Study – Grow – Know

What Does the Lord Delight In?

August 2, 2022 at 1:07 PM 3 comments

Audio for this article here: SermonAudio.com/StudyGrowKnow

A few links:

• The Unvaccinated WILL be vindicated
• Nancy Pelosi’s plane lands in Taiwan as China threatens
• Wearing Down of the Saints
• Another tool to usher in Great Reset
• 10,000% increase in cancers

Remember China threatening to shoot Pelosi’s plane out of the sky if she visited Taiwan? Well, she’s there and China did not shoot. I’m not wishing they did either. I’m simply saying something is weird here considering Pelosi seems to be more of an asset to China than to the USA. Pelosi took a verbal jab at President Xi before she left Taiwan, so to me, it looks more and more like theater, as though she’s trying to distance herself and prove to the world that she is not under Xi’s thumb even though she likely remains so.

I’m also not convinced the unvaxxed will be vindicated (see link above), simply because there are too many people who have not yet suffered adverse reactions from the vax and see no problem with it. They routinely deny that the vax causes any issues at all, unless the person is severely compromised and then it’s their fault, not the vax itself. Frankly, I think if the total truth came out, it would not convince most people of anything. Only 10% (22 million), regret taking the vax out of everyone who took it. That’s a sad stat.

Along those lines, I’m amazed at how many things the MSM is now telling us can cause heart attacks, strokes and other conditions that have all become known since the jab rollout. If it’s not climate change, it’s something in the soil, or cold showers or our pee. Sadly, there are folks who believe everything the MSM tells them.

If you can handle it, watch this video, which highlights many people who have experienced adverse reactions post-jab and still do. It’s heartbreaking really to see folks who have lost control of some to much of their bodies (including amputations), and they’ll never be what they once were because of it. This is so sad, yet it is being ignored by the medical community. They routinely find “nothing” and therefore cannot treat anything. Imagine being normal one day, then an invalid the next. I wonder how the mRNA manages to create situations in folks that destroy their health while remaining hidden in blood tests, MRIs and other scans?

I wish I could write an article stating that the veil of lies is lifting, that people are coming around to the truth and that politicians are now doing the right thing. Instead, as predicted, at least blue states are now headed toward lock-downs, mask mandates and a huge push for the latest vax in efforts to curtail and minimize the latest threat – monkey pox. Several state governors have recently declared health emergencies for their states in spite of the fact that there are few or zero incidents of actual monkey pox cases there.

This is all – in my opinion – in preparation for the midterm elections (happening now), when Democrats’ seats are on the line. If lock-downs can occur, people will have to mail in their ballots and the potential for voter fraud will increase dramatically. I find it absolutely fascinating that Democrats constantly yell about how “racist” it is to force people to have and show a voter ID when they vote at the polls. Apparently, these same Democrats do not realize that whenever visiting a doctor, photo ID and proof of insurance are required. We are yet again experiencing major voting problems in Arizona, with polling places running out of only GOP ballots, mail-in ballots with no signatures, and the rest. I hope the candidates there fight, fight, fight in the courts to have things done properly. But anyone questioning voter fraud is either a racist, a conspiracy theorist or both these days. It’s all done in an attempt to silence anyone who has questions or concerns.

The simple fact of the matter is that as people deliberately drift further and further from God, they will embrace anything but truth. They will seek to gain knowledge and understanding from everything that is opposed to God, which of course, results in believing lies. This proves they are reprobate (Romans 1). We can and should expect nothing less, though this is difficult for us and in fact, maddening at times.

I attended a mandatory work meeting today where we had a keynote speaker. As I looked around the auditorium, I noticed one person wearing a mask…around her chin, while she talked animatedly with several others. When the meeting began, she had the mask pulled up across her mouth and nose and that’s where it sat for the duration of the several hours in length meeting. This is in spite of the fact that they’ve now done five studies that prove masks are worthless. I don’t get it, frankly.

But the “highlight” of the two and a half hour meeting was the keynote speaker who claims to be a magician, actor, speaker and mind reader. So for close to two hours, we were borne along by his story telling, his brief bits of magic, and a good deal of motivational snippets pushing us to be the best we could possibly be and by learning the art of humility so that others could prosper even if/when we don’t. In fact, by helping others prosper, we then prosper…or something. I can only wonder how much he was paid to “motivate” us? He prospers obviously and amazingly, his list of clients is astounding, including Pfizer and many other corporations.

I’m totally amazed at how easily people are manipulated. Bring in a guy who struts around on stage with energy, tells some tear-jerking stories, wows the audience with two-bit magic and mentions the celebrities he’s known and worked with and most of the people in the audience were eating out of his hand. Everyone left the conference all happy, buoyed up and ready to go, but all that the keynote speaker stated will be forgotten before the end of the day for most people.

Believe it or not, I’m not deliberately trying to be negative, though it probably sounds like that. While I can tend to look at life as the glass half empty, I’m trying to refocus my attention on how God is moving in society, not what people are doing. In reality, I try to do the same thing with God and His Word. I read it every day. I try to commit portions to memory, providing the Holy Spirit with His Word that I’ve hidden in my heart, making it hopefully a bit easier for Him to guide and mature me. Yet there are many times throughout the day when I “feel” (there’s that ugly word again!), as though I’ve lost contact with Him, my Creator, my Savior, my Lord and my God. Sometimes things and circumstances take me away from what’s most important and I absolutely hate that.

I’m not sure when the portions of His Word that I have committed to memory will have some noticeably consistent impact on my life, but it’s rare when I see it. I read His Word and marvel, but it isn’t too long before I get sidetracked by life and I’m soon not thinking about His Word or Him. If it is easy to forget the truth of His eternal Word, how much easier is it to forget some guy spouting Buddhist motivational wordplay for an hour or so?

God is amazing, astounding in fact and His Word is so nuanced, which is why it should be read deliberately, not casually. Consider these verses from Psalm 147:10-11.

10 He does not delight in the strength of the horse;
He takes no pleasure in the legs of a man.
11 The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear Him,
In those who hope in His mercy.

The Psalmist tells us that God doesn’t delight or take pleasure in the strength of the horse, or the legs of a man. Why wouldn’t God take pleasure in those things? For the simple reason that He created them. It is God who gave the horse his uniquely beautiful appearance and tremendous strength. Why would God take delight in something that He created apart from simply saying it was “good” and created to His expectations? The same applies to the legs of a man. God created humanity with tremendous abilities and one of those abilities is to stand, walk, run, jump and climb.

In the end, God isn’t delighted in those things because He created them for a specific purpose, which they fulfill. In essence, they do what they were created to do. No surprise. Verse 11 explains to us exactly what the Lord does take pleasure in, “The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear Him, in those who hope in His mercy.”

Simply put, God is pleased when a person makes the correct decision to do the correct things. Remember how often I’ve talked about fearing the Lord? We need to remember to place the word “offending” after the word “fear” and before “the Lord” to get the gist of what the Psalmist is saying. “The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear (offending) Him…” This is not the fear of God pouring out His wrath or anger on us for slipping up. It’s the idea that our devotion to and love for God is so great that we simply do not want to cause Him any grief through our words, thoughts, or actions.

A decision to become more afraid of offending the Lord is a decision that needs to be made by each Christian on a daily basis; often throughout the day many times. It is how we negotiate our life here, or how we should negotiate it. Let me give one example that I’m currently dealing with, which may or may not seem like a big deal to others.

We live in the country on several acres. There’s no one to our right as you look out our front door; just six empty acres. Across our dirt road is roughly 1350 acres of pastures and the owner leases these fields to a local cattle rancher. The only neighbor we have is on our left and while they are great people, I sometimes wish their house was a bit further away. I value our privacy and the fact that we do not live in a residential neighborhood where homes are often built right up next to one another.

The six acres to our right extend to the end of the road where it meets another dirt road. We learned awhile ago who owned the acreage and attempted to buy the two acres closest to us as a buffer. The owner would not sell and told our realtor that she had plans for it – to build a home and live there with her 25 dogs.

In just the past two weeks, I noticed activity happening on that six acre parcel. First the tax people came to assess the value of the land for the potential building of a new home. Next, surveyors spent one day marking the boundary lines. I went to the tax office to find out if any permits had been pulled to build and so, far, nothing.

Other people would not have a problem with this, but for me, the thought of living next door to a person with 25 dogs is not inviting. I have prayed about it and continue to pray about it. But I’ve not really understood how to pray. Then the thought came to me that I was not fearing the Lord enough. I was not trusting Him. I was elevating myself and literally denigrating Him. The issue of not wanting to offend the Lord has now become part of the equation, so I’m approaching this in a completely different way. I have begun to simply thank Him for what may be coming into our relative peace and quiet. I truly do not know how things will work out but I do know this: God wants the best for me. He will not give me more than I can handle and certainly, wants me to grow and spiritually mature in Him. I cannot do that if I am not concerned about offending Him. If I callously and carelessly go through life without any concern of offending Him, I will not grow and will actually drift away from Him. I will not be in the center of His will. I will not benefit from my relationship with Him.

If, on the other hand, I am concerned about not wanting to offend Him, then I will grow. He will be able to change me from within and guide me into righteousness so that what I do is found to be pleasing to Him.

If I continue to give this situation over to Him for Him to do as He wishes. Then I will be successfully fearing (to offend), Him and He will prosper me in ways that I cannot clearly see now. This, I believe, is why God delights and takes pleasure in those who fear Him, in those who *hope in His mercy. This is a choice we make. We either approach every situation with the desire to not offend Him or we push through each situation with a healthy fear offending Him as our guide. This choice is not a preprogrammed choice, like using our legs to walk. It is something we must decide to do, to accomplish daily.

Unlike the use of our legs, where we do not even have to think about them really because they simply do what they’re designed to do, we must use our will to “work out our salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12), and deliberately choose to fear offending God.

How often this happens is all dependent upon the trials, problems and issues the Lord allows into our life and our willingness to submit to Him. Without a healthy and growing fear of (offending) the Lord, we cannot grow, we cannot appreciate Him and we will lack victory in our lives. This is, in my opinion, the most difficult aspect of being a Christian.

If I’ve gotten it wrong, someone please tell me.

*This is not “I hope I go to heaven.” This is a surety of it, but our English translation of Scripture doesn’t do justice to the word.

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