Monday 10/8 ~ When you doubt God, God does not doubt you

On October 8, 2018 By Inspirations By KatherynIn faith, InspirationalLeave a comment

The scripture for today, October 8 (10/8), is Romans 10:8f as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

“But what does it say? ‘The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,’ that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

The word is in your mouth through confession of your faith in Jesus, and in your heart for truly believing it and not just saying it.

Some say you are not saved by works, and it is true in the sense that you cannot go around doing so many good works that God will feel obligated to take you into his home. You can never be good enough because you sin and those sins need to be washed away (Acts 22:16).

In the sense that you do not have to do anything to be saved, it is not true. After all, Jesus himself said faith is a work: “Jesus answered, ‘The work of God is this: To believe in the one he has sent’ ” (John 6:29).

To many faithful Christians, there are times in their life that faith is indeed hard work. Are you sometimes beset with so many problems you begin to wonder if Jesus really cares like he claimed?

Continue to work at your faith. You will have your ups and our downs. Sometimes your faith will be strong and sometimes weak. But remember, even when you doubt God, God never doubts you.

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Sunday 10/7 ~ Why would a good God condone violence?

On October 7, 2018October 7, 2018 By Inspirations By KatherynIn Enemies, faith, forgiveness, judging, persecution, sacrifice, sinLeave a comment

The scripture for today, October 7 (10/7), is Joshua 10:7f as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:

“So Joshua marched up from Gilgal with his entire army, including all the best fighting men. The Lord said to Joshua, ‘Do not be afraid of them; I have given them into your hand. Not one of them will be able to withstand you.’ “

We today cannot imagine a good God condoning violence, let alone promoting it. But think back. Mankind was quite barbaric in the centuries and millenniums before Christ. For example, when Alexander the Great got offended at what a friend said to him, he cut off his nose and ears and put him in a cage for the rest of his life.

God never runs very far ahead of mankind, or else mankind would not understand, and not even try to follow God. By the time Jesus came, God was saying, “No more violence.”

In this scripture for today, God was telling Joshua to attack people in the Promised Land ~ Canaan. This brings up another question: Why would a good God allow one group of people to kill off another group of people? God told Abraham centuries earlier, “In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure” (Genesis 15:16). By this time they were sacrificing children to their gods.

In Leviticus 18:24, 28, God warned the Jews through Moses, “Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways because this is how the nations that I am going to drive out before you became defiled…And if you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it vomited out the nations that were before you.” So God warned the Jews that, if they got as bad as the previous people in Canaan, he would drive them out too. (Eventually they did, so God did.)

Further, in Old Testament times, God often punished people immediately. Why punish them? Partly to get them away from the good people. And God used armies of believers to do the punishing for him.

Today God does not expect us to do the punishing. Romans 12:19 says, “Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written, ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay’ says the Lord. On the contrary, If your enemy is hungry feed him…Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

Thank God, he has taken the terrible task of vengeance away from us. We can just forgive our enemies and hand things over to God to take whatever steps need to be taken. In the meantime, we can read the Old Testament and learn that God takes notice when people are doing bad things to us. God does take care of us. God does love his children.

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Saturday 10/6 ~ Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow

On October 6, 2018 By Inspirations By KatherynIn Inspirational, praise, worshipLeave a comment

The scripture for today, October 6 (10/6), is Jeremiah 10:6 as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:

“No one is like you, O Lord; you are great, and your name is mighty in power.”

You are the glorious God of the universe and beyond. You are also the God of the minute and dwell in such small specs, no one can even imagine you are there. Mostly you are the God of my heart. I adore you. You forgive me for the same things over and over. How can you? Because you are Love and to be less would be beyond your very nature. I am so small and unworthy, but you see me anyway. You even think about me all the time. I am never out of your thoughts. The magnitude of your heart transcends worlds and all that exists.

Thank you, God, for pouring your heart out to the world in your Bible. Now we can know you and have no doubts. How many in this world are willing to pour out their heart to others as you did?

I praise and adore you, God of all heaven and earth. God of existence. You are greater than death, for you are the life giver. You will be there when I die, welcoming me into a realm of joy and beauty and peace that I cannot even begin to imagine. Life here is like living in a cave compared with heaven. How I long to be in your world and before your throne. I think when I get there, I shall try to sing to you louder than anyone else. Would that be a sin, Lord?

What a mighty God you are. You speak and your words roar around the universe. You sing and your song echoes from star to star. You whisper and the wind swirls and makes the clouds bump lazily into each other. You sigh and I feel your Spirit within my soul. Mighty and tender and a wonder to behold.

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Friday 10/5 ~ Come to me. Please come.

On October 5, 2018October 5, 2018 By Inspirations By KatherynIn attitude, Bible, ego, eternity, faith, humility, judging, knowledgeLeave a comment

The scripture for today, October 5 (10/5), is 2nd Corinthians 10:5f as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

“Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered over the desert. Now, these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did.”

This is about the 40 years the Jews wandered in the wilderness between leaving their slavery in Egypt and beginning a nation for themselves. They had the mindsets of slaves. They did not know how to make decisions for themselves. One of those decisions was to leave the gods of Egypt and worship only the one true God.

It was easier to fall in line with what they were raised to believe. They took the easy way out rather than follow the God who had proved the Egyptian gods were not gods at all. They would rather die than change. So they did. They died.

Do you take the easy way out? Do you stick with things you were raised to believe even though you have learned more of the Bible and see those old beliefs are not what God said?

The early Jews did not listen to God, so God did not listen to them. He is calling out to you even now. “Come to me. I want to save you. Please come.”

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Thursday 10/4 ~ A new and beautiful law

On October 4, 2018 By Inspirations By KatherynIn Bible, Death of Jesus Christ, Inspirational, Life of Christ, ScriptureLeave a comment

The scripture for today, October 4, is Romans 10:4 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

“Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.”

When Jesus nailed the Law of Moses to the cross (Colossians 2:14) it came to an end. Thank God. There were over 600 commandments in the Law of Moses, not just the “ten commandments.” They were tedious. Try reading Leviticus and see if you can keep every commandment in it.

Jesus was the only one who ever kept the Law perfectly (Hebrews 4:15). Once that occurred, he could be the Perfect Lamb of God without blemish, and he could be sacrificed on the altar of the world (the cross) in our place ~ take the blame and punishment for our sins.

And with his death came the introduction of a New Law covered in the New Testament. (The book of Hebrews explains it all.). Read the New Testament in its entirety. It is not tedious. It is beautiful. Let us not try to dip back into the Old Law and bring back showy worship practices done back them. He put it to death and gave us a new and wonderful and simple law of grace and love.

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Wednesday 10/3 ~ Preaching unbelievers into heaven

On October 3, 2018October 2, 2018 By Inspirations By KatherynIn death, ego, Heaven, InspirationalLeave a comment

The scripture for today, October 3 (10/3), is John 10:3ff as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

“The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out….I am the gate for the sheep. All who ever came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.”

First of all, we use the term saved/salvation so loosely, we tend to think we are saved to heaven. But we are not saved to something; we are saved from something. We even tend to forget what we are being saved from. We are being saved from hell! This is not a minuscule matter.

Second, how do we avoid hell? Through Jesus! This is the only way.

How many of us have been to funerals where the deceased was preached into heaven? So many people believe they are “good enough” or “not too bad” and so God would be horrible to not let them into heaven. Such people will climb in through windows so to speak into heaven as the “thieves and robbers” Jesus referred to.

But heaven is God’s home, not ours. He has a gate into it, just like we have doors on our house. Just like we are not obligated to open the gate or door into our home to just anyone, God is not obligated to open his gate to just anyone. Our door and God’s gate are there for a reason. Let us enter heaven through the gate ~ Jesus. Then God will smile and say, “Welcome home.”

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Tuesday 10/2 ~ Do our prayers help angels?

On October 2, 2018October 1, 2018 By Inspirations By KatherynIn Inspirational, power, prayer, Satan, victoryLeave a comment

The scripture for today, October 2 (10/2), is Daniel 10:2ff as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:

“At that time I, Daniel, mourned for three weeks…On the twenty-fourth day of the first month…I looked up and there before me was a man dressed in linen with a belt of the finest gold around his waist. His body was like chrysolite, his face like lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and his voice like the sound of a multitude…Then he continued, ‘Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them. But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me because I was detained there with the king of Persia.’ “

The description of the speaker indicates he is an angel, possibly Gabriel. Michael is another known angel. In Daniel 12:1 he is called “Michael, the great prince who protects your people.” Jude 9 refers to Michael as an archangel who disputed with Satan over the body of Moses.

Revelation 12:7-9 says, “And there was war in heaven, Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down ~ that ancient serpent called the devil or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth and his angels with him.”

Now, let us look back at Daniel 10. Daniel prayed for 21 days. The un-named angel (Gabriel?) appeared to him on the 24th day and said Daniel’s prayers had been heard the first day, but God’s angel could not break away to help because of fighting Satan’s angels.

Now look at Ephesians 6:12, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”

Does our persistence in prayer give strength to the angels? Something to think about.

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Monday 10/1 ~ Being religious isn’t enough

On October 1, 2018October 1, 2018 By Inspirations By KatherynIn Bible, ScriptureLeave a comment

The scripture for today, October 1 (10/1), is Romans 10:1f as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

“Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for ______ is that they may be saved. For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge.”

Being “religious” isn’t enough. There are lots of religions. Feeling “spiritual” isn’t enough. There are lots of differing religions that induce a “spiritual” feeling. Confidence of salvation isn’t enough. There are lots of differing religions that create questionable confidence of salvation. Dedication to prayer isn’t enough. There are lots of differing religions that require much prayer.

Sincere Christian leaders today may want us to rely on feelings and inducements and confidence and dedication, but they can be sincerely wrong. If we base our salvation on feelings and inducements and confidence and dedication only, we have zeal, but our zeal is not based on knowledge. Some may defensively call “knowledge” legalism.

God gave us his Word ~ the Bible ~ for a reason. He wanted us to reason. Hebrews 11:1 says faith is accepting the evidence ~ not wishful thinking. Romans 10:17 says faith comes from hearing/reading the Word of God for ourselves ~ not someone’s sermon. Let us search the scriptures daily for ourselves. And, let us not be afraid to approach our religious leaders and try teaching the teachers. Then their zeal, as well as ours, can be based on knowledge.

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