Monthly Archives: March 2018

You Crown the Year With Your Bounty

Foundation Scriptures: 
To You belongs silence (the submissive wonder of reverence which bursts forth into praise) and praise is due and fitting to You, O God, in Zion; and to You shall the vow be performed. 2 O You Who hear prayer, to You shall all flesh come. 3 Iniquities and much varied guilt prevail against me; [yet] as for our transgressions, You forgive and purge them away [make atonement for them and cover them out of Your sight]! 4 Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) is the man whom You choose and cause to come near, that he may dwell in Your courts! We shall be satisfied with the goodness of Your house, Your holy temple. 5 By fearful and glorious things [that terrify the wicked but make the godly sing praises] do You answer us in righteousness (rightness and justice), O God of our salvation, You Who are the confidence and hope of all the ends of the earth and of those far off on the seas; 6 Who by [Your] might have founded the mountains, being girded with power, 7 Who still the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, and the tumult of the peoples, 8 So that those who dwell in earth’s farthest parts are afraid of [nature’s] signs of Your presence. You make the places where morning and evening have birth to shout for joy. 9 You visit the earth and saturate it with water; You greatly enrich it; the river of God is full of water; You provide them with grain when You have so prepared the earth. 10 You water the field’s furrows abundantly, You settle the ridges of it; You make the soil soft with showers, blessing the sprouting of its vegetation. 11 You crown the year with Your bounty and goodness, and the tracks of Your [chariot wheels] drip with fatness. 12 The [luxuriant] pastures in the uncultivated country drip [with moisture], and the hills gird themselves with joy. 13 The meadows are clothed with flocks, the valleys also are covered with grain; they shout for joy and sing together.  Psalm 65:1-13 AMPC

1. Giving God the Glory.
We give glory to God in humble thankfulness.
When God comes toward us with blessings, we should go meet Him with praises.
We should stand ready in everything to give Him thanks.
All the world owes Him thanks, but the praises He receives come from His own – His Church.
Psalm 145:10 KJV – “All thy works shall praise thee, O Lord; and thy saints shall bless thee.”
All His works praise Him, but only His saints bless Him – with worship and adoration.

2. Giving God the Glory for His Grace.
In this Psalm, we are directed to give God all the glory – for His power and His goodness, which He displays.
We give Him glory for the grace He extends toward us.
He hears prayer.
Not only does He hear prayer, but He answers prayer – exceedingly, abundantly above what we ask (Ephesians 3:20).
He pardons sin.
Micah 7:18-19 KJV – “Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy. 19 He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.”
He satisfies the souls of His people.
We are so blessed to be able to live in His presence.
We have the comfort of an everlasting covenant with Almighty God.
In His house is an abundance of goodness, righteousness, and grace.
He protects and supports them.
In God’s house there is enough for everyone.
He gives it to us freely, without money and without price (Isaiah 55:1).
He judges His enemies, but He takes care of His people.

3. Giving God Glory for His Provision.
He is our Creator.
He established the earth and it abides.
He stills the sea and it is quiet.
Even the wind and the waves obeyed Jesus (Mark 4:41).
In the farthest regions of the earth, creation testifies of Him and His works.
He set the sun and the moon in motion, and they are still obeying His command.
Genesis 8:22 KJV – “While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.”
He created everything we see, and He keeps it all going even now.

4. He Crowns the Year with His Bounty and Goodness.
He rains down blessings.
He makes the earth fruitful.
It brings forth fruit and grain, abundantly.
These are not skinny blessings.
They are luxuriant blessings, dripping with fatness.
1 Timothy 6:17 KJV – “Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy.”
Wherever God goes, He leaves a token of His mercy behind.
Ecclesiastes 3:13 KJV – “And also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labour, it is the gift of God.”
All good things come from Him.
James 1:17 KJV – “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.”
Matthew 5:45 KJV – “That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.”
He makes provision for all the people of the earth – good and bad.
But He pours out blessings on the righteous.
We are truly indebted to Him.
We owe Him our praise and we should give it to Him willingly.
Those who have experienced His generous, abundant blessings, shout for joy and sing (worship) together.

The Law is made for the Lawless

Everyone who commits (practices) sin is guilty of lawlessness; for [that is what] sin is, lawlessness (the breaking, violating of God’s law by transgression or neglect — being unrestrained and unregulated by His commands and His will). 1 John 3:4 AMP

Now we recognize and know that the Law is good if anyone uses it lawfully [for the purpose for which it was designed], 9 Knowing and understanding this: that the Law is not enacted for the righteous (the upright and just, who are in right standing with God), but for the lawless and unruly, for the ungodly and sinful, for the irreverent and profane, for those who strike and beat and [even] murder fathers and strike and beat and [even] murder mothers, for manslayers, 10 [For] impure and immoral persons, those who abuse themselves with men, kidnapers, liars, perjurers — and whatever else is opposed to wholesome teaching and sound doctrine 11 As laid down by the glorious Gospel of the blessed God, with which I have been entrusted. 1 Timothy 1:8-11 AMP

The Law of God is not enacted for the righteous, but for sinners. Through the blood of Jesus, we are forgiven and our sins are washed away. From then on, we serve Him in righteousness and we don’t go back and deliberately sin again. At least, that is what we should do. There is a heaven and there is a hell. Father God does NOT want anyone to go to hell, so He gave us laws and boundaries so that we can know and be aware and avoid the trap of sin and also death and hell.

The Law of God was made for these classes of people:

1. Lawless – Greek: anomos – which means: contempt for law; no rule of moral conduct. Translated as “lawless” (1Timothy 1:9); “without law” (1Corinthians 9:21); “unlawful” (2Peter 2:8); “transgressor” (Mark 15:28; Luke 22:37); and “wicked” (Acts 2:23; 2Thessalonians 2:8).

2. Disobedient – Greek: anupotaktos – which means: not under subjection; insubordinate; undisciplined. Translated “disobedient” (1Timothy 1:9); “not put under” (Hebrews 2:8); and “unruly”

3. Ungodly – Greek: asebes – irreligious; irreverent.

1 Peter 4:17-18 KJV – For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? 18 And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?

2 Peter 3:7 KJV – But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.

Jude 4 KJV – For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.

Jude 14-15 KJV – And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, 15 To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.

4. Sinners – Greek: hamartolos – transgressors of law. Translated “sinner” and “sinful”.

Mark 8:38 KJV – Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.

5. Unholy – Greek: anosios – totally depraved; the utter opposite of holiness within and without.

6. Profane – Greek: bebelos – heathenish; wicked; not fit to attend public worship.

1 Timothy 4:7 AMP – But refuse and avoid irreverent legends (profane and impure and godless fictions, mere grandmothers’ tales) and silly myths, and express your disapproval of them. Train yourself toward godliness (piety), [keeping yourself spiritually fit].

2 Timothy 2:16 AMP – But avoid all empty (vain, useless, idle) talk, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness.

Hebrews 12:16 AMP – That no one may become guilty of sexual vice, or become a profane (godless and sacrilegious) person as Esau did, who sold his own birthright for a single meal.

7. Patricides – Greek: patraloas – those who strike or slay their father.

8. Matricides – Greek: metraloas – those who strike or slay their mother.

9. Murderers – Greek: androphonois – those who take any human life contrary to law.

10. Whoremongers – Greek: pornois – Fornicator; whoremonger; male prostitutes; libertines – persons who are morally or sexually unrestrained

11. Sexual perverts – Greek: arsenokoitais – sodomite; abusers, who defile themselves with mankind; those guilty of unnatural sexual practices.

12. Menstealers – Greek: andrapodistais – kidnappers; enslaver – those who steal slaves and sell and buy them, or who hold men for ransom.

13. Liars – Greek: pseustais – saying for truth what is known to be false.

John 8:44 ERV – Your father is the devil. You belong to him. You want to do what he wants. He was a murderer from the beginning. He was always against the truth. There is no truth in him. He is like the lies he tells. Yes, the devil is a liar. He is the father of lies.

1 John 1:10 NKJV – If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.

1 John 2:4 NKJV – He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.

1 John 2:22 NKJV – Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son.

14. Perjurers – Greek: epiorkois – those who lie under oath.

15. Those guilty of any vice contrary to sound doctrine.

Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, 21 envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. Galatians 5:19-21 NKJV