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 13Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. 14But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. 15Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, of the devil. 16For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.

 17But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. 18Peacemakers …

 1Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. 2This is what the ancients were commended for.
In other words, faith is believing God.  So, when we someone in scripture commended for great faith, they are being commended for believing God, who then credits them with righteousness so they can be counted among the rightous.  Their righteousness then manifests as obedience, and there obedience is what everyone saw, and what we read of in scripture.  What I find interesting is that the Old Testament does not often bare witness to these great people’s beliefs, but much more so to their actions.  The manifestation of their righteousnes is what we …

Warning: The following is a bit of a downer, but it is the next passage on righteousness.  I cannot help what the scripture says, but I cannot skip it just because it makes me uncomfortable…
 3For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. 5But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.

6For …

 12 Do horses run on the rocky crags?
       Does one plow there with oxen?
       But you have turned justice into poison
       and the fruit of righteousness into bitterness-

 13 you who rejoice in the conquest of Lo Debar
       and say, “Did we not take Karnaim by our own strength?”
There are certain things a man just doesn’t do.  You don’t drive your car to work on the sidewalk.  You don’t build a tree house on a city light pole… and you don’t brag about your ability to war when God is the one who gave you strength, and you merely an instrument for His justice.

I’ve written a lot about the use of war to achieve justice …

Yesterday, I posted on The Game of Life.  Well, the next scripture on righteousness explains to us some of the rules.
 11 The LORD thunders
       at the head of his army;
       his forces are beyond number,
       and mighty are those who obey his command.
       The day of the LORD is great;
       it is dreadful.
       Who can endure it?

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 17 Let the priests, who minister before the LORD,
       weep between the temple porch and the altar.
       Let them say, “Spare your people, O LORD.
       Do not make your inheritance an object of scorn,
       a byword among the nations.
       Why should they say among the peoples,
       ‘Where …

Suppose two people are playing game.  Let’s say it is chess.  Each has 16 men on the board.  As the game proceeds, men are taken as each side tries to endanger the other’s king.  Eventually, one of the kings is in checkmate, and the game is over.  The players stand up and shake hands.  The loser has learned a lot and looks forward to the next game; the winner cannot believe what a loser his opponent was, and looks forward to humiliating him again in the future.

Suppose a group of people were playing a game of Monopoly.  They all start buying up properties and charging either other rent.  When all the properties are bought up one of them begins bargaining and trading, until he …

Isaiah 42:6
“I, the Lord, have called you to demonstrate my righteousness.I will take you by the hand and guard you,and I will give you to my people, Israel,as a symbol of my covenant with them.  And you will be a light to guide the nations. (NLT)

Isaiah 42:21
It pleased the LORD for the sake of his righteousness to make his law great and glorious. (NIV)

Isaiah 45:8
“Open up, O heavens,and pour out your righteousness.Let the earth open wide so salvation and righteousness can sprout up together.I, the Lord, created them. (NLT)

Isaiah 45:24
The people will declare,“The Lord is the source of all my righteousness and strength.”And all who were angry with him will come to him and be ashamed. (NLT)

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Isaiah 46:12
Listen …

 9 My soul yearns for you in the night;
       in the morning my spirit longs for you.
       When your judgments come upon the earth,
       the people of the world learn righteousness.

 10 Though grace is shown to the wicked,
       they do not learn righteousness;
       even in a land of uprightness they go on doing evil
       and regard not the majesty of the LORD.
Isaiah 26:9-10 brings it all together for me.  This chapter speaks to me of Jesus’ coming at the end of the Tribulation, to establish His new kingdom on Earth.  However, before He can do that, He has to clean house.

The thing to notice is that His judgement will be just, and that is …

 6 For to us a child is born,
       to us a son is given,
       and the government will be on his shoulders.
       And he will be called
       Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
       Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

 7 Of the increase of his government and peace
       there will be no end.
       He will reign on David’s throne
       and over his kingdom,
       establishing and upholding it
       with justice and righteousness
       from that time on and forever.
       The zeal of the LORD Almighty
       will accomplish this.
You can read a pretty decent article about this Messianic verse at truthnet.org.  It is not a perfect article, but it is well worth the read. The article discusses Isaiah 9:6 together …

 14 When times are good, be happy;
       but when times are bad, consider:
       God has made the one
       as well as the other.
       Therefore, a man cannot discover
       anything about his future.
To me, this means that times change, and that God has your path laid out for you.  But are we completely out of control?  No, for death is not our fate, but our destiny.  We go through the times that God has laid out, but we choose how to respond to them.  God has not laid out our actions.  On the other hand, because we don’t know what the times hold for us, looking at how things are now will is not indication that times won’t change… …