excellent in all this book, both for argument to persuade us to be religious and for the directions therein. 1. We must be constant to our duty because that is the way to be happy, 3:1-4. 2. We must live a life of dependence upon God because that is the way to be safe, 3:5. 3. We must keep up the fear of God because that is the way to be healthful, 3:7-8. 4. We must serve God with our estates because that is the way to be rich, 3:9-10. 5. We must bear afflictions well because that is the way to get good by them, 3:11-12. 6. We must take pains to obtain wisdom because that is the way to gain her, 3:13-20. 7. We must govern ourselves by the rules of wisdom, of right reason and religion, because that is the way to be easy, 3:21-26. 8. We must do all the good we can, and no hurt, to our neighbors, 3:27-35. *(From ?Matthew Henry?s Commentary in One Volume - Zondervan)* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jmbetter at gmail.com Tue Jun 4 11:56:40 2013 From: jmbetter at gmail.com (Jim Watt) Date: Tue, 4 Jun 2013 11:56:40 -0700 Subject: 1 Timothy 2-3 - Outline Message-ID: ?*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE? MINISTRIES* *Jim & Marie Watt* *Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com* *Web: www.2rbetter.org* June 4, 2013 *NOV 14 - 1 TIMOTHY 2-3 - COUNSEL TO MEN, WOMEN AND LEADERS* *1. 2:1-2 (2:1-7, NNT) PRAYER: TO BE MADE FOR ALL MEN. ?I exhort therefore first of all to make supplications, prayers, intercessions, thanksgivings, for all men; 2 for kings and all that are in high places; that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and gravity.? *Father, we recognize Your Government through secular leaders, and pray and thank You for them, including all men. Your Government in Christ is *Good News*. *Hallowed be your :name.* *2. 2:8 PRAYER: ATTITUDE OF HEART REQUIRED. ?I desire therefore the men to pray in every place, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and disputings.? *Men is generic here, including all men and women: the human race. Father, we note that You have made prayer an outflow of the heart, taking precedence over the head! *Your :kingdom come!* *3. 2:11-12 (2:9-15) WOMEN: THEIR ADORNMENT AND STATUS. ?Let a woman learn in quietness with all subjection. 12 But I permit not a woman to teach, nor to have dominion over a man, but to be in quietness.? *That is, silence concerning authority over man, but not silence in prayer, prophecy, exhortation, sharing, etc., for these are also mentioned in Scripture. Give us balance, Father! *Your :will be done, As in heaven, so on earth.* *4. 3:4-5 (3:1-7) OVERSEERS: QUALIFICATIONS. ?Ruling well his own :house, having children in subjection with all gravity; 5 (but if one knows not how to rule his own :house, how shall he care for God?s church?)? *As a father to his family, so is an overseer (elder, shepherd) to his flock (local church); as a husband to a wife, so is a pastor to his board (leaders); as parents to their family, so is a pastor and leaders to their church. Forgive us Father, for forgetting this analogy, and that the family *first*came, then the church! *Our :daily :bread Give us this day!* *5. 3:12-13 (3:8-13) DEACONS AND WIVES: QUALIFICATIONS. ?Let deacons be husbands of one wife, ruling the children and their own :houses well. 13 For who have served well as deacons gain to themselves a good standing, and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus.? *This is a high calling. Seven deacons looked after the entire city church of Jerusalem, with its many home churches. *And forgive us our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.* *6. 3:14-15. THESE RULES: FOR GOD?S HOUSE, THE CHURCH. ?These things I write to you, hoping to come unto you shortly; 15 but if I delay that you know how one should behave in God?s house, the which is the living God?s church, pillar and ground of the truth.? *This is the Mystery of mysteries! *And bring us not into temptation.* *7. 3:16. MYSTERY OF GODLINESS: GOD IN JESUS. ?And confessedly great is the mystery of :godliness; Who was manifested in the flesh, Justified in thespirit, Seen of angels, Preached among nations, Believed on in the world, Received up in glory.? *This is the Mystery of mysteries! *But deliver us from the evil one!* *NOTE**: 2:5 (2:1-7) THE UNIQUE POSITION OF JESUS! **?For one is God, one is also mediator between God and men, a man, Christ Jesus.? *We accept Your way of doing things, Father. Salvation and Reconciliation comes in *no other way* than through Jesus Christ. There is *no other way* under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. *Narrow* is the gate, and * straitened* is the way which leads to life, and *few* there be who find it. *Quote from Paul Washer - ?You may say, ?God doesn?t hate anybody. God is love.? No, my friend. You need to understand something. Jesus Christ taught, the prophets taught, the apostles taught this: that apart from the grace of God revealed in Jesus Christ our Lord the only thing left for you is the wrath, the fierce anger of God because of your rebellion and your sin.?* *Our chapter from Proverbs for the Day: 5:1-2 (5, ESV) WARNING AGAINST ADULTERY. ?My son, be attentive to my wisdom; incline your ear to my understanding, 2 that you may keep discretion, and your lips may guard knowledge.? *Ponder the wisdom of God here through Solomon. Solomon heard these words through his father David, but failed to heed them in his old age. We all need to ponder this! 5:15-23. Solomon, having shown the great evil that there is in adultery and fornication, prescribes remedies against them 1. Enjoy with satisfaction the comforts of lawful marriage, which was ordained for the prevention of uncleanness. Let none complain that God has dealt unkindly with them in forbidding them those pleasures which they have a natural desire of, for he has graciously provided for the regular gratification of them. ?You may not indeed eat of every tree of the garden, but choose out one, which you please, and of that you may freely eat; nature will be content with them, but lust with nothing.? Let young men marry, marry and not burn. Have a *cistern, a well of your own (5:15), *even the wife *of your youth, 5:18. Wholly abstain, or wed. - *Herbert. Let him that is married take delight in his wife, and let him be very fond of her, not only because she is the wife that he himself has chosen and he ought to be pleased with his own choice, but because she is the wife that God in his providence appointed for him. *Let your fountain be blessed (5:18);** *think yourself very happy in her, look upon her as a blessed wife, let her have your blessing, pray daily for her, and then *rejoice with her*. Mutual delight is the bond of mutual fidelity. Let him be fond of his wife and love her dearly (5:19). If you will suffer your love to run into an excess, let it be only of your own wife. Let him take delight in his children and look upon them with pleasure (5:16-17). Let him then scorn the offer of forbidden pleasures when he is *always ravished with the love *of a faithful virtuous wife; let him consider what an absurdity it will be for him to be *ravished with a strange woman (5:20). *If the dictates of reason may be heard, the laws of virtue will be obeyed. *(From ?Matthew Henry?s Commentary in One Volume? - Zondervan)* *TO SUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-subscribe at 2rbetter.org* *TO UNSUBSCRIBE - Please Email: mailing-unsubscribe at 2rbetter.org* *FOR ARCHIVE ARTICLES - Web:http://2rbetter.org/pipermail/mailing/* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: