Spanaway Archives - Pastor Marvin McKenzie

2 Corinthians 5:4 Immerse Mortality into Service

2 Corinthians 5:4 (KJV)
For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.

Paul’s contrast is not between death and life but between mortality and life. He does not say that he wishes death to be swallowed up of life but that mortality should be swallowed up of life.

Of this Gill writes, “…his desire is, that it may be swallowed up “of the life”, which is properly and emphatically life, as this life is not…” As this life is all we know, we tend to cling to it as life. Paul did not believe it to be so but was confident that mortality is a cheap substitute of the real thing.

Paul did not want to replace death with life. Perhaps this is the thinking of the person who commits suicide. His concern is not with the eternal but with the now. Earthly life has been a failure in his eyes so that it is more a death than life and death would seem more like life. Paul’s mindset was on the eternal. This mortality is so far below what awaits the believer that it isn’t properly called life. Life is what we have in heaven. He wasn’t looking for this mortality to end. He used it to the fullest for Christ. He was, however, completely confident that a day was coming when what he then experienced as mortality would be so swallowed by what God promised as life that his mortal years would be as nothing.

Such a confidence compels a person to plunge mortality into Christian service.

To my readers:
I would love to hear from you. Leave comments below.

For this and more than 3000 earlier Daily Visits with God visit Marvin McKenzie’s blogger page. There you will find daily visits going back to 2006.

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2 Corinthians 5:4 Immerse Mortality into Service

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1 Samuel 22:16-18 (KJV) Careful What You Ask

1 Samuel 22:16-18 (KJV)
And the king said, Thou shalt surely die, Ahimelech, thou, and all thy father’s house.
And the king said unto the footmen that stood about him, Turn, and slay the priests of the LORD; because their hand also is with David, and because they knew when he fled, and did not shew it to me. But the servants of the king would not put forth their hand to fall upon the priests of the LORD.
And the king said to Doeg, Turn thou, and fall upon the priests. And Doeg the Edomite turned, and he fell upon the priests, and slew on that day fourscore and five persons that did wear a linen ephod.

Saul is a graphic illustration of the old adage, “Be careful what you ask for because you might just get it.”

Israel had asked for, no, demanded, a king. Samuel warned them what having a king would be like. Now they have him in all his authority and his interest is far from that for which he was originally crowned. Saul did rally and fight the Philistines when necessary but his focus, and the main use of his resources, was spent on ridding himself of his God ordained replacement.

Saul here annihilates and entire family of priests. These were innocent men women and children who had done no wrong but were given no opportunity to prove it. They weren’t slain for wrong they had done; they were slain merely to pacify the king’s vengeance. Saul’s own footmen, young Israelite men who had been pressed into this service, refused to kill them. It was a stranger, and Edomite, who did the dirty deed for Saul.

What horrific consequences might happen whenever we demand to have it our way rather than God’s.

To my reader:
How is your relationship with God? Are you obedient to Him? Or do you demand of Him your will. Send me your comments. I would love to hear from you.

For this and more than 3000 earlier Daily Visits with God visit Marvin McKenzie’s blogger page. There you will find daily visits going back to 2006.

1 Samuel 22:16-18 (KJV) Careful What You Ask

1 John 5:1 (KJV) Jesus Christ, the Fulcrum

1 John 5:1 (KJV)
Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him.

The contest of the spiritual world revolves around Jesus Christ.

His person
His presence and
His passion

are become the fulcrum over which faith becomes a broken religion or an elevating devotion. Here is the dividing line between those who say they love God and those whom God says love Him. If you love God you will in turn love the one who is begotten of Him; Jesus Christ.

By using the concept of the begotten here, the Apostle points us to the incarnation. This is that breaking point for so many religions

The Catholics venerate Mary almost more than Christ
The Mormons and JW’s make Christ less than God with us
The Muslims reject that Christ was more than a great prophet
The eastern religions are ignorant of Christ
The atheists deny Christ
The worldly ignore Christ

To love God is to love Christ. To love Christ is to not merely believe in His existence but to embrace His every teaching.

For this and more than 3000 earlier Daily Visits with God visit Marvin McKenzie’s blogger page. There you will find daily visits going back to 2007.

1 John 5:1 (KJV) Jesus Christ, the Fulcrum

Please consider helping our church’s teen department by signing up for cash back shopping at Bible Baptist Church Fundraiser. This program is free to you. E-mail me for a free one month VIP upgrade.

Judges 3:1-4 (KJV) Why My Enemies?

Judges 3:1-4 (KJV)
Now these are the nations which the LORD left, to prove Israel by them, even as many of Israel as had not known all the wars of Canaan;
Only that the generations of the children of Israel might know, to teach them war, at the least such as before knew nothing thereof;
Namely, five lords of the Philistines, and all the Canaanites, and the Sidonians, and the Hivites that dwelt in mount Lebanon, from mount Baalhermon unto the entering in of Hamath.
And they were to prove Israel by them, to know whether they would hearken unto the commandments of the LORD, which he commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses.

Though the responsibility for leaving Canaanites in the land is placed, first upon the tribes of Israel and then upon Joshua, God here assumes that responsibility and lays a purpose for allowing them to remain. We see in this the melding of the free will of man versus the sovereignty of God. Men are responsible to do right before God. Their disobedience, however, in no way foils the plan of God. He has seen it from the beginning and even incorporated it into his good plan.

There are three purposes either stated or implied for leaving these Canaanites in the Promised Land:

To teach Israel
If Israel had no enemy she would forget how to fight. If Israel lost the skills of combat an enemy would surely rise up and take her. It is necessary that a civilized and godly people have a “well regulated militia”.

To prove Israel
An unproven people are an unsure people. No one, including themselves, has any idea what they are or are not capable of, what they do or do not believe who they will or will not follow.

The chasten Israel
When the children of Israel turned from God, He turned their enemies against them. God allowed that enemy to have its way with Israel until she returned to the Lord.

For this and more than 3000 earlier Daily Visits with God visit Marvin McKenzie’s blogger page. There you will find daily visits going back to 2007.

Judges 3:1-4 (KJV) Why My Enemies?

Judges 2:21 (KJV) Don’t Blame Joshua

Judges 2:21 (KJV)
I also will not henceforth drive out any from before them of the nations which Joshua left when he died:

The Bible nowhere condemns or speaks negatively of Joshua personally. Joshua is one of the finest examples of leadership, spirituality, and faith we have in the Bible. But he was not a perfect man. Toward the end of his life I see two things that I believe were faults that may have led to Israel’s failure as it is recorded in the book of Judges. Joshua left:

Nations which vexed the people
I understand he could not have guaranteed complete victory in his lifetime but there is an indication, I think, that the push to drive out the Canaanites died long before Joshua did.

Israel without a new leader
When Moses realized that his days were few, he sought God for a new leader for the nation. Joshua did not do that. I do not see where he was ever commanded to do that, but I do not see where Moses was either. Moses was merely concerned enough for Israel to seek it for them. Joshua on the other hand, could have thought within himself that Israel now had their Promised Land, the tribes each had their own lot there, perhaps each tribe should develop their own leadership.

Right or wrong, I do not think there is any doubt that this lack of leadership in part led to Israel’s very rapid failure.

However, Joshua had not left them in moral and spiritual poverty. He had delivered to them,
A charge to serve the Lord

Joshua 24:14-15 (KJV)
Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the LORD.
And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.

Israel, in the end, was without excuse. They had the example of Joshua. They had the Word of God and His worship. It was their choice and no one else’s to fall away.

As it is always for us to choose for ourselves whether to serve the Lord or to fall away.

For this and more than 3000 earlier Daily Visits with God visit Marvin McKenzie’s blogger page. There you will find daily visits going back to 2007.

Judges 2:21 (KJV) Don’t Blame Joshua

1 John 2:26 (KJV) Spiritual Seduction

1 John 2:26 (KJV)
These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you.

The apostle speaks of the seduction so matter-of-factly that it must have been happening at the very moment. John took proactive and immediate measures to stop the work of seduction before it had time to work its wickedness.

I pause to identify the character of Seduction:

It is subtle and often difficult to see
This is especially true of the seduced.

It is flattering and appeals to the ego
Attention given, even by one who should not give the attention is none-the-less attractive.

It is sinful
No one is seduced into the right. The very nature of seduction is to lead away from the right.

It is destructive
Seduction like all sin when it is finished leads to death.

Those who are lost are no less seducers today than they were two thousand years ago. They are more varied and perhaps more brazen now than ever before. Anyone who knows the Lord should be happy that there is someone to step in and stop the seduction before it causes damaging consequences to one’s faith.

For this and more than 3000 earlier Daily Visits with God visit Marvin McKenzie’s blogger page. There you will find daily visits going back to 2007.

1 John 2:26 (KJV) Spiritual Seduction

1 John 1:1-9 How To Walk in the Light

1 John 1:5-9 (KJV)
This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

The subject of this chapter is light.

God is light and in him is no darkness.
If we walk in the light we have fellowship one with another.
Even the description given of Christ (using the word manifested) means light, open, revealed not hidden.

It is in this context that we should understand 1 John 1:9. To confess our sins is to reveal them to God and it is by revealing them that we walk in light. It is by bringing them out into the open, by uncovering them before Go,d that we walk in the light and his blood cleanses us from all sin.

For this and more than 3000 earlier Daily Visits with God visit Marvin McKenzie’s blogger page. There you will find daily visits going back to 2007.

1 John 1:1-9 How To Walk in the Light

2 Peter 3:4 KJV The Promise of Christ’s Coming

2 Peter 3:4 (KJV)
And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.

The promise of Christ’s coming is exactly where God said it would be.

It is on time
It is imminent
It is glorious to the believer
It is devastating to the unbeliever

I understand that there have been some Christians who have misrepresented the coming of Christ and taught things that have not come to pass. I understand that all Christians have looked for and preached His coming since Christianity was first established. I also understand that none of those things change the plan purpose or present sovereignty of God.

Jesus will come in the clouds to catch the Christians away. Seven years later Jesus will come to this earth to begin His one thousand year reign. No man knows the day or the hour when these things will happen, but:

We do know that they will happen
We do know that they will happen suddenly and unexpectedly and
We do know that they will happen sooner than those mockers wished

For this and more than 3000 earlier Daily Visits with God visit Marvin McKenzie’s blogger page. There you will find daily visits going back to 2007.

2 Peter 3:4 KJV The Promise of Christ’s Coming

2 Peter 1:16 (KJV) Cunningly Devised Fables

2 Peter 1:16 (KJV)
For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.

I take it that people even then (though some today claim they were all ignorant and superstitious) recognized that there were some cunningly devised fables existing in their day.

The fable of polytheism
The fable of pantheism
The fable of Apotheosis (worshiping kings and sovereigns)
The fable of ancestor worship

These and many others were in full swing in the times of Peter’s writing. That he would say the faith of Christianity is not a cunningly devised fable assumes that his readers could have identified many of them.

Something that is cunningly devised is not innocent. It is malicious. It is schemed to deceive and to damage those who swallow it. It is meticulously formulated for the purpose of luring people into it. It is false It is of the devil.

The faith of the Christian is the opposite of all that is cunningly devised.

It is honest, coming from eyewitnesses
It is heavenly, pleasing to God the Father
It is sure, delivered to us from men of God

For this and more than 3000 earlier Daily Visits with God visit Marvin McKenzie’s blogger page. There you will find daily visits going back to 2007.

2 Peter 1:16 (KJV) Cunningly Devised Fables

Joshua 15:1 My Lot in Life

Joshua 15:1 (KJV)
This then was the lot of the tribe of the children of Judah by their families; even to the border of Edom the wilderness of Zin southward was the uttermost part of the south coast.

The common phrase “my lot in life”, perhaps made most famous by C3PO in Star Wars, is of Biblical origins. It stems from Joshua’s dividing the Promised Land to the tribes of Israel by lot.

I am reminded that there are numerous phrases just like this, used every day by people who are unaware of their Biblical roots and often by people who hold the Bible in utter contempt. The phrase reminded me of how woven into our lives God’s Word and, yea, God is; even in the lives of those who despise Him and claim they do not believe God is:

God is near everyone of us

He is not a God far off. He is near to anyone who will call upon Him.

God is active in every life, even if we do not recognize Him

Christians and non Christians alike often miss the hand of God at work all around them, for them and through them.

God’s mercies, though near, are effective only for those who seek Him.

Just as we unknowingly toss Bible phrases around but can only truly benefit from the Bible by studying and taking heed to it, so God’s mercies are available to all but salvation only comes to those who call out to God for it.

For this and more than 3000 earlier Daily Visits with God visit Marvin McKenzie’s blogger page. There you will find daily visits going back to 2007.

Joshua 15:1 My Lot in Life

Please consider helping our church’s teen department by signing up for cash back shopping at Bible Baptist Church Fundraiser. This program is free to you. Send me you e-mail and I will send you a free one month VIP upgrade.