And a free download at the end…

In my last post, I alluded to a relationship between Psalm 15 and the book of James…

Verse 1 of Psalm 15 asks a very interesting question: Lord, who shall abide in they tabernacle…?

We begin to see the answer with verse 2: He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart.

I like to break sentences apart and examine individual phrases (did I ever mention I was an English major in college?) as well as define words to their most basic meaning in order to understand.

So this verse tells me that if I am to dwell in God’s Holy Hill (His tabernacle, now ME)…

I must:

walk uprightly

to walk means to go the way of, a manner of life, traverse.

uprightly means whole & entire, sound or perfect, in accord {agreement} with truth and fact, with integrity, wholesome and innocent.

work righteousness

work means to make or commit or do.

righteousness is  justness of law; what is right; proper weights & measures [balance]; ethically right.

speak truth in my heart

truth is the state of being true, something accurate based on reality {in this instance, I would suggest that Scripture is our only truth… feelings and emotions will lead us astray every time. We must line up with Scripture}

in my heart… my own heart. I must not try to deceive myself. I must be so in-tune with Scripture that I recognize a lie, whether I try to tell it to myself or another is trying to sway me.

Is my manner of life whole and full of integrity?

Do I walk in agreement with the Truth of Scripture?

Do my works commit justice of law? Are they ethical?

Are my deeds properly weighted or balanced? 

Is my mind and heart so saturated with hearing and learning and mediating on truths from Scripture that I recognize a lie when the deceiver brings one to me?

These are all weighty questions I am asking myself… and I am trying not to deceive my own heart.

Because, as Jeremiah writes in chapter 17: The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

…and when I do NOT do these things… my Spirit {God’s Spirit IN me} is troubled and there is no peace in God’s Tabernacle!

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This was my first attempt as using watercolor pencils.

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