One Year Bible, July 19

1 CHRONICLES 28:1 - 29:30                                                                                          
DAVID'S LAST WORD TO THE NATION:  His final words reviewed his plans and preparations for the Temple. He made Solomon king, and then died at the age of 70. His vast administrative infrastructure knit 12 disconnected groups of nomads into one of the most influential integrated empires of his time!  David did it all to promote Jehovah's headship, Lordship, Kingship, and His good pleasure. (V. 5, "kingdom of the Lord").

DAVID'S LAST WORD TO SOLOMON: "Serve God with a perfect heart and a willing mind." "If you forsake Him, He will cast you off forever." "Be strong and of good courage, and do it; fear not, nor be dismayed; for the Lord God, even my God, will be with thee, He will not fail thee, nor forsake thee, until thou hast finished all the work for the service of the house of the Lord."   What this means to me: If you would make the greatest success of your life, discover what God is doing in your time and fling yourself into the accomplishment of His purpose and will. (Arthur Wallis)

WORSHIP IS THE BASIS OF STEWARDSHIP:  David set the example with a personal offering of over $3 billion. His staff followed.   After taking up the offering, David prayed and led the nation in worship.  In his prayer, he acknowledged that we can't really give anything to God, because He was the One who gave it to us in the first place!  "Both riches and honor come from Thee..."  "Now bless the Lord your God..."  David's message was always, "The Lord is good, and His MERCY endures forever." (Mercy = covenant love and affection and goodness toward us. It is God's actions that save me from self-destructing.)

RESPONSE:   David brought absolutely EVERYTHING to the Lord.  All he did, he did for God, and with God.  He knew that it was in God's power to make great, or to bring low.   He resorted to God in troubled times, and in the good and prosperous times, too.  Any victory David had, was actually God's victory and David was the recipient of it.  Even the offerings were originally from God!  Whatever we do for God, was initiated by God in the first place!

ROMANS 5:6-21                                                                                                           
FULLY RESTORED AS GOD'S SONS:  Requires deliverance from four tyrants: DEATH, SIN, THE LAW, THE FLESH.  What is NOT mentioned in that list? DEVILS!  They reign in the presence of the other four.  When sin passed into the world, it brought death with it.  Man became a DESTROYER.  The sting of death is sin, so sin must be overcome.   Jesus died in my place: INSTEAD OF and ON BEHALF OF.  He is my substitute and my example. The life He lives in me (the resurrected me) is what saves me from every enemy.  I need to be delivered both from my sin (nature - what I am) and from my sins (my choices - what I do). The BLOOD delivers me from sins - what I did and do (This cleansing is continual - 1Jo 1:7).  My sin nature was dealt with by the CROSS.

ADAMIC NATURE:  Before we are saved, we sin because we are sinners.  With our Adamic nature, we are constitutionally unable to please God or to overcome our enemies.  The trouble is our HEREDITY, not our BEHAVIOR.  The Blood cannot take us out of ADAM.  We must leave by the death of the Cross (2 Co 5:14).  DEATH IS THE SECRET OF BEING FREED FROM SIN.  Christ, in dying as the "last Adam", in essence, put to death Adam's race. (Read 1 Cor 15:45-54)  To pass from being IN the "first Adam" to being IN the "last Adam", we must die to SELF. The grace of God is all out of proportion to the offence of Adam. The opposite of sin is GRACE.

FREED FROM DEATH:  Because grace reigns, we are counted as righteous, and have eternal life.  NO LONGER IS ADAM OUR LIFE-SOURCE. CHRIST IS OUR NEW WAY OF LIVING.  WE ARE SAVED (to realize our purpose in glorifying God), THROUGH HIS LIFE (our holy walk).  We have peace with God, but trouble with ourselves!

RESPONSE:   No more striving.  We don't need to be STRONGER, but we do need to weaken the flesh considerably!  It is heresy to say we need more power to overcome sin.  We need more dependence on the Holy Spirit.  Less of me, more of God. Less of me, more of God.  The life of Jesus in me, to indwell and re-create Jesus in me.  Death working to destroy the flesh so Jesus can be manifest.  Deliverance from my past, from my proclivity to sin, from all that brings death in me (darkness and chaos) - comes through death to SELF. (Gal 2:20)

PSALM 15:1-5                                                                                                                
Psalm 15 and 24 are "The Man after God's Heart" "Who shall dwell in Thy Holy Hill?" Psalm 24 says, "Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who shall stand in His Holy Place?"  Psalm 15-24 show the characteristics of the "Man of the Spirit" or the spiritual man.

CHARACTERISTICS IN PSALM 15:
V.2: Integrity - an integrated life. (walks the talk)
V.3: Tamed tongue. His words are restrained.
V.4: Allegiance to God and God's people is clear-cut.
V.4: Dealings are honorable.
V.5: His place is assured.

PROVERBS 19:18-19                                                                                                   
Spank'em while they are young.  If you relent because of his crying, you expose your child to a greater evil than a spanking.  Children must be broken of their self-will, and taught the "fear of God".  That is the whole purpose of discipline.  Even Jesus "learned He obedience by the things which He suffered.." (Heb 5:8)

An angry person is always in trouble. If you help him out, you will probably end up doing it over and over and over. Let him pay the first time - it's quicker.

RESPONSE:  You can always pick out the adult who had permissive parents. They have not learned to respect authority, to submit to the "one-another's" of their lives, and they spend a lot of time being angry at the wrong people. They are foolish and have problems being integrated into groups.  I could go on and on, but I won't!  Proverbs will do that for me.