Saturday, September 3rd
Psalm 10:2-7
2 In his arrogance the wicked man hunts down the weak, who are caught in the schemes he devises. 3 He boasts of the cravings of his heart; he blesses the greedy and reviles the LORD. 4 In his pride the wicked does not seek him; in all his thoughts there is no room for God. 5 His ways are always prosperous; he is haughty and your laws are far from him; he sneers at all his enemies. 6 He says to himself, "Nothing will shake me; I'll always be happy and never have trouble." 7 His mouth is full of curses and lies and threats; trouble and evil are under his tongue.
With pride, there is no room for God. The prideful person curses at God. The prideful person uses abusive language at God. This is what the prideful do… verses two through seven are very discouraging, as to what the prideful do on a daily basis. Verse 6 especially hits home, because as a disciple, I think the same thing. “Nothing will shake me; I’ll always be happy and never have trouble (when I am with God).” It’s not true. Trouble is a fact of life. God doesn’t promise roses every day, and if it is roses I want, roses have thorns. I always have to keep that in mind. Verse 7 explains exactly what a prideful person looks like; full of curses, full of lies, full of threats, full of trouble, and evil is under that person’s tongue. Verse 5 tells me that this person is prosperous and that this person gets to be prosperous by underhanded ways (laws are far from him). Am I this person? Well, I don’t curse. I am not prosperous in the world’s eye, that’s for sure. I desperately seek and follow God’s laws. I don’t threaten people. I don’t revile the Lord. But I do struggle sometimes with deceit. I want to make things better than they really appear. And that can be with struggles in my life, financially, spiritually, mentally. I make myself look for the good and feed off of that. What that can do is keep me from being honest with myself and others. Not being honest in that demeanor can then become pride, and all of a sudden I am starting to walk down the road I don’t want to be on. I want the straight and narrow road. Anyway, that would be all. Johnny Out.
Revile (verb)
- To assail with abusive language; vituperate
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Biblical conversion is the act of turning from the servant of Satan to to the servant of Christ. It is not something God does to the sinner, but something the sinner himself does in obedience to the instructions of Christ. The Lord furnishes incentives and motives to induce the sinner to turn, but the sinner performs the act of turning.
When Christ commanded the apostles to go into all the world and preach the gospel ( Mark 16:15;16 ), the apostles seem never to have thought the command included anyone but the Jews. On Pentecost, though Peter said the promise was "to all that are afar off" ( Acts 2:39 ), he apparently did not think salvation through Christ was for any except whose who were Jews by blood or religion. For several years after the establishment of the church all its members were Jews or proselytes.
When in the fulness of time God saw fit to bring the Gentiles into Christ He sent an angel to Cornelius, a devout Gentile, and instructed him to send for Peter who would speak works unto him whereby he and all his should be saved. (Acts 10:1-8; 11:13-15) Cornelius two of his household servants and a devout soldier to Joppa to fetch Peter. Just before the men sent by Cornelius arrived at Joppa, Peter had a vision. While he was considering the meaning of the vision the men sent by Cornelius arrived and asked for Peter, and the Spirit commanded him to go with them, "nothing doubting."
On the next day Peter and six brethren accompanied the men back to Caesarea and found that Cornelius had assembled many to hear him.
Peter, for the first time, realized that God was no respector of persons, that Gentiles were subjects of God`s saving grace. He preached Jesus as the risen Lord, and the coming judge. He announced "that through His name every one that believeth on Him shall receive remission of sins." (Acts 10:43).
As Peter began to speak the Holy Spirit fell on Cornelius and his household as it had on the apostles on Pentecost. (Acts
11:15,17) Peter then commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. (Acts 10:48)
In review, we note that the gospel was preached by Peter, that Cornelius and his household believed (Acts 15:7-9) and were
commanded to be baptized, just as the Lord had commanded. (Mark
16:15,16)
The baptism of the Holy Spirit was not to save Cornelius, but to convince Peter and the six Jewish Christians, that God had granted salvation to the Gentiles also. (Acts 11:18)
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