Posted by: Bill Hornbeck | July 7, 2013

“The Lord favors those who fear Him, Those who wait for His lovingkindness.”

Today’s devotion comes from Genesis 6:1-8.
 
“1 Now it came about, when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, 2 that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful;  and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose.  3 Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh;  nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.”  4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them.  Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.
 
5 Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.  6 The Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.  7 The Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky;  for I am sorry that I have made them.”  8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.”  Genesis 6:1-8.
 
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Man’s culture may be enchanted with the beauty of women and the strength of men, but God sees through to the heart.  “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”  Verse 5.

“But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.”  Verse 8.  “… Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time;  Noah walked with God.”  Genesis 6:9. 

“Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain, But a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised.”  Proverbs 31:30

“10 He does not delight in the strength of the horse;
He does not take pleasure in the legs of a man.
11 The Lord favors those who fear Him,
Those who wait for His lovingkindness.”  Psalm 147:10-11.

“13 The Lord looks from heaven;
He sees all the sons of men;
14 From His dwelling place He looks out
On all the inhabitants of the earth,
15 He who fashions the hearts of them all,
He who understands all their works.
16 The king is not saved by a mighty army;
A warrior is not delivered by great strength.
17 A horse is a false hope for victory;
Nor does it deliver anyone by its great strength.

18 Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him,
On those who hope for His lovingkindness,
19 To deliver their soul from death
And to keep them alive in famine.
20 Our soul waits for the Lord;
He is our help and our shield.
21 For our heart rejoices in Him,
Because we trust in His holy name.
22 Let Your lovingkindness, O Lord, be upon us,
According as we have hoped in You.”  Psalm 33:13-22.

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Posted by: Bill Hornbeck | July 5, 2013

Walk with God

Today’s devotion comes from Genesis 5:3-24.  Here is a link to the chapter.
 
 
We will focus on the following verses 21 to 24.
 
“Enoch lived sixty-five years, and became the father of Methuselah.  Then Enoch walked with God three hundred years after he became the father of Methuselah, and he had other sons and daughters.  So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years.  Enoch walked with God;  and he was not, for God took him.”  Genesis 5:3-24.
 
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Noah also walked with God.  “These are the records of the generations of Noah.  Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time;  Noah walked with God.”  Genesis 6:9
 
“He has told you, O man, what is good;  And what does the Lord require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God?”  Micah 6:8
 

The Christian life is often described as a walk. (See for examples: “walk by the Spirit”, Galatians 5:16;  “walk in newness of life”, Romans 6:4;  “walk in a manner worthy of the calling”, Ephesians 4:1).

“I will also walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people.”  Leviticus 26:12
 
“You shall walk in all the way which the Lord your God has commanded you, that you may live and that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which you will possess.”  Deuteronomy 5:33
 
“Now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require from you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and love Him, and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul,”  Deuteronomy 10:12
 
“He said, “O Lord, the God of Israel, there is no God like You in heaven above or on earth beneath, keeping covenant and showing lovingkindness to Your servants who walk before You with all their heart,”  1 Kings 8:23
 
“Let your heart therefore be wholly devoted to the Lord our God, to walk in His statutes and to keep His commandments, as at this day.”  1 Kings 8:61
 
“How blessed are those whose way is blameless, Who walk in the law of the Lord.”  Psalm 119:1
 
“And many peoples will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, To the house of the God of Jacob;  That He may teach us concerning His ways And that we may walk in His paths.”  For the law will go forth from Zion And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.”  Isaiah 2:3
 
“I am the Lord your God;  walk in My statutes and keep My ordinances and observe them.”  Ezekiel 20:19
 
“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”  Ephesians 2:10
 
“and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.”  Ephesians 5:2
 
“so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;”  Colossians 1:10
 
“so that you would walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory.”  1 Thessalonians 2:12
 
“Finally then, brethren, we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us instruction as to how you ought to walk and please God (just as you actually do walk), that you excel still more.”  1 Thessalonians 4:1
 
In conclusion, there is great hope!  God is at work in us!
 
“I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.”   Ezekiel 36:27
“Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.”  Romans 6:4.
 

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Posted by: Bill Hornbeck | July 4, 2013

The Blessed Likeness of God

Today’s devotion comes from Genesis 5:1-2.
 
“This is the book of the generations of Adam.  In the day when God created man, He made him in the likeness of God.  He created them male and female, and He blessed them and named them Man in the day when they were created.”  Genesis 5:1-2.
 
———————-
 
God made Man in the likeness of God.  God blessed Man.
 
“Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”  Matthew 5:48 
 
“Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.  In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we would be a kind of first fruits among His creatures.”  James 1:17-18.
 
“But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.”  2 Corinthians 3:18
 
“For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren;  and these whom He predestined, He also called;  and these whom He called, He also justified;  and these whom He justified, He also glorified.”  Romans 8:29-30.
 
“Just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we will also bear the image of the heavenly.”  1 Corinthians 15:49
 
“Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him—”  Colossians 3:9-10.
 
“and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.”  Ephesians 4:24
 
“See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are.  For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.  Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be.  We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.  And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.”  1 John 3:1-3.

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Posted by: Bill Hornbeck | July 3, 2013

“Let him give heed to these things, And consider the lovingkindnesses of the Lord”

Today’s devotion comes from Genesis 4:16-26.  Here is a link to the chapter, so you can read it.
 
 
We will focus on verses 25 and 26.
 
“Adam had relations with his wife again;  and she gave birth to a son, and named him Seth, for, she said, “God has appointed me another offspring in place of Abel, for Cain killed him.”  To Seth, to him also a son was born;  and he called his name Enosh.  Then men began to call upon the name of the Lord.”  Genesis 4:25-26.
 
————-
 
God comforts.  When we experience sorrow, let us remember the “God of all comfort”.  “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.”  2 Corinthians 1:3-4. 
 
God shows lovingkindness.  “… I am the Lord who exercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth;  for I delight in these things,” declares the Lord.”  Jeremiah 9:24.
 
God restores.  We are reminded of all the losses that Job suffered.  But, “The Lord restored the fortunes of Job when he prayed for his friends, and the Lord increased all that Job had twofold.”  Job 42:10
 
“The Lord will sustain him upon his sickbed; In his illness, You restore him to health.”  Psalm 41:3
 
Not only does God restore earthly things, as He did in today’s Scripture for Adam in Eve in appointing another offspring in place of Abel, God provides us with spiritual blessings, as He did in today’s Scripture:  “Then men began to call upon the name of the Lord.”  Verse 26. 
 
“He restores my soul;  He guides me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake.”  Psalm 23:3
 
“Restore to me the joy of Your salvation And sustain me with a willing spirit.”  Psalm 51:12
 
“O God, restore us And cause Your face to shine upon us, and we will be saved.”  Psalm 80:3
 
“… Let him give heed to these things, And consider the lovingkindnesses of the Lord.”  Psalm 107:43.   
 
“41 But He sets the needy securely on high away from affliction,
And makes his families like a flock.
42 The upright see it and are glad;
But all unrighteousness shuts its mouth.
43 Who is wise?  Let him give heed to these things,
And consider the lovingkindnesses of the Lord.”  Psalm 107:43.

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Posted by: Bill Hornbeck | July 2, 2013

The Lesson from God’s Punishment of Cain: “For all His ways are just”

Today’s devotion comes from Genesis 4:9-15.
 
“Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?”  And he said, “I do not know.  Am I my brother’s keeper?”   He said, “What have you done?  The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to Me from the ground.  Now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.  When you cultivate the ground, it will no longer yield its strength to you;  you will be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth.”  Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is too great to bear!  Behold, You have driven me this day from the face of the ground;  and from Your face I will be hidden, and I will be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.”  So the Lord said to him, “Therefore whoever kills Cain, vengeance will be taken on him sevenfold.”  And the Lord appointed a sign for Cain, so that no one finding him would slay him.”  Genesis 4:9-15.
 
————–
 
Today’s Scripture makes us wonder why the LORD did not punish Cain by death for killing Abel.  After all, it is clear the death penalty was just for certain killings.  See, for example, Numbers 35:15-24 which carries  descriptions and distinctions of killings that are punishable by death from killings which are not punishable by death.
 
Did the LORD spare Cain, because Cain cried out for mercy?
 
Or, did the LORD spare Cain, because Cain’s killing did not contain sufficient intention, sufficient hatred, or sufficient enmity such that justice required that Cain be punished by death?
 
I don’t think the LORD spared Cain, because Cain cried out for mercy, because the LORD said to Cain:  “The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to Me from the ground.”  The LORD would not have been swayed by ungodly Cain’s plea over righteous Abel’s plea.
 
I think the LORD spared Cain, because Cain’s killing did not contain sufficient intention, sufficient hatred, or sufficient enmity such that justice required that Cain be punished by death.
 
Regarding whether Cain had intention, sufficient hatred, or sufficient enmity, Genesis 4:8 does not gives us many details:  “Cain told Abel his brother.  And it came about when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him.”
 
We do know that Cain was angry that the LORD had no regard for his offering:  “but for Cain and for his offering He had no regard. So Cain became very angry and his countenance fell.”  Genesis 4:5.  But, Scripture does not tell us that this was an anger toward Abel.  Moreover, we do know that Cain told Abel what the LORD had told him.  If Cain was angry at Abel, why would Cain tell Abel what the LORD told him?
 
We do know that because of Cain’s countenance, sin was crouching at the door.  But, it was not necessarily a sin of murder punishable by death crouching at the door.  “If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up?  And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it.”  Genesis 4:7.
 
We do have the description of the killing in 1 John 3:11-12:  “For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another;  not as Cain, who was of the evil one and slew his brother.  And for what reason did he slay him?  Because his deeds were evil, and his brother’s were righteous.”  Certainly, Cain’s deeds were evil, lacking in love, but there are many evil deeds that do not reach the level of being worthy of the death penalty.
 
We also do have the description of the killing in Jude 1:10-13:  “But these men revile the things which they do not understand;  and the things which they know by instinct, like unreasoning animals, by these things they are destroyed.  Woe to them!  For they have gone the way of Cain, and for pay they have rushed headlong into the error of Balaam, and perished in the rebellion of Korah.  These are the men who are hidden reefs in your love feasts when they feast with you without fear, caring for themselves;  clouds without water, carried along by winds;  autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead, uprooted;  wild waves of the sea, casting up their own shame like foam; wandering stars, for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever.”  Jude 1:10-13.  From this description, it seems as if Cain’s killing was more “unreasoning”, “without fear, caring for themselves”, than it was a killing with sufficient intention, sufficient hatred, or sufficient enmity toward Abel.
 
Finally, when the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?”  Cain said, “I do not know.  Am I my brother’s keeper?”  Cain’s answer seems more reckless, more “unreasoning”, “without fear, caring for themselves”, than it does indicating sufficient intention, sufficient hatred, or sufficient enmity toward Abel that deserved the death penalty.
 
The point of this analysis is that the LORD showed early in the history of man that He is a just and righteous God.  Many of us rush into judgment against Cain, or rush into love with Abel, such that we have less concern for justice.  But, God showed himself in today’s Scripture to be a perfectly just and righteous God. 
 
“For I proclaim the name of the Lord;
Ascribe greatness to our God!
“The Rock!  His work is perfect,
For all His ways are just;
A God of faithfulness and without injustice,
Righteous and upright is He.”  Deuteronomy 32:3-4.

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Posted by: Bill Hornbeck | July 1, 2013

“For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.”

Today’s devotion comes from Genesis 4:1-8.
 
“1 Now the man had relations with his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain, and she said, “I have gotten a manchild with the help of the Lord.”  2 Again, she gave birth to his brother Abel.  And Abel was a keeper of flocks, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.  3 So it came about in the course of time that Cain brought an offering to the Lord of the fruit of the ground.  4 Abel, on his part also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions.  And the Lord had regard for Abel and for his offering;  5 but for Cain and for his offering He had no regard.  So Cain became very angry and his countenance fell.  6 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry?  And why has your countenance fallen?  7 If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up?  And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door;  and its desire is for you, but you must master it.”  8 Cain told Abel his brother.  And it came about when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him.”  Genesis 4:1-8.
 
———————
 
What man’s inherent condition (“our old self”) could not provide, God provided:  freedom from sin. 
 
“For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.”  Romans 6:14  
 
“knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;  for he who has died is freed from sin.
 
Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again;  death no longer is master over Him.  For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all;  but the life that He lives, He lives to God.  Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
 
“Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness;  but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.  For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.”  Romans 6:6-14.
 
We still can sin and do sin, but we are not slaves to sin.   
 
“What then?  Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace?  May it never be!  Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?  But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.”  Romans 6:15-17.
 
The benefits of freedom from sin and enslavement to God are sanctification and eternal life.
 

“But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life.  For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  Romans 6:22-23.

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Posted by: Bill Hornbeck | June 30, 2013

“Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!”

Today’s devotion comes from Genesis 3:20-24.
 
“Now the man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all the living.  The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.
 
Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil;  and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”— therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken.  So He drove the man out;  and at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life.”  Genesis 3:20-24.
 
————–
 
God does provide eternal life, but on God’s own terms.  God will not allow man to “stretch out his hand, and take” it.   God does provide eternal life as a gift to those whom God elects to receive it. 
 
“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  Romans 6:23
 
“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus;”  Romans 3:23-24.
 
“But the free gift is not like the transgression.  For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many.”  Romans 5:15
 
“… God has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity,”  2 Timothy 1:9
 
“for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.”  Romans 11:29
 

“For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”  So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.  For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I raised you up, to demonstrate My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth.”  So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.”  Romans 9:15-18.

“But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth.”  2 Thessalonians 2:13
 
“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;”  1 Peter 2:9
 

“For by grace you have been saved through faith;  and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;  not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”  Ephesians 2:8-9. 

“Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!”  2 Corinthians 9:15

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Posted by: Bill Hornbeck | June 28, 2013

A Reformed Attitude

Today’s devotion comes from Genesis 3:8-19.
 
“8 They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.  9 Then the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?”  10 He said, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked;  so I hid myself.”  11 And He said, “Who told you that you were naked?  Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”  12 The man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate.”  13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”  And the woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”  14 The Lord God said to the serpent,

“Because you have done this,
Cursed are you more than all cattle,
And more than every beast of the field;
On your belly you will go,
And dust you will eat
All the days of your life;
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.”
16 To the woman He said,
“I will greatly multiply
Your pain in childbirth,
In pain you will bring forth children;
Yet your desire will be for your husband,
And he will rule over you.”

17 Then to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’;

Cursed is the ground because of you;
In toil you will eat of it
All the days of your life.
18 “Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you;
And you will eat the plants of the field;
19 By the sweat of your face
You will eat bread,
Till you return to the ground,
Because from it you were taken;
For you are dust,
And to dust you shall return.”  Genesis 3:8-19.

————————-

How should we respond to today’s Scripture and the remembrance that we are but dust, living in a cursed earth, with enmity between us and Satan, with great pain in childbirth, and with difficult labor, all the days of our short lives?

“So teach us to number our days,
That we may present to You a heart of wisdom.”  Psalm 90:12. 

A Reformed attitude changes our focus from us to God.   

A Reformed attitude changes our pride to humility and confession of sin.   

A Reformed attitude changes our focus from our works to God’s work.

A Reformed attitude changes our focus from our pleasure to God’s favor.

As you read the following Psalm Chapter 90, think of these elements of a Reformed attitude and how “TULIP”, the Five Points of Calvinism, the Reformed Doctrine of Salvation, helps us to have that Reformed attitude.

“1 Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations.
2 Before the mountains were born
Or You gave birth to the earth and the world,
Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.

3 You turn man back into dust
And say, “Return, O children of men.”
4 For a thousand years in Your sight
Are like yesterday when it passes by,
Or as a watch in the night.
5 You have swept them away like a flood, they fall asleep;
In the morning they are like grass which sprouts anew.
6 In the morning it flourishes and sprouts anew;
Toward evening it fades and withers away.

7 For we have been consumed by Your anger
And by Your wrath we have been dismayed.
8 You have placed our iniquities before You,
Our secret sins in the light of Your presence.
9 For all our days have declined in Your fury;
We have finished our years like a sigh.
10 As for the days of our life, they contain seventy years,
Or if due to strength, eighty years,
Yet their pride is but labor and sorrow;
For soon it is gone and we fly away.
11 Who understands the power of Your anger
And Your fury, according to the fear that is due You?
12 So teach us to number our days,
That we may present to You a heart of wisdom.

13 Do return, O Lord; how long will it be?
And be sorry for Your servants.
14 O satisfy us in the morning with Your lovingkindness,
That we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.
15 Make us glad according to the days You have afflicted us,
And the years we have seen evil.
16 Let Your work appear to Your servants
And Your majesty to their children.
17 Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us;
And confirm for us the work of our hands;
Yes, confirm the work of our hands.”  Psalm Chapter 90.

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Posted by: Bill Hornbeck | June 27, 2013

The Fall of Man and the Rise of God’s Grace: “according to His kind intention”

Today’s devotion comes from Genesis 3:1-7.
 
“Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.  And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?”   The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat;   but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’”   The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die!   For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”   When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate;  and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.   Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.”  Genesis 3:1-7.
 
———————
 
From our man-centered and limited view, we may think that God had to go to Plan B after man fell into temptation and sin.  But, God is always in control and always works all things according to His purpose.  Reformed Doctrine is pleased to remind us of the fact. 
 
“… For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many.  The gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned;  for on the one hand the judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation, but on the other hand the free gift arose from many transgressions resulting in justification.  For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.”  Romans 5:15-17.
 
God always had salvation through grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone to the glory of God alone as Plan A.  According to His purpose, God works all things after the counsel of His will. 
 
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him.  In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.  In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us.  In all wisdom and insight He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth. In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory.”  Ephesians 1:3-12. 
 
“For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble;  but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God.  But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written, “Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.”  1 Corinthians 1:26-31.
 
“For God has shut up all in disobedience so that He may show mercy to all.  Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!  How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!  For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became His counselor?  Or who has first given to Him that it might be paid back to him again?  For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever.  Amen.”  Romans 11:32-36.

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Posted by: Bill Hornbeck | June 26, 2013

“They shall eagerly utter the memory of Your abundant goodness”

Today’s devotion comes from Genesis 2:18-25.
 
“18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone;  I will make him a helper suitable for him.”  19 Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them;  and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name.  20 The man gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the sky, and to every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him.  21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept;  then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place.  22 The Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man.  23 The man said,

“This is now bone of my bones,
And flesh of my flesh;
She shall be called Woman,
Because she was taken out of Man.”

24 For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife;  and they shall become one flesh.  25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.”  Genesis 2:18-25.

—————

God provided man with “a helper”.  “The Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man.”  Verse 22.

God continues to provide excellent wives to so many of us.  

“10 An excellent wife, who can find?
For her worth is far above jewels.
11 The heart of her husband trusts in her,
And he will have no lack of gain.
12 She does him good and not evil
All the days of her life.”  Proverbs 31:10-12.

As I approach our 32nd Wedding Anniversary which is tomorrow, I think of my wife and how many excellent qualities she has that are mentioned in the following verses of Proverbs 31:13-31.

But as we think of our excellent wives, let us not stop there, but let us use such thoughts to prompt us to think of our wives as evidence of God’s goodness.  Today’s Scripture shows that God’s goodness was the cause of His provision.  “Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone;  I will make him a helper suitable for him.”  Verse 18.   

We know that man was not good so as to deserve such an excellent helper.  But, God is good, so He provided such a helper to man.

Let us review the goodness of God and the good things that He has provided to date in our very short journey so far from the beginning of Genesis 1:1.

  1. God saw that the light was good;  and God separated the light from the darkness.
  2. Genesis 1:10
    God called the dry land earth, and the gathering of the waters He called seas;  and God saw that it was good.
  3. Genesis 1:12
    The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit with seed in them, after their kind;  and God saw that it was good.
  4. Genesis 1:18
    and to govern the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness;  and God saw that it was good.
  5. Genesis 1:21
    God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind;  and God saw that it was good.
  6. Genesis 1:25
    God made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind;  and God saw that it was good.
  7. Genesis 1:31
    God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good.  And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
  8. Genesis 2:9
    Out of the ground the Lord God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food;  the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
  9. Genesis 2:18
    Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.”

In conclusion, let us rejoice and give thanks to God for His abundant goodness. 

“1 I will extol You, my God, O King,
And I will bless Your name forever and ever.
2 Every day I will bless You,
And I will praise Your name forever and ever.
3 Great is the Lord, and highly to be praised,
And His greatness is unsearchable.
4 One generation shall praise Your works to another,
And shall declare Your mighty acts.
5 On the glorious splendor of Your majesty
And on Your wonderful works, I will meditate.
6 Men shall speak of the power of Your awesome acts,
And I will tell of Your greatness.
7 They shall eagerly utter the memory of Your abundant goodness
And will shout joyfully of Your righteousness.
 

8 The Lord is gracious and merciful;
Slow to anger and great in lovingkindness.
9 The Lord is good to all,
And His mercies are over all His works.
10 All Your works shall give thanks to You, O Lord,
And Your godly ones shall bless You.
11 They shall speak of the glory of Your kingdom
And talk of Your power;
12 To make known to the sons of men Your mighty acts
And the glory of the majesty of Your kingdom.
13 Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
And Your dominion endures throughout all generations.

14 The Lord sustains all who fall
And raises up all who are bowed down.
15 The eyes of all look to You,
And You give them their food in due time.
16 You open Your hand
And satisfy the desire of every living thing.

17 The Lord is righteous in all His ways
And kind in all His deeds.
18 The Lord is near to all who call upon Him,
To all who call upon Him in truth.
19 He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him;
He will also hear their cry and will save them.
20 The Lord keeps all who love Him,
But all the wicked He will destroy.
21 My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord,
And all flesh will bless His holy name forever and ever.”  Psalm Chapter 145.

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