One Year Bible, July 18

1 CHRONICLES 26:12 - 27:34                                                                                        
DAVID'S ADMINISTRATION:  It was in the midst of his extremely busy life that David developed and grew as a man of God's Presence.  As a "man after God's heart", David brought that sense of God's Presence into every detail of his extremely busy and pressured life. God wants us to know Him IN THE CONTEXT OF EVERY-DAY LIVING.  David made no distinction between sacred and secular.  He surrounded himself with the right mix of people. They were a worshipping community.  26:32 says that David made rulers for "every matter pertaining to God, and affairs of the king."  They maintained their spiritual zeal in the midst of their secular callings, because they did everything in His Name, for His Sake, and with His Anointing.

AHITHOPHEL:  "The king's counselor" -  Bathsheba's grandpa. He was the real leader of Absalom's rebellion and attempt at take-over. The betrayal was double-painful.

RESPONSE:   Knowing God in context is key to knowing God.  He wants to be the center of our lives, and that can only happen as we oriented our wholes lives to God. We must form a habit of talking to God as if He were right there all the time. (because He is). When our minds wander to our obsession with ourselves and our circumstances, we jerk it back to God - reminding ourselves of His goodness and greatness.  Knowing God in context is key to being spiritually successful.

ROMANS 4:13 - 5:5                                                                                                            
RIGHTEOUSNESS OF FAITH:  Whole books are written about just what this is! The Apostle Paul explains that it is the OPPOSITE of righteousness by Law. He says that the Law VOIDS "the promise" because "the promise" is strictly by faith, before the Law was given. "The promise" , tracked through Scripture, is "THE LIFE", obtained by faith, characterized by the interactive Presence of God, and empowered by God's grace and made possible by righteousness.   Being made "heir of the world" is part of that life because we are in covenant with the True Heir of the world, Jesus.

DEFINITION:  Paul defines what he means by "righteousness of faith" himself.  4:6 says that David actually defined the "blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, saying, 'Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered.  Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.'"   There you have it: it is to be without iniquities or sins or sin nature. 

In order to have "THE LIFE" , we must have the "righteousness of faith".  This is God's own righteousness because He lives in us, fulfilling His righteous standard.  Faith is the medium that makes it possible. Obedience to that faith is how we grab hold of it. Without that obedience, faith is inactive or DEAD FAITH. Faith is not the END, it is the MEANS.

RESURRECTION:  Is mentioned here because in order to act on our faith, resurrection is necessary to recover us from Adam's destruction.   We are resurrected from the inside-out (Rom 8:11).   Abraham was actually "made strong in faith" - God strengthened Abraham's faith!   BUT, Abraham had no mental struggle. He was "fully persuaded" - completely satisfied, that God would keep covenant made in blood.   Abraham stared right at his circumstances, looked his obstacles right in the face, and laughed. Don't you love it!  He laughed for JOY, not RIDICULE or CYNICISM. 

JUSTIFIED BY FAITH: Reconciled (brought into harmony with) to God.
5:1: We have been reconciled to God and have peace with God.
5:2 The highest privilege: Intimate access to God's Presence.
5:2 We rejoice in the hope of glory because the Blood removed the barrier to the Rest of God.
5:3 There is purpose to our suffering: - it changes us and adds character. If we practice humility and faith, we gain patience or endurance and integrity because our faith is proven.
5:5 Overwhelming love (deluged extravagantly, like the Flood).
5:2,11 Overwhelming joy.

RESPONSE:   I have no righteousness of my own.   It is "as filthy rags" (Isa 64:6) and is still SELF-righteousness.  I must have His Righteousness and can only have it by faith, through relationship.  God takes it very seriously when we don't believe Him.  Hebrews talks a lot about that as "the besetting sin".   Belief, or faith, ALWAYS has outward evidence called "the obedience of faith" (Rom 1:5; 16:26).  We must break the addiction to walking by sight.  We don't just walk by faith UNTIL we get the sight we really desired.  We walk by faith, period.   And our life of faith must produce a life that is its own witness to His Presence that distinguishes us from everyone else.

We rejoice in "suffering" (tribulation, pressure, trouble) because it gives us the opportunity to change and grow.   We will believe or abandon Truth when the pressure is on.  We will be loyal to the Word of Truth, or to our circumstances. God wants proven character, or integrity - so we can be His representatives in the earth and reign.  We can't reign if we are falling apart because we are fractured - we must be integrated, body and soul and spirit.  That means even our feelings can reflect God's Presence. 

PSALM 14:1-7                                                                                                                   
Psalm 9-14 give us the ugly picture of the world-spirit of antichrist, as demonstrated by OUR FLESH.   The "sinner" or "man of the earth" or "FLESH" must be SLAIN, not just re-directed.   Chapter 14 shows the flesh as not believing in a personal God (Rom 8:7), as flaunting God's laws, and being utterly corrupt.  The flesh fears the manifest Presence of God - as it should.  The godless are fools and their works are an abomination.  They live as if God doesn't exist.  But we know that God is among us and in us, and we have an interactive relationship with Him that is personal.

PROVERBS 19:17                                                                                                          
GIVING NEVER IMPOVERISHES A BELIEVER.  NEVER.  We give from a position of strength and power and sufficiency.

RESPONSE:  God gives liberally.  He loves when we do that too.  NOT giving documents unbelief and ingratitude.   God says His grace is sufficient (2 Cor 9:8).