Psalm 1 ends with a stark reminder: “The LORD knoweth the WAY of the righteous: but the WAY of the ungodly shall perish.” Psalm 1:6

Do you see there two “ways?”

Man’s “way” and God’s “Way!”

The “way” of the ungodly and the “Way” of the righteous!

I should remove the conjunction “and” in these foregoing Lines and insert the conjunction “or!” It’s a choice. One OR the other!

The saved man or woman walks in the “way of the righteous.” The lost man or woman walks in the “way of the ungodly.”

You might be asking, “What does it matter?”

The way of the righteous leads to HEAVEN!

The way of the ungodly leads to HELL!

Jesus is preaching here: “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the WAY, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: because strait is the gate, and narrow is the WAY, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” Matthew 7:13-14

On which WAY are you, this 26th day of May, 2021?

Actually, the Bible “WAY” is not just a location, a manner of life … IT IS A PERSON!

And His Name is JESUS. “I am the Way,” He boldly proclaimed when He walked the earth two thousand years ago! See John 14:6.

Do you know HIM?

If not, let me quote His gracious Words one more time, John 5:24.

“Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.”

Obey His Instructions here … and you will walk the “way of the righteous!” You will go to Heaven when you die.

He has promised!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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My point this morning …

As Christians, there are some things we that we do not know! And will never know until certain events come to pass!

For example, in 1 John 3:2 we read … Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be ….”

I do not know a lot about the future body I will inhabit. That “glorified body” we are promised after death! Again, I am writing to Believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. Or about my future home in Glory. “It doth not yet appear what we shall be!”

Wow!

Another example, I do not know when my Lord is coming again! Matthew 24:36 teaches me: “But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.” With this Fact, with these Words of Jesus, I must rest content.

I do not know much about death either. I have never experienced it. But will, unless the Rapture occurs first. I am aware however “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.” Hebrews 9:27

And that … “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me.” Psalm 23:4

Other than that, death is an “unknown.” I do know that the “sting” of death is gone as well. Because of Jesus’ Death and Burial and Resurrection! (1 Corinthians 15:55)

All right, you may be saying by now.

Actually, I can’t type all the things which “I do not know” (at least not fully) as a Christian, as a Bible Believer.

And that limited ignorance (limited knowledge) is a fact, surely, for a reason, for some important reason.

That reason being … when I do not know, I can TRUST my Lord! My Lord WHO DOES KNOW!

Again let me say it: I CAN TRUST!

One more verb … I CAN TRUST AND OBEY!

Deuteronomy 29:29 suns the Lesson well … “The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.”

Amen!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

My favorite hymn in all the Songbook is “I know Whom I have believed!” Its verses list many things we do not know … then repeats the glorious fact that WE DO KNOW Jesus Christ the Son of God and our dear Lord!

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I am referring to Jude’s 9th Verse …

“Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.”

This short Passage of Scripture has captivated my mind since early last night. In, fact it is our TEXT for tomorrow’s “Evening Meditation.” That’s our on-line Bible Class …

Michael’s name means “one who is like God!”

The noun “devil” means “accuser.”

So here Michael DID NOT accuse the devil!

He DID NOT fall into Satan’s trap! He did not emulate the devil! He did not join the ranks of the “accuser!”

He (Michael) will not judge his “brother!” (Remember, Lucifer and Michael have known each other for millennia! Each being one of God’s “top ranking” angels … until the devil rebelled the Almighty. Both created by God, “brothers” at least in that sense!)

One trait of the “false teachers,” the “abdicators” from the faith … is that they “speak evil of dignities.” (Jude Verse 8)

Michael refuses to do that!

Do you doubt that the devil was once a “dignity?” Then read Ezekiel 28:13 … “Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created.” Spoken of Lucifer!

Then, does the devil here (whatever he wanted to do with the “body of Moses”) get by “scot free?”

No!

Michael turns him over to the Lord!

Michael said, “The Lord rebuke thee.”

There just may be here a great Lesson in NOT being too judgmental!

Because, after all, GOD IS THE JUDGE!

Paul wrote … “Why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.” Romans 14:10

Wow!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

Watch a fuller discussion of this Text tomorrow evening on our YouTube Channel! Well, let me go and study some more!

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It was just building a wall, and repairing some gates … but Nehemiah the Old Testament patriot believed in the job he was doing.

He even went so far as to call it a “great work!”

His answer to some enemies who wanted him to “come down from the wall and talk,” a ruse at best … “I am doing a GREAT WORK, so that I cannot come down: why should the work cease, whilst I leave it, and come down to you?” Nehemiah 6:3

And indeed, God had called and equipped Nehemiah to do that work, hence it was great.

But today I have a question.

Is the work you are doing “great” or “mediocre” or maybe just plain “boring?”

If you are truly living “unto the Lord,” I say anything you do in His Will is a “great work!”

Raising a child?

Preparing a Sunday School lesson?

Washing the dishes?

Working you job?

Whatever?

“Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” Paul in 1 Corinthians 10:31!

Cleaning house?

Winning a lost soul?

YOU WILL BE FAR LESS APT TO QUIT, OR EVEN SLACK OFF … IF YOU VIEW YOUR PRESENT ACTIVITY AS BEING “UNTO THE LORD!”

And I’m saying anything done “unto Him,” anything seeking His Approval … is “great work!

Don’t quit!

“And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” Galatians 6:9

Well, I must close for now.

I have a Sermon to prepare … a “great work” I suspect!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

Glory to God!

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I came across this verse early this morning. And while it speaks historically of Jacob, who had become a kinder man in his later years, it also speaks metaphorically of our dear Lord. The Lord Who is my shepherd!

“And I will lead on softly, according as the cattle that goeth before me and the children be able to endure.” Genesis 44:14

Here Jacob plans to continue his homeward journey, from Haran back down to the Holy Land … but only at a pace “the cattle and children” are able to bear. He will not push them, not to their harm!

Yes, that is (intentionally or not) a little “parable” on the Ways of our dear Shepherd, Jesus Christ our Saviour!

He leads us gently!

Or … as said here by the King James translators. “He leads us softly.” The adverb “softly” used here can also mean “secretly.” It’s used that way once in the Bible, in Job 11:15.

Isaiah 40:11 captures this idea about our Lord: “He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and SHALL GENTLY LEAD those that are with young.”

Luke 15 might be parallel too, a Parable for sure. “What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it. And when he hath found it, HE LAYETH IT ON HIS SHOULDERS, rejoicing. And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost.” Verses 4-6, obviously a shepherd Text! (Laying the little frightened lost lamb on His Shoulders … Tenderness, Softness!)

I find it comforting that my Lord does not DRIVE me like one does a herd of cattle! Behind me with a whip!

Instead He LEADS me like a good (or great or chief) Shepherd directs His sheep! Going ahead of us clearing the danger! Softly and ten-derly so!

Even when it comes to trial and temptation … “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, WHO WILL NOT SUFFER YOU TO BE TEMPTED ABOVE THAT YE ARE ABLE …” 1 Corinthians 10:13, gentleness, protection, love!

Wow!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

And on that “secretly” idea I mentioned earlier … “Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but HE REVEALETH HIS SECRET unto his servants the prophets.” Amos 3:7, I think God loves to reveal His “secrets” to His intimates!

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