The 3/24 verse of the day is from Romans 3:24, "Yet God in his gracious kindness declares us not guilty. He has done this through Christ Jesus, who has freed us by taking away our sins." (NLT)
When something "Big" happens, we see news flashes on our tv screens. The news above is so BIG, our hearts and minds should hear or see, "Breaking News - You are not guilty anymore!"
We sing that song, "You're not Guilty Anymore" at church, and it just slays people when they realize Jesus has paid for their sins and taken away their guilt. God's grace has that effect. It can take us by surprise and render us defenceless with it's magnitude and sweetness. What an understatement that this should simply be called gracious kindness. It makes me want to do the Happy Dance. In my opinion, we should all want to do the Happy Dance every time we read or hear it. Let's not ever get used to the wonder of this and take it for granted. It's BIG NEWS!
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
He is faithful!
The 3/23 verse of the day is from Lamentations 3:23, "Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each day." (NLT)
There were several good 3:23 verses I could have chosen to comment on today, but this one won out because it has long been a theme of mine. He has proven his faithfulness to me time and time again. I have had blessings and trials, but, through them all, I have to say that God has been more than faithful. The blessings are too numerous to count and, yes, his mercies still continue to be new every day. The trials were tough when they hit, but the mercy of God carried me and gave me strength and peace. He certainly cushioned the impact of those trials for me, as I leaned on him and trusted him. He can soften even the hardest of blows with his grace and love.
I'd be naive to think there won't be any more trials in life, because God didn't promise us a life without trials. He did promise to be with us, though, through good and bad. The world is crazy today, with all the disasters and bad things that are escalating in both frequency and intensity. People are asking where God is, to allow such horrible things to happen. I don't claim to know all the answers...it is way above my pay grade. But I believe that he is still right where he's always been. He's still in control and he still wants people that don't know him to turn to him and put their trust in Jesus to help in every and all situations.
For those of us that do know him, I think he wants us to spend more time with him so we can get to know his character and know that he is, indeed, our faithful Father. His mercies will be new again tomorrow, when we wake up to a brand new day. Embrace it and know that, no matter what, he is faithful.
There were several good 3:23 verses I could have chosen to comment on today, but this one won out because it has long been a theme of mine. He has proven his faithfulness to me time and time again. I have had blessings and trials, but, through them all, I have to say that God has been more than faithful. The blessings are too numerous to count and, yes, his mercies still continue to be new every day. The trials were tough when they hit, but the mercy of God carried me and gave me strength and peace. He certainly cushioned the impact of those trials for me, as I leaned on him and trusted him. He can soften even the hardest of blows with his grace and love.
I'd be naive to think there won't be any more trials in life, because God didn't promise us a life without trials. He did promise to be with us, though, through good and bad. The world is crazy today, with all the disasters and bad things that are escalating in both frequency and intensity. People are asking where God is, to allow such horrible things to happen. I don't claim to know all the answers...it is way above my pay grade. But I believe that he is still right where he's always been. He's still in control and he still wants people that don't know him to turn to him and put their trust in Jesus to help in every and all situations.
For those of us that do know him, I think he wants us to spend more time with him so we can get to know his character and know that he is, indeed, our faithful Father. His mercies will be new again tomorrow, when we wake up to a brand new day. Embrace it and know that, no matter what, he is faithful.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
A Holy Nudge
The 3/22 verse of the day is from Revelation 3:22, "Anyone who is willing to hear should listen to the Spirit and understand what the Spirit is saying to the churches."
The Apostle John's letters to the churches in the book of Revelation begin with a statement that gets my attention, "This is a revelation from Jesus Christ." It should get your attention also. What John was giving us in this prophetic book of Revelation, is that Jesus, Himself, gave him holy visions to share with his church. Any of us that believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as the Savior of the world fit into the category of His church today. I believe He was directing us as to how we can live a victorious life, not only in heaven, but also here on earth.
God saw and knew the condition of the church when this book was written and He sees us and knows our spiritual condition today. We should take note of what the churches were told in these letters. I don't know about you, but I don't want to grow cold towards God, or be a part of a dead church, or become bored with God's purposes in order to serve my own. God wants to wake us up to the condition of our spiritual lives so we can live to the fullest. He tells us in John's letters, and all throughout the bible, how to do this. His Spirit is always nudging us with insight on how to live a victorious life with and for God.
The only way we can be sure if we are on the right track, and not falling into the same traps as the churches depicted in the book of Revelation, is to search for truth ourselves. While our teachers and leaders may be trained experts in their field, they are not the Holy Spirit. They can direct us from their understanding, but it is only the Spirit of God that can affirm to us whether or not what we hear or read from today's teachers and leaders is accurate. The bible is our reference manual and the Spirit is our Guide.
Don't let anyone else be your Holy Spirit. Be willing to search and to listen and He will be faithful to give you His Holy Nudge. More than likely, it will be like music to your ears.
The Apostle John's letters to the churches in the book of Revelation begin with a statement that gets my attention, "This is a revelation from Jesus Christ." It should get your attention also. What John was giving us in this prophetic book of Revelation, is that Jesus, Himself, gave him holy visions to share with his church. Any of us that believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as the Savior of the world fit into the category of His church today. I believe He was directing us as to how we can live a victorious life, not only in heaven, but also here on earth.
God saw and knew the condition of the church when this book was written and He sees us and knows our spiritual condition today. We should take note of what the churches were told in these letters. I don't know about you, but I don't want to grow cold towards God, or be a part of a dead church, or become bored with God's purposes in order to serve my own. God wants to wake us up to the condition of our spiritual lives so we can live to the fullest. He tells us in John's letters, and all throughout the bible, how to do this. His Spirit is always nudging us with insight on how to live a victorious life with and for God.
The only way we can be sure if we are on the right track, and not falling into the same traps as the churches depicted in the book of Revelation, is to search for truth ourselves. While our teachers and leaders may be trained experts in their field, they are not the Holy Spirit. They can direct us from their understanding, but it is only the Spirit of God that can affirm to us whether or not what we hear or read from today's teachers and leaders is accurate. The bible is our reference manual and the Spirit is our Guide.
Don't let anyone else be your Holy Spirit. Be willing to search and to listen and He will be faithful to give you His Holy Nudge. More than likely, it will be like music to your ears.
Monday, March 21, 2011
The Ultimate Make-over
The 3/21 verse of the day is from Philippians 3:21, "He will take these weak mortal bodies of ours and change them into glorious bodies like his own, using the same mighty power that he will use to conquer everything, everywhere." (NLT)
I love that this says he will change our weak mortal bodies into glorious bodies 'like his own'. Reason #1001 that I am looking forward to heaven! Jesus is PERFECT in every way. If scripture can be trusted, and I know it can, we can believe that our expectations of heaven will be far surpassed...and then some!
With all our body image issues these days, I think we can agree that this will be the mother of all make-overs. The beauty of this supernatural make-over, though, is that we cannot even really comprehend what it will be like. I think our minds (that part of our body that is always fraught with over-analytical and limited human perspective) will become such, that body image will no longer matter to us. Now that will be a miracle! I believe this is because our thoughts and feelings won't be self-focused anymore. We will be absorbed with the beauty of the Lord.
I think he's given us the bonus plan in multiple ways; one being that he will change our bodies to be like his own. We'd give anything to have that here on earth and I have to believe that, in heaven, we will have it, but we won't even give it a thought. How ironic and upside down. It makes me smile at the heavenly perspective of God. I am so thankful that He is so much wiser and had a plan before we were even born to take away our diseases and shortcomings, arthritic knees and double chins included, and give us glorious bodies. I still don't know what that looks like, but sign me up...I'm in!
I love that this says he will change our weak mortal bodies into glorious bodies 'like his own'. Reason #1001 that I am looking forward to heaven! Jesus is PERFECT in every way. If scripture can be trusted, and I know it can, we can believe that our expectations of heaven will be far surpassed...and then some!
With all our body image issues these days, I think we can agree that this will be the mother of all make-overs. The beauty of this supernatural make-over, though, is that we cannot even really comprehend what it will be like. I think our minds (that part of our body that is always fraught with over-analytical and limited human perspective) will become such, that body image will no longer matter to us. Now that will be a miracle! I believe this is because our thoughts and feelings won't be self-focused anymore. We will be absorbed with the beauty of the Lord.
I think he's given us the bonus plan in multiple ways; one being that he will change our bodies to be like his own. We'd give anything to have that here on earth and I have to believe that, in heaven, we will have it, but we won't even give it a thought. How ironic and upside down. It makes me smile at the heavenly perspective of God. I am so thankful that He is so much wiser and had a plan before we were even born to take away our diseases and shortcomings, arthritic knees and double chins included, and give us glorious bodies. I still don't know what that looks like, but sign me up...I'm in!
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