Where is Wisdom?

Posted on August 27, 2024 by kathy

Psalms 51:6 “Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, And in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom.”

God desires truth in our inward parts. What is our inward parts? The New American Standard Bible and other versions call it the “innermost being.” Some versions call it the inner self. I think we can safely say it is the realm of a person’s personality, their heart and their soul. the Bible speaks of a soul and a spirit, which make up the inner part of a man. God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into him the breath of life, Genesis 2:7 says.

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Dogtags and Pearls #6 Now Published

Posted on August 12, 2024 by kathy

I have just published book #6 in the Dogtags and Pearls series. Twenty-three lessons of encouragement, inspiration, and faith teaching about the Kingdom of God and the great love our God has for us await you with room to make notes as you study through it. There are two chapters on a facet of Jesus not scrutinized much by the church about the fact that He referred to Himself constantly as the Son of Man and what that means to and for believers. All of the chapters in this book are previously published here at dogtagsandpearls.com. The book is available for order at amazon.com or contact me privately as I also have copies available for sale.

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I Am Willing…Be Cleansed

Posted on July 17, 2024 by kathy

Do you believe that God is able to do anything, but you’re not sure if He will do it for you? I was like that at one time. I knew God could heal me of a physical problem I had, but I wasn’t sure that He would. Because I did not know God at all then, I did not know if it was something He wanted to do. 

In the Bible, there was a leper who thought like that too. This leper was an outcast from society because of the severity of the skin disease that he had. He cautiously approached Jesus about being healed of the leprosy. Apparently this man had heard that Jesus was healing people of their sicknesses and diseases and decided, why not?

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I Have Given it to You

Posted on June 11, 2024 by kathy

In the Book of Exodus, God brought His people out of Egyptian slavery to the banks of the Jordan River and said, “This land (the Promised Land) across the river is yours. I have already given it to you. Now go in and possess it.” (Paraphrased). But after they sent 12 leaders to go check out everything, to see if what God had said was true, ten of the men spread fear among the people with a report of giants in the land and only two had the faith to do what God said. There really were giants in Canaan, but God said the land had been given to Israel. Two of the Israelites, Joshua and Caleb, chose God’s word over what their eyes told them. They said, “We are well able to do it” because they had faith in what God said. Ten men spread fear to the whole nation; consequently the nation refused to go in and occupy the property that God had said was theirs. You can find the story in Numbers 13-14. The first generation that was miraculously delivered from Egypt never attained to the fullness of what God had for them.

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God is Patient With Men

Posted on June 7, 2024 by kathy

God is very patient with men.

Let us ponder the fact that it took God 4000 years from the beginning of Creation to get Jesus, the Mediator between God and man, the eternal Sacrifice for the sins for all men, into the earth. (If you believe there were more years since creation, then it took more time.) Why did it take so long?

God has a plan. It is a long range plan. He is patient and long-suffering as He brings that plan to pass. God operates by the laws He Himself instituted. He will not break them. What He put into effect in the earth (read Genesis 1-3), He will not change or alter. He put laws into place that even He obeys. If He ever broke just one little bit of His word, the universe, the world, and all that is in it would collapse into destruction. Men lie, but He cannot lie. God needs men to cooperate with Him to get His plan into the earth.

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It All Started With a Promise

Posted on June 7, 2024 by kathy

In the book of Genesis, Chapters 1 and 2, we see that God made His whole creation wonderful and declared it to be good. Every single aspect of creation, the stars, the skies, the sun, the moon, the animals and birds, the seed bearing trees and vegetation, God declared it was all good. Those things still exist today. Every operation of creation remains the same, just like it was in the beginning. All of creation, the animals, the trees and growing things have seeds in them that continue to bear, renew and replenish the earth just as God designed it. He set all of that in motion by His words. Then He made the crown jewel of His creation…he made man from the dust of the ground and put His own spirit within the man. He formed the woman and declared everything to now be complete and He rested on the seventh day, not because He was tired, but because He was done.

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Reclaiming Your Life: Lessons from the Story of Joseph

Posted on May 28, 2024 by kathy

Are you a human BEING or a human DOING? Most of us live our lives without really thinking about what we are doing…there are so many things we must do and so many things we ant to do. We are driven forward by what is waiting to be done. At least, I know I am, to a great extent. I was raised that you were required to get the things done that had to be done before you got to have “playtime.” It is a hard habit to break, that feeling that you must get the work done before you can have downtime. Today I realize that the “work” is never done, therefore I must choose give myself the time to do the things that I love to do. But I have to make that choice. No one else will do it for me. I find it helpful to give myself time away from the demands of living and ponder spiritual matters. I need to spend some time being rather than doing. 

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Jesus the Son of Man, Part 2

Posted on April 3, 2024 by kathy

A human being sits on the throne of the universe (a resurrected human being). Are you shocked I said that?

I must credit teacher and author Paul E. Billheimer for bringing this fact to my attention. It fiddled with my mind. It stunned me. It is an astounding statement. It changed my understanding of Jesus. I have never heard anyone ever say that before, or if I did, I did not truly hear it. (Billheimer, who died in 1984, made this statement in his book, Destined for The Throne: How Spiritual Warfare Prepares the Body of Christ for Her Eternal Destiny.)

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Jesus the Son of Man, Part 1

Posted on March 30, 2024 by kathy

Most believers understand that Jesus was the Son of God. That refers to His divinity, but do we understand His role as the Son of Man? That term refers to His humanity. He called Himself the Son of Man repeatedly throughout the gospels. I’m going to list all the passages where He said this. I believe His emphasis is important.  He was trying to get a message across. Jesus referred to Himself as the Son of Man all the time. He was speaking to men and I believe He wanted to relate to them on that level. If we keep Him at arms length as the Son of God, we create distance between Him and us. I do not believe this is what He wants. I believe He wants us to know Him as the Son of Man, a human being.

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The Kingdom of God is Like…Part 2

Posted on March 27, 2024 by kathy

Matthew Chapter 13 records many of the parables that Jesus taught. These stories painted pictures for the people (and for us) and speak of what the Kingdom of God is like. It is God’s supreme desire that man have access to the kingdom of God and understand what it is like and how it operates. It’s why He sent His Son to die on the cross, to destroy the works of the devil and give us access to Kingdom benefits. He is the second Adam. The first one failed, but the second One did not. These same parables are found in other books of the gospels as well.

In Matthew 13.24 we read the parable of the wheat and tares. The simplified meaning is that good people and bad people will grow up together on the earth and then be sorted out at the end. This parable is explained by Jesus in Matthew 13:36-43.

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