[{"content":"Song of Songs 7:10 (NIV)\n10 I belong to my beloved, and his desire is for me.\nHere is the attitude of the believer towards the Lord; we know that His desire is towards us. Many times we see His statutes, commandments and guidelines as barbed wire fences, hemming us in, keeping us from what we “want”.\nWe see a scowl of disapproval, a Judge narrowly looking at us. Perhaps, in a rebellious moment, this may be true; yet His overall attitude is always one of desire.\nHis deep yearning – His desire is towards us is to have us spend time with Him. Herein is an initiative to live godly; that we may be “clean” in order to fulfill His desire to be close, having an intimate and deep relationship with us.\n","permalink":"https://words.ronverbs.org/devotional/his_desire/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eSong of Songs 7:10 (NIV)\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e10 I belong to my beloved,\nand his desire is for me.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHere is the attitude of the believer towards the Lord; we know that His desire is towards us. Many times we see His statutes, commandments and guidelines as barbed wire fences, hemming us in, keeping us from what we “want”.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe see a scowl of disapproval, a Judge narrowly looking at us. Perhaps, in a rebellious moment, this may be true; yet His overall attitude is always one of desire.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"His Desire"},{"content":"The Slide The playground slide is a marvelous thing. A shiny tower whose top reaches the clouds and a ladder to take you there. The slide on the playground for the elementary school on the Air Force base in Tachikawa, Japan stood as tall as Mt. Fuji itself. Well, at least it seemed that tall for a fifth grader full of daydreams and adventure. I would doubt that such a monument would be allowed in our ultra safety conscience society, but back in the day the slide was a staple for any thrill seeking school boy.\nThe idea of that I would wait for the person in front of me to ascend to the heights of heaven before I started my own ascent seemed silly. As soon as the bottom rung was free, I grabbed hold of the rails and planted one foot firmly on the first rung. Of course being in such close quarters, climbing the ladder meant that I kept my face turned to one side. If I looked straight ahead my nose would be squarely into the butt of the person in front of me. I did not want to be high above the playground with my face planted in the backside of the boy in front of me. At that elevation, everyone on the playground, and surrounding districts, would be able to see me. That would bring on a merciless barrage of jeering once class resumed. That was something I did not want, so the pain of craning my neck as far as humanly possible was worth the discomfort.\nArriving at the top, I sat down and pushed my legs out in front of me. I imagined I was in a P-51 Mustang ready to strafe a German supply train puffing along a predetermined route. Just before I started my ascent a voice from behind me said, \u0026ldquo;You know a man has to \u0026lsquo;F\u0026rsquo; a girl to make a baby.\u0026rdquo; (He actually used the f-word). I had no idea what \u0026lsquo;F\u0026rsquo; meant. \u0026ldquo;That\u0026rsquo;s not true,\u0026rdquo; I said, turning my head and jamming my eyes as far to one side as they could go, \u0026ldquo;God puts the baby in a mom\u0026rsquo;s belly.\u0026rdquo; No matter how hard I twisted my neck, I couldn\u0026rsquo;t see who was spewing forth such lies. I fixed my gaze on the supply train and dove after it, guns blazing.\nComing to the bottom of the slide was always a tricky affair. If the dirt was soft, you could lock your knees and stop. Doing this, however, opened the possibility of having two feet jammed into your lumbar. (fix this. feels awkward)\nThe best course of action was to use my momentum to catapult myself into a full sprint. This not only looked cool, but it allowed you to turn sharply back to the ladder, often cutting in front of some playground newbie.\nAgain the ascent up the ladder, again the purveyor of lies was behind me. He kept on with the nonsense of how a man and a woman had to be together to make babies. Once I reached the top and settled in for my next attack position, \u0026ldquo;Johnny\u0026rdquo; was already standing above me, both of his knees resting on my shoulders. I gave him a sharp elbow and yelled, \u0026ldquo;Liar!\u0026rdquo; thrusting my P-51 into a nosedive headed towards the unsuspecting train.\nQuestion, Razor and Bad Timing The whole ordeal vanished from my mind without a trace. After all, the weekend had arrived and Saturdays are very busy for a fifth grader living in Japan. I joined some friends to search for puddles in hopes that we could capture tadpoles. When we got bored of tadpole hunting, we would scour the concrete walls that surrounded Japanese factories for lizards or any cool creepy crawly. We always made our way to the train tracks and where we placed pennies on the track and waited for the train to flatten them. The once useless penny was now an even more useless copper disk. Useless to anyone but a fifth grader.\nSunday morning I woke wondering if \u0026ldquo;Johnny-the-liar\u0026rdquo; was telling the truth. I decided to ask my dad. I sauntered through the kitchen, then the living room and stood in the doorway of the houses only bathroom. There was my dad, the lower half of his face covered with white fluffy shaving cream. He stared intently at the mirror, his chin jetting forward in a straight line, stretching the skin of his neck as tight as possible. Very deliberately he dragged the single bladed razor from a place just above the collar bone to the very end of his chin, leaving a clean skin colored path amidst the sea of shaving cream. It looked like the parting of the white sea. Those razors were so cool. You could twist the bottom of the handle, and like a budding flower, two little doors would open up revealing a single, double edged Gillette razor. As the razor passed over his jugular I popped the question. \u0026ldquo;Dad? Do you have to F to have a baby?\u0026rdquo; To this day I am amazed that he did not slit his throat. \u0026ldquo;Where did you hear that?\u0026rdquo; he asked calmly, running the razor under the water checking it for any blood. \u0026ldquo;On the playground. Some guy said you have to F to have babies, but I told him God puts the baby there.\u0026rdquo; I don\u0026rsquo;t remember how my dad responded. I only remember watching him shave, getting bored and leaving.\nThe Talk \u0026ldquo;Want to come with me to get gas?\u0026rdquo; asked my dad. I thought, why would I want to do that? \u0026ldquo;Sure.\u0026rdquo; I said, not wanting to hurt his feelings. We got into the car and off we went to the gas station. We arrived and found a long line of cars. \u0026ldquo;So, I thought I would tell you how babies are really made.\u0026rdquo; my dad said in a voice that sounded strained with a hint of feigned nonchalantness. \u0026ldquo;You see, when a man and a woman love each other and get married.\u0026rdquo; His voice drifted away. I thought, \u0026ldquo;Wow. There are a lot of cars here. I wonder why so many people came out to get gas?\u0026rdquo; Soon the long line of cars evolved into a military convoy, waiting to gas-up for the big offensive schedule for tonight. Slowly we inched forward. As the top navigator, I needed to make sure we had enough fuel to carry out the mission. Soon we would be careening over some sand dunes, with me manning the 50 cal machine gun.\nA muffled voice drifted into my consciousness, \u0026ldquo;Ron, do you understand?\u0026rdquo; asked my dad, look straight at me. \u0026ldquo;Yes.\u0026rdquo; I said looking back at him with my best \u0026ldquo;I\u0026rsquo;m totally listening\u0026rdquo; face. He went on, \u0026ldquo;then the man plants a seed\u0026hellip;\u0026rdquo; Again, his voice drifted away. Again, the convey loomed over the horizon. \u0026ldquo;There\u0026rsquo;s no way the Japanese could defeat this many tanks and half-tracks.\u0026rdquo;\n\u0026ldquo;Ron? Does that all make sense?\u0026rdquo; my dad asked in a hopeful tone. I looked him straight in the eyes with the most grateful look I could muster, \u0026ldquo;Yes it does. I\u0026rsquo;m glad you told me how things really are.\u0026rdquo; He got out of the car and I watched as he hitched us to the gas pump. The black dial with white numbers began to spin. The first row spun so fast I could hardly read the numbers. The second dial moved a little slower. \u0026ldquo;How does the dial know how much gas we are pumping?\u0026rdquo; The first row came to a halt. Then with each click of the nozzle, the first column of numbers jumped forward. Click. The numbers jumped from 3 to 6. Click. Click. They moved from 7 to 9 then to 0. My dad had inched the dials forward to show a perfect $5.00. A masterful move. He got in back in the car and we moved forward. He turned on the radio. \u0026ldquo;This is FEN, The Far East Network, and this is the Fifth Dimension.\u0026rdquo; \u0026ldquo;Would you like to ride in my beautiful balloon?\u0026rdquo; I looked out the passenger side window thinking, \u0026ldquo;I love the song.\u0026rdquo; It seems that the invasion was called off, so we headed home.\n","permalink":"https://words.ronverbs.org/memoirs/sliding_education/","summary":"\u003ch2 id=\"the-slide\"\u003eThe Slide\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe playground slide is a marvelous thing. A shiny tower whose top reaches the clouds and a ladder to take you there. The slide on the playground for the elementary school on the Air Force base in Tachikawa, Japan stood as tall as Mt. Fuji itself. Well, at least it seemed that tall for a fifth grader full of daydreams and adventure. I would doubt that such a monument would be allowed in our ultra safety conscience society, but back in the day the slide was a staple for any thrill seeking school boy.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Sliding Education"},{"content":"The brighter the sun, the more vivid the shadow.\nMeaning, if there is no cloud or obstruction between an object and the sun, the shadow is crisp and vivid.\nThe sun is Christ, and we are the object. Our shadow should be the shadow of the cross cast upon the world.\nThe brighter the Son can shine the more vivid the shadow of the cross.\n","permalink":"https://words.ronverbs.org/devotional/shadow/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eThe brighter the sun, the more vivid the shadow.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMeaning, if there is no cloud or obstruction between an object and the sun, the shadow is crisp and vivid.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe sun is Christ, and we are the object. Our shadow should be the shadow of the cross cast upon the world.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe brighter the Son can shine the more vivid the shadow of the cross.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Shadow"},{"content":"The Survey Says! I hate taking surveys. Especially ones with stupid questions. There is, however, one survey given almost 2000 years ago. That survey had only two questions. It was asked by Jesus to his disciples. \u0026ldquo;Who do men say that I am?\u0026rdquo; and \u0026ldquo;Who do you say that I am?\u0026rdquo; Peter\u0026rsquo;s answer was, \u0026ldquo;You are the Christ sent from God!” But sent to do what? I think we can answer that question, but we need to go back to the Garden of Eden.\nBack to the Garden God created Adam and Eve. They were unmarred by sin and lived in perfect harmony with God and nature. Everything was perfect, until one day Satan showed up in the form of a snake and began to bargain with Eve. Satan wanted Adam and Eve to join his rebellion against God. He promised Eve knowledge that would make her like God. Adam and Eve believed Satan\u0026rsquo;s lie. They disobeyed God, thus they joined the rebellion.\nThe consequence of disobeying God is death. Death is not a punishment, it is a result of sin. Not only are they going to die, but their connection with God was totally broken and all of creation is now cursed. Because of this God removed them from the Garden of Eden. The Tree of Life presented them with a cure for death. If they could just eat from that tree they would not die. They had to get back to the garden. Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young in their song \u0026ldquo;Woodstock\u0026rdquo; summed up the new desire of man perfectly.\nWe are stardust, we are golden We are caught in the devil\u0026#39;s bargain We\u0026#39;ve got to get ourselves Back to the garden The Consequence Death was introduced to man through disobedience. Now mankind is shackled by sin and subject to demonic powers. Mankind needs a way to be able to return to Paradise. A path that leads to God and His Kingdom and away from Satan and his domain. That path is Jesus Christ.\nJesus became a man so that he could set right what Satan and mankind had ruined. He showed the world his power over sickness by miraculously healing all kinds of diseases. He displayed his authority over demons by casting them out of people they had possessed. He exhibited his power over death by raising people from the dead. But there was still the issue of sin. After all, the result of sin is death.\nThe Way Back Since Jesus never sinned, death could not touch him. In order to cure us from the curse of sin, Jesus would have to take our sin and become subject to death.\nFor God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin,[a] so that we could be made right with God through Christ. (2 Corinthians 5:21)\nBut Christ has rescued us from the curse pronounced by the law. When he was hung on the cross, he took upon himself the curse for our wrongdoing. For it is written in the Scriptures, “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.” (Galatians 3:13)\nThe law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature.[a] So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. (Romans 8:3)\nTherefore, he volunteered to be crucified, he took on himself the sins of mankind and willingly gave up his own life. After breathing his last breath, he entered into Satan\u0026rsquo;s realm\u0026hellip; Hades.\nSince the beginning of mankind, anyone who physically died was held captive by Death in a place called Hades. No one ever escaped. When Jesus entered into Hades, he left our sins there and three days later departed from that place alive. There were people in Hades who believed in God. They waited helplessly to be rescued. The Bible says he opened the gates of Hades and lead those who were held captive by Satan to Heaven. That\u0026rsquo;s the resurrection we celebrate on Easter.\nWho is Jesus? Jesus is the Son of God and proved it by defeating Satan and his demons. He is the Savior of the world because he conquered sin and death, offering eternal life to all who would believe in him. The way back to the garden has been revealed. It\u0026rsquo;s through Jesus Christ. Jesus said that he is the way, the truth and the life.\nThe way back to God. The truth that reveals Satan\u0026rsquo;s lies. The life for all mankind. What Does He Expect? You might be thinking, okay, what must I do to be rescued from death? The answer comes from Jesus himself, repent and believe. Repent means to forsake your old life, turning control completely over to Jesus. Believe means to trust that Jesus was crucified, died, was buried and rose again on the third day. It means, \u0026ldquo;I don\u0026rsquo;t want to be under the influence of this evil world, I want to be under your influence Jesus.\u0026rdquo;\nSo, who is Jesus anyway? Who do you think Jesus is?\n","permalink":"https://words.ronverbs.org/devotional/thegospel/","summary":"\u003ch2 id=\"the-survey-says\"\u003eThe Survey Says!\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI hate taking surveys. Especially ones with stupid questions. There is, however, one survey given almost 2000 years ago. That survey had only two questions. It was asked by Jesus to his disciples. \u0026ldquo;Who do men say that I am?\u0026rdquo; and \u0026ldquo;Who do you say that I am?\u0026rdquo; Peter\u0026rsquo;s answer was, \u0026ldquo;You are the Christ sent from God!” But sent to do what? I think we can answer that question, but we need to go back to the Garden of Eden.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"The Gospel"},{"content":"God outside of time This morning I woke up a 4:45AM. When I wake that early, I consider it a time to pray or meditate. As I prayed I thought of God being outside of time. Time has no influence on Him. As I prayed for a particular situation I realized that to God, that situation is in the present. Or is that situation in the past, present and future? None! For all those moments are a point in time; which is inconsequential to God since He is outside of time. C.S. Lewis presents a picture where God is like a piece of paper, and a short line drawn on that paper is time. The idea is God \u0026ldquo;sees\u0026rdquo; all of time at once. Even that wonderful illustration is restricted by our concept of time being linear. We are bound by time. Comprehending something, anything not bound by time is in itself incomprehensible and inconceivable.\nSo why pray? Pray, it seems, is our way of communing with God, it is for our benefit. God condescends to us, allowing us to \u0026ldquo;talk\u0026rdquo; with Him, the eternal, timeless, unfathomable and unapproachable God and Father. Unapproachable in that one cannot approach or come before a Being who is outside our reality. Yet He invites us to approach Him and come boldly before His throne.\nIncarnation is paramount This is why God became flesh, so we can truly see, approach and \u0026lsquo;come to\u0026rsquo; God it both time and space. God became man, and as words are the visible (aural) manifestation of invisible thoughts, so Christ, the Word, is the visible manifestation of God. \u0026ldquo;If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.\u0026rdquo;\nConclusion The God outside of time and comprehension, bound Himself to time and space and flesh in order that we my approach Him, thus having fellowship with Him. The ancients were right, being a Christian can truly bring Heaven to earth, God to mankind.\n","permalink":"https://words.ronverbs.org/devotional/god-and-time/","summary":"\u003ch3 id=\"god-outside-of-time\"\u003eGod outside of time\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis morning I woke up a 4:45AM. When I wake that early, I consider it a time to pray or meditate. As I prayed I thought of God being outside of time. Time has no influence on Him. As I prayed for a particular situation I realized that to God, that situation is in the present. Or is that situation in the past, present and future? None! For all those moments are a point in time; which is inconsequential to God since He is outside of time. C.S. Lewis presents a picture where God is like a piece of paper, and a short line drawn on that paper is time. The idea is God \u0026ldquo;sees\u0026rdquo; all of time at once. Even that wonderful illustration is restricted by our concept of time being linear. We are bound by time. Comprehending something, anything not bound by time is in itself incomprehensible and inconceivable.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"God and Time"}]