Category: faith

Scripture for Sunday, October 1 (10/1)

On By Inspirations By KatherynIn Bible, faith, Inspirational, judging, Saved from hell, Scripture, truthLeave a comment

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

00-PAUL COVER-Medium-“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. The 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.

Scripture for Friday, September 29 (9/29)

On By Inspirations By KatherynIn blessings, faith, healing, Inspirational, judging, prayer2 Comments

The scripture for today, September 29, is Matthew 9:29 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

0-Bk3-HeartsAfire-COVER-Kindle.medium-new“Then he touched their eyes and said, ‘According to your faith will it be done to you.’ “

Sometimes when we pray for healing during sickness, a well-meaning friend will say, “Well, you haven’t been healed because you didn’t have enough faith.” But Jesus did not heal everyone according to their faith.

The boy in Nain he brought back to life (Luke 7:14-15) did not have any faith at all. The girl in Capernaum he brought back to life (Luke 8:51-56) did not have any faith at all. When Jesus turned water into wine at the wedding feast in Cana (John 2:1-9) the hosts did not have any faith at all. There are other examples.

This is encouraging because often we pray for the healing of non-religious friends. It would be futile to ask God to bring them back to health if it depended on their faith all the time.

He is not a God of futility. He is a God of hope.

Scripture for Wednesday, September 27 (9/27)

On By Inspirations By KatherynIn blessings, faith, Inspirational, prayerLeave a comment

The scripture for today, September 27 (9/27), is Nehemiah 9:27 as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:

00-PAUL COVER-Medium-“So, you handed them over to their enemies who oppressed them. But when they were oppressed, they cried out to you. From heaven you heard them, and in your great compassion you gave them deliverers, who rescued them from the hand of their enemies.”

With many people, the only time we think about God is when we feel oppressed by something or someone in our life. We may even blame God.

That can be a good thing. Perhaps we hadn’t given God a second thought since our last calamity. So now, at last, we’re thinking about him. Yes, we may be angry at God, but at least we’re thinking about him.

Let us thank God for times of oppression. Sometimes that is what it takes for God to get our attention. Then perhaps God can show us that he wants to be our friend.

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Scripture for Sunday, September 24 (9/24)

On By Inspirations By KatherynIn death, faith, forgiveness, Heaven, Inspirational, Saved from hell, truthLeave a comment

The scripture for today, September 24 9?24), is Luke 9:24 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

worship-the-first-century-way-cover-kindle“For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.”

Romans 6 explains this phenomenon best. We are to put our old self to death ~ to crucify that part of us that sins and doesn’t care, that part of us that puts ourselves first (verse 7) ~ in imitation of Jesus dying. Once we decide to put that part of ourselves to death, we are buried, just like Jesus was buried (verse 3 & 4a).

And then, “just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life” (verse 4b). Why? “If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection” (verse 5). Having been “brought from death to life” (verse 13) through baptism, we have been born again!

Jesus’ physical death on a physical cross had a spiritual meaning of a spiritual death. We understand that. Our watery death has a spiritual meaning of a spiritual death also. There is another spiritual death called the second death in Revelation 21:8. If we go through the first spiritual death at baptism, we will not have to go through the second spiritual death in hell. We will have lost our life of sin and in the process saved our souls.

Only a spiritual mind understands this. And how amazing it is.

 

 

Scripture for Wednesday, September 20 (9/20)

On By Inspirations By KatherynIn Bible, Death of Jesus Christ, faith, Heaven, Inspirational, Life of Christ, Saved from hell, Scripture, truth, worship2 Comments

The scripture for today, September 20 9/20), is Luke 9:20 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

0-BK 5-FloodGates-Cover-Medium-New” ‘But what about you?’ he asked. ‘Who do you say I am?’ “

Jesus is still asking that question today. Who do you say Jesus is? Some people in the world say Jesus was the savior of the Christians, the same person as Moses to the Jews, and Mohammed to the Moslems, and Buddha to the Buddhists. In the name of being fair to everyone, they claim these are all saviors of different religions going by different names but of the same God.

Let us not be caught in the web of the New Age Movement that does not want to offend anyone, even if they are wrong,  claiming nothing is absolutely right or absolutely wrong.  Therefore, they put truth in shadows and claim all saviors are the same savior and all gods are the same God.

The Bible ~ the only religious book in the world that can be proven to be divine ~ says regarding our Jesus, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

Come out from the shadows. Stand up for Jesus, THE only Light, THE only  Savior.

 

Scripture for Tuesday, September 19 (9/19)

On By Inspirations By KatherynIn Bible, faith, forgiveness, Inspirational, Scripture, truthLeave a comment

The scripture for today, September 19, is Acts 9:19f as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

worship-the-first-century-way-cover-kindle“He got up and was baptized, and after taking some food he regained his strength.”

This is the story of Saul, as he was known to the Jews and to us as Paul, who became an apostle. Notice the order he did this: He was hungry, but that wasn’t important. He had to do what was important first. He was baptized.

Why was Paul baptized? In Acts 22:16 Paul recalls in his own words that day when he was told, “Get up: be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name.”

Further, notice who baptized him. Was he part of the clergy, someone with an ordained title in the church? Acts 9:10 says, “In Damascus, there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him…Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul.” What title did Ananias have? None. He was just another disciple, disciple simply meaning follower.

Little did this otherwise unknown disciple realize that day, that the person he baptized would end up writing much of the New Testament.

Do you feel as though you are an “unknown disciple” to followers of Jesus around you? Find something to do, and God will make it great.

Scripture for Wednesday, September 13 (9/13)

On By Inspirations By KatherynIn blessings, faith, Inspirational, persecution, power, prayer, Thanksgiving1 Comment

The scripture for today, September 13 (9/13), is Psalm 9:13f as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:

0-Mefiboset-KINDLE Medium“O Lord, see how my enemies persecute me! Have mercy and lift me up from the gates of death, that I may declare your praises…and there rejoice in your salvation.”

We all experience difficult things in our life ~ some minor, some major. Do we let them define our entire life? Some of us never get over them and relive them over and over in our mind.

Think! We cannot be “more than conquerors” (Romans 8:37) unless we have something to conquer. We cannot have “victory in Jesus” unless we have something to be victorious over.

God said he can make “all things work together for good” to those who love and obey the Lord (Romans 8:28). He did not say they would always work together for the best, but he would make some kind of good come out of even tragedy.

Today, with the courage of God in your heart, stand up and thank God for your problems.  It is only when we have problems that we can have victories.

Scripture for Tuesday, September 12 (9/12)

On By Inspirations By KatherynIn blessings, faith, Inspirational, power, Thanksgiving2 Comments

The scripture for today, September 12 (9/12), is found in Genesis 9:12f in the Old Testament of the Bible:

00-Heroes-Alone-COVER-KINDLE“And God said, ‘This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come. I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.”

On the technical side, how can it be that there was never a rainbow before Noah’s time? Genesis 2:5b-6 explains, “The Lord God had not sent rain on the earth, and there was no man to work the ground, but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground.”

Up until the time of Noah, people lived to be several hundred years old. Christian scientists have said that before the flood the earth had a constant cloud covering like Venus with a thick ozone layer that created the greenhouse effect of vapors, and protected man from the aging process.

So, rainbows were not possible when the sun could never break through the ever-present clouds. It was because of a terrible worldwide cataclysm that the beauty of the rainbow was made possible.

On the spiritual side of this story, we see a man who had such faith in God that, although he probably had never seen rain, believed it would happen. Such amazing faith! Later, after being rewarded with the lives of his family members being saved, God gave him one more reward ~ the rainbow ~ that he could not only enjoy himself, but he could share with the world and all of us, Noah’s descendants.

Out of disaster came beauty.

Scripture for Sunday, September 10 (9/10)

On By Inspirations By KatherynIn faith, Inspirational, power, Scripture, Thanksgiving, truth, worship1 Comment

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

0-REV-Cover-No Logo-KINDLE-medium“Those who know your name will trust in you, for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you.”

What if we had a friend who we never called by name? It was always “Hey, you”. Our friendship wouldn’t last long because the other person would feel like we weren’t friends after all. Makes sense.

So, what does “Lord” mean in the original Hebrew language of the Old Testament? It is Yahweh, translated in the Greek as Adonai.

In Exodus 3:15b God told Moses what his name was: ” ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers…This is my name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation.’ “

And what does Yahweh mean? Exodus 3:14 explained, “God said to Moses, ‘I AM THAT I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites; ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ” God is the great I AM.

Jesus explained it this way just before his death in John 14:6, ” ‘I AM the way and the truth and the life”.

We do not have just any god. Our God has a name. He is I AM, he is self-existent, he is life.

And so we worship him ~ the Lord our God.

Scripture for Saturday, September 9 (9/9)

On By Inspirations By KatherynIn Bible, faith, Inspirational, judging, Scripture, truthLeave a comment

The scripture for today, September 9 (9/9), is Zechariah 9:9 as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:

Life-Changing-Scriptures-Cover-medium“Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your King comes to you righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”

Most people think Jesus riding on a donkey made him humble. Not at all. Donkeys and Mules were rides of kings.

Judges 5:9-10 says, “My heart is with Israel’s princes….you who ride on white donkeys.” Supreme Judge Jair led Israel 22 years and had 30 sons who rode 30 donkeys (Judges 10:3-4). Supreme Judge Abdon, who ruled Israel 8 years, had 70 sons and grandsons who rode on 70 donkeys (Judges 12:14).

II Samuel 18:9 says Absalom, King David’s son, rode on a mule. In I Kings 1:33,38,44, David ordained that his son, Solomon, ride on his own mule through the street as one proof that he chose Solomon to be the next king.

The people of Jerusalem knew Jesus was not only riding the ride of kings when he entered their capitol city, but he was also, at last, fulfilling the centuries-old prophecy they all knew so well (today’s scripture).

This is the humility that Jesus did exhibit: He rode on the colt of a donkey.

Do we blindly follow whatever our religious leaders tell us? Do we know the scriptures as well as we think we do?  Oh, how much praising we miss out on!