December 13, 2006 Devotion
Do not be deceived, God is not mocked

Hello Everyone,
I want to let you know that I had someone laugh when I told them
I was not a regular coffee drinker. I do have a cup of coffee
if we go out to eat with a group, or if we go out to eat
breakfast somewhere. I also will sometimes have a cup of coffee
if it is real cold, but usually I will drink a cup of hot tea,
an/or milk. I use to drink coffee all the time, but I found out
that after the surgery I had a few years ago that coffee is not
something I should do on a regular basis.
So, why did I name the site, "Coffee With Pat"? Well, the Lord
showed me that a lot of people would be drinking their morning
cup of coffee and reading the devotions. So that is the name He
gave to me.
Just remember you are having fellowship with me and mostly with
God when you read the devotions whatever beverage you decide to
drink.
Huh, I wonder if God drinks Coffee?
I want to let each of you know that during the Christmas
Season, I may put a poem in place of the devotion. Please
remember that if you scroll down passed the poem or the devotion
for the day, you can go to the archives and read all of the
devotions that have been written this year.
Just click on the month, and then the day, and you will get to
read the devotions for 2006.
It is Wednesday and a beautiful day at my house. Please
remember services tonight at church, go and enjoy the fellowship
of others. Praising God together is good for the soul.
"I would rather be an imitator of Jesus, then of this world. For
then I am assured that I am living a life of righteousness."
Pastor Pat Aman
This devotion is telling us not to touch God's anointed. If you
have talked about someone, judge them, you better get it
straight with the Lord and the person you have hurt. You may
even thought you needed to be the person to go talk to others
about them. But according to God, if you hurt God's anointed,
your in trouble.
Let's look at the book of Obadiah. A small book of the Old
Testament. Only one chapter and 21 verses. But it has a powerful
message. The theme of Obadiah is well stated by Paul in
Galatians 6:7,
"Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows,
that he will also reap."
Or, in the words of Obadiah himself, Obadiah 1:15.
"As you have done, it shall be done to you."
Retribution is a reality, God is just, and He will punish
injustices perpetrated against other people, both individuals
and nation.
The Lord takes very seriously the covenant promises He makes.
Genesis 12: 1-3,
1.
Now the Lord had said to Abram: "Get out of your country. From
your family, and from your father's house. To a land that I will
show you.
2.
I will make you a great nation; I will bless you, and make your
name great.
3.
I will bless those who bless you; and I will curse him who
curses you. and in you all the families of the earth shall be
blesses."
He promise to bless those who bless His people, and curse those
who curst them. The Lord closely identifies Himself with His
people, that to curse His people is to curse Him, reject them is
to reject Him.
God also in Proverbs talks about six things He hates and the
seventh is an abomination to Him. He does not like people who
talk, gossip and try to hurt His people.
Proverbs 6: 16-19
16
There are six things the LORD hates, seven that are detestable
to him:
17
haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood,
18
a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush
into evil,
19
a false witness who pours out lies and a man who stirs up
dissension among brothers.
Edom's end then foreshadows the fate of all who abuse the people of God.
The Lord is determined to keep faith with His people, even when His people are
faithless and disobedient.
And He will keep faith, in spite of appearances. The desecration of
Jerusalem and the people of Judah sent a message to the world of Obadiah's day:
The God of Israel has been defeated by the gods of Babylon. Edom, and the other
oppressing nations. But as we know that was a false message, because appearances
can be deceiving. In His sovereignty God uses circumstances to accomplish His
purposes, to purify and protect His people. As Lord of all the Earth He was
already masterminding Edom's doom, announcing victory in the face of smoldering
defeat, and controlling the course of the future in order to accomplish His
plan. The Lord who did all that for Israel is the Lord who still works for
His people today.
The "day of the Lord" in verse 15 of Obadiah anticipates the entry of Jesus
Christ into the world. When Jesus walked on the earth as a man, the nature of
His kingdom and the manner of His coming was different from the image of
Obadiah. Jesus ushers in a quiet kingdom of peace, a spiritual kingdom entered
by faith in the Person of Jesus Christ. But truly, "the day of the Lord" and the
coming of His kingdom are inseparable from Jesus Christ. The Second Coming of
Jesus will conform more closely to the picture painted in the prophecy of
Obadiah than did His first coming.
We need to remember as we prepare and wait for the coming of Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ, that God hates pride. It is pride to believe we are invulnerable
and to place our trust in any other than God. He will humble those who exalt
themselves in this way.
Exalt God. Glorify Him for the security and success you experience.
Refuse to judge others, knowing that any judgment or criticism you pass may
return to you.
Do not rejoice in judgment on others. The godly person does not rejoice in the
destruction of God's people, but, like God he seeks their reconciliation to God
and their restoration to holiness and blessing. He avoids pride and the
deception it produces within human hearts.
Ask God to reveal any areas in which your heart is deceived because of pride.
Receive the reconciliation and restoration that comes through repentance.
Obadiah 1: 1-21
1.
Thus says the Lord GOD concerning Edom
(We have heard a report from the LORD,
And a messenger has been sent among the nations, saying,
“ Arise, and let us rise up against her for battle”
):
2
Behold, I will make you small among the nations;
You shall be greatly despised.
3
The pride of your heart has deceived you,
You who dwell in the clefts of the rock,
Whose habitation is high;
You who say in your heart, ‘Who will bring me down to the ground?
4
"Though you ascend as high as the
eagle,
And though you set your nest among the stars,
From there I will bring you down,” says the LORD.
5
If thieves had come to you,
If robbers by night—
Oh, how you will be cut off!—
Would they not have stolen till they had enough?
If grape-gatherers had come to you,
Would they not have left some gleanings?
6
Oh, how Esau shall be searched out!
How his hidden treasures shall be sought after!
7
All the men in your confederacy
Shall force you to the border;
The men at peace with you
Shall deceive you and prevail against you.
Those who eat your bread shall lay a trap or you.
No one is aware of it.
8
Will I not in that day,” says the LORD,
Even destroy the wise men from Edom,
And understanding from the mountains of Esau?
9
Then your mighty men, O Teman, shall be dismayed,
To the end that everyone from the mountains of Esau
May be cut off by slaughter.
Edom Mistreated His Brother
10 For violence against your brother
Jacob,
Shame shall cover you,
And you shall be cut off forever.
11
In the day that you stood on the other side—
In the day that strangers carried captive his forces,
When foreigners entered his gates
And cast lots for Jerusalem—
Even you were as one of them.
12 But
you should not have gazed on the day of your brother
In the day of his captivity;
Nor should you have rejoiced over the children of Judah
In the day of their destruction;
Nor should you have spoken proudly
In the day of distress.
13
You should not have entered the gate of My people
In the day of their calamity.
Indeed, you should not have gazed on their affliction
In the day of their calamity,
Nor laid hands on their substance
In the day of their calamity.
14 You
should not have stood at the crossroads
To cut off those among them who escaped;
Nor should you have delivered up those among them who remained In the day
of distress.
15
For the day of the LORD upon all the nations is near; As you
have done, it shall be done to you; Your
reprisal shall return upon your own head.
16
For as you drank on My holy mountain,
So shall all the nations drink continually;
Yes, they shall drink, and swallow,
And they shall be as though they had never been.
17 But on Mount Zion
there shall be deliverance,
And there shall be holiness;
The house of Jacob shall possess their possessions.
18
The house of Jacob shall be a fire,
And the house of Joseph a flame;
But the house of Esau shall be stubble;
They shall kindle them and devour them,
And no survivor shall remain of the house of Esau,”
For the LORD has spoken.
19
The South shall possess the mountains of Esau,
And the Lowland shall possess Philistia.
They shall possess the fields of Ephraim
And the fields of Samaria.
Benjamin shall possess Gilead.
20
And the captives of this host of the children of Israel
Shall possess the land of the Canaanites
As far as Zarephath.
The captives of Jerusalem who are in Sepharad
Shall possess the cities of the South.
21
Then saviors shall come to Mount Zion
To judge the mountains of Esau,
And the kingdom shall be the Lord's.
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