Morning Manna by Rufus Parker - 2023 September 16

Blindness of The Heart

“This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. But ye have not so learned Christ;” (Ephesians 4:17-20)

Today’s Morsel: As we observe the world in which we live, people keep asking themselves how is that so many people who are supposed to be educated and know right from wrong seem to have lost their moral compass and have no idea what they are doing and where they are headed? But the answer lies in the fact that they are blinded in their hearts. And the sad part is that this same spirit of blindness is creeping into the church. Those who say that they know Jesus are now starting to compromise and show that even their minds are blinded to the truth. Paul wrote, “But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.” (2 Corinthians 4:3-4) He said that Satan has blinded the minds of them that do not believe. When you don’t believe in Jesus, His word, and His ways, you are opening yourself up to every type of evil that hell can send your way. If you want to be confused, tormented, and without hope, shut the book of truth, the Bible. Paul says that we who are in the church ought not to be walking and supporting the same things of the world, if we are then we have not learned Christ. You should be able to discern good and evil.  As John said, “This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:” (1 John 1:5-6). Don’t let the enemy blind your mind or you will be groping at the walls like a blind man.

Sing: I saw the light, I saw the light, no more in darkness, no more in the night.  Now I am happy no sorrow in sight.   Praise the Lord, I saw the light.

Morning Manna by Rufus Parker - 2023 September 15

The Plumbline

“Thus hath the Lord GOD shewed unto me; and, behold, he formed grasshoppers in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth; and, lo, it was the latter growth after the king's mowings. And it came to pass, that when they had made an end of eating the grass of the land, then I said, O Lord GOD, forgive, I beseech thee: by whom shall Jacob arise? for he is small. The LORD repented for this: It shall not be, saith the LORD. Thus hath the Lord GOD shewed unto me: and, behold, the Lord GOD called to contend by fire, and it devoured the great deep, and did eat up a part. Then said I, O Lord GOD, cease, I beseech thee: by whom shall Jacob arise? for he is small. The LORD repented for this: This also shall not be, saith the Lord GOD. Thus he shewed me: and, behold, the Lord stood upon a wall made by a plumbline, with a plumbline in his hand. And the LORD said unto me, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A plumbline. Then said the Lord, Behold, I will set a plumbline in the midst of my people Israel: I will not again pass by them any more:” (Amos 7:1-8)

Today’s Morsel: A plumbline is a line with a plumb (weight) attached to it, and it is used for finding the depth of water or determining the vertical of an upright surface. Masonries and carpenters use them it to ensure straightness when laying brick, stone, or walls. The Lord showed Amos a plumbline and stated to him, “I will set a plumbline in the midst of my people Israel, and I will not again pass by them anymore.”  God is showing him that He is worn out with their continuous sin and wrongdoing. God was showing us that His judgments are exact and rules of justices. God doesn’t have but one standard for His people. That judgment is His word. And he is not going to pass over it when we stand before Him in judgment. Jesus said, “I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness. And if any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.” (John 12:46-48) The Lord is coming. Prayers aren’t going to stop His judgment. Pleading and begging for the mountain to fall on us isn’t going to stop His judgment. Repentance isn’t going to stop His judgment on that day. The only thing that will stop his judgment against you will be if your name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.  Is your name there?  Today it is not too late to get it there, don’t wait for the day of judgment.  

Sing: I love Him too much to fail Him now; too much to break my vow.  For I promised the Lord that I would make it somehow, and now I love Him too much to fail Him now.

Morning Manna by Rufus Parker - 2023 September 14

The Valley of Decisions

“Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.” (Joel 3:14)

Today’s Morsel: The valley of decision mentioned here was the valley of Jehoshaphat. It was the place where God said, “I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.” (Joel 3:2) It was here that the people were being called by God to decide whom they would serve. It appears that everyone today is being drawn into the valley of decision. Whether we may like it or not, we are all being drawn into this valley called decision. We must decide to support the liberal views of the nation or support the conservative views. Support the church’s views on holiness or support the contemporary view to come as you are. Support the Bible view on God and water baptism by immersion or support the status quo of the trinity and sprinkling. Support the Bible views on traditional marriage or support the world’s view on same-sex marriages. Multitudes, multitudes are in the valley of decisions, for the day of the Lord is in the valley of decision. “Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about. Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down; for the press is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness is great. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.” (Joel 3:12-14) The decision that you make now about God and His word will be the determining factor if you go and be with Him when He comes again for His church for eternity, or whether you spend eternity in the lake of fire prepared for Satan and his demonic force.  Choose ye this day.  Your decision determines your destiny.  

Sing: I have decided to follow Jesus, I have decided to follow Jesus, I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back, no turning back.

Morning Manna by Rufus Parker - 2023 September 13

Remember the Law

“Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments.” (Malachi 4:4)

Today’s Morsel: My son-in-law encouraged our two youngest grandkids to learn the Ten Commandments. First, they learned and memorized them from the book of Exodus, Chapter 20: 1-17, and then they learned and memorized them from Deuteronomy Chapter 5: 6-21. You see, in the book of Exodus; it was given to the first generation that God brought out of bondage from Egypt. Deuteronomy was for the new generation which did not die in the wilderness and who was now ready to cross over into the Promised Land. And now God tells Malachi to teach the people to remember the law again. God wants us to know what His word says for our own well-being. While Jesus was upon the earth, scriptures say that one of the lawyers asked him, “Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” (Matthew 22:36-40) Jesus didn’t change it from Ten down to Two. What Jesus was telling him was that the first four were their relationship to God, and the other six were their relationship to their neighbor. If you forget your relationship with God, you will forget how to treat your neighbor; and how if you forget how to treat and love your neighbor, then you have not learned the law of God. You might want to spend a little time memorizing the law. It was a commandment for you to know and to teach your children. 

Sing: He is my everything, He is my all. He is my everything, both great and small. He gave His life for me, made everything new.  He is my everything, O how about you?

Morning Manna by Rufus Parker - 2023 September 12

The Hope of A Tree

“For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease. Though the root thereof wax old in the earth, and the stock thereof die in the ground; Yet through the scent of water it will bud, and bring forth boughs like a plant.” (Job 14:7-9)

Today’s Morsel: We see in scripture that it was on the third day that God created all the trees. It’s amazing the number and types of trees that there are and their purpose. Some of the trees are strong, some are soft, some are weak, some are poisonous, and some are hard. David even states that the man that meditates in God’s law, day and night, that even he shall be like a tree planted by the waters. Jeremiah even stated, “Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.” (Jeremiah 17:7-8) Notice, when we trust and hope in the Lord, we will be like a tree planted by the waters, and our fruit will not cease. Job states that there is even hope for a cut down tree. He states though the root thereof wax old in the earth, and the stock thereof die in the ground; Yet through the scent of water it will bud and bring forth boughs like a plant. Keep in mind what David and Jeremiah said. Studying the word of God, and trusting and hope continuously in the Lord, you will be like a tree planted by the water. You can feel like your life is over, or that you are no longer any good to the Lord. But friend, as long as your roots are deep down in Christ, and you seek for Him, calling out to His name, you are going to find Him and bear fruit.  

Sing: Go ahead, drive a nail in my hand, laugh at me, where you stand. Go ahead, and say that it isn’t me, but the day will come, when you will see. Cause I’ll rise again, ain’t no power on earth can tie me down.  Cause I’ll raise again, death can’t keep me in the ground. 

Morning Manna by Rufus Parker - 2023 September 11

Dying To Live

“If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come.” (Job 14:14)

Today’s Morsel: Mark Lowery sings, “Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die.”  Job asked, “If a man die, shall he live again? The answer is yes. That’s why Jesus told Nicodemus that you must be born again to be able to see and to enter the kingdom of God (John 3:1-5). You can’t go to heaven without dying. Jesus died, was buried, and He rose again the third day. For the gospel to be applied to your life, you too must die. When we repent of our sins, we are dying to this world and its ways. When we are baptized in Jesus’ name in the waters of baptism, we are being buried with Christ. And when God fills us with the His Spirit, we are raised to walk in newness of life. Now, like Job, all the days of our appointed time will we wait, till our change comes. As Paul said, “Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” (1 Corinthians 15:50-52) Just hang in there, your change is coming, and it is coming soon.  

Sing: Ain’t no grave gonna hold my body down, ain’t no grave gonna hold my body down. When I hear the trumpet, sounding in the sky, I’m gonna get up, get up, out of that ground; cause ain’t no grave, gonna hold my body down. 

Morning Manna by Rufus Parker - 2023 September 9

Happy

“Happy is that people, that is in such a case: yea, happy is that people, whose God is the LORD.” (Psalms 144:15)

Today’s Morsel: On a scale from 1 to 10, with 10 being highest, where would you rate your happiness? Some people are always happy, while others seem to always be sad and without hope. Some folks are elated about things that come into their life, while others are downtrodden and brokenhearted. The Psalmist says happy is the people whose God is the Lord. Is Jesus your Lord? He says that you call me Master and Lord and you say well for so I am. Then you ought to always be happy. Happiness comes from knowing who God is. Happiness comes from realizing that Jesus won’t leave you nor forsake you. Daniel states, “...But the people that do know their God shall be strong and do exploits.” (Daniel 11:32) The people that know God shall be strong and do great achievements, for without Him we can do nothing. “Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the LORD his God:” (Psalms 146:5) If you say that you have been born again of the water and the spirit, then you ought to be happy. Why? “Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour. I have declared, and have saved, and I have shewed, when there was no strange god among you: therefore ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, that I am God.” (Isaiah 43:10-12) Do you know Him? Are you elated knowing that you know the God of all the earth?  With Jesus as your God, you can have true happiness.  

Sing: If you’re happy, and you know it, say amen, say amen.  If you’re happy, and you know it, say amen, amen.   When God’s Spirit falls on you, it makes you shout hallelujah, if you’re happy and you know it say amen.