Saturday, November 30, 2013
gift
To “achieve” or to “win” means that you have to earn things witch simply negates that you receive a gift and eternal life is God’s gift
Zec
Zech 9:16
16 Their GOD will save the day. He'll rescue them.
…as long as their God can do anything at all…
Zec
Zech 9:9
Your king is coming! a good king who makes all things right, a humble king riding a donkey, a mere colt of a donkey
JESUS!
Hag
Hag 2:11-12
11 "GOD-of-the-Angel-Armies speaks: Consult the priests for a ruling. 12 If someone carries a piece of sacred meat in his pocket, meat that is set apart for sacrifice on the altar, and the pocket touches a loaf of bread, a dish of stew, a bottle of wine or oil, or any other food, will these foods be made holy by such contact?"
The priests said, "No."
If “things” are not made holy by conduct then why do Churches tell people that they will?
Zep
Zeph 1:2
2 I'm going to make a clean sweep of the earth, a thorough housecleaning." GOD's Decree. 3 "Men and women and animals, including birds and fish — Anything and everything that causes sin — will go, but especially people
Friday, November 29, 2013
Hos
Hos 6:6
6 I'm after love that lasts, not more religion. I want you to know GOD, not go to more prayer meetings.
Hos
Hos 6:4
Your declarations of love last no longer than morning mist and predawn dew
See? Your commitment can’t be occasional
choice
As human beings we have a HUGE decision to make: do we prefer to live well during our lives on this Earth that Satan manages OR would we rather live well in Eternity that God manages? The choice is ours but it’s a HUGE choice!
Dan
Dan 6:5
"We're never going to find anything against this Daniel unless we can cook up something religious."
They said this because RELIGION is only human so of course it carries a lot of weight among humans
Dan
Dan 4:34
God, who lives forever
And if we want to live with Him forever in His kingdom the we had better prove it during our lives on Earth otherwise we will live well on Earth but not so well forever
Dan
Dan 3:16-18
16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered King Nebuchadnezzar, "Your threat means nothing to us. 17 If you throw us in the fire, the God we serve can rescue us from your roaring furnace and anything else you might cook up, O king. 18 But even if he doesn't, it wouldn't make a bit of difference, O king. We still wouldn't serve your gods or worship the gold statue you set up."
Faith AND works… Remember we are wanting to be rewarded with life for an eternity!
Dan
Dan 3:16-18
16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered King Nebuchadnezzar, "Your threat means nothing to us. 17 If you throw us in the fire, the God we serve can rescue us from your roaring furnace and anything else you might cook up, O king. 18 But even if he doesn't, it wouldn't make a bit of difference, O king. We still wouldn't serve your gods or worship the gold statue you set up."
Faith AND works… Remember we are wanting to be rewarded with life for an eternity!
Dan
Dan 2:17-28
17 Daniel then went home and told his companions Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah what was going on. 18 He asked them to pray to the God of heaven for mercy in solving this mystery so that the four of them wouldn't be killed along with the whole company of Babylonian wise men. 19 Dream Interpretation: A Story of Five Kingdoms That night the answer to the mystery was given to Daniel in a vision. Daniel blessed the God of heaven, 20 saying, "Blessed be the name of God, forever and ever. He knows all, does all: 21 He changes the seasons and guides history, He raises up kings and also brings them down, he provides both intelligence and discernment, 22 He opens up the depths, tells secrets, sees in the dark — light spills out of him! 23 God of all my ancestors, all thanks! all praise! You made me wise and strong. And now you've shown us what we asked for. You've solved the king's mystery."
24 So Daniel went back to Arioch, who had been put in charge of the execution. He said, "Call off the execution! Take me to the king and I'll interpret his dream."
25 Arioch didn't lose a minute. He ran to the king, bringing Daniel with him, and said, "I've found a man from the exiles of Judah who can interpret the king's dream!"
26 The king asked Daniel (renamed in Babylonian, Belteshazzar), "Are you sure you can do this — tell me the dream I had and interpret it for me?"
27 Daniel answered the king, "No mere human can solve the king's mystery, I don't care who it is — no wise man, enchanter, magician, diviner. 28 But there is a God in heaven who solves mysteries, and he has solved this one.
Dan
Dan 1:17
7 God gave these four young men knowledge and skill in both books and life
It doesn’t say that they went to this certain college or that they got a degree! NO! It says that God gave them…
Dan
Dan 1:6-7
6 Four young men from Judah — Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah — were among those selected. 7 The head of the palace staff gave them Babylonian names: Daniel was named Belteshazzar, Hananiah was named Shadrach, Mishael was named Meshach, Azariah was named Abednego.
Humans were created in the first place to bring God glory so obviously God helped with this…
Dan
Dan 1:1-2
It was the third year of King Jehoiakim's reign in Judah when King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon declared war on Jerusalem and besieged the city. 2 The Master handed King Jehoiakim of Judah over to him, along with some of the furnishings from the Temple of God. Nebuchadnezzar took king and furnishings to the country of Babylon, the ancient Shinar. He put the furnishings in the sacred treasury.
Read this carefully! Verse 2 starts off saying: “The Master handed King Jehoiakim of Judah over to him…” God (the Master) said that He would do this and He did!
Thursday, November 28, 2013
success
Humans have defined success on this Earth but the main problem with that is that YES it will work on this Earth but our lives go on way beyond this Earth so a human’s definition of success although it doesn’t seem like it in reality it’s very limited
discipline
Our Father is God and as a good father He will discipline us and as His children we can choose to either learn from it or to rebel from it-it’s your choice
Eze
Ezek 14:14
14 even if Noah, Daniel, and Job — the Big Three — were alive at the time, it wouldn't do the population any good. Their righteousness would only save their own lives." Decree of GOD, the Master.
So should you study the scriptures about Noah, Daniel, and Job? YES!
Eze
Ezek 13:7
Aren't your sermons tissues of lies, saying 'GOD says . . .' when I've done nothing of the kind?
Where can you find what God really says? IN THE BIBLE!
Eze
Ezek 11:12
Instead of following my ways, you've sunk to the level of the laws of the nations around you
People very much want to be like everybody else
Eze
Ezek 8:16
They were facing east, bowing in worship to the sun.
Humans worship whatever they can see and imagine has power
geek
Many years ago I had a discipleship group in my home and I told the members to find a “geek” and reach out to and accept them. Now I am a “geek” and people have to reach out to and accept me which is a HUGE problem to get people to do! Thankfully God accepts me just as I am but people do not!
Wednesday, November 27, 2013
Jer
Jer 18:5-10
GOD's Message came to me: 6 "Can't I do just as this potter does, people of Israel?" GOD's Decree! "Watch this potter. In the same way that this potter works his clay, I work on you, people of Israel. 7 At any moment I may decide to pull up a people or a country by the roots and get rid of them. 8 But if they repent of their wicked lives, I will think twice and start over with them. 9 At another time I might decide to plant a people or country, 10 but if they don't cooperate and won't listen to me, I will think again and give up on the plans I had for them.
Jer
Jer 17:9-10
9 "The heart is hopelessly dark and deceitful, a puzzle that no one can figure out. 10 But I, GOD, search the heart and examine the mind. I get to the heart of the human. I get to the root of things. I treat them as they really are, not as they pretend to be."
Jer
Jer 11:3-5
'This is GOD's Message, Anyone who does not keep the terms of this covenant is cursed. 4 The terms are clear. I made them plain to your ancestors when I delivered them from Egypt, out of the iron furnace of suffering.
"'Obey what I tell you. Do exactly what I command you. Your obedience will close the deal. You'll be mine and I'll be yours. 5 This will provide the conditions in which I will be able to do what I promised your ancestors: to give them a fertile and lush land. And, as you know, that's what I did.'"
Jeer
Jer 9:23-24
23 GOD's Message:
"Don't let the wise brag of their wisdom. Don't let heroes brag of their exploits. Don't let the rich brag of their riches. 24 If you brag, brag of this and this only: That you understand and know me. I'm GOD, and I act in loyal love. I do what's right and set things right and fair, and delight in those who do the same things. These are my trademarks."
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
Isa
Isa 7:14
A girl who is presently a virgin will get pregnant. She'll bear a son and name him Immanuel (God-With-Us)
Monday, November 25, 2013
true wisdom
Does wisdom come from accumulated knowledge or from living God’s way? From living God’s way!
Ecc
Eccl 8:11
11 Because the sentence against evil deeds is so long in coming, people in general think they can get by with murder
Ecc
Eccl 8:2
Do what your king commands; you gave a sacred oath of obedience.
And who is your king? God is your king so are you doing what your king commands?
Ecc
Eccl 6:7
7 We work to feed our appetites; Meanwhile our souls go hungry.
Our appetites are for just today but our souls are for forever, so is feeding our appetites taking care of ourselves?
Pro
Prov 28:9
9 God has no use for the prayers of the people who won't listen to him.
It’s very common to hear people say: “I prayed about that” but do they commonly listen to what God says to them?
Pro
Prov 20:24
24 The very steps we take come from GOD; otherwise how would we know where we're going?
Pro
Prov 9:10
10 Skilled living gets its start in the Fear-of-GOD, insight into life from knowing a Holy God.
Pro
Prov 5:21
21 Mark well that GOD doesn't miss a move you make; he's aware of every step you take.
Your position in eternity is based on it!
Pro
Prov 3:9
9 Honor GOD with everything you own; give him the first and the best
don’t depend on what society tells you!
Pro
Prov 3:5-7
5 Trust GOD from the bottom of your heart; don't try to figure out everything on your own. 6 Listen for GOD's voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; he's the one who will keep you on track. 7 Don't assume that you know it all. Run to GOD!
Sunday, November 24, 2013
Psa
My very favorite thing to read is Psalm 139 because I learned a TON from it!:
Ps 139
GOD, investigate my life; get all the facts firsthand. 2 I'm an open book to you; even from a distance, you know what I'm thinking. 3 You know when I leave and when I get back; I'm never out of your sight. 4 You know everything I'm going to say before I start the first sentence. 5 I look behind me and you're there, then up ahead and you're there, too — your reassuring presence, coming and going. 6 This is too much, too wonderful — I can't take it all in!
7 Is there anyplace I can go to avoid your Spirit? to be out of your sight? 8 If I climb to the sky, you're there! If I go underground, you're there! 9 If I flew on morning's wings to the far western horizon, 10 You'd find me in a minute — you're already there waiting! 11 Then I said to myself, "Oh, he even sees me in the dark! At night I'm immersed in the light!" 12 It's a fact: darkness isn't dark to you; night and day, darkness and light, they're all the same to you.
13 Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out; you formed me in my mother's womb. 14 I thank you, High God — you're breathtaking! Body and soul, I am marvelously made! I worship in adoration — what a creation! 15 You know me inside and out, you know every bone in my body; You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit, how I was sculpted from nothing into something. 16 Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth; all the stages of my life were spread out before you, The days of my life all prepared before I'd even lived one day.
17 Your thoughts — how rare, how beautiful! God, I'll never comprehend them! 18 I couldn't even begin to count them — any more than I could count the sand of the sea. Oh, let me rise in the morning and live always with you! 19 And please, God, do away with wickedness for good! And you murderers — out of here! — 20 all the men and women who belittle you, God, infatuated with cheap god-imitations. 21 See how I hate those who hate you, GOD, see how I loathe all this godless arrogance; 22 I hate it with pure, unadulterated hatred. Your enemies are my enemies!
23 Investigate my life, O God, find out everything about me; Cross-examine and test me, get a clear picture of what I'm about; 24 See for yourself whether I've done anything wrong — then guide me on the road to eternal life.
Saturday, November 23, 2013
what God did
Psalms 106 is exactly the story of what God did for people on Earth and how the people reacted and years later the Father sent His Son-Jesus and people killed Him, so do you think that Heaven is just a gift for all humans?
Psa
Ps 91:14-16
14 "If you'll hold on to me for dear life," says GOD, "I'll get you out of any trouble. I'll give you the best of care if you'll only get to know and trust me. 15 Call me and I'll answer, be at your side in bad times; I'll rescue you, then throw you a party. 16 I'll give you a long life, give you a long drink of salvation!"
Psa
Ps 49:7-9
There's no such thing as self-rescue, pulling yourself up by your bootstraps. 8 The cost of rescue is beyond our means, and even then it doesn't guarantee 9 Life forever, or insurance against the Black Hole
Psa
Ps 35:28
28 I'll tell the world how great and good you are, I'll shout Hallelujah all day, every day.
Psa
Ps 33:13-15
13 From high in the skies GOD looks around, he sees all Adam's brood. 14 From where he sits he overlooks all us earth-dwellers. 15 He has shaped each person in turn; now he watches everything we do.
Psa
Ps 33:8-9
8 Earth-creatures, bow before GOD; world-dwellers — down on your knees! 9 Here's why: he spoke and there it was, in place the moment he said so.
Friday, November 22, 2013
Psa
Ps 27:4
4 I'm asking GOD for one thing, only one thing: To live with him in his house my whole life long. I'll contemplate his beauty; I'll study at his feet.
Psa
Ps 17:4-5
4 I'm not trying to get my way in the world's way. I'm trying to get your way, your Word's way. 5 I'm staying on your trail; I'm putting one foot In front of the other. I'm not giving up.
Thursday, November 21, 2013
1 Chron
1 Chron 28:8
obey and study every last one of the commandments of your GOD so that you can make the most of living in this good land
do we do this? I’m not making this up because it is in the Bible!
1 Chron
A prayer to God:
1 Chron 17:19
you've taken your servant to do this great thing and put your great work on display
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
2 Kings
2 Kings 19:35
an angel of GOD came and massacred a hundred and eighty-five thousand Assyrians
the driver's seat
What God wants to happen WILL HAPPEN so what I have to remember is that I’m not in the drivers seat!
2 Kings
2 Kings 5:19-21
But he hadn't gone far 20 when Gehazi, servant to Elisha the Holy Man, said to himself, "My master has let this Aramean Naaman slip through his fingers without so much as a thank-you. By the living GOD, I'm going after him to get something or other from him!" 21 And Gehazi took off after Naaman.
People THINK that something Earthly will be better than what God does but they’re wrong! It may be nice to see but it’s not eternal!
2 Kings
2 Kings 5:19-21
But he hadn't gone far 20 when Gehazi, servant to Elisha the Holy Man, said to himself, "My master has let this Aramean Naaman slip through his fingers without so much as a thank-you. By the living GOD, I'm going after him to get something or other from him!" 21 And Gehazi took off after Naaman.
People THINK that something Earthly will be better than what God does but they’re wrong!
2 Kings
2 Kings 5:11
11 Naaman lost his temper. He turned on his heel saying, "I thought he'd personally come out and meet me, call on the name of GOD, wave his hand over the diseased spot, and get rid of the disease.
His “opinion” was different from what Elisha did. Did his opinion heal him?
2 Kings
2 Kings 3:16-17
GOD's word: Dig ditches all over this valley. 17 Here's what will happen — you won't hear the wind, you won't see the rain, but this valley is going to fill up with water and your army and your animals will drink their fill
2 Kings
2 Kings 2:11
Suddenly a chariot and horses of fire came between them and Elijah went up in a whirlwind to heaven
You won’t hear a sermon on this!
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
1 Kings
1 Kings 19:11-12
A hurricane wind ripped through the mountains and shattered the rocks before GOD, but GOD wasn't to be found in the wind; after the wind an earthquake, but GOD wasn't in the earthquake; 12 and after the earthquake fire, but GOD wasn't in the fire; and after the fire a gentle and quiet whisper
1 Kings
1 Kings 18:38
38 Immediately the fire of GOD fell and burned up the offering, the wood, the stones, the dirt, and even the water in the trench.
1 Kings
1 Kings 13:18
"I am also a prophet, just like you. And an angel came to me with a message from GOD: 'Bring him home with you, and give him a good meal!'"
Be careful! People will lie to win you over to their side
1 Kings
1 Kings 11:4
4 As Solomon grew older, his wives beguiled him with their alien gods and he became unfaithful — he didn't stay true to his GOD as his father David had done.
1 Kings
1 Kings 9:11-14
11 Solomon rewarded Hiram king of Tyre with a gift of twenty villages in the district of Galilee. Hiram had provided him with all the cedar and cypress and gold that he had wanted. 12 But when Hiram left Tyre to look over the villages that Solomon had given him, he didn't like what he saw.
13 He said, "What kind of reward is this, my friend? Twenty backwoods hick towns!" People still refer to them that way. 14 This is all Hiram got from Solomon in exchange for four and a half tons of gold!
Prayers
Solomon’s prayers in the temple of God were ALL from a human perspective as opposed as from a Godly perspective so we should learn from that!
the temple of God
When Solomon built the temple of God there was a difference between what God needed and just plain eye candy
1 Kings
1 Kings 6:11-12
The word of GOD came to Solomon saying, 12 "About this Temple you are building — what's important is that you live the way I've set out for you and do what I tell you, following my instructions carefully and obediently
1 Kings
1 Kings 4:29
God gave Solomon wisdom
NOT curriculum or a school or some teacher-God gave him wisdom!
1 Kings
1 Kings 3:3
3 Solomon loved GOD and continued to live in the God-honoring ways of David his father, except that he also worshiped at the local shrines, offering sacrifices and burning incense.
2 Sam
2 Sam 15:5
5 Whenever someone would treat him with special honor, he'd shrug it off and treat him like an equal, making him feel important
Monday, November 18, 2013
1 Sam
1 Sam 26:12
No one woke up! They all slept through the whole thing. A blanket of deep sleep from GOD had fallen on them
1 Sam
1 Sam 16:7
GOD judges persons differently than humans do. Men and women look at the face; GOD looks into the heart
1 Sam
1 Sam 8:7-9
7 GOD answered Samuel, "Go ahead and do what they're asking. They are not rejecting you. They've rejected me as their King. 8 From the day I brought them out of Egypt until this very day they've been behaving like this, leaving me for other gods. And now they're doing it to you. 9 So let them have their own way.”
1 Sam
1 Sam 6:2
they called together their religious professionals, the priests, and experts on the supernatural for consultation
as if these were the people to do anything!
Ruth
Ruth 1:16-17
"Don't force me to leave you; don't make me go home. Where you go, I go; and where you live, I'll live. Your people are my people, your God is my god; 17 where you die, I'll die, and that's where I'll be buried, so help me GOD — not even death itself is going to come between us!"
Sunday, November 17, 2013
where I'm going
Like Jesus was when He came to the Earth-I can’t be amazed about where I have put myself on Earth... I can ONLY look to where I want to go in Eternity
education
With God as the teacher He gave the humans that He created in the first place every possible ability to learn in the Bible however on Earth humans have created human developed education to which they invest everything possible to have
Josh
Josh 22:5
Love GOD, your God, walk in all his ways, do what he's commanded, embrace him, serve him with everything you are and have
inheritance
In the Old Testament there are many stories of Earthly inheritances which were received but in the New Testament the story changes to an eternal inheritance which has not yet been received
Josh
Josh 9:14
14 The men of Israel looked them over and accepted the evidence. But they didn't ask GOD about it.
They accepted ONLY what they could physically see
Josh
Josh 4:24
24 This was so that everybody on earth would recognize how strong GOD's rescuing hand is and so that you would hold GOD in solemn reverence always
No sermons on this…
Josh
Josh 3:13
13 When the soles of the feet of the priests carrying the Chest of GOD, Master of all the earth, touch the Jordan's water, the flow of water will be stopped — the water coming from upstream will pile up in a heap
The same thing that happened at the Red Sea!
Josh
Josh 2:17-20
17 The men told her, "In order to keep this oath you made us swear, 18 here is what you must do: Hang this red rope out the window through which you let us down and gather your entire family with you in your house — father, mother, brothers, and sisters. 19 Anyone who goes out the doors of your house into the street and is killed, it's his own fault — we aren't responsible. But for everyone within the house we take full responsibility. If anyone lays a hand on one of them, it's our fault. 20 But if you tell anyone of our business here, the oath you made us swear is canceled — we're no longer responsible."
Faith AND works!
Josh
Josh 1:15
take possession of the land that GOD, your God, is giving
in the Old Testament the land was real physical land on Earth but in the New Testament it is land by faith in eternity
Saturday, November 16, 2013
the eternal goal
Bad things happened to Jesus but He just took it and kept focusing on the eternal goal! We are His body so we have to do the same thing!
our cross
Jesus said that we had to the take up our cross and follow Him which causes some thought for us like: “what is our cross?” Well it’s not the actual physical cross so it must be something else. This is about what He had to go through for all of us… He actually had no control over what people did. Was it pleasant? NO but He did it to give us something much greater and to live with Him we have to do the same thing! We have to allow people to do stuff that we have literally no control over while we focus on something much better at the end! Will it be pleasant? NOT AT THE TIME but later it will be
Deut
Deut 17:1
17:1 And don't sacrifice to GOD, your God, an ox or sheep that is defective or has anything at all wrong with it. That's an abomination, an insult to GOD, your God.
BUT they quite often did it!
create tomorrow
The Chopped Sweepstakes says: “create tomorrow!” and while that’s very nice, I may win money BUT I don’t have the power to “create tomorrow” only God does in fact whether I have any money or not tomorrow is not going to be created
Friday, November 15, 2013
Deu
Deut 13:18
Do the right thing in the eyes of GOD, your God
It DOESN’T say to follow someone’s opinion!
Deu
Deut 9:6
It's not because of any good that you've done that GOD is giving you this good land
This is about Heaven! It’s God’s gift to you it’s not that you earn it by anything you do!
Deu
Deut 8:3
men and women don't live by bread only; we live by every word that comes from GOD
and we HOPE to live eternally so we should remember this!
Deu
Deut 7:6
you are a people set apart as holy to GOD, your God. GOD, your God, chose you out of all the people on Earth for himself as a cherished, personal treasure
this has not changed one bit!
Deu
Deut 6:6-7
6 Write these commandments that I've given you today on your hearts. Get them inside of you 7 and then get them inside your children.
What do we do? We only teach our children the laws of the land and expect man made organizations (Churches) to teach them EVERYTHING about God!
Deu
Deut 6:5
Love GOD, your God, with your whole heart: love him with all that's in you, love him with all you've got!
promised land
From the original children of Israel only 2 people inherited the promised land! Heaven is our promised land so how many of us will inherit it?
Deu
Deut 1:26-28
You rebelled against GOD, your God's plain word. 27 You complained in your tents: "GOD hates us. He hauled us out of Egypt in order to dump us among the Amorites — a death sentence for sure! 28 How can we go up? We're trapped in a dead end. Our brothers took all the wind out of our sails, telling us, 'The people are bigger and stronger than we are; their cities are huge, their defenses massive — we even saw Anakite giants there!'"
After God had already freed them from slavery in Egypt!
Deu
Deut 1:17
17 Don't play favorites; treat the little and the big alike; listen carefully to each. Don't be impressed by big names
Deu
Deut 1:1
the sermons Moses preached
so not only as he an incredible leader but he was also a preacher even with what he called speech problems!
Thursday, November 14, 2013
Num
Num 20:12
12 GOD said Moses and Aaron, "Because you didn't trust me, didn't treat me with holy reverence in front of the People of Israel, you two aren't going to lead this company into the land that I am giving them."
See? There is a very stiff penalty for not trusting what God says! Theirs was death on Earth but ours will be permanent exile from the Master, God!
Num
Num 13:27-29
"We went to the land to which you sent us and, oh! It does flow with milk and honey! Just look at this fruit! 28 The only thing is that the people who live there are fierce, their cities are huge and well fortified. Worse yet, we saw descendants of the giant Anak. 29 Amalekites are spread out in the Negev; Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites hold the hill country; and the Canaanites are established on the Mediterranean Sea and along the Jordan."
God had already told them that His angel would go before them and clear the way for them but as you can see for yourself-they didn’t have faith!
Num
Num 1:54
54 The People of Israel did everything that God commanded Moses
Because Moses was involved, NOT because God said it!
Ex
Ex 31:13
keep the knowledge alive that I am the GOD who makes you holy
humans THINK that they do things to make themselves holy!
Ex
God told the children of Israel:
Ex 23:20
I'm sending my Angel ahead of you to guard you in your travels, to lead you to the place that I've prepared
But they didn’t believe Him
Ex
Ex 20:20
so that you won't sin
thankfully when Jesus came here he took care of sin for good! It still existed BUT He paid the penalty for everyone!
Ex
Ex 17:11-13
11 It turned out that whenever Moses raised his hands, Israel was winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, Amalek was winning. 12 But Moses' hands got tired. So they got a stone and set it under him. He sat on it and Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on each side. So his hands remained steady until the sun went down. 13 Joshua defeated Amalek and its army in battle.
See? Faith & works!
Ex
Ex 17:11-13
11 It turned out that whenever Moses raised his hands, Israel was winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, Amalek was winning. 12 But Moses' hands got tired. So they got a stone and set it under him. He sat on it and Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on each side. So his hands remained steady until the sun went down. 13 Joshua defeated Amalek and its army in battle.
Faith & works!
Ex
Ex 16:11-12
11 GOD spoke to Moses, 12 "I've listened to the complaints of the Israelites. Now tell them: 'At dusk you will eat meat and at dawn you'll eat your fill of bread; and you'll realize that I am GOD, your God.'"
Churches ONLY teach people that is was bread or manna but God gave them meat too, read it youself!
Ex
Ex 14:14
14 GOD will fight the battle for you. And you? You keep your mouths shut!
This has not changed!
Ex
Ex 8:19
19 The magicians said to Pharaoh, "This is God's doing."
Yes it was but God’s plan wasn’t to use the magicians to achieve His goal!
Ex
Ex 7:22
the magicians of Egypt did the same thing with their incantations
humans will try to do anything to match what their creator does!
Ex
Ex 4:10-11
Moses raised another objection to GOD: "Master, please, I don't talk well. I've never been good with words, neither before nor after you spoke to me. I stutter and stammer."
11 GOD said, "And who do you think made the human mouth?”
Ex
Ex 1:17
the midwives had far too much respect for God and didn't do what the king of Egypt ordered
following God will not make the people in charge happy!
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
Gen
Gen 47:21
the people ended up slaves
they traded their free selves for stuff that they couldn’t otherwise afford without doing so…
Gen
Joseph’s words to his brothers:
Gen 45:24
"Take it easy on the journey; try to get along with each other."
Hmm, that sounds just like the command to love your neighbor as yourself!
Gen
Gen 43:23
23 The steward said, "Everything's in order. Don't worry. Your God and the God of your father must have given you a bonus. I was paid in full."
Gen
Gen 41:15-16
15 "I dreamed a dream," Pharaoh told Joseph. "Nobody can interpret it. But I've heard that just by hearing a dream you can interpret it."
16 Joseph answered, "Not I, but God. God will set Pharaoh's mind at ease."
Joseph NEEDED something good to happen for him in the worst way BUT he didn’t claim priority,-instead he gave priority to God!
Gen
Gen 39:2
GOD was with Joseph and things went very well with him
Now what actually happened to Joseph didn’t appear to be good though, so what we can see and what God is doing are different things
Gen
Gen 37:13
Israel said to Joseph, "Your brothers are with flocks in Shechem. Come, I want to send you to them."
Joseph said, "I'm ready."
Because his father wanted him to do this, he did it!
Gen
Gen 37:8
8 His brothers said, "So! You're going to rule us? You're going to boss us around?"
Things that actually happen will not be what you’d expect them to be and even unusual and out of the ordinary!
Gen
Gen 29:25
25 Morning came: There was Leah in the marriage bed!
What you think will happen IS NOT WHAT WILL HAPPEN so you’ve got to be ready for anything!
just because
The story of Jacob & Esau is in the Bible to show us that even when things seem one way they’re not so we have to qualify for them! Nothing is a sure thing! Just because is not good enough! There is no just because!
Gen
Gen 27:27
27 He came close and kissed him and Isaac smelled the smell of his clothes. Finally, he blessed him
In order to get the blessing Jacob had to make Isaac think that he was Esau so Jacob had to convince him first
Gen
God told Isaac:
Gen 26:5
And why? Because Abraham obeyed my summons and kept my charge — my commands, my guidelines, my teachings
So do you obey His summons and keep His charge, commands, guidelines and teachings too? The benefit WAS A GIFT but he had to qualify for it and he did
Gen
God told Isaac:
Gen 26:5
And why? Because Abraham obeyed my summons and kept my charge — my commands, my guidelines, my teachings
So do you obey His summons and keep His charge, commands, guidelines and teachings too?
Gen
Gen 25:34
Esau shrugged off his rights as the firstborn
The rights of the firstborn were a gift BUT Esau traded it away to Jacob, and we have to be careful not to trade away the gift of eternal life or we won’t get it! It IS a gift but we have to qualify for it!
Gen
Gen 25:34
Esau shrugged off his rights as the firstborn
The rights of the firstborn were a gift BUT Esau traded it away to Jacob…
a gift
Do you EVER have to earn a gift? NO! Because it’s a gift! BUT you do have to qualify for it. For example: you don’t get a birthday gift unless it’s your birthday. It’s the same with Eternal life! It is a gift that God is giving you BUT you have to qualify for it!
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
Gen
Gen 22:10
10 Abraham reached out and took the knife to kill his son.
FAITH AND WORKS! God did this for us by sending us His Son, Jesus to die for our sins
Gen
Gen 19:26
Lot's wife looked back and turned into a pillar of salt
She was hungry for some eye candy! Even though Lot had told her she had to see it to believe it!
Gen
Gen 18:8
8 Then he got curds and milk, brought them with the calf that had been roasted, set the meal before the men, and stood there under the tree while they ate.
Faith AND works!
Gen
Gen 17:24
Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised
But prior to that he was declared: set right with God!
Gen
Gen 15:8-12
8 Abram said, "Master GOD, how am I to know this, that it will all be mine?"
9 GOD said, "Bring me a heifer, a goat, and a ram, each three years old, and a dove and a young pigeon."
10 He brought all these animals to him, split them down the middle, and laid the halves opposite each other. But he didn't split the birds. 11 Vultures swooped down on the carcasses, but Abram scared them off. 12 As the sun went down a deep sleep overcame Abram and then a sense of dread, dark and heavy.
Faith AND works! God told him: do this and he did it!
Gen
Gen 14:19
Blessed be Abram by The High God, Creator of Heaven and Earth.
He didn’t just say: “Blessed be Abram!” NO! He said: “Blessed be Abram by The High God, Creator of Heaven and Earth”
Gen
Gen 12:1-5
GOD told Abram: "Leave your country, your family, and your father's home for a land that I will show you. 2 I'll make you a great nation and bless you. 'll make you famous; you'll be a blessing. 3 I'll bless those who bless you; those who curse you I'll curse. All the families of the Earth will be blessed through you." 4 So Abram left just as GOD said, and Lot left with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran. 5 Abram took his wife Sarai and his nephew Lot with him, along with all the possessions and people they had gotten in Haran, and set out for the land of Canaan and arrived safe and sound.
Abram was 75 years old when God talked told him to move!
Gen
Gen 9:3
just as I gave you the plants, now I give you everything else
after the flood God had to give us plants again
Gen
God said:
Gen 8:22
For as long as Earth lasts, planting and harvest, cold and heat, Summer and winter, day and night will never stop.
And we call this nature?
Gen
God told Noah regarding the ship:
Gen 6:14
Coat it with pitch inside and out
God created everything so He could have made the ship float by Himself but He wanted Noah to try--faith AND works!
Gen
God told Noah:
Gen 6:17-18
17 "I'm going to bring a flood on the Earth that will destroy everything alive under Heaven. Total destruction.
18 "But I'm going to establish a covenant with you
The first judgment. For the next one God has given us His covenant in His word and it won’t be on the Earth-it will be in eternity! Only 8 people from the entire Earth were saved then so the next one will be small because it’s for an eternity!
Gen
God told Noah:
Gen 6:17-18
17 "I'm going to bring a flood on the Earth that will destroy everything alive under Heaven. Total destruction.
18 "But I'm going to establish a covenant with you
The first judgment
Gen
Gen 6:13-16
God said to Noah, "It's all over. It's the end of the human race. The violence is everywhere; I'm making a clean sweep.
14 "Build yourself a ship from teakwood. Make rooms in it. Coat it with pitch inside and out. 15 Make it 450 feet long, seventy-five feet wide, and forty-five feet high. 16 Build a roof for it and put in a window eighteen inches from the top; put in a door on the side of the ship; and make three decks, lower, middle, and upper.
Was this easy for Noah to do? NO! But it was necessary
Gen
Gen 5:24
Enoch walked steadily with God. And then one day he was simply gone: God took him.
No sermons on this!
Gen
Gen 5:1-2
When God created the human race, he made it godlike, with a nature akin to God. 2 He created both male and female and blessed them, the whole human race.
Gen
Gen 4:3-4
Cain brought an offering to GOD from the produce of his farm. 4 Abel also brought an offering, but from the firstborn animals of his herd
Cain brought God just what he has but Abel brought God his best, there is a difference
Gen
Gen 3:23
GOD expelled them from the Garden of Eden
The price then was HUGE for them and it will be for us too!
Gen
Gen 3:6
When the Woman saw that the tree looked like good eating and realized what she would get out of it — she'd know everything! — she took and ate the fruit and then gave some to her husband, and he ate.
Eye candy!
Gen
Gen 3:4
4 The serpent told the Woman, "You won't die.”
This was the first opinion which according to the text was incorrect and they all paid for it! So be careful or you’ll pay for it too!
Gen
Gen 2:16-17
16 GOD commanded the Man, "You can eat from any tree in the garden, 17 except from the Tree-of-Knowledge-of-Good-and-Evil. Don't eat from it. The moment you eat from that tree, you're dead."
This wasn’t given to man as an option
Gen
Gen 1:26-28
26 God spoke: "Let us make human beings in our image, make them reflecting our nature So they can be responsible for the fish in the sea, the birds in the air, the cattle, And, yes, Earth itself, nd every animal that moves on the face of Earth." 27 God created human beings; he created them godlike, Reflecting God's nature. He created them male and female. 28 God blessed them: "Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Earth! Take charge! Be responsible for fish in the sea and birds in the air, for every living thing that moves on the face of Earth."
It doesn’t say: “…so they can form their own opinions…
Gen
This is what God says-it’s NOT someone’s opinion! It is directly from His word:
Gen 1:1
First this: God created the Heavens and Earth — all you see, all you don't see
not following God's word
The Bible begins with creation BUT as the text shows us instead of simply recognizing it for the miracle that it was Adam & Eve allowed someone’s opinion to influence them instead of God’s word and they paid for it-big time!
This same thing happened to the children of Israel who God freed from slavery in Egypt and they too paid for it!
These things are in the Bible so that we don’t do the same thing…but we could easily do it too!
Monday, November 11, 2013
location of the WOW factor
The Bible begins with creation which is a HUGE WOW factor but Adam & Eve didn’t get it and instead they relied on someone else’s opinion and so they had to pay for it with God. Their choice got them a small thing in the short term but cost them huge things in the long term so don’t be like that!
God delivers a HUGE WOW factor to His people
Human beings want a WOW factor so everything that you see is designed to provide it BUT everything from God is a HUGE WOW factor that you can’t see and believe me He delivers!
WOW factor
Television shows are firmly focused on things that bring the WOW factor to humans but in Eternity God will bring more than the WOW factor to His people!
make it happen
For humans the biggest thing for them is when they “make it happen” BUT to bring Jesus to the Earth God made it happen in fact ALL CREATION is because God made EVERYTHING happen but humans don’t realize that so creation does not have the WOW factor for humans though it should!
never seen before
On the Earth people get super excited over stuff that they’ve never seen! But they may have never seen it before BUT it has been made by someone before. Whereas in Eternity you will have never seen things and no one will have made it before!
1 John
1 John 5:5
The person who wins out over the world's ways is simply the one who believes Jesus is the Son of God.
It does not say: the person that is liked the most! Was Jesus liked the most? NO! He was killed!
1 John
1 John 5:3
The proof that we love God comes when we keep his commandments
and where are His commandments? In the Bible!
seeing is believing
Who knows and comes from God? The person who firmly believes in what they can’t see!
1 John
1 John 4:1
don't believe everything you hear. Carefully weigh and examine what people tell you. Not everyone who talks about God comes from God
How can you carefully weigh and examine what people tell you? By reading God’s word!
1 John
1 John 3:20
God is greater than our worried hearts and knows more about us than we do ourselves
1 John
1 John 3:5
5 Surely you know that Christ showed up in order to get rid of sin. There is no sin in him, and sin is not part of his program
And remember you are Christ’s body on Earth
1 John
1 John 2:6
Anyone who claims to be intimate with God ought to live the same kind of life Jesus lived
2 Peter
2 Peter 1:20
no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of private opinion
so human quotes and human opinions are not necessary! God (our creator) wrote the scriptures by Himself without humans
1 Peter
1 Peter 5:9
You're not the only ones plunged into these hard times. It's the same with Christians all over the world
1 Peter
1 Peter 2:21
the kind of life you've been invited into, the kind of life Christ lived
remember! You are Christ’s body
1 Peter
1 Peter 1:21
21 It's because of this sacrificed Messiah, whom God then raised from the dead and glorified, that you trust God, that you know you have a future in God.
And your future in God begins right now!
1 Peter
1 Peter 1:21
It's because of this sacrificed Messiah, whom God then raised from the dead and glorified, that you trust God, that you know you have a future in God
1 Peter
1 Peter 1:7
When Jesus wraps this all up, it's your faith, not your gold, that God will have on display as evidence of his victory
Sunday, November 10, 2013
imagine
What you can imagine is only based on what you have actually already seen on Earth BUT what God has promised is to give you in eternity is way MORE than you can imagine
way more than you can ask or imagine
Humans CAN work very hard and give you more than you can imagine on Earth where you are but in eternity God will easily give you way more than you can ask or imagine but you have to get to Heaven
chopped
On Foodnetwork there is a commercial for the Chopped sweepstakes where you enter to win a great deal of money to get a culinary education and the commercial that falsely says: “create tomorrow” and that bothers me because to me tomorrow begins in eternity
James
James 2:5
Isn't it clear by now that God operates quite differently? He chose the world's down-and-out as the kingdom's first citizens, with full rights and privileges
James
James 1:12
12 Anyone who meets a testing challenge head-on and manages to stick it out is mighty fortunate. For such persons loyally in love with God, the reward is life and more life.
Heb
Heb 12:7-8
7 God is educating you; that's why you must never drop out. He's treating you as dear children. This trouble you're in isn't punishment; it's training, 8 the normal experience of children
Heb
Hebrews 11:
The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It's our handle on what we can't see. 2 The act of faith is what distinguished our ancestors, set them above the crowd.
3 By faith, we see the world called into existence by God's word, what we see created by what we don't see.
4 By an act of faith, Abel brought a better sacrifice to God than Cain. It was what he believed, not what he brought, that made the difference. That's what God noticed and approved as righteous. After all these centuries, that belief continues to catch our notice.
5 By an act of faith, Enoch skipped death completely. "They looked all over and couldn't find him because God had taken him." We know on the basis of reliable testimony that before he was taken "he pleased God." 6 It's impossible to please God apart from faith. And why? Because anyone who wants to approach God must believe both that he exists and that he cares enough to respond to those who seek him.
7 By faith, Noah built a ship in the middle of dry land. He was warned about something he couldn't see, and acted on what he was told. The result? His family was saved. His act of faith drew a sharp line between the evil of the unbelieving world and the rightness of the believing world. As a result, Noah became intimate with God.
8 By an act of faith, Abraham said yes to God's call to travel to an unknown place that would become his home. When he left he had no idea where he was going. 9 By an act of faith he lived in the country promised him, lived as a stranger camping in tents. Isaac and Jacob did the same, living under the same promise. 10 Abraham did it by keeping his eye on an unseen city with real, eternal foundations — the City designed and built by God.
11 By faith, barren Sarah was able to become pregnant, old woman as she was at the time, because she believed the One who made a promise would do what he said. 12 That's how it happened that from one man's dead and shriveled loins there are now people numbering into the millions.
13 Each one of these people of faith died not yet having in hand what was promised, but still believing. How did they do it? They saw it way off in the distance, waved their greeting, and accepted the fact that they were transients in this world. 14 People who live this way make it plain that they are looking for their true home. 15 If they were homesick for the old country, they could have gone back any time they wanted. 16 But they were after a far better country than that — heaven country. You can see why God is so proud of them, and has a City waiting for them.
17 By faith, Abraham, at the time of testing, offered Isaac back to God. Acting in faith, he was as ready to return the promised son, his only son, as he had been to receive him — 18 and this after he had already been told, "Your descendants shall come from Isaac." 19 Abraham figured that if God wanted to, he could raise the dead. In a sense, that's what happened when he received Isaac back, alive from off the altar.
20 By an act of faith, Isaac reached into the future as he blessed Jacob and Esau.
21 By an act of faith, Jacob on his deathbed blessed each of Joseph's sons in turn, blessing them with God's blessing, not his own — as he bowed worshipfully upon his staff.
22 By an act of faith, Joseph, while dying, prophesied the exodus of Israel, and made arrangements for his own burial.
23 By an act of faith, Moses' parents hid him away for three months after his birth. They saw the child's beauty, and they braved the king's decree.
24 By faith, Moses, when grown, refused the privileges of the Egyptian royal house. 25 He chose a hard life with God's people rather than an opportunistic soft life of sin with the oppressors. 26 He valued suffering in the Messiah's camp far greater than Egyptian wealth because he was looking ahead, anticipating the payoff. 27 By an act of faith, he turned his heel on Egypt, indifferent to the king's blind rage. He had his eye on the One no eye can see, and kept right on going. 28 By an act of faith, he kept the Passover Feast and sprinkled Passover blood on each house so that the destroyer of the firstborn wouldn't touch them.
29 By an act of faith, Israel walked through the Red Sea on dry ground. The Egyptians tried it and drowned.
30 By faith, the Israelites marched around the walls of Jericho for seven days, and the walls fell flat.
31 By an act of faith, Rahab, the Jericho harlot, welcomed the spies and escaped the destruction that came on those who refused to trust God.
32 I could go on and on, but I've run out of time. There are so many more — Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, the prophets. . . . 33 Through acts of faith, they toppled kingdoms, made justice work, took the promises for themselves. They were protected from lions, 34 fires, and sword thrusts, turned disadvantage to advantage, won battles, routed alien armies. 35 Women received their loved ones back from the dead. There were those who, under torture, refused to give in and go free, preferring something better: resurrection. 36 Others braved abuse and whips, and, yes, chains and dungeons. 37 We have stories of those who were stoned, sawed in two, murdered in cold blood; stories of vagrants wandering the earth in animal skins, homeless, friendless, powerless — 38 the world didn't deserve them! — making their way as best they could on the cruel edges of the world.
39 Not one of these people, even though their lives of faith were exemplary, got their hands on what was promised. 40 God had a better plan for us: that their faith and our faith would come together to make one completed whole, their lives of faith not complete apart from ours.
Heb
Heb 10:28-29
If the penalty for breaking the law of Moses is physical death, 29 what do you think will happen if you turn on God's Son, spit on the sacrifice that made you whole, and insult this most gracious Spirit?
sacrifice
In the Old Testament animal sacrifices were the eye candy to make the way people’s lives were lived acceptable to God but in the New Testament Jesus is the sacrifice that makes the way we live our lives acceptable to God-no eye candy needed anymore
Heb
Heb 5:9-10
having arrived at the full stature of his maturity and having been announced by God as high priest in the order of Melchizedek, 10 Jesus became the source of eternal salvation to all who believingly obey him
YES! Salvation IS a gift BUT we have to believingly obey him to get the gift
Heb
Heb 5:9-10
having arrived at the full stature of his maturity and having been announced by God as high priest in the order of Melchizedek, 10 Jesus became the source of eternal salvation to all who believingly obey him
… all who believingly obey him
Heb
Heb 5:8
8 Though he was God's Son, Jesus learned trusting-obedience by what he suffered, just as we do
Heb
Heb 4:13
Nothing and no one is impervious to God's Word. We can't get away from it — no matter what.
2 Tim
2 Tim 3:17
Through the Word we are put together and shaped up for the tasks God has for us
…the tasks God has for us
2 Tim
2 Tim 3:15
There's nothing like the written Word of God for showing you the way to salvation through faith in Christ Jesus
2 Tim
2 Tim 3:13
They're as deceived as the people they lead astray
How can you avoid being led astray? READ THE BIBLE!
2 Tim
2 Tim 3:12
12 Anyone who wants to live all out for Christ is in for a lot of trouble; there's no getting around it
1 Thess
1 Thess 5:16-18
16 Be cheerful no matter what; 17 pray all the time; 18 thank God no matter what happens. This is the way God wants you who belong to Christ Jesus to live.
…on Earth…
1 Thess
1 Thess 5:16-18
16 Be cheerful no matter what; 17 pray all the time; 18 thank God no matter what happens
Col
Col 4:1
Don't forget for a minute that you, too, serve a Master — God in heaven.
As Christians we serve a master in Heaven so we are servants of God!
Col
Col 3:25
Being Christian doesn't cover up bad work
Just saying that you’re a Christian or just being one is not enough! Remember-we’re hoping for an eternity here—SO LIVE LIKE ONE ON EARTH!
Col
Col 3:3-4
3 Your old life is dead. Your new life, which is your real life — even though invisible to spectators — is with Christ in God. He is your life. 4 When Christ (your real life, remember) shows up again on this earth, you'll show up, too — the real you, the glorious you. Meanwhile, be content with obscurity, like Christ.
… even though invisible to spectators… Like God! Real to you but invisible to spectators!
Col
Col 3:3-4
3 Your old life is dead. Your new life, which is your real life — even though invisible to spectators — is with Christ in God. He is your life. 4 When Christ (your real life, remember) shows up again on this earth, you'll show up, too — the real you, the glorious you. Meanwhile, be content with obscurity, like Christ.
… even though invisible to spectators… Like God! Real but invisible to spectators!
Col
Col 3:1-2
So if you're serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. 2 Don't shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ — that's where the action is
…this new resurrection life with Christ… NOW! Not later!
Saturday, November 9, 2013
compliment?
Saying: “oh my God!” just means: “I AM SHOCKED!” so to say this is not a compliment to God!
life in Christ
The HUGE thing that I don’t see people realizing is that a life in Christ begins right now! People think that a life in Christ begins in eternity BUT Heaven is God’s kingdom and life in Christ happens on this earth!
Col
Col 2:5
5 I'm a long way off, true, and you may never lay eyes on me, but believe me, I'm on your side, right beside you
Col
Col 2:1
Not many of you have met me face-to-face, but that doesn't make any difference. Know that I'm on your side, right alongside you. You're not in this alone.
Phil
Phil 4:11-13
I don't have a sense of needing anything personally. I've learned by now to be quite content whatever my circumstances. 12 I'm just as happy with little as with much, with much as with little. I've found the recipe for being happy whether full or hungry, hands full or hands empty. 13 Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am
Phil
Phil 3:13-14
13 Friends, don't get me wrong: By no means do I count myself an expert in all of this, but I've got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward — to Jesus. 14 I'm off and running, and I'm not turning back.
Phil
Phil 3:9
I didn't want some petty, inferior brand of righteousness that comes from keeping a list of rules when I could get the robust kind that comes from trusting Christ — God's righteousness.
Phil
Phil 3:2
2 Steer clear of the barking dogs, those religious busybodies, all bark and no bite. All they're interested in is appearances
They want to look good-that’s all!
Phil
Phil 2:13
God himself willing and working at what will give him the most pleasure.
what will give him the most pleasure. You’re not in the driver’s seat!
the driver's seat
Jesus repeatedly says in the Scriptures that YOU’RE NOT IN THE DRIVER’S SEAT-I AM! So with that in mind the tasks of your life take on a completely different meaning than what society tries very strongly to tell you!
Phil
Phil 2:5-11
5 Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. 6 He had equal status with God but didn't think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. 7 Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! 8 Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn't claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death — and the worst kind of death at that: a crucifixion.
9 Because of that obedience, God lifted him high and honored him far beyond anyone or anything, ever, 10 so that all created beings in heaven and on earth — even those long ago dead and buried — will bow in worship before this Jesus Christ, 11 and call out in praise that he is the Master of all, to the glorious honor of God the Father.
Phil
Phil 1:29
29 There's far more to this life than trusting in Christ. There's also suffering for him. And the suffering is as much a gift as the trusting
Eph
Eph 6:12-18
12 This is no afternoon athletic contest that we'll walk away from and forget about in a couple of hours. This is for keeps, a life-or-death fight to the finish against the Devil and all his angels.
13 Be prepared. You're up against far more than you can handle on your own. Take all the help you can get, every weapon God has issued, so that when it's all over but the shouting you'll still be on your feet. 14 Truth, righteousness, 15 peace, 16 faith, 17 and salvation are more than words. Learn how to apply them. You'll need them throughout your life. God's Word is an indispensable weapon. 18 In the same way, prayer is essential in this ongoing warfare. Pray hard and long. Pray for your brothers and sisters. Keep your eyes open. Keep each other's spirits up so that no one falls behind or drops out.
This is from God in His word—so follow it!
Eph
Eph 5:5
You can be sure that using people or religion or things just for what you can get out of them — the usual variations on idolatry — will get you nowhere, and certainly nowhere near the kingdom of Christ, the kingdom of God
Eph
Eph 5:1-2
Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. 2 Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn't love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that.
Because God is our Father we should learn from Him and do what He does
Eph
Eph 4:30
30 Don't grieve God. Don't break his heart. His Holy Spirit, moving and breathing in you, is the most intimate part of your life, making you fit for himself. Don't take such a gift for granted.
The Holy Spirit is a gift
Eph
Eph 3:20
20 God can do anything, you know — far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams!
Eph
Eph 3:6
The mystery is that people who have never heard of God and those who have heard of him all their lives (what I've been calling outsiders and insiders) stand on the same ground before God. They get the same offer, same help, same promises in Christ Jesus. The Message is accessible and welcoming to everyone, across the board
Eph
Eph 1:4-6
4 Long before he laid down earth's foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love. 5 Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!) 6 He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son.
Eph
Eph 1:2
I greet you with the grace and peace poured into our lives by God our Father and our Master, Jesus Christ.
the gift
For us to receive a gift certain things have to happen:
1. There must be a reason to get it
2. The giver has to want to give us that gift
3. We must qualify to receive that gift
When looking at the gift of eternal life:
1. The reason to get it is that we are created by God (the giver) to give Him glory
2. The giver, God wants us to have that gift
3. To qualify for the gift we have to follow His standards which are spelled out in His word, the Bible
We will be given the gift of eternal life IF these things happen and the giver of that gift has been both very patient and very explicit
Gal
Gal 6:15
It is not what you and I do — submit to circumcision, reject circumcision. It is what God is doing, and he is creating something totally new, a free life!
Gal
Gal 6:4-5
Don't compare yourself with others. 5 Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best you can with your own life.
Gal
Gal 5:25-26
let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives. 26 That means we will not compare ourselves with each other as if one of us were better and another worse
Gal
Gal 5:24
Among those who belong to Christ, everything connected with getting our own way and mindlessly responding to what everyone else calls necessities is killed off for good — crucified
…what everyone else calls necessities…
Gal
Gal 5:14
everything we know about God's Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself
Gal
Gal 5:3
The person who accepts legal ways trades all the advantages of the free life in Christ for the obligations of the slave life of the law.
creator
People are WAY MORE committed to other created people than they are to the God who creates everything in the first place AND they expect to live for eternity in His kingdom! Go figure!
Friday, November 8, 2013
what do you want?
Being: “Technically correct” will earn a person a lot today on Earth BUT being: “Spiritually correct” will win you everything for an eternity with God. So you choose…
Gal
Gal 3:11
The person who lives in right relationship with God does it by embracing what God arranges for him. Doing things for God is the opposite of entering into what God does for you
Gal
Gal 2:16
we are not set right with God by rule-keeping but only through personal faith in Jesus Christ
Gal
Gal 1:8-9
If one of us — even if an angel from heaven! — were to preach something other than what you read in the Bible, let him be cursed. 9 I said it once; I'll say it again: If anyone, regardless of reputation or credentials, preaches something other than what you read in God’s word, let him be cursed.
2 Cor
2 Cor 12:7
I was given the gift of a handicap to keep me in constant touch with my limitations
2 Cor
2 Cor 8:9
You are familiar with the generosity of our Master, Jesus Christ. Rich as he was, he gave it all away for us — in one stroke he became poor and we became rich.
2 Cor
2 Cor 4:18
There's far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can't see now will last forever.
2 Cor
2 Cor 2:14
In the Messiah, in Christ, God leads us from place to place in one perpetual victory parade
BUT the victory parade doesn’t happen on this earth-it happens in Eternity and I can wait!
1 Cor
1 Cor 15:35-38
35 Some skeptic is sure to ask, "Show me how resurrection works. Give me a diagram; draw me a picture. What does this 'resurrection body' look like?" 36 If you look at this question closely, you realize how absurd it is. There are no diagrams for this kind of thing. 37 We do have a parallel experience in gardening. You plant a "dead" seed; soon there is a flourishing plant. There is no visual likeness between seed and plant. 38 You could never guess what a tomato would look like by looking at a tomato seed. What we plant in the soil and what grows out of it don't look anything alike. The dead body that we bury in the ground and the resurrection body that comes from it will be dramatically different.
1 Cor
1 Cor 15:32
It's resurrection, resurrection, always resurrection, that undergirds what I do and say, the way I live
1 Cor
1 Cor 14:36
36 Do you — both women and men — imagine that you're a sacred oracle determining what's right and wrong? Do you think everything revolves around you?
1 Cor
1 Cor 12:25-26
25 The way God designed our bodies is a model for understanding our lives together as a church: every part dependent on every other part, the parts we mention and the parts we don't, 26 the parts we see and the parts we don’t
Does digestion ever retire? Is the eye more important then the butt?
1 Cor
1 Cor 10:13
13 No test or temptation that comes your way is beyond the course of what others have had to face. All you need to remember is that God will never let you down; he'll never let you be pushed past your limit; he'll always be there to help you come through it.
REALLY!
1 Cor
1 Cor 10:1-6
10:1 Remember our history, friends, and be warned. All our ancestors were led by the providential Cloud and taken miraculously through the Sea. 2 They went through the waters, in a baptism like ours, as Moses led them from enslaving death to salvation life. 3 They all ate 4 and drank identical food and drink, meals provided daily by God. They drank from the Rock, God's fountain for them that stayed with them wherever they were. And the Rock was Christ. 5 But just experiencing God's wonder and grace didn't seem to mean much — most of them were defeated by temptation during the hard times in the desert, and God was not pleased.
6 The same thing could happen to us
Thursday, November 7, 2013
saying and doing
FAITH & WORKS
God says in the Bible that faith & works go hand in hand which means that you CAN believe BUT you also have to actively live like it! Which makes total sense because it’s both saying and doing! So you can’t just do one (saying or doing) in your life and expect to live eternally with .God in His kingdom.
control
I often hear people say: “cross your fingers!” which strongly implies that YOU have ultimate control over everything which is not true because we are created beings by God and He has control over everything! So that is not true!
1 Cor
1 Cor 7:1-2
Now, getting down to the questions you asked in your letter to me. First, Is it a good thing to have sexual relations?
2 Certainly — but only within a certain context. It's good for a man to have a wife, and for a woman to have a husband.
The words: wife and husband refer ONLY to a marriage relationship
1 Cor
1 Cor 6:12
12 Just because something is technically legal doesn't mean that it's spiritually appropriate
1 Cor
1 Cor 5:7-8
Our true identity is flat and plain, not puffed up with the wrong kind of ingredient. The Messiah, our Passover Lamb, has already been sacrificed for the Passover meal, and we are the Unraised Bread part of the Feast. 8 So let's live out our part in the Feast, not as raised bread swollen with the yeast of evil, but as flat bread — simple, genuine, unpretentious.
1 Cor
1 Cor 4:9-10
9 It seems to me that God has put us who bear his words on stage in a theater in which no one wants to buy a ticket. We're something everyone stands around and stares at, like an accident in the street. 10 We're the Messiah's misfits
1 Cor
1 Cor 1:27-29
27 Isn't it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses, 28 chose these "nobodies" to expose the hollow pretensions of the "somebodies"? 29 That makes it quite clear that none of you can get by with blowing your own horn before God
1 Cor
1 Cor 1:2
I include in my greeting all who call out to Jesus, wherever they live. He's their Master as well as ours!
Rom
Rom 15:4
God wants the combination of his steady, constant calling and warm, personal counsel in Scripture to come to characterize us
It’s not just there for us to occasionally refer to--we need to live it!
Rom
Rom 15:1-2
Strength is for service, not status. 2 Each one of us needs to look after the good of the people around us, asking ourselves, "How can I help?"
Rom
Rom 14:21
21 When you sit down to a meal, your primary concern should not be to feed your own face but to share the life of Jesus
Rom
Rom 14:17-18
It's what God does with your life as he sets it right, puts it together, and completes it with joy. 18 Your task is to single-mindedly serve Christ
Rom
Rom 14:8-9
8 It's God we are answerable to — all the way from life to death and everything in between — not each other. 9 That's why Jesus lived and died and then lived again: so that he could be our Master across the entire range of life and death, and free us from the petty tyrannies of each other.
Rom
Rom 12:6
6 let's just go ahead and be what we were made to be, without enviously or pridefully comparing ourselves with each other, or trying to be something we aren't
OR by trying to MAKE something special out of ourselves!
Rom
Rom 12:3
it's important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings it all to you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him.
Rom
Rom 12:1-2
Take your everyday, ordinary life — your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life — and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. 2 Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.
Rom
Rom 9:21-23
21 Isn't it obvious that a potter has a perfect right to shape one lump of clay into a vase for holding flowers and another into a pot for cooking beans? 22 If God needs one style of pottery especially designed to show his angry displeasure 23 and another style carefully crafted to show his glorious goodness, isn't that all right?
Rom
Rom 9:18
God has the first word, initiating the action in which we play our part for good or ill
Rom
Rom 9:16
Compassion doesn't originate in our bleeding hearts or moral sweat, but in God's mercy
Churches don’t teach this!
Rom
Rom 9:11
What God did in this case made it perfectly plain that his purpose is not a hit-or-miss thing dependent on what we do or don't do, but a sure thing determined by his decision, flowing steadily from his initiative
…his initiative… not your initiative
Rom
Rom 8:9
if God himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of him
Rom
Rom 8:7-8
Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God, ends up thinking more about self than God. That person ignores who God is and what he is doing. 8 And God isn't pleased at being ignored.
Rom
Rom 6:3
in baptism. When we went under the water, we left the old country of sin behind; when we came up out of the water, we entered into the new country of grace — a new life in a new land!
Baptism isn’t taught this way in Churches! It’s only taught this way in the Scriptures…
Rom
Rom 5:8
God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him.
Rom
Rom 5:1
By entering through faith into what God has always wanted to do for us — set us right with him, make us fit for him
Abraham-Romans 5
These Scriptures about Abraham in Romans 5 give me the ONLY HOPE I have! I have literally NO BALANCE and I live in a wheelchair so if I didn’t trust God then for me it’s hopeless!
Rom
Rom 4:18
18 When everything was hopeless, Abraham believed anyway, deciding to live not on the basis of what he saw he couldn't do but on what God said he would do
Rom
Rom 4:17
17 We call Abraham "father" not because he got God's attention by living like a saint, but because God made something out of Abraham when he was a nobody
so being a nobody is not such a bad thing!
Rom
Rom 4:16
the fulfillment of God's promise depends entirely on trusting God and his way, and then simply embracing him and what he does. God's promise arrives as pure gift
Rom
Rom 4:14
14 If those who get what God gives them only get it by doing everything they are told to do and filling out all the right forms properly signed, that eliminates personal trust completely and turns the promise into an ironclad contract! That's not a holy promise; that's a business deal!
Rom
Rom 4:9
We all agree, don't we, that it was by embracing what God did for him that Abraham was declared fit before God?
… what God did for him…
Rom
Rom 4:1-3
So how do we fit what we know of Abraham, our first father in the faith, into this new way of looking at things? 2 If Abraham, by what he did for God, got God to approve him, he could certainly have taken credit for it. But the story we're given is a God-story, not an Abraham-story. 3 What we read in Scripture is, "Abraham entered into what God was doing for him, and that was the turning point. He trusted God to set him right instead of trying to be right on his own."
He didn’t DO SOMETHING for God, God did something for him!
Rom
Rom 4:1-3
So how do we fit what we know of Abraham, our first father in the faith, into this new way of looking at things? 2 If Abraham, by what he did for God, got God to approve him, he could certainly have taken credit for it. But the story we're given is a God-story, not an Abraham-story. 3 What we read in Scripture is, "Abraham entered into what God was doing for him, and that was the turning point. He trusted God to set him right instead of trying to be right on his own."
Wednesday, November 6, 2013
Rom
Rom 3:28
Our lives get in step with God and all others by letting him set the pace, not by proudly or anxiously trying to run the parade
Rom
Rom 3:27
God does not respond to what we do; we respond to what God does
and that makes complete sense because neither I nor anyone else kept me alive but God kept me alive!
Rom
Rom 2:29
29 You become a Jew by who you are. It's the mark of God on your heart, not of a knife on your skin, that makes a Jew. And recognition comes from God, not legalistic critics.
Rom
Rom 1:17
God's way of putting people right shows up in the acts of faith, confirming what Scripture has said all along: "The person in right standing before God by trusting him really lives."
Acts
Acts 26:29
"That's what I'm praying for, whether now or later, and not only you but everyone reading today, to become like me — except, of course, for this wheelchair!"
Acts
Acts 22:28
28 The captain was impressed. "I paid a huge sum for my citizenship. How much did it cost you?"
Money is extremely important to some people BUT not everything is about money…
Acts
Acts 20:32
Now I'm turning you over to God, our marvelous God whose gracious Word can make you into what he wants you to be
God …whose gracious Word can make you into what he wants you to be… So read it!
Acts
Acts 20:24
What matters most to me is to finish what God started: the job the Master Jesus gave me of letting everyone I meet know all about this incredibly extravagant generosity of God.
AND everyone that I don’t know!
Acts
Acts 15:1
It wasn't long before some Jews showed up from Judea insisting that everyone be circumcised: "If you're not circumcised in the Mosaic fashion, you can't be saved
As if human behaviors saved people! Does salvation occur in a human kingdom or God’s kingdom?
Acts
Acts 14:22
Anyone signing up for the kingdom of God has to go through plenty of hard times
Churches don’t teach this!
Acts
Acts 12:21-23
Herod, robed in pomposity, took his place on the throne and regaled them with a lot of hot air. 22 The people played their part to the hilt and shouted flatteries: "The voice of God! The voice of God!"
23 That was the last straw. God had had enough of Herod's arrogance and sent an angel to strike him down. Herod had given God no credit for anything. Down he went. Rotten to the core, a maggoty old man if there ever was one, he died.
Humans pretending to be God…
Acts
Acts 10:34-35
34 Peter fairly exploded with his good news: "It's God's own truth, nothing could be plainer: God plays no favorites! 35 It makes no difference who you are or where you're from — if you want God and are ready to do as he says, the door is open
Acts
Acts 10:25-26
25 The minute Peter came through the door, Cornelius was up on his feet greeting him — and then down on his face worshiping him! 26 Peter pulled him up and said, "None of that — I'm a man and only a man, no different from you
Acts
Acts 9:42
42 When this became known all over Joppa, many put their trust in the Master
If this happened today then many would put their trust in the person who did it not the Master!
Acts
Acts 9:13-14
13 Ananias protested, "Master, you can't be serious. Everybody's talking about this man and the terrible things he's been doing, his reign of terror against your people in Jerusalem! 14 And now he's shown up here with papers from the Chief Priest that give him license to do the same to us."
Was this on his list of priorities? NO! Was he in the driver’s seat? NO!
Acts
Acts 9:8
They had to take him by the hand and lead him into Damascus
Was this on his list of priorities? NO! But remember what Jesus said: “you’re not in the driver’s seat”.
Tuesday, November 5, 2013
Acts
Acts 5:24
What's going on here anyway?
Humans THINK that everything that happens can be figured out…
Acts
Acts 5:1-2
a man named Ananias — his wife, Sapphira, conniving in this with him — sold a piece of land, 2 secretly kept part of the price for himself, and then brought the rest to the apostles and made an offering of it.
Caring MORE for the opinion of the people…
Acts
Acts 3:16
16 Faith in Jesus' name put this man, whose condition you know so well, on his feet — yes, faith and nothing but faith put this man healed and whole right before your eyes!
Acts
Acts 2:2
Without warning there was a sound like a strong wind, gale force — no one could tell where it came from
…and no one has ever seen God…
Acts
Acts 1:23-24
23 They nominated two: Joseph Barsabbas, nicknamed Justus, and Matthias. 24 Then they prayed, "You, O God, know every one of us inside and out
Acts
Acts 1:21
Judas must now be replaced
Believers in God have this example so that followers can see that disciples follow the scriptures!
John
John 20:29
29 Jesus said, "So, you believe because you've seen with your own eyes. Even better blessings are in store for those who believe without seeing."
John
John 20:21
21 Jesus repeated his greeting: "Peace to you. Just as the Father sent me, I send you
THAT’S US!
John
Jesus said:
John 15:16
You didn't choose me, remember; I chose you, and put you in the world to bear fruit
That’s why we are here-to bear fruit for God! Nothing else!
John
Jesus said to His followers:
John 14:12
I am giving you the same work to do that I've been doing
John
John 13:6
wash my feet
Jesus did this to teach us that we should be willing to do anything to care for others
John
John 12:43
43 When push came to shove they cared more for human approval than for God's glory
Do you?
John
John 12:24-25
Unless a grain of wheat is buried in the ground, dead to the world, it is never any more than a grain of wheat. But if it is buried, it sprouts and reproduces itself many times over. 25 In the same way, anyone who holds on to life just as it is destroys that life. But if you let it go, reckless in your love, you'll have it forever, real and eternal.
…anyone who holds on to life just as it is destroys that life. But if you let it go, reckless in your love, you'll have it forever, real and eternal
John
John 11:4
4 When Jesus got the message, he said, "This sickness is not fatal. It will become an occasion to show God's glory by glorifying God's Son."
John
John 8:23
23 Jesus said, "You're tied down to the mundane; I'm in touch with what is beyond your horizons. You live in terms of what you see and touch. I'm living on other terms
John
John 6:65
You get to me only as a gift from the Father
You don’t CHOOSE to follow Jesus-rather the Father sends you!
John
John 6:26
26 Jesus answered, "You've come looking for me not because you saw God in my actions but because I fed you, filled your stomachs — and for free!
Jesus had given them “eye candy”!
Monday, November 4, 2013
John
John 4:23-24
That's the kind of people the Father is out looking for: those who are simply and honestly themselves before him in their worship. 24 God is sheer being itself — Spirit. Those who worship him must do it out of their very being, their spirits, their true selves, in adoration
John
John 4:23
the time is coming — it has, in fact, come — when what you're called will not matter and where you go to worship will not matter
John
John 4:2-3
They had posted the score that Jesus was ahead, turning him and John into rivals in the eyes of the people. 3 So Jesus left the Judean countryside and went back to Galilee.
They had made them competitors so Jesus left the area to stop it!
John
John 3:5-6
5 Jesus said, "You're not listening. Let me say it again. Unless a person submits to this original creation — the 'wind hovering over the water' creation, the invisible moving the visible, a baptism into a new life — it's not possible to enter God's kingdom. 6 When you look at a baby, it's just that: a body you can look at and touch. But the person who takes shape within is formed by something you can't see and touch — the Spirit — and becomes a living spirit.
…the person who takes shape within is formed by something you can't see and touch…
John
John 3:4
How can anyone," said Nicodemus, "be born who has already been born and grown up? You can't re-enter your mother's womb and be born again. What are you saying with this 'born-from-above' talk?
He was basing what Jesus was saying just on what he could see
John
John 2:23-25
many people noticed the signs he was displaying and, seeing they pointed straight to God, entrusted their lives to him. 24 But Jesus didn't entrust his life to them. He knew them inside and out, knew how untrustworthy they were. 25 He didn't need any help in seeing right through them.
Jesus wasn’t fooled then and He’s not fooled now!
John
John 1:33
Jesus will baptize with the Holy Spirit
You can’t CHOOSE that because it is not based on your intentions but on your heart!
John
John 1:13
the God-begotten, not blood-begotten, not flesh-begotten, not sex-begotten
born again…
John
John 1:1-5
The Word was first, the Word present to God, God present to the Word. The Word was God, 2 in readiness for God from day one. 3 Everything was created through him; nothing — not one thing! — came into being without him. 4 What came into existence was Life, and the Life was Light to live by. 5 The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness; the darkness couldn't put it out.
see
Everything that is shown in movies or videos are things that can be seen but no one has ever seen God
Luke
Jesus said this:
Luke 24:44
All the things written about me in the Law of Moses, in the Prophets, and in the Psalms have to be fulfilled
the Law of Moses, and the Prophets and Psalms are in the Old Testament! The Bible but the Old Testament…
Luke
Jesus said this:
Luke 24:44
All the things written about me in the Law of Moses, in the Prophets, and in the Psalms have to be fulfilled
the Law of Moses, and the Prophets are in the Old Testament!
Luke
Luke 20:34-36
34 Jesus said, "Marriage is a major preoccupation here, 35 but not there. Those who are included in the resurrection of the dead will no longer be concerned with marriage 36 nor, of course, with death. They will have better things to think about, if you can believe it. All ecstasies and intimacies then will be with God.
Luke
Luke 20:19
19 The religion scholars and high priests wanted to lynch him on the spot, but they were intimidated by public opinion
Luke
Luke 20:9-16
Jesus told another story to the people: "A man planted a vineyard. He handed it over to farmhands and went off on a trip. He was gone a long time. 10 In time he sent a servant back to the farmhands to collect the profits, but they beat him up and sent him off empty-handed. 11 He decided to try again and sent another servant. That one they beat black and blue, and sent him off empty-handed. 12 He tried a third time. They worked that servant over from head to foot and dumped him in the street.
13 "Then the owner of the vineyard said, 'I know what I'll do: I'll send my beloved son. They're bound to respect my son.'
14 "But when the farmhands saw him coming, they quickly put their heads together. 'This is our chance — this is the heir! Let's kill him and have it all to ourselves.' 15 They killed him and threw him over the fence.
"What do you think the owner of the vineyard will do? 16 Right. He'll come and clean house. Then he'll assign the care of the vineyard to others."
The man who planted the vineyard is God. The vineyard is the Earth and God sent His son to check on it.
Luke
Luke 19:12-27
12 "There was once a man descendif ed from a royal house who needed to make a long trip back to headquarters to get authorization for his rule and then return. 13 But first he called ten servants together, gave them each a sum of money, and instructed them, 'Operate with this until I return.'
14 "But the citizens there hated him. So they sent a commission with a signed petition to oppose his rule: 'We don't want this man to rule us.'
15 "When he came back bringing the authorization of his rule, he called those ten servants to whom he had given the money to find out how they had done.
16 "The first said, 'Master, I doubled your money.'
17 "He said, 'Good servant! Great work! Because you've been trustworthy in this small job, I'm making you governor of ten towns.'
18 "The second said, 'Master, I made a fifty percent profit on your money.'
19 "He said, 'I'm putting you in charge of five towns.'
20 "The next servant said, 'Master, here's your money safe and sound. I kept it hidden in the cellar. 21 To tell you the truth, I was a little afraid. I know you have high standards and hate sloppiness, and don't suffer fools gladly.'
22 "He said, 'You're right that I don't suffer fools gladly — and you've acted the fool! 23 Why didn't you at least invest the money in securities so I would have gotten a little interest on it?'
24 "Then he said to those standing there, 'Take the money from him and give it to the servant who doubled my stake.'
25 "They said, 'But Master, he already has double . . .'
26 "He said, 'That's what I mean: Risk your life and get more than you ever dreamed of. Play it safe and end up holding the bag.
27 "'As for these enemies of mine who petitioned against my rule, clear them out of here. I don't want to see their faces around here again.'"
so, if God doesn't rule you do you think that you'll end up in His kingdom of Heaven?
Luke
Luke 19:10
the Son of Man came to find and restore the lost
this scripture says that Jesus came to find and restore the lost so if this isn’t you then Jesus didn’t come for you!
God's kingdom of Heaven
In God’s kingdom of Heaven, God is king-and if you want to go there then God had better be your king on Earth
Luke
Regarding getting into God’s kingdom of Heaven:
Luke 18:27
27 "No chance at all," Jesus said, "if you think you can pull it off by yourself. Every chance in the world if you trust God to do it."
Luke
Luke 18:18-22
One day one of the local officials asked him, "Good Teacher, what must I do to deserve eternal life?"
19 Jesus said, "Why are you calling me good? No one is good — only God. 20 You know the commandments, don't you? No illicit sex, no killing, no stealing, no lying, honor your father and mother."
21 He said, "I've kept them all for as long as I can remember."
22 When Jesus heard that, he said, "Then there's only one thing left to do: Sell everything you own and give it away to the poor. You will have riches in heaven. Then come, follow me."
You may THINK that you have riches on Earth BUT real riches are in Heaven and there’s no money in Heaven!
Luke
Luke 18:15-17
15 People brought babies to Jesus, hoping he might touch them. When the disciples saw it, they shooed them off. 16 Jesus called them back. "Let these children alone. Don't get between them and me. These children are the kingdom's pride and joy. 17 Mark this: Unless you accept God's kingdom in the simplicity of a child, you'll never get in."
Luke
Luke 18:9-14
He told his next story to some who were complacently pleased with themselves over their moral performance and looked down their noses at the common people: 10 "Two men went up to the Temple to pray, one a Pharisee, the other a tax man. 11 The Pharisee posed and prayed like this: 'Oh, God, I thank you that I am not like other people — robbers, crooks, adulterers, or, heaven forbid, like this tax man. 12 I fast twice a week and tithe on all my income.'
13 "Meanwhile the tax man, slumped in the shadows, his face in his hands, not daring to look up, said, 'God, give mercy. Forgive me, a sinner.'"
14 Jesus commented, "This tax man, not the other, went home made right with God. If you walk around with your nose in the air, you're going to end up flat on your face, but if you're content to be simply yourself, you will become more than yourself."
Luke
Luke 17:33
33 If you grasp and cling to life on your terms, you'll lose it, but if you let that life go, you'll get life on God's terms
Luke
Luke 17:26-30
The time of the Son of Man will be just like the time of Noah — 27 everyone carrying on as usual, having a good time right up to the day Noah boarded the ship. They suspected nothing until the flood hit and swept everything away.
28 "It was the same in the time of Lot — the people carrying on, having a good time, business as usual 29 right up to the day Lot walked out of Sodom and a firestorm swept down and burned everything to a crisp. 30 That's how it will be — sudden, total — when the Son of Man is revealed.
Luke
Luke 17:7-10
7 "Suppose one of you has a servant who comes in from plowing the field or tending the sheep. Would you take his coat, set the table, and say, 'Sit down and eat'? 8 Wouldn't you be more likely to say, 'Prepare dinner; change your clothes and wait table for me until I've finished my coffee; then go to the kitchen and have your supper'? 9 Does the servant get special thanks for doing what's expected of him? 10 It's the same with you.”
Luke
Luke 16:19-31
There once was a rich man, expensively dressed in the latest fashions, wasting his days in conspicuous consumption. 20 A poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, had been dumped on his doorstep. 21 All he lived for was to get a meal from scraps off the rich man's table. His best friends were the dogs who came and licked his sores.
22 "Then he died, this poor man, and was taken up by the angels to the lap of Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. 23 In hell and in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham in the distance and Lazarus in his lap. 24 He called out, 'Father Abraham, mercy! Have mercy! Send Lazarus to dip his finger in water to cool my tongue. I'm in agony in this fire.'
25 "But Abraham said, 'Child, remember that in your lifetime you got the good things and Lazarus the bad things. It's not like that here. Here he's consoled and you're tormented. 26 Besides, in all these matters there is a huge chasm set between us so that no one can go from us to you even if he wanted to, nor can anyone cross over from you to us.'
27 "The rich man said, 'Then let me ask you, Father: Send him to the house of my father 28 where I have five brothers, so he can tell them the score and warn them so they won't end up here in this place of torment.'
29 "Abraham answered, 'They have Moses and the Prophets to tell them the score. Let them listen to them.'
30 "'I know, Father Abraham,' he said, 'but they're not listening. If someone came back to them from the dead, they would change their ways.'
31 "Abraham replied, 'If they won't listen to Moses and the Prophets, they're not going to be convinced by someone who rises from the dead.'
We have Moses and the Prophets and Jesus rose from the dead!
Luke
Luke 16:19-31
There once was a rich man, expensively dressed in the latest fashions, wasting his days in conspicuous consumption. 20 A poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, had been dumped on his doorstep. 21 All he lived for was to get a meal from scraps off the rich man's table. His best friends were the dogs who came and licked his sores.
22 "Then he died, this poor man, and was taken up by the angels to the lap of Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. 23 In hell and in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham in the distance and Lazarus in his lap. 24 He called out, 'Father Abraham, mercy! Have mercy! Send Lazarus to dip his finger in water to cool my tongue. I'm in agony in this fire.'
25 "But Abraham said, 'Child, remember that in your lifetime you got the good things and Lazarus the bad things. It's not like that here. Here he's consoled and you're tormented. 26 Besides, in all these matters there is a huge chasm set between us so that no one can go from us to you even if he wanted to, nor can anyone cross over from you to us.'
27 "The rich man said, 'Then let me ask you, Father: Send him to the house of my father 28 where I have five brothers, so he can tell them the score and warn them so they won't end up here in this place of torment.'
29 "Abraham answered, 'They have Moses and the Prophets to tell them the score. Let them listen to them.'
30 "'I know, Father Abraham,' he said, 'but they're not listening. If someone came back to them from the dead, they would change their ways.'
31 "Abraham replied, 'If they won't listen to Moses and the Prophets, they're not going to be convinced by someone who rises from the dead.'
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