II Timothy 3:16-17

2 Tim 3:16-17 (NIV) “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

I found this translation using “God-breathed” to be fascinating, KJV – says, “given by inspiration of God.” But the Greek word is “theopneustos” (theh-op'-nyoo-stos); it actually means “divinely breathed in.” Today the word inspiration is used to describe a lot of things, including great works of art, modern inventions, classical literature, but inspiration is intended to obviously inspire us toward something, right? Worldly inspiration points us toward our own creativity, it is synonymous with what stimulates our thinking process, or encourages us to have greater insight. Worldly inspiration is a humanistic reaction. However, what better thing to be inspired by then God? Theopneustos tells me that, God is the ultimate source of inspiration because God breathed it. True inspiration does not originate with men but is sent by God. "For no prophecy recorded in Scripture was ever thought up by the prophet himself. It was the Holy Spirit within these godly men who gave them true messages from God." 2 Pet. 1:21, (TLB). The (NIV) says it “never had its origin in the will of man.” Inspiration is not just about a warm glow you get inside when you like something. It is not just flowery words or fantastic ideas or incredible techniques. Inspiration has a purpose, it has meaning, it is God’s relevant message to us. Amos 3:7, (NIV) says "Surely the Sovereign Lord does nothing without revealing His plan to His servants the prophets." Even more astounding, inspiration tells us accurately what will happen. Because what the scriptures revealed “came true, and now I will prophesy again. I will tell you the future before it happens." Isaiah 42:9, (TLB). That is why the scriptures are useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and teaching, that is why they are able to equip the Christian to walk the spiritual life. The scriptures are trustworthy and will bless you when you use them to guide your life. The scriptures are our standard for testing everything that claims to be true. And the scriptures are the source of knowledge for how we can inherit eternal life.

But even the scriptures have been and are often used incorrectly in order to mask a person’s actions that are not in line with the spirit of the scriptures. Actions that appear good on the outside but inside have a hidden and craftier motivation. Actions that deep down reveal things like superiority, conceitedness, criticism, rebellion, revenge, self-righteous, piousness, smugness, negativism, hatred, greed, envy, or strife. We use the scriptures incorrectly when we use them in order to get our own way. We use them incorrectly when they are used a rule book, to try to do what is right. They are used incorrectly when we use them for tearing one another down rather than building one another up in the faith. We use the scriptures incorrectly by using the scriptures to tell everyone else what to do without being connected to Christ. The fruit we produce in our lives shows whether or not we are using the scriptures correctly or not.

If you want to have fruit, the best thing to do is to buy a tree that grows fruit. Likewise, if you want to use the scriptures correctly then you need to be connected to the WORD in order to bear fruit in your life. The best thing to do is to let the scriptures connect you to Jesus. Disconnected fruit is no good, it falls to the ground, gets full of bugs and worms and rots, do not pretend to be fruitful or compel other people to be fruitlike either. Because a fruit tree, remember, is what bears fruit because it is a fruit tree, never in order to be a fruit tree. And a Christian does what is right because he is a Christian, never in order to be a Christian. The problem with how we sometimes use the scriptures is how we fail to personally connect to Jesus. Or we are so anxious to use the scriptures to make other people behave how we think they should behave that we forget that other people should connect with Jesus first too.

Here is how we can use the scriptures correctly; we need to take time, alone, at the beginning of every day, to seek Jesus through His Word and through prayer. That is it. When we use the scriptures this way, we come to know Jesus. Once we come to know Jesus then we can surrender our will to Him. Then we make a fresh connection with Jesus, new every morning, become recharged and inspired by Him, let Him breathe into you.

Have you ever experienced inspiration, "God's breath on you," during your devotional time? What did it feel like? Compare how you feel on days when you connect with Christ and the difference in your life on days that you don't?

II Chronicles 14:11

2 Chron 14:11 (NIV) Then Asa called to the Lord his God and said, "Lord, there is no one like you to help the powerless against the mighty. Help us, O Lord our God, for we rely on you, and in your name we have come against this vast army. O Lord, you are our God; do not let man prevail against you."

When Asa became King of Judah he “did what was right in the sight of the Lord.” He brought about a revival in Judah by removing idols from the land, and removed people and places that were associated with idol worship. King Asa also deposed his grandmother (the queen mother) because she had made an idol of Asherah. He did what he could to follow God. After reigning 10 years in peace and safety, the King of Ethiopia or Egypt, King Zerah, came to invade Judah. Zerah had an army of a million men and 300 chariots (A host of a thousand thousand, vs 9.) This is the largest assembled army recorded in scripture to come against God’s people. On the other hand Asa had a small army of men that “bare large shields and spears, out of Judah three hundred thousand; and out of Benjamin, that bare shields and drew bows, two hundred and fourscore thousand.” (2 Chronicles 14:8). Only a fool would face an army so outnumbered and so better equipped. But Asa had been faithful to God, and trusted God, and claimed God’s promises, and went to battle, powerless, but claiming victory in the name of the Lord. Asa's prayer in vs. 11, in KJV reads, [It is nothing with thee to help] in other words, God can as easily help the weak as the strong. So what does our being hopelessly outnumbered have to do with God’s ability? In the same way it is nothing for God to answer your prayers, whether really small or great big prayer request, both are just as easy for Him to answer.

The defeat of Zerah is one of the most remarkable events in the history of the Jews. Not only did they defeat them but all the food and supplies that Zerah’s army brought with them in order to sustain such a large army was captured as bounty.

God promises if we are faithful to Him, He will defeat the devourer. One way we show our trust in God, as well as our faithfulness to God is to return back to God one tenth of what He has given us. “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the Lord Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.” Mal 3:10 (NIV). Like Asa our faithfulness will be rewarded from the storehouses of heavens riches and power. When we are faithful to God then God says He will be faithful to us, “I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts. And all nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the Lord of hosts.” Mal 3:11-12 (KJV)

When you are facing battles you feel you cannot possibly win, don't give up. In the face of a vast horde of enemy soldiers, Asa prayed for God's help, recognizing his powerlessness against such a mighty army. The secret of victory is first, like Jacob, to make a covenant with God, Jacob said, "If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear so that I return safely to my father's house, then the Lord will be my God and this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God's house, and of all that you give me I will give you a tenth." Gen 28:20-22(NIV). Jacob made this vow, repeating what God had already promised him. Jacob claimed the promise and surrendered dependence on God's faithfulness, as a conditional agreement, not a bargain. Then the second secret to victory is to admit the futility of unaided human effort and then to trust God to overthrow our obstacles. His power works best through those who recognize their limitations, “Gods power is made perfect in our weakness” (2 Cor 12:9). It is those who think they can do it all on their own who are in the greatest danger.

Describe a time that you cried out to God for Help? What kind of covenant have you ever made with God? Explain how you believe God answered your prayer?

John 15:7-8

John 15:7-8 (NIV) “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.”

My very limited experience with peach trees and blueberry bushes on our property in Michigan helped me realize some important lessons illustrated in this passage. God makes the flower appear on the branch, bees pollinate the flowers and fruit appears. Pruning helps, fertilizing helps, watering is essential, and sunlight is essential. God sends the sunshine and the rain. God created a system that allows nature to take rotten food and worms turn it into compost that fertilizes the soil that allows the trees and plants to absorb nutrients. In the same way, God provides all our spiritual needs. The farmer prunes the dead or useless branches once a year. Only healthy branches that remain connected to the tree bear fruit. Farmers pride themselves in techniques that produce larger and more abundant fruits but really the farmer cannot make the tree produce any fruit. God does it all.

In our spiritual life, God produces all the fruit, we need to be a good branch that remains connected to God to avoid pruning. If there are things we know we can do to help make larger and more abundant fruit we should do them.

God answers prayer, “ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.” God is like a loving parent he wants to give us whatever we want. Ask God in prayer, He will provide all or emotional, spiritual, and physical needs that are for our enduring good. But being a wise parent he knows to only give us the things that is for our ultimate good that will help us grow and bear more fruit.

What a time of celebration for the God when the harvest is ready, when all the fruit can be picked and collected in the barns. When we are mature and ready for use! God made it all happen! This farming analogy demonstrates how God is glorified when His people mature into a right relationship with him and the yummy fruit of our lives can be enjoyed by all.

In your experience, what are some things you have done that has made your life's fruit, juicer, larger, and more delicious?

Psalms 19:1-4

Ps 19:1-4 (NLT) “The heavens proclaim the glory of God. The skies display his craftsmanship. Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make him known. They speak without a sound or word; their voice is never heard. Yet their message has gone throughout the earth, and their words to all the world.”

Dose God live, does He really exist? This question creates strong opinions with views both for and against. We know when a person resists even the possibility of there being a God, then whatever evidence we come up with will just be rationalized or explained away.
But Christians know that He lives because we experience Him. God answers our prayers, we see him work out difficulties in our lives in mysterious and miraculous ways. God gives us peace of mind as evidence of forgiveness for our sins. Yet how can a person who has not experienced Him working in their lives know that God lives?

God never asks anyone to believe, without giving them sufficient evidence upon which to base their faith. God’s existence is established by testimony all around us that appeals to our reason; and this testimony is abundant. Yet God has never removed the possibility of doubt. Our faith must rest upon evidence of things unseen, not on an impressive show or fancy demonstrations of His legitimacy. Yet, clearly, if you choose to see it, the greatest testimony of God’s existence is in the natural world all around us. Nature shouts without a sound or spoken word that God is everywhere.

Marilyn Adamson has written an excellent article on the evidence of God in the natural world. She says, there are many examples showing God's existence, more evidence than could fill volumes of books, evidence possibly with no end. But here are a few:

The Earth...its size is perfect. The Earth's size and corresponding gravity holds a thin layer of mostly nitrogen and oxygen gases, only extending about 50 miles above the Earth's surface. If Earth were smaller, an atmosphere would be impossible, like the planet Mercury. If Earth were larger, its atmosphere would contain free hydrogen, like Jupiter. Earth is the only known planet equipped with an atmosphere of the right mixture of gases to sustain plant, animal and human life.

The Earth is located the right distance from the sun. Consider the temperature swings we encounter, roughly -30 degrees to +120 degrees. If the Earth were any further away from the sun, we would all freeze. Any closer and we would burn up. Even a fractional variance in the Earth's position to the sun would make life on Earth impossible. The Earth remains this perfect distance from the sun while it rotates around the sun at a speed of nearly 67,000 mph. It is also rotating on its axis, allowing the entire surface of the Earth to be properly warmed and cooled every day.

And our moon is the perfect size and distance from the Earth for its gravitational pull. The moon creates important ocean tides and movement so ocean waters do not stagnate, and yet our massive oceans are restrained from spilling over across the continents.

Water...colorless, odorless and without taste, and yet no living thing can survive without it. Plants, animals and human beings consist mostly of water (about two-thirds of the human body is water). You'll see why the characteristics of water are uniquely suited to life:

It has an unusually high boiling point and freezing point. Water allows us to live in an environment of fluctuating temperature changes, while keeping our bodies a steady 98.6 degrees.

Water is a universal solvent. This property of water means that thousands of chemicals, minerals and nutrients can be carried throughout our bodies and into the smallest blood vessels.

Water is also chemically neutral. Without affecting the makeup of the substances it carries, water enables food, medicines and minerals to be absorbed and used by the body.

Water has a unique surface tension. Water in plants can therefore flow upward against gravity, bringing life-giving water and nutrients to the top of even the tallest trees.

Water freezes from the top down and floats, so fish can live in the winter.

Ninety-seven percent of the Earth's water is in the oceans. But on our Earth, there is a system designed which removes salt from the water and then distributes that water throughout the globe. Evaporation takes the ocean waters, leaving the salt, and forms clouds which are easily moved by the wind to disperse water over the land, for vegetation, animals and people. It is a system of purification and supply that sustains life on this planet, a system of recycled and reused water.

The human brain...simultaneously processes an amazing amount of information. Your brain takes in all the colors and objects you see, the temperature around you, the pressure of your feet against the floor, the sounds around you, the dryness of your mouth, even the texture of your keyboard. Your brain holds and processes all your emotions, thoughts and memories. At the same time your brain keeps track of the ongoing functions of your body like your breathing pattern, eyelid movement, hunger and movement of the muscles in your hands.

The human brain processes more than a million messages a second. Your brain weighs the importance of all this data, filtering out the relatively unimportant. This screening function is what allows you to focus and operate effectively in your world. The brain functions differently than other organs. There is an intelligence to it, the ability to reason, to produce feelings, to dream and plan, to take action, and relate to other people.

The eye...can distinguish among seven million colors. It has automatic focusing and handles an astounding 1.5 million messages – simultaneously. Evolution focuses on mutations and changes from and within existing organisms. Yet evolution alone does not fully explain the initial source of the eye or the brain -- the start of living organisms from nonliving matter.

Much of life may seem uncertain, but look at what we can count on day after day: gravity remains consistent, a hot cup of coffee left on a counter will get cold, the earth rotates in the same 24 hours, and the speed of light doesn't change -- on earth or in galaxies far from us.

How is it that we can identify laws of nature that never change? Why is the universe so orderly, so reliable? "The greatest scientists have been struck by how strange this is. There is no logical necessity for a universe that obeys rules, let alone one that abides by the rules of mathematics. This astonishment springs from the recognition that the universe doesn't have to behave this way. It is easy to imagine a universe in which conditions change unpredictably from instant to instant, or even a universe in which things pop in and out of existence."

Richard Feynman, a Nobel Prize winner for quantum electrodynamics, said, "Why nature is mathematical is a mystery...The fact that there are rules at all is a kind of miracle."

All instruction, all teaching, all training comes with intent. Someone who writes an instruction manual does so with purpose. Did you know that in every cell of our bodies there exists a very detailed instruction code, much like a miniature computer program? As you may know, a computer program is made up of ones and zeros, like this: 110010101011000. The way they are arranged tell the computer program what to do. The DNA code in each of our cells is very similar. It's made up of four chemicals that scientists abbreviate as A, T, G, and C. These are arranged in the human cell like this: CGTGTGACTCGCTCCTGAT and so on. There are three billions of these letters in every human cell!!

Well, just like you can program your phone to beep for specific reasons, DNA instructs the cell. DNA is a three-billion-lettered program telling the cell to act in a certain way. It is a full instruction manual.

Why is this so amazing? One has to ask....how did this information program wind up in each human cell? These are not just chemicals. These are chemicals that instruct, that code in a very detailed way exactly how the person's body should develop.

Natural, biological causes are completely lacking as an explanation when programmed information is involved. You cannot find instruction, precise information like this, without someone intentionally constructing it.

Share some of the things that proves to you that God is real? Compare the faith of science in evolution with the faith of Christians in creation?

Psalms 5:1-3

Ps 5:1-3 (KJV) “Give ear to my words, O Lord (Yahweh), consider my meditation. Hearken unto the voice of my cry, my King, and my God: for unto thee will I pray. My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up.”

In Psalms 5 David addresses God by his personal name, Yahweh, in a very intimate way. David requests that Yahweh please pay close attention to his thoughts and prayer. In the Hebrew culture, as a matter of respect, you would always address an individual with authority by their title, like Rabbi, Master or King. But the original translation of “LORD” in this scripture is actually “Yahweh,” God’s name. Only a person who has a close personal relationship with such a person, like a spouse or someone that might be considered their equal would be permitted to call them by their personal name.

But David is not showing disrespect here because he understands that God is eager to be our close friend. Yahweh wants us to have a loving and affectionate relationship with Him. In contrast, those who are afraid to offend God and put Him on a pedestal may have a formal or superficial relationship with Him and never really come to understand the tender relationship God desires to share with us.

Never the less, in the very next sentence David points out Yahweh’s high and exalted position by calling Him “my King and my God.” (NLT) interprets the next line to say “for I pray to no one but you” as recognition that only his God is powerful enough to hear and answer our cries. With confidence, David knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that Yahweh will hear his voice during his morning devotional time and with total expectation David “looks up” to wait and see how God will answer him.

Psalm 5 is my theme to this blog. I fully expect Yahweh to hear me in my devotional time I spend in this blog, I know He will consider my meditation. But like David, who shared his Psalms with the world. I also wish to open myself up to all who read this post to consider my meditations with me, and I would love to hear your comments, positive or negative, and together we can “look up” and see God in action.

What do you typically do for your devotion time with God? Describe the quality of time you spend with God?