Greed.......Forever Discontented

I received this in a short inspirational email forward from a friend:

Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions….Luke 12:15.

Let’s take a brief look at greed. Practically speaking, greed is an inordinate desire for more, an excessive, unsatisfied hunger to possess. Like an untamed beast, greed grasps, claws, reaches, clutches, and clings – stubbornly refusing to surrender. The word enough is not in this beast’s vocabulary. Akin to envy and jealousy, greed is nevertheless distinct. Envy wants to have what someone else possesses. Jealousy want to possess what it already has. But greed is different. Greed is forever discontented and therefore insatiably craving, longing, wanting, striving for more, more, more……….

That’s the whole point of greed. You’ll want more and more of something that really isn’t good for you. And in the getting of it, you’ll suffer the painful consequences. That is why Jesus warns, “Beware, Be on your guard. This thing is like a cancer – an insatiable leech that will suck the life right out of you.” Enough will never be enough.

Beware. *

It made me realize I am being greedy..........but not in the way you might think. I am happy to report I am free of envy and jealousy, the Lord has blessed me with a beautiful humble home, a husband so wonderful that I cannot put into words, and more than met my needs in life. I am thankful for the health our family has. I don't envy people driving brand new cars, I am thankful that I have a 12-year old car with no problems and with air conditioning. I don't envy people with children, I am thankful that the Lord has filled my heart with love for all around me. I don't envy people with more money in their bank accounts, I thank the Lord for all those times (every single month) that we can pay our bills and have some left over for fun............I realized upon reading her email though, that I HAVE been greedy.

The things I want "more" of are not material things, oddly enough it's things more esoteric things which make me "happy" such as friendships, diversion, gardening.........knitting lately (it's my new obsession, and I never do anything halfway!). I have been very "discontented" in some of these areas and I know now how wrong that was!

Until I received that email, I had not considered those my discontentment in those areas to fall under the category of greed, but I believe now they do.

Merriam-Webster defines greed as "a selfish and excessive desire for more of something (as money) than is needed"......though fellowship with others IS important, and I do want to cultivate Christian friendships........hopefully knitters ;o)......I believe we should always e aware of the things (be they material, substances, business, people, activities, etc.) which tend to draw us farther away from God.

NOT that any of those things are bad in themselves, but we must always start our day in God's word and put on our armor.

*Chuck Swindoll

Acceptance is Unacceptable

Don't fall for today's mentality of acceptance. You don't have to hit everyone over the head with a Bible to be a witness, a mistake we too often make. The best witness is one which allows the Lord Jesus to shine through them and allows the Holy Spirit to guide their tongues.

However, we cannot be shy about our faith of fall into the all-accepting crowd. If Jesus is the Lord of your life, live that way...........the salvation of the person you meet today may depend on it. You are to plant the seed of God's word..........He says nothing about working the soil, that's up to the Holy Spirit. Read Matthew 13:1-52

I believe the Bible is clear on what the Lord considers an abomination and is not at all ambiguous about it. God never deals in "gray areas"! I won't get into the particular issues here, you can read the Bible and figure that out for yourself. A good start is to see who the Bible says will NOT be in heaven also see my post Whose Name Is In The Book of Life for more Scripture on this subject......

Revelation 21:8
But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death."

Before you go throwing stones, see how many of those sin YOU have committed. Perhaps never committed murder or adultery.........but how about lying? You'll be lying right now if you say "never" so there goes your so-called perfect record ;o). Without repentance - no matter how small your sin - you won't be in heaven after your death.

The Bible teaches us to hate the sin but love the sinner............NOT to accept or make excuses the sin. If you are a Christian you can act no other way and please God! Let HIM take care of the judging and the punishment.

The best thing you can do, that which give you the most strength, is to pray for those people to see the truth and be saved.

The point is too often we hear we should be "all encompassing" in religious beliefs. Don't let that sort of talk make you shy away from being a light to the world!

God bless you!
Lu

Temptation

When I think of temptation, my mind automatically goes to food since that's my biggest weakness - what is yours? Whatever it is, learn to be strong as the temptation to do evil can only come from Satan

Jas 1:13 Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am being tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone

In Matthew 4:1 begins the temptation of Christ by Satan, this occurs immediately after He was baptized and before the start of His ministry.

Jesus was tempted 3 times by Satan:

1st Temptation: Food
I find it interesting that it started with hunger....which is why some fast, in order to exercise strength over their flesh. Flesh relates to our earthly desires, which if not tempered by the Holy Spirit may lead us into the snare of the devil. The desires themselves are not evil as they are given by God, the desire for food, sex, etc. It's how you go about satisfying those desires that can get you into trouble!

Mat 4:1-3 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry. And the tempter came and said to Him..........."

Psa 78:18: And in their heart they put God to the test By asking food according to their desire. which leads us into the 2nd temptation of Christ.........

2nd Temptation: Testing the Lord
Satan tempted Jesus to throw Himself from the rocks so that angels would save Him, thus testing God's word. Satan quoted (mis-quoted) Ps. 91:11-12, he left out what did not suit him, part of v. 11. As we seen Satan can quote Scripture and he knows his Bible, so don't assume one who quotes Scripture is righteous by that alone, a Christian is known by his fruits.

An Old Testament example of testing the Lord is Israel's faithlessness in the dessert.
Exo 17:7 He named the place Massah and Meribah because of the quarrel of the sons of Israel, and because they tested the LORD, saying, "Is the LORD among us, or not?" (referring to Israel's grumbling for lack of water [v. 2-6])

Psa 78:18 speaks of this saying And in their heart they put God to the test By asking food according to their desire. [Read Exodus 16 and the Lord's provision of manna in spite of their grumblings]

3rd Temptation: Materialism - love of the world
1Timothy 6:9 But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction.

An often misquoted verse is 1Timothy 6:10 (below) as "money is the root of all evil". That's not what 1 Tim. 6:10 says, but rather "For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs."

Notice that it is the LOVE of money/riches which is the root of all evil, not riches itself. The desire for it and need to have material things, NOT how much you actually have. God gives the increase, but He does not want us to worship those blessings above Him.

Since the world belongs to Satan (he is the prince of this world [John 12:31), it was his to give to Christ when he said (Matthew 4:9 "All these things I will give You, if You fall down and worship me.") but Jesus did not cave.

1John 2:15 Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

When I am tempted I remember these 2 verses:
2Timothy 1:7 For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline.

&

2 Peter 2:19 by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved.

Footsteps of The Messiah

I have started reading and highly recommend for anyone interested in eschatology, Dr. Arnold Fruchtenbaum's book: Footsteps of The Messiah (updated edition is 2003, 2004). It is a verse by verse explanation of the Book of Revelation!

First of all Dr. Fruchtenbaum, a Messianic Jew, is the BEST there is out there in terms of explaining the Scriptures from a Jewish perspective. What other perspective SHOULD there be? Jesus was a Jew, lived and taught the Jews, etc. So a Jewish perspective to one's Bible study is imperative if one is to understand, for example, a Jewish wedding (nothing like a western wedding), or what they understood when Jesus said in John 10:7 Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. It's more than you have heard in Sunday school class!

But I digress....................

Footsteps of the Messiah makes Revelation and end times Scripture clear and understandable in every day language. Dr. F. thinks of everything.........so (and this is just icing on the cake!) he included in the back of the book a Scripture Index, so you can look up ANY other Scripture and go directly to the page on which he talks about it!!!! Dr. Fruchtenbaum's web site is Ariel.org.

The Tabernacle Veil

This is VERY simplified information on the veil of the Holy of Holies of the Tabernacle.

Exo. 26:31-37 The veil (as opposed to the outer curtains for which God also gave detailed description earlier in the same chapter) separated the Holy place (tabernacle) from the Holy of Holies (the inner room of the tabernacle where only the High Priest could enter, and only on Yom Kippur). The Holy of Holies is where the Ark of the Covenant was kept.

• Made of blue, purple & scarlet material of fine twisted linen with cherubim embroidered
• Hung on 4 pillars of Acacia wood overlaid in gold, with hooks of gold. These pillars sat on 4 sockets of silver

After the veil was hung, the Ark of the Covenant was brought in.

Outside the veil was the table for the bread (Exo. 25:23-30) on the North side. On the South side was placed the lampstand (25:31-40), and on the East side was an addition veil of blue & scarlet material (26:36-37) hung on 5 pillars of Acacia wood overlaid with gold with hooks of gold and on sockets of silver.

1st Prophecy in the Bible

What IS the first prophecy in the Bible????? You may be surprised to find out the first and second prophecies in the Bible are BOTH about the 1st & 2nd coming of Jesus Christ - respectively. Though, technically, the first one is NOT a prophecy, since it was spoken by God...a prophecy is something revealed to a man BY God, the prophet then relays God's word to the people.

#1 (First coming):
Gen 3:15 And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel." At the time God punished Adam, Eve, and the serpent (v.14), He predicted that the Savior of the world would be human.

#2 (Second coming - Armageddon):
According to Jude 1:14-15, the next prophecy in the Bible would have been by Enoch (7th generation from Adam - Gen. 5:21-24) and was regarding Jesus' 2nd coming!!!!!!!!

Jude 1:14-15 It was also about these men that Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, saying, "Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of His holy ones, to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him."

Bible Fact: Enoch was one of two men taken to heaven without dying (Gen. 5:24). The other was Elijah (2 Kings 2:11).

Bible Fact: Jude was son of Mary & Joseph......i.e. Jesus' half-brother. He identifies himself as the brother of James (v. 1), the leader of the Jerusalem church (Acts 15). Jude is also listed among Christ's half brothers in Matthew 13:55 and Mark 6:3.

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This and MUCH more I am learning now in Dr. Chuck Missler's Learn the Bible in 24 Hours. It's an amazing study. One can buy the CD or MP3 download. For FREE you can also read or listen to it. I highly recommend all of Dr. Missler's information packets. He brings Jewish insight and information to Bible teaching which REALLY opens up the ENTIRE Bible to you! Listen to just one of his teachings online for free and you will agree.

Maranatha

Sometimes you may hear or see the term "Maranatha" used. Do you know what it means and where it came from?

To the best of my knowledge, Maranatha is a Greek transliteration of an Aramaic word meaning "Our Lord come". It may have been used by early Christians as a greeting and a goodbye, much like the Italian "ciao" or Hebrew "shalom" of today.

The word occurs only once in the New Testament at the closing of Paul's first letter to the Corinthians (I Cor. 16:22): "If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha."

Strong's Greek Dictionary explains it as such:
G3134
μαρὰν ἀθά
maran atha
mar'-an ath'-ah
Of Chaldee origin (meaning our Lord has come); maranatha, that is, an exclamation of the approaching divine judgment: - Maran-atha.

In the penultimate verse of the Bible Jesus Himself uses a form of this word in Rev 22:20 "He who testifies to these things says, "Yes, I am coming quickly." Amen. Come, Lord Jesus."

Of this John Wesley wrote:
Rev 22:20 - [He who testifies to these things] - Even all that is contained in this book. Saith - For the encouragement of the church in all her afflictions. Yea - Answering the call of the Spirit and the bride. I come quickly - To destroy all her enemies, and establish her in a state of perfect and everlasting happiness. The apostle expresses his earnest desire and hope of this, by answering, Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!