James 1:2-3

²My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; ³Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. -kjv

² Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters,whenever you face trials of many kinds, ³ because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. -niv

Meditations:

1) I came across this verse and decided to blog about this verse because it reminded me of a similar theme of worketh patience in my previous post tribulation, patience under Romans where it read:

Romans 5:3

³And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;  -kjv

2) In James 1:2-3, the trying of your faith happens when you fall into several (meaning of divers) temptations. When you are tempted, your faith is tried or tested. I can think of temptations in 3 categories (as taught to me by my spiritual mentor): Girl, Gold, Glory. Girl – sexual temptation. Gold – temptation of wanting to get more money . Glory – temptation of wanting to gain prestige, honour.

3) Tribulation in Romans 5:3 together with falling into temptation in James 1:2 are acts of trying of our faith. Both will bring about patience. The wrestling with temptation will bring about the result that we are able to bear the provocation (temptation) without any complaint.

4) We are to count it all joy when we fall into divers temptation. This is similar to the attitude we ought to hold when we face tribulations as in Romans 5:3 where we are told to glory in tribulations. Again, our hope is in Jesus and our joy in doing the will of God.

5) God does not tempt us. It is the sinful desire within our hearts that tempts us.

Sometimes we harbor sin in our heart and the sin is hidden from us in our consciousness. Maybe it is masked by the pride in the heart so much so that we do not see it. Then God speaks through circumstances and rebukes us and we need to ask why because we do not know that we sinned in the first place. I guess for non believers, they don’t ask why because they think it is pure conincidences. For believers who believe that nothing happens by chance, we need to ask why and God will answer. For me, it was through a vehicle with a slogan printed on its body, God tells me specifically what is wrong in my heart and it was timely too as I was questioning in my heart why a certain event happened. He is interested in my heart and He rebukes me. Then be ready to repent when He shows you the secret sin in your heart. At least that’s what happened to me.

Isaiah 59

¹⁴ So justice is driven back,  and righteousness stands at a distance; truth has stumbled in the streets,  honesty cannot enter.
¹⁵ Truth is nowhere to be found,  and whoever shuns evil becomes a prey. The LORD looked and was displeased that there was no justice. -niv

¹⁴And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter.

¹⁵Yea, truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey: and the LORD saw it, and it displeased him that there was no judgment. -kjv

Meditations:

1)  This verse speaks to me of the times we are in.

2) Relativity has crept in. Where words spoken by us seems to imply something or somebody. Where intellect seems to embodied in speech that can be expressed in implied meanings with good timing. Where we need to express our thoughts exuding jealousy, offense, criticism and the like. Where we need to butter up somebody to feel less guilty. Where is truth that is absolute?

3) Whoever shuns evil becomes a prey. In a society where there is relativity, whoever refuses to play by the rules becomes a prey. Whoever refuses to follow the timing rule is depicted as being stupid, comdemned. Whoever wants to stand for truth will be ridiculed. Whoever refuses the timing rule fears that he will be alienated because he is afraid that he will offend. Where is justice?

4) God is displeased with the state as it is now.

5) Now it seems absolute values only makes sense if you are follower of Jesus. And you can be sure if another friend of yours is absolute if you have been with him/her long enough. The question that pops up is always have you trusted him/her enough?

I know that God hears our prayers if we utter our thoughts to him in our mind because God looks at our hearts. A thought came to mind, is Satan also able to hear the thoughts in our minds even before we utter it in our mouths? The thought can be scary because Satan can cater his attacks on us. Satan prowls around like a roaring lion as stated in James. So is he waiting to pounce on our stray thoughts and wrestle our thoughts to his advantage or he just tempts us with temptations and hope that our will goes his way? If he is able read our thoughts, we have to continually confess our sinful thoughts to God through Jesus. Even if he is not able to do so, we still have to continually confess our sinful thoughts to God as it arises in our minds because we are told to be holy just as He is holy.  Any of you with scriptures to address this question?

1 Chronicles 21: 1-2

¹ Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel. ² So David said to Joab and the commanders of the troops, “Go and count the Israelites from Beersheba to Dan. Then report back to me so that I may know how many there are. -niv

¹And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel.

²And David said to Joab and to the rulers of the people, Go, number Israel from Beersheba even to Dan; and bring the number of them to me, that I may know it.

-kjv

It seems in 1 Chronicles 21:1 that Satan worked on David’s heart, provoked him into action. So we can imply that God’s peace was absent from David’s heart and he was provoked into action. Scripture did not say Satan was able to read David’s thoughts.

Matthew 16:23

²³But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men. -kjv

²³ Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.” -niv

Here Jesus is tempted by Satan through Peter to fill him with human concerns but it never says Satan read Jesus’s thoughts.

Our thoughts arise in our mind and heart naturally. Satan is not able to control our thoughts/will just as God does not want to control our thoughts/will. But the battle with Satan starts in the thought front, and he throws attacks at us through words outside of mind/heart and hopes to gain some foothold in our thoughts/mind/heart. Still, it does not answer the question, is Satan able to hear our thoughts. My guess is that he can’t but it does not matter as long as we rely on God’s word for our defense against him. It does not matter to Satan also as long as he can gain a foothold in our hearts.

My Lord and my God, may the whole world celebrate your first coming and anticipate your second coming!!

Genesis 4:15

¹⁵ But the LORD said to him, “Not so; anyone who kills Cain will suffer vengeance seven times over.” Then the LORD put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him. -niv

¹⁵And the LORD said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the LORD set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him. -kjv

¹⁵ And the LORD said to him, “Therefore, whoever kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.” And the LORD set a mark on Cain, lest anyone finding him should kill him. -nkjv

Meditations:

1) Cain murdered his brother Abel and received a curse from God whereby the earth that he tills will no longer yield its crops to him and he is to be a restless wanderer of the earth. This leaves Cain fearful for his life.

2) Yet even after the curse, Cain still received mercy from God and his life was preserved by God as shown in the verse above. This shows that God is merciful to his children even after they sin against him.

3) This verse assures me that I will never be too bad for God to reach out to me. Even a sin as grave as murder receives mercy, I should take heart in that. However, this account does not give us a license to sin.

4) Sin puts up a barrier between us and God. In Cain’s case, he is hidden from God’s presence.

5) I read that mercy from God is God not giving us what we deserve. In this case, Cain deserved death but God spared his life.

6) God does not change like the shifting shadow. He says Cain will be cursed and he’s cursed for his life. He says Cain’s life will be preserved and his life is preserved as it was written.

John 7:18

¹⁸ Whoever speaks on their own does so to gain personal glory, … -niv

¹⁸He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory: -kjv

¹⁸ He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; -nkjv

Meditations:

1) This verse strikes me and makes me do some soul searching, am I speaking of myself in this blog and seeking my own glory?

2) I wrote some of my personal experiences here, I wrote some of my family incidents, I wrote some thoughts about bible verses, I wrote about my car, I wrote about my son.

3) Let me know how you feel about my blogging by filling out the poll below:

Jesus is my God and my saviour, I am a sinner saved by grace

Today just changed the wiper blades after 2 years 9 months on my corolla. This is the first wiper change after having bought the car new.

The old wiper blade was making a sound. Though it wipes the windshield dry after squirting washer fluid on it, it is not able to clean the windshield as well especially when there’s dew on the windshield in the morning.

The driver’s side and passenger’s side windshield cost the same at $11.99. After tax and after applying a 3 dollar discount coupon, I paid $22.96. The wipers are genuine toyota parts from the dealer. If I buy from auto parts shop, the driver’s side windshield cost more than the passenger’s side windshield. For a medium grade wiper, the quote I got from a parts shop is around 33 bucks after tax.

Here is another article to tell my friends on the island about what’s different in my part of the world.

Over here, when the ambulance or fire engine is on the road and ferrying a hurting patient to the hospital or on its way to fighting a fire,  at traffic lighted  junctions there is a light bulb that lights up and all vehicles stop to give way to the emergencey vehicle. This gives motorist advance warning of the coming of the emergency vehicle.  Even if it’s far from any traffic junction, just hearing the siren of the emergency vehicle, it’s the requirement of the traffic laws that all vehicles keep right and stop to give way to the emergency  vehicles.

This is what I find different from the island.  I guess cars on the island also required to give way to emergency vehicles but I don’t find any light bulbs at the traffic junctions on the island