Tested Stone

Therefore, this is what the Sovereign LORD says: “Look! I am placing a foundation stone in Jerusalem, a firm and tested stone. It is a precious cornerstone that is safe to build on. Whoever believes need never be shaken. (NLT) -Isaiah 28:16
Where do you find your security? Does it lie in your success? What about your finances? Or are you counting on family? When one of these crumbles, our sense of security is shaken. There is a stronger rock to stand on that will withstand any quake. That firm and tested stone is Jesus. If you get down or depressed because of bad news, your foundation may depend on something other than the hope found in Jesus.
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IF YOU DON’T TELL THEM, WHO WILL?

“This day is a day of good news, and we remain silent.” 2Ki 7:9 NKJV

The Syrian army had surrounded the city of Samaria and nothing could get in or out. It was a desperate situation. Eventually the inhabitants began starving to death. Four lepers who’d been quarantined and forced to live outside the city walls decided to go into the Syrian camp hoping to find mercy, and maybe food and water. But when they got there they discovered an army of angels had scattered the Syrians, who fled leaving behind food, water, clothing, and treasure. These four men couldn’t believe their good fortune! They ate, drank, exchanged their rags for fine clothing, gathered treasure and hid it where they could find it later. Then they remembered that in Samaria their own people were hungry, thirsty, needy, sick, and dying. And they were faced with the dilemma: Do we keep this all to ourselves, or share it with those who need it as much as we do? “Then they said to one another, ‘We are not doing right. This day is a day of good news, and we remain silent. If we wait until morning light, some punishment will come upon us. Now therefore, come, let us go and tell the king’s household.’” Today you will meet someone who’s spiritually hungry, and what they need is Jesus. So what are you going to do about it? If you don’t tell them, who will? If you don’t share the good news they may die spiritually. You say, “But I’m timid.” God used four social outcasts to bring good news of deliverance. And if you let Him, today He will use you too.

Hebrews 13:5 I will never leave thee.

No promise is of private interpretation. Whatever God has said to any one saint, He has said to all. When He opens a well for one, it is that all may drink. When He openeth a granary-door to give out food, there may be some one starving man who is the occasion of its being opened, but all hungry saints may come and feed too. Whether He gave the word to Abraham or to Moses, matters not, O believer; He has given it to thee as one of the covenanted seed. There is not a high blessing too lofty for thee, nor a wide mercy too extensive for thee. Lift up now thine eyes to the north and to the south, to the east and to the west, for all this is thine. Climb to Pisgah’s top, and view the utmost limit of the divine promise, for the land is all thine own. There is not a brook of living water of which thou mayst not drink. If the land floweth with milk and honey, eat the honey and drink the milk, for both are thine. Be thou bold to believe, for He hath said, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.”In this promise, God gives to His people everything. “I will never leave thee.” Then no attribute of God can cease to be engaged for us. Is He mighty? He will show Himself strong on the behalf of them that trust Him. Is He love? Then with lovingkindness will He have mercy upon us. Whatever attributes may compose the character of Deity, every one of them to its fullest extent shall be engaged on our side. To put everything in one, there is nothing you can want, there is nothing you can ask for, there is nothing you can need in time or in eternity, there is nothing living, nothing dying, there is nothing in this world, nothing in the next world, there is nothing now, nothing at the resurrection-morning, nothing in heaven which is not contained in this text-“I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.”

Walk Your Personal Path

Whoever fears the LORD walks uprightly,
     but those who despise him are devious in their ways.
     — Proverbs 14:2

In Proverbs it says: “Whoever fears the LORD walks uprightly.” However, the verse literally translates as “Whoever fears the LORD walks in his In other words, what is a righteous path for one person is not necessarily the right path for another.

A person has to walk righteously in the way that God created him or her to be. In contrast, so many people live their lives, even while dedicated to the Lord and with the best intentions, as God created someone else to be instead of as themselves. God could have made us all the same, but He intentionally chose to make us different, right down to the details of our fingerprints. God gave us each a unique way to serve Him and to thrive. Those who fear the Lord will choose such a path.

The Jewish sages say that there is a righteous path for a person who looks bad to others but looks great to God. Additionally, there is such a thing as a path of life that looks good to other people, but looks very bad in the eyes of God.

We all have different “righteous paths.” What’s right for one person may not be right for us and vice versa. Are we brave enough to be who God created us to be? When we fear the Lord, we aren’t worried about what others will think. Our path doesn’t have to make sense to anyone but ourselves and God.