Thoughts I Had As I Read My Bible

by Chuck Ness

I have mentioned before how the Holy Spirit comes upon me early in the morning as I am in my quiet time reading the Scriptures. Well, today was one of those moments. It's obvious that I was influenced by the Scripture I was reading. However, I give credit to the Holy Spirit, because I read every morning and I'm not always moved to write in the same way as I was this morning. So what follows the Scripture from Isaiah, is what I felt moved by the Spirit to write.

Fear and the pit and the snare
Are upon you, O inhabitant of the earth.
And it shall be
That he who flees from the noise of the fear
Shall fall into the pit,
And he who comes up from the midst of the pit
Shall be caught in the snare;
For the windows from on high are open,
And the foundations of the earth are shaken.
Isaiah 24:17-8

The time is near when many will fear and many will quake, but few will rejoice. Those who know of God, but have no relationship with Him will be in fear for they have ignored the calling to accept Christ. Many will quake in their bones, because they know not of God and do not fear Him, and thus will not understand the calamity that is to about to befall them. Yet sadly, few will actually rejoice. 

For there are those who know that our Lord warned us of these days, thus we rejoice. We rejoice, because soon our trials and tribulations will be over as we are called home to be with our Lord. Let those who have ears to hear, hear the calling of the Lord’s voice and call upon Him so they too may rejoice in these day of birth pains. It is however, our solemn prayer, that all men will bow down on bended knee and accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior before their final breath in this World is taken.

A Psalm of of praise for our Lord who is our everything.
For they speak against You wickedly;
Your enemies take Your name in vain.
Do I not hate them, O LORD, who hate You?
And do I not loathe those who rise up against You?
I hate them with perfect hatred;
I count them my enemies.
Psalm 139:20-22

Oh it is so difficult to hate with a perfect hatred, because there is a fine line between hating God’s creation and hating what God’s creation does when it does an evil thing.

Everything is God’s creation, but man was made in His image. As such, if we hate another person for the evil they practice against us, instead of just hating the evil they did, then we are no different than those who commited the evil, because we are hating the very image of God.

It's difficult to love those who intend us harm, yet on the Cross our Lord did just that as He was lifted up like a snake in the desert for our transgressions.

We look up to the very object, Christ Jesus, who knew no sin yet became sin, so that we may obtain through Him the righteousness of God, and thus be forgiven for our part in putting Him up on that pole.

Everyday I look at my blood stained hands and see the calluses on them from the hammer I used to drive the nails through His innocent hands. I feel the soreness in my muscles that lifted up that heavy cross to the sky, and I can see the blood he shed, because of my actions.

I watched as every sin I ever committed, and will commit, was forgiven with every drop of blood that drained from His body. I stood there with guilt, knowing He was convicted for my sin, so that He could receive the full punishment for my willful acts of evil.

I watch as all those who lived and died before me, were buried for the transgression of sin which must lead to death. Yet I know that each and everyone who had a true heart for God was and will be resurrected, because His promise was fulfilled when He rose from the grave.

Today I live a life given to me by God, yet this too shall pass from this World, and when that day comes, I too shall arise from the dead and receive a crown of righteousness, which He has fashioned specifically for me. I look forward to that day when I can stand before Him and cast that crown to His feet as I sing hallelujah, hallelujah, God Almighty, You are worthy of all praise and glory, hallelujah, my King, My Lord, My all.

Amen