Watching Daily At Wisdom's Gates

 You have laid down precepts that are to be fully obeyed. Psalm 119:4 God didn't give us ten suggestions. We can't take them or leave them. He gave us ten commandments to be fully obeyed. We're not given the option to partially love God. We're not just to love Him on Sundays, and forget about Him for the rest of the week. God expects 24/7 devotion to Himself. We can't just love others when we feel like it. Love never fails, so if it fails, it wasn't love. We might not love perfectly, but we are to love enduringly. Too often, we excuse our sinfulness. We might know that God's statutes are to be fully obeyed, but we know we will fail. That doesn't mean to say we shouldn't try, with the Spirit's help. 'Lord, thank You for Your word. Help us to obey it as best we can, for the honour of Your name, amen'.

They do no wrong, but follow His ways. Psalm 119:3 God doesn't want us doing wrong. He wants us following His ways. We can do this by His Holy Spirit. I know we're never going to be perfect in this life. Yet we can live holy, godly lives with God's help. In 1 John we're told that 'if' we sin, there's forgiveness. Sin doesn't have to be inevitable for us, we can say no. We are to follow God's ways, which are to repent and believe the good news. We are to turn from our sins in faith to the Lord Jesus Christ. He doesn't begrudge our failings but delights to bless us. We are to deny ourselves, take up our crosses, and follow Christ. An acrostic to sum up faith is Forsaking All, I Trust Him. All who come to Him in faith, He won't reject. 'Sovereign Father, please help us to follow You and not to do wrong. For Your glory we pray, amen'

 Blessed are those who keep His statutes and seek Him with all their heart. Psalm 119:2 It's not enough to know God's statutes. It's not enough to even acknowledge that God's law is good. We have to keep it.  Of course, the forgiven statute breakers are blessed. Yet having been forgiven, we become doubly blessed when we begin to keep God's statutes by His Holy Spirit. If we don't attempt to keep God's statutes, we betray the fact we're not forgiven.  God doesn't want us to seek Him half-heartedly. He looks for wholehearted devotion to Himself. God promises that we will find Him if we seek Him wholeheartedly. If we only seek God half-heartedly, we show that we're not really bothered about finding Him. God doesn't save people who aren't bothered about being saved. We have to want to be saved. 'Blessed God, please bless us with undivided hearts to keep Your law. For Your glory, amen'

 Blessed are those whose ways are blameless, who walk according to the law of the Lord. Psalm 119:1 Blessedness is to be made happy by God. How can sinners like us be blessed? How can our ways become blameless? Jesus said, 'I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me. There's no blessing or blamelessness outside of faith in Christ. Having come to faith in Christ, we can't walk according to the cravings of our flesh any more. Instead, we are to walk according to the law of the Lord. This isn't to earn His favour, but in thankfulness for His goodness. Even within the law of the Lord, there is a sacrificial system for when we mess up. It ultimately points to Christ's sacrifice on our behalf. Without Him we'd be hopeless. 'Lord, we praise You for Your law, which points us to Christ, the Way we get blessed and blameless before You. In His name, amen'

  ‘In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth’ Genesis 1:1 ‘In the beginning’ rules out the idea that the universe has always been. ‘In the beginning God’ rules out the idea there’s lots of gods. If God was there in the beginning, by implication He was there before the beginning of time and has always been, He’s eternal. This verse doesn’t go into details about how God created the universe. He could have taken billions of years, or a second. As the chapter unfolds, the writer describes Him as taking a week: killing two birds with one stone- setting us a blueprint for our timekeeping. The idea that in the beginning nothing exploded is even more far-fetched than this Biblical truth. We can’t get something from nothing, which is why people in their attempt to write God out of the equation keep making the universe out to be older and older. Explosions cause damage and chaos, not an ordered cosmos. The big bang doesn’t make sense as an explanation of the origin of life. People j

  Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him.”  Genesis 2:18 NLT This is the first time in the history of the universe that something wasn’t good. We’re made in God’s image and likeness and that makes us sociable beings. God isn’t just some solitary oneness: He’s Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I’m reminded of the song that talks about all that man has accomplished- but it wouldn’t mean anything if there were no women in the world. There’s another saying that behind every great man, there is a woman. I know how grateful I personally am to have found a wife. Some people might kick against women as helpers for men, as though that is quite a demeaning description. Yet the Bible isn’t afraid to describe God Himself as a Helper for humanity. To help someone isn’t demeaning: it means that we are able to help someone who can’t help themselves. Women were created not just to help men, but to bring people into the world and to be

  I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Revelation 7:14 ESV https://bible.com/bible/59/rev.7.14.ESV I know people have different escatological views, but this verse seems to rule out one of them. Some people like to think that God's people will be raptured before the great tribulation. I don't think this verse allows for that interpretation. God won't allow us to suffer beyond what we can bear. Yet with Him, Christians can and have endured the most unspeakable suffering. I don't think it's too much to say that the entire time between Christ's first and second coming is a time of great tribulation for God's people. We don't need to suffer persecution to be saved. Yet having been saved by the blood of the Lamb, we should expect persecution as normative for us as believers. Thankfully, Jesus blesses the persec

  They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” Revelation 6:10 ESV https://bible.com/bible/59/rev.6.10.ESV We might feel uncomfortable with this verse. Why can't they just be nice and forgiving? They'd been martyred: it's understandable that they wanted justice. God is a God of justice. It might not feel like it in this life, where Christians are like sheep to the slaughter. Yet in eternity justice will assuredly be meted out upon those who unrepentantly persecute the church. Amazingly, there is forgiveness for persecutors who repent. Saul of Tarsus was one such, who Jesus confronted on the Damascus road. He was transformed into Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles. The answer to the question is that God hasn't yet gathered all His martyred children in. When the last of His people is martyred (and from other Scriptures the last to be saved comes to faith), the