Puritan Corner - Our God

 "Having given up ourselves to God, let us comfort our souls that God is our God."

by Richard Sibbes (1577-1635) 

For who is God save the LORD? or who is a rock save our God?

Psalm 18:31

31 Day Daily Devotional SERIES for the Garden of the Heart: DAY 31

 DAY 31

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: 2 Timothy 3:16

Q: What is the BIBLE?

A:  It is a book that begins & ends the same---

In the 1st story- God leans over and breathes the breath of life into Adam
In the last story- God leans over and wipes away all tears from their eyes
--It begins & ends with God leaning over & touching us----& the pages in between He is trying to tell us what He thinks of us.....that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy. James 5:11

 

*A WARNING Given*

....even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; 

 in which are some things hard to be understood, 

which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, 

as they do also the other scriptures,

 unto their own destruction.

But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies,....For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality....

2 Peter 3:15,16/2:1/Jude 1:4 NIV

 

 DAILY REMINDER

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, 

and have not LOVE, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. 

And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, 

and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, 

and have not LOVE, I am nothing. 

And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not LOVE, it profiteth me nothing.

LOVE suffereth long, and is kind; 

LOVE envieth not; 

LOVE vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, 

Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, 

is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; 

And now abideth faith, hope, LOVE, these three; 

but the greatest of these is LOVE.

And from Jesus Christ, .... Unto him that loved us, 

and washed us from our sins in his own blood,

1 Corinthians 13:1-5,13/Revelation 1:5

 

 

"It is a law both of the intellectual and the spiritual nature that by

beholding we become changed. The mind gradually adapts itself to the subjects upon which it is allowed to dwell. It becomes assimilated to that which it is accustomed to love and reverence.

But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. 2 Corinthians 3:18." 

 The Great Controversy p.555 E.G.W.

 

  Closing Thought for the Day

Beloved,

      I wish above all things

       * that thou mayest prosper (personal well being)

       * and be in health, (physical well being)

       * even as thy soul prospereth. (spiritual well being)

I have no greater joy 

than to hear that my children walk in truth.

 

But I trust I shall shortly see thee,

and we shall speak face to face.

 

Let the wicked forsake his way, 

and the unrighteous man his thoughts: 

  and let him return unto the Lord, 

     and He will have mercy upon him; 

        and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.

3 John 1:2,4,14/Isaiah 55:7

At Spiritual Midnight

And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him.

Matthew 25:6

“The coming of Christ will take place in the darkest period of this earth’s history. 

The days of Noah and Lot pictured the condition of the world just before the coming of the Son of man…Not only is Satan leading the world captive, but his deceptions are leavening the professed churches of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

The great apostasy will develop into darkness deep as midnight.”

E.G.W.

IN the NEWS - Really?

 If the wicked restore the pledge, give again that he had robbed, walk in the statutes of life.... 

Ezekiel 33:15

"The high demand for COVID-19 tests has led to scammers setting up fake testing sites to steal people’s information, according to the Better Business Bureau.

They’re warning people to check the validity of a testing site or company offering to send you at-home tests before you hand out your personal information.

“Some of these scam sites are requesting your credit card information and other personal, identifiable information – so, security numbers, driver’s license numbers, things like that,” President and CEO of BBB Serving Northern Indiana Rick Walz said. “Until you are 100 percent sure that the site is legit and that the information they’re requesting is reasonable, don’t give out any information.” 

One company the BBB is looking into: Center for Covid Control.

The company’s website advertises more than 275 free testing sites across the country, including a location in Fort Wayne at Coliseum Blvd. and Delaware Ave.

Two weeks ago, WANE 15 alerted BBB of Northern Indiana to the site and national news stories about the company, which prompted an investigation. 

A CBS News report indicates the FBI is now also looking into the company.

Center for COVID Control’s website claims the company’s operations are “paused” despite advertising they would reopen on Saturday, January 22." WANETV

IN the NEWS - Prince of Persia keeps trying different angles... even in Hindu India

Be sober, be vigilant; 1 Peter 5:8

 

"Authorities in Karala, India voted on January 22, 2022 to set aside a day and lockdown the city in order to help combat the spread of

Covid-19. 

Q: Guess which day was chosen to shut down all non-essential commercial establishments? 

A: It was, of course, Sunday. On Sunday, Karala police closed businesses, ....The streets were quiet and empty.

Sunday rest is the new strategy to fight Covid. Mask mandates, social distancing, and triple vaccinations are insufficient. In order to survive the pandemic, Sunday must also be made mandatory by law. Does this ring a bell?

And those who violate the Sunday lockdowns (rest) will be hauled off to jail." AdventMessenger

IN the NEWS - The Wickedness behind the smile & PJ's

Wherefore do the wicked live, 

become old, yea, 

are mighty in power? 

Job 21:7

"The 10-part A&E network docuseries “Secrets of Playboy” just premiered Monday, but it’s already making waves in the

entertainment industry. 

Most know Hefner, who died in 2017 at the age of 91, as the man who commercialized pornographic images. He smoked pipes, wore silk pajamas, and ruled over a revolving harem of young, blonde women. 

However, the women who once participated in Hefner’s lifestyle are now claiming there were acts of depravity happening that even the most sexually progressive people would condemn. 

They are claiming incidents of rape and bestiality behind the mansion’s walls, Daily Mail reported.

Garcia described the overall atmosphere as toxic. She said, “It was cult-like.... We had Playmates that overdosed, that committed suicide.”

Theodore claimed, “I walked in on him with my dog and I said, ‘What are you doing?’ I was shocked. He made it seem like it was just a one-time thing, and that he was just goofing off. But I never left him alone with my dog again.”

Daily Mail reported that one episode includes an interview with 1970s “Deep Throat” porn star Linda Lovelace, who recalls being made to perform oral sex on a German Shepherd with Hefner and his friends watching.

Playboy’s group leadership team released an open letter just ahead of the January 24 premiere. It said in part that they “trust and validate women and their stories” . DailyWire

Creation Moment 1/31/2022 - First Cause

"In the beginning … what? Genesis 1:1 says “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”, but why think that’s true? 

 

First, nothing comes into being without a cause, a basic principle of science and rationality. Everything we see that started to be has some sort of cause. 

But we also know that the universe itself had a beginning. The laws of thermodynamics powerfully imply that the universe had a beginning. And an infinite regress of secondary causes can’t even exist, because it can be shown mathematically that this would lead to absurdities! But that means the universe itself had a cause. 

 

Q: But what could cause the universe? 

A: The universe is all of space-time-matter reality, so the cause can’t be bound by those things. And it must be powerful to cause the universe! 

The simplest solution is an eternal, non-material, uncaused cause. 

 

Q: But how to get a temporal effect from an eternal cause? 

A: That cause must have freely chosen to create, so it must be a personal cause. 

 

So the simplest cause for the universe is a single, powerful, personal, eternal, immaterial, uncaused cause—it sounds a lot like God." CMI

31 Day Daily Devotional SERIES for the Garden of the Heart: DAY 30

DAY 30

God is love....

1 John 4:16

 Now when I passed by thee, 

and looked upon thee, behold, 

thy time was the time of love; 

and I spread my skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness:

Ezekiel 16:8

 

DAILY REMINDER

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, 

and have not LOVE, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. 

And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, 

and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, 

and have not LOVE, I am nothing. 

And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not LOVE, it profiteth me nothing.

LOVE suffereth long, and is kind; 

LOVE envieth not; 

LOVE vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, 

Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, 

is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; 

And now abideth faith, hope, LOVE, these three; 

but the greatest of these is LOVE.

And from Jesus Christ, .... Unto him that loved us, 

and washed us from our sins in his own blood,

1 Corinthians 13:1-5,13/Revelation 1:5

 

"I sleep,

but my heart wakes:

it is the voice of my beloved that knocks.
  Song of Solomon 5:2

 I. First, then, here is SLUMBER CONFESSED.
The spouse laments her state, and sighs out, "I sleep."  

Sleep is cousin unto death, and he that slumbers lies at the door of the sepulcher. 

II. We reach the point of the paradox; here is WATCHFULNESS CLAIMED by one who confessed to sleep.
"My heart wakes," says the Bride, "I sleep, but my heart wakes."

The spouse gave another proof of her wakefulness by her 'discernment'. She says, "It is the voice of my beloved that knocks." Even when half asleep she knew her Lord's voice.
This puzzle of "I sleep, but my heart wakes," has been experienced by thousands.

 III. MYSTERY SOLVED.
"I sleep, but my heart wakes." How does her heart wake? It is because the voice and knock of her Beloved are heard.

 --That field all tangled with the brambles tore the shepherd when he sought you out, 

--and the briars will tear you also if you wander there."

 "The love of God embraces the whole world,  

but it also singles out each individual."

 

"The parable of the straying sheep should be treasured as a motto in

every household.

The fact that one sheep was lost was enough to awaken the sympathy of the Shepherd and start Him on His quest."

Charles Spurgeon/E.J. Waggoner/E.G.W.

 

 Closing Thought for the Day

 A certain man had two sons:  

And the younger of them said to his father, 

Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me.

And he divided unto them his living.  

 

And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living.  

And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want.  

 

And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and

he sent him into his fields to feed swine.  

And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him.  

 

And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants.  

 

And he arose, and came to his father. 

But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.  

 

And the son said unto him, Father, 

I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son.  

 

But the father said to his servants,  

Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry: For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. 

And they began to be merry.

But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off 

are made nigh by the blood of Christ.

For God so loved the world, 

that he gave his only begotten Son, 

that whosoever believeth in him should not perish,

but have everlasting life.

Luke 15:11-24/John 3:16/Ephesians 2:13

IN the NEWS - We've been Warning You....

We've been telling you this....a TOOL & MECHANISM for government control---from out of the ashes of COVID mania ....And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Rev. 13:17

"Last week, the Federal Reserve released a “discussion paper”

examing the pros and cons of a potential US central bank digital dollar.

Government-issued digital currencies are sold on their promise of convenience and security. But there is a darker side – the promise of control.

The digital dollar could ultimately replace physical cash.

US officials toyed with the possibility of a digital dollar at the height of the pandemic. A Democratic proposal for stimulus payments in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic featured digital currency deposited into digital wallets.

Imagine if there was no cash. It would be impossible to hide even the smallest transaction from government eyes.  

The government could even “turn off” an individual’s ability to make purchases."  

ZeroHedge

Creation Moment 1/30/2022 - The Ultimate Answer

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. John 1:1-3

",,,,,if everything has a reason why it exists, and the reason why the universe exists is that God made it, then God exists. The ultimate answer to why there is something rather than nothing is God. We can summarize this as follows:

1. Everything has a reason why it exists—either by the necessity of
   
   its own nature, or because it was caused by something else.
2. If the universe has a reason why it exists, it is that God caused it to exist.
3. The universe exists.
4. Therefore, God caused the universe to exist.
5. Therefore, God exists." CMI
   

31 Day Daily Devotional SERIES for the Garden of the Heart: DAY 29

 DAY 29

 ....when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.

1 Peter 3:20

 I. The Raven

And he sent forth a raven,

which went forth to and fro,

until the waters were dried up from off the earth.

Genesis 8:7

The Raven was sent out & never returned to the ark.

The Raven represents Lucifer, sent out first to the earth where he would stay.

The Raven is a scavenger bird

as Lucifer scavenges for the souls of earth.

And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent,

called the Devil, and Satan,

which deceiveth the whole world:

he was cast out into the earth,

Revelation 12:9

 

II. The Dove

a) First Trip / 1st Advent

Also he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground; But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth: then he put forth his hand, and took her, and pulled her in unto him into the ark.

Genesis 8:8,9

The Dove represents Christ. Notice on its first trip it found no place to rest the foot

---as Christ found no place to rest His head.... .

And it was Noah (God) who reached out and the pulled the Dove (Christ)

 back into the ark (Heaven).

...but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.

Luke 9:58

b) Second Trip / 2nd Advent

 ....and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark; And the dove came in to him in the evening; and, lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf pluckt off:

Genesis 8:10,11

After the 2nd Advent of Christ, He returns to heaven

 with His people...

represented by an olive branch... for Paul compares

 the people of God to an olive branch.

 ...how much more shall these,

which be the natural branches,

 be graffed into their own olive tree?

Romans 11:23

C) Third Trip / 3rd Advent

 ....and sent forth the dove; which returned not again unto him any more.

Genesis 8:12

The dove didn't return from the 3rd trip. 
The 3rd time Christ leaves Heaven for earth,

He stays here. For He brings down the City of the New Jerusalem.

And he carried me away

in the spirit to a great and high mountain,

and shewed me that great city,

the holy Jerusalem,

descending out of heaven from God,

Revelation 21:10

 

 DAILY REMINDER

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, 

and have not LOVE, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. 

And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, 

and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, 

and have not LOVE, I am nothing. 

And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not LOVE, it profiteth me nothing.

LOVE suffereth long, and is kind; 

LOVE envieth not; 

LOVE vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, 

Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, 

is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; 

And now abideth faith, hope, LOVE, these three; 

but the greatest of these is LOVE.

And from Jesus Christ, .... Unto him that loved us, 

and washed us from our sins in his own blood,

 1 Corinthians 13:1-5,13/Revelation 1:5

"Universal was the doom,

neither rich nor poor escaped:

the learned and the illiterate,

the admired and the abhorred,

the religious and the profane,

the old and the young,

all sank in one common ruin.

Some had doubtless ridiculed the patriarch--where now their merry jests? ... The critic who judged the old man's work is drowned in the same sea which covers his sneering companions. 

 

How marvellous the general apathy! they were all eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, till the awful morning dawned. 

All are safe in Jesus. My soul, art thou in him?"

Charles Spurgeon 

 

Closing Thought for the Day

For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

Matthew 24:38,39

Creation Moment 1/29/2022 - It does "get tiring"

For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. 1 Corinthians 1:19

"Darwin had a lot to say about changes in life forms, but little to say about the origin of life itself. He speculated about a “warm little

pond” in his famous letter to Joseph Hooker late in life, but his influence on naturalistic religion went far beyond the origin of species. 

 

In his religion, Nature makes itself— no Designer needed. 

Naturally, his disciples took his program further and started naturalistic doctrines about the origin of life, the origin of planets, the origin of stars, and the origin of the universe, all making itself without intelligence or direction.

Nobody has witnessed any of these things happen. Today, the Origin-of-Life (OOL) field is active, confident, and dogmatic. Scientific papers appear regularly about the origin of life, but they are all based on lies. 

---It gets tiring to have to repeat this. Chemistry forbids it, thermodynamics forbids it, probability forbids it, and reason forbids it. 

In the Origin of Lie cult, the “building blocks of lie” are suggestions that an amino acid here, or a nucleobase there, or a clay mineral over yonder might help “shed light” on the origin of life. It’s all smoke and mirrors." CEH