8/18/12

Do not buy it...


Whoever made this sign must think the buying public is composed of idiots!!!  Why would anyone possibly want a sale that is a price increase?  So much for the power of the media and especially of Wall Street;that some people will just ignore the sign no matter what it says.  A sale can be a good thing, but a price increase represented as a sale is a lie!!!  I wish this concept was just restricted to purchases, but it is not.  Think of it; how many times is sinful behavior is touted as being good?  It is OK to have sex outside of marriage, its OK to get drunk or to lie or steal or to hurt other people, just to fulfill your own desires... after all you are the most important person in the world and others are unimportant.  These are lies!!!!  The most accurate way to define them is sin. And sin will destroy you and everything you love. Paul puts it this way...

Romans, Chapter 6
 16 Don’t you know that to whom you present yourselves as servants to obedience, his servants you are whom you obey; whether of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness?

No one really likes being told what to do, but if you do not listen to what God tells you; eventually your life will fall apart.  Bad is simply bad and leads to something even worse; while good leads to being really good and ultimately heaven.  These concepts are universal and understood.  Since it is a given that God is ultimately the purest good, why not follow him and live life as HE designed it?  How you respond to the truth he has left to us in HIS WORD will determine your fate.  He won't mislead you, or forget you, or abandon you, but will always love you.  I can't say the same thing for whoever made that "sale"sign!!!!

Aug. 18 Job 9-12


Aug. 18
Job 9-12

Job 9:1 Then Job answered,
Job 9:2 "Truly I know that it is so, but how can man be just with God?
Job 9:3 If he is pleased to contend with him, he can't answer him one time in a thousand.
Job 9:4 God who is wise in heart, and mighty in strength: who has hardened himself against him, and prospered?
Job 9:5 He removes the mountains, and they don't know it, when he overturns them in his anger.
Job 9:6 He shakes the earth out of its place. Its pillars tremble.
Job 9:7 He commands the sun, and it doesn't rise, and seals up the stars.
Job 9:8 He alone stretches out the heavens, and treads on the waves of the sea.
Job 9:9 He makes the Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades, and the chambers of the south.
Job 9:10 He does great things past finding out; yes, marvelous things without number.
Job 9:11 Behold, he goes by me, and I don't see him. He passes on also, but I don't perceive him.
Job 9:12 Behold, he snatches away. Who can hinder him? Who will ask him, 'What are you doing?'
Job 9:13 "God will not withdraw his anger. The helpers of Rahab stoop under him.
Job 9:14 How much less shall I answer him, And choose my words to argue with him?
Job 9:15 Though I were righteous, yet I wouldn't answer him. I would make supplication to my judge.
Job 9:16 If I had called, and he had answered me, yet I wouldn't believe that he listened to my voice.
Job 9:17 For he breaks me with a storm, and multiplies my wounds without cause.
Job 9:18 He will not allow me to catch my breath, but fills me with bitterness.
Job 9:19 If it is a matter of strength, behold, he is mighty! If of justice, 'Who,' says he, 'will summon me?'
Job 9:20 Though I am righteous, my own mouth shall condemn me. Though I am blameless, it shall prove me perverse.
Job 9:21 I am blameless. I don't regard myself. I despise my life.
Job 9:22 "It is all the same. Therefore I say he destroys the blameless and the wicked.
Job 9:23 If the scourge kills suddenly, he will mock at the trial of the innocent.
Job 9:24 The earth is given into the hand of the wicked. He covers the faces of its judges. If not he, then who is it?
Job 9:25 "Now my days are swifter than a runner. They flee away, they see no good,
Job 9:26 They have passed away as the swift ships, as the eagle that swoops on the prey.
Job 9:27 If I say, 'I will forget my complaint, I will put off my sad face, and cheer up;'
Job 9:28 I am afraid of all my sorrows, I know that you will not hold me innocent.
Job 9:29 I shall be condemned. Why then do I labor in vain?
Job 9:30 If I wash myself with snow, and cleanse my hands with lye,
Job 9:31 yet you will plunge me in the ditch. My own clothes shall abhor me.
Job 9:32 For he is not a man, as I am, that I should answer him, that we should come together in judgment.
Job 9:33 There is no umpire between us, that might lay his hand on us both.
Job 9:34 Let him take his rod away from me. Let his terror not make me afraid;
Job 9:35 then I would speak, and not fear him, for I am not so in myself.
Job 10:1 "My soul is weary of my life. I will give free course to my complaint. I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
Job 10:2 I will tell God, 'Do not condemn me. Show me why you contend with me.
Job 10:3 Is it good to you that you should oppress, that you should despise the work of your hands, and smile on the counsel of the wicked?
Job 10:4 Do you have eyes of flesh? Or do you see as man sees?
Job 10:5 Are your days as the days of mortals, or your years as man's years,
Job 10:6 that you inquire after my iniquity, and search after my sin?
Job 10:7 Although you know that I am not wicked, there is no one who can deliver out of your hand.
Job 10:8 " 'Your hands have framed me and fashioned me altogether, yet you destroy me.
Job 10:9 Remember, I beg you, that you have fashioned me as clay. Will you bring me into dust again?
Job 10:10 Haven't you poured me out like milk, and curdled me like cheese?
Job 10:11 You have clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews.
Job 10:12 You have granted me life and loving kindness. Your visitation has preserved my spirit.
Job 10:13 Yet you hid these things in your heart. I know that this is with you:
Job 10:14 if I sin, then you mark me. You will not acquit me from my iniquity.
Job 10:15 If I am wicked, woe to me. If I am righteous, I still shall not lift up my head, being filled with disgrace, and conscious of my affliction.
Job 10:16 If my head is held high, you hunt me like a lion. Again you show yourself powerful to me.
Job 10:17 You renew your witnesses against me, and increase your indignation on me. Changes and warfare are with me.
Job 10:18 " 'Why, then, have you brought me forth out of the womb? I wish I had given up the spirit, and no eye had seen me.
Job 10:19 I should have been as though I had not been. I should have been carried from the womb to the grave.
Job 10:20 Aren't my days few? Cease then. Leave me alone, that I may find a little comfort,
Job 10:21 before I go where I shall not return from, to the land of darkness and of the shadow of death;
Job 10:22 the land dark as midnight, of the shadow of death, without any order, where the light is as midnight.' "
Job 11:1 Then Zophar, the Naamathite, answered,
Job 11:2 "Shouldn't the multitude of words be answered? Should a man full of talk be justified?
Job 11:3 Should your boastings make men hold their peace? When you mock, shall no man make you ashamed?
Job 11:4 For you say, 'My doctrine is pure. I am clean in your eyes.'
Job 11:5 But oh that God would speak, and open his lips against you,
Job 11:6 that he would show you the secrets of wisdom! For true wisdom has two sides. Know therefore that God exacts of you less than your iniquity deserves.
Job 11:7 "Can you fathom the mystery of God? Or can you probe the limits of the Almighty?
Job 11:8 They are high as heaven. What can you do? They are deeper than Sheol. What can you know?
Job 11:9 Its measure is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea.
Job 11:10 If he passes by, or confines, or convenes a court, then who can oppose him?
Job 11:11 For he knows false men. He sees iniquity also, even though he doesn't consider it.
Job 11:12 An empty-headed man becomes wise when a man is born as a wild donkey's colt.
Job 11:13 "If you set your heart aright, stretch out your hands toward him.
Job 11:14 If iniquity is in your hand, put it far away. Don't let unrighteousness dwell in your tents.
Job 11:15 Surely then you shall lift up your face without spot; Yes, you shall be steadfast, and shall not fear:
Job 11:16 for you shall forget your misery. You shall remember it as waters that are passed away.
Job 11:17 Life shall be clearer than the noonday. Though there is darkness, it shall be as the morning.
Job 11:18 You shall be secure, because there is hope. Yes, you shall search, and shall take your rest in safety.
Job 11:19 Also you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid. Yes, many shall court your favor.
Job 11:20 But the eyes of the wicked shall fail. They shall have no way to flee. Their hope shall be the giving up of the spirit."
Job 12:1 Then Job answered,
Job 12:2 "No doubt, but you are the people, and wisdom shall die with you.
Job 12:3 But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you. Yes, who doesn't know such things as these?
Job 12:4 I am like one who is a joke to his neighbor, I, who called on God, and he answered. The just, the blameless man is a joke.
Job 12:5 In the thought of him who is at ease there is contempt for misfortune. It is ready for them whose foot slips.
Job 12:6 The tents of robbers prosper. Those who provoke God are secure, who carry their God in their hands.
Job 12:7 "But ask the animals, now, and they shall teach you; the birds of the sky, and they shall tell you.
Job 12:8 Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach you. The fish of the sea shall declare to you.
Job 12:9 Who doesn't know that in all these, the hand of Yahweh has done this,
Job 12:10 in whose hand is the life of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind?
Job 12:11 Doesn't the ear try words, even as the palate tastes its food?
Job 12:12 With aged men is wisdom, in length of days understanding.
Job 12:13 "With God is wisdom and might. He has counsel and understanding.
Job 12:14 Behold, he breaks down, and it can't be built again. He imprisons a man, and there can be no release.
Job 12:15 Behold, he withholds the waters, and they dry up. Again, he sends them out, and they overturn the earth.
Job 12:16 With him is strength and wisdom. The deceived and the deceiver are his.
Job 12:17 He leads counselors away stripped. He makes judges fools.
Job 12:18 He loosens the bond of kings. He binds their waist with a belt.
Job 12:19 He leads priests away stripped, and overthrows the mighty.
Job 12:20 He removes the speech of those who are trusted, and takes away the understanding of the elders.
Job 12:21 He pours contempt on princes, and loosens the belt of the strong.
Job 12:22 He uncovers deep things out of darkness, and brings out to light the shadow of death.
Job 12:23 He increases the nations, and he destroys them. He enlarges the nations, and he leads them captive.
Job 12:24 He takes away understanding from the chiefs of the people of the earth, and causes them to wander in a wilderness where there is no way.
Job 12:25 They grope in the dark without light. He makes them stagger like a drunken man.

"THE EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS" Chapter Two by Mark Copeland

                    "THE EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS"

                              Chapter Two

OBJECTIVES IN STUDYING THIS CHAPTER

1) To appreciate the importance of unity, and how it can be maintained
   by following Jesus' example of humility

2) To understand what is involved in "shining as lights in the world"

SUMMARY

The first chapter included an exhortation to stand fast in one spirit,
with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel (1:27).  
Paul continues with the call for unity, providing reasons why we should
desire unity, the nature of our unity, and attitudes necessary to 
maintain unity (1-4).  Stressing the need for humility and sacrificial 
service towards others, Paul appeals to the example of Christ and
expounds upon how far Christ was willing to go to save us (5-11).

He continues with another exhortation to "shine as lights in the world"
as they work out their own salvation with fear and trembling.  Doing 
all things without complaining and arguing, while holding fast the word
of life, they will prove themselves to be children of God in the midst
of a crooked and perverse generation.  This will also prove to Paul 
that his labors have not been in vain, and any persecution he endures 
is viewed as a sacrifice in the service of their faith and a cause for
mutual rejoicing (12-18).

He then writes of his plans pertaining to Timothy and Epaphroditus.  He
will send Timothy shortly, that he might know of their condition.  But 
Epaphroditus is coming at once in order to set their hearts at ease
about Epaphroditus' brush with death due to a recent illness. (19-30)

OUTLINE

I. EXHORTATION TO UNITY (1-11)

   A. THE MOTIVATION FOR UNITY (1)
      1. The consolation we have in Christ
      2. The comfort found in love
      3. The fellowship we have in the Spirit
      4. The affection and mercy we can enjoy

   B. THE NATURE OF UNITY (2)
      1. Being of like mind, having the same love
      2. Of one accord, of one mind

   C. ATTITUDES FOR MAINTAINING UNITY (3-5)
      1. Do nothing through selfish ambition or conceit (3a)
      2. With lowliness of mind let each one esteem others better than
         himself (3b)
      3. Be concerned for the interest of others (4)
      4. Let the mind that was in Christ be in you (5)

   D. JESUS AS AN EXAMPLE OF UNSELFISH HUMILITY (6-11)
      1. Though He was Deity, He was willing to come in the likeness of
         man (6-7)
      2. As a man He humbled Himself in obedience to the point of dying
         on the cross (8)
      3. Therefore God highly exalted Him so that at His name all
         should bow and confess Him to be Lord (9-11)

II. EXHORTATION TO SHINE AS LIGHTS IN THE WORLD (12-18)

   A. BY WORKING OUT THEIR OWN SALVATION (12-13)
      1. Doing so with fear and trembling (12)
      2. Remembering that God is at work in them (13)

   B. AS CHILDREN OF GOD WITHOUT FAULT (14-16)
      1. Doing all things without murmuring and complaining (14)
      2. Blameless and harmless in the midst of a crooked and perverse
         generation (15)
      3. Holding fast the word of life, so that Paul may rejoice in the
         day of Christ (16)

   C. VIEWING PAUL'S PERSECUTION AS A REASON TO REJOICE (17-18)
      1. He views it as a "sacrifice", offered in the service of their
         faith (17a)
      2. For this he is glad, and calls upon them to rejoice with him
         (17b-18)

III. PLANS INVOLVING TIMOTHY AND EPAPHRODITUS (19-30)

   A. TO SEND TIMOTHY SOON (19-24)
      1. That Paul might be encouraged when he learns of their 
         condition (19)
      2. His commendation of Timothy, as one who seeks the things of
         Christ, and who serves with Paul in the gospel as a son with
         his father (20-22)
      3. He will be sent at once, as soon as Paul knows how things will
         go with him, and he himself hopes to come shortly (23-24)

   B. TO SEND EPAPHRODITUS AT ONCE (25-30)
      1. Because of his longing for them and his distress when they
         heard he was sick (25-27)
      2. So he is coming that they might rejoice, and Paul himself will
         be less sorrowful (28)
      3. Therefore receive him in the Lord with all gladness, and hold
         such men in high esteem for their sacrificial service to 
         Christ and others (29-30)
   
REVIEW QUESTIONS FOR THE CHAPTER

1) What are the main points of this chapter?
   - Exhortation to unity (1-11)
   - Exhortation to shine as lights in the world (12-18)
   - Plans involving Timothy and Epaphroditus (19-30)

2) What four things should serve as a motivation for unity? (1)
   - The consolation we have in Christ
   - The comfort found in love
   - The fellowship we have in the Spirit
   - The affection and mercy we can enjoy

3) What should be the nature of our unity? (2)
   - Being of like mind, having the same love, of one accord, of one
     mind

4) What four things are necessary to maintain unity? (3-5)
   - Do nothing through selfish ambition or conceit
   - With lowliness of mind let each one esteem others better than
     himself
   - Be concerned for the interest of others
   - Let the mind that was in Christ be in you

5) What is said about Christ that proves Him to be a prime example of
   humility? (5-8)
   - Though in the form of God, He did not consider it "robbery" to be
     equal to God
   - Made Himself of no reputation, becoming a servant and coming in
     the likeness of men
   - He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of dying on
     the cross

6) Having been highly exalted, what should every person do at the name
   of Jesus? (9-11)
   - Every knee should bow
   - Every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the 
     glory of God the Father

7) What did Paul want his beloved brethren to do in his absence? (12)
   - To work out their own salvation with fear and trembling

8) What is said about God working in the Christian? (13)
   - He works in us both to will and to do for His good pleasure

9) What two things are necessary if we are to be children of God 
   without fault, harmless and blameless, shining as lights in the 
   world? (14-16)
   - Do all things without murmuring and disputing
   - Hold fast the word of life

10) How did Paul view his imprisonment? (17)
   - As being poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and 
     service of their faith
   - As a reason to be glad and rejoice

11) What two things are said about Timothy? (20, 22)
   - Paul had no one like-minded, who would sincerely care their state
   - He had proven character, having served with Paul in the gospel as
     a son with his father

12) How does Paul describe Epaphroditus? (23)
   - A brother, a fellow worker and fellow soldier, their messenger,
     and the one who ministered to Paul's need