3 things we can find today............

Proverbs 21:21 says, "He who follows righteousness and mercy Finds life, righteousness and honor.

The fact is stated here, that He who follows these 2 things, righteousness and mercy....will find 3 things. To follow, is to pursue, to chase, to be behind, to run after, and to attend closely upon. And, can mean to aim eagerly to secure.

In other words, we can aim diligently today, to run after 2 things, ( and the result will be, we will find 3 things in our lives )

To pursue righteousness, is to pursue what is right and just. To follow after what is ethically right. And, of course to pursue mercy, is to follow after kindness, and goodness.

If we are following righteousness and mercy, then we are promised to find, life, righteousness and honor. We will find ourselves with spiritual prosperity, going in the right way, and enjoying honor.

God has built into our lives certain laws, that we may not be able to explain, or even understand, ( like gravity, electricity etc, ) but we experience them everyday. They work.

So do these laws of life.

Lord, Today, would You help us to pursue these things in our lives, and we want to thank You in advance for what You will bring into our lives.

Thank You for giving us the best way to live down here, while we wait for you to come from heaven. We love You. In Jesus name, amen.

Pastor Bob Grenier

Calvary Chapel Visalia

P.S........a few applicational thoughts.

Deciding what to do, is up to us.

Believing in God, and His Word is possible through faith.

God never lies, and He blesses those who follow His Word.

Let's forget what's behind, and look unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith.

If we pursue God's ways, we will find God's ways more and more in our lives.

FINALLY...........

Jesus is all of the things listed above.........He is Righteousness, He is mercy.........so, to follow Jesus is to follow those things............

What can separate good friends?

Proverbs 17:9 He who covers a transgression seeks love, But he who repeats a matter separates friends.

We looked at this verse on Wed, in our through the Bible Study.

It talks about 2 kinds of people, or 2 kinds of actions, with 2 kinds of results. It speaks of love and it speaks of separation. It speaks of transgression, and it speaks of what might be done with that transgression, that is to cover it.

The wisdom of God here, tells us that the person who covers a transgression, is seeking love. To cover, means to hid, to conceal, to clothe, to spread over. Transgression, means sin, or rebellion, either against God or against people.

So, if someone sins, we don't have to go and tell anyone about it, but, we can cover it, we can conceal it, we can keep it to ourselves. And by doing so, we are seeking love. Being loving towards someone in their transgression, is exactly how the Lord is towards us. He seeks to bring His love into our lives when we have sinned. He does everything He can to cover it, to forgive it etc, etc.

On the other hand, if a person becomes aware of someone else's sin, and they repeat it, or "do it again" that is to tell it to someone else, can wind up separating the best of friends.

The meaning could also be, that if you sin, and your friend is gracious towards you, and seeks to cover your sin in love, but you continually take advantage of their graciousness, that you could lose that friendship. That's one way to separate the best of friends, by taking advantage of their love.

But, surely, the other meaning is something we see all the time in life, that someones sin gets spread around by word of mouth, and it gets back to someone, and a friendship is lost. Good friends are separated.

Lord, help us to be like You are towards sin, and towards sinners. Help us to be towards others the way that You are towards us. Full of Grace, Full of Mercy, and Full of Forgiving Love. May we make friends and not separate friends.

In Jesus name ....amen

Bob Grenier

Senior Pastor Calvary Chapel Visalia

P.S.......some practical applicational thoughts.

God has plenty of love to give us to give to others.

Others need the love of God just as much as we do.

Friends are a blessing, let's bless them, and help them be better friends.

Covering someone's transgression, can be done by just bringing it to the Lord and asking for His help.

Let's leave others transgression with the Lord, He will take care of it, and of them.

Where can you run to be safe?

Proverbs 18:10* ¶ The name of the LORD is a strong tower; The righteous run to it and are safe.

So, what the Lord tells us in this verse, is that "the name of the LORD is a strong tower" and, that "the righteous run to it and are safe".

When the Proverbs were written, most cities had a wall around them, and that wall included at various points a tower. Those inside the city, would run up into those towers during times of attack, because, the tower gave them a place of safety against their enemies. The mere height of the tower was helpful, it made it all the more difficult for the enemy to shoot arrows higher then normal, and to throw spears that high also. The height gave the advantage, and thus protection, they were safe.

When the Bible says the "Name" it means the Lord Himself. And, here we are told that the Lord is a strong tower. Not just a tower, but a strong tower.

The Lord is strong, or powerful, mighty....He is in Himself these things, and He is all of these things for us. In fact, the Bible teaches us to find our strength in Him, to be made strong by Him, to trust in Him, not ourselves. So, the Lord is strong, and He becomes our strength.

We can run to Him and be safe. Running is different from walking. When you run, you are making a specific effort to go somewhere in a faster fashion then normal. in this case, the word run can be translated, guard, speedily, run swiftly, to dart....to hurry, and to move quickly.

And, once we run to the Lord, ( who is our strong tower ) we are then safe, or, inaccessibly high, we are too high for capture, we are safely set on high, we are secure.

By the way, not only is it a place of safety, but it makes you more effective in the battle against the enemy.

Some practical applicational thoughts.......

God simply is our tower.

God invites us to come to Him.

God will protect you.

God will receive you today.

God will give you strength.

God will give you safety.

You can run to Him today.

You don't have to go it alone.

You are righteous in His sight ( In Christ )

You will find Him always there night and day.

Thank You Lord for what You are to us. We do go through times of battle, and what a comfort it is to have a place to go for safety in the battle. Thank You for always accepting us, and never abandoning us. Give us strength today, in the name of Jesus Christ . Amen.

Pastor Bob Grenier

Senior Pastor

Calvary Chapel Visalia

Getting both sides of a story. Pastor Bob Grenier

When someone comes to you, and tells you something about someone else, or about an incident, we can easily, ( and unfortunately often do ) believe what we just heard, without ever hearing the other side of the story. We then make conclusions about it, and might even pass on as fact what we have concluded, ( which is based on only hearing one side of the story )

Proverbs 18:17 The first one to plead his cause seems right, Until his neighbor comes and examines him.

The Lord gives us this wisdom in the Book of Proverbs, and this verse does describe what it seems like to us when someone comes and tells us a story about someone else. It just seems right. The person telling us the story, ( or in the modern digital age, reading it in an email, or on a blog, etc, etc, ) seems justified, appears to have a just cause or complaint, they just seem to be in the right.

The first one to speak up seems right, until the neighbor, or the other party comes and brings the other side of the story to light. And, at that point the whole incident may be found to be very different then was first reported.

When we have both sides of a story, then we are in a position to make a sound judgement about the matter at hand.

How many times over the years, I've made this mistake. And, I guess as mentioned above, it's really more then one mistake. Not only drawing a conclusion without having the other side of the story, but then passing it on to others as a true fact.

Father, Thank You for giving us Your wisdom in the Bible, and in particular, Your wisdom in the book of Proverbs. How we need it. Would you please help this verse, Pro 18:17 to really stick with us, to be in our minds and our hearts in a deep and meaningful way. We live Lord in a time when so many say so much about others, and we hear it, we read it and we have to deal with it. Please help us to walk in Your wisdom, in Jesus name, amen

Pastor Bob Grenier

Senior Pastor

Calvary Chapel Visalia

P.S.......a few practical applicational thoughts..

Try not to listen if it's not your business.

Recognize our tendency to listen to gossip and slander.

Don't pass it on if you have no reason to.

Pray for the person who you have heard something about.

Have the courage to stop someone who is passing on gossip and slander to you.

Try and spend your time thinking about the Lord instead of someone else, and their supposed sin.

Tell others about the Lord and the love and grace and mercy that He has for people.

And to each his own work.....

In Mark 13, Jesus was answering questions about the future, that is the future from the time of the apostles. They wanted to know what the signs would be for His coming back to the world, and the end of the world.

Jesus gave five specific signs, and then also made this statement to them.

Mark 13:34“It is like a man going to a far country, who left his house and gave authority to his servants, and to each his work, and commanded the doorkeeper to watch.

Can I draw your attention to the part of the verse that says, "and to each his work"........in other words, Jesus was explaining that in His going to heaven, ( the far country ), that He left His church here, giving them power and a work for each one to do.

Simply put, you and I have a work that God wants us to do. Perhaps it's more exacting to say, God has a work that He wants to do in and through each one of us.

Concerning that work, it's to be done by God's power, not our own, and it's to be done by our using the spiritual gifts He has given to us.

Jesus came to do the work that His father had for Him to do. And, that work was primarily to go to the cross and die for our sins, and then to be raised from the dead, and become salvation to all who would call upon Him.

And, just like the Father had a work for Jesus to do, the Father has a work to do through you and I.

A few thoughts about God's work through each of us.

Our work helps other people either walk with Christ, or come to know Christ.

Our work is to be done in God's love, with God's glory in mind, not our own glory.

Our work is to be done the way God shows us to do it, not in our trying to copy someone else.

Our work will be rewarded someday, if not here on earth, certainly in heaven.

Our work can be difficult to do sometimes, but God always helps us to get through.

Our work will almost always be challenged by the enemy, whose work it is, is to oppose God's work.

Father, thank You for working on our behalf, and we count it a blessing to be vessels in Your hands, vessels, or instruments that You desire to use, to accomplish Your will.

We yield ourselves to You in a fresh way today. Work through each of Lord.

In Jesus name....Amen....

Pastor Bob Grenier.....

How to find good and be happy

The answer to the statement is found right here in the verse below.

Proverbs 16:20 He who heeds the word wisely will find good, And whoever trusts in the LORD, happy is he.

It has to do with the Word of God and the Lord.

First of all, we are told that the person who heeds the Word wisely, will find good. To heed the Word wisely, means, "those who listen to instruction" God gives us instruction through His Word, and we can listen to it by simply reading it, being in the Word regularly, etc, etc. Wisely, means, to give attention to, to consider and to ponder. The net result is that we find good in our lives. Or you will find what is pleasant, agreeable, beautiful, and prosperity. Those are all good things by definition.

Secondly, we are told that whoever trusts in the LORD, happy is he. I'm glad it says "whoever" because that opens the door for me, for you, and in truth for anyone, there is no one who cannot trust in the LORD. Because we all have a measure of faith.

LORD, is Jehovah, which means "the existing one" We can trust Him, we can have confidence in Him, we can hope in Him. And, what happens as a by-product of that trust, is that we find ourselves being happy, or blessed. Interestingly enough the word happy here, comes from a word meaning "to be straight, to be level, right, to go forward, relieve" Again, those all resonate with my soul. I enjoy being happy.

Lord, we thank You for your Word. May we take heed to Your Word, and receive Your instruction into our hearts and lives. And, thank You that we can rely upon You, we don't have to go it alone down here, trusting in ourselves, but we can put our confidence in You. Bring that happiness into our lives today, we enjoy the blessings that You bring.

In Jesus name. Amen.

Pastor Bob Grenier