Monday 2/25 ~ Almost Home

The scripture for today, February 25 (2/25), is Revelation 2:25 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

000-COVER-KINDLE-Thumbnail“Only hold on to what you have until I come.”

Several years ago, my 91-year-old mother left this life. Some say that, at the moment of death, one’s life flashes before their eyes. In the case of my mother, at the moment of her death, her life flashed before my eyes.

I suddenly imagined her as a baby in her mother’s (my grandmother’s) lap. Then she was a toddler playing in their yard. Then I saw her in school, then as a young bride to my father, then at home with her husband and children gathered around her. Then I saw her as launching a career after we were grown, then retiring, then eventually going into the nursing home.

And when that brief moment of envisioning her whole life was gone, I whispered, “You made it, Mother! You made it! You never faltered. Through all those years of ups and downs, you never wavered in your faith that Jesus Christ was real and would accept you into heaven. You stuck it out. And now you’re home!”

May you live your life in such a way that, despite your ups and downs, you never wander from Jesus. Stick with him through every storm, every flood, every blast of tragedy, every tumbling of dreams. Hold on to what you have until the day you leave this temporary life and enter your true eternal life.

Image result for "Buy the book"LAZARUS: THE SAMARITAN lived through all Jesus’ parables over 45 years. He was the Good Samaritan, his sister was the Woman at the well, a son was the Prodigal Son, his daughter’s wedding had 5 wise and 5 foolish virgins. He became rich, then after betrayal became Lazarus in “The Rich Man & Lazarus”. To BUY NOW, click a picture or paste this: https://amzn.to/2TbmHoH 

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Monday 2/4 ~ Choices

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

00-1st Century Worship KINDLE-COVER-Thumbnail“[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 only certain ones to be saved and keeps out 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 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 to hire help and give them part of his money. But we must qualify to be chosen.

I Timothy 6:11 says we were called to eternal life but have to take hold of it.  II Peter 1:10 says we are to make sure his calling and choosing us.  Hebrews 6:4-6 says those who fall away crucify Jesus anew.

So how do we qualify for God’s grace? Certainly, atheists do not qualify, for they would not love God. People who worship another so-called god or nature do not qualify, for they would not love God. People who do not want to be looked upon as a goody-goody would not qualify, for they would not love God.

So, again, the question: How do we qualify? First, we never deserve it. We can never do enough good works to qualify because we still sin. We can qualify to be selected for heaven only if we are sinless. Impossible! Yes, for us it is. But, because God loves us, he has given us a few things to do to qualify and be sinless in his eyes.

Believing is just the first step to qualifying. Admitting we sin and repenting is another step to qualifying. Read Romans 6 and Acts 2. Explaining what baptism is for. Not many things, but they are necessary. Look them up. Check them out.

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

When we make ourselves God and say the Bible doesn’t mean what it says so we can sneak into heaven our own way, how our Lord’s heart must ache.

Image result for "Buy the book"Every phase of worship is investigated in scripture along with quotes from famous theologians such as Luther and Wesley and quotes from second-century Christians. A must-have for every Christian. To BUY NOW, click a picture or paste this:  https://amzn.to/2GnxpBA

 

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Friday 2/1 ~ When he is in your heart, is he home?

The scripture for today, February 1 (2/1), is Mark 2:1 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

0-BK 4-FolkHero-Cover-Kindle-thumbnail-new“A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home.”

Just think of it. Jesus coming home. The place where his family lives. The familiar places he’d seen walking around town in earlier years. The familiar faces. Hearing a voice in a crowd and recognizing it and automatically knowing s/he is a neighbor. Being able to walk through a market almost blindfolded because the same shops are in their same places selling their same goods.

Has Jesus come home to your heart? Is it familiar to him? Does he recognize you? When he hears your prayers, does he automatically know who you are? Can he walk beside you as you walk through life, knowing the places you will be visiting? Does he live with you?

When he is in your heart, is he home?

Image result for "Buy the book"THEY MET JESUS: FOLK HERO (book 4) lived in Capernaum where his family had moved to when they left Nazareth. Capernaum was now home.  To BUY NOW, click a picture or paste this:  https://amzn.to/2SiDVA6

 

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Monday 1/28 ~ Keep Hope Alive

The scripture for today, January 28 (1/28), is 1st Chronicles 1:28  s found in the Old Testament of the Bible:

04-Isaac&Jacob-KindleThumbnail“The sons of Abraham: Isaac and Ishmael.”

Are you a parent with a grown or nearly-grown child who is going in the wrong direction? Have you tried everything you can think of, and nothing is working? Do you know in your heart that you have been a good example and things shouldn’t have turned out like they have?

Abraham has been called the Father of the Faithful. Yet he had one son who followed Jehovah ~ Isaac ~ and one son who followed idols ~ Ishmael. Certainly, Abraham tried everything he could to “talk some sense” into Ishmael. Certainly, he prayed earnestly for Ishmael. So, what went wrong?

Just as God has given each of us free will, our children also have free will. Just as God will never force us to follow him, we cannot force our children to follow God. You did not refrain from having your children because they may have difficulties in their life, and neither did God. And when our children rebel and break our hearts, imagine what God goes through when we rebel and break his heart.

Who knows? Perhaps your child will return to God someday in your old age, or even after you have died. If your child deep down has a good heart, that is enough for God to work with.

Keep hope alive.

Image result for "Buy the book"Abraham had two sons: one good (Isaac) and one bad (Ishmael).  Isaac had two sons: one good (Jacob) and one bad (Esau).  A CHILD’S BIBLE HEROES: ISAAC & JACOB tells the story of a naughty boy turning good.  To BUY NOW, click a picture or paste this:  https://amzn.to/2FT5eLq

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Saturday 1/26 ~ Notice them. Claim them.

The scripture for today, January 26 (1/26), is 1st Samuel 1:26f as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:

02-samuel-thumbnailcover“And she said to him, ‘As surely as you live, my lord, I am the woman who stood here beside you praying to the Lord. I prayed for this child and the Lord has granted me what I asked of him.’ “

Wow!  Hannah prayed for a baby and God gave her a son!  Then she told everyone. How often do you tell someone God has answered your prayer, big or little?

Or do you wander aimlessly from prayer request to prayer request, and let the answers drift away from you unnoticed? Or worse, do you ask others to pray for something, but after once or twice you stop praying for that thing yourself? A year later, someone tells you they are still praying for your something and you have completely forgotten it.

Begin today to keep a list of your prayer requests. Write down the date you first began to pray for each. If your requests are all about yourself, expand. Begin including your neighbors, your co-workers, people you attend church with, your relatives, schools, people in the newspaper.

Then begin a second list of your answers and the dates. You will be amazed how fast your Prayers Answered list grows. Do not let the answers drift away from you unnoticed.

Notice them.

          Claim them.

                    Tell others.

And spend the rest of your life telling others and thanking God over and over and…

 

Image result for "Buy the book"A CHILD’S BIBLE KIDS: SAMUEL is a storybook about what it must have been like for Samuel to adjust to a new “daddy” ~ the high priest ~ while growing up after his mother dedicated him to the temple at age two.  To BUY NOW, click a picture or paste this:  https://amzn.to/2G05VBY

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Wednesday 1/23 ~ Why can’t I see God?

The scripture for today, January 23 (1/23), is Romans 1:23 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

00-LUKE-KINDLE Cover-Thumbnail“….and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.”

Well, the opposite has happened in our millennium.  Instead of worshipping many gods, people are worshiping nothing.  They declare God does not exist. They declare the existence of the universe just happened for no reason and that their minds have reason for no reason. One of their arguments is that they cannot see God.

Do you ever wish you could see God, touch God, look God in the eye? Everyone has. And we may wonder why we can’t.

If this were the case, then God wouldn’t be God. He wouldn’t be omnipresent (present everywhere). He would only be able to listen to one prayer at a time, and the rest of the world’s prayers would go unheard.

Besides, God is too big to see.  It is like facing a building half an inch away.  We have no way to know what the building looks like because it is so big. There are over two trillion galaxies out there, and God is larger than them all because he made them all. It is impossible to see God he fills the universe and beyond.

Let us be grateful our God is so great He cannot be limited. He is so great, he cannot be pictured or imagined.  He is so great He fills our hearts and our souls.

Image result for "Buy the book"Physicians were slaves in the first century, usually obtain from losers in war.  LUKE: SLAVE & PHYSICIAN is orphaned in a battle with the Romans. One day he gets mad and climbs Mt. Olympus (in Greece) to argue with the gods, but they are not there. He cannot understand until he meets Paul.  To BUY NOW, click a picture or paste this: https://amzn.to/2FIdFch

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Tuesday 1/15 ~ Never underestimate what God can do through you

The scripture for today, January 15 (1/15), is Galatians 1:15f as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

03-Naaman'sMaid-ThumbnailCover“But when God, who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles….”

Isn’t this amazing? God knew before you are born what you can be doing for him later in life. He sets aside work for you to do, but he does not force you to do it. You may set aside a certain amount of money to spend on food but you end up spending it on clothing.  Being set aside does not mean something will end up doing what it was set aside for.

God has given you certain talents and set you aside to use them for Him.  Do you? Is your thinking even oriented on things that can endure through eternity? Or do you think only of the next day, or the next year?

You do not have to guess what God has set you aside to do.  Read the scriptures. He has messages for you all through them.  Find someone in the Bible with your personality and use that person as an example.  Find advice in the proverbs. Find advice in Jesus’ teachings, and in his apostles’ teachings.  It’s all there.  Pick one and do it.

If you are willing to follow God’s advice and not man’s, then decide today to accept the work God has set aside for you to do. Or maybe you’re already doing it and don’t realize it.

You may not think your life has been very exciting. You may be waiting for God to give you a big important job to do for him. But the truth is, you ~ in your seemingly mundane life ~ may already be doing what God set aside for you to do.

Never under-estimate yourself and what God can accomplish through you.

Related imageIn A CHILD’S BIBLE KIDS: NAAMAN’S MAID, we see a little girl made a slave so she could save the life of a great general.  To BUY NOW, click a picture or paste this:  https://amzn.to/2FzM5gz

 

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Monday 1/14 ~ Guardian Angels

The scripture for today, January 14 (1/14), is Hebrews 1:14 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

07-SHADOW-ChildsCartoonSmall“Are not all angels ministering spirits, sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?”

Have you ever wondered if the Bible really mentions guardian angels? Well, here it is. How wonderful! How reassuring! But the angels do not minister to everyone ~ just to the saved who will inherit salvation.

As much as they minister to us, however, we are not to worship them and we are not to pray to them. For a while ~ and still some today ~ it was popular to collect pictures and statues of angels. Some people were saying there is no God, but there are guardian angels. Some people who do believe in God bypass Him and ask angels to help them, kind of like going to the peasant instead of the king. 

Where do they think angels come from? God created them to be the servant class.  We are not to adore, worship or pray to angels (Revelation 19:10; 22:9).

So, yes, we do have guardian angels. Let us be grateful God loves us enough to send the angels to minister to us until we reach his home, heaven. Then, we and the angels will bow down together to the God of the universe and Him will we worship.

Related imageA CHILD’S LIFE OF CHRIST: SHADOW OF DEATH gently tells the story of Jesus doing what he did not want to do but was encouraged and comforted by the angels. Later the angels gladly announced he had come back to life!  To BUY NOW, click a picture or paste this: https://amzn.to/2FyiCUn

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Tuesday 1/8 ~ Inexpressible and glorious joy!

The scripture for today, January 8 (1/8), is 1st Peter 1:8 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

0-Bk3-HeartsAfire-COVER-Kindle.thumbnail-new“Though you have not seen him, you love him! And even though you do not see him now, you believe in him! And are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy!”

Ah, the memories Peter had of being with Jesus when they all were young.  Now he was old and people were dying out who had seen and heard Jesus in person.

After Jesus returned to heaven, it was the job of his Apostles to tell people about him and repeat his words. They spent the rest of their lives doing just that. What joy they found when people believed, even though they had not seen him. They not only believed, but they also loved him

Thank God, the Apostles wrote the New Testament so we would never have to guess what Jesus was like and never have to guess what his words were, even after the Apostles died. In fact, we have the advantage because we do not have to wait for an Apostle to come visit us and tell us. We can read about Jesus for ourselves over and over as many times as we like right in our home.

True, we have not seen Jesus with our own eyes. We have not heard him with our own ears.  Yet, his life and words are always before us. How can we help but believe in him? And love him? What inexpressible and glorious joy!

 

Related imageBook 3 of THEY MET JESUS series is about Jesus recruiting his apostles. This cover depicts Simon the Revolutionary.  Come, meet Jesus all over again.  To BUY NOW, click a picture or paste this: https://amzn.to/2FfNXfg

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Saturday 1/5 ~ Someday you will heal

The scripture for today, January 5, is Colossians 1:5 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

0-BK 4-FolkHero-Cover-Kindle-thumbnail-new“…the faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven and that you have already heard about in the Word of Truth, the gospel.”

Does your faith have its ups and downs? Is it strong sometimes and weak sometimes? When things sometimes go so wrong you have trouble having faith in God, you can still hope. Do you grow angry at God sometimes?  You can still hope. During such low times when faith does not come easy, you can still hope. Hope is the springboard of faith.

And stay close to the Word of Truth, for John 14:17 says the Comforter is the Spirit of Truth, and John 17:17 says Truth is the Word of God. Read when you don’t feel like it. Ephesians is what I go to. David tells of his own faith problems in Psalm 42.

When your emotions are pulling you down and you feel only the darkness of confusion inside, rely for a little while on your logic, your intellect, until your emotions heal. Read things proving God exists. Read things about other people’s love for God. Do not drop out of the church; you need your Christian friends. It may be hard for you to believe right now but someday you will heal.

So, keep on hoping ~ the springboard. Eventually, along the way, your hope will return to faith.

 

Related imageRome was controlling their country and priests were controlling their souls. Then Jesus came along and lifted them up. He became their FOLK HERO.  To buy now, click a picture or paste this:  https://amzn.to/2F9JXgc

 

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