Author: Inspirations By Katheryn

I am kind of a world traveler. I have lived in Korea, United Arab Emirates, Sri Lanka, Tokyo, Canada, Afghanistan, India and USA. I remember when President Kennedy was assassinated, watched the first human walk on the moon, Alaska became a state, President Kennedy & Martin Luther King were shot, and the first human walked on the moon. I remember when the first Star Wars movie came out, 900 religiously misguided humans committed suicide in Guyana, when Microsoft was "invented" and the Ayatollah Khoumeini took over Iran, kicked out western companies (employers) and returned his country to the dark ages. I WAS THERE WHEN MOUNT SAINT HELENS BLEW. I remember when the Berlin Wall fell, the Internet was created, the first warm-blooded animal was cloned (a sheep) and the Hubble Telescope was launched - all in the 1980s. And you?

Scripture for Monday, October 17 (10/17)

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The scripture for today, October 17 (10/17), is Romans 10:17 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

Life-Changing-Scriptures-Cover-medium“Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.”

The King James version reads “Therefore, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.”

Faith is not just a feeling or responding to what a friend tells us. It is not responding to a spiritual book or to a religious movement. Faith is the result of hearing/reading the Word of Christ, the gospel ~ for ourselves ~ all of it!

Faith is based on knowledge; zeal is not enough (Romans 10:1). Faith is based on considering the evidence; a feeling in one’s heart is not enough (Hebrews 11:1).

All who study the Bible for yourself are doing the right thing. Do not rely on anything but what you have read for yourself. All other religious people are going to be judged by God just like you and I are. When compared to God’s Word, their word is not important. We are trying to please God, not people. We are worshiping God, not people. Let us rely only on what He says, and know for sure.

Scripture for Sunday, October 15 (10/15)

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The scripture for today, October 15 (10/15), is Deuteronomy 10:15 as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:

00-PAUL COVER-Medium-“Yet the Lord set his affection on your forefathers [Abraham, Isaac, Jacob] and loved them, and he chose you, their descendants [Jews], above all the nations, as it is today.”

Mankind has spent millenniums trying to figure out how to be perfect so we can deserve heaven.

God gave us that opportunity the first several thousand years of mankind. Some people of the world he left alone to figure out on their own how to be perfect; they developed many kinds of religions. But to the Jews, he sent the Law of Moses containing over 600 intricate laws which, if kept perfectly, would make them perfect. In both cases, no one could be perfect.

Then, when mankind was willing to admit we cannot be perfect, God sent Jesus to us to live that perfect life that we finally acknowledged is impossible for us to live. Now, all we have to do is follow Jesus and be IN Jesus (Galatians 3:27) for the forgiveness of our sins, and God will consider us perfect too.

God sets his affections on all of us. What a plan! Oh, how he loves us.

Scripture for Saturday, October 14 (10/14)

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The scripture for today, October 14 (10/14), is John 10:14 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

changes-in-worship-cover-medium“I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me ~ just as the Father knows me and I know the Father ~ and I lay down my life for the sheep.”

How amazing that Jesus is willing to follow us when we do not follow him and bring us back to his protective fold. He died while doing just that.

Yet we continue to leave him and his instructions that would keep us safe, and we wander into thistles, near cliffs, into pits. This requires more work for Jesus. Yet we do it anyway. Catch me if you can! We may laugh, but he weeps because he knows the danger we are headed for.

How much grief do we give our spiritual Father, our spiritual Big Brother, our spiritual family? If they are not laughing over what we’re doing, perhaps we should not be either.

God, forgive us when we wander from You.

 

Scripture for Friday, October 13 (10/13)

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The Scripture for today, October 13, is 1st Corinthians 10:13 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

0-BOOK 7-SHADOW-ChildsCartoonMedium“No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful: He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.”

What are you tempted to do or not do on a regular basis in your everyday life? Let us look at the source of our everyday temptations ~ Satan. Do you really want to be Satan’s slave?

Romans 6:16 explains it this way: “Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey ~ whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?”

Perhaps if we look at our everyday temptations and remind ourselves of the source, we will have the courage to stand up and say, “No more! I am not your slave, Satan. I will win over you. God told me so.”

Choose the one temptation you hate the most and work on it first.  How?  Stop thinking about it. If you spend your time thinking, “I’m never going to do such-and-such again,” you will just be bringing it back to your mind. Stop thinking about it. Your way out is your substitute. Think of the most fulfilling thing possible and be busy doing that during the times you are normally most tempted.

Keep doing that something else every day for a couple weeks, and it will become a natural part of you. It is liberating, refreshing, and glorious.

Scripture for Thursday, October 12 (10/12)

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inside-cover-mediumThe scripture for today, October 12 (10/12), is 2nd Corinthians 10:12 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

“We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise.”

But that is how most of the Christian world is run. We go to a church and do what they do to get their approval. Or we go one step above what the others do to get a little more approval. Or we go one step below what the others do, and say we’re not “so bad.”

What about what we don’t do? Jesus went everywhere doing whatever was necessary to spread the Good News. Instead of saying, “Well, our congregation never did that before, so it must be wrong,” we must say, “Jesus did it, so I will too.” Instead of saying, “Well, brother or sister so-and-so in our congregation is worse than me, so why object to me?” we must say, “Jesus did not do those things, so I will not either.”

Who are we comparing ourselves ~ our works, our fancy doctrine, our faith ~ with? Do we ever take our eyes off Jesus?  He is at our fingertips.  Read of him. Compare ourselves to him. It is in his home we want to spend eternity, not the home of our friends.

Scripture for Wednesday, October 11 (10/11

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The scripture for today, October 11, is Psalm 10:11 as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:

Life-Changing-Scriptures-Cover-medium“He says to himself, ‘God has forgotten; he covers his face and never sees.’ “

Most of us believe in God in some form. And we believe that God knows what we do. But do we sometimes bury our belief in God in our subconscious mind so we can go around and do things we know are wrong? Do we believe we won’t get caught, and we can slide into heaven doing whatever we want?

In other words, do we justify our favorite sins? Or do we justify our sins of omission ~ good things we should be doing, but are not ~ under the excuse that we don’t have time to do good to others?

God loves us more than we can ever imagine. He never forgets us. The only things he doesn’t approve of are things that will ultimately hurt us and which he calls sin. Therefore, we can conclude that pleasing God is ultimately, at the end of all things, pleasing ourselves.

Scripture for Tuesday, October 10 (10/10)

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

Letters-of-Apostles1-Cover-Kindle“He who winks maliciously causes grief, and a chattering fool comes to ruin.”

How can eye winking be malicious? Let’s look further at Proverbs 6:12-14 ~ “A scoundrel and villain, who goes about with a corrupt mouth, who winks with his eye, signals with his feet and motions with his fingers, who plans evil with deceit in his heart ~ he always stirs up dissension.”

Have we ever said something to someone, but turned to someone else in the room and winked to let the second person know we didn’t really mean what we just said? That made our words a lie.

We might have pre-arranged signals before a meeting such as crossing our feet as a signal we do or don’t like what is being said. Or we may run our fingers over our hair, or tap three times on a table as a pre-arranged signal to someone else in the room. If we are saying one thing but signaling something else to our partner, then our words are lies.

Perhaps we think it is purely innocent and claim that everyone does it. But Satan is the father of liars. And Revelation 21 says “…all liars ~ their place will be in the fiery lake.”

Oh, let us look closer at ourselves and not think we are superior to others. May we look at ourselves as God does.  It can be eye-opening and liberating.

Scripture for Monday, October 9 (10/9)

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The scripture for today, October 9 (10/9), is Job 10:9 as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:

00-COVER-KINDLE“Remember that you molded me like clay. Will you now turn me to dust again?”

Job was sick, his so-called friends came to him to say God was punishing him, and Job was frustrated. He could not reason with his friends, so he tried to reason with God. It was a lovers’ quarrel.

By verse 18, he was so upset with God that he said, “Why then did you bring me out of the womb? I wish I had died before any eye saw me.” Job’s body was broken, and even more, his spirit was broken. Satan was doing everything he could to get Job to deny God. But, even though Job argued with God and perhaps came close to denying him, he always acknowledged the good God did along with the bad. He just didn’t understand the bad.

We don’t understand the bad in our lives. But remember, it is Satan that causes the bad to happen. God may step back and let Satan give it a try, but we are not their toys. We are soldiers in the army of God. When Satan throws darts at us, we hold up the shield of faith and become even stronger.

Sometimes, the bad happening in our life is God’s assignment for us. We are part of the war between God and Satan. As good and loyal soldiers, we take our assignments and stand firm. We may complain, but we still stand firm. We may trip sometimes, but we still stand firm. Being a soldier in the army of God is not easy. But the battle will be won. Some day. So stand firm!

 

Scripture for Sunday, October 8 (10/8)

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

00-PAUL COVER-Medium-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.”

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

Some say we are not saved by works, and it is true in the sense that we cannot go around doing so many good works that God will feel obligated to take us into his home. We can never be good enough because we still sin and those sins need to be washed away.

In the sense that we do not have to do anything to be saved, it is not true. Jesus took care of that impossible part. But for our part, he 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 our life that faith is indeed hard work. We are beset with so many problems that we begin to wonder, “Does Jesus really care, as he claimed?”.

Let us continue to work at our faith. We will have our ups and our downs. Sometimes our faith will be strong and sometimes weak. But remember, even when we doubt God, God never doubts us.

Scripture for Saturday, October 7 (10/7)

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

Clouds in blue sky“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. God never runs very far ahead of mankind, or else mankind would not understand, would grow discouraged and then 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 Jews’ Promised Land ~ Canaan. This brings up a related question: Why would a good God allow one group of people to kill off another group of people? God had 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).

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.

One of the monstrous sins of the Amorites was child sacrifice in the open fires of Marduck.  Eventually, the Jews began doing the same thing, and God drove them out of their Promised Land to Assyria and Babylon.

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.

In the New Testament, 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 (let loose of) 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.