God is Sovereign and is already at work in this. The events at Virginia Tech are the result of a broken world that has gone away from a loving, faithful God. We should all examine our lives and see where we too stand in our relationships with the Lord. The Lord is a gentle and forgiving God but He will not force anyone to follow Him, that is our choice. Let us all return to the Lord with all of our hearts and cry out to Him for healing in our Land. Dear Jesus heal our land. Heal us Lord we need you so much.

Thomas a Kempis
(c. 1380-1471)

Note by Jay S - Somethings never change.
Ecc 1:8b - The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.

Fling him into his office. Tear the “Office” sign from the door and nail on the sign, “Study.” Take him off the mailing list. Lock him up with his books and his typewriter and his Bible. Slam him down on his knees before texts and broken hearts and the flock of lives of a superficial flock and a holy God.Force him to be the one man in our surfeited communities who knows about God. Throw him into the ring to box with God until he learns how short his arms are. Engage him to wrestle with God all the night through. And let him come out only when he’s bruised and beaten into being a blessing.

Shut his mouth forever spouting remarks, and stop his tongue forever tripping lightly over every nonessential. Require him to have something to say before he dares break the silence. Bend his knees in the lonesome valley.Burn his eyes with weary study. Wreck his emotional poise with worry for God. And make him exchange his pious stance for a humble walk with God and man. Make him spend and be spent for the glory of God. Rip out his telephone. Burn up his ecclesiastical success sheets.Put water in his gas tank. Give him a Bible and tie him to the pulpit. And make him preach the Word of the living God!

Test him. Quiz him. Examine him. Humiliate him for his ignorance of things divine. Shame him for his good comprehension of finances, batting averages, and political in-fighting. Laugh at his frustrated effort to play psychiatrist. Form a choir and raise a chant and haunt him with it night and day-”Sir, we would see Jesus.”

When at long last he dares assay the pulpit, ask him if he has a word from God. If he does not, then dismiss him. Tell him you can read the morning paper and digest the television commentaries, and think through the day’s superficial problems, and manage the community’s weary drives, and bless the sordid baked potatoes and green beans, ad infinitum, better than he can.

Command him not to come back until he’s read and reread, written and rewritten, until he can stand up, worn and forlorn, and say, “Thus saith the Lord.”

Break him across the board of his ill-gotten popularity. Smack him hard with his own prestige. Corner him with questions about God. Cover him with demands for celestial wisdom. And give him no escape until he’s back against the wall of the Word.

And sit down before him and listen to the only word he has left-God’s Word. Let him be totally ignorant of the down-street gossip, but give him a chapter and order him to walk around it, camp on it, sup with it, and come at last to speak it backward and forward, until all he says about it rings with the truth of eternity.

And when he’s burned out by the flaming Word, when he’s consumed at last by the fiery grace blazing through him, and when he’s privileged to translate the truth of God to man, finally transferred from earth to heaven, then bear him away gently and blow a muted trumpet and lay him down softly. Place a two-edged sword in his coffin, and raise the tomb triumphant. For he was a brave soldier of the Word. And ere he died, he had become a man of God.

This has been a really tough section for me. I think I've read Hebrews Chapter 2 at least 5 times and still am not sure what the Lord has for me here. So, today, I just decided to start writing.

In verses 5-9, the author makes it clear the world to come is not going to be given to an angel nor any number of angels. Then amazingly he quotes Psalm 8 which cannot be left unquoted - "What is man that You are mindful of Him, Or the son of man tha You take care of him? You have mad him a little lower than the angels; You have crowned him with glory and honor, And set him over the works of Your hands. You have put all things in subjection under his feet." Man, I love that! I love that it doesn't depend on you - I mean me - I mean both. What did I say? IT DOESN'T DEPEND ON YOU OR ME!!! All things in the world to come will be put in subjection to Him!

Chapter 1

In the beginning of Chapter 1, the author is establishing that Jesus was more than a prophet and is ultimately to establish that He is not only just a messenger of God. He was with God in the beginning - when He, with God, created the world(Heb 1:2). The author is making the following assertions - Christ was NOT just a prophet, He was NOT some special angel - He was the glory and image of the True God!

Hey Men!

Second Timothy, chapter 2, verse 15 says, "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth."

There is a new area on the 70-7s.com site called "Sword Practice". It is an area where I (and hopefully others) will share what God is showing them through their personal study of the scriptures. Use it as a devotion, for personal study, or join in and share what He is showing you.

Check out "Sword Practice" now.