Scripture for Friday, March 10 (3/10)

The scripture for today, March 10, is Colossians 3:10 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

Life-Changing-Scriptures-Cover-medium“And have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.”

Did you ever make something with your hands and were so proud of it that you would stop at nothing to take care of it and make sure that it lasted forever? You were its creator and it was, in a sense, a part of you.

Do you resist knowing the Bible because you think of it as being full of rules from a God who doesn’t really like you and is just giving you a hard time so you can’t have any fun?

Think again. It is from your Creator. He loved you enough to make you, and you are a part of him. Now he wants to take care of you so that you can last forever.

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#love, #Creator, #God, #protection, #Bible, #scriptures, #author, #handmade, #Colossians

 

Scripture for Saturday, March 4 (3/4)

The scripture for today, March 4, is James 3:4 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

0-Mefiboset-KINDLE Medium“Take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go.”

James, in this scripture, is talking about the tongue being a small thing, but it can get our entire lives into a lot of trouble. Once we say things, we cannot take them back.

What do we spend our day saying to people? We do have a choice. People do more good things than bad things. Do we respond to them with more good or more bad words? It is our choice.

When we compliment someone, they will take heart and try to do that good thing even more. When we berate someone, they will lose heart and probably do the bad thing again. Years ago, there was a saying, “You can catch more flies with honey than vinegar.” Are your words honey or vinegar?

Jesus said out of our heart comes our words. If we normally say nice things to others, it shows we have a nice heart. If we normally say hard things to others, it shows we have a hard heart.  Jesus also said, “Do to others as you would have them do to you.”

Just for today go out of your way to say nice things to people.  All day. You’ll be a happier person for it. And so will they.

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#tongue, #words, #mouth, criticism, #compliments, #honey, #happpiness, #sadness, #bitterness, #heart, #vinegar

Scripture for Tuesday, February 28 (2/28)

The scripture for today, February 28, is Jeremiah 2:28 as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:

Life-Changing-Scriptures-Cover-medium“Where then are the gods you made for yourselves? Let them come if they can save you when you are in trouble! For you have as many gods as you have towns, O Judah.”

Today we think the whole thing is ridiculous. How could people believe in a multitude of gods? Further, how could people make statues of them as though anyone knew what the gods looked like? On top of that, many of them looked like dumb animals. But apparently, it was the popular thing to do. In fact, a person discovering yet another god would be highly esteemed. And it seemed logical that the more gods one believed in, the more holy a person was. Or the bigger the statue of a god in one’s home, the more dedicated a person was.

We today call them myths ~ things that were made up out of people’s imaginations. Yet they thrived in their time. Why? Because of “mass hypnosis” in a sense. Because we are social beings and we don’t like being ostracized. We want to be accepted.

Do we do the same thing today? There are evangelists on television who draw crowds of hundreds and thousands. They seem so right and so holy. Yet they contradict each other. So, it cannot be a measure of rightness and holiness that a lot of people believe something.

The measure must be the Bible. Remember, no matter how many thousands upon thousands follow a religious leader, that leader will be judged by God just like everyone else.

Let us read the Bible for ourselves. Let us study the Bible for ourselves. Let us not search the scriptures for something to prove our opinion right, or a certain leader right, or our family right, or a particular religious idea right. Let us try to erase all our preconceived religious notions, and read with an open mind what God himself has to say to us.

 It is possible to know for sure.

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#knowledge, #truth, #Bible, #Scriptures, #myths, #facts, #lies, #fabrications, #idols, #church, #Christianity, #evangelists

 

Scripture for Thursday, February 23 (2/23)

The scripture for today, February 23, is 1st John 2:23 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

Bible Puzzles for Young And Old-Cover“No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.”

Have you ever wondered how God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit can be three but one? They are kind of like a coin.

The top of the coin looks one way and helps us identify it. The bottom of the coin looks another way and provides something for the coin to sit on. The edge of the coin looks yet another way and holds the two sides together. But, if you take away any one part of the coin, you take away the entire coin. Three, yet one.

Another way to look at it is that both the Son and the Spirit have been called the Word of God. John 1:1-14 says Jesus was the Word, and was God come to us in flesh. Then Jesus in John 14:17 said that he was going to send ANOTHER comforter, the Spirit of Truth. And in John 17:17 Jesus said God’s Word is Truth. So, Jesus was the Word we could watch, and the Spirit is the Word we can read.

Yet another way to look at God being three yet one is like H2O ~ Water, Snow, Ice. Three manifestations of the same thing.

How wonderful!

#HolySpirit, #GodTheFather, #GodTheWord, #GodTheSpirit, #Worship, #Scripture, #Bible, #Truth

Scripture for Wednesday, February 22 (2/22)

campbell-cover-kindle-lg-mediumThe scripture for today, February 22, is Ephesians 2:22 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

“And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.”

Another place in the New Testament, 2nd Corinthians 6:16, says we are the temple of God. A lot of things in worship under the Law of Moses were a literal version of what Christians someday would enjoy in a spiritual and deeper sense.

We have no need for the temple in Jerusalem, for now God dwells in Christians. We have no need for the altar of sacrifice at that temple because Jesus was our final sacrifice (Hebrews 10:4-12). We have no need for the cymbals, harps and lyres played in worship because Christians play on the strings of their hearts (Ephesians 5:19). We have no need for the priestly system in the Law of Moses because all Christians are priests (1st Peter 2:5). And how do we serve as priests? Romans 12:1 explains it: “Offer your bodies as living sacrifices.”

What a concept! God does not dwell in temples or church buildings!

He dwells in Christians.

      He lives and moves through Christians.

          What a privilege.

              What a responsibility.

#worship, #TempleOfGod, #TempleOfSpirit, #music, #ceremony, #candles, #incense, #LivingSacrifices, #priests, #temple, #LawOfMoses, #LawOfJesus, #LawOfGrace

Scripture for Wednesday, February 15 (2/15)

The scripture for today, February 15 is 2nd Timothy 2:15 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

HS-COVER-KINDLE-GOLD“Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.”

Eventually, we will all present ourselves to God. We can do it as an honored worker ~ someone who does good works and spreads the gospel and is not ashamed to do them.

We can also present ourselves to God as one who reads the Word of Truth (the Bible) with an open and honest heart. Pilate who crucified Jesus once asked, “What is truth?”. Today people still ask that question. But we don’t have to guess. God gave us the answers. It is all written down.

If you have a Bible with a concordance or index in the back, you can look up certain key words and find out for yourself what the Word of Truth says about any subject. It is not for others to tell us, but for God himself to tell us. This way we get it first hand, and that’s a lot easier. It’s easy to “correctly handle the word of truth,” with just you and God.

#Truth, #Bible, #WordOfGod, #Concordance, #ChainReference, #WordOfTruth

Scripture for Tuesday, February 14 (2/14)

The scripture for today, February 14, is Colossians 2:14 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

0-BOOK 5-FLOOD GATES-Cover-Print“[God] having canceled the written code with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross.”

This amazing scripture tells us that the Old Law of Moses was nailed to the cross. Why? Because it was against us; that is, it was impossible for us to keep perfectly. The Law of Moses wasn’t just ten commandments. It was over 600. Try reading Leviticus in the Old Testament. That’s where most of the old law (“the written code with its regulations”) is.

It’s tedious. It regulated nearly every part of everyone’s daily life. It involved what we could and couldn’t eat, having to kill animals to die in our place whenever we sinned, stoning adulterers to death, having a separate priesthood, tithing, reporting to priests if we had an open sore, use of candles, having to go to the Temple in Jerusalem 3 times a year, and on and on.

The book of Hebrews in the New Testament was written to help us understand that God’s new Law of Grace is much more spiritual.

Hebrews was written about the time the Temple in Jerusalem was permanently destroyed, thus making it impossible to obey several things in the old law. And a little time later the Jewish genealogies were destroyed, thus making it impossible to prove who was a Levite and eligible to be a priest.

The Old Testament of the Bible is not the same as the Law of Moses. The Law is a small part of the Old Testament. The rest of it is praise and wisdom, accounts of people who did or did not try to follow God, warnings, and prophecies of good and bad. These are examples to us today.

Let us not neglect the Old Testament as so many people do. It includes the Law of Moses to help us know what to stay away from it in favor of the Law of Grace. If God wanted us to continue any part of it, he repeated it in the New Testament. It is full of examples that we need to know about. And it is full of prophecies of a Savior who would save them and us some day ~ Jesus. Thank God for the Old Testament.

#OldTestament, #NewTestament, #LawOfMoses, #LawOfGrace

Scripture for Sunday, February 12 (2/12)

The scripture for today, February 12, is 2nd Timothy 2:12 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

0-BOOK 7-SHADOW OF DEATH-Cover“If we endure, we will also reign with him. If we disown him, he will also disown us.”

God loves us but never forces us to love him. He has given us a beautiful world to live in full of excitement and challenges and comforts. He has given us family and friends. He has given us his Son to take our punishment for our sins so we can live with him in his home ~ heaven. He is constantly calling to us, “I love you!”

But being the Gentleman that he is, he never forces himself on us. Instead, he lets us lead the way so to speak. If we don’t want to listen to God’s words, God doesn’t want to listen to our words. If we don’t want to spend extra time on God, God doesn’t want to spend extra time on us. If we don’t want anything to do with God in this life, he will not want anything to do with us in the next life.

He never forces us. But oh, how he weeps when we walk away from him.

#God, #love, #avoiding, #calling, #hearing,#heeding, #inviting, #garden, #sacrifice, #heaven, #hell

Scripture for Friday, February 10 (2/10)

The scripture for today, February 10, is James 2:10 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

changes-in-worship-cover-medium“Out of the same mouth comes praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be.”

Do we pray on Sunday and curse on Monday? Do we sing on Sunday and lie on Monday? Do we recite a scripture on Sunday and mock someone on Monday?

On the other hand, do we use this as an excuse not to go to church? Do we refuse to attend because there are hypocrites in the church?

Do we refuse to go to work because there are hypocrites there who talk behind the boss’s back? Do we refuse to go to school because there are hypocrites there who would skip school if they could? Do we refuse to go to sporting events because there are hypocrites there that would literally “kill the umpire” if they could?

Even Jesus had a hypocrite among his 12 Apostles ~ Judas. That didn’t stop him from doing what was needed to save us from hell.

In a sense, we are all hypocrites because we go to church and sing songs about giving everything for Jesus, then we go home and don’t. Or we sing songs about going into all the world and teaching the gospel, then we go home and don’t. Or we talk about the importance of praying for everyone around us and their loved ones, then we go home and don’t.

Let us look at ourselves as others do ~ and as God does.

#hypocrites, #Judas, #mouth, #praise, #curse, #self-examination

Scripture for Saturday, February 4 (2/4)

The scripture for today, February 4, is 1st Timothy 2:4 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

0-BOOK EIGHT-COME FLY WITH ME-Cover“[God]…wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.”

Some people say, “You don’t choose God; God chooses you out of all the other people of the world.” But God wants to choose us all. He wants everyone to be saved. So, in what sense does he choose us?

He is kind of like an employer who is looking for people to fill certain positions. He chooses those who qualify. He doesn’t have to choose anyone. By the employer’s grace, he chooses people to fill certain positions. He doesn’t have to be in business and he doesn’t have to give someone else a job. He could do the work himself. But he chooses to hire help and give them part of his money.

So how do we qualify for God’s grace? We never deserve it; but because God loves us, he asks just a few things to qualify. Believing is just the first step. Read Romans 10 and Acts 2. Those two chapters pretty much sum up what we do to be qualified. Not many things, but they do qualify us if we follow them.

And remember 2nd Peter 3:9 ~ “He [God] is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but EVERYONE to come to repentance.”

#SalvationForAll, #Grace, #Saved, #Choosing, #Truth, #Heaven