The Son is also the Father

On September 6, 2020July 15, 2025 By Inspirations By KatherynIn eternity, family, forgiveness, governments, Inspirational, joy, Life of Christ, power, Thanksgiving1 Comment

The scripture for today, September 6 (9/6), is Isaiah 9:6 , as found in the Old Testament of the Bible.

“For to us, a child is born! To us, a son is given! And the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace!”

This is one of the most amazing scriptures in the entire Bible, explaining how God is One and self-existent. It is as astounding as John 1:1,14 that says, “In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God, and the Word was God…The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”

This child predicted to be born unto us was both Father and Son and God. He created Himself. He was self-existent.

He is the image of the invisible God; God materialized, ”For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell” (Colossians 1:15, 19; cf. 2 Corinthians 4:4). The men who saw Jesus Christ saw God (John 12:45, 14:9). God’s blood (God’s Word in flesh) was shed on the cross (Acts 20:28).

In America, we sometimes say about a son, “he is the spitting image of his father.” Jesus said, “If you want to look at the Father, look at me.” God is a Spirit but created us in a material world. So, sometimes God materialized in the Old Testament. In the New Testament, he materialized as Jesus.

This is so amazing. And we have been so blest beyond full comprehension.

STAR SONG takes the reader back to Mary’s childhood and what it was like to grow up under mad King Herod. Where is the God-King everyone has been waiting for generation after generation? And what of Joseph? Two fathers? One son? Even as a baby he changed the lives of everyone who saw him. To BUY NOW, click a book cover or paste this………. http://bit.ly/StarSong

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And They Wept

On August 11, 2020July 15, 2025 By Inspirations By KatherynIn #friendships, attitude, discouragement, ego, emptiness, Enemies, ethics, family, forgiveness, healing, humility, judging2 Comments

The scripture for today, August 10 (8/10), is Nehemiah 8:10b as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:

“This day is sacred to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

After exile over 70 years for forsaking God, the Jews were led by Ezra and Nehemiah back to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple and rebuild the wall. On a special day, Ezra read the Law of Moses to all the people.

And they wept.

They were so embarrassed and so sorry they had betrayed God. The above scripture quotation is from that occasion.

But many people find it too humiliating to admit to others they were wrong. Others find it easy to repent, but never regroup and pull themselves up so they can try again. Still, others say, “What I’ve done is so bad, God could never forgive me.”

God can perform miracles. That means he can forgive the greatest sinner. So grieve. Ask for forgiveness. Then start over fresh ~ innocent in the eyes of God.

Remember, when you feel weak, the joy of the Lord is always your strength. And it is magnificent.

ISAAC & JACOB is storybook #4 in A CHILD’S BIBLE HEROES. You would think a little lie wouldn’t hurt. Or even a big lie. But Jacob’s lie cost him everything. It disrupted his entire family. His twin brother tried to kill him. He was gone from home for 20 years and during that time he lost his mother. Talk about a dysfunctional family. But God healed them. To BUY NOW, click a book cover or paste this………. http://bit.ly/2LacnWf

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Come. Let’s take a walk.

On August 9, 2020July 15, 2025 By Inspirations By KatherynIn Daily, ethics, family, Inspirational, problems, teaching, victory, worshipLeave a comment

Ah, my Lord and my God. How beautiful and wonderful heaven will be, for you will be there. You are beautiful and wonderful in everything you think and do. You have the beauty of holiness, of purity, of ultimate love, mercy, goodness. I cannot comprehend anyone so perfect. When you were on earth, you revealed your perfection and people either used you or hated you. I would feel completely inadequate in your presence and want to hide were it not for your love. You smile and say, “Come, let us take a walk together. Tell me what is on your mind. Let’s work through things together, you and I.” You are overwhelming in your love, and so I worship you.

It is in the middle of summer and I do love summer so much, my God. I can do things outside in the sunshine I cannot do inside during the winter. I love a breeze flowing through my hair, picking dandelion bouquets, digging in the cool dirt to weed my garden, exploring a new walking path, wading in a creek, drinking water out of a well, swinging at the park, delighting in fireflies. I love tasting fresh fruit off a tree, then sitting under its shade. looking up at the sky through the green leaves and towering branches. Thank you for summertime.

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You draw me like a magnet

On July 22, 2020July 15, 2025 By Inspirations By KatherynIn #friendships, Bible, Daily, discouragement, family, Fear, Heaven, Inspirational, patience, praise, prayer, Thanksgiving, victory, worshipLeave a comment

My Lord and God, steadily I climb toward you. You draw me like a magnet. You seem so much closer with each step. With one step I strive to have the kind of mercy for others you have for me. With another step I try to be more forgiving as you are to me. With yet another step I struggle to make time for others as you make time for me. Then there are the steps of purity, patience, pride and so many others that I dread to take because I am so weak to keep them in my life. Sometimes it is very hard to keep going. But you keep drawing me. Where I lack the strength, you reach out and say, “Take my hand. I will help you.” Keep drawing me toward you, Lord. Help me keep climbing and walking, climbing and walking, until at last I walk through the gates into heaven and see you as you are.

Thank you, God, for your Book divine, the Book wherein you pour out your heart to me. How you have agonized with all of us these past centuries and millenniums. At the same time, you have shared in the victory march of each Christian who overcomes an enemy of action, an enemy of attitude. You never stop tugging at my heart and mind. You keep saying through your Book, come to me. Come to me! I can give you strength. Thank you for being willing ~ no, anxious ~ to lift me up. How I adore and worship you.

LAZARUS: THE SAMARITAN lived through most of Jesus’ parables. No one showed up at their wedding, so her father sent out to the highways and byways. He found a treasure in a field and sold everything he had to buy it. His daughter had ten virgin attendants who ran out of oil waiting for her groom. He was the Good Samaritan near Jericho. To BUY NOW, click a book cover or paste this………. https://bit.ly/2AfVBoR

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Great beyond imagination

On July 19, 2020July 15, 2025 By Inspirations By KatherynIn #friendships, faith, family, good works, Heaven, Inspirational, love, power, praise, prayer, worshipLeave a comment

I adore you, God. I want to please you and spread your kingdom everywhere possible. Then greater and greater multitudes will rejoice in you and praise you. You are great beyond imagination. When my thoughts are about you, it is summer in my heart. There blossoms thoughts of your grace. There flow waters of life. There showers of blessings fall with gladness. There the gentle warm wind breathes wonder. There the sunshine of your love fills me with wonder.

Thank you for the church, that part of your kingdom that is on earth. When we, your family, get together, we are so full of joy. When we worship together, we are so full of kinship in our wonder of you. When we confess our sins to each other, we reach out and lift each other up. Your church is such a perfect way to keep us encouraged to stick with you all through life, no matter what Satan throws at us. Thank you for your church. You thought of everything. And so I worship you.

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He just hung on

On July 12, 2020July 15, 2025 By Inspirations By KatherynIn attitude, death, discouragement, emptiness, family, Fear, Inspirational, Loss, patience, problems, things, weakness, worshipLeave a comment

The scripture for today, July 13 (7/13), is in Job 7:13ff in the Old Testament of the Bible:

“When I think my bed will comfort me and my couch will ease my complaint, even then you frighten me with dreams and terrify me with visions, so that I prefer strangling and death, rather than this body of mine. I despise my life; I would not live forever. Let me alone; my days have no meaning.”

Job was extremely depressed. It happens to everyone sometimes. His depression was certainly valid ~ he had lost all his income and all his children in a recent storm. Now he had what the Bible translated as “boils” but the symptoms indicate he had a form of leprosy called Elephantiasis.

This particular form leads to nightmares in addition to the physical problems. Job had every right to be depressed. So depressed was he, that he no longer wanted to live, for his life no longer had meaning.

But, as miserable as Job was, he hung on. Patiently he hung on during the bad times. Sometimes during your bad times, the greatest thing you can do is “hang on” ~ be patient.

Romans 8:28 says all things work together for good to those who love the Lord. Job loved the Lord. Even in his misery and desire to die, he continued to love God and trust Him.

And, although at such times you may believe your misery will never end and you will never even smile again, it will happen. The misery comes to an end. It did for Job. He got his health and wealth back and more children to comfort him. God will see you through too.

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So gear up and take that leap

On July 2, 2020July 15, 2025 By Inspirations By KatherynIn #friendships, church, discouragement, eternity, family, judging, knowledge, persecution, teaching, truthLeave a comment

The scripture for today, July 3 (7/3), is Acts 7:3 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

” ‘Leave your country and your people,’ God said, ‘and go to the land I will show you.’ “

This is part of a speech by Christian Stephen soon after the church began. He was reminding the Jewish leaders how God told their ancestor Abraham to leave his religion, home and family, and move to where God had something special for him ~ to begin the Jewish nation and religion.

But when Stephen got to the part where, since Jesus’ arrival, now God wanted his audience to leave the Jewish religion and move on to a still better one ~ the Christian religion ~ they were outraged. They were not like Abraham; they did not want to change. So, not liking the message, they killed the messenger. These religious leaders stoned Stephen to death.

Have you learned “new” things in the Bible that your religion is against? It is hard to change. You could lose your friends and family like Abraham did; you could even lose your home as Abraham did. It takes a great big “leap of faith” to follow that “new” truth you have discovered in the Bible.

But when God does the recommending, you can know he has something special in mind for you. So, gear up and take that leap!

STEPHEN: UNLIKELY MARTYR was a coward as a teenager and his best friend was crucified. But little by little through the years, he stepped up and exhibited courage at increasing levels. How did he do it? What happened to him? To BUY NOW, click a book cover or PASTE THIS………. https://bit.ly/2XBFXvJ

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Short history of music in the temple

On June 26, 2020July 15, 2025 By Inspirations By KatherynIn Bible, blessings, family, Inspirational, joy, praise, Thanksgiving, worshipLeave a comment

The scripture for today, June 26 (6/26), is 1st Chronicles 6:26ff as found in the Old Testament of the Bible.

“Elkanah his son, Zophai his son, Nahath his son, Eliab his son, Jeroham his son, Elkanah his son and SAMUEL his son. The sons of Samuel: JOEL the firstborn and Abijah the second son.”

This is a little long, but I think you will enjoy it.

The prophet Samuel came from a musical family who descended from Levi’s son Kohath. Samuel’s son, listed in this scripture, was Joel. Verse 33 called the son of Joel and grandson of Samuel “Heman, the musician.” Just what did Heman the musician do?

David told the Levites to appoint “singers to sing joyful songs, accompanied by musical instruments: lyres, harps, and cymbals.” Heman was the first one they appointed (I Chronicles 15:16f), and he had two assistants, ~ Asaph and Merari (I Chronicles. 6:39, 44). David put them in charge of the music in the house of the Lord, and they performed their duties according to the regulations (verses 31f).

So what David appointed was a choir and orchestra. When David first appointed them, Heman had 120 relatives in his clan, and his assistants had 220 and 130 in their clans (I Chronicles. 15:5-7; 19-22; 27-28), so they had a total of 470 musicians. Wow! And these musicians had a full-time job!

They were to minister before the Lord “according to each day’s requirements” of sacrifices as written in the Law of Moses. Heman and the others were responsible for sounding the trumpets and cymbals and playing the other instruments ~ lyres, harps, and cymbals (15:19-21) ~ for sacred song (16:37-42). In addition to playing the prescribed lyres, harps, and cymbals, trumpets were to be sounded to announce sacrifices, etc. (16:4-6).

By the time David was old, there were “four thousand…to praise the Lord with the musical instruments” (I Chronicles 23:5)! What an amazing choir and orchestra they had by this time! Remember, they were all male Levites, and were to help Aaron’s descendants, the priests, in the temple every day and at special feasts (verse 28, 30f). And what instruments were they still playing? Cymbals, lyres, and harps “for the ministry at the house of God” (I Chronicles. 25:1 & 6).

Years later after David died and his son Solomon had completed the grand Temple in Jerusalem (II Chronicles. 5:1), “all the Levites who were musicians…stood on the east side of the altar dressed in fine linen and playing cymbals, harps and lyres, accompanied by 120 priests sounding trumpets. The trumpeters and singers joined in unison as with one voice to give praise and thanks to the Lord. Accompanied by trumpets, cymbals, and the other instruments, they raised their voices in praise to the Lord” (verses 12-13).

Can you imagine such an orchestra and choir? The tinkling of the harps and lyres, with cymbals keeping the tempo, and trumpets calling attention to it all? And all those singers! Was God pleased? Indeed he was, for in the form of a cloud, “the glory of the Lord filled the temple of God” (verse 14).

All this occurred around 1000 BC. Three centuries later, when Hezekiah was king, the same instruments were being played ~ cymbals, harps, and lyres (II Chronicles. 29:25f). Why? Because they were prescribed by David, Gad the seer and Nathan the prophet as commanded by God through his prophets. (Acts 2:29-30 says David was a prophet too.)

So we see that during Old Testament times, God commanded that they have full-time musicians to sing and play during daily sacrifices and special feasts, and they had to be male Levites, and they had to play cymbals, harps, and lyres, sometimes accompanied by trumpets.

What a family Samuel had! And I’ll bet he was musical himself. How proud he would have been of his descendants.

Interestingly, although God specified every detail of the instruments that had to be played in the Old Testament, nothing like that was specified in the New Testament. Did God forget? Perhaps God took us to a higher plain in the New Testament era. We do know that in I Corinthians 14:15, we are told to both pray and sing with mind and spirit.

And in Ephesians 5:19, we are told to “Speak to one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord.” The term “make music” in the original Greek language of the New Testament is to play on strings. Since we are to make music in our hearts, then it looks like we are to play on the instrument of our heart. How beautiful!

About 50 years ago, when my father died, the funeral was in a little country church. The music consisted of a small group from the congregation who sang hymns without the accompaniment of an instrument. They were not good performers ~ they twanged a lot and sometimes were a bit off-key. But it was some of the most beautiful music I have ever heard. Why? Because their singing was accompanied by their heart. They were telling my family, “We love you,” and I really felt that they did.

God looks down at our singing ~ no matter how good or feeble ~ and says, “I can tell you love me.” And that’s all that matters.

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Delirious exultation and sacred peace

On June 24, 2020 By Inspirations By KatherynIn #friendships, blessings, church, family, Inspirational, joy, love, praise, prayer, Scripture, Thanksgiving, worshipLeave a comment

You are my God and the only God. You give life, you radiate love, you judge rightly, you bestow mercy. I lift up my spirit, my heart, my soul to you. I will sing my praises to you through each day of my life no matter how difficult Satan may try to make it and no matter how short or long I live. I will sing your praises on and on. I will still be singing when I close my eyes here and walk through the gate into your realm. There I will lift my voice in highest praise, then bow at your feet in delirious exultation and sacred peace.

Thank you, God, for the friends who came to see me moments ago. You hear my weakest plea. You hear me when I am down and when I am flying high in jubilation. You hear me in my sunset moments, on cloudy days, in darkness and the shadows of a late dawn. Though there are millions of souls asking for your attention at the same time, you hear us all and come to us all as though each was the only one. How do you do that? You are God; that is how. And you love me. With my mind, my heart, and my soul I thank you and worship you.

I am pleased to announce my RESTORATON REPRINT LIBRARY

Reprinted Book I – The Best of Alexander Campbhell’s Millennial Harbinger 1830-1839
Reprint Book II – Instrumental Music in the Worship of the Church, written 1888
Reprint Book III – Writings of the Church of Christ in London 1600-1699 (pending)

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The God of Everywhere

On June 24, 2020 By Inspirations By KatherynIn #friendships, blessings, church, family, Inspirational, joy, love, praise, prayer, Thanksgiving, worshipLeave a comment

The beauty of the earth and the glory of the skies declare praises to you. Each hour holds a special wonder of you, each day a throng of delights to carry me through the night. You are my courage amid fear, my expectations amid disappointment, my audacity amid timidity, my hope amid doubt. You are my light through the darkness, my path through the wilderness, my life through danger. May your name be proclaimed by children, declared to be true by atheists, lauded by the world. Arise, oh universe! Praise the God of all things and of your very existence!

Thank you for your church, your family. You set it up so perfectly. Congregations of your family here and others there all around the world. Each congregation survives because you teach us to love one another and overlook intentional and unintentional mistakes. Brothers and sisters hand in hand, praying for each other, eating glad meals with each other, worshiping you together. Always there with a smile and a sigh, always there with laughter and tears, always together. Always your children, always a part of your family. Even when we travel and meet people in other parts of the world, we instantly have an immediate love whether it be to Asia or South America, Europe, or New Zealand, the Middle East or North America, Africa or one of earth’s poles. Where ever we find each other, we are still family. You are our forever Father and I worship you.

WORSHIP THE FIRST-CENTURY WAY is a follow up to its companion book, WORSHIP CHANGES SINCE THE FIRST CENTURY. It was written for denominational leaders with prayers for wisdom throughout and quotes from famous theologians. Buy as a gift or purchase in bulk for the entire congregation. To BUY NOW, click a book cover or paste this………. https://bit.ly/37akvlF

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