THE THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
Pay attention to the words of wisdom Solomon and wise counsel have to offer
“My son, attend unto my wisdom, and bow thine ear to my understanding: 2 That thou mayest regard discretion, and that thy lips may keep knowledge.”
Proverbs 5:1-2 (KJV)
Or fall into the trap of the enemy
“2 And say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof; 13 And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me! 14 I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly.
Proverbs 5:12-14 (KJV)
Matthew 4 (18th book written in the NT)
God will test even the most perfect by placing us in a position of despair and leaving us weak and vulnerable
Matthew 4:1-2 (KJV), “Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. 2 And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred.”
God does not always send the devil himself to temp us as in this verse where only the literal word ‘tempter’ is applied
Matthew 4:3 (KJV), “And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.”
Thayer’s Greek Lexicon (3985) – c. to try or test one’s faith, virtue, character, by enticement to sin; hence, according to the context equivalent to solicit to sin, to tempt; the tempter.
Jesus Himself tells the tempter and us that we cannot live on food alone but every Word of God
Matthew 4:4 (KJV), “But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”
Paul instructs Timothy and all of us of what is out of the mouth of God
2 Timothy 3:16 (KJV), “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.”
Strong’s Concordance (2315) – theopneustos: God-breathed, i.e. inspired by God [out of the mouth of God].
The kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven are the same thing
Matthew 19:23-24 (KJV), “23 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. 24 And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.”
It is just a matter of the apostles interpretation
Matthew 11:11-12 (KJV), “11 Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. 12 And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.”
Luke 7:28 (KJV), “For I say unto you, Among those that are born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist: but he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.”
From this very moment, Jesus declared His mission and preaching
Matthew 4:17 (KJV), “From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
When Jesus tells us in order to enter the kingdom of heaven we must leave our father and mother, we must put everything other than God behind us as if ‘hated’ as if to hate our old lives and love our new lives with Jesus Christ
Matthew 4:21-22 (KJV), “21 And going on from thence, he saw other two brethren, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets; and he called them. 22 And they immediately left the ship and their father, and followed him.”
Luke 14:26 (KJV), “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.”
Revelation 3
The Dead Church – The church in Sardis
Revelation 3:1 (KJV), “And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write; These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead.”
‘He who has ears to hear…’?
He was not referring to physical hearing, but to those who may hear the commands of the Lord but who lacked comprehension and desire to act upon those words. The phrase “ears to hear” is used throughout the Bible.
Deuteronomy 29:4 (KJV), “Yet the Lord hath not given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day.”
Jeremiah 5:21 (KJV), “Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding; which have eyes, and see not; which have ears, and hear not.”
Ezekiel 12:2 (KJV), “Son of man, thou dwellest in the midst of a rebellious house, which have eyes to see, and see not; they have ears to hear, and hear not: for they are a rebellious house.”
Those who do not have “ears to hear” are spiritually dead and cannot obey God until they respond to His work in their hearts
Romans 11:8 (KJV), “(According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day.”
The Faithful Church – Philadelphia
Jesus is talking of the great tribulation that is to come
Revelation 3:10 (KJV), “Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.”
The new Jerusalem
The New Jerusalem, which is also called the Tabernacle of God, the Holy City, the City of God, the Celestial City, the City Foursquare, and Heavenly Jerusalem, is literally heaven on earth.
Isaiah 65:17 (KJV), “For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.”
Revelation 3:12 (KJV), “Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.”
The Lukewarm Church – Laodicea
You do not want to be ‘on the fence’
Revelation 3:16 (KJV), “So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.”
Revelation 3:18 (KJV), “I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.”
Jeremiah 20
The Pashhur mentioned here was a false prophet and was against what Jeremiah had prophesied
Pashhur was going to be carried away to Babylon but would not return
Jeremiah 20:6 (KJV), “And thou, Pashur, and all that dwell in thine house shall go into captivity: and thou shalt come to Babylon, and there thou shalt die, and shalt be buried there, thou, and all thy friends, to whom thou hast prophesied lies.”
Ezra accounts for the people who returned from Babylon but does not mention Pashhur specifically
Ezra 2:37-38 (KJV), “The children of Immer, a thousand fifty and two. 38 The children of Pashur, a thousand two hundred forty and seven.”
Jeremiah was distraught by what God had given him to do
Jeremiah 20:7-8 (KJV), “7 O Lord, thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived; thou art stronger than I, and hast prevailed: I am in derision daily, everyone mocketh me. 8 For since I spake, I cried out, I cried violence and spoil; because the word of the Lord was made a reproach unto me, and a derision, daily.”
Jeremiah 20:14-15 (KJV), “14 Cursed be the day wherein I was born: let not the day wherein my mother bare me be blessed. 15 Cursed be the man who brought tidings to my father, saying, A man child is born unto thee; making him very glad.”
Proverbs 5 – Read
Ezekiel 18
Ezekiel 18:1-3 (KJV), “The word of the Lord came unto me again, saying, 2 What mean ye, that ye use this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge? 3 As I live, saith the Lord God, ye shall not have occasion any more to use this proverb in Israel.”
The proverb has to do with responsibility. The people who were experiencing hardship pointed to others as the cause; they said, “God is judging us because of the sins of our fathers.”
Every person is an individual in the sight of God
Ezekiel 18:4 (KJV), “Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die.”
Ezekiel 18:20 (KJV), “The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.”
God is a merciful and righteous God who does not have pleasure in one’s death of sin
Ezekiel 18:23 (KJV), “Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord God: and not that he should return from his ways, and live?”
Ezekiel 18:32 (KJV), “For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye.”
Grow in the Word of the Lord 