valley

Blog for Podcast #196 (The Valley of the Shadow of Death)


Intro

This is Dreamwalker1960. As a reminder you can read the transcripts of all my podcasts at dreamwalker1960.com. You can use most podcast platforms if you wish to listen. All you need to do is do a search for Dreamwalker1960.

Discussion

Psalms 23:1-6 NKJV – A Psalm of David. The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me All the days of my life; And I will dwell in the house of the LORD Forever.

What I just read is a prayer and a song that is one of the most misused verses from the Word of God.

Most associate it with death of the body. The ending of life in this temporal existence. This is the furthest thing from the Truth. This has to do with daily life. This has to do with actually hitting rock bottom when we are confronted with a sin within us.

How do I know if this is true? For I had been struggling through my own valley of death recently.

The pretext of this prayer/song is established in the very first sentence.

“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.”

Want – H2637 – be lacking, decrease, make lower, (cause to) fail. Be abated.

               Abated – to become less strong.

Daivid was asking God to keep him strong in his faith.

Another key part that is misunderstood is:

“Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.”

A rod is used to discipline as verified in Proverbs:

Proverbs 13:24 NKJV – He who spares his rod hates his son, But he who loves him disciplines him promptly.

While the staff is used to attack those things which threaten to kill our souls.

This is a prayer to help us when we reach the bottom. This is a prayer to help bring us out of the valley to glorify and worship our Lord God through our Savior Jesus Christ. For this is a prayer to lead us away from sin, which all will encounter even after becoming born-again.

The rod punishes us for turning away from our Savior. This is why Jesus Christ says this:

Revelation 3:19 NKJV – As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent.

The rod is calling us to zealously repent. To quickly leave the sin behind and look to the face of our Savior and remember it is He that is to be glorified and He alone.

I wish to change directions here. For as I said this is partly about the journey through the valley of death I have personally encountered.

I asked myself is it worth spending all eternity in the Pit of Fire?

Now I recently heard this question posed to people partying at some event somewhere. One person gleefully shouted out yes it was worth that price.

Let’s look at the verses that describe the Pit of Fire:

Isaiah 66:24 NKJV – “And they shall go forth and look Upon the corpses of the men Who have transgressed against Me. For their worm does not die, And their fire is not quenched. They shall be an abhorrence to all flesh.

Matthew 25:30 NKJV – And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

Now think on this imagery for a moment. Undying worms that eat upon your flesh. Giving you constant internal pain. Fire burning your outer flesh that makes you unrecognizable. Additionally, from accounts from people that have suffered burns in fires. It is said to be extremely painful.

Now add to this, that this pain never ends. It is ongoing and continual day after day. Week after week. Month after month. Year after year. Decade after decade. Century after century. For billions, upon billions, upon billions of years.

Is anything REALLY worth this price?

That is for those reading or listening to decide for themselves.

I personally decided that no it is not worth this price. I would rather be the least in heaven than the most in the pit of fire.

However, most people these days seek after the pit of fire and not a place in heaven. What is worst of all is many of these profess that they are “Christian.”

Revelation 3:14-17 NKJV – “And to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, ‘These things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God: “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth. Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked—

Recently someone said to me that I have no moral high ground. I never did, nor ever will as long I walk and live in this temporal existence. I deserve nor seek after any place of superiority over anyone. None can say they are better than anyone else. God made that clear to those that called themselves “Christians” in Rome:

Romans 2:1-11 AMP – THEREFORE YOU have no excuse or defense or justification, O man, whoever you are who judges and condemns another. For in posing as judge and passing sentence on another, you condemn yourself, because you who judge are habitually practicing the very same things [that you censure and denounce]. [But] we know that the judgment (adverse verdict, sentence) of God falls justly and in accordance with truth upon those who practice such things. And do you think or imagine, O man, when you judge and condemn those who practice such things and yet do them yourself, that you will escape God’s judgment and elude His sentence and adverse verdict? Or are you [so blind as to] trifle with and presume upon and despise and underestimate the wealth of His kindness and forbearance and long-suffering patience? Are you unmindful or actually ignorant [of the fact] that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repent (to change your mind and inner man to accept God’s will)? But by your callous stubbornness and impenitence of heart you are storing up wrath and indignation for yourself on the day of wrath and indignation, when God’s righteous judgment (just doom) will be revealed. For He will render to every man according to his works [justly, as his deeds deserve]: [Ps. 62:12.] To those who by patient persistence in well-doing [springing from piety] seek [unseen but sure] glory and honor and [the eternal blessedness of] immortality, He will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and self-willed and disobedient to the Truth but responsive to wickedness, there will be indignation and wrath. [And] there will be tribulation and anguish and calamity and constraint for every soul of man who [habitually] does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek (Gentile). But glory and honor and [heart] peace shall be awarded to everyone who [habitually] does good, the Jew first and also the Greek (Gentile). For God shows no partiality [undue favor or unfairness; with Him one man is not different from another]. [Deut. 10:17; II Chron. 19:7.]

All fall short, and I claim no partiality from God. I just want to Glorify Him. For only He is worthy. All I desire is to leave the valley of death. I wish to not lose my salvation and be worthy to stand before God and worship Him. Not before the Great White Throne.

More are heading to stand before the Great White Throne than they think or believe. Many more aren’t even on this path. They are not even welcome in the Kingdom of God at all. They are destined to the pit of fire by their own hands and action. For they have been warned but refuse to heed the warnings. For we are in the days of Noah.

Matthew 7:21-23 NKJV – “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’

1 Corinthians 6:9-10 NKJV – Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.

Galatians 5:19-21 NKJV – Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

2 Timothy 3:1-5 NKJV – But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!

“And from such people turn away!”

Never have these words been more revealing to me than now. I must turn away from those that I call family. For a line has been drawn. Our free-will choices are coming to a head. We must choose whom we wish to worship.

Ourselves or God.

I wish to choose to God. I will only know if I succeed when that 2nd trumpet blast is heard all over the globe. If I am here or standing before Him in the sky above. Still in my corruptible or in my incorruptible. Still in my mortality or I am in my immortality.

I pray to be in the immortality, for then I know I will not encounter billions of years of torment in the pit of fire.

God Bless