Category: Uncategorized

David Platt preaches about the Great Commission.

TORAH  – Mattot (Tribes)

Numbers 33

Prophets

Jeremiah 47 & Jeremiah 48

Wisdom Writing

Psalm 119:57- 64

Psalm of the Day 82

Proverbs 25:23-24

The Gospels & Letters

Mark 3

If you are on the journey with us reading through the Bible, welcome to day number 298! 0r if you are joining us from today and are staring now, welcome and be prepared for a life changing experience! Also join us Tuesday nights from 6-7 pm pst on facebook live at: (copy and paste in another tab)  www.facebook.com/james.stephens.5205622

TORAH  – Mattot (Tribes)

Numbers 32

Prophets

Jeremiah 46

Wisdom Writing

Psalm 119:49- 56 Ground

Psalm of the Day 48

Proverbs 25:20-22

The Gospels & Letters

Mark 2

If you are on the journey with us reading through the Bible, welcome to day number 297! 0r if you are joining us from today and are staring now, welcome and be prepared for a life changing experience! Also join us Tuesday nights from 6-7 pm pst on facebook live at: (copy and paste in another tab)  www.facebook.com/james.stephens.5205622

I just posted this comment on Paul Washer’s page where someone asked if God speaks to us as believers. This is just one experience which my three children can verify that our God is very present and speaks to us and we’re not crazy. It happened to me when we were living at 1612 N. Hill Avenue, Pasadena, California in the 90’s. Here’s what I posted:

I recall ministering to a very tough Dane who would often come to our home and he had many questions about God. We’d make him lunch and he always was grateful. He was an amazing chef who had prepared meals even for the King of Denmark. Jens had a doberman named Faust. He had walked him a little earlier and said while he was walking him Jens lost a gold filling worth $900 which fell out of his mouth. He asked if we could come down with him to the place where he believed he lost it. Well, my kids and I hopped in his car and drove to the area and looked at the sandy area where he said he lost it. We were down on our knees looking and praying to find it. Suddenly, I told Jens, “God told me it’s not here, but in your car.” He was a tall, stocky Dane with a butch haircut and very softly said, okay. Where is it? He said it’s in your car. So I walked over to his car, opened the door, sat down in the driver’s seat, put my right hand down between the seat and center console and my hand pulled up his gold filling. First of all let me immediately say, I’m not that smart, and there is no way, that I could pull that one off, no way in the world! I can’t explain it, but I absolutely believe without a shadow of a doubt that God, the Holy Spirit speaks to us, and am still amazed as are my children that God used me to retrieve Jen’s gold filling. I’m amazed. How did God know for me to sit in that seat, put my hand down between the seat and touch and grasp and retrieve the gold filling? I am not psychic, God is all knowing and used this broken clay vessel to do His will to demonstrate to that tough Dane that He is real, He is in control, and that nothing is lost, that He does not know where to find. It is about His lost sheep. I am grateful for the experience and always try to be obedient when He calls. It is He who wills to work His mysterious designs among us. I am a conservative reformed believer who was saved in 1984 after practicing Buddhism for fourteen years. I am believing God for great works which again are way above my ability and ask for greater faith and His continuing sanctification. Be encouraged He is able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all we can ask, think, or even imagine! Be strong, courageous, and steadfast and study His Word everyday. He is speaking. Give us ears to hear O LORD and the courage to act in obedience to Your Word and to rightly discern that it is according to Your Word, our standard. Help us also be patient and be thoroughly equipped for whatever comes our way in any season.

James C. Stephens July 28, 2019.

Sheila Pene Taylor Stephens

TORAH  – Mattot (Tribes)

Numbers 31

Prophets

Jeremiah 43 & Jeremiah 44 & Jeremiah 45

Wisdom Writing

Psalm 119:41- 48 Nail (connect, hammer)

Psalm of the Day 24

Proverbs 25:18-19

The Gospels & Letters

Mark 1

If you are on the journey with us reading through the Bible, welcome to day number 296! 0r if you are joining us from today and are staring now, welcome and be prepared for a life changing experience! Also join us Tuesday nights from 6-7 pm pst on facebook live at: (copy and paste in another tab)  www.facebook.com/james.stephens.5205622

TORAH  – Mattot (Tribes)

Numbers 30:2-16

Prophets

Jeremiah 41 & Jeremiah 42

Wisdom Writing

Psalm 119:33- 40 Revelation, Praise

Psalm of the Day 92

Proverbs 25:17

The Gospels & Letters

Matthew 28

If you are on the journey with us reading through the Bible, welcome to day number 295! 0r if you are joining us from today and are staring now, welcome and be prepared for a life changing experience! Also join us Tuesday nights from 6-7 pm pst on facebook live at: (copy and paste in another tab)  www.facebook.com/james.stephens.5205622

TORAH  – Pinchas (Phinehas)

Numbers 29:20-Numbers 30:1

Prophets

Jeremiah 39 & Jeremiah 40

Wisdom Writing

Psalm 119:25- 32 Open Door

Psalm of the Day 93

Proverbs 25:16

The Gospels & Letters

Matthew 27

If you are on the journey with us reading through the Bible, welcome to day number 294! 0r if you are joining us from today and are staring now, welcome and be prepared for a life changing experience! Also join us Tuesday nights from 6-7 pm pst on facebook live at: (copy and paste in another tab)  www.facebook.com/james.stephens.5205622

TORAH  – Pinchas (Phinehas)

Numbers 29:1-19

Prophets

Jeremiah 37 & Jeremiah 38

Wisdom Writing

Psalm 119:17- 24 Camel

Psalm of the Day 81

Proverbs 25:11-14

The Gospels & Letters

Matthew 26

If you are on the journey with us reading through the Bible, welcome to day number 293! 0r if you are joining us from today and are staring now, welcome and be prepared for a life changing experience! Also join us Tuesday nights from 6-7 pm pst on facebook live at: (copy and paste in another tab)  www.facebook.com/james.stephens.5205622

TORAH  – Pinchas (Phinehas)

Numbers 28

Prophets

Jeremiah 35 & Jeremiah 36

Wisdom Writing

Psalm 119:9-16 House

Psalm of the Day 94

Proverbs 25:8-10

The Gospels & Letters

Matthew 25

If you are on the journey with us reading through the Bible, welcome to day number 291! 0r if you are joining us from today and are staring now, welcome and be prepared for a life changing experience! Also join us Tuesday nights from 6-7 pm pst on facebook live at: (copy and paste in another tab)  www.facebook.com/james.stephens.5205622

https://www.biblestudytools.com/commentaries/gills-exposition-of-the-bible/proverbs-25-8.html

John Gill’s exposition on Proverbs 25:8

“Go not forth hastily to strive
To go to law with a neighbour; think well of it beforehand; consider the nature of the cause, whether right or wrong; or whether it is a matter of such moment as to go to law about; whether it will not be deemed a frivolous and vexatious suit; whether able to bear the expenses of it, and what may probably be the success of it; lest [thou know not] what to do in the end thereof;
for a livelihood, having spent all thy substance in the lawsuit, and so reduced to poverty as not to know how to live, or how and where to show thy face, through the disgrace that shall fall upon time by losing the cause; when that neighbour hath put thee to shame;
in open court, and proved himself to be in the right, and that thou art in the wrong; himself an honest man, and thee a litigious person.”

Proverbs 25:9
Debate thy cause with thy neighbour [himself]
“Between thee and him alone; lay the matter before him, and hear what he has to say for himself, by which you will better judge of the nature of the cause; try to compromise things, and make up the difference between you, which is much better than to commence a lawsuit; at least such a step should be taken first; see ( Matthew 5:25 ) ; and discover not a secret to another;
if the thing in controversy is a secret, do not acquaint another person with it; keep it among yourselves, if the affair can be made up without bringing it into a court of judicature; besides, by communicating it to others, you may have bad counsel given, and be led to take indirect methods: or, “the secret of another”, or, “another secret do not discover” F2; if you know anything scandalous and reproachful of your neighbour and his family, you are contending with, which does not concern the cause in hand, do not divulge it, as persons from a spirit of revenge are apt to do, when they are quarrelling or litigating a point with each other.”

. (8-10) Wisdom in avoiding court.
Do not go hastily to court;
For what will you do in the end,
When your neighbor has put you to shame?
Debate your case with your neighbor,
And do not disclose the secret to another;
Lest he who hears it expose your shame,
And your reputation be ruined.

a. Do not go hastily to court: Sometimes the court of law is necessary, but we should never go hastily to court. If it is possible to resolve a dispute any other way, we should do it that other way. This was Paul’s later teaching to the Corinthian church (1 Corinthians 6:1-8).

i. “After squandering your money away upon lawyers, both they and the judge will at last leave it to be settled by twelve of your fellow citizens! O the folly of going to law! O the blindness of men, and the rapacity of unprincipled lawyers!” (Clarke)

ii. “Jesus gave a similar teaching in Luke 12:57–59.” (Garrett)

b. When your neighbor has put you to shame: This is another strong reason why one should avoid court – you might lose and be putto shame. Many people who go to court have an unrealistic confidence that they will win.

c. Debate your case with your neighbor: Solomon’s wise advice is to settle it out of court. If you can debate your case outside the court, do it there. The debate may expose a secret that would be to your shame in open court and from that your reputation be ruined.

i. “To run to the law or to the neighbours is usually to run away from the duty of personal relationship—see Christ’s clinching comment in Matthew 18:15b.” (Kidner)

ii. “One should not smear another’s name to clear his own or a defendant’s.” (Waltke)

iii. Adam Clarke could not help but add this: “On this subject I cannot but give the following extract from Sir John Hawkins’s Life of Dr. Johnson, which he quotes from Mr. Selwin, of London: ‘A man who deliberates about going to law should have, 1. A good cause; 2. A good purse; 3. A good skilful attorney; 4. Good evidence; 5. Good able counsel; 6. A good upright judge; 7. A good intelligent jury; and with all these on his side, if he have not, 8. Good luck, it is odds but he miscarries in his suit.’”