Scripture Treasures

Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously ~ 2 Corinthians 9:6 There are some who relate this verse to finances alone – If I give a lot of money, much will be returned to me financially. Well, that may be so, but it maybe not. This is more than about financial giving; it is about being generous in every way. It is about enlarging the harvest of your righteousness. A person who sows sparingly is conscious of every moment they give to another, and they tabulate it. It’s like counting every penny of their acts. It is like saying, “I have done this, and this and this for you…that is enough!” The giving may be with time, or taking a bowl of soup, or placing finances toward some mission project. Because they count it all up, their heart gradually turns hard, and their righteousness dwindles in the dust. The service given to the Lord becomes a bitter pill to swallow. The opposite is true for those who give generously...

For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves ~ Colossians 1:13 I am reading through Jeremiah and Isaiah now in my daily readings, and the loss God feels over the betrayal of his people is expressed very deeply. God wants his people to love him and follow him. One can read through both prophets the grief God is feeling as well as his anger. Over and over God had saved his people, protected them, and led them through desert places, yet still they took up the darkness of other gods and belief systems. It took strong measures to bring his people back, most times at their realization that they had deeply sinned and left the real God who was above all other gods. People are the same today. This world in which we live has moved far away from God, yet they do not realize it as they too worship other gods. How long and what will it take for them to realize they have abandoned the true God? For those of us who live as faithfully as we ...

The Lord is my strength and my shield  my heart trusts in him, and he helps me.  My heart leaps for joy,  and with my song I praise him ~ Psalm 28:7 What trouble is in your life today? This psalm of David is a cry out to God in his time of trouble. He was surrounded by people who spoke in a friendly way but inside their heart was darkness and evil. David knows that to live before God our heart must match what our actions show. The people David referred to here were double-minded, saying one thing but thinking another. We meet all types of people in our world, but those who follow God are not to be like the ones David is referring to here. We are to live like David in the way that his heart depended on his God to save and protect him. David knew the faithfulness of God, he knew God was his strength and his shield for he had seen the protective hand when David was before Saul and chased by his son, Absalom. We may not face those types of troubles David...

“There is no one holy like the Lord; there is no one besides you; there is no Rock like our God ~ 1 Samuel 2:2 Today is a day to praise the Lord all day! Just put the thoughts in your mind and heart of all the blessings the Lord pours out upon you. We serve a good, good God, the Almighty! When all around us shakes, God is steadfast and reliable. When we wonder what we are doing, he brings to light and to life his plan in us. He is the Lord of lord’s, the King of kings! He is the guide and wisdom in our lives. He is holy and that which is unholy does not come into his presence, which is why he sent his Son to take our sins to the cross and die in our place. He is the beginning and the end of all things, and all things are created by him and in him. If your day is bleak, look up and sing a song. Praise raises our sights to not what is around us but to what is above us, giving us hope! We cannot live this live without our God, for he is our foundation, the Rock upon w...

Blessed are those who keep his statutes and seek him with all their heart ~ Psalm 119:2 I start my day with the Lord and a cup of coffee beside me. Even before I have had my breakfast, I sit in my chair and read my scriptures, pray, and journal a bit. I am not a great journal person, as I am quite sporadic, except here when I write a blog. My point is that I start my day with the Lord and seek him before I start anything. It is a wonderful way to start my day, for later when that devotional time is over and when I set myself either in front of my computer to write my blog, or if I have a meeting, or even to walk my dog, I know that the Lord is with me. Because I do this, I really look and watch for opportunities that he may be showing me, and to be present as a blessing to others if he leads me to them, or, them to me. When we seek the Lord, seek his wisdom, his presence, the power of his Holy Spirit, there is nothing we cannot do. Little blessings will come our way. He will...

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” ~ Isaiah 6:8 When I received the call to come to Niagara Falls Ontario, back from the East Coast where God had sent me ten years earlier, this was the defining verse. I had gone through all the meetings, I had met people, and though they were all wonderful, I had not felt the Lord really saying this was where he wanted me – until the 99 th hour. On the last day, the last hymn of the day was the one written with the words of this scripture. Then God spoke to me! I was to leave my wonderful Wilmot Church and come to a new place. Recently, God spoke to me again, not to go somewhere, but to stay here in this place where he had placed me. And so, now I am in my wonderful Niagara Falls Church. But just because I am a pastor does not mean God does not still send out this verse to all Christ followers to go! Where will he send you today? What has he planned for you today, so that your life can enter anot...

Bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you ~ Luke 6:28 Those who create violence in their personal world want to get vengeance. It is an age-old reaction of mankind. You do wrong to me, and I will do wrong to you! Our world has had violence from the time of Cain and Able, and it will not leave until Jesus returns, bringing in the New World. Even the Old Testament said, “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, hand for hand, and foot for foot” (Deuteronomy 19:21). The thought that enters my mind is that I had better keep my wits about me, not trust anyone, and be always on guard. And, in some ways, so we should as Christians, for our enemy is not usually a person, but our enemy is found in spiritual warfare. Paul advised us to put on our armor – and keep it on to fight the spiritual enemy. Here, Jesus is not talking about the spiritual, but the actual enemy, and as usual, he is turning the thoughts of the world upside right. Where we naturally want to bring vengeanc...

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God ~ Micah 6:8 We are called to walk through our life as Jesus walked through his. We are not perfect like him, but he is our model to follow as closely as we can every day of our life. He is a just God, which means he looks at each of us the same way, not favouring one over another, but placing us all on the same weigh scale at the same weight. The fact is that we are all born sinners and it is by his grace alone that we come into his presence and are transformed by his Holy Spirit. God is fair with all of us, and no matter who we are or what we have done, we are forgiven when we ask it of him. This is the standard we are to have for each other. I heard John Piper yesterday explain something about this, and I loved his analogy. He mentioned our hand not just being a part of the body, but as part of the other hand. Often Pau...

Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me ~ Psalm 23:4 Who of us has not walked through the darkness found in life at some point or another? Every one of us has found themselves there. It is a lonely place, a hard place to travel through, and often we may feel we are the only one in that situation, whatever it may be. The psalmist, David, says he fears no evil in the darkest valley, for his complete trust is found in his God. I can’t say I have never felt fear, for the results of my experience(s) were not yet visible, yet eventually my heart would gain strength and turn to full reliance on my God. Even when the darkness surrounded me, and there were not yet any answers, I too trusted that God knew what he was doing, though I did not. David says his protection came from the rod and staff of comfort. For a shepherd to carry this meager piece of equipment meant he could both fight to protect his shee...

For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart ~ Hebrews 4:12 When I open the word of God, and read a passage I have read before, there seems to be something new that I take away from that word. God’s word speaks something different to all of us when we open it, even when we have heard the story many times before. Sometimes that story reminds me of the love God has for me, whereas other times it may remind me of how I must be a different person that the world in my living. God’s word convicts me of my sinfulness, lifts me when I am low and despondent, reminds me that even King David has felt the way I may be feeling. Paul’s words spoken through the Holy Spirit call me higher, and Jesus’ words call me to truth and love as I have never known love. I love how the writer of Hebrews says God’s word penetrates deep into our soul and spirit, for...

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us ~ Ephesians 3:20 I can do nothing without the power of the Holy Spirit within me. I am weak, I am sinful, I am lost without the Holy Spirit. It is the power of the Lord within us that helps us conquer our carnal nature, to live a sinless life. And all this gives the glory to God. For it is only through Him that what we imagine is fulfilled to a greater degree than what we can even imagine. Jesus had promised that those who believes in him, in the works that he does, will do greater works that what he did. That is hard to imagine! That is, until we realize the strength found in praying in Jesus’ name. When we do   pray this way our prayers try to come in line with what Jesus will is. It is to pray and bring our prayers in accord with the character of Jesus. When we do that, everything will become possible. Jesus also said that the power of the ...

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness ~ 2 Timothy 3:16 The Passion Translation says God’s word will empower you. I like that word, empower. It means that we have help to be the best that we can be when we read God’s word and are looking for instruction in every matter of our life. We are filled with God’s breath, his Holy Spirit, which empowers us to accomplish what God has planned for us. We cannot glean from God’s word the fullness of his transforming power without his Holy Spirit, for through his word and Spirit we are transformed. It is his Holy Spirit which when we read his word offers us guidance on living as Christ lived and showing us how to mentor others. God’s word shows us how to care for the poor and the widow, the lost and forlorn. God’s word corrects us, teaching us to love our enemy, to share with all, to be holy as he is holy. There is nothing lacking in the word of God for guiding us how to live a...

The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul.  The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple ~ Psalm 19:7 Breaking the law hurts. It hurts you; it hurts others. No matter what that law is that is broken, it causes pain. It need not be as drastic as murder, for a “little white lie” can cause as much pain as murder. It has been said that we are not islands to ourselves, and that is true. Every act I do affects someone. So, if I break the law of God, I in fact am preparing to offend in some way another person, but most importantly, I am preparing to offend my God. He has placed the law into our hearts so that we first will love him as we should, and second that we will love our neighbour as ourselves. When we live by his word, our soul is refreshed for we have given aid to another, we have respected them, uplifted them, and preferred them over, or as equal to the self. Wisdom does not come to those who flagrantly bring harm to another or to self. That is ve...

Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Saviour and my God ~ Psalm 42:11 My soul is not downcast today, but I have certainly gone through times when my soul was down in the pits of the grave, or it felt like it. When everything crashes in around you, and all is dark and dreary, it seems as though the world could come to an end, and it would not matter. It seems that you could come to your end, and no one would care. That, of course, is never true, for every one of us touches at least one other life, but we feel that way. The winter of the soul is a lonely place, a barren place, a dry place. The psalmist here is writing about his feelings and expressing them in a way we can relate to. We all know this place. His thoughts turn quickly, perhaps I think more quickly than my own do, and take an upward turn. Instead of looking horizontally he turns his eyes upward, vertically. He looks up, way up. He sees beyond today ...

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well ~ Matthew 6:33 Jesus wants us to know that God will provide what we need. It may not be what we want; it will be what we need. There are times when I wake up in the middle of the night and my mind goes to worry. “I have a meeting tomorrow…will someone say something that causes me concern?” Or I will think, “What will happen to me when I make this decision, or that one?” “Will I be…happy, content, provided for, lonely…?” You see, I can worry about all kinds of things that may never come my way, but still my mind will play around keeping me awake. Of course, the next day comes, the meeting happens, and nothing I feared comes to fruition. What I did the night before was waste my time, my energy, and lose sleep! God is our provider and caregiver. He will not desert us, or leave us, not when our hearts and lives are turned toward Him. When I live my life seeking Him, seeking his kingdom val...

Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling ~ Philippians 2:12 We are to work out our salvation, not work for our salvation. What Paul means is that we must continue in obedience to Christ’s commands, that we die to self, that we become more like Him, that we let go of our carnal nature day by day as we die to it, day by day. It takes dedication and thought. I must put aside my center and place Jesus in the center of my life. All I do and say, in each way I behave and act, my life is centered on displaying Jesus to a broken world. I cannot emphasize enough how currently we have taken on more of the world’s attitudes than those of Christ. We must come before Him broken, humble, needing his help. This is the only way to work out our salvation. When we come with pride and rejoicing over our accomplishments, we have placed our lives above his work through us. We...