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On the morning of my fifth day of fasting, I was hurting and begged God to give
me some strength and power from his Word and brother I tell you He put some
Scriptures together from my word study on "poor" "orphan" and "widow" that
combined with some things I remembered from a sermon titled "Take Hold of
Eternal Life" which I heard on tape about a year previous to this, blew me away
and has FOREVER changed my view on serving the poor and needy.
Sermon excerpts are paraphrased followed by the 2 OT passages that blew me
away, and some of my thoughts.
1 Timothy 6:12
12 Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to
which you were called and you made the good confession in the
presence of many witnesses.
Paul exhorts Timothy to take hold of eternal life. To grab onto it and never
let go. But Why?
Romans 6:23
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal
life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
John 3:16
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that
whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Why? Because the very reason Jesus came was so that we might have eternal
life. It is the free gift of God given to us after we have earned death by our
sin.
But just what is eternal life? Is it more than living forever?
John 5:28-29
28 Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in
the tombs will hear His voice,
29 and will come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of
life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of
judgment.
So if everyone is going to live forever, then eternal life can not just be
talking about the QUANTITY of life, but must also incorporate the QUALITY of
life.
John 17:3
3 This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and
Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
Eternal life is knowing God and knowing Jesus Christ. Eternal life is having a
relationship with God and Jesus. So in essence Paul is exhorting Timothy to
grab onto his relationship with God and never let it go! Because the only
difference between someone who goes to heaven and someone who goes to hell is,
the one who goes to heaven has taken hold of their relationship with God and
never let it go!!
That was taken from the sermon, and then God added to it from the OT.
In Jeremiah 22:11-16, Jeremiah is speaking to one of Josiah's sons and says
this to him:
11 For thus says the LORD in regard to Shallum the son of Josiah, king
of Judah, who became king in the place of Josiah his father, who went
forth from this place, He will never return there;
12 but in the place where they led him captive, there he will die and
not see this land again.
13 Woe to him who builds his house without righteousness. And his upper
rooms without justice, Who uses his neighbor's services without pay
And does not give him his wages,
14 Who says, "I will build myself a roomy house With spacious upper
rooms, And cut out its windows, Paneling it with cedar and painting it
bright red.'
15 Do you become a king because you are competing in cedar? Did not your
father eat and drink And do justice and righteousness? Then it was
well with him.
16 He pled the cause of the afflicted and needy; Then it was well. Is not
that what it means to know Me?" Declares the LORD.
In vs 16, pleading the cause of the afflicted and needy is knowing God.
Pleading the cause of the afflicted and needy is eternal life.
Psalm 109:4 states, in the original language:
Psalm 109:4
4 In return for my love they act as my accusers; But I am *in* prayer.
David didn't say he was a man praying, or a man of prayer, or even "a" prayer.
He said, "I AM prayer." Prayer was not something he did but IT WAS WHO HE WAS!
In the same way, we are not just to be servants of the poor but service to the
poor. Serving the poor is not something we DO, but it is WHO WE ARE!
This is beautifully stated in Job 29:1-6
1 Job continued his discourse:
2 "How I long for the months gone by, for the days when God watched
over me,
3 when his lamp shone upon my head and by his light I walked through
darkness!
4 Oh, for the days when I was in my prime, when God's intimate
friendship blessed my house,
5 when God watched over me, and my children were around me,
6 when my path was drenched with cream and the rock poured out for me
streams of olive oil.
7 "When I went to the gate of the city and took my seat in the public
square,
8 the young men saw me and stepped aside and the old men rose to their
feet;
9 the chief men refrained from speaking and covered their mouths with
their hands;
10 the voices of the nobles were hushed, and their tongues stuck to the
roof of their mouths.
11 Whoever heard me spoke well of me, and those who saw me commended me,
12 because I rescued the poor who cried for help, and the fatherless who
had none to assist him.
Job states the initimate friendship of God blessed his house, and Why? Because
he rescued the poor and fatherless. Why? Because he knew God! Why? Because
he had ETERNAL LIFE!
Incredible! Convictions to last a lifetime!
Love in Him,
Peter2 (who won't be back until Thursday)
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